Feature Archives

Wednesday April 7th, 2004 was the anniversary of the April 7, 2003 community picket shutdown of Iraq war profiteers APL and SSA docks at the Port of Oakland. Activists returned in opposition to the war and to last year's crackdown on dissent by the city of Oakland.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5   Audio: 1 | 2
The protest was organized by: Direct Action to Stop the War (DASW) and People United for a Better Oakland(PUEBLO).

On April 7, 2003 the Oakland Police Dept. opened fire with "less-lethal" weapons on a peaceful anti-war picket line in the Port of Oakland protesting the war profiteers shipping military cargo. Dozens of demonstrators and 9 longshore workers, members of ILWU Local 10, were seriously injured and 25 were also arrested.
April 3rd Update: The UN has released a 169 page report which mentions the violence committed last year by the OPD at the docks. This report lists the port incident alongside many other cases regarding repression of dissent by police and military in such places as Indonesia, Burundi, China, Egypt, Pakistan, Gambia & New York. It also states that the use of less-than-lethal weapons is against international standards. Even though this report has been released, the 25 people arrested at this action are still facing criminal charges by the OPD. See also: Oakland Tribune article on this report.

Indymedia coverage of April 7th 2003 Protest | 4/26/2003 Rally Against Police Brutality | 5/12/2003 Return to the Docks Protest | 11/7/2003 Pre-Trial Hearing For Arrested Protesters | 1/9/2004 Pre-Trial Hearing | 2/6/2004 Pre-Trial Hearing | OPD, Protestor Communications Not Promising | Testing Oakland's cops

3/19: Several hundred activists took part in direct actions this morning in San Francisco. Bechtel headquarters was shut down in protest over its profiting off the war in Iraq. Several protesters were arrested after they locked arms in front of the main entrance. Activists also occupied a building at 47 Page Street to protest the lack of affordable housing. The historic building, which has been vacant for many years, is owned by a holding company controlled by Wilfred Hsu, President of the Port Commission, and is slated to be demolished to make way for more luxury condos. The squatters were neither arrested nor cited, but several protesters who sat down in the street were arrested. On the route from Bechtel to the squat, one IMC reporter was hit by a cop six times, sustaining a bruised, possibly broken arm.
3/19 - Reports: 1 2 3 | Photos: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | Videos: 1 2 | Audio: 1

Mourning the loss of 200 people, mostly working-class commuters [Provisional List of Wounded in Madrid], in Thursday, March 11th's deadly train explosions, millions of people gathered in the streets on Friday to show mass opposition to terrorism and war. With Spain's right wing Popular Party pushing blame for the bombings on to the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), many small electoral manipulation ahead of Sunday's elections. In rallies and cacerolazos across the Spanish state, they defied an official ban on demonstrations to denounce lies about the attack -- now claimed by al Qaeda [text] -- and the war in Iraq that nearly all agree provoked it. Chanting "The dead are ours, the war is theirs," and "We already told you, NO WAR," and "We are not all here, 200 are missing," they heralded a flood of rejection of the war and its party. By Sunday night, poll results showed a sweeping defeat for Aznar and his Popular Party. Incoming socialist Zapatero has pledged to withdraw Spanish troops by June unless a UN mandate is created for them.
Reports: Indymedia Barcelona: What's going on? | How the horror of Spaniards turned to rage | The view from Madrid | Robert Fisk: The West was warned | Comunicado de Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe [including English translation] | Los movimientos sociales frente al atentado | Jornada de reflexión | UN's Credibility Critically Wounded |
Independent Media: Madrid Indymedia | Indymedia Barcelona | Berria: Basque Newspaper | kaos en la red | La Haine

3/14: Welcome Home Event for Stephen Funk 3-9 PM
Stephen Funk is a Marine reservist who is one of the few GIs who have publicly spoken out against the war. He was the first to be prosecuted for refusing to fight. Funk spent 6 months in a military prison for going AWOL for 46 days while he was filling out a conscientious objector discharge request. About his refusal to fight in this endless war, Funk said, "In the face of this unjust war based on deception by our leaders, I could not remain silent. I spoke out so that others in the military would realize that they also have a choice and a duty to resist immoral and illegitimate orders. You don't have to be cog in the machinery of war... I wanted those who may be thinking about enlisting to hear and learn from my experiences."
Meanwhile, the military budget for recruiting is over 2.4 billion dollars per year, giving nearly 40 million dollars in advertising to Nascar alone. Much of the recruiting budget is aimed at high school students. There are 110,000 fresh troops being deployed to Iraq today. At least two GIs have taken refuge in Canada, and many more are expressing outrage at the war.

2/25/04: This week marks the fifth week of fasting for Father Joe Mulligan, a Jesuit priest from Nicaragua. The 60-year old priest was found guilty of trespassing onto Ft. Benning in November in protest of the School of Americas/WHISC, and has been sentenced to 3 months in federal prison. In November, 45 people were arrested at Ft. Benning in Colombus, Georgia. Last month, 27 of them, including Voices in the Wilderness activist Kathy Kelley and a local mother of five, were tried and found guilty by the conservative courtroom of Judge H. Mallon Faircloth, known for his close ties to the military. The final court sentences have shown his continuing committment to using activists as "examples in the War on Terror."

Read More | Past Coverage of SOA/WHISC: 1 | 2 | 3

Meanwhile, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expressed a desire to end training of soldiers at SOA/WHISC. (SOA graduates Efrain Vasquez Velasco (the Army Commander in Chief) and General Ramirez Poveda were key players in the attempted coup in April 2002 that pulled Chavez out of office for 48 hours). From March 27 -- 30, activists will be descending upon Washington, DC to apply pressure to the Congressional powers to close the School of the Assassins once and for all.

26 February update: Four anti-wall protesters have been killed by the Israeli Army after they opened fire on demonstrators in Biddu. Zacharia Mahmoud Eid, 26, from Beit Iksa and Mohamed Rayan, 26, from Beit Diggo, were killed by live ammunition. Mohamed Saleh Bedwan, 20, was shot in the head by a rubber bullet [the Israeli army often uses rubber coated metal bullets]. Abu Nabil Abu Eid died from a heart attack, provoked by an excessive amount of tear gas. Others have been shot, wounded or arrested.
Reports: International Solidarity Movement | 2 | 3 | 4

Led by a grassroots/non-governmental organization coalition, Palestinians are leading a global challenge to Israel's "security fence", a 400-mile long, 8-meter high concrete wall in the occupied West Bank. The barrier, which is also marked by trenches, razor wire, and armed guard towers crosses through Palestinian villages, isolates whole towns, and separates hundreds of thousands from their pastures, farms, schools, workplaces or families. While Palestinian, Israeli and international activists have been using direct action protests to disrupt the wall's construction, the Palestinian Authority appealed to the International Court of Justice (the "World Court") in the Hague for an opinion on the legality of the barrier, which is being built on occupied and confiscated Palestinian land.
While the Israeli government insists that the wall is solely for defensive purposes, many--including Noam Chomsky and Huwaida Arraf--have charged that its construction marks a land grab designed to permanently constrict the boundaries of any future Palestinian self-rule. Across occupied Palestine, thousands participated in a "Day of Rage" on February 23rd against the barrier, timed to coincide with the case in the Hague. Thousands Gather in Nablus
The Wall Is illegal, now we must stop it | stopthewall.org | B'Tselem | Coverage from Indymedia UK
En español: Campaña Palestina contra el muro

The ANSWER Coalition held a dinner Sunday, February 22 to honor Hari Dillon, since 1991 the President of the Vanguard Foundation, as well as Stephen Funk and other activists. ANSWER wrote, “Perhaps what most distinguishes Hari’s leadership at Vanguard is that Vanguard has become a political institution, engaged on a day-to-day basis with the most pressing issues facing the communities and people of the Bay Area and the world.” With its funding, Vanguard played a key role in the massive anti-Iraq war demonstrations that took place in San Francisco in 2003. See Photos