Feature Archives

On Sunday, January 11, more than a thousand people demonstrated against Israeli attacks on Gaza in a suburban shopping district in San Jose, California. This was the second Sunday in a row that demonstrators, many dressed in the colors of the Palestinian flag, started their protest by chanting and wielding signs in front of a typical 1960's era shopping strip. They then stopped traffic as they filled the streets a block away in a fashion district featuring luxury retailers.

In an open letter to the Lesbian and Gay community during his campaign, president-elect Obama promised, "I will never compromise on my commitment to equal rights for all LGBT Americans." On January 10th, three South Bay activist groups came together to lead a rally calling on Mr. Obama to hold true to his word. The downtown San Jose rally was part of a national day of action to gather a million signatures to demand equal rights for the gay community. The signatures are to be delivered to Obama on January 20th, Inauguration Day.

In the early evening of December 20th, LGBT activists lit up the night for marriage rights in gatherings throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area. In San Francisco, protesters demonstrated with a candlelight vigil in Union Square crowded with holiday shoppers, while in the South Bay city of San Jose activists chose CineArts theater as the location for a protest. CineArts theater is owned by Cinemark, whose CEO donated to the Yes on 8 campaign.

On November 27th, Darlene Wallach, a San Jose, California resident, was deported from Israel, departing Tel Aviv for New York on an El Al flight. She had been arrested, along with two other human rights observers and 15 Palestinians, by Israeli authorities while on a fishing boat in Gaza waters on November 18th.

On November 18th, US citizen and activist Darlene Wallach, along with a British citizen and an Italian, was detained with 15 Palestinian fisherman by the Israeli Navy. The group was fishing seven miles off the coast of Deir Al Balah. The US and European citizens, who are human rights observers, were kidnapped with the Palestinians by the Israeli Navy, despite the fact that they were clearly in Gaza fishing waters and well within the fishing limit detailed in the Oslo Accords of 1994.

On October 30th, a Halloween-themed rally drew a large crowd of employees to the front doors of the Santa Clara Hyatt hotel where they demonstrated for a fair process to choose a union.  Despite intermittent rain, protestors and their supporters chanted and carried placards in Spanish, English and Tagalog. Some wore masks and doled out tiny Halloween candy treats, mocking management’s attitude toward employees. Hyatt management has continually rejected its workers’ request for the company to stay neutral while workers decide for themselves whether or not to have a union.

On September 4th, nearly 300 hotel workers of the labor union Unite Here! Local 19 rallied in front of the San Jose McEnery Convention Center to draw public attention to the daily struggles of hotel service employees. They then marched to three downtown hotels that are currently undergoing contract negotiations - the Marriott, the Hilton and Towers, and the Crowne Plaza.