Feature Archives

On September 26th, San Francisco State students and members of the community marched and rallied outside and inside a campus career fair in order to oppose the presence of military recruiters and the Border Patrol.

After 10 months of occupying in 100-foot high redwood trees, tree sitters at UCSC's Science Hill are ready for students to return for school. The tree sitters say that their presence is more important than ever since the Santa Cruz City Council settled their lawsuit with the University. The settlement gives the City Council's blessing for UCSC to begin the first phase of their construction plan that will eventually destroy 120 acres of forest and add at least 4,500 new students to the area.

Following last month's raid of the venerable Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley, UCPD is still holding the computers and data storage devices seized from the computer lab, Slingshot newspaper and other tenants for analysis by a forensics team. The San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) says it is working with EFF on a legal response on behalf of the Long Haul.

Starting on Friday September 6th, U.C. Berkeley's Memorial Oak Grove started being cut down. As of Sunday, all of the trees that the University plans to cut were down except for a redwood that still has four tree sitters in it. Five people were arrested as they peacefully pleaded with arborists not to destroy the trees.

On August 9, the Santa Cruz city council and Coalition to Limit University Expansion (CLUE) reached a settlement agreement with UCSC over campus expansion. In response, the tree sitters occupying the area released a statement declaring that although Chancellor Blumenthal speculated that the tree sitters "have accomplished their goals," they will not be coming out of the trees. The tree sitters accuse the city and CLUE of never intending their lawsuit to protect the north campus trees and ecosystem, saying "Let the city and university make their agreements. We are here for the forest."

Consensual Liberation through Intimate Tactics Collective (C.L.I.T. Collective) is a collective of folks who have come together to open dialog about Sexual/Intimate Violence. CLIT Collective is hosting a series of classes as part of Free Skool Santa Cruz from July through September. A workshop on consent and sexual/intimate violence will be held on Wednesday, August 13th at 6:00pm in the library of the Zami! Co-op.

On July 22nd, Judge Barbara Miller upheld U.C. Berkeley's plans for an athletic training center in the Memorial Oak Grove. The order will end an injunction that had blocked destruction of the grove. On Thursday, July 24th, the Berkeley City Council will likely make its final decision about whether or not to pursue an appeal. Supporters of an appeal plan will meet at the grove at 3:30pm and march to City Hall at 4pm before the 5pm public hearing.