Feature Archives

To mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, the Global Women’s Strike held the 2nd Annual Mother's March on March 8th in San Francisco. The Mother's March also takes place in other parts of the state, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles, as well as in Haiti, Guyana, India, Peru and the UK. In their call-out for the march, organizers wrote: "Mothers produce/care for the world's people. Most women do caring work: grandmothers, mothers, daughters, partners. Unrecognized, unpaid or low-paid, women care for children, elders, people with disabilities, and each other."

For the past two years, California has been in an ongoing struggle against cuts to education and public services. On March 4th, 2010, students, teachers, faculty, workers, and supporters statewide held coordinated Strike and Day of Action in defense of public education and public services. This year, California's new governor, democrat Jerry Brown, is planning to cut $1.4 Billion from public higher education, and students across the state demonstrated in coordinated actions on March 2nd and over the following days.

On February 11th, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Republican state legislators introduced legislation to end collective bargaining for public employees on the premise that the attack on unions was motivated by budgetary concerns. Within a week, tens of thousands of public employees and labor supporters were demonstrating daily in the capital of Madison. Protests and solidarity rallies have since spread across the U.S. On February 26th, rallies were held in over 50 U.S. cities as part of a national day of action to demand an end to the attacks on workers' rights and public services across the country.

On February 26th at U.N. Plaza in San Francisco, a solidarity rally was held in support of the uprisings in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Morocco. The organizers wrote: "Libya is under attack by the long ruling, deranged and brutal dictator, Muammer Qaddafi. Through[out] the past few days hundreds of people have been left dead and thousands injured.... We need all our brothers and sisters from around the world to join in and let our voices be heard — Enough Is Enough."

Fifty members of the Bay Area human rights community protested the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco on February 27th, using chants, songs and street theater to highlight the IPO’s role in whitewashing Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinian people. The orchestra’s performances are being met with protests in six of the seven cities on its US tour, including a protest at Carnegie Hall in New York and at Seattle’s Benaroya Opera House.

On February 22nd, Indybay reporter Mark Burdett filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in a federal civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2004 arrest for "jaywalking" while covering an antiwar protest in San Francisco. In October of 2010 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Burdett was lawfully arrested. The story was featured in a lighthearted manner on the February 23rd episode of The Colbert Report.

Last month, BART riders complained about anti-Palestinian ads posted in the subway system by a Los Angeles-based pro-Israeli lobby called Stand With Us. When the public complained about the ads, BART officials pulled them. In February, a new version of the same ads appeared in BART stations and this time BART officials are refusing to take them down. Bay Area culture jamming activists installed replacement ads on February 21st that say "Stop Israeli Apartheid — Human Rights for All Is The Answer."