Feature Archives

On Thursday, April 22nd, around a hundred community members rallied outside a courthouse in Oakland to oppose a controversial gang injunction proposed by City Attorney John Russo. The proposed injunction would criminalize everyday activities in a 100 square block area of North Oakland. Community members spoke out against the injunction, saying it would rely on racial profiling, strip people of their civil rights, and push poor and working class people of color out of North Oakland.

On April 16th, veteran Indybay reporter David Morse moved to quash a search warrant issued for photographs he took at a December 11th protest on the UC Berkeley campus. The photographs were taken while Morse was covering the protest for Indybay. Despite clearly identifying himself as a journalist, Morse was arrested along with seven others, had his camera and photographs seized, and was charged with multiple felonies. The charges were dropped within days. On June 18th, Judge Yolanda Northridge quashed the warrant, ordering the UC Regents to return the original photographs and all copies.

Josh Wolf spent seven and a half months in federal jail asserting his right as a journalist not to turn over videotape of a demonstration. He is now a student at UC Berkeley. Just last week, as this profile was being prepared for publication, the UCB administration announced it will try to suspend Wolf for seven months as punishment for his being arrested while covering the protest against fee hikes that led to the occupation of Wheeler Hall last November.

On Monday, April 5th, dozens rallied at UC Berkeley to protest the university's crackdown on student protests. Over 100 students are facing possible suspension for participating in last semester's protests against budget cuts, furloughs, and tuition hikes -- among them, participants in last November's occupation of Wheeler Hall and last December's Open University.

On March 14th, Greek anarchists from Athens, along with an American who has been living in Barcelona, spoke about the Greek uprising of December 2008 at the 11th annual Anarchist Theory Conference held at UC Berkeley. They addressed where the rebellion came from and where it is now. More than just presenting the story of Greece, their talk was about sharing ideas that could be useful to the social struggles in England, Barcelona, and the U.S.

On Sunday, March 28, Indybay will hold an orientation from 4-6 p.m. at Wheeler Hall Room 220 on the UC Berkeley campus. The orientation is intended to be for those interested in learning about the site and getting involved in media production and editorial work. Volunteers will demonstrate how to publish text, photos, audio, video, and much more, including how stories get made into center column features.

Chapter four of this series is Peter M’s profile of Oakland's Favianna Rodriguez. By any measure she is a successful poster artist, businesswoman and organizer. She organizes other progressive artists into projects, such as the mural that went up last year on the side of the Oakland Museum. She is a role model for up-and-coming Latina artists, proving in her life that sí se puede — yes it can be done.