Feature Archives

Somatherapy was developed by by Brazilian torture survivor Roberto Freire. It incorporates the ideas of Wilhelm Reich, the politics of anarchism, and the culture of capoeira angola, and it is used by therapists organized in anarchist collectives to fight the psychological effects of authoritarianism. Nick Cooper of Houston Indymedia travelled to Brazil to learn more about somatherapy. Soma: an anarchist therapy, the documentary that Nick made, was screened several times in the Bay Area in August.

Parts of California's Central Valley endured 10 days or more in a row of temperatures in excess of 100 degrees in mid-July. Some 100 people perished in the heat, the majority of them senior citizens whose bodies don't cool themselves as well as younger people. Thousands of animals died on farms: over a million "pounds" of poultry, and thousands of cows, primarily dairy cows. Extra-hot temperatures, growth in the state's $5 billion dairy industry, and fewer rendering plants to dispose of the animals combined to cause a crisis for farmers in the state.

On July 27th, the ACLU Northern California released a new report, called State of Surveillance: Government Monitoring of Political Activity in Northern and Central California. It exposes the fact that federal, state and local agencies have infiltrated or monitored political activities of people all over Central and Northern California, supposedly due to threats of "terrorism." From the stories of grandmothers opposing the war in Iraq to anti-war protestors at the Port of Oakland, the 35-page report tells the stories of individuals and groups that were targets of government surveillance because of their political activity.

LOS ANGELES, July 26, 2006 - Judge Helen Bendix rejected all the farmer’s claims in the case South Central Farmers vs. Ralph Horowitz and the City of Los Angeles today. Attorneys for the farmers say they will appeal the decision to the appellate court. The verdict does not come as unexpected, Judge Bendix has ruled against the farmers in the past only to be overturned in appeal.

As part of a "National Week of Action to Stop threats from Bush's National Labor Board on Our Right to Organize," the California Nurses Association marched outside of the Federal Building in downtown Oakland on July 11th. The National Labor Relations Board will rule this summer on cases that could strip hundreds of thousands of workers of their rights under federal labor law. At issue is a revised definition of 'supervisor' which could potentially affect workers in a wide range of industries, including health care, building and construction, energy, broadcast and port shipping, and make them ineligible for union representation.
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On Monday, July 10th, the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco heard oral arguments in Woo v. California and five other cases that will decide whether excluding same-sex couples from marriage violates the California Constitution. Last spring, a San Francisco Superior Court Judgeheld that California's exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage discriminates on the basis of sex and violates the fundamental right to marry under the California Constitution. A decision from the Court of Appeal is expected to come in October.

On July 6th, federal agents from the DEA raided as many as 13 medical marijuana dispensaries in the San Diego area. At least two dispensary operators were arrested. This DEA action follows raids on 13 area dispensaries, all of which were also targets of raids last December. Corporate media has reported that the District Attorney’s office will be filing state charges, though the indictments are federal.