Feature Archives

A sticker carrying imagery encouraging violence against houseless people and drug addicted people was recently found on a crosswalk button in downtown Santa Cruz. The sticker reads "Street Cleaner: Santa Cruz Meth Head Cleansing Project – Santa Cruz" and is marked with the hashtag #131stickers. It depicts a silhouette of a skinny person wearing a backpack, with a cigarette in their mouth, an open hand stretched out, and a “Tweaker” flag hanging out of the backpack. Laid over the image of this person are the crosshairs of a telescopic rifle sight.

Uncolonized is a short documentary film about a native family who decided they would never enroll their two daughters in the public school system, choosing instead to homeschool them from birth. Chris is Potawatomi and Chasity is Navajo. Their daughters carry both of their parents' lineages in their blood, but also in their way of being. The film takes a critical look at the historical experiences of native children inside of the U.S. public education system and brings clarity to the decisions of the family to keep their daughters out of the public school system.

Defend J20 Resistance writes: On January 20, 2017 at the massive protests in Washington DC against Trump’s inauguration, militarized police attacked and mass-arrested over 200 protestors, charging 214 of them with an unprecedented eight felonies. The first trial against 6 defendants ended with a verdict of not guilty on all charges. In this touring presentation, you'll hear an overview and critical analysis of the case this far, highlighting its role and significance in the changing landscape of political repression in the United States.

Hundreds of immigrant rights activists, including many students, unionists, and other allies, surrounded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in San Francisco to disrupt ICE's daily patterns of mistreatment and dehumanization. Increased ICE activity has been reported throughout the Bay Area, the Central Coast, and in the Central Valley. Reports from rapid response networks confirm that ICE agents have recently arrested hundreds of people in cities including Monterey, Oakland, Fresno, Napa, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and Salinas.

Bob M writes: In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, the high school students at that school and across the country are calling for a walkout on March 24 and again on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting in 1999. The students are calling for national leaders to listen to them, but as of yet they do not have demands other than getting AR-15s "out of the hands of people who should not have them." Many radicals still hold strong to the important point that de-arming must start with the cops and military, and not take away self-defense from oppressed communities.

Maria Anderson is one of many tenants facing eviction from eight units in two apartment buildings at 2661 and 2651 Fresno Street in Capitola. The buildings were sold to a house flipper registered in Morgan Hill. The buyer — Charity Homes, LLC — is owned by John Francisco Paiva who, according to a 2014 press release from the San Jose Real Estate Investment Club, is a former executive with Cisco Systems and has acted as the full time president of Charity Rehabbers, LLC since 2013. Soon after the purchase cleared, each apartment in the two buildings received 60-day eviction notices.

The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty released a report, Tent City USA: The Growth of America’s Homeless Encampments and How Communities are Responding, reviewing the rapid growth of homeless people living in tents across the United States over the past decade, as measured by documentation in media reports. Research showed a 1,342 percent increase in homeless encampments reported between 2007 and 2017, with at least one encampment reported in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. As encampments become increasingly common, local governments have enacted laws to prohibit living in tents.