Feature Archives

UPDATE 6/7/11: Bay Trail and Association of Bay Area Governments Suspends $200,000 Grant to GVRD!
On May 31st, supporters of the Glen Cove native encampment converged outside the offices of the Bay Trail project in downtown Oakland to demand that Bay Trail divest from desecration of the Sogorea Te sacred burial ground in Vallejo. Over 65 people gathered in front of the Bay Trail offices and vowed to pursue further action if the $200,000 is not immediately pulled from plans to bulldoze the burial grounds and build on top of it.

On May 22nd the "Coalition Standing Up for the Right to Sit" held their first "chair-a-pillar" at Berkeley BART. More than 30 people participated in the action, sitting in colorful chairs on the curb and sidewalk along Shattuck Avenue. The City of Berkeley, led by local merchants/property owners, is considering following in the footsteps of San Francisco by introducing an anti-sitting ordinance this summer. A coalition made up of homeless service providers and homeless people is organizing to fight the ordinance.

On May 12th, Oakland Education Association (OEA) teachers and their supporters protested at the Wells Fargo bank on Broadway and 12th Street to demand that the bank use its wealth to stop the cuts in Oakland schools. Several staged a sit-in inside the bank branch and were arrested. In announcing their action, Oakland Teachers declared: Oakland teachers are sick and tired that our schools suffer while the banks get a bailout, and we're fighting back.

Around the world, workers united on May 1st for International Workers' Day — with marches and rallies. Across Northern California — from Berkeley to San Francisco, from Fresno to Sacramento — thousands of workers and supporters stood up for immigrant and labor rights on May Day 2011. Code Pink and others began an eight-day march from San Francisco to Sacramento to demand a just budget in California.

To protest the continued development of nuclear weapons in the Bay Area and the United States, a demonstration was held at Livermore Nuclear Lab in Livermore on April 22nd. At dawn, an interfaith prayer service was followed by Stations of the Cross. The demonstration ended at the front gate with the mass arrest of approximately two dozen protesters who refused to stop blocking the entrance when ordered to by police.

The San Francisco Labor Council has called for the full support of ILWU Local 10 after it was sued by the Pacific Maritime Association for a "We Are One" solidarity action with Wisconsin workers which shut down the ports in Oakland and San Francisco on April 4, 2011. On April 12th, ILWU members and supporter held a sit-in at the offices of the PMA in Oakland. The first emergency defense meeting to organize for action will take place on Thursday, April 14th.

4/24 updates: Committee to Protect Sogorea Te Responds to Vallejo Times Herald Op-Ed | Day 10: Hundreds attend community gathering at Glen Cove

Despite efforts by Sacred Sites Protection and Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT) to negotiate a preservation agreement, the Greater Vallejo Recreation District has so far refused to abandon efforts to develop Glen Cove, a sacred Native American burial site also known as Sogorea Te in the Ohlone language. With bulldozing slated to get under way as soon as Friday, April 15th, SSP&RIT has called for an assembly to gather on April 14th at Glen Cove, in preparation for a ceremony to honor the ancestors buried at the site the following morning.