On November 3rd, approximately 5000 people gathered in San Francisco to protest the war in Iraq. The march, organized by Not In Our Name, went from Powell and Market to 24th St. and Mission. While there were many groups within the march the loudest and most organized was the Anti-imperialist Contingent initiated by SIAFU, Global Intifada and the Heads Up Collective.
The Anti-imperialist Contingent, led by people of color and immigrants, had a brief rally in front of the Mission Police Station where speakers accused the SF police of collaborating with the INS and violating San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city.
At the end of the March a group of 150 people burned an effigy of Bush and US flags. The group continued to march north on Mission St., breaking windows of Bank of America and Wells Fargo while throwing newspaper boxes and urban debris into the street. After being briefly detained between 20th and 19th streets the SFPD allowed the group to continue until 6th St. and Market St. where a mass arrest of 45 people took place, they are all being charged with unlawful assembly.
Breaking News from the March | Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Video

Other Nov. 3rd Actions: Portland, San Diego, Washington DC

Supporters, family and friends of Cammerin Boyd will gather at 4:45pm on Friday, Nov. 5th at Larch Way and Laguna St. (between Eddy and Turk) for a 6-month anniversary vigil and march on City Hall from the site of Cammerin's murder at the hands of the San Francisco police. The Police Commission has chastised police officials for comments police made after officers shot Cammerin to death. Concerns have been raised that police cast the shooting as "justified" when investigations had hardly even begun. Police intimidation, apartheid in the activist community, demoralizing neighborhood rivalries and negative mainstream media sensationalism have all worked to cover-up a racist display of deadly force. Announcement | Background | Full story

11/3/2004: John Kerry, in his 11am speech today, conceded defeat in the Presidential race-- before the provisional ballots in Ohio had all been counted. Bush gave his acceptance speech at 12pm. Aside from planned actions, people are assessing "what went wrong," as a seemingly unprecedented in size progressive voter mobilization was met by an apparently stronger conservative voter movement and turnout. One Indybay reader's assessment Protests planned for today continued, in spite of a rainy afternoon in San Francisco and the East Bay.

Statewide Propositions: In California, Measure 66, which would have limited the three strikes law, was not voted in, although it had appeared to be approved in the evening of November 2nd. Statement by author of Prop 66. Measure 69, which would collect DNA samples from all felons, and from adults and juveniles arrested for or charged with specified crimes, and put that information into a statewide database, was approved by the voters.

Locally, medical marijuana was an important issue: measure Z in Oakland was passed and the result for Measure R in Berkeley is apparently going to depend on the absentee ballots. Read more Measure Q, which would have decriminalized prostitution in Berkeley, did not win. Oakland's Measure Y, in spite of months of people mobilizing against more money for police, was passed, perhaps in part due to a bus stop adveritising campaign. SF Supervisor Candidate Robert Haaland won national attention because he was one of several transgender candidates He was the runner-up after Ross Mirkarimi in SF's District 5 contest. Marin County voted to ban genetically-engineered crops.

In Oregon, voters rejected a medical marijuana initiative. Anti-gay marriage amendments passed in 11 states.
More local and national election results on Indybay's Government and Elections Page.

A nationwide Beyond Voting movement, sponsored by a broad coalition of anti-war/anti-empire/global justice organizations, held street demonstrations in over 20 cities on Wednesday, Nov. 3, the day after the election. In publicity materials, they said, "No matter who wins, the world needs to hear that the people of the U.S. demand fundamental social, economic, and political change."

A new affinity group called Code Blue, formed by members of the Bay Area Radical Health Collective, organized a Healthcare Not Warfare rally at 9 a.m. at Justin Herman Plaza, followed by a march through the Tenderloin and a 12 noon convergence at the Federal Building. Reports and Photos Not in Our Name and other groups held an Anti-War March and Rally to End the Occupation, gathering at 5 p.m. at Powell & Market and marching to 24th & Mission. Poetic Report | Photos | Audio | Text of breaking news from the demo

Code Red events took place all day in Santa Rosa. There was also an action in Sacramento. Report . At the College of Marin, a Victory Celebration was called for, no matter who won the election. A protest against the 9-11 cover-up was held: Report. United for Peace organized an Urgent Response Network of people who have pledged, "No Stolen Election!" and will protest election fraud, "if needed." More actions from Indyvoter's This Time We're Watching: November 3rd Actions in San Jose, Santa Cruz, and Davis. A World Party was called for 6pm in cities all over the country, including in SF at Justin Herman Plaza. United for Peace and Justice had an extensive national list of actions on its website, including events in such cities as Livermore. More Government and Elections News

The National HipHop Political Convention was held in Newark, New Jersey in June, and it came out with a 5-point agenda: Education, Economic Justice, Criminal Justice, Health Care, and Human Rights (plus amendments). The Bay Area Local Organizing Committee (BayLOC) came out of the Convention and planned events here in the Bay. BayLOC called for a demonstration at 12 noon on 11/2 to "Get Hype and Vote." Photos: 1 2 State of Emergency: the SF Bay Hip Hop Summit was held at Laney College in Oakland on October 3rd. The San Jose Hip Hop Coup sponsored “Beyond the Elements: Reconnecting Hip Hop and Social Change” on Saturday, October 2nd at the San Jose State University Union, and continues to organize events in San Jose. Both groups had recommendations for how to vote on propositions on their websites. Read more

Voters in Oakland and Berkeley will have the opportunity to decide issues related to medical cannabis in their communities, including law enforcement and the licensing or permitting of cannabis dispensaries. Read more The FBI reports that marijuana arrests last year reached a record high, with pot smokers arrested once every 42 seconds in the U.S. Read more And, results of a Spanish clinical study published in the U.S. suggest that THC inhibits brain cancer in humans, and could be useful in treatment. Read more

With 100,000 dead in Iraq and counting, US-supported death squads in Haiti, two zombies standing in as front-runners for the corporate elite, and election fraud running rampant across the country, Nov. 2 this year will truly be a Day of the Dead. On the home front, unreliable and unverifiable electronic voting equipment will be used in Alameda, Santa Clara and eight other counties, although this time around voters will have the "paper or plastic" option. Oakland is organizing against Measure Y; the re-trial of the Oakland Riders police gang finally resumed on Nov. 1 at 9:30 a.m. Berkeley's Measure Q seeks to decriminalize prostitution. San Francisco takes a stand against the occupation of Iraq with Measure N. Fresno's Measure Z would privatize the city's Roeding Park. Meanwhile hundreds of Bay Area volunteers have mobilized to monitor the election nationwide. Dozens of anti-war protests have been called across the country for Wednesday, Nov. 3 (needless to say, no matter who claims victory), including morning and evening marches in San Francisco.

On Oct. 31, Halloween in the Castro—which used to be the place for a great time independent of regulation by the City—was brought to you by Clear Channel and other corporate sponsors. In support of locked-out hotel workers, a trick-or-treat flying picket took off from Powell & Geary at 7 p.m. on Halloween.

Education Not Incarceration and other community groups and unions in Oakland have mobilized to defeat Measure Y, a ballot measure that puts funding police—in the form of 63 more cops—ahead of violence prevention, recreation and youth programs. Measure Y seeks to raise $19.9 million per year from a regressive property tax that will place the most burden on renters and small property owners. Education Not Incarceration believes that Measure Y includes no workable plan for “violence prevention,” and that Oakland needs a carefully designed initiative supporting social programs that are proven to work. Volunteers walked precincts, phone-banked and held up signs at major intersections, such as on November 2nd. A victory party will be held 11/2 at 8pm. More upcoming events Read more about Measure Y

Flying Picket: 11/07 at 7 p.m., Powell & Geary
The hotel employers skipped another meeting with the Board of Supervisors and turned down Mayor Newsom's proposal for a cooling-off period, prompting even Mayor Newsom, who still says he's not taking sides in the dispute, to join the picket lines and call for a boycott of the hotel management. Workers from other unions have been coming out to join the picket lines in solidarity, and flying pickets have visited as many hotels as possible every Sunday evening. On 10/29, solidarity began to go nationwide, with picket lines forming in Hawaii. The Halloween Critical Mass on 10/29 toured the locked-out hotels (Photos). The 11/03 Healthcare Not Warfare action visited several of the hotel picket lines during its march from Justin Herman Plaza to the Federal Building.

4,000 hotel workers are locked-out of the Argent Hotel, Crowne Plaza Union Square, Fairmont San Francisco, Four Seasons San Francisco, Grand Hyatt, Hilton San Francisco, Holiday Inn Civic Center, Holiday Inn Express (FW), Holiday Inn Fisherman's Wharf, Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Mark Hopkins InterContinental, Omni San Francisco Hotel, Sheraton Palace Hotel, and Westin St. Francis hotels. UNITE HERE Local 2 is negotiating to maintain fair wages, pensions, and comprehensive health care for workers and their families. Labor page