Feature Archives

The World Health Organization officially named COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. As of that date, over 128,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide and 4,717 people have died (updated statistics). Among the most vulnerable are the elderly, the immunocompromised, the prison population, people who are experiencing homelessness, and hospital workers who have a high likelihood of exposure to the contagious virus as they care for the public health.

Mike Zint, a well-known homeless rights activist, died on February 14 after a lengthy battle with emphysema. Zint was one of the founders of First They Came for the Homeless, a drug and alcohol free homeless camp. He was well-known for his words and campaigns that sought to increase awareness about the issues that homeless individuals face. Zint was instrumental in organizing the Poor Tour, a series of encampments throughout the city of Berkeley. Friends and supporters will gather at Omni Commons in Oakland on March 13 to celebrate Zint's life, share memories and food, and watch footage of this beloved member of our community.

On March 5, UC Berkeley graduate student workers, undergraduates and faculty joined together for a work stoppage. The strike was organized by CAL COLA, an autonomous group of workers and students that began to organize in December 2019 in solidarity with the striking graduate workers at UC Santa Cruz. CAL COLA states, "If teaching is truly at the core of the UC's mission, it is high time that they start paying graduate students — who do the vast majority of teaching within the UC system — a living wage."

John Malkin speaks with Mark Hosler, founding member of Negativland, the art, music, film, activist, culture jamming collective established in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970's. Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland surreally re-arrange these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In 2004 Negativland worked with Creative Commons to write the Creative Commons Sampling License, an alternative to existing copyrights that is now widely used by many artists, writers, musicians, film makers, and websites.

On February 25, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors doomed an old-growth grove of oak trees, and an easement trail, by deciding in favor of real estate moguls Tambri Heyden and David Montalbo. Despite opposition, the developers have been given the green light to proceed in the unincorporated community of Saranap, located between Lafayette and Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County. In their way stands a grove of old-growth oak trees. Also, at issue is the possibility of Indigenous remains and cultural artifacts on the site. However, it is not too late to stop the construction if people act up and speak out.

It was 20 years ago that the Coalition for Just Cause in Oakland was formed, holding their first meeting on January 29, 2000, in the basement of the downtown Oakland Public Library. An original flyer from that meeting urged people to join the “Just Cause Coalition” in putting just cause eviction protections on the November 2000 ballot. The meeting offered a lot of hope to the coalition of members and tenants that united to protect Oakland renters from greedy landlords and the notorious “eviction for profit” system that was rampant with no-cause evictions.

In the U.S. Senate impeachment trial of Trump that concluded with an acquittal on February 5, Republicans senators refused to let people with direct knowledge of Trump's behavior testify. Trump's defense attorneys asserted that a President could do whatever benefited him personally if he thought it was in the public interest. The same day Trump was acquitted, protesters in the Bay Area and across the country hit the streets and called out the trial out as a “hoax," “sham,” and “fake," using some of Trump's favorite words to describe events that don‘t accord with his notions.