Feature Archives

With hundreds of students expected to protest, U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps recruiters announced on April 17th their withdrawal from the Last Chance Job Fair being held at UC Santa Cruz on April 24th. Although the law prevents schools from banning recruiters outright, UCSC students, through massive protests, have effectively prevented recruiters from operating on campus for nearly three years.

With royal fanfare, British Petroleum just donated big money in research funds for UC Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, and the University of Illinois to develop new sources of energy—primarily biotechnology to produce biofuel crops. This comes on the anniversary of Berkeley’s hapless research deal with seed giant Novartis ten years ago. However, at 500 million dollars, the BP grant dwarfs Novartis’ investment by a factor of ten. The graphics of the announcement were unmistakable: BP’s corporate logo is perfectly aligned with the flags of the Nation, the State, and the University.

On April 5th, over a thousand teachers in the Hayward Unified School District went on strike. Pickets took place throughout the day in front of the 38 school sites in the 20,000-student Hayward district. There was also a noon rally of parents, teachers and other supporters in Birchfield Park.

Free Skool Santa Cruz writes: The police state is global. It extends from the US global war on terror, to the nationwide war against animal rights and environmental activists, right down to the local police crackdown on undesirables -- an effort to "clean up" the streets of Santa Cruz of the young, the very old, immigrants, the unemployed, homeless, the insane, and anyone who resists.

The police and the military are the armed thugs of the ruling class. We offer you another tool to add to your arsenal of resistance... Read More and Download Resources

more resources: Midnight Special Law Collective 510-261-4843 || ACLU of Northern California 415-621-2493 || National Lawyers Guild 415-285-5067

On Wednesday March 21st, the California Faculty Association announced that members had authorized a strike. Faculty at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, and five other California State University (CSU) campuses could walk out of classrooms as soon as the beginning of April. In the past four years, the faculty has only received a 3.5 percent pay raise, while CSU execs have gotten in 23 percent pay hikes.

On the fourth anniversary of the War in Iraq, statistics recently released by the Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) are showing that an increasing number of parents in the Pajaro Valley are choosing to “opt out” of having their high school child’s information released to military recruiters.

Francisco Rodriguez, Candidate for President, Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, and Jennifer Laskin, Candidate for Executive Vice President of Alternative Ed, rallied on March 13th, 2007, to inform teachers of the campaign to elect Rodriguez for PVFT President in the first contested election in the union since 1993. With handmade signs and chants eliciting honks from passers by, the group called attention to this year's Teachers Union Election. "I believe it is time to have real communication, accountability and collaboration, not only within our Local, but with the other CFT Locals in the Monterey Bay" said Rodriguez.