12/9/2004: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed on December 10th, 1948, and its anniversary is observed every year on or about that date. A perusal of Kofi Annan's most recent press briefing indicates that the world is far from accomplishing many of the goals set out in the Declaration, as territorial, resource, gender/sexuality and other political wars continue worldwide.
On Friday December 10th there were events in Berkeley, Oakland, Fresno and Merced.
On Saturday 12/11, a Stop Violence Against Women Walk left from Amnesty International's Western Regional Office at 10am. It visited four consular offices in San Francisco to share concerns about the growing violence and discrimination against women in those countries. SF Women in Black was in Union Square at 1pm.
December 3rd-10th was also a national "The War Must Stop Now" Week of Actions.
Photos | Video | Read More On The Anti-War Page

Since early July of 2004, 210 Stockton owner-operator truckers working out on the rails and ports in Stockton have unionized with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and won several victories. Today, 20 workers for the Kach Trucking Company went on strike as well. Harjit, a IWW organizer from the bay area, commented that, "One worker estimated that they are losing over $1,000 a month", and that's $1,000 that is going straight into the company's pockets. Workers are being swindled out of over time pay, being forced into making extra trips that are not paid for, and also having to cover tire, fuel, and other costs themselves. Read more | Labor news

Chapela's last class was on 12/09/2004: Photos

After a controversial tenure process Ignacio Chapela, the professor at UC Berkeley who sharply criticized the "public" university's $25 million deal with pharmaceutical giant Novartis, has been denied tenure. Chapela's 2001 discovery provided evidence of transgenic contamination that threatens the biodiversity of our planet and the safety of our food supply.

Read more on the Education page

For more than sixty years, Bayview Hunters Point and Potrero Hill have suffered the ill effects of pollution from two of the oldest power plants in the state. Residents of Southeast San Francisco are hospitalized for asthma, cognitive heart failure, hypertension, diabetes, and emphysema at three times the statewide average.

Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell announced on Nov 8th that a deal had allegedly been reached with the California “Independent System Operator” to close the PG&E; Hunters Point power plant and Mirant’s Potrero plant. In fact, there is no such agreement, no date, no contract, nothing binding whatsoever.

Residents and community groups are calling for the shutdown of the PG&E; power plant in Bay View Hunters Point now. There was e a demonstration at the front gate of the PG&E; plant on Wednesday December 8th, 2004 at 12 Noon.
Read more on the Environment Page.

Nancy Rutherford is a licensed vocational nurse who worked dispensing medication to prisoners in the San Jose Main Jail. As she is a naturally empathetic person, she was criticized for not being callous enough with the prisoners. She has said there was little oversight of conditions for prisoners, and that mentally ill prisoners faced extraordinary difficulties in the jail environment. Unable to bear the brutality in the Jail and under pressure from corrections officers, she left her job after two months. She has now become an activist for the rights of the mentally ill. In this exclusive interview, Ms. Rutherford spoke with Indymedia reporter Peter Maiden. Read more

The administrator appointed to run Oakland's schools when the state took over the district has called for the closure of five more schools in lower-income neighborhoods. The proposal by state administrator Randy Ward comes three months after the district shut five other elementary schools. According to the state administrator's office, a decision on the latest proposed school closures will be made at the Dec. 15th board meeting. More on the Education page | Download the plan

12/05: Hundreds of locked out registered nurses and caregivers marched onto hospital property at the Sutter Solano Medical Center in Vallejo and picketed on the last day of the lockout.

Around 7,000 nurses and hospital workers have been locked out of 13 of Sutter's hospitals in the Bay Area for five days, following a one-day strike. Caregivers and other workers say Sutter is putting CEO pay before patient care. On Dec. 3, SEIU 250 filed suit in San Francisco superior court against Sutter Health and the strike-breaking firm Modern Industrial Services (MIS), "America's leader in strike re-staffing," for alleged violations of criminal and civil codes. The California Nurses Association (CNA) filed an unfair labor practice charge against Alta Bates Summit, citing the lockout as "illegal." Full story on the Labor page

The Borderland Film/Arts Festival began on Nov. 29 with a series of interventions in San Francisco, and opened on Dec. 2 with a film festival, gallery reception and live radio broadcast. The Borderland Collective has gathered a diverse range of multi-disciplinary artists and participants to "share an understanding of both the physical Mexico/U.S border and the more implicit socially constructed borders that surround us all." More on the Arts and Action page

12/3/2004 An Elk Grove man died in November in a confrontation with Sacramento County sheriff's deputies after officers used pepper spray and shot him twice with 50,000-volt Taser stun guns. Sheriff's officials said Ricardo Zaragoza struggled with four deputies who wanted to take him in for a mental health examination after his family called saying he was acting erratically. Sheriff's officials and family members said officers shot him twice in the chest with Taser guns. Family members, however, said officers used excessive force to control him. In a report that was released this week, Amnesty International said that the widespread use of TASER electro-shock weapons by US law enforcement officers is contributing to widespread human rights abuses. Central Valley news | Police State page

UNAIDS/WHO reports that nearly half of the 37.2 million adults who are living with HIV today are women. HIV infection rates are on the rise in areas such as Eastern Europe, and last year more women than men were found to be living with HIV in Papua New Guinea. In the US, HIV/AIDS service and prevention organizations, especially in San Francisco, were hit by devastating cuts in federal funding earlier this year as the second Bush administration chose not to give as much money as in the past. Ryan White CARE grants, which are doled out to the 51 metropolitan areas in the United States hit hardest by the AIDS-HIV epidemic, were cut drastically, but locally, Representative Nancy Pelosi worked this year to restore some funding for the year 2005 and to make it so these fluctuations in funding will not happen again. On the other hand, ACT UP San Francisco thinks that AIDS is a scam because it has not turned out to be the epidemic that was predicted 20 years ago.

As San Francisco was one of the areas that were hit by the spread of HIV and AIDS, there are always a number of events in the Bay Area around World AIDS Day. Some local events: 11th Annual World AIDS Day Commemoration at the AIDS Memorial Grove will take place at 11:30am. | Artists Against AIDS will take place in Union Square at 12pm. Read More

11/29/2004: The Wellstone Democratic Club of Silicon Valley and The Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley organized a protest against the mainstream media and its "near complete silence concerning voting irregularities in the 2004 presidential election" today. Some speakers stated that the voting irregularities in the election needed to be investigated regardless of whether an investigation would swing the election to John Kerry. Others said that part of the bedrock of a democracy is verifiable election results that can be trusted.

After the rally in front of KGO the protesters marched to the offices of California Senator Barbara Boxer.
Report | Photos: 1 | 2

Related: No Stolen Elections Update | Report from 11/10 Votergate Protest | More about the 11/29 protests
The next event in the campaign: Monday 12/6 Demonstration at Office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

11/29/2004: Angel McClary Raich is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the federal government from cutting off her access to marijuana, which she uses under a doctor's recommendation to treat the physical manifestations of an inoperable brain tumor and wasting disease. In addition to Raich, who is from Oakland, the co-plaintiffs in this case include Diane Monson of Oroville in Butte County, who has severe back pain and muscle spasms, and two caregivers. Both women rely on medicinal use of cannabis in order to make it through each day. The US Supreme Court began to hear arguments in the case on Monday, November 29th, and a decision will likely come in the spring of 2005. The case could affect the legal status of medical marijuana patients all over the United States. California is one of 10 states that now allow people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, but the federal government has never shown signs of agreeing that the plant has valid medicinal properties.

An informational picket was held in San Francisco from 12pm to 1pm at the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on the 29th. Read more