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.

June 25 marked the sixth day in which Will Parrish has been occupying a wick drain stitcher in the Willits Bypass construction area. He is currently out of food and water but is staying strong. Resupplies have been attempted but with no results, as he is being guarded by two CHP officers at all times. Parrish has managed to stop Caltrans from working for six days and plans to be up there until they stop the project. Earth First! Humboldt reports that the community is very strong in Willits but needs more support from those who are able and willing to help.

On March 30, defenders of Little Lake Valley in Mendocino County announced the establishment of an action camp to oppose the construction of a four-lane superhighway by CalTrans through Little Lake Valley in the town of Willits. Resistance to the project has taken the form of tree sits, and on March 28, the tree-sitter known as "Warbler" embarked on a hunger strike. On April 2, the tree-sitters were forcibly removed by the California Highway Patrol, but Warbler has become an icon in the fast-growing campaign in opposition to the Caltrans Bypass project, and her hunger strike continues.

On February 15, the Pit River Tribe unanimously affirmed a resolution opposing geothermal and other industrial developments in the sacred Medicine Lake Highlands. The resolution affirms that geothermal development would threaten the underlying aquifer and would result in the injection of toxins into the atmosphere and waters.

Earth First! activists blocked a logging truck and flooded the office of Sierra Pacific's sawmill in Manila, demanding a stop to old-growth logging and massive clear-cutting planned in Humboldt County's forests. Thirty Earth First! activists protesting Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) logging practices rallied peacefully outside the gates of SPI’s Arcata mill on Monday, demanding a stop to the company’s logging of old-growth. “We’re here to expose SPI’s destructive logging” said Jeremy Jensen. “They claim to be sustainable under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative label but SPI intensively clear-cuts and logs old-growth forests all over California.”

Earth First! activists blocked a logging truck and flooded the office of Sierra Pacific's sawmill in Manila, demanding a stop to old-growth logging and massive clear-cutting planned in Humboldt County's forests. “We’re here to expose SPI’s destructive logging” said Jeremy Jensen. “They claim to be sustainable under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative label but SPI intensively clear-cuts and logs old-growth forests all over California.”

UPDATE 8/7: Ankah was bonded out of jail just before 6pm. Her friends report that she will still need continued support.

Anna Karewicz, who is known to her friends as Ankah, is a puppeteer, artist, and avid community gardener who lives in Oakland. On Thursday, August 2nd, the group with which she was bicycle touring in Northern California mistakenly rode on the wrong side of the street on a city block in Arcata. The group was stopped by police. The other riders received traffic infraction citations and were allowed to go on their way. Ankah, however, was taken into custody with an ICE hold, and she could be deported at any time. Ankah's friends are requesting that people sign an online petition and contact the Humboldt County Sheriff's department and other officials to demand that she be set free.