Feature Archives

On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast were shut down by the ILWU in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bay Area ILWU local was the first American union to condemn the war. In April 2003, as invading U.S. troops reached Baghdad, six longshoremen were injured and a union official was arrested as police fired on hundreds of antiwar protesters in the port of Oakland. Supporters of the ILWU meet in San Francisco at Mason and Beach at 10:30 am on May Day. There was then a march to a 12 noon rally in Justin Herman Plaza.

The Federal Communications Commisision will hold a hearing about the future of the Internet on Thursday, April 17th on the campus of Stanford University. The 12pm hearing will be preceded by entertainment from the Raging Grannies. In 2007, several organizations confirmed that Comcast, which is a giant cable company, had been secretly blocking and degrading particular applications over several months, while denying its actions publicly. "Talk Back to the FCC" speaker practice sessions are planned for cities around the Bay Area this week: Monday at 6pm in Berkeley, Tuesday at 4:30 in San Francisco, and Wednesday at 6:30 in East Palo Alto.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The court has called for a sentencing hearing that would result in either an execution or life in prison without parole; the hearing will be scheduled within 180 days. A San Francisco demonstration and press conference was held at 5:00 pm at the federal courthouse at 7th and Mission on Friday, March 28th. In Oakland, protesters gathered at 14th and Broadway from 4:30-6:30 pm on Friday. National protests are being planned for April in San Francisco and in Philadelphia.

The Army recruitment site GoArmy.com is one of the most heavily advertised web sites on the planet. It's a slick marketing effort to make enlisting look like the perfect job opportunity: a stable, safe way to make money and serve America. On March 19th, NoArmy.com was launched to present the facts missing in the Army sales pitch and show potential recruits what they can really expect if they enlist.

In 1971, Vietnam veterans held a conference that they called the Winter Soldier Investigation, to speak out about what was really going on in the Vietnam War. 37 years later, Iraq War vets held their own Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, at which US veterans testified about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The conference took place from March 13th through 16th in Washington, D.C. A group of Vietnam vets from Portland stopped in Fresno on the way to Winter Soldier. KPFA radio suspended its regular programming over several days in order to broadcast the proceedings.

On March 4th, Skidmark Bob of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101fm interviewed Lyn Gerry, host and producer of Unwelcome Guests radio program and collective member of A-Infos Radio Project. The project's goal is to support and expand the movement for democratic communications worldwide by offering an alternative to corporate media.

On February 21st, the Bush administration finalized its controversial decision to remove the Northern Rockies gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The removal of federal protections for the gray wolf puts its continued survival in the Northern Rockies at the mercy of the woefully insufficient state management plans developed by Wyoming, Idaho and—to a lesser extent—Montana. George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM interviewed Mike Leahy, Rocky Mountain Region Director for Defenders Of Wildlife, about the recent decision.