Feature Archives

Marine Reservist and Conscientious Objector Stephen Funk, who declared his CO status publicly on 4/1, is being charges with desertion under Art. 85 of the UCMJ. Funk was Unauthorized Absence (UA) for 47 days and told his command in advance that he would not be appearing for duty, would prepare his CO application, and turn himself in when completed. Funk has said, "I refuse to kill," says the twenty-year-old reservist. "It is scary to confront the military, because the military teaches you to submit to orders even when you object. I may not be a hero, but I know that it takes courage to disobey. I know that it demands courage to say "no" in the face of coercion."Details | Jeff.Paterson.net

6/5/2003: Several hundred protesters gathered at Bechtel headquarters in San Francisco at 7 AM Thursday and blockaded the entrances. While over a hundred police managed to open the building after a few hours, many Bechtel employees were told by their employer to take the day off.
Reports: 1 | Photos: 1 2 3 4 5

It would be easier to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq these days than any shred of democracy. The U.S. has imposed a repressive occupation on the people of Iraq, where they shoot to kill at peaceful protesters and seek to destabilize any popular political group which gains support. Iraq is now a colonized land, with US-based corporations like San Francisco-based Bechtel leading the rape-for-profit charge. Many of the higher-ups at places like Bechtel are ex-military or somehow in bed with the Bush/Cheney cartel.

Friday, June 6: Shut down continues? Based on the successes of June 5th, independent groups have called for a return to Bechtel the next day.
Read about Cochabamba, Bolivia's battle against Bechtel: 1 | 2

Video Activist Network presents the story you won't see on Fox News: an eye-popping, jaw-dropping look at the Bay Area's radical resistance to an illegal war. WE INTERRUPT THIS EMPIRE... screens Tuesday 6/10 at 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. and Wednesday 6/11 at 2 p.m., 7:15 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. at the Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco. Details

5/12: The antiwar movement returned to the Port of Oakland on Monday to picket war profiteer American President Lines (APL) and corporate colonist Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), with an additional message for OPD and Mayor Brown: "No police violence at the docks or in our communities!" Last month's picket was the scene of a "less-lethal" police onslaught as riot cops opened fire with wooden bullets and concussion grenades, injuring dozens of protesters and portworkers -- none of whom have been charged with any crime.
Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

5/2 Santa Clara: Thousands of people protested George Bush today as he spoke at the United Defense Technologies (a producer of missile launchers, naval guns, and precision munitions, i.e. ‘smart bombs’). Meeting at 8:30am, the protesters proceeded a mile up the road to United Defense Technologies headquaters filling in the street/protest zone up to the police line. The cops then pushed the crowd onto one side of the road and then onto the sidewalk. One arrest was made. Map
Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Audio: 1

4/22: Now that Saddam Hussein's regime has fallen and a colonial regime will most likely set in, anti-war demonstrators have altered the focus of their wrath. Reports have indicated that upwards of 40 people have been arrested after blockading the entrances to Lockheed Martin.
Photos:   1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Audio:  1 | 2 | Reports:  1 | Legal Update

Lockheed Martin (with a 24% share of U.S. arms exports) is the world's largest arms exporting company. Former company CEO Norman Augustine was a major lobbyist on behalf of the more than $7 billion per year in grants and subsidized loans that the U.S. government provides to U.S. arms exporters each year to help them hawk their products around the world.
Lockheed Martin's most lucrative export item is the F-16 combat aircraft. The company has sold over 3,000 F-16s to overseas customers since the mid-1970s, and the client list for the plane includes Israel, Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Egypt, and Venezuela. In late 2001, the company won what has been touted as "the largest defense contract in history," a $19 billion development contract for the $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter program. Potential customers are Germany, Turkey and Israel in addition to the U.S. and UK Armed forces. read more

On 4/18, upwards of 300 anti-war, anti-nuclear activists gathered at Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab to protest the lab's continued research and development of weapons of mass destruction and the invasion/occupation of Iraq. One speaker at the rally asked, "What drives them to this macabre egomaniacal madness? It’s got to be some feeling about getting off doing their patriotic duty, plus being handsomely paid, so they can shed sentimental tears of pride at their grandchildren’s graduation from some PHD in physics graduate school." Story and photos