Feature Archives

2/21/04: Dead Prez and Oakland's Education Not Incarceration came together for a show in the wake of five planned school closures in Oakland. Tensions have continued to build in the Bay Area around the overall poor quality of existing schools and the prison-track they put many poor students on. In addition, though the state continues to alledge there are too many teachers in an attempt to cut resources, many schools barely have enough teachers, let alone seats for their students to study in.

Check out Education Not Incarceration for more info and to get involved.

"Man that school shit is a joke/ The same people who control the school system control the prison system, and the whole social system. Ever since slavery, nawsayin?"
— Dead Prez

In the spirit of creative resistance, Saturday, February 28th, there were performances by some of the most fiery, brilliant women in our radical community, who all rose up together to support women in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. --PHOTOS--

Women's Voices Rise Up is a benefit that occurs once a year; this year it was a benefit for Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, Union of Palestinian Women Committees, and Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. Details of Event

Reclaim the Streets and Desires: The RTS Valentine's Day Street Party began at 12 noon at Haight & Stanyan streets on Saturday February 14th. A ship of about 300-400 pirates marched from Golden Gate park and eventually took over the block of Haight & Ashbury and the party was in full swing with a full-on sound system with rotating djs, a pirate marching band, street theater, couches, mattresses, paint splattered on GAP, and an impromptu soccer game in the middle of the street. There was also a breakaway solidarity action that marched to the nearby Safeway.
Announcements: 1 | 2 | 3
Reclaim the Streets is part of a global, decentralized direct action movement. Direct action means that, rather than hoping and waiting for the powers that be to make the world better, one personally sets about the urgent task of reclaiming the streets (and the planet and our lives) from the destructive tyranny of global capitalism.
Retrospectives: East Bay RTS | SF RTS 2000 | SF RTS 2001
Contingents: Baby Bloc | Direct Action to Stop the War
Reports (from 2/14): 1 | 2
Photos (from 2/14): 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Reclaim the Streets and Desires: The RTS Valentine's Day Street Party began at 12 noon at Haight and Stanyan streets on Saturday February 14th. Hundreds of people, many dressed as pirates, marched from Golden Gate park and eventually took over Haight St between Ashbury and Masonic. The party included a sound system with rotating djs, a pirate marching band, street theater, couches, mattresses, paint splattered on GAP, and an impromptu soccer game in the middle of the street. Reports: 1 | 2 | Photos: 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11 | More info on the Arts + Action Page.
At around 2:30 PM, half of the crowd left Haight St and marched to the Fulton St. Safeway. The police had the Safeway completely surrounded and since nobody was allowed in, it was effectively closed for over an hour. Safeway Photos: 1  2
Read more about the Southern California grocery strike and Northern California solidarity actions on the Labor Page.

Buy Nothing Day 2000 Reclaim the Streets Party San Francisco, November 24, 2000 Shoppers were confused and disoriented as a Reclaim the Streets party closed down business-as-usual for Buy Nothing Day. The Gap and Banana Republic were forced to close, as the party and enormous police presence stopped traffic on the busiest shopping day of the year.

BUY NOTHING DAY 2000	RECLAIM THE STREETS / S26	MORE INFORMATION
Buy Nothing Day 2000 in SF	Berkeley S26 IMF Protest/Party Pictures	Reclaim the Streets - SF/East Bay
Sheep Take Over Downtown Shopping	Report from Berkeley S26	International Buy Nothing Day
Stop Shopping -- Start Living!	Video from Berkeley S26	Steal Something Day
Anti-Christmas Parade	Corporate Media on S26 (Video)	RTS London

Pictures from Buy Nothing Day 2000 in San Francisco
Stop shopping, start living banner.	Music, creativity impede shopping efficiency.	Animal rights protesters in the march.	When police threaten violence, the party moves on.
Bush supporters, fuck off!	Black Bloc argues with Bush supporter.	Buy nothing... steal something.	Cop stares at flag that says, "Steal"
Crowd chants "Let him go!" during an arrest.	Badge number photo of the one arrest.	Cops corral the party with motorcycles.	RTS shares road with motorcycle cops.
Mounted cops try to threaten violence.	Cops close down the Gap to protect it.	Cops out spying on free-thinking anarchists.	Cops wonder ... "why am I here?"

The Digital Independence 2004 Conference took place the weekend of January 30 - February 1st, 2004 in San Francisco. It opened Friday with a block party at The Battery Street Digital Space and then the conference officially began on Saturday. The schedule was a combination: subversive and compromising crossbreeds of technology sector meets entertainment industry, meets an array of public interest panelists and democracy warriors. Read more See the schedule. Hear Enemy Combatant Radio's interview with D. Rosen: Part 1 | Part 2

1/26: Riots broke out on International Blvd between 35th Ave. and 90th Ave. For a few weeks, Oakland Police have publicly declared their intention to attack crowds of people standing around outside after the game. As it turns out, OPD went after mostly East Oakland neighborhoods with wooden bullets and tear gas.

[ Reports:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]    [ Photos:  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

Thousands of people were on the street. A spirit of comraderie and friendship was literally everywhere as people had fun in the streets together, mourning their Super Bowl loss. Things got scary when the police attacked the crowd with tear gas and wooden bullets. Police cars were trashed and some other cars as well as several buildings (including a McDonalds near 63th and International) were ransacked and set on fire. At several points there were barricades of burning dumpsters in the street as thousands of angry Oakland residents fought with the police.

Although the crowd was diverse and was mostly nonviolent before the police arrived, the corporate media has been playing up "random" violence. The corporate media seems to have been afraid of talking to people in the crowd and their one-sided coverage sparked anger directed at their vehicles. A KRON 4 news van had its windows smashed and a KPIX (CBS) news van was also trashed. A police officer interviewed by KRON TV said he saw the police action as a "dry run" (perhaps for larger riots when the war starts?)