Feature Archives

On February 21st, Critical Resistance presented Gender, Health Care and the Prison Industrial Complex, at the Louden Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz. This forum was the second in a series of monthly events that focus on different aspects of the prison industrial complex. The evening featured speakers from Justice Now, Critical Resistance and Santa Cruz AIDS Project.

On January 30th, Elik Elhanan and Bassam Aramin spoke to a crowd of about 80 people in the basement of the Vets Hall in Santa Cruz. They are both members of Combatants for Peace, an Israeli/Palestinian organization made up of former fighters that attempts to now use their experiences to bridge gaps in peoples' understanding of the conflict and work for nonviolent, just, and viable solutions to the conflict.

On February 4th, lawyers representing Jennifer Charles requested that the University of California's lawsuit attempting to stifle her free speech be dismissed. Charles, a UC Santa Cruz alumnus, has been acting as the media contact for tree sitters at UCSC protesting the University's plan to destroy 120 acres of forest. The tree sitters have been protecting groves of redwoods since November 7th, when hundreds of people rallied in opposition to the increased University construction.

GARDINER, MONTANA - Yellowstone National Park officials captured 53 wild American bison on February 8th inside the Stephens Creek bison trap located within Yellowstone National Park's borders. The captured bison are members of the last wild, genetically intact population existing in the United States, and number fewer than 4,600. Most, if not all, will be sent to slaughter without being tested for brucellosis antibodies.

Corpy pregunta, "¿Por que no tenemos una pagina en Indybay para representar la comunidad de Watsonville? Watsonville es una ciudad con población igual de Santa Cruz. ¡Hay muchas personas aqui que quieren participar en hacer las noticias!"

The 7th annual Campus Earth Summit was held on January 31st at UC Santa Cruz. The well-attended event was organized by the Student Environmental Center and the Sustainability Office at UCSC and featured local speakers, a 'low carbon' lunch sourced from local organic farms, workshops on reducing 'carbon footprints' and conversations about environmental sustainability at UCSC. The summit was held in conjunction with Focus the Nation, a nationwide climate change teach-in happening simultaneously at over 1,000 colleges and universities across the USA.

Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman spoke about "Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer Networks" on February 4th at Cabrillo College in Aptos. “Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press," Stallman said. "But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it... if we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright—to promote progress, for the benefit of the public—then we must make changes in the other direction."