Feature Archives

On the night of Saturday, May 1st, May Day, there was a dance party to mark International Workers' Day. During the event, around 250 people roved through the streets in a mixture of dancing, partying and protesting. A smaller number of people, some wearing masks or bandanas on their face, carried torches, spray painted graffiti, broke windows at an estimated 18 downtown businesses, and caused an estimated $100,000 in damage. In addition, a police squad car that responded was reportedly pelted with rocks, surrounded, and paint was poured on the hood.

A clamor across the country to hold banks and Wall Street accountable for the financial crisis started in earnest this week with a large demonstration in San Francisco. Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of the building where Wells Fargo's annual shareholders meeting was being held on April 27. They said bankers broke laws, lack ethics and need to create jobs for working people instead of rewarding themselves with huge bonuses.

Saturday, May 1st is May Day, or International Workers Day. The Bay Area observed the holiday with celebrations, marches, rallies, and street parties. Events on Saturday included rallies, marches, and demonstrations for immigrant and workers rights in San Francisco, Watsonville, the East Bay, Fresno, Modesto, and San Jose. Celebrations and street parties were held in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and Oakland.

On April 27th, people believed to be paramilitaries affiliated with the ruling party of Oaxaca ambushed an international aid caravan en route to the autonomous town of San Juan Copala, Oaxaca. At least two people are reported dead. The caravan was carrying food, water, and other basic necessities to the town, which has been subject to a paramilitary blockade that has prevented anyone from entering or leaving the community since January.

In an unprecedented victory for community and environmental groups, the California State Court of Appeals has upheld the majority of findings in a lower court decision that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the expansion of Chevron's refinery in Richmond violated state environmental law. Community members have been campaigning to fight the proposed switch to refining dirtier, heavier oil for several years, and last year, a lower court issued an injunction stopping further work on the refinery expansion.

Simón Sedillo, a community rights defense organizer and filmmaker, will be making presentations in the Monterey Bay Area on Indigenous Strategies for Hood Liberation and screening the new documentary film Xip Xop oaXaca. On Thursday, April 22nd, Sedillo will be at Cabrillo College at 1pm and at the Brown Berets Bike Shack in Watsonville at 7pm. On Friday, April 23rd, Sedillo will be presenting at UC Santa Cruz at 11:30am.

Mike Eli writes about the mine blast at Massey’s Upper Big Branch: "I have (as you can imagine) watched the coverage of Upper Big Branch closely... But if you had sat alongside me listening to those news report, you would not have known what every single miner in southern West Virginia knows: Massey was the national flagship of union breaking."