Feature Archives

On August 15th, hundreds rallied at the Richmond BART and then marched to the Chevron oil refinery. The protesters called attention to Chevron’s polluting oil refinery in Richmond and to its oil industry expansions - killing people and the planet for profit. A critical mass bike bloc also meet at the Richmond BART and followed the main march to the Chevron refinery. At the end of the march there was non-violent civil disobedience action against the refinery.

Jen Marlowe writes: "I heard the jangle of ankle and wrist cuffs before I saw them. The detainees (five Israeli, four Palestinian and four international) were being led into a small court room. One woman had a black eye. They had been arrested the night before at a demonstration against the eviction of the Hannoun and al-Ghawe families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. At 5:00 Sunday morning, the families were removed from their homes by Israeli police, leaving 53 people homeless — 20 of them children."

Raj Jayadev writes: "What would have happened to Dr. Gates if he were not an acclaimed scholar and author, friend to the President, and someone whose stardom could greatly embarrass a city and county justice system? What would have happened if Dr. Gates, were he not a noted scholar, was arrested in my city, San Jose, California, with the same fact pattern, even as described by the police report?"

On July 25th, an estimated 4,000 people across Northern California joined thousands of demonstrators around the world in a global day of action to express solidarity with the Iranian people challenging the results of the country’s controversial June 12th election. Bay Area residents poured into San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza to participate in the demonstration, spearheaded by District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the first Iranian-American to be elected to public office in San Francisco.

In Greece, a period of widespread state repression and brutality has followed the rebellion of December 2008. During and after the rebellion, the extreme right wing political party LAOS (Popular Orthodox Party Alert) and the Greek state investigated the IMCs of Athens and Patras, Greece, on the grounds that they were used as centers for the "coordination of rebellion." Indymedia participants say that rebellions are not conducted via the Internet, and that Indymedia contributed vital counter-information to state- and corporate-controlled media.

Advance the Struggle writes:"The murder of Oscar Grant set Oakland on fire, but who put the fire out? The working class people of Oakland, their consciousness set ablaze, found an inadequate set of organizational tools at their disposal to do the work that deep down we all know has to be done – confront the state (government) and its underlying property relations."

G. Hotta writes: "From ethnic turmoil in Urumqi, to the prisoners at Guantanamo, the Uyghur people find themselves in the global spotlight. But what remains in the dark are Uyghur history, issues and viewpoints. To give context to events that are still un-folding, the Uyghur experience is traced through the lives to two Uyghurs in exile: mainly Alim Seytoff and Uyghur rights activist Rebiya Kadeer."