Feature Archives

Despite threatening thunderstorms, hundreds of people gathered in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza on January 20 to demand that the Obama administration provide significantly increased HUD funding in the federal budget to eradicate homelessness. Following a music filled rally in the plaza, they marched to Nancy Pelosi's office and on to Civic Center, making their way through puddles left by the recent downpours.

On December 14th, Teachers for Class War interviewed Linda Nathan. She's the author of "The Hardest Questions Aren’t on the Test: Lessons from an Innovative Urban School," about her experience as founding headmaster of Boston's only public high school for the visual and performing arts, the Boston Arts Academy.

PORTLAND — Dec 16th, 2009 — Jeff Free Luers, political prisoner and environmental activist, was released from the Columbia River Correctional Institution this morning after serving nine and a half years. Luers was originally sentenced in 2001 to twenty two years and eight months for the politically motivated arson of three SUVs at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. This sentence was deemed grossly disproportionate to the damage sustained by the car dealership and was condemned by legal professionals, human rights groups and activists worldwide. At an appeal hearing in 2007 it was ruled that Luers' original sentence was illegal, and was consequently reduced to ten years.

On December 4th, 1969, the FBI, working with the Chicago police department, assassinated the Chicago Black Panther Party Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton in his bed as he slept. Along with the murder of Mark Clark in the same apartment that night, the "raid" was one in a long line of illegal actions taken by the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO war against the social justice and anti-war movements. Fred Hampton Jr. embarked on a speaking tour to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of his father.

On December 1st, Jesse James Forrey, who served two and a half months in a Ramsey County, Minnesota jail for "damage to property" during the 2008 RNC in St. Paul, was released. Jesse and his co-defendant have a court date on Thursday, December 10th concerning restitution, and they still need financial support.

G. Melesaine writes: "When I saw the trailer for the new film 'Precious' I cried. This film made me think a lot about an old life I was too familiar with. It made me think about a lot of women that I am close to. It made me think about my sister in her Tenderloin days, about that loud funny girl in class that smacked her gum too loud, about that girl in West Point who had AIDS and everyone stayed away from her, about that girl walking up and down Folsom pretending she has somewhere to go, about that teacher I use to have a crush on in middle school, about women. 'Precious' women. This was their story."

Lynne Stewart, the much admired civil rights attorney who is struggling with cancer, has had her bail revoked, and she is now being held in jail after a Federal Court ruled on her appeal November 17th. On November 23rd, demonstrators in San Francisco protested against the ruling.