Feature Archives

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.

John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America and Food Revolution, says the film Bold Native "is the controversial story of young adults who just can’t sit by and stay silent in the face of massive cruelty to animals. Unwilling to passively succumb to resignation and despair, they take a stand, not just with their words, but with their actions. Some might see them as threats to society, others might admire them as self-sacrificing heroes, but no one could see this remarkable film and not gain a greater understanding of what courage really means.”

The annual Friday-after-Thanksgiving protest of the fur industry, led by In Defense of Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was held in San Francisco's Union Square on November 26th. Similar demonstrations were held in Portland and other cities across the U.S. and the world. Event organizers called for demonstrators to, "Come and raise your voice for the voiceless 50 million fur bearing animals that are brutally slaughtered each year for their fur."

During an anti-IMF protest in Athens, Greece on November 15th, a U.S. anarchist was brutally beaten by the Delta Force, a special police division for anarchists and immigrants. Although she suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized for several days, she is expected to fully recover. In the following days as more protests continued in Athens marking the anniversary of the Junta, several Greek demonstrators have been brutalized by the Delta Force. On November 27th, protesters in San Francisco expressed solidarity with comrades in Greece.

Hundreds of UC students and workers from around the state joined together during the November 16th through 18th Regents meeting to protest proposals that they say will harm the public mission of the University of California. They are demanding no fee hikes for all students and no more cuts to staff, many of whom earn below a living wage. At the November 17th meeting, over three hundred protesters confronted a line of police at the Mission Bay campus in San Francisco, where the regents were meeting. Police used pepper spray and 13 protesters were arrested.