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Lakota Elder Madonna Thunder Hawk will speak in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 30th at 6:30pm, at New College of California. Flyer She is a veteran of every modern Native American struggle, from the occupation of Alcatraz to the siege of Wounded Knee. She is a long-time community organizer with a range of experience in Indian rights protection, cultural preservation, economic development and environmental justice. imc_audio.gif Audio interview with Madonna Thunder Hawk and Elizabeth Creely of BACORR

She will speak about ongoing efforts in South Dakota to secure women's reproductive rights. Her work serves as an inspiring model for committed reproductive rights,justice activists in the aftermath of South Dakota's disastrous decision to ban abortion and in the face of ongoing attacks on ourselves, our rights, and our bodies.

Event sponsors: New College of California's Activism and Social Change MA Program | Bay Area Coalition on Reproductive Rights
On Sunday, May 14th, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., No New Jails will take a huge Mother’s Day card to the Century Regional Jail in Los Angeles and ask people waiting in line to visit loved ones in the jail to sign the card. People can sign the card online if they will not be able to go to LA.

The card, which will be addressed to the governor, will demand that 4,500 women be released from state prison, rather than creating 4,500 new prison and jail beds. The card is in response to a bill in Sacramento that has proposed moving 4,500 women from state prison into smaller privately-run prisons, many of which will be located in Los Angeles County. The bills AB 2066 and AB 2917 target women who the system has determined do not "need" to be in prison. These measures would put the women in new “community” prisons, called “Community Corrections Facilities.” These are simply privatized prisons: new name, new cell, same cage. No New Jails' demand would reduce the women's prison population by 40%.

No New Jails wants the state to put prison funds into more programming and services for paroled women. It says that putting women into locked “treatment centers” is not really releasing them, sending them home, or helping them to re-enter society.

Read more on Indybay's California and Police and Prisons News Pages
In many states, moms can be denied a job or given less pay for the same work, just because they're mothers. In a country where the government talks about family values, families are not protected. MoveOn is part of a new campaign called Moms Rising, which aims to collect 50,000 signatures and comments supporting mothers and American families by Mother's Day. MomsRising plans to deliver these comments to people in Congress and begin to build an anchor of support for real family issues. They want to protect mothers from discrimination in hiring, promote the work flexibility that all parents need, demand universal health care, and get a living wage for all Americans so they can support their families. A Motherhood Manifesto has been written to highlight the common needs of America’s mothers and spell out concrete solutions that will provide families—whether rich, poor, or middle class—with real relief. Moms Rising sees itself as an "important next step in building a progressive movement that connects deeply with the needs of American families. And mothers." Info about joining the MomsRising campaign

Moms Rising | MoveOn.org
Sunday, May 14th is Mother's Day. Mother’s Day was started in 1870 by peace activist Julia Ward Howe, who was horrified by the carnage and suffering of the Civil War and wrote a proclamation calling on women to unite and oppose war. Families of soldiers who were killed in war, Iraqis, and many others will join together on Mother's Day to oppose the war. CODEPINK and others are holding a number of actions all over the US to honor women. There will be events in California and nationally to observe the effects of war and of immigration on mothers. Code Pink National will be holding a continuous 24 hour vigil in Washington, DC from May 13th to 14th outside the White House.

On Wednesday, May 10th, a vigil was held to honor undocumented immigrant women. The Coalition Against Unjust Immigration Laws (CAUIL) will hold its vigil from 6-8 pm at Southside Park across from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, at 7th & T Streets in Sacramento.

Friday, May 12th, people will observe the CODEPINK Mother's Day for Peace with a rally at the Military Recruitment Center on 41st Avenue in Capitola. In addition to the rally, some people are planning to go inside the plaza to blockade and/or risk arrest at the recruitment center. Read more from Santa Cruz Indymedia

On Sunday, May 14th, there will be a free Mothers Day Event at the Parkway Theater in Oakland to reclaim the anti-war history of the day. From 2-4pm, there will be speakers, short films and performances by youth groups. On Monday, May 15th, the resistance will continue with an International Conscientious Objectors Day protest in Oakland

Women Say Enough | CodePink's List of Mothers' Day Events | Women Say No to War
Eyal Press has written a book about the anti-choice reign of terror against abortion providers. He will be reading from the book, which is entitled “Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City and the Conflict that Divided America,” at Valencia Street Books (569 Valencia St. in SF) on Tuesday, April 25th at 6:30pm.

In 1973, Press and his family moved from Israel to Buffalo, where his father, Shalom, had accepted a three-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology. They arrived only three weeks after the Supreme Court had handed down its decision in Roe v. Wade. In the next three decades, they saw protesters outside their home, mock funerals at Shalom Press’s office and a 1998 threat on his life, which came shortly after his colleague was killed by James Kopp. The shooting of Dr. Barnett Slepian haunted Eyal, now a journalist, and compelled him to understand why the abortion conflict has sparked such passion and fierce moral convictions on both sides of the issue. In "Absolute Convictions," Press weaves together details of his father’s experience as an obstetrician with firsthand accounts and interviews with the protesters who were arrested outside his father’s office, patients who braved the gauntlet of demonstrators, and politicians on both sides.

Read more about Eyal Press and the book | Eyal Press's writings in The Nation | Event Sponsor BACORR
Two films were shown at the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco's Mission District on Wednesday, March 29th. “Leona's Sister Gerri” is an award winning film that tells the story of Gerri Santoro, who is the "real person" in the now famous photo of an anonymous woman on a motel floor, dead from an illegal abortion. The image became a symbol of why women's access to safe, legal health care is necessary. “The Last Abortion Clinic” is a film that gives demonstrates how the anti-abortion movement in states like Mississippi made access to abortion nearly impossible for poor women. The films will begin at 7:00pm.

BACORR, or Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights, is a coalition of organizations and individuals who are working for reproductive rights.
March 8th is International Women's Day (IWD). In many cities around the world, people observe a Global Women's Strike on that day. This year there were a number of Women Against War events around the US. International Women's Day is a day for women on all continents to come together to celebrate their struggle for equality, justice, peace and development

In solidarity with the European "Great Walk" of women against anti-woman laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there was a march at 4:00pm in downtown Berkeley on IWD. (imc_photo.gif Photos)

People gathered in front of the downtown Oakland military recruiting centers between 4:45 and 5:00 to vigil and distribute counter-recruitment materials. Then they marched through downtown Oakland with "Women say NO to war" and "Women say ENOUGH! BASTA!" banners, ending at the Unitarian Church for "Breaking Rank: Women of Color Soldiers Speak Out." (see 6:30pm below)
In San Francisco at 6:00pm on the USF campus, Bringing Women's Human Rights Home celebrated IWD and honor women's struggles for human rights and justice around the world.
A panel discussion entitled Voices of Middle Eastern Women was held at 6:00pm on the campus of San Jose State University. Women from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Palestine raised awareness of the status of ordinary women, the main challenges they face, and ways that women can support one another in struggles against all forms of imperialism, colonialism, and patriarchy.
At 6:30pm, Breaking Rank: Women of Color Soldiers Speak Out took place in Oakland. The Women of Color Resource Center hosted a premiere screening of “Fashion Resistance to Militarism”, a documentary that looks at the militarization of U.S. society and culture and resistance by women and communities in the U.S. Following the screening there was a panel discussion with Aimee Alison and Tina Garnanez, two women of color and Iraq War veterans who are now spokespeople against the war and militarism.
Bay Area Women in Film And TV (BAWIFT) sponsored an IWD Short Film Showcase at 7pm in San Francisco. The WIFTI Showcase screenings took place in cities around the world on the same day, as a celebration of outstanding films by international women directors encompassing a broad range of styles, visions and passions worldwide.
At 7:00pm on the UC Berkeley campus, there was a screening of "Say I Do", a documentary about Filipina mail order brides.
Battle from the Margins was a 7:00pm San Francisco screening of films created through the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project.

Wikipedia's IWD Page | Indybay's Coverage of 2005 IWD | 2004 IWD
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