Feature Archives

Anti-war organizers in the Bay Area have resurrected Direct Action to Stop the War. The next meeting of DASW will be on Sunday, January 20th at 4pm at the La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck (near Ashby BART) in Berkeley. DASW is organizing actions related to convincing presidential candidates to take a stand against the war during the 2008 presidential campaign, and to exposing companies such as Chevron that profit from the US-led war and occupation in Iraq. Several affinity groups have joined in the organizing, and many more are likely to join in the months between now and the anniversary of the beginning of the war.

On December 21st, about 30 Mall Walkers for Peace, including members of San Mateo Peace Action, Declaration of Peace, Veterans for Peace, San Mateo Democracy for America and the Raging Grannies, strolled the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo as part of the 4th national Iraq Moratorium event in as many months. The Raging Grannies wore their signature hats and buttons while others sported t-shirts with the words "Troops Home Now!"

Peace activists held a demonstration against military recruitment at a shopping center on west Shaw avenue in Fresno on December 19th. The event began with the Raging Grannies singing songs of peace and a delegation going into the military recruiting center to hand out peace cranes and cookies.

On December 15th, Santa Cruz County peace activists gathered for a vigil and action in front of the Military Recruiting Center in Capitola. The "Not at Home for the Holidays" protest was cosponsored by nine Santa Cruz County peace groups calling for, "all of our troops to come home immediately, for all military bases that have been built in Iraq to be disbanded, for a complete return of the resources and sovereignty of Iraq to the Iraqi people themselves, and for full reparations for the devastation that has been wrought in our name."

On November 15th Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that it would not hear an appeal by two US soldiers who had sought refuge in Canada to avoid participation in the war and occupation of Iraq. The ruling means that conscientious objectors Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, as well as other American soldiers who have filed formal applications for refugee status, could be deported back to the US. Courage to Resist is encouraging people to sign petitions and to write letters to ask that Canadian officials provide sanctuary for the US military resisters.

George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM interviewed Dr. Paul Larudee, co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement, on December 4th about plans to set sail from Cyprus to Gaza in May of 2008. The Free Gaza Movement's mission is to break the siege of Gaza. They want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation.

On November 14, a routine CIA information and recruitment session was suddenly disrupted on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara when a small group of student protesters walked in and lead a man with bound hands to the front of the room, where he was laid on a table and (voluntarily*) tortured with a CIA-approved technique used to simulate drowning, known as water-boarding. The CIA speakers were struggling to speak over the "torture victim's" coughs and cries for help, while potential CIA recruits looked on with bewilderment at the grotesquely real portrayal of torture.