Feature Archives

On July 1st, Starbucks announced that it will be closing 600 stores. Starbucks has been expanding for the past two decades and in many cases bought out other chains resulting in stores located within blocks or even on the same block as each other. Consumers in San Francico and New York have been vocal about the urban blight created by a Starbucks on every corner. The IWW Starbucks Workers Union responded to the closures saying they are deeply troubled that management's numerous missteps are resulting in more serious hardships for baristas, bussers, and shift supervisors. Starbucks has a history of anti-union activity and the IWW held a global day of action against Starbucks on July 5th.

On June 6, responding to an ACLU report on recruiter abuses, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a report urging the U.S. to make sweeping policy changes regarding domestic military recruitment practices. Although the U.S. signed the UN's Optional Protocol on the involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in 2002, military recruiters still target children under 18 years of age for enlistment with techniques that include false promises and coercion.

In August 2006, seven African American lesbians were walking down the street in the West Village, when a male bystander assaulted them with sexist and homophobic comments. The women tried to defend themselves, and a fight broke out. The women were arrested and three of them accepted plea offers while the other four received sentences of up to 11 years in prison.

On Monday, June 23, 2008, Terrain Dandridge’s case was overturned, all her charges were dropped and her record was cleared. Terrain Dandridge and her mother meet with Angela Davis at the San Francisco Women’s Building for a public event Tuesday, June 24th to discuss the experiences of violence faced by queer people of color.

Indymedia Newsreal, a monthly television series, brings progressive grassroots organizing, going on in your backyard, to a national television audience. Newsreal is a longstanding collaboration between the Independent Media Center and Free Speech TV. It is shown on Free Speech TV every first Thursday at 5pm PST and sent on disc to community screening groups who show it during public screenings or include it on public access shows.

Skidmark Bob of Free Radio Santa Cruz interviewed media analyst John Anderson about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to be discussed at the G8 summit in Japan and H.R. 4279, the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO IP) Act of 2007. Although ACTA's title might suggest that the agreement deals only with counterfeit physical goods (such as medicines), what little information has been made available publicly by negotiating governments about the content of the treaty makes it clear that it will have a far broader scope, and in particular, will deal with tools targeting "Internet distribution and information technology." The PRO IP Act proposes to make substantial changes to federal copyright law, including the appointment of a copyright Czar.

A traveler who spends most of his time in SF and NY is being held at the Northwest ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. He is known locally from Food Not Bombs, Homes Not Jails, and various tenants' rights, homeless rights, bike rights and animal rights activities among other things. He was arrested at the end of May for trespassing to watch the sunset from a roof of a building in Seattle and spent some time in county jail. An ICE raid took place at the jail and he was transported to the Northwest Detention Center because his citizenship status is in question.

The community of Felton prevailed in its six-year fight to acquire its water system from California-American Water (Cal-Am), a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation RWE. Cal-Am and the San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD) announced a purchase agreement on May 30th, less than a week before the planned start of an eminent domain trial where a jury would have set the value of the water system. “This win, combined with the failure of RWE to efficiently and affordably deliver water to the residents of Felton is yet another example of why water utilities should be managed by the public," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch.