Feature Archives

On July 4th, about 100 people marched from Oscar Grant Plaza to the Glenn Dyer Alameda County Jail. Marchers were acting in solidarity with hunger strikers in the SHU (Special Housing Units), "prisons within prisons," where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for years and even decades.On July 8th, California prisoners will begin a hunger strike and work stoppage in order to insist upon five core demands that the governor and the Department of Corrections have refused to implement since negotiations surrounding the previous hunger strikes of 2011. Solidarity events took place in Oakland and at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City on July 8th, and a statewide mobilization and march to Corcoran State Prison is planned for July 13.

Since early November 2012, foreclosure defense activists have worked to protect Jodie Randolph from being evicted by Morgan-Stanley, keeping Jodie in her Alameda house by maintaining a vigil on the premises and demonstrating at Morgan-Stanley's San Francisco offices. The Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group writes: Our member and friend, Jodie Randolph has won one battle and lost another. As many of you know, Jodie was not only fighting for her home but fighting against cancer. Early Saturday morning that fight ended when Jodie passed away... But in these last months, she knew though that together we had won the fight for her home.

Twelve people injured by the Oakland police department during Occupy Oakland demonstrations have settled a federal civil rights lawsuit with the city of Oakland for a total of $1.17 million. The injuries came as a result of OPD's violent response to Occupy Oakland on October 25 and November 2, 2011. Injured plaintiffs include long-time Indybay journalist David Morse. OPD has agreed to allow the federal court to enforce its compliance with its own crowd control policy, which prohibits police from shooting "less lethal" impact munitions or tossing explosive teargas grenades into crowds, and prohibits mass arrests without warning or opportunity to disperse.

Protests in Turkey began May 28 at Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park, against plans to turn the loved and historic city park into a shopping mall. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan brutally attacked the peaceful demonstrators. As daily anti-government protests rocked Istanbul, demonstrators in the Bay Area showed solidarity against Turkish state repression with protests in Berkeley, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, and Oakland, in addition to the establishment of Gezi Gardens in San Francisco.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) workers began to strike on July 1. They have been joined by other transit workers and supporters across the Bay Area to protest the attacks on their wages and health care and pension benefits forced on them by management after previous concessions, which already included a five year wage freeze. UPDATE: BART workers agreed to return to work on July 5 under their current contract for a 30-day negotiating period. Another strike remains possible.

On November 5th, 2010, hundreds of demonstrators protested the light sentence given to Johannes Mehserle for killing Oscar Grant. Marchers took to the streets and headed toward the Fruitvale BART station, but Oakland police had other plans. One hundred and fifty demonstrators were detained and arrested, forced to spend up to twenty-four hours in police custody under inhumane conditions. In a class action settlement reached by the National Lawyers Guild, the city has not only acknowledged that the arrests were illegal but has agreed to pay $1.025 million and abide by a revised crowd control policy.

On May Day 2013, the fight for a $15 'Livable Wage' came to Oakland. A rally at Oscar Grant Plaza was followed by a noise demonstration through the streets of Oakland to raise awareness about the campaign. The noise march in Oakland followed a Sin Fronteras march from Fruitvale BART station earlier in the day. Immigrant rights and labor actions took place in many Bay Area and Northern California cities on May Day including San Francisco, San Jose, Salinas, Watsonville, and Santa Cruz.