Feature Archives

On December 7th, Bay Area United Against War will celebrate the recent victory over JROTC with a potluck dinner at Compañeros del Barrio, at 474 Valencia St in San Francisco. The San Francisco Board of Education voted on Tuesday, November 14th to phase out its JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) program over a two-year period. It is believed that this is the first time any school district has eliminated an existing JROTC program. The Board of Ed members who voted in favor of eliminating JROTC from San Francisco’s schools are Dr. Dan Kelly, Sarah Lipson, Eric Mar, and Mark Sanchez.

A new group called Mandate for Peace has emerged in the wake of the 2006 elections. They say that the mid-term elections were a referendum on the war, and that the results showed that the voters said that they want peace. The organization says that the next step is to make sure that the new Representatives implement the will of the people and get the troops out of Iraq. Code Pink, Grandmothers for Peace, United for Peace, and others gathered outside of Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco office on November 9th to demand that she speak up for the antiwar majority and take immediate action to bring the troops home. Video and Photos: 1 | 2 Mandate for Peace has encouraged others to take similar actions.

Sgt. Ricky Clousing, who served as a U.S. Army Interrogator in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, pled guilty to a charge of "absent without leave" on Thursday October 12th at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina. Clousing is a 24-year-old Army sergeant and interrogator from Seattle who is also an Iraq combat veteran. Clousing was sentenced to three months' confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of pay while confined, and a bad conduct discharge. Clousing had left Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 2005 after returning from Iraq with the 82nd Airborne Division, and had been AWOL until he turned himself in on August 11th, 2006. At the press conference on August 11th, he outlined his opposition to a "war of aggression" that has "no legal basis to be fought."

On Wednesday, November 1st, anti-war protesters held a vigil to protest a Democratic Party fundraiser. They will be outside of the Warfield Theater, 982 Market Street at 6th/Taylor Streets, from 6:30 to 8:30pm. Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Democratic donors will be inside, at an event called "Flashback to the 60's." The vigil was co-sponsored by Not in Our Name, CodePink, and Global Exchange. Green Party Congressional candidate Krissy Keefer planned to vigil silently to mourn the death of democracy. Protesters aimed to draw attention to Pelosi's refusal to help end the war and impeach President Bush.

People in several cities around the US heeded ANSWER's Call to Action to organize anti-war activities for Saturday, October 28th. ANSWER said, "The people will force the issue of the Iraq war onto the U.S. political stage by taking to streets in demonstrations in cities and towns throughout the United States." In the Bay Area, there were protests in San Francisco (Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Video ), and in Berkeley.

A Johns Hopkins study published in UK journal The Lancet estimates that 655,000 more Iraqis have died as a result of war and political violence since March 2003 than would have died if mortality rates had remained the same as during 2002. Both violent and nonviolent death rates are now significantly above pre-war values, with the violence mainly concentrated in Sunni areas. While the number of additional deaths in the first year after the war was likely over 100,000, over half the total additional deaths are from this past year alone. PDF of Johns Hopkins study

The World Can't Wait called for a national day of action on October 5th against the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. In San Francisco, students staged a morning walkout and protesters converged at noon in Justin Herman Plaza. Protests also took place in Oakland, Mill Valley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Arcata.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Video