Feature Archives

On June 4th, convicted Green Scare/Operation Backfire defendant Daniel McGowan was sentenced to 7 years of prison with 3 years of supervised probation. He was the ninth of ten defendants to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken in the past two weeks. McGowan was one of only four defendants to refuse to name names and implicate others who took part in similar actions. Another non-cooperating co-defendant, Jonathan Paul, faces sentencing in the next few weeks.

The ACLU said in a press conference held in San Jose on May 30th that a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan, a subsidiary of Boeing Co., was being filed under the Alien Tort Statute, which permits aliens to bring claims in the United States for violations of the law of nations or a United States treaty. The statute recognizes international norms accepted among civilized nations that are violated by acts such as enforced disappearance, torture and other inhuman treatment.

Cindy Sheehan published an open letter on Memorial Day whereby she announced her decision to return to a non-activist life apart from the anti-war movement. Cindy Sheehan first rose to prominence in the summer of 2005 when she set up a camp outside of George Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch and held vigil in order to meet with the President and ask him what noble cause her son had died for. Since then, she has been villified by war supporters and Democrats as she continued to campaign for an end to the war.

After a brief press conference on May 22nd in front of San Francisco’s City Hall, three students embarked on a "March for Peace” yesterday with the intent of walking every step of over 3,000 miles across North America. If all goes to plan, they will arrive in Washington DC in late August.

On Thursday, May 17th, oral arguments were heard in federal court in Philadelphia on what could be the last appeal of death-row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is known as the "Voice of the Voiceless." Bay Area supporters of Mumia held rallies in San Francisco and San Jose. Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on death row in Pennsylvania for 25 years.

May 1, 2007 was the first anniversary of the Great Boycott of 2006, in which immigrants led walkouts, boycotts, and protests all over the US. Reports are in that thousands marched in Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco. In Los Angeles, police shot projectiles at a rally tens of thousands strong. Protests were also held in Berkeley, Mountain View, Davis, Fresno, Modesto, Sacramento, Salinas, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville. The ILWU reportedly stopped work in 6 west coast ports, and May 1st was also a day of nationwide student walkouts.

On Saturday, April 28th, people all over the country organized events calling for the impeachment of George Bush. On April 28th, thousands of people gathered at Ocean Beach in San Francisco to spell out the words "IMPEACH NOW!" with their bodies. CodePink then lead a 12pm march to Nancy Pelosi's house. There were also actions in Sacramento and other cities around the US that day.