Feature Archives

Thousands converged on Union Square last Tuesday for "Drown Out Bush's Lies!" during Bush's State of the Union address. The World Can't Wait organized event demanded "Bush step down, and take your program with you!" Nearly 3,000 people chanted, drummed, danced, booed and hissed through Bush's speach as it was projected on a large screen behind the stage. For the highlight of the night, protesters toppled a 40-foot Bush statue.
Photos 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Video
Read more on the San Francisco or Government and Elections News Pages

1/29/2006: Dozens of protesters rallied last night in San Francisco to protest Senator Hillary Clinton’s continued support of the Iraq War and occupation. After a brief rally organized by the International Socialist Organizations, members of Not in Our Name, Ten Against Torture, and other organizations fielded questions from the media while slogging up and down the sidewalk. During Clinton’s prepared remarks inside the fundraiser, members of CODEPINK unfurled a banner from the balcony and twice interrupted the event with chants of “stop supporting war.”
Photos & Report

On March 18th, ANSWER held a protest to "Stop the War," in observation of the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. People gathered at 11am at Civic Center plaza in San Francisco before marching through the streets and returning to the plaza. Flyer, Poster, and more about the protest.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Audio: 1 | 2

Protests also took place in cities throughout California, including protests in Walnut Creek (Photos: 1 | 2 ) , Eureka (Photos: 1 | 2 ), Palo Alto, San Rafael (Video), Sacramento (Photos), Santa Cruz (Photos), Fresno (), Orange County (), and Los Angeles (Photos) .

Protests also took place in most of the major cities in North America, throughout Europe, in Australia and across most of Asia.

In memory of those who have died in Iraq | Violence marks war anniversary in Iraq | This misadventure has alienated most of the world from Bush | Iraq's missing billions | 3 Years After U.S. Invasion Two Wounded Iraqi Children and Their Fathers Tell Their Story | Top Ten Catastrophes of the Third Year of American Iraq

As California Congressperson Nancy Pelosi held a Town Hall meeting the morning of Saturday, January 14th to discuss National Security, there was a protest outside, exposing her continuous support for funding for the military. Photos: 1 | 2 | Report

While she has personally supported Rep. John Murtha's call for withdrawal from the ground war, Pelosi has refused to use her power as house minority leader to move the Democratic Party Caucus towards supporting John Murtha's resolution; she has not supported HR 4232, the bill introduced by Representative James McGovern that would prohibit the use of funds to deploy United States Armed Forces to Iraq. Instead, she consistently votes to spend billions of dollars per year on the war in Iraq, while vital public services are being cut at home. She has, however, repeatedly called for the Bush Administration to provide Congress with a plan providing benchmarks for determining when U.S. troops in Iraq could be brought home.

Nancy Pelosi's website | Pelosi's voting record | Anti-war.com article about Pelosi
About Murtha's call for withdrawal:
BTL Interview with Leslie Cagan of UFPJ | BTL Interview with former CIA analyst David MacMichael | Corporate article about Bush's response | Democracy Now Interview with Seymour Hersh | Medea Benjamin

Over 100 "Out of Iraq" events have been planned for cities around the country, to take place on January 7th or the dates surrounding it. More info about the events While all of these events will focus on ending the US war and occupation of Iraq, many of them will also address Congressman John Conyers' new resolutions to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and to create a select committee to investigate and make recommendations on impeachment. A National Call-In Day on Accountability is planned for January 9th. Tens of thousands of members of Progressive Democrats of America and other organizational members of the After Downing Street Coalition will phone Members of Congress in their district offices on January 9, urging them to cosponsor three bills: H.Res.635 to create a select committee to investigate and to make recommendations on grounds for impeachment; H.Res.636, to censure Bush; and H.Res.637, to censure Cheney. More info about the bills

In Northern California, events will be held on January 7th in places like Sacramento, San Francisco, San Anselmo, Mount Shasta, Hayward, and Napa. Search for events by zip code An Impeach Bush & Out of Iraq Protest will be held in San Francisco at Golden Gate Avenue at Larkin and Polk Streets (one block from Van Ness Avenue, at Civic Center) on January 7th at 12:00pm. A discussion, "Is impeachment possible?" will be held at the Social Justice Center of Marin, at 1000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd in San Anselmo, at 3:00pm. A Lantos vigil will be held in San Mateo, at 3:00pm at in front of the district office of Rep. Tom Lantos, who supports the war. At 7:00pm in Hayward, a documentary about the Downing Street memos will be screened, followed by discussion, in a private home.

Also on January 9th, the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity By the Bush Administration will serve indictments on the White House for its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, its actions and policies on torture and illegal detention, its promotion of abstinence-only in the midst of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, its fueling of global warming, and its response to Hurricane Katrina. This is in preparation for its January 20th through 22nd hearings at Riverside Church and Columbia Law School in New York City (where the Administration will be invited to present a defense).

After Downing Street | Progressive Democrats of America | United for Peace and Justice

Twenty-five Christians arrived in Cuba on December 6th with plans to set out from Santiago the next day on a solemn fifty-mile march to the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Their goal is to defend human dignity by visiting with the hundreds of detainees who have been held for more than three years under horrific conditions by the U.S. government. The marchers plan to arrive outside the gates of the U.S. naval base and prison complex on Guantanámo Bay on December 10th, International Human Rights Day. They are requesting entry into the compound to visit and interview the detainees as a work of mercy in keeping with their faith. If they are refused, they will hold a fast in solidarity and a vigil to pray for the immediate abolition of torture by all nations. Solidarity vigils will be held in several locations by supporters who did not travel to Cuba. Reports

On Saturday, December 10th at 3:00pm, there was a vigil at downtown Berkeley BART in solidarity with the marchers in Cuba.
Read more | Photos

Witness Torture will have reports | War Resisters League West | Catholic Worker

On Tuesday, December 6th, the US Supreme Court began to decide the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment, which denies federal funding for schools that don't allow military recruitment on campus in the case of FAIR v Rumsfeld. Students and activists in the Campus Antiwar Network, and many other people nationwide, held rallies and marches in solidarity with the counter-recruitment activists in the Supreme Court case.

In San Francisco, a rally was held at Justin Herman Plaza. The crowd marched to the Davis Street Recruitment Station at 670 Davis Street to voice its outrage.Photos | Report
Past Coverage Of Counter Recruitment Protests:
Berkeley ( 1 | 2 | 3 ), Oakland, San Francisco ( 1 | 2 ), Santa Cruz, Hayward, Eureka ( 1 | 2 ) and Petaluma