Feature Archives

The 14-acre South Central Farm was raided early in the morning of June 13th. The police arrested some 40 supporters of the garden, and bulldozed fences and trees.

The South Central Community Farm in Los Angeles had been under consistent attack from the City of LA since the beginning of March. The week before the eviction, the farmers had reported that they had raised enough money to purchase the property.

Photos | Audio 1 | 2

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