Feature Archives

This quarter, Spring 2006, is Free Skool Santa Cruz's one year anniversary and the most ambitious yet. 50 different classes taught by 46 different teachers, with class sessions almost every day of the next three months.

Free Skool spring quarter runs March 1st to May 31st and offers a variety of classes in homes, community centers, and open spaces all over Santa Cruz. In spring quarter, classes include Ancient Beekeeping, Wild Foods, Religion for Radicals, Freakbikes, Nonviolent Communication, History of the Future, and Survival Gourmet. Along with classes on art, local history, music, wilderness skills, DIY medicine, movement, self-defense, cooking, and yoga.

Free Skool is a completely grassroots effort, a collection of folks acting collectively and autonomously to create a skill-sharing network, a school without institutional control. It is an opportunity to learn from others and share what you know, to help create self-reliance, vital communities, and beauty in the world. Read more

Santa Cruz, CA, February 14th, 2006: Police Auditor Bob Aaronson rejected the results of the Santa Cruz Police Department’s investigation of its own behavior in the Parade Spying Scandal. Heading the investigation into police spying was Deputy Chief Kevin Vogel who, according to public records obtained by the ACLU, was the officer who ordered the undercover infiltration. Predictably, the police cleared themselves of any wrong-doing. Additionally the report attempted to make the case that the spying, while legally questionable, was expedient and useful.

Aaronson, in a letter to Council (.pdf) circulated at Monday's Public Safety Committee meeting, said the investigation "is incomplete and flawed for a very predictable reason. It violates one of the most basic investigative precepts by having been compiled and written by the very individual whose decisions are and should be under investigative scrutiny." He went on to say, "I am surprised and disappointed that he was assigned to that task."

Details of the 600-page report , released to the public Friday, reveal a pattern of abuses, including spying on parade organizers, spying on other unrelated groups and first amendment activities, and profiling organizers and other unrelated people. Officers posing as parade planners gathered information about the planned peaceful protest against virgin forest destruction by Victoria’s Secret and relayed this information to Capitola Police. On the date of the protest, dozens of officers denied protesters entrance to the mall. Infiltrators also gathered information about Art & Revolution's “Anti-Corporate Christmas Caroling” on Pacific Ave. and monitored the group's activities at the event. Read more

Audio: FSRN: SCPD Internal Probe of Surveillance Rejected

Photos: Just Us Voicing Our Concerns to Santa Cruz's Public Safety Committee

The Santa Cruz Police Department cleared themselves of any wrongdoing in infiltrating the Last Night Santa Cruz DIY parade planning meetings, of course. Given that the investigation was lead by Deputy Chief Kevin Vogel who made the decision to infiltrate the planning meetings, this is no surprise. The 600-page report said that the police had every reason to monitor the group (or any group in the future) because they had public safety in mind. Read more

Download portions of Deputy Chief Vogel's Internal Investigation (pdf): Summary | Interviews | Reports

previous SC-IMC coverage of SCPD Spying: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

On Wednesday night, Colleges 9 and 10 organized a debate on the issue of military recruitment. William Griffin, the top dog for Army recruitment in the area, faced off against Mario Ramirez Hardy, who has been helping GIs get out of the military for over a decade, in addition to a wide array of counter-recruitment activities.

The night was very tightly controlled by Colleges 9 and 10 (c9/10) staff, headed by Wendy Baxter, and moderated by Professor Paul Roth. There were fears of protests from students, possibly by Students Against War (SAW), as military recruiters are known not to be welcome. Due to these fears, c9/10 staff taped a 'do not cross' line on the ground outside the Multi-Purpose Room, where the debate was held. Protesters and leafletters were not to cross the line. Nonetheless, important flyers found their way in the hands of almost all the student attendees. No protests were planned, as no military recruitment was to take place.

While the debate was not riddled with excitement, its existence signified the growth of UCSC's counter-recruitment movement and the prominance of the issue on campus, as the event was completely organized by college officials, not activists. It offered an opportunity for a wider audience to inform themselves on some of the issues related to military recruitment, which will hopefully transfer into more solidarity with counter-recruitment actions and campaigns in the future. It should also lead to a greater ability for student attendees (many of which were from SAW) to break down the fallacious arguments widely circulated by military recruiters - or 'salesmen' as Hardy called them. Read more

On February 7th, the UCSC Academic Senate Task Force investigating the police response to Tent University Santa Cruz (TUSC) released a 25 page draft report (pdf). On pages 3 and 4 of the report, in summarizing the background events leading up to the confrontation on April 18, 2005, it is stated that "The administration was particularly alarmed by the presence of the author/organizer David Solnit at training sessions at the Resource Center for Non-Violence," noting his association with the Seattle WTO protests.

On October 12, 2005, Josh Sonnenfeld, a student at UCSC, was invited to discuss the events surrounding TUSC with the Task Force investigating the issue. The TUSC Task Force was chaired by Professor Carolyn Martin Shaw, and included other professors, staff members, and a couple token students. During the course of this private meeting, Professor Shaw noted that UCSC’s administration had obtained information about the internal proceedings of a planning meeting/workshop for the participants of Tent University. This meeting, located off-campus at the RCNV, was not open to administrators or police, only the event participants.

When Professor Shaw was asked how they had obtained detailed information about what occurred during this meeting, she informed Josh that the University administration sent ‘someone’ for the sole purpose of documenting the meeting and passing the information on to administrators. It is not clear who this agent of the administration may have been, but it is clear that they did not identify themselves to student organizers, and thus, acted in the capacity of a spy. This information of administrative spying on student political activity is in stark contrast to Chancellor Denton’s claims that UCSC’s administration and police are not engaged in spying on students. Read more

February 13th-16th at the UCSC campus will be dedicated to raising awareness about the issues surrounding New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The event, titled "New Orleans: The American Disaster," will highlight issues regarding the various levels of institutionalized inequity exemplified by the post hurricane response. Each night will focus on making connections to the day-to-day parallels of injustice in the social makeup of America. The event will be action oriented, encouraging opportunities for community members and students to engage with activists from the Bay Area and grassroots organizers from New Orleans. [Schedule of Events]

see also: FEMA "Evicted" from Oakland on February 7th || Indybay's Health and Housing Page

El Enemigo Común (The Common Enemy) scratches beneath the surface of neoliberalism, and looks at some of the most hidden atrocities in recent North American history. The film documents instances of paramilitary activity against indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico from 2002 through 2005, and includes footage of protests in Cancun against the World Trade Organization, and in Miami against the Free Trade Area of the America's. The three locations in isolation expose the disparities in North American resistance movements, but also bring us closer to understanding the nature of an emerging common struggle.

Bouncing back and forth from community to community, El Enemigo Común is both an introduction to some of the many ignored resistances in North America, and an urgent call to action for international civil society, to stand in solidarity against state sponsored repression and for human peace, dignity and justice, in Oaxaca, Mexico. The film provides a historical context for the current violent incarnation of capitalism and empire, and provokes action against it as a common enemy. Read more

Preview: Watch the Video Trailer! || El Enemigo Común

Audio from Santa Cruz Screening: Simon speaks on El Enemigo Común || Ryan Harvey performes: COINTELPRO | Open Song to the U.S. Occupying Forces | Remember Me | Freedom | New Orleans Got Iraqed | The Plan Puebla Panama | Give It Time