In anticipation of the statewide strike and day of action on March 4th, activists have stepped up their actions with a renewed round of occupations in California. On Feb. 25th, an occupation of a construction site at UC Berkeley resulted in a "riot" on Telegraph Avenue with hundreds of youth fighting the police. On March 1st, students at UCSC marched and Black students blocked Sather Gate at UCB in solidarity against racism at UCSD. March 4th actions are planned throughout the Bay Area, California and beyond. In the East Bay, strikes and walkouts are planned to converge in downtown Oakland and an evening rally is planned for San Francisco.

On March 1st, hundreds of MUNI workers from TWU Local 250-A, riders, and community organizations rallied and marched in downtown San Francisco to oppose the MTA's proposed budget cuts and threatened layoffs. The march began at Powell and Market and went to the MTA offices, and then to City Hall for a forum led by union organizer Eric Williams, who called for unity between MUNI workers and riders.

Anita L. Wills, mother of Jerry Amaro, writes: "This is a blog written in response to the death of a young man in Oakland, California. The courts have cleared the way for his mother to sue the City of Oakland. He died after being beaten by police in Oakland. Two of the policemen involved in the incident were also involved in the wrongful prosecution of my son in 2001. The blog is about my son, the events that transpired, and how the police and courts figured in his wrongful conviction."

On February 25th, a banner was placed on the Humanities 2 building at UC Santa Cruz displaying support for the upcoming March 4th strike. The banner reads "Strike March 4. Stop Privatization!" and criticizes the trend the UC has taken of prioritizing building construction over student instruction. The action also serves to mobilize protestors for March 4th, the statewide day of action against the privatization of public education.

On February 25th, 2010, activists and organizations from around the world joined together in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Hebron/al Khaleel, through local protests that demand the opening of Shuhada Street to Palestinians and an end to the Israeli occupation. In San Francisco, nine were arrests, after protesters holding a banner that read "Israeli Apartheid closes streets" closed off Powell Street and refused police orders to disperse, while a crowd of hundreds looked on cheering. In Al-Khalil, a peaceful march to Shuhada st, was met with tear gas, stun grenades, and arrests.

Four of the nation's biggest banks — Bank of America, Citibank, Chase and Wells Fargo — are ruining the American economy, say activists who are taking to the streets this month to urge bank customers to "break up that affair with your big bank." In the San Francisco Bay Area members of the Raging Grannies launched a culture jamming action at banks in three cities to give the message some "real teeth".

The day after the 1000th US soldier was killed in Afghanistan a vigil was held in front of the War Memorial in San Francisco to draw attention to the growing loss of life for the US war drive. All 1000 names were read as well as a representative of the unknown number of Afghanis who have been killed during the occupation of their country. The event was organized by the American Friends Service Committee and Veterans for Peace.

A National DREAM Week of Action kicked off on February 22nd and will last until Friday, February 26th. Students across California and 16 other states are organizing in support of the DREAM Act, a piece of federal legislation that would provide a pathway to legalization for undocumented students educated in the U.S. Every year, 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools, but these students face serious barriers to higher education.

UPDATE 2/23: Holly's trial postponed until April 5th
UPDATE 2/22: Case Dismissed Against JR Valrey

JR Valrey and Holly Works, the last two of the Oakland 100 — those arrested during the rebellions that followed the police murder of Oscar Grant last year — must raise legal defense funds for their imminent trials. JR’s trial starts Monday, February 22nd, and Holly’s starts Monday, April 5th. Supporters are calling out to all who are able to attend the trials.

On February 12th, same-sex couples requesting marriage licenses were joined by members of supporting organizations, guest speakers, and the Raging Grannies on the front steps of the San Mateo County Clerk’s office. San Mateo County Deputy Assessor County Clerk-Recorder Theresa Rabe spoke out in support of full marriage rights. She said that the short period in which gays and lesbians were able to marry legally in California was sadly cut off by Proposition 8, which passed in November of 2008.

From the Olympic Resistance Network:, "The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver and Whistler, on unceded Indigenous land, February 12–28. We call on all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labor, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti-colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents. We are organizing towards a global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence against the 2010 Olympic Games."

UPDATES: First-hand video, photos, and reports from Vancouver are being posted to Indybay by the Friendly Fire Collective.

On Tuesday, February 9, police arrested Rick Morse, the owner of Med Mar, the last medical marijuana dispensary in the City of Fresno. Morse was arrested for violating a court order which closed about one dozen dispensaries in January.

Three pioneers of the Free Gaza Movement received city and congressional awards for their humanitarian work last month. The city of Milpitas, one of the country's largest locations of computer equipment manufacturing and software programming, was represented by Vice Mayor Pete McHugh. The public ceremony was sponsored by the San José Peace and Justice Center.

The Fresno City Council has passed, with a 6-1 vote, an ordinance that will remove homeless people from median islands while allowing established community groups to continue using the space for their fundraisers. Bill Simon, the chairperson of the Greater Fresno American Civil Liberties Union, called the measure discriminatory.

February 7th marks the anniversary of Hampshire College's "divestment" from the Israeli Occupation of Palestine, the first institution of higher education to wash its hands of the systematic exploitation of the Palestinian people by the Israeli state. Following a two-year campaign by Students for Justice in Palestine, the Board of Trustees agreed in 2009 to withdraw its investments from six companies targeted by SJP because they profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Update 2/11: Hutchinson wins discharge.
Alexis Hutchinson, a single mother from Oakland, CA, is facing up to a year in military prison for refusing to leave her son in Georgia foster care while being deployed to Afghanistan. Military objector support group Courage to Resist is raising funds for Hutchinson's defense and circulating a petition on its website to demand that charges be dropped.

On Saturday, February 6, a rally in support of the Iranian people and marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution will be held at 1pm at the Plaza De Cesar Chavez in San Jose. "The Iranian Revolution of 1979 stopped short of establishing a democratic government," say event organizers. "But today, after enduring more than three decades of renewed repression, Iranians are protesting once again to complete a mission that was left unfinished."

On February 4th, demonstrators for women's reproductive rights protested in front of the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. They rallied to protest the network's plan to air a commercial from a right-wing anti-abortion group during the Super Bowl on February 7. The demonstrators chanted and sang a song written by the Raging Grannies of South Florida, giving the acronym CBS a new, unflattering meaning.

Shortly after midnight on January 31st, San Francisco police and fire marshals raided a benefit party for student arrestees from recent campus occupations. The party was organized by students to help raise money for fines issued during last semester's spate of demonstrations. Eleven people were arrested. One person remains jailed on felony aggravated assault charges. Several party-goers received physical injuries from police.

On January 26th, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley ruled that the Animal Liberation Front is not a "gang." The government had tried to find two animal rights protestors guilty of being "gang members." Judge Wesley stated that the prosecution's expert Lt. Butte had "misled the grand jury. The ALF does not meet the legal requirements to be considered a gang. Their primary goal is to save animals, not commit crimes." That charge was dismissed though other charges remain.

January 22nd marked the 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The January 23rd "Walk for Life" was smaller than in past years. By its own estimate, the group against reproductive choice was 20,000 to 30,000. However, the San Francisco Chronicle estimated the size at "several thousand", not the "tens of thousands" that the pro-lifers claim. More than 200 pro-choice activists, while a smaller group, had a significant presence. Queer and feminist activists blocked the "Walk for Life" march for a brief period by extending a 25-foot banner reading "Religious Bigots Unwelcome in San Francisco" across the Embarcadero at the moment the march began.

On January 28, at around 9pm Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, James Wells and Jennifer Lawhorne were eating ice cream in the zocalo of Oaxaca. At that time, one of them recognized the face of the governor of Oaxaca who was about nine feet away. A friend of Brad Will took advantage of the governor’s presence to ask him about the case of Mr. Will, which to this day remains unresolved.

Bradley Roland Will, a journalist with New York City Indymedia, was shot and killed in October 2006 during the six-month long uprising in Oaxaca. His assailants are believed to be local officials with ties to the ruling political party.

The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective providing cannabis under California’s 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215), along with the city and county of Santa Cruz, have reached a settlement in their unprecedented lawsuit against the federal government. WAMM's case was prompted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of their medicinal garden in Davenport on September 5, 2002, in which armed agents terrorized residents and patients, and seized more than 160 cannabis plants.

On January 27th, Howard Zinn died at the age of 87. Zinn was a historian, and professor in the Political Science Department at Boston University. He was the author of more than 20 books, including A People's History of the United States which he published in 1980.

Despite threatening thunderstorms, hundreds of people gathered in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza on January 20 to demand that the Obama administration provide significantly increased HUD funding in the federal budget to eradicate homelessness. Following a music filled rally in the plaza, they marched to Nancy Pelosi's office and on to Civic Center, making their way through puddles left by the recent downpours.

This is the third in a series of profiles of activist and alternative media workers in the Bay Area by Indybay contributor Peter M. Featured in this profile is Bill Hackwell, a photographer/activist who lives in Oakland. His career spans four decades.