Feature Archives

We are very pleased to announce that the Santa Cruz Independent Media Center's website will now be regionally integrated with Indybay.org, the website of the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center. The new website address for Santa Cruz Indymedia is Indybay.org/SantaCruz.

Together, as media activists in Central and Northern California and throughout the world, we will use the tactic of Indymedia to share news and information from within the struggles for a world based on freedom, cooperation, justice and solidarity, and against environmental degradation, neoliberal exploitation, racism and patriarchy.

All the reporters, photographers, sound recorders, videographers, organizers and activists who contribute to SC-IMC's open-publishing newswire are the heart and soul of Santa Cruz Indymedia.

Read more about Santa Cruz IMC's Regional Integration with Indybay.org || Lee más sobre Santa Cruz CMI que se esta Integrando con Indybay.org

January 19. 2006 - At approximately 12PM, hundreds of custodians (and their student supporters) at UC Santa Cruz skipped lunch to demand just wages.

The workers, part of the union AFSCME, recently found out that custodians at nearby colleges receive 14-30% more than they do, for the same (or less) work. Far from being a living wage, many UCSC custodians are working two/three jobs to make ends meet. This is at the same time that the UC system has raised student fees almost 80% over the past few years, and have given almost a billion dollars of executive perks for top UC employees, approximately the same amount of money as the student fee increases. Recently, Denice Denton, UCSC's Chancellor, claimed that Robert Dynes, the UC President, should be given an even higher salary. Dynes already makes more than $400,000 a year.

Meanwhile, the UC claims they have no money for the lowest-paid workers, academic programs, student initiated outreach and retention, and scores of other programs. It appears that there is not a lack of money, but a lack of decent priorities - not a budget crisis but a moral crisis.

The spirited rally, organized by AFSCME, with the support of the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ), is the continuation of a hard-fought struggle for the dignity of UCSC's lowest paid workers.

On January 9th, Paul Ortiz, UCSC Associate Professor of Community Studies, discussed his latest book, Emancipation Betrayed The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 at the Louden Nelson Center in downtown Santa Cruz.

The audio has been recorded in two parts. The first part is the presentation and the second part is Question and Answer.

Audio: Download the presentation (56:12 minutes / 25.8 MB) || Download the Q&A (11:22 minutes / 5.3 MB)

On January 17th, members of the Working Alliance for a Just Economy held a press conference to kick off the campaign to raise the minimum wage in the city of Santa Cruz. Campaigners will circulate petitions to city voters to place the initiative on the ballot to be voted on in November.

Speakers were introduced by MC David Sweet, board member of the Community Action Board, a non-profit organization working to abate poverty and its impact in the County of Santa Cruz.

Speakers included: Tim Fitzmaurice, John Briley, Emily Riley, Julian Posadas, Sharlene Cece, and Tony Madrigal. Tony repeats his comments in Spanish after his english comments. [more about the speakers...]

Audio: Download the mp3 (14:42 minutes / 6.7 MB)

For more info or to get involved call Nora at 359 0952.

01/10/06 - Around 100 Santa Cruzans showed up at the City Council today to demand a denouncement and investigation into the Santa Cruz Police Department's infiltration of a local group's organizing meetings.

Far from being limited to the individuals that were spied on, protesters included former mayors, the ACLU, artists, peaceniks, high school students, UCSC Students Against War members that were recently spied on by the Pentagon, and a local man who fled fascist Czechoslovakia.

Audio: Mayor Cynthia Matthews on SCPD Spying || FSRN: Irate Citizens Denounce SCPD Surveillance of Last Night Meetings

From the "Just Us" Campaign and Rally announcement:

"The Santa Cruz Police Department was discovered infiltrating and conducting undercover surveillance of two of the meetings of the organizers of the Last Night DIY Parade, which was a totally peaceful, positive, and creative event in downtown Santa Cruz on New Years Eve!!..."

"This event was organized by 'just us' - 'just us' the people who live here, work here, and try to create positive and peaceful change - if this group can be spied on, so can any of the rest of our groups."

John Malkin interviews Chris Hannah of Propagandhi on location at their Vet's Hall performance on 11-30-05 in downtown Santa Cruz.

Propagandhi is a progressive punk rock/thrash band formed in Winnipeg, Canada in 1992 by Chris Hannah, Jord Samolesky and John K. Samson.

Featuring noticable political involvement especially taking on ignored topics and standing up against human rights violations, the band's political attitude includes anti-racism, anti-imperialism, anti-fascism, anarchism and anti-capitalism. Moral and ethical attitudes include pacifism and veganism.

Audio: Download the Interview (mp3) (50:12 minutes / 46 MB)

Tune in to The Great Leap Forward every Wednesday at 7pm on Free Radio Santa Cruz 101fm.