Feature Archives

A Mass March and Rally will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 27th, 2006, the 40th anniversary of the 1966 Hunters Point Uprising. People will gather at 3:30pm at Third St. & Williams, and will march to a rally at Third & Palou. On Sept. 27th, 1966, Matthew Johnson, aged 16, was fatally shot in the back by SFPD, and the people rose up in rage – only to be put down by National Guard troops and tanks called in by City Hall. This week, the people of Bayview Hunters Point will demand that City Hall reinstate the referendum petition to stop the redevelopment land grab in Bayview Hunters Point.

On the evening of Friday, September 15, 2006, members of the Filipino/ American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES) and Women for Genuine Security (WGS) lay in symbolic protest around the Dewey statue in downtown San Francisco. The silent protest was held in response to the brutal rape by US Marines of Nicole, a 22-year-old Filipina woman, at the former Subic Naval Base in Olongapo, Philippines on November 1st, 2005. Currently, the Marines face trial in the Philippines.

The Black Panther Party 40th Reunion was held in Oakland from Oct. 13th–Oct. 15th. Events on Friday included workshops on media in the struggle and political prisoners. Saturday's workshops were held at both Laney College and the Malonga Center for the Arts, where KPFA radio broadcasted live from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday's events featured a group photo and picnic. Photos and link to KPFA Audio On Monday, AK Press hosted a DVD release event for What We Want, What We Believe. Report and Photos

On Thursday, September 14th, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a legal battle that, many believe, could decide the future of American Indian religious freedom and the ecological integrity of the San Francisco Peaks. The mountain in question is located in Northern Arizona, and is held sacred by some 13 Native American nations. Tribes and environmental groups have united to halt development plans to expand a Ski Resort and to use treated sewage effluent to make artificial snow on the sacred peaks. A caravan from Flagstaff, Arizona was welcomed to SF on Wednesday, September 13th, and several events were held that day and the next. Video and Audio

On August 12th, Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar was told by airline Jet Blue that he could not board an airline with a t-shirt saying "we will not be silent" in Arabic and English. One official told him, "Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says, `I'm a robber'". Raed Jarrar is currently living in the Bay Area and is the Iraq Project Director for Global Exchange. Before the US invasion of Iraq, Raed lived in Iraq and ocasionally wrote on Salam Pax's blog before starting his own blog "Raed In The Middle".

Xicana Moratorium Day was celebrated on Sunday, August 27th in San Francisco’s Dolores Park. The yearly event commemorates the original Chicano Moratorium Day in Los Angeles in 1970, when 30,000 marched and police rioted, killing three people. Youth in an organization called Huaxtec now organize the commemorative event. This year, around 1,500 people went to Dolores Park to enjoy hip-hop and roots Xicana music. The theme of the 2006 Xicana Moratorium was “Stop the Violence on the Borders and in the Streets.” Photos

On June 6th, communities of color at UC Santa Cruz held multiple rallies and confronted Chancellor Denice Denton to demand concrete infrastructural support for diversity at UCSC. While the University has made a rhetorical commitment to diversity, custodians (who are predominately workers of color) continue to receive up to 30% less in wages than their counterparts at Cabrillo and CSUMB; the University has actively denied institutional support and failed to recognize the centrality of student initiated outreach and retention programs to making diversity viable at UCSC; large numbers of valuable senior faculty of color have been (or may be) forced to resign due to hostile working environments. Administrators and university policies have actively upheld all these problems. Read more

photos: UCSC Charged With Disadvantaging Students, Faculty and Workers of Color || Students & Workers charge institutional racism & sexism; Demand affirmative diversity
video clips: Surprising Denton || Denton giving in to watching the students' skit

see also: Affirmative Diversity Talking Points