Feature Archives

On February 26th at U.N. Plaza in San Francisco, a solidarity rally was held in support of the uprisings in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Morocco. The organizers wrote: "Libya is under attack by the long ruling, deranged and brutal dictator, Muammer Qaddafi. Through[out] the past few days hundreds of people have been left dead and thousands injured.... We need all our brothers and sisters from around the world to join in and let our voices be heard — Enough Is Enough."

UPDATE: On February 11th, Mubarak resigned and passed control of the country to an Egyptian military council.

A new mass protest in Egypt took place Friday, February 4th, as plain clothes police and other Mubarak supporters continued to attack protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square. In the early morning hours of February 3rd, supporters of the regime opened fire on the protesters in the square, killing at least eleven.

An international day of protest in solidarity with the Egyptian people was held February 5th. In San Francisco, thousands of protesters, including many Egyptians, gathered and marched in solidarity with the mass movement in Egypt.

In the fall of 2009, a group of war resisters and veterans from San Francisco traveled to Israel and Palestine to meet with their Israeli counterparts in an effort to strengthen connections and share experiences. The group, calling itself Dialogues Against Militarism (DAM), partnered with David Zlutnick, a Bay Area filmmaker, to ensure that the voices and stories of those they spoke with would be captured and return with them to the United States. The new documentary, Occupation Has No Future, premieres in San Francisco on February 3rd and San Rafael on February 10th.

On January 26th in Athens, Greece, an American anarchist pressed attempted murder charges against Delta and Dias motorcycle police, as well as the relevant commanding officers, for a beating she suffered while demonstrating against the IMF on November 15th, 2010. Meanwhile, now over 900 members of the American and European scholarly community, including Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, and Immanuel Wallerstein, have denounced the behavior of the Delta police towards demonstrations and specifically the beating of the American demonstrator, calling the attack on her “nearly fatal”.

Dave Id writes: My traveling partner Tangle and I had the privilege of visiting Jerusalem and Palestine in December 2010. We met many kind and courageous people in the West Bank. We witnessed the hardships Palestinians face daily under the Israeli occupation. We saw how the Israeli Defense Forces react to those who dare to stand up, even peacefully, for the rights of their families and fellow villagers. We met Israeli and international solidarity activists willing to risk arrest and injury themselves. And we documented as much as we could during our relatively brief stay in the West Bank.

In a day of protests in Egypt, hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets on January 25th, facing down riot police, water cannons, baton charges and tear gas. The people are chanting for freedom and an end to the corrupt administration of Hosni Mubarak, in power for 30 years, with the demand that he join the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali in Saudi Arabia.

On January 28th, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets again as the government cut access to internet and phone service for much of the country. By the evening, government buildings on fire and many protesters dead and wounded from tear gas canisters and live ammunition. As the army took to the street, replacing the police, and initially not attacking protesters, many thought the revolution had achieved its goal but Mubarak appeared on state television in the early evening to say he had fired the rest of the government but intended to stay in power.

On February 1st, millions took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other Egyptian cities to demand an end to the Mubarak regime. Mubarak responded that he will not run for re-election in September but demonstrators will not let him steal another rigged election for his military junta; a protest is scheduled for Friday February 4th to march on the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis and force a change in regime.

On January 29th, hundreds took to the streets in San Francisco to stand in solidarity with the protesters in Egypt.

Last week Rainforest Action Network's Change Chevron team asked people to call Chevron CEO John Watson and congratulate him for being inducted into Corporate Accountability International's Corporate Hall of Shame. The same day, Rainforest Action Network activists teamed up with the Raging Grannies, boarding a biodiesel bus to deliver an enlarged Corporate Hall of Shame certificate to Watson at his home in Lafayette, California.