Feature Archives

A Hunger Strike for Economic and Social Justice was held in Geneva, Switzerland from June 15th to June 30th 2005. International social justice activists from Iraq, the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere gathered at the United Nations to demand economic justice for Iraqi citizens and draw attention to debt cancellation, reconstruction and war reparations claims against Iraq. The fast in Geneva coincided with the final meeting of the United Nations Compensation Commission (U.N.C.C.) which is determining how much of a remaining $65 billion in war reparations claims will be imposed against Iraq. These claims relate to the invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990-91 by Saddam Hussein’s regime. Demands of the fasters included a U.N. Security Council resolution canceling all reparations imposed against Iraq, elimination of all debt incurred by Saddam Hussein’s regime, and full funding for the reconstruction of Iraq directed by the Iraqi people and without any strings attached.
Read More | Photos From Geneva | Sacramento activist Leisa Faulkner's Journals From The Fast: 1 | 2 | Photos From Palo Alto Solidarity Fast
Jubilee Iraq | Voices in the Wilderness

Watsonville - On June 29, The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted in favor (4 to 3) to increase student and family awareness of the OPT-OUT choice parents have to deny military recruiters access to private student information. The Board of Trustees finally approved the motion to include the OPT-OUT choice on the mandatory emergency card for all high school students.

Section 9528 of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, requires high school administrations to release student contact information to military recruiters. Students and parents may “Opt-Out” of the information release list, but notification of this option is careless-to-nonexistent. Schools administrators, parents, and students are beginning to find ways to counter this breach of privacy. In Berkeley, there is an OPT-IN policy, and other districts like San Francisco have adopted resolutions regarding the military's new access to students' private information. Santa Cruz IMC Story and Photos

photos and notes: PVUSD Supports Student Privacy

audio: Hidden Clause in No Child Left Behind Act Lets Parents Opt-Out
audio: Pajaro Schools Support Opt Out Option

see also: Being a Military Recruiter Must Suck || All around the U$, Recuiters are Feeling the Heat || 4/20 Watsonville Counter-Recruitment Action || UCSC Students Kick Military Recruiters Off Campus || Berkeley High School Teach-In (March 2005) Report || Video

The World Tribunal on Iraq is a worldwide initiative that works together in a non- hierarchical system as a horizontal network of local groups worldwide. The project consists of commissions of inquiry and sessions held around the world investigating various issues related to the war on Iraq, such as the legality of the war, the role of the United Nations, war crimes and the role of the media as well as the destruction of the cultural sites and environment. In these sessions, a platform was provided for people from Iraq, as well as experts and activists to articulate their concerns and demands and to present their reports.

The Istanbul session of the Tribunal will consist of three days of hearings investigating various issues related to the war on Iraq, such as the legality of the war, the role of the United Nations, war crimes and the role of the media, as well as the destruction of the cultural sites and the environment. The session in Istanbul is the culminating session of commissions of inquiry and hearings held around the world over the past two years. They have compiled a definitive historical record of evidence about the invasion and the occupation.

Enemy Combatant Radio will be providing an audio stream of the sessions live between 11pm-8:30am PST.
There is also a live video stream of the Tribunal | Watch WTI teaser Video.
Istanbul Indymedia

Update: Txtmob's website says that its service will be down this weekend. Please tune in to Enemy Combatant Radio for updates and check this website for protest updates.
On September 24th 2005, there will be a mass anti-war protest in San Francisco. The protest gathered at 11am in Dolores Park (19th and Dolores), and is marching to Jefferson Square Park (at Laguna and Turk Streets in SF), for a rally that will begin around 1:30pm. Logistics Info from ANSWER | Gathering information for several contingents in the main march was posted to Indybay's Calendar | Bright Path Video hosted a live webcam from Dolores Park, and Enemy Combatant Radio is accepting and broadcasting phoned-in reports. (Photos: 1 | 2) | KPFA is broadcasting protest and hurricane updates until 6:00pm.

Anarchist Action called for a Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist convergence at September 24th's anti-war march. It met at 11 am, at 16th and Mission, "to oppose the state of perpetual war and the system behind it!" and marched to join the larger march. Read more

Hundreds of thousands marched on Saturday, September 24th in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Information about SeptemberAction.org, the septemberACTION.org, the anti-war, global justice mobilization in Washington, DC from September 23rd-26th. The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has urged the antiwar movement to come together for a united demonstration. Organizers say: "The people of Iraq are insisting that the United States leave their country immediately. As in Vietnam, the people of the United States must demand the immediate end to this war of conquest. As we fight to end the war in Iraq, we recognize that it is not enough to focus on a single front in this War for Empire. We must unite on a principled basis that recognizes the reality of our epoch. How can this war drive come to an end? People in Iraq, in Palestine, in Haiti, in Venezuela, in Cuba are resisting but the people of the United States must become their allies. Their resistance is part of the universal aspiration to live free from foreign domination or threats of a military or economic character." More Details On September 22nd, activists will marry the World Bank and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

A free outdoor video screening was held in Dolores Park on Friday night, September 23rd. Details

Updates from Palo Alto:
10:20pm: Things are quieting down in Palo Alto according to reports. No arrests have been reported at this time.
9:05pm: Police pepper sprayed a woman on the sidewalk. There are 10 womyn sitting in the street (University Ave). Police are getting closer to protesters and "about to surround them," according to reports. Police declared "unlawful" assembly in a public plaza.
8:48pm: Police declared protest to be "unlawful". Caller reports police to possibly be pointing out an arrest.
8:43pm: Police on horseback, blocking protest in front of shopping district in downtown. Protesters dancing in street with a nice sound system.
8:00pm: Reports of heavy police presence, including many riot cops.

On Saturday June 25, there was an Anarchist-organized anti-war march in Palo Alto. At 7pm, several hundred people gathered at Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto (University Ave. at Emerson 2 Blocks from Palo Alto Caltrain) for the start of the march.
Organizers of the event issued a statement before the march saying, "We will march against imperialist war, invasion, and occupation; against Bush and his corporate interests; against empire and against the systemic war machine. This is the new face of the anti-war movement. After a strong peak at the beginning of the invasion of Iraq and a two year ebb, the movement is again building momentum. But the movement is also growing louder, angrier, and more radical. As the occupation drags on with more and more casualties each day, popular outrage is growing, and with it popular support for the movement through which it is expressed."
Read More | Photos: 1 | Video
Anarchist Action | Event Announcements: 1 | 2 | Anarchists talk about demonstration | More Anti-war Protest Coverage

On Thursday June 16th, 2005, from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm EST, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., who is the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, along with other Congress Members, held a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence. The hearing was broadcast live on KPFA Radio and other media. Conyers planned to deliver to the White House a letter addressed to President Bush and signed by over 500,000 Americans and at least 94 Congress Members. The letter asks the President to respond to questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes. Later on June 16th, in Washington, DC and other cities around the country, rallies were held in support of Congressman Conyers. A protest was held in Benicia, California, at City Park, from 5 to 6 pm Thursday, June 16, 2005. In Sacramento, about 30 demonstrators unfurled three 12' x3' banners at the Sacramento Bee offices at 21st and Q Streets. A Bee reporter who declined to identify himself said the paper was doing a story now that Conyers was holding a hearing. Photos Additional rallies nationwide

The Downing Street Memo is actually notes from a meeting that included UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and a number of other high-level officials and intelligence officers in the UK government. Read the Memo The memo reveals that President Bush decided to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the summer of 2002 and, determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policies, "fixed" the intelligence and facts relevant to WMD. Anti-war activists have been conducting outreach and protests in their campaign to get the mainstream media to cover the issue of the Downing Street Memo.

Gold Star and Military Families Call for Truth | Impeach Central | DowningStreetMemo.com | After Downing Street | John Conyers' website

On May 29th, residents from throughout the Bay Area decided to forego Memorial Day barbecues and parades to find out from Iraqi war veterans, a mother of a slain son, and a military surgeon about the true cost to human life taking place daily in Iraq. More than 300 people gathered in the auditorium at the Martin Luther King Middle School in Berkeley on Sunday for a program entitled “Military Voices Against Endless War”. Among those who spoke were Stephen Funk, the first military resister to the current war; Camilo Mejia, the first Iraqi War veteran to resist; Tim Goodrich, a co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Aidan Delgado, who was stationed at Abu Ghraib; Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq; and Dr. Gene Bolles, a neurosurgeon who treated wounded soldiers at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.

Read More (With Photos) | Past Coverage Of GI Resisters