Feature Archives

LGBT Pride Celebrations were held in many California cities during the month of June. On Saturday, June 3rd, Out in the Valley was held in Fresno. Photos
San Francisco Pride took place from June 23rd through 25th.
The Trans March was held on Friday, June 23rd. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
The Dyke March was held on Saturday, June 24th.
The SF Pride Celebration was held in Civic Center on Saturday and Sunday. The main Pride March began on Sunday at 10:30am at Market and Beale Streets, and ended at Civic Center. Photos | Reports: 1 | 2

There will be a June 9th press conference and rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal from 4-6pm at the Federal Building in San Francisco, 450 Golden Gate at Larkin). The rally is part of a national and international effort to win new support for Mumia's appeal and to counter the efforts to execute him. The State of Pennsylvania has recently filed an appeal seeking to reinstate the order to execute Mumia. Governor Ed Rendell has said that if the appeal is upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, he will sign the third warrant for Mumia's execution. Barring the unlikely intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, Mumia will have 90 days to live.

Two Pennsylvania Congresspeople are introducing legislation to demand that the Parisian suburb of Saint Denis reverse its decision to name a major street after Mumia. The new street, leading to the largest sports stadium in Europe, the Nelson Mandela Stadium, has been formally named Rue Mumia Abu-Jamal. Mumia's legal team, headed by Robert R. Bryan, has expressed the view that Mumia's final appeal on the three central issues before the court will be successful and that the Pennsylvania's effort to execute Mumia will fail. However, Bryan warns that nothing is certain in these matters and especially in these times. Read more

The Mobilization to Free Mumia | Mumia's Freedom Journal | Photos from April 2006 visit to Philadelphia by a French delegation

Tuesday June 27th was a "National Day of Action" in solidarity with U.S. Army Lt. Ehren Watada. Outside the gates of Fort Lewis, Washington, hundreds rallied to support Watada – the first commissioned officer to resist the illegal war and occupation of Iraq. Photos
In San Francisco, people gathered at 5pm in Justin Herman Plaza. Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | Audio: 1 | 2 | Video

On June 7th, U.S. Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada held a press conference in Tacoma, WA to announce his intention to disobey the illegal order to deploy to Iraq. Ehren Watada is believed to be the first U.S. military officer to publicly refuse orders in the Iraq War due to its illegality. Photos
In the lead-up to the national day of action, supporters of Lt. Watada rallied in Fort Lewis on June 24th and Olympia on June 26th. Photos: 1 | 2 | Audio

On Saturday, June 3rd, Marriage Equality USA held walks across bridges in California and New York to raise visibility and funds for efforts to win the 1400 state and federal protections for civil marriage for same-sex couples. For the Golden Gate Bridge Walk for Marriage Equality, people gathered at the western end of Chrissy Field at 9:00am, and vans were to bring people to the Golden Gate Bridge for the Walk, which started at 9:30. Single "lesbian soccer mom" Jennifer Schumaker walked the last 5 miles of her 500 mile journey from San Diego to San Francisco in support of LGBT inclusion and marriage equality for same-sex couples. The event ended at 12pm and was followed by a cake reception.

It is expected that the US Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Constitutional Amendment on Monday, June 5th. The aim of the marches on Saturday was to increase outreach and educational efforts against the amendment.

Marriage Equality USA

There was a rally to send a message to owners of businesses like the Si Señor Taqueria that the community will not tolerate the use of immigration status to abuse workers. The rally took place on Wednesday May 24th at 11:30am, at Si Senor Taqueria, 53 Stevenson St (one block down from Market and 2nd towards Mission, then left on Stevenson).

Sonia Cano and Carlos Barrancos are the couple whose story Indybay covered this winter: Carlos was taken into ICE custody and sent out of state when Sonia was 9 months pregnant with their first child. Sonia started working with Young Workers United in June 2004 after she filed a claim against Si Señor, the restaurant where she had worked, with the Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement, which is the agency that enforces the minimum wage of $8.82 for San Francisco. Right before Sonia filed her claim, she told her employer she was three months pregnant. Two days later she was suddenly fired for “indiscipline.” The employer often spoke against pregnant workers, and used racial slurs denigrating workers’ Mayan heritage. YWU, Sonia and Carlos organized workers to stand up to the owner, demanding a stop to the racial harassment. Seeing the presence of workers organized with YWU, the racial harassment stopped and workers filed minimum wage claims. Sonia Cano won the minimum wage case, and this month she settled a claim with Si Señor for charges of discrimination, defamation, and retaliation with firing and sending ICE. Cano stated: "Don’t remain silent. Stand up for your rights and look for support from the community because we all deserve our rights at work." Photos and Report from YWU from 5/17 | Read more of this story on Indybay's Labor and Workers and Immigrant Rights News Pages

There will be a rally and march on Wednesday, May 24th before petitions about Lt. Martin Halloran of the SFPD are filed. The intial rally will take place at 4:20pm at the Hall of "Justice" (850 Bryant St), with an additional protest at 5:00pm at SF City Hall. For the past six years, Lt. Martin Halloran (SFPD #772) has engaged in entrapment, intimidation, and harassment of San Francisco medical cannabis patients and caregivers. He has ignored the orders of his superiors, and has even falsified police documents after arresting legitimate medical cannabis patients. He has also made public statements against medical cannabis at many neighborhood group meetings.

Protesters believe Halloran's actions are in direct violation of the policy of the City and County of San Francisco. They demand that Lt. Halloran be held accountable for his numerous offenses against San Francisco medical cannabis patients and be disciplined accordingly. They want to have him taken off of the medical cannabis dispensary (MCD) detail, and that all SFPD officers stop investigations, surveillance, and arrest of cannabis patients, caregivers, and MCD operators. Medical cannabis supporters are reminding the city that Halloran's actions led to the convictions of Stephanie Landa, Kevin Gage, and Thomas Kikuchi. The city of San Francisco had approved their garden, but the DEA "somehow" knew about the garden and arrested the three.

Read more demands | Hemp Evolution

A "National Day of Out(r)age Against the Telcos"was held on Wednesday, May 24th. In San Francisco, there were two protests. The first was at 12pm outside of AT&T Park (formerly SBC Park) for street theater to point out that people won't play ball with telephone companies that do business with the NSA. There was also a rally outside of AT&T headquarters, (600 Folsom Street, between 2nd and 3rd Streets) from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Photos The AT&T building is where the National Security Agency (NSA) set up a secret spy room to collect phone calls. Read more

On May 24th, protests were held across the country against the telephone companies AT&T and Verizon. People are outraged by the tactics of the major telephone companies, or Telcos (AT&T, Verizon and Quest), to pass National Video Franchising legislation in Congress. The Telcos are spending one million dollars a week to buy the votes of Congresspeople for their legislation, House Bill 5252 and Senate Bill 2686 and on advertising to influence public opinion. The proposed legislation will curb local control over video franchises, negatively impact thousands of local Public, Educational and Governmental Access channels, allow red-lining in low-income and rural communities and jeopardize the openness of the internet by removing 'net neutrality' provisions designed to promote competition.

Recent news also has exposed the privacy violation of millions of telephone users-- thatAT&T and Verizon willingly handed over call records to the National Security Agency without proper legal warrants. Read more AT&T has also been in the news about its collusion with the NSA to install computers to track the internet traffic on their Worldnet backbone. Now these same corporations want even more access to homes throughout the country with their fiber networks. Protest organizers demand accountability and better protections.

Media Alliance | Access SF | Code Pink | Save Access