Feature Archives
Stanford: Animal Rights on the Farm, and the law school group, Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, held a series of events and protests, an annual event to highlight the suffering of animals used in research and testing. The students demands were modest: accountability for animal welfare violations, transparency of the procedures and animals used, shifting funds toward alternative models of research, and stopping some of the most gruesome experiments, such as the cocaine addiction studies on juvenile monkeys. ARF and SALDF have a new petition, urging the administration to implement some of these reforms. There were three protests, a talk on "Why Progressives should care about animal rights," and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had an animal liberation exhibit on campus.
UCSF: In Defense of Animals (IDA) joined with Vigil For Animals to protest the University of California, San Francisco's (UCSF's) use of dogs and other animals in controversial, taxpayer-funded medical experiments. These experiments include pumping hundreds of dogs' hearts to high speeds to cause heart attacks, puppies injected with drugs to cause their nerves to malfunction, monkeys having metal plates bolted onto their skulls and their eyes cut open with scalpels, monkeys restrained by the neck and waist to prevent their hands from reaching their heads for five hours a day five days a week, paralyzing infant monkeys and cats, and on and on. This past October UCSF paid one of the largest fines ever for Animal Welfare Act violations after the U.S. Department of Agriculture charged the lab with 75 counts of animal welfare violations. By educating the public and keeping pressure on the university to operate with greater transparency, the groups hope to help end what they call the pointless suffering of these exploited animals.
Stanford Events Report and Photos
UCSF Demo Report and Photos | More on UCSF's Lab
World Week for Animals in Laboratories
Past Indybay Coverage of Stanford's Animal Labs: 1 | 2
Past Indybay Coverage of UCSF's Animal Labs: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
A celebration with food and music will be followed by a panel discussion with former political prisoners about: their experiences, current political prisoners, why they are there, and what can be done. Speakers will include former political prisoners from Chile, the American Indian Movement, and the Black Panther Party, as well as an exiled pro-democracy activist from Haiti. Read more about the event
Read More | Reports From More April 10th Protests | Indybay's Immigrant Rights Page
The weekend of solidarity will include music, drama, visual arts, spoken word, poetry, photography and more. The event kicks off with a Friday evening Song, Story, and Poetry Circle and features Workshops and Presentations, a Sunday Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and a Benefit Concert Sunday evening at 7 pm. The topics of the workshops will range from graphic arts, creating bumperstickers, anti-war activism, and using humor in songs and organizing. There will also be a discussion called "New Directions for Labor." The Sunday benefit concert will raise funds for needy workers. Flyer and registration form
Photos: 1 | 2
10:20pm: Things are quieting down in Palo Alto according to reports. No arrests have been reported at this time.
9:05pm: Police pepper sprayed a woman on the sidewalk. There are 10 womyn sitting in the street (University Ave). Police are getting closer to protesters and "about to surround them," according to reports. Police declared "unlawful" assembly in a public plaza.
8:48pm: Police declared protest to be "unlawful". Caller reports police to possibly be pointing out an arrest.
8:43pm: Police on horseback, blocking protest in front of shopping district in downtown. Protesters dancing in street with a nice sound system.
8:00pm: Reports of heavy police presence, including many riot cops.
On Saturday June 25, there was an Anarchist-organized anti-war march in Palo Alto. At 7pm, several hundred people gathered at Lytton Plaza in downtown Palo Alto (University Ave. at Emerson 2 Blocks from Palo Alto Caltrain) for the start of the march.
Organizers of the event issued a statement before the march saying, "We will march against imperialist war, invasion, and occupation; against Bush and his corporate interests; against empire and against the systemic war machine. This is the new face of the anti-war movement. After a strong peak at the beginning of the invasion of Iraq and a two year ebb, the movement is again building momentum. But the movement is also growing louder, angrier, and more radical. As the occupation drags on with more and more casualties each day, popular outrage is growing, and with it popular support for the movement through which it is expressed."
Read More | Photos: 1 | Video
Anarchist Action | Event Announcements: 1 | 2 | Anarchists talk about demonstration | More Anti-war Protest Coverage