Feature Archives

San Francisco women's rights activists turned out some of their best street theater for an anti-abortion crowd of thousands that marched through the city on Saturday. Following an opening rally, which at least one anti-choice visitor tried to interrupt, women's rights demonstrators walked along the Embarcadero, shadowing the "Walk for Life" march. A couple performed racy dances at various spots alongside the anti-choice march, shocking their opponents. Pro-choice activists said that what is more shocking, however, is "the extremes to which the right wing will go to deny women health care."

On January 20th, a meeting on the USF campus was held in protest of the sudden and unannounced shutdown of 34-year-old college station KUSF the day before. The station's FCC license was sold for $3.75 million on January 18th, in a secret deal of which almost nobody at the station had prior knowledge. Shocked and outraged station personnel, supporters, students, a media studies professor, and other media made up close to 500 people who rallied outside the packed auditorium. Supporters plan to attend the Board of Supervisors meeting January 25th at City Hall.

As the Obama administration moves closer to introducing the NAFTA-style Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) to Congress, on January 14th, 2011, citizens and activists joined Kim Kyung-Ran, Director of External Relations for the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, in a rally at San Francisco's new Federal Building to oppose the deal. Labor, faith, environmental, fair trade, and family farm organizations called on Minority Leader Pelosi, Congress and President Obama to stop pursuing the KORUS FTA, an agreement expected to cost American jobs and grant corporations in each country rights to subvert public interest laws.

On January 22nd, the 38th anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade, the anti-choice, anti-gay Walk for Life organization bused people into the city of San Francisco for a march in support of criminalizing abortions. Pro-Choice activists countered them with a rally and march along the Embarcadero. This was the 7th year an organized march against womens' choice was held in the city.

WikiLeaks is receiving significant persecution from the US government and transnational corporations for releasing information the government finds embarrassing for the world to know. In San Francisco on Jan. 15th, WikiLeaks supporters held a "media intervention" at the TransAmerica Pyramid and New York Times office. On Jan. 12th, a procession and rally was held in Berkeley to close Guantanamo and support Wikileaks and Bradley Manning. Dozens of people came together in Santa Cruz on Jan. 8th to rally and march in solidarity with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning.

Anarchists Against the Wall (AATW) is an Israeli direct action group established in 2003 to resist the Annexation Wall being built by Israel on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank. They support Palestinian civilian resistance to massive confiscation of land and denial of freedom of movement caused by construction of the Wall. AATW activists have joined thousands of demonstrations against the Wall and against the Occupation in dozens of villages throughout the West Bank. They are currently touring in the US, including giving several presentations in Northern California.

The 34th America's Cup will be held in San Francisco in 2013 and hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected to come to see the sailing races. Critics fear that the No Sit-Lie Law recently created by the passage of Proposition L will be especially enforced during the event and tenants will be required to move away from new construction areas. Still others are concerned about expenditures including an estimated $4 million for a beefed up police presence.