Feature Archives

A lawsuit filed May 1st in federal court by a security and private intelligence firm against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has revealed details of the militarized takeover of Oakland-based local United Healthcare Workers West (UHW). SEIU spent millions to conduct surveillance of UHW's headquarters and membership meetings and to provide "protection services" to SEIU leaders visiting California.

On May 1, International Workers Day, rallies and marches are planned for cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, and the Central Valley. Demonstrators will call for action in defense of jobs, families, immigrant rights, and unions.

On May 1st, International Workers Day, rallies and marches were held in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, and the Central Valley. Demonstrators called for action in defense of jobs, families, immigrants, and unions.

On April 8th, buses and carpools from across Northern California headed to Sacramento for the Caravan for Justice II. They came to demand changes in laws and policies such as three strikes, gang injunctions, parole/probation, voter disenfranchisement, the power of police and prison guard unions, the police bill of rights, and other aspects of the California prison industrial complex which continues to grow while budgets for education and community services shrink.

A rally and march of California-wide advocates for national LGBT equality was held in Fresno on Saturday, May 30th. The California Supreme Court issued its ruling on Prop 8, banning gay marriage, earlier in the week. Organizers chose Fresno for its location in the middle of the state and because the Central Valley is more representative of "middle-America." They say that the struggle for equality has to be won in towns like Fresno and not just in LGBT-friendly metropolitan areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

On March 16, 2009, students and educators from public colleges all over the state converged on Sacramento to demand that California fully fund higher education and not raise tuition. Over 6,000 students, teachers, administrators, and education workers converged in Sacramento. They came to demand, “Keep the doors open,” “No budget cuts,” “Bail out colleges, not banks,” “Fund education, not war,” and “Money for schools, not prisons.”

On Saturday, March 21st, protest marches took place across the U.S. and around the world on the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In the Bay Area, four days of demonstrations protesting the continuing war on Iraq officially commenced on Thursday, March 19th with leafleting at more than 20 BART stations and a march in Berkeley. On Wednesday, March 18th, a group of persons wearing masks smashed the windows and splattered red paint at the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley. On Saturday, March 21st, a demonstration sponsored by ANSWER began with a march from Justin Herman Plaza at 11am culminating in a rally at Civic Center Plaza. On Sunday, March 22nd, a Rally in the Valley for Peace and Justice was be held in downtown Fresno.