Feature Archives

On March 9th at Golden Gate National Recreational Area's Fort Baker in Marin County, nearly one hundred UC service workers, students and supporters from UCB, UCSF, UCSC, and UC Davis entered the hired meeting space of Blum Capital Partnership, the Cavallo Point Lodge, and picketed the street in front. Richard Blum is a UC regent and the husband of California Senator Diane Feinstein.

On March 4th, students and educational workers rose up against budget cuts, layoffs, fee hikes, and the system that prioritizes war and prisons over schools. Demonstrations took place in Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, Concord, Vallejo, Santa Cruz, Aptos, Watsonville, Monterey, Davis, Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Los Angeles, and numerous other locations across California and the U.S. Actions included rallies, marches, and occupations of buildings and freeways. One hundred and fifty-seven people were arrested at I-880, an Indybay reporter amongst them. Most were charged with unlawful assembly and obstruction of a public place (misdemeanors). All have been released by now. Arraignments for I-880 arrestees are set for April 2nd and April 5th. A local high school student, Francois Zimany, is recovering from a 25-30 foot fall off of I-880.

The first annual Earth First! California Roadshow will be traveling through the state this month to build connections between bioregions and different ecological resistance groups, and to promote the upcoming Organizers' Conference and Winter Rendezvous in Santa Barbara. About a dozen events are scheduled, including stops in Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa and Fresno.

Otis writes:,"The rally and march against police brutality on Thursday, October 22nd, in Oakland at 14th and Broadway at 12pm, must be a powerful political expression of our anger and determination to stop a system which sets the police on the people, and then defends them from punishment. First the police murder Oscar Grant in Cold Blood! Now, the the judge has agreed with the murderer's attorney, that killer-cop Johannes Mehserle cannot get a fair trial in Oakland. A screaming irony, considering the "fair trial" that Oscar received at the hands of judge-jury-executioner Mehserle." Actions will also be happening in Arcata, Eureka, and Santa Rosa.

On Friday, September 11th, activists demonstrated in front of the Staples office supplies store in on Cleveland Avenue in Santa Rosa. Staples was targeted because they have been documented using unmarked vans to deliver office supplies to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS). In recent years, HLS have been infiltrated and exposed multiple times for animal cruelty, including workers punching beagle puppies in the face. Their goal was "to show Staples that if you deal with HLS, you deal with us."

On July 17, 2009, People for Animal Liberation demonstrated in front of the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Healdsburg, California. Demonstrators held signs and banners with a variety of slogans. Street theater included one activist climbing into a guinea pig cage, from which they were pulled out of the cage and murdered.

From Death Row at San Quentin, Donald Ray Young writes: "We had strange fruit for breakfast today...a death row prisoner committed suicide at San Quentin, in East Block. But, I can’t worry about that guy....Wait; how can I not think of the suicide in this very building - - his family...loved ones? What if he was innocent? Do I know him? How many other people on death row have contemplated killing themselves to escape this madness? I believe that when one dies - - a part of all of us all dies...."