Feature Archives

On June 22nd, disability right activists established a tent city they have named "Arnieville" on Adeline at Stewart Street in Berkeley. Arnieville is an ongoing tent city protesting the Governor's proposed cuts to In-Home Support Services (IHSS), which enables people to remain in their homes rather than be institutionalized. A similar protest was held at the same place in late May.

Unions, labor federations and other organizations around the world have condemned Israel’s deadly attack against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31. In response on June 20th, a labor and community picket of an Israeli Zim Lines ship was called for the Port of Oakland. The picket has already succeeded in shutting down the port for the morning shift, after the ILWU refused to cross the picket line. Activists have promised to return at 4:30pm the same day to stop the next shift from unloading the Zim lines ship when it arrives from Monterey this afternoon.

On June 1st, family, friends, and community activists gathered in front of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malleys office in Oakland to demand a vigorous prosecution of Johannes Mehserle for the murder of Oscar Grant. The next day jury questionnaires were handed out in Los Angeles Superior Court, and after numerous motions have been heard in pre-trial hearings and a jury which includes no African Americans was selected, the long-awaited trial began with opening statements on June 10th. On June 14th, the LA Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant made a call — "All Out to the Courthouse" — and hundreds rallied for justice. In Oakland, a mass community gathering has been called for 14th Street and Broadway at 6pm the day of the Mehserle verdict.

After more than a year in a Tel Aviv hospital, Bay Area activist and photo-journalist Tristan Anderson has returned home to California. Tristan was critically injured when he was shot in the head at close range with a metal high-velocity tear gas canister at the Israeli Separation Wall on March 13, 2009, while taking photos following a demonstration against the apartheid wall in the West Bank village of Ni'lin.

On Thursday, June 10th, investigative journalist and author Pratap Chatterjee returns to the Bay Area from the Middle East and Washington, DC, to speak about the expansion of Obama's AfPak War and its connection to securing oil in the region. In a benefit event at UC Berkeley, Chatterjee will share his first hand investigations in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the massive waste, fraud and abuse among the multi-billion dollar US military contractors, as well as their treatment of third world workers.

A proposal at the Peralta Colleges in the East Bay to establish “free speech zones” has evoked Orwellian visions of the campuses' futures. Yet others see the proposal as a necessary procedure to protect free speech. Speakers would be limited to the 150 foot x 150 foot main quad at Laney College, as well as the outdoor quads at College of Alameda and Merritt College, and the Student Lounge on the fifth floor at Berkeley City College. Fliers would be restricted to bulletin boards. All fliers would also require an English translation.

On Sunday, May 23rd, community members held a vigil from 11am to 1pm in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza to mourn the death of Aiyana Jones and all victims of police violence. Seven-year-old Aiyana Jones was shot and killed by police on May 16th during a no-knock raid on her family's Detroit home. The incident was filmed by the crew of the reality TV cop show The First 48, which had been following the Detroit Police Department. A lawyer for the Jones family claims that the footage contradicts the police account of the incident.