Feature Archives

Wednesday, April 21st was the first day of the expanded Farmers' Market in downtown Santa Cruz. However, it was strangely quiet compared to previous weeks. Notably absent from Parking Lot #4 was the weekly drum circle and the crowd it attracts. And a vendor was selling artisan bread where for years, Food Not Bombs had been distributing free meals to anyone.

On April 15th, Tax Day, a right wing organization called Bay Area Patriots held a Tea Party attended by about 200 people in Union Square in the late afternoon. Earlier in the day a similar group, who said they were inspired by Speaker Pelosi's characterization of the Tea Party movement as artificial, held an anti-Pelosi protest in Civic Center that drew only a handful of demonstrators. At both events, seasoned San Francisco mocktivists found plenty to make fun of.

Simón Sedillo, a community rights defense organizer and filmmaker, will be making presentations in the Monterey Bay Area on Indigenous Strategies for Hood Liberation and screening the new documentary film Xip Xop oaXaca. On Thursday, April 22nd, Sedillo will be at Cabrillo College at 1pm and at the Brown Berets Bike Shack in Watsonville at 7pm. On Friday, April 23rd, Sedillo will be presenting at UC Santa Cruz at 11:30am.

On April 15th, a new direct action group calling themselves “Offset This!” disrupted the “Navigating the American Carbon World” conference at the Marriott Hotel in San Francisco. The protesters said that carbon trading is a false solution that distracts attention from the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions. One protester was arrested after causing a ruckus during the plenary session.

When local activist Wes Modes accepted a misdemeanor plea deal in December 2009 for his part in defending the Farmer's Market Drum Circle, he figured that would be the end of it. A year suspended sentence and some community service. No problem, he thought. Now the Santa Cruz District Attorney is saying that Wes violated his plea agreement by organizing the Last Night DIY parade.

Over 150 unauthorized copies of a poster were hung in BART trains in the early morning of March 31st, replacing the usual advertisements. The stark black and white poster showed a woman clinging to an olive tree with a soldier lurking behind her in a jeep. The poster's tagline read “US Funded Israeli Apartheid.”

Army Spc. Marc Hall, who had been jailed in Georgia county jails since December 12, 2009 for producing an angry hip-hop song about "stoploss" was placed on a military flight bound for Iraq on the night of February 26, 2010. The Army has made it clear that Marc will face a General Courts Martial that could result in years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Local musicians, artists, and GI rights supporters are coming together in benefit of Marc Hall on Friday, March 26th in Scotts Valley.