Feature Archives

On November 7th, about 75 people turned out on Science Hill, the site scheduled for construction of a Biomedical Sciences Facility, to celebrate the one year anniversary of the UCSC Science Hill Tree Sit. The festivities featured speakers, spoken word, and musical performances, as well as laughter, storytelling and conversation. People also marked the occasion by sharing memories of November 7th, 2007, the day that hundreds of students, staff, faculty, and community members withstood the police in order to support the tree sit.

On Friday, November 7th, students and other community members will gather on Science Hill at UCSC to celebrate one year of occupying trees in resistance to the UC’s plans to destroy 120 acres of forest in Upper Campus, home to the threatened Burrowing Owl, and a vital watershed area. Festivities, including speakers and a performance by Blackbird Raum, will commence at 1pm. Tree-sit supporters assert, "Only by coming together can we make an impact on the choices that will affect all of us living in this landscape."

On November 2, Hebrew University student Ali Bahar was detained for three hours after refusing to shake hands with Israeli president Shimon Peres. Upon approaching Bahar, the student refused to shake Peres' hand and stated "I will not shake hands with murderer of kids." Immediately following the encounter, Bahar was detained by university security personnel and his student ID was confiscated.

This Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31, hundreds of Bay Area youth gathered with community members and families to denounce the atrocities committed against immigrant communities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The action was a response to ICE attacks against immigrant communities in so-called “sanctuary cities” like San Francisco and to a presidential election season that has seen neither major candidate substantively address the issues facing immigrant families. BART police shut down at least three stations - Richmond, Fruitvale, and Coliseum - from which groups of protesters were gathering to commute to the protest in downtown San Francisco. At least three protesters were arrested in Richmond.

For almost two months, the teachers union in the Mexican state of Morelos rose up against the "Alliance for Quality Education", a neo-liberal plan akin to "No Child Left Behind" that would pave the way to the privatization of education, among other things. They were supported by the people of Morelos in their marches, encampments in public plazas, and blockades of interstate highways. On October 7, 8, and 9, the army and state and federal police were sent in to brutally smash the movement.

Several hundred protesters, mostly students, took to the streets of Tijuana, Mexico October 4 in remembrance of the 1968 massacre of leftist students in Tlatelolco Plaza. At that time hundreds, perhaps thousands of students were killed when troops opened fire on a demonstration protesting the Mexico City Olympics. In Tijuana, the demonstrators chanted “ni perdon, ni olvido” (no forgiveness, no forgetting).

On Saturday. September 27th at 11 am, nearly a hundred workers from local UC campuses, including members of UPTE, converged in the Oakland hills to make pancakes for newly appointed president Mark Yudof at his Oakland Hills mansion on Woodmont Way. They demanded Yudof come out and explain how he intends to end poverty wages at the University of California.