Feature Archives

On Wednesday, August 5th, protesters met in San Francisco to protest Governor Schwarzenegger's budget cuts which disproportionately target health services fighting the spread of HIV. Due to Schwarzenegger's line item vetoes in this year's budget, an additional 85 million in funding is being cut from HIV/AIDS-related organizations and groups.

DS writes: "On Monday night, many people assembled to honor the youth killed and injured in Tel Aviv's LGBT Center. I was dreading this event, I needed to mourn – for the youth, and also for the sense of safety that I lost, years ago, when I first realized that my own LGBTQ youth center was unsafe space for me. I worried, that I wouldn’t be able to mourn, but would instead be distracted by anger and alienation at the Zionist rhetoric that accompany public Jewish events."

On July 25th, an estimated 4,000 people across Northern California joined thousands of demonstrators around the world in a global day of action to express solidarity with the Iranian people challenging the results of the country’s controversial June 12th election. Bay Area residents poured into San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza to participate in the demonstration, spearheaded by District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the first Iranian-American to be elected to public office in San Francisco.

On Saturday, July 25, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival will show Rachel, a documentary about Rachel Corrie, at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. This film by Simone Bitton is a critical, in-depth look at the life and tragic death of Rachel Corrie, the American activist killed in Gaza in 2003 by a Caterpillar bulldozer operated by the Israeli military. Rachel, working with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family's home.

The Governor and the California General Assembly approved wage reductions for in-home assistance to elderly and disabled as part of an overall budget reduction proposal earlier this year. On June 23rd, activists from "The People's Day of Reckoning" protested those cuts as well as the governor's accusations that state funded In-Home Support Services is "rife with fraud." Seventeen people, many in wheelchairs, were arrested. On July 15th, members of that coalition were joined by labor activists, educators, and students at a larger protest at the same location.

On Monday, July 6th, labor activists gathered at Harry Bridges Plaza in the Embarcadero to remember the day, July 5, 1934, when two strikers were gunned down and killed by police. Several hundred union members and their supporters, many from around the world, marched in a reenacted funeral procession of the fallen men, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise. As the procession passed the memorial at Mission and Steuart Streets, across the street from the site of the deaths, they took off their hats.

On July 6th, California State prosecutors were forced to admit that they have insufficient evidence against the San Francisco 8. Charges against four of the defendants were dropped and Jalil Muntaqim pled no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter. Those for whom charges were dismissed were Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank Jones, and Harold Taylor. A Community Celebration for the SF8 was held July 7th in San Francisco.