Feature Archives

For over fifteen years, David Bacon has been a documentary photographer, covering labor movements, immigration, and international politics. His background as a labor organizer with UFW, UEW, ILGW, and other unions, gives Bacon a unique perspective on migration, and the struggle for worker's rights. David Bacon spoke on June 23rd in Watsonville, about his recent book, The Children of NAFTA. Read more, photos and audio

audio (mp3): David Bacon in Watsonville (30 minutes / 28 MB)

see also: Interview with Dr. Ann Lopez NAFTA and Immigration

Over the weekend of June 24th and 25th, about a dozen Santa Cruz activists busied themselves at the Live Oak Grange sorting medical supplies, soaps, books, pens, and automotive parts among other items, as part of the Pastors for Peace 2006 Cuba Friend-Shipment Caravan. This is the 17th year community members have challenged the travel ban to Cuba. Photos | Audio | Video in Fresno

George Cadman, host of "Peace Talks" on Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 fm, interviews Arty Mangan from the Santa Cruz County Genetic Engineering Subcommittee about the recent unanimous vote of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors to accept the Subcommittee recommendation of a Precautionary Moratorium on the planting and production of GE crops in Santa Cruz County (.pdf). Read more

audio (mp3): Interview with Arty Mangan (45 minutes / 21 MB)

At 8:30am Friday morning, demonstrators staged a blockade at a central Santa Cruz intersection as a gesture of solidarity with the hundreds of families who lost their land in Tuesday's forced eviction of the South Central Farm in Los Angeles. Holding signs both large and small, the 30 or so demonstrators blocked traffic at the intersection with A-frames, a stray sofa, and at least four dumpsters rolled in from nearby businesses. At about the same time that the blockade began, a 20+ foot banner was unfurled over a Hwy 1 overpass reading "Remember South Central Farm--Fuck Ralph Horowitz--Fuck LAPD--SouthCentralFarmers.com"

On June 7th, UC Santa Cruz students concerned about their missing journalism program asked questions of Bill Ladusaw, UCSC’s Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Education. Ladusaw seemed to place blame on UCSC’s faculty for the loss of the journalism program, while dodging questions about the misappropriation of funds at the administrative level.

Thomas Leavitt writes: "If you agree that we need to end the war NOW and that the Bush administration is a clear and present danger to the health and well being of the average American citizen and to liberty and freedom, then you need to join SDS and help bring the noise. Help start Students for a Democratic Society in Santa Cruz and take the anti-war movement to the next level!

Students for a Democratic Society, one of the most influential anti-war groups of the 1960s, has been re-formed, and is preparing for its first national meeting later this year.

My goal in forming the "Ohlone Chapter" is to have SDS in Santa Cruz act as a catalyst for radical, in your face protest, civil disobedience and direct actions aimed at ending the war NOW and disrupting the ability of the powers that be to further their fascist agenda of eliminating civil liberties, imposing a police surveillance state, and shredding the last strands of the safety net." Read more

ucsc student asks: "What about the current, robust, student antiwar movement that is already here in Santa Cruz county?...Is the new SDS going to repeat the problems of the old SDS...?"

[ Students For A Democratic Society | SDS Blog ]

Four inch figures representing "every person who has died in Iraq since we invaded" are on display in Watsonville as part of the Pajaro Valley Arts Council exhibit, Sculpture IS, which is showing June 2nd through July 30th. Thirty-nine regional artists are showing over seventy pieces of work ranging from installation and performance art to a variety of sculptures that are kinetic, functional, traditional and collaborative. "Counting Lives Lost, Making Tangible an Abstract Measure of Grief" was installed by a volunteer group of artists over Memorial Day weekend. Read more and view photos