Feature Archives

On April 26, 2007, Danny Glover announced that he is joining with Congresswoman Barbara Lee in supporting the ongoing boycott by UC workers against UC Berkeley due to the unsolved issue of pay equity for custodians. Before the boycott began last year, custodians who clean the dorms and classrooms at UC Berkeley have been urging the Chancellor to end poverty wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute 100% of the custodians at UC Berkeley earn a wage that is below the $19.78 per hour needed to support a one parent and one child household in the East Bay.

Eric McDavid has now been in jail, pre-trial, for 15 months. He has been in Total Separation, or solitary, that entire time. Since their arrest, his co-defendants (Zachary Jenson and Lauren Weiner) have agreed to testify against him, in a case that has been based on the reports from a paid FBI informant. In contrast, Eric has stood by his principles during his incarceration - including enduring a grueling two week hunger strike to get vegan meals. A hearing in his case has been scheduled for April 16th in Sacramento. May 5th and 6th, 2007 will be a weekend of international solidarity to help raise awareness about his case, as well as funds for his legal expenses.

On Wednesday March 21st, the California Faculty Association announced that members had authorized a strike. Faculty at San Francisco State University, San Jose State University, and five other California State University (CSU) campuses could walk out of classrooms as soon as the beginning of April. In the past four years, the faculty has only received a 3.5 percent pay raise, while CSU execs have gotten in 23 percent pay hikes.

Cathy Webster, a Chico grandmother, was one of six activists who reported to prisons throughout the country on March 21st. Cathy Webster trespassed on the U.S. Army base formerly known as the School of the Americas in order to protest the teaching of counter-insurgency techniques and torture to Latin American soldiers. In the same spirit as the civil rights movement, she used non-violent civil disobedience to shine a spotlight on the teachings of the school, which was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2000.

Members of the Ghandi Peace Brigade and Code Pink have been holding vigil outside of Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco residence since March 11th demanding that the Speaker of the House stop funding the war. On March 13th, SF police ordered that Camp Pelosi tear down their tent but the activists are holding strong, refusing to leave, and they are asking others to join them. The Raggie Grannies have stepped in to offer support. A teach-in was held at 11:30am on March 14th at Pelosi's office in the SF Federal Building. On March 19th, several activists were arrested in the halls outside Pelosi's office after attempting to speak with her.

Each year, the week of the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair and the BASTARD conference of anarchist theory includes more and more events. This year, the Anarchist Bookfair took place on two days, on Saturday, March 17th from 10am to 6pm and on Sunday, March 18th from 11am to 5pm at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, near Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way. The BASTARD conference took place on Sunday, March 18th from 10am to 6pm at UC Berkeley's Dwinelle Hall.

This week organizers form the Dissent! Network in Germany will be presenting an infotour in the Bay Area to publicize the preperations to protest the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm from the 4th to the 7th of June 2007. Events are scheduled for San Francisco (Flier), Berkeley, Fresno, Santa Rosa and Sacramento.

The Infotour will include both a history of the G8 and the past resistance against the G8 in Germany.