Feature Archives

SubRosa, a new community space in downtown Santa Cruz, hosted its grand opening event on November 1st. The event included an art show, spoken word, live music, food, and a first look inside this vibrant new social space.

In the past few weeks, activists in the UC Berkeley area have engaged in correcting pro-Israel propaganda. On the night of September 18, however, someone added an image of a Swastika, an equal sign and a Star of David, to an already stenciled ad that carried the massage "free Palestine". Zionists groups have seized the moment and used the graffiti for the political agenda of creating an atmosphere of fear, in order to silence critics of Apartheid. Additionally, local media outlets have reported on the hate speech graffiti and some have printed false accusations against Palestinian solidarity groups on Campus.

On October 1st, green mesh fencing was put up again in Santa Cruz's Parking Lot #4 next to the downtown Farmer's Market. The market began at 2:30pm and by 3:00pm, many people were disappointed by the fencing around the trees and the absence of the sounds of drumming in the air. However, people eventually removed the fencing around the trees and a drum circle formed, playing music into the night.

The movie Battle in Seattle is based on real events that took place surrounding the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization Meeting in 1999. San Francisco Bay area activists were involved in the protest and contributed to the production of the film. Concerned for accurate portrayal of protesters, David Solnit worked with the film's director to give input for a more true-to-life depiction. An Indybay contributor's photos were also featured in the film.

A new movie called “Z32” started to play last week in selected theaters in Israel. The movie documents the testimony of a soldier who was ordered with his unit to kill innocent Palestinians as revenge for the killing of six Israeli soldiers. Although it contains no violence or sex scenes, the movie has been restricted by the Israeli censor to people over the age of 14. The movie was chosen to compete at the Venice Film Festival.

From SC-IMC's open-publishing calendar: "The police and the city council claim that the escalating issues at Wednesday's Farmer's Market are the result of complaints about the drummers. Instead of dealing directly with the complaints, they have turned the market into a police state. Please attend the City Council meeting this Tuesday at 3pm to support the request to rescind the poorly-written, ambiguous 15-minute parking lot law."

On September 17th, Jack and Wes were arrested at a gathering in Parking Lot #4 alongside the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market. According to reports published on Santa Cruz Indymedia, police initially went after and arrested Jack, a Food Not Bombs volunteer. Some people followed the police while drumming and demanding that Jack be released. Police reacted by arresting Wes, a drummer with Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra.