Feature Archives

The Iraq Moratorium called on everyone to take some public action to stop the war on Iraq - on Friday, September 21st and every third Friday of the month from now on. In San Francisco there wereactions Friday at 1187 Franklin at 10am and at Market & Montgomery at 5pm. In San Mateo, 150 people gathered for an evening rally. In Berkeley, there was a rally at Acton and University. In Palo Alto there was a rally at Lytton Plaza. In Oakland, was a march on the docks starting from the West Oakland BART station. There were also be rallies at many other location around the Bay Area.

While asking U.S. Senator John Kerry a question during a question and answer period on September 17th following Kerry's speech at the University of Florida, Gainesville in Alachua County, student Andrew Meyer was attacked by police officers, manhandled and tasered. Videos posted on the Internet show Meyer screaming for help as he is being tasered by a police stun gun. Kerry and the majority of the audience looked on mostly in silence.

Over 60,000 people from across the country gathered in Jena, Louisiana on Thursday, September 20th, to protest the pending charges against six African American high school students. The six students were charged with felonies after a fight that started after nooses were hung outside their high school. Protests were also held in cities across the United States. At UC Berkeley, over 1,000 protesters gathered in Sproul Plaza at 12pm. In San Francisco, over 200 people rallied at Powell and Market.

On September 15th, an antiwar protest took place Washington DC to coincide with the report by General Petraeus on the "surge" in Iraq. Protests and peace rallies also took place in many cities across the United States. In Berkeley, a "Community Peace Rally and Concert" was held at People's Park starting at 1pm.

On August 16th, email alerts were circulating that Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and other governors from Mexico were visiting Mexican Consulates in Chicago on August 17th, New York City on the 18th and Dallas on the 19th to discuss migratory reform. Activists quickly organized demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca, and all of Mexico, as well as the millions of Mexican migrants living on the northern side of the US/Mexico border. Although Ruiz Ortiz failed to show up with the delegation, the protests went on. The Mexican governors were held responsible for conspiring with the US government and multinational corporations to impose a political economy which forces entire communities to migrate north in search of better lives.

On Thursday August 16, a Miami jury found Jose Padilla and two co-defendants guilty of conspiracy to commit murder in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Chechnya, as well as providing material support toward that goal. Padilla was initially accused of plotting to set off a radioactive dirty bomb inside the US and was stripped of all rights and held in extreme isolation for 43 months. Faced with a Supreme Court challenge, President Bush announced criminal charges against Padilla unrelated to the dirty bomb plot. Defense attorneys and experts say his isolation and interrogation has led to severe psychological effects.

On Friday, August 17th people who oppose the American Psychological Association (APA)'s role in the development and use of torture by the US marked the beginning of the APA's convention in San Francisco by gathering at the Stone Stage in Yerba Buena Gardens. A recently declassified August 2006 Department of Defense report confirms that psychologists were directly responsible for the development and use of techniques defined by the International Red Cross as “tantamount to torture.”