Feature Archives

On March 1st, hundreds of students at the University of California Santa Cruz, with the aid of local community members, built a tent university at the base of campus as part of a coordinated day of Occupy Education actions statewide. A general strike with regards to the main campus was also planned, and students blocked both entrances to the university, which effectively shutdown UCSC for approximately 16 hours. In the words of one UC police officer that day, "students have taken control of the campus."

Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee is attempting to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media.

Monsanto closed its facility in Davis, California on March 16th after 150 occupiers from throughout the state blocked the entrances to their Davis facility at 1910 5th Street. The occupiers reported that they shut down operations at the corporate giant, which produces genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and is notorious for its inordinate influence over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

On December 31st, 2011, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2012, codifying indefinite military detention without charge or trial into law for the first time in American history. The NDAA’s dangerous detention provisions would authorize the president — and all future presidents — to order the military to pick up and indefinitely imprison people captured anywhere in the world, far from any battlefield.

Students, educators, workers, and supporters of the Occupy movement, converged in the thousands on the State Capitol in Sacramento on March 5th. They were there to demand that the government fund education and social services. In the morning, a march left Sacramento's Southside Park headed for the Capitol. There they were joined by thousands of other protesters. They came from across the state.

On February 27, several dozen community members involved with Occupy Santa Cruz joined in a solidarity march with occupies across the country and the world, protesting repression of the occupy movement and the associated police violence. The march started from the Santa Cruz County court house occupation location of Occupy Santa Cruz, and it made its way through the downtown to City Hall, where a candlelight vigil was held.

Since the night of Thursday, February 16th, Anthony, a U.S. military veteran, has maintained a daily action to re-occupy the area in front of the courthouse on Ocean St. previously used by Occupy Santa Cruz activists until driven away by deputy harassment and SCPD threats. In response, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak's deputies and SCPD Chief Kevin Vogel's police resumed arrest threats. Early Saturday morning on February 25th, deputies assaulted Anthony with cold water as he slept at 2 AM, presumably to discourage his protest.