Feature Archives

On the heels of the largest and most aggressive immigration raids in northern California to date, Santa Clara County supervisors voted to oppose a federal immigration measure that they say would affect all workers adversely.Provisions in the Secure America through Verification and Enforcement Act of 2007 would expand an electronic verification system that Santa Clara County supervisors say would adversely affect all workers.

On July 2, hundreds of Hyatt workers and community supporters rallied in front of the Santa Clara Hyatt Hotel. More than 300 demonstrators circled the entire front entry access of the hotel where they passed out leaflets to hotel guests and visitors.

On June 8, at Chai House in San Jose, Jewish and Japanese American survivors of the camps of World War Two and their families met to tell their stories and reach common understanding. The South Bay Holocaust Survivor Group and the Japanese American Museum of San Jose were sponsors of the meeting, and the group was about evenly mixed between the two communities represented.

On May 15th, contract talks for more than 6,000 janitors collapsed when the Bay Area’s largest cleaning companies refused modest pay and benefit improvements to janitors who currently make $347 a week ($23,000 a year). On May 17th, janitors voted to strike and on May 21st, over four hundred workers walked out of a dozen locations in the South Bay. On May 21st, striking janitors staged a morning protest at the annual Intel shareholders meeting for in Mountain View.

Two years after six local activists were arrested on Cinco de Mayo at Story and King Roads on the Eastside of San Jose, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office dropped all charges against the last of the defendants, Brian Helmle. The charges stem from Mr. Helmle’s arrest, along with five others, for their participation in a speakout against police brutality and copwatch on May 5, 2006.

The work stoppage at all 29 West Coast ports on May 1, 2008 by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) was an historic turning point for the U.S. labor movement. For the first time in more than seventy years, a major U.S. trade union led marches and a system-wide strike on May Day. And for the first time ever, it was not for economic reasons, but for the political demand to end the disastrous and debilitating U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The indynewswire show airs weekly on Freak Radio, Friday mornings 10-12 noon, broadcasting news and opinion from independent media worldwide, focused on indymedia sites but also drawing from other websites. On May 9th, danielsan interviewed Katherine Redmond of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes (NCAVA) on the De Anza Rape Case, closed last week by the CA attorney General Jerry Brown's office, citing lack of evidence. More than a year later, Katherine Redmond discusses this and other cases nationwide.