Feature Archives

Free Radio Santa Cruz interview with Katya Komisaruk, lawyer and author of Beat The Heat How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement. FRSC's Skidmark Bob and Katya talk about different types of law enforcement encounters, police contacts, how to assert your rights, minors' rights, infiltration of activist groups and grand juries. Read more

audio (mp3): Interview with Katya Komisaruk (45:28 minutes)

more information: Just Cause Law Collective || FBI Witch Hunt || EcoPrisoners.org || Green Scare on Portland IMC and WikiPedia

[ Sus Derechos Durante un Encuentro con la Policía || Rights During a Police Encounter ]

Interview with Nora Hochman and Victor Medina from the Working Alliance for a Just Economy (WAJE) as the group turned over thousands of signatures at City Hall to be verified in the ballot initiative process. If enough signatures qualify, the minimum wage hike will go before the voters in November.

Entrevista con Nora Hochman y Victor Medina de la Alianza Trabajando por una Economia Justa (WAJE, por las siglas en ingles). El grupo llevo miles de firmas en la Municipalidad para que las puedan verificar en el proceso de votación. Si tengan bastante, la aumentación del salario minimo será en frente del público en Noviembre.

Audio (mp3): Interview with Nora Hochman and Victor Medina

The 5th annual Reel Work May Day Labor Film Festival is jam packed this year with sixteen different events starting April 20th, and ending May 1st, International Workers' Day. From its inception, Reel Work has brought together award-winning documentary film producers, workers, activists, students and the public with the goal of increasing community awareness of the central role of work in our lives, to discuss economic and global justice issues and to bring alive the history and culture of the labor movement in the US and abroad. Admission to the film showings will continue to be by voluntary donation. Read more and view the schedule

The 6th annual Youth And Power 2006, put together by the Watsonville Brown Berets, was a great success. It attracted youth from Watsonville, San Jose, Salinas, Santa Cruz, Aptos, the Bay Area, as well as L.A. and other locations. "Brown And Black Power" was the theme of this years event. Youth were educated about issues that affect us as a community and the social justice movement as well as entertained with great performers and special guests. The vets hall was full to its capacity, it was peaceful throughout the night and seeds were planted in young minds, the future soldiers of the movement. Read more and view photos

Photos: Heads Spin at Youth and Power 2006
Videos: Immortal Technique at Youth and Power 2006
download the videos: The "Invasion Tour" || Point of No Return || Fourth Branch || Peruvian Cocaine || History of Our People || Bin Laden || DJ GI Joe || Harlem Streets || Here Forever

see also: An Open Letter to the Hip Hop Community on Immigration || Fighting the Power - Meet the Brown Berets

A crowd of Demonstrators marched through the streets of Hollister on Monday, April 11th in response to the new legislation that is being passed in the federal government. The crowd numbered 200+ people marching for a mile through town picking up momentum and people as they marched through the street to the Veterans Memorial Building in downtown Hollister. All of the speakers spoke about how they, their friends, and family members would like to be treated with dignity for the vital jobs that they do from working in the fields, working in restaurants, as well as the hospitality business. The last speaker at the protest stated that MAY 1st will be a day of action for the immigrants across the country to stay home from work and demonstrate how the United States would run without the labor of “Illegal” Immigrants. Read more

see also: Millions March on "Day Without an Immigrant" on Indybay's Immigrant Rights page

Werkshop Museum has been open since October 2005. In January 2006 they acquired an adjacent space (the Galley) with a music room/show space and a d.i.y. art gallery to raise funds to support the project. They host a variety of regular freeskool classes and have a permanent collection of local artwork, a cache of creative materials, and an infoshop with radical literature. The Playing in Sand Collectiv is happy to bring collective creative spaces to the community, but PiSC also needs the community's support to keep them open and functioning. Read more

see also: Werkshop Museum art space - May '06 Calendar and Information

Derrick Jensen spoke at the Vet's Hall in downtown Santa Cruz on March 29th, 2006, as a benefit for the legal fees of EcoPrisoners arrested in the recent 'Green Scare'. Jensen emphasizes the hate, dishonesty, and destructiveness in contemporary industrialized culture. He argues that this culture will soon collapse because of the damage being done to the planet.

Jensen proposes that a different way of life is possible, and it can be seen in many past societies including many Native American cultures. This different way of life is characterized by honesty, appreciation of beauty, and connection with the natural world. Politically Jensen's work is in favor of a revolution in values, the self, and society. His ideas are often in line with eco-anarchism, anarcho-primitivism and neo-Tribalism. Read more

Audio (mp3): Part 1 and Part 2