Feature Archives

On Sunday, December 6th at 3pm at the Peace Resource Center in Seaside, three members of the Watsonville Brown Berets will present about their experiences with the 2009 Pastors for Peace 20th annual Caravan to Cuba. The Caravan is a nonviolent direct action that brings literally tons and tons of aid to the island nation in open and direct defiance of the US embargo and travel ban against Cuba.

East Palo Alto residents surrounded city council members as they entered City Hall on December 1st. Residents of Page Mill Properties and their supporters rallied in front of the building to attempt to secure the support of council members in the tenants' long battle against the mega-landlord. Page Mill, East Palo Alto's largest landlord, has been in dispute for years with tenants. In September, Page Mill failed to make a $50 million payment and a judge appointed Ward Realty Advisors to take control of their 1,800 rental units in the city.

On November 23rd, immigrant rights groups held actions in San Francisco and Washington D.C. to expose the unjust treatment of immigrants in both Congressional and Senate health care bills. In San Francisco, hundreds of people joined a vigil at House Speaker Pelosi’s office to urge her to fight against anti-immigrant amendments to the bills. The same day, a group of Asian Americans and Latinos confronted staff in the office of US Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina.

In a hearing on Thursday, November 19th at 7pm at Santa Cruz City Hall Chambers, the Planning Commission will continue consideration of a staff-concocted ban on all additional marijuana clubs and growhouses in Santa Cruz. The meeting will be open to the public.

The imaginary committee writes, "University students and workers in California must organize immediately to occupy, blockade and strike on all campuses November 17-19. We call for a wave of occupations and blockades to bring the university to a halt. The proposed fee hikes of 32 percent, to be ratified November 17-19, are only the latest indication that the California university system is bankrupt. We cannot allow it to continue through the end of the term."

On November 10th, the Stanislaus County District Attorney was not interested in anything less than a misdemeanor conviction against two volunteers arrested for offering syringe exchange, and harm reduction services in the Airport District of Modesto. In an act of punishment and criminalization of public health service, the District Attorney offered the defendants a plea bargain that included jail time, three years probation, and a "Stay Away Order," requiring them to stay out of the park where they were arrested. The stay away order was added the day after defendants began conducting syringe clean-ups and public education about safe disposal in the Mono Park area.

On November 7th, the Democratic-led US House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill that includes a far-reaching attack on abortion rights and repeals the Children's Health Insurance Program by 2013. The morning following the passage of the legislation, women in San Francisco led the rallying cry for "healthcare not warfare" in demonstrations on the steps of City Hall and in front of Speaker Pelosi's and Senator Feinstein's respective homes. On November 12th, the San Francisco branch of Radical Women will hold a roundtable discussion to address the question: What will it take to achieve affordable quality healthcare for all?