Feature Archives

The National Lawyers Guild and Prison Radio will present two films on repression and resistance on Saturday, October 19 at the The New Parkway Theater in Oakland. The Battle for Oscar Grant Plaza is a short documentary about how the City of Oakland and its police tried to shut down the budding "Occupy Wall Street" movement, turning downtown Oakland into a teargas-filled war zone and injuring numerous people. Manufacturing Guilt takes on Abu-Jamal's contentious case, distilling a mountain of evidence and years of oft-repeated falsehoods which illustrate a clear and conscious effort to frame Mumia Abu-Jamal for murder.

Long-time residents of the former landfill known as the Albany Bulb are facing eviction as early as this month. For decades, however, the Bulb has been a safe place for those in the East Bay without traditional housing to make a home. The Sierra Club and Citizens for an East Shore State Park have pressured the Albany City Council to take action to remove those who live at the Bulb and declare the land "recreation only." Residents are now organizing and taking action to raise awareness of their plight and fight impending eviction. On October 7, residents of the Albany Bulb and local community members rallied, marched, and set up a one-night encampment on Solano Avenue, demonstrating what Albany's main street will look like if the Bulb’s 60-plus residents are evicted from their homes.

On August 28, the trial date for those charged in association with the 2011 occupation of the vacant bank building located at 75 River Street in Santa Cruz was pushed back yet again. The four remaining defendants found out they will now face trial on March 3, 2014. Authorities claim there was thousands of dollars in damages to the building, and eventually eleven people who were dubbed the Santa Cruz Eleven by supporters would each be charged with two separate felonies and two discrete trespassing charges.

On August 6, San Jose Justice for Trayvon Martin held a rally at San Jose City Hall, followed by a march downtown where the group circled the federal building. San Jose Justice for Trayvon Martin is "a local mass multi-issue campaign made up of San Jose and larger Silicon Valley community members acting in support of the larger Movement of Justice for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander."

On July 31, community members in Santa Cruz marched to the county jail as part of "Hunger for Justice," an international day of protests and events held in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike in state detention facilities across California since July 8. According to the organization Sin Barras, 37 prisoners in the Santa Cruz County Jail have also joined the hunger strike.

Wednesday, July 31st, has been called for as an international day of action in solidarity with prisoners on hunger strike, Trayvon Martin, and the many Trayvons who have been killed by state and vigilante violence. In Santa Cruz, at least 37 prisoners have joined the statewide hunger strike to protest the horrendous conditions they are forced to live in. At least 5 people have died in the local jail since August 2012.

On July 27, the Canaan protest village was built for the fifth time on annexed Palestinian land in the middle of the illegal Gosh Ezion Colonial block next to the illegal settler colony of Migdal Oz. The nonviolent protesters stayed in the tent on their land for around an hour and a half before the Israeli occupation soldiers tore it down, violently repressing the demonstration. The tent village was built to remember the right of Palestinians to their land and to express solidarity with hunger strikers imprisoned for fighting for the Palestinian struggle.