Feature Archives

On February 11th, more than two hundred participants of the Longest Walk 2 embarked on a five-month journey on foot from San Francisco. They plan on arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008. Native American tribal leaders, religious groups, environmentalists, teachers, students, and people from throughout the world are joining the walk with its "peaceful and spiritual call to action to protect Mother Earth and defend human rights."

On Wednesday, February 14th, the California Food and Justice Coalition will hold a 12pm "Speak-Out and Eat-In for a Fair and Healthy Farm Bill" at the UN Plaza Farmers Market, near Nancy Pelosi's office. Participants will urge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to "have a heart" and support a Fair and Healthy Food and Farm Bill, one that "stops subsidizing corporate agribusiness at the expense of public health and instead invests our tax dollars into creating a sustainable, healthy, community-driven and just food system." After the speakout, participants will walk to Nancy Pelosi's office to deliver their message.

On January 20th, Retired Army Col. and US diplomat Ann Wright spoke in Santa Cruz to an audience of about 70 people about her new book "Dissent: Voices of Conscience". The book profiles government officials whose loyalty to the Constitution and the American people ultimately transcended partisan politics. The afternoon opened with songs from the Raging Grannies, and an introduction by Santa Cruz County Supervisor Neal Coonerty and Diane Rejman of the GI Rights Hotline.

On Friday, January 25th at 12pm, Bay Area military veterans, peace and justice activists, Raging Grannies, and military families convened outside the Canadian Consulate in San Francisco (580 California Street) for a vigil and press conference leading up to a 1pm delegation. The delegation presented consulate officials with thousands of letters signed by people in United States in support of sanctuary for U.S. war resisters in Canada as part of Courage to Resist's "Dear Canada: Let Them Stay" campaign. Similar delegations took place Friday at consulates in Washington DC, LA, NYC, Dallas, Seattle, and Minneapolis.

Friday January 11th 2008, was the six year anniversary of when the first hooded, shackled men were brought to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. On Friday night, Bay Area activists staged a solemn candlelight march through downtown San Francisco to demand that the U.S. government shut down the detention camp, end indefinite detention, stop waterboarding and all other forms of torture, and repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

The Justice Department and the Central Intelligence Agency have launched a joint probe into the CIA's destruction of at least two videotapes documenting prisoner interrogations at a secret CIA prison. One of the tapes may have shown CIA agents waterboarding the Al Qaida operative Abu Zubaydah. The CIA withheld the tapes from the 9/11 Commission despite repeated requests for information on interrogations directed to top CIA and White House officials.

Lakota Sioux Indian representatives declared sovereign nation status on Wednesday, December 19th in Washington D.C. following Monday’s withdrawal from all previously signed treaties with the United States Government. The withdrawal, hand delivered to Daniel Turner, Deputy Director of Public Liaison at the State Department, immediately and irrevocably ends all agreements between the Lakota Sioux Nation of Indians and the United States Government outlined in the 1851 and 1868 Treaties at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.