Feature Archives

Over 100,000 Californians were expected to participate in Bike to Work week, which is May 15th through 19th. On Thursday, May 18th, which was Bike to Work Day (BTWD), people in some place joined together to ride to work. In cities such as San Francisco and Berkeley, local organizations sponsored energizer stations with refreshments and other bicycle-related goodies. In Modesto, riders had the option of riding with bicycle police officers (?) or riding by themselves. 511.org's Bike to Work Day

Some local events:
On Saturday, May 13th, Bike Day at the Berkeley Farmer's Market will include bicycle outreach, education and safety from 10:30am to 2:30pm.
On May 18th, BTWD in Berkeley will include energizer stations. Read more In Oakland, there will be a Bike to Work Day celebration at City Hall from 7:00am to 9:00am. More Oakland energizer stations BTWD in San Francisco included a 6pm Bike Away From Work party at 111 Minna Gallery. Energizer stations in SF Contra Costa County energizer stations The Sacramento Bike Commute Month celebration included a BikeFest on the west steps of the Capitol from 11am to 1pm.

A California Bicycling Information website recommends that people prepare themselves in advance for a bike commute. Steps to take include: planning the safest (and least traffic) route to work; informing supervisors about bike commute plans and asking where the bicycle can be parked during working hours; making sure that the bicycle is in proper working order; dressing to cycle (this includes planning to wear everything from a helmet to comfortable bicycling clothes); and inflating tires before starting the commute. Bicycle safety activists also warn that riders should stay out of the range of doors of cars that are parked along the bike route (approximately 5 feet) to avoid getting "doored." California's bike-related laws

California Bicycle Coalition | Placer County | Bike to Work Day Sacramento | Sacramento Region Bike Commute Month | Solano Napa | Sonoma County | Marin County | Oakland Bike to Work Day | Bike to Work Day in the Silicon Valley | Bike to Work Week in Santa Cruz | Bike to Work for the Monterey Bay Area | Fresno County Bicycle Coalition | Bicycling in Modesto | League of American Bicyclists CA Bike Month list | East Bay Bicycle Coalition | California Bike Commute | National Center for Bicycling and Walking

On Sunday, May 14th, from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., No New Jails brought a huge Mother’s Day card to the Century Regional Jail in Los Angeles and asked people who were waiting in line to visit loved ones in the jail to sign the card. View the card online

The card for the governor demanded that 4,500 women be released from state prison, rather than creating 4,500 new prison and jail beds. The card was in response to a bill in Sacramento that has proposed moving 4,500 women from state prison into smaller privately-run prisons, many of which will be located in Los Angeles County. The bills AB 2066 and AB 2917 target women who the system has determined do not "need" to be in prison. These measures would put the women in new “community” prisons, called “Community Corrections Facilities.” These are simply privatized prisons: new name, new cell, same cage. No New Jails' demand would reduce the women's prison population by 40%.

No New Jails wants the state to put prison funds into more programming and more services for paroled women. It says that putting women into locked “treatment centers” is not really releasing them, sending them home, or helping them to re-enter society. Read more

No New Jails is a coalition of social justice organizations. Co-sponsors of the Mother's Day event: Critical Resistance, the Labor Community Strategy Center, Global Women's Strike, Adelante!, the CSULA Peace & Justice Coalition, California Prison Moratorium Project, LACAN, the Youth Justice Coalition, United Coalition East Prevention Project, and others.

Critical Resistance's Mother's Day page | ACLU's Women in Prison Page | Women in Prison, by Marilyn Buck | Infoshop.org's The American Gulag 2004 Faultlines article about cross-gender pat searches | California NOW's Women in Prison page | Amnesty USA's women in prison page

A march in solidarity with the workers who were fired from Chevy's was held on Saturday, May 20th. People gathered at 10:00am at Dr. Powers Park in Tracy, and marched several miles to the Tri Valley Shopping Mall, the site of the Chevys. Photos

The Chevys Fresh Mex in Tracy, CA terminated eight employees because of their absence from work on Monday, May 1, after the kitchen crew had handed a signed petition to their employer indicating their desire to support the May 1st march for immigrant rights. Four additional employees have walked out of their jobs in solidarity with their fired coworkers, after their protest of the termination measure was ignored.

Other workers at the restaurant were forced to comply in labor on May 1st, regardless of their desire to participate in the May 1st march. "They all wanted to get that day off. The answer they got was, ‘You guys don’t show up, you’re fired’,” kitchen supervisor Fernando Martinez told the Tracy Press.

Gary Rickles, operations director for Calmex, Inc., is reported to have issued the order that workers marching on May 1st be terminated. Calmex, a Modesto company, owns the Chevys in Tracy, Livermore, Fresno, Clovis, and Merced, and Fuzio pasta restaurants in Fresno and Modesto. More

The National Socialist Movement (a nazi white supremacist group) planned on holding an anti-immigration rally on the west steps of the state capitol in Sacramento on Saturday, April 22nd. An anti-Nazi rally was initially broken up by State Capitol CHP after they declared the gathering to be illegal, and then detained 3 protesters, claiming they needed a permit to be on capitol grounds. A group of 6 Nazis were congregating at the south end of the capitol, and the anti-racist march made its way over. After a short standoff, the CHP were heard telling the Nazis to leave after which they left without holding their rally.

Read More Anti-Racist Announcement

On Friday, April 21st, President Bush was in San Jose (1 | 2 | 3). A protest was held outside of Cisco Systems when Bush was scheduled to appear. Toward the end of the rally, a half dozen Muslim youth gathered to pray a block from the protest zone. As the street was blocked off to traffic, the youth laid out make-shirt prayer mats in the bike lane and began their prayer ritual. Within moments, San Jose Police had them surrounded, and those that were not passive enough during questioning found themselves hand cuffed. Most were finally released at the scene of the crime after being issued tickets for jay-walking and obstructing traffic.
Audio | Photos: 1 | 2

Bush was then scheduled to meet with fellows at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, but thousands of protestors blocked the main entrance forcing him to change his plans.
Photos | Video
He spent Friday night in the Napa County town of St. Helena, where protesters lined the street.

On Saturday, Bush made a stop at the California Fuel Cell Partnership in West Sacramento to pay lip service to alternative energy.
Photos | Announcements: 1 | 2 | 3

There will be protests against Bush in the Los Angeles area Sunday and Monday: Read LA Indymedia For More

On Monday, April 10th, 2006, immigrants and their allies continued their recent historic mobilizations in cities all over the US to oppose HR 4437. They have been demanding real immigration reform that is comprehensive, respects civil rights, reunites families, protects workers, and offers a path to citizenship for the current undocumented and future immigrants to the US. In California, organizations in cities across the state showed what California would look like if immigrants did not work in positions such as dishwashers, cooks, housecleaners, nannies, gardeners, office workers, and in dozens of other jobs.
Photos: San Rafael · Oakland: 1 | 2 · Fresno 1 | 2 · San Francisco 1 | 2 · San Jose 1 | 2
Video: San Francisco · Reports: Stanford · Berkeley · San Francisco · San Jose

Read More On Indybay's South Bay, North Bay, East Bay, Peninsula, US, and Immigrant Rights News Pages

March 8th is International Women's Day (IWD). In many cities around the world, people observe a Global Women's Strike on that day. This year there were a number of Women Against War events around the US. International Women's Day is a day for women on all continents to come together to celebrate their struggle for equality, justice, peace and development

In solidarity with the European "Great Walk" of women against anti-woman laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran, there was a march at 4:00pm in Berkeley on IWD. ( Photos)

People gathered in front of the downtown Oakland military recruiting centers between 4:45 and 5:00 to vigil and distribute counter-recruitment materials. Then they marched through downtown Oakland with "Women say NO to war" and "Women say ENOUGH! BASTA!" banners, ending at the Unitarian Church for "Breaking Rank: Women of Color Soldiers Speak Out." (see 6:30pm below)
In San Francisco at 6:00pm on the USF campus, Bringing Women's Human Rights Home celebrated IWD and honor women's struggles for human rights and justice around the world.
A panel discussion entitled Voices of Middle Eastern Women was held at 6:00pm on the campus of San Jose State University. Women from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Palestine raised awareness of the status of ordinary women, the main challenges they face, and ways that women can support one another in struggles against all forms of imperialism, colonialism, and patriarchy.
At 6:30pm, Breaking Rank: Women of Color Soldiers Speak Out took place in Oakland. The Women of Color Resource Center hosted a premiere screening of “Fashion Resistance to Militarism”, a documentary that looks at the militarization of U.S. society and culture and resistance by women and communities in the U.S. Following the screening there was a panel discussion with Aimee Alison and Tina Garnanez, two women of color and Iraq War veterans who are now spokespeople against the war and militarism.
Bay Area Women in Film And TV (BAWIFT) sponsored an IWD Short Film Showcase at 7pm in San Francisco. The WIFTI Showcase screenings took place in cities around the world on the same day, as a celebration of outstanding films by international women directors encompassing a broad range of styles, visions and passions worldwide.
At 7:00pm on the UC Berkeley campus, there was a screening of "Say I Do", a documentary about Filipina mail order brides.
Battle from the Margins was a 7:00pm San Francisco screening of films created through the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project.

Read about more IWD events on Indybay's Women's News Page | Wikipedia's IWD Page | Indybay's Coverage of 2005 IWD | 2004 IWD