Feature Archives

Occupy Oakland continues to kick through the boundaries of what was previously thought possible, upping the ante of what it means to resist against corporate greed and state oppression. Just one day after a hundred people were arrested, two encampments were physically smashed to the ground, and a thousand supporters were attacked by police with chemical weapons and projectiles in a manner that shocked the conscience of the nation, Occupy Oakland collectively took the audacious and ambitious step of calling for the first General Strike in America in sixty-five years.

On Saturday, October 22nd, over a hundred people from across the Central Valley participated in the Caravan of Resistance against police brutality both inside local jails and on the streets. Participants from Modesto, Stockton, Manteca, Davis, Sacramento, and Merced all converged to participate in a string of actions in a total of three cities. The Caravan brought together over a hundred people: blacks, Chicanos, and working class whites joined with victims' families to protest murder and brutality at the hands of the police.

On October 27th, the City of Fresno and Caltrans did what they said they were going to do — they attacked the homeless encampment on Santa Fe street in downtown Fresno. But, they did not destroy the encampment without being confronted with significant resistance by community members who protested the eviction. Evictions at all of the other encampments — The Hill, G street, Santa Clara street, F street, and at San Benito/H street — are scheduled for Tuesday, November 1st.

Early on October 25th, expecting a police raid at Occupy Oakland in Oscar Grant Plaza, occupiers began to erect barricades along the perimeter and access ways to the plaza. At 4:30am, over 500 police surrounded the plaza. Police fired projectiles and tear gas shells and hand-lobbed at least one flash-bang grenade over the barricades before marching through the camp tearing down tents and pulling down almost everything that stood in the plaza. Over 70 people were arrested during the raid. Later in the day, Alameda County Sheriff's deputies repeatedly deployed massive amounts of tear gas and fired projectiles into a crowd of marchers throughout the night. Numerous people were injured, some seriously when projectiles were fired at the heads of protesters. On October 26th, occupiers removed fencing and again took Oscar Grant Plaza, holding their daily General Assembly which voted 1484 to 46 for an Oakland general strike on Wednesday, November 2nd.

The City of Fresno has announced a plan for the massive evictions of the homeless, starting at 7 a.m. on Thursday, October 27th. Speaking in front of City Hall on Wednesday, homeless people and their allies said the planned eviction was heartless and cruel. Community Alliance newspaper editor Mike Rhodes said “destroying their modest shelter and chasing them with a stick from one vacant lot or sidewalk to another will do nothing to help their lives or to end homelessness in Fresno.”

In support of a massive hunger strike by prisoners held in California prisons, which originally began at Pelican Bay State Prison and spread to over a dozen other prisons, community members gathered at Laurel Park on the evening of October 8th. Demonstrators marched to the Santa Cruz County Jail where they made noise and gathered in solidarity with the prisoners held in the local jail as well as the prisoners on hunger strike across the state.

October 22nd 2011 was the 16th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. In San Francisco protest took place at 12pm in the Bayview, near where Kenneth Harding was killed this year, to draw attention to Harding's death as well as many other deaths at the hands of law enforcement. In Modesto, participants gathered at 2pm at the H St. Jail for a Day of Action Against Police Brutality. In Fresno, a No More Stolen Lives took place at 5 p.m. at Eaton Plaza. Everyone at the protests, as well as supporters who can't make it, wears black in solidarity with people whose loved ones have died in custody.