Feature Archives

On Tuesday November 4th, Barack Obama beat John McCain to become the first African-American President of the United States of America. Obama won many traditionally Republican states, including Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, Indiana and North Carolina. As Obama's win became clear, celebrations broke out around the Bay Area.

Tuesday November 4th, is election day in the United States. Most of the focus on the mainstream media has been on Obama and McCain, but several third party candidates are also running and there are many local and statewide races and propositions. In California, Proposition 8 threatens to end same sex marriage and in San Francisco, Proposition V threatens to reinstate JROTC in San Francisco schools. California state Proposition 2 will ban abuse of farm animals, while proposition 5 will change treatment of drug offenders to focus more on rehabilitation than incarceration. San Francisco Proposition K aims to reduce abuse of prostitutes through partial legalization; it would effectively cut off funding for prostitution busts, but would require the cops to pursue cases involving violent crime against sex workers.

On Friday, October 10th, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, hundreds of Filipino American students, youth and veterans and supporters held rallies in front of the Federal Building in the both cities to demand Filipino veterans rights. Justice for Filipino American Veterans calls on all Filipino American organization and mainstream allies to push for recognition, justice and equity for 18,000 remaining veterans, their widows and relatives.

The subprime mortgage crisis has combined with the deregulation of the financial systems and new financial instruments called credit default swaps to cause an international crisis in the capitalist system. As everyone tries to turn their money into cash and nobody knows which company will go under next, banks are unwilling to loan and stock markets around the world are crashing.

Marcella "Sali" Grace Eiler, a solidarity activist with the struggle in Oaxaca and Chiapas, was found dead on September 24th in a deserted cabin twenty minutes from the village of San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico. She was brutally raped and murdered. On different occasions and to different people, Sali mentioned that recently she had suffered political persecution and surveillance in Oaxaca. Many people believe that her murder is part of the widespread repression against the social movement and directed particularly at international observers.

The movie Battle in Seattle is based on real events that took place surrounding the demonstrations against the World Trade Organization Meeting in 1999. San Francisco Bay area activists were involved in the protest and contributed to the production of the film. Concerned for accurate portrayal of protesters, David Solnit worked with the film's director to give input for a more true-to-life depiction. An Indybay contributor's photos were also featured in the film.

Close friends report that the body of San Francisco activist Kirsten Brydum was found Saturday in New Orleans, where Kirsten had traveled as part of a popular education tour. Kirsten was known locally as an organizer of the monthly Really Really Free Market in Dolores Park. Kirsten's death follows closely after news of the murder of another young activist, Marcella "Sali" Grace Eiler, in Oaxaca.