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Eighteen months after he was first detained on accusations of revealing information to WikiLeaks, PFC Bradley Manning appeared before an Article 32 investigating officer for a pre-trial hearing on December 16th at Fort Meade in Maryland. Supporters gathered outside the gates of Fort Meade to call for Manning's freedom and denounce the proceedings as unjust. Supporters have long argued that PFC Manning could not receive a fair hearing due to unlawful command influence from President Obama, who publicly declared in April that the former Army intelligence analyst "broke the law."
Community pickets and mass mobilizations to blockade ports have been planned for December 12th by Occupy movements in San Diego, LA, Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver, and Houston. Occupy Anchorage, Occupy Denver, and Occupy Wall Street are targeting Goldman Sachs and Walmart on the 12th. Solidarity actions are being planned as far away as in Japan. In Oakland, marches to the port will begin at 5.30am at West Oakland BART. At 3pm, people will rally at 14th and Broadway, followed by a 4pm sharp march to the port. A 5pm march to the port will leave from West Oakland BART.
On November 21st, the United States Army scheduled an Article 32 pretrial hearing for PFC Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence specialist accused of releasing classified material to WikiLeaks. The pretrial hearing will commence on December 16th at Fort Meade, Maryland. This will be PFC Manning’s first appearance before a court and the first time he will face his accusers after 17 months in confinement. A rally and march in solidarity with Bradley Manning takes place on Tuesday, November 22nd, starting at 5pm at Market & Powell Streets in San Francisco.
On September 27th, thousands of members of the four employee unions of the United States Postal Service joined forces with allies and community members to send a message to the nation and its Congress. All around the country, protesters demonstrated against proposals to close thousands of post offices, eliminate Saturday deliveries, lay off workers, cut postal workers’ pay, and end collective bargaining rights.
Tuesday Sep 20th, 2011: Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has OK'd Troy Davis execution for 7pm EST September 21st. Read more: 1 | 2 | San Francisco Rally/Vigil at 1pm, 9/21
Troy Davis has been on death row in Georgia for twenty years. He is set to executed by the state on Wednesday, September 21st, despite the fact that there was no physical evidence presented against him during his trial and since then seven out of the nine "witnesses" who testified against him have recanted, many claiming that they were pressured by police. On September 16th, supporters rallied in cities across the country. A solidarity rally was held in Oakland in front of the Federal Building. As the courts are no longer an option to establish Troy Davis' innocence, his last hope is the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles which will hold a clemency hearing in Troy’s case on Monday, September 19th, in Atlanta. A "Save Troy Davis - Stop the Death Penalty" event was held at Laney College on September 20th.
Surf City Revolt writes: "There is something deeply troubling about the events in Seattle over the past couple of days. 26 comrades, anarchists of all kinds, were arrested. The first night was in what seems to be a coordinated attack by the police during a social gathering at a private residence. The second in a solidarity noise demonstration in which friends and comrades of those arrested the night before stood strong outside of the jail their friends were stuck in, making noise to show that those locked behind bars were not alone."
UPDATE July 19th: The MV Juliano was detained in Crete by Greek authorities who refuse to let the boat sail. The last remaining Flotilla II boat, the French boat Dignite/Al Karama, was stopped by the Israeli navy about 40 miles off of the coast of Gaza.
The 2011 Stay Human Freedom Flotilla has faced repeated threats and admonishments from the U.S. and Israeli governments, the pullout of the Turkish contingent, meddling from Zionist law firms, sabotage to the propellers of the Greek and Irish boats by underwater divers, and an order from the Greek government banning the flotilla from embarking on the journey to Gaza from Greece. At this point, it remains uncertain how many boats will be able to set sail for Gaza.
The City of Orlando, Florida is being sued in court over a city law that has effectively made it illegal for any group to feed more than 25 people at a time in downtown parks without a permit. Over the past month, more than 20 members of Food Not Bombs, including Keith McHenry who helped found the organization, have been arrested for providing free meals to the poor and homeless. Acting in defense of First Amendment rights, in solidarity with Keith McHenry, and to end the criminalization of poverty, Food Not Bombs-Santa Cruz organized a free meal and overnight vigil on June 30th outside Santa Cruz City Hall.
Supporters of International Longshore & Warehouse Union, Local 10 (S. F. Bay Area) rallied in downtown San Francisco on April 25th. The ILWU Local 10 had closed the ports of San Francisco and Oakland for twenty-four hours on April 4th, as part of a national day of action for solidarity with workers in Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states. The Pacific Maritime Association has filed a lawsuit against Local 10 for the April 4th closures. The PMA's suit seeks to prevent such future solidarity closures by the union.
In commemoration of international Holocaust Remembrance Day, from January 24th to February 19th Auschwitz survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer went on a speaking tour throughout the U.S. and Canada called "Never Again for Anyone". During his appearance in Oakland, Dr. Meyer was joined by UC Berkeley professor Dr. Hatem Bazian and Sarah Kershnar. Two days later, Dr. Meyer sat down with Bay Area filmmaker David Zlutnick for a video interview in Los Angeles.
On March 19th, thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to U.S. war and military intervention abroad and funding for peoples' needs at home. Demonstrations took place in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and many other cities across the United States and the world.
Despite cold, steady rain, 1,800 people marched and hundreds more rallied in San Francisco demanding an end to the wars and occupations around the world and the war on working people here. Speakers at the opening rally condemned the launching of a new war against Libya, which had begun just hours before.
A strong contingent from UNITE HERE Local 2, the SF hotel workers union, helped lead the march, which ended with a massive picket line in front of the boycotted Westin St. Francis hotel at Union Square. The demonstration was organized by the March 19 Coalition, which was initiated by the ANSWER Coalition.
Protests also took place around the country, including in Washington, D.C.; Phoenix, Arizona; Fort Bragg, Fresno, Laguna Hills, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, California; Evergreen, Colorado; New Haven, Connecticut; Daytona Beach, North Miami and Orlando, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Dubuque and Iowa City, Iowa; Boston, Massachusetts; St. Paul, Minnesota; Biloxi, Mississippi; Kansas City, Missouri; Keene, New Hampshire; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Highland Park, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; Eugene, Medford and Portland, Oregon; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; Racine, Wisconsin.
Read more | War Criminal Obama Bombs Libyan Hospitals | No to imperialist intervention in Libya! | San Francisco:  Audio: Rally | Labor Picket |  Photos: No-Nuke Contingent | Peace Rally | Anti-War Protest | Anti-War Demo | Fresno: Bring Our War $$ Home | Santa Cruz: Photos: Rally | Additional Info | San Diego: Anti-War Protesters Target Obama
Responding to an international call to action, on March 9th activists in Berkeley unfurled a large banner over the highway reading, “Justice for Mehdi Aby Ayyash,” a Palestinian youth killed two years ago by the Israeli military. On March 10th, Palestinian solidarity activists in Chicago replaced street signs that read “Honorary Ben Gurion Way” with “Honorary Mehdi Abu Ayyash Way.” More actions are expected to take place in the coming weeks in different locations around the world.
On February 11th, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Republican state legislators introduced legislation to end collective bargaining for public employees on the premise that the attack on unions was motivated by budgetary concerns. Within a week, tens of thousands of public employees and labor supporters were demonstrating daily in the capital of Madison. Protests and solidarity rallies have since spread across the U.S. On February 26th, rallies were held in over 50 U.S. cities as part of a national day of action to demand an end to the attacks on workers' rights and public services across the country.
After web host Amazon and DNS host Dyn Inc. terminated service to WikiLeaks.org earlier this week, San Jose-based PayPal announced late last night that it has "permanently restricted" WikiLeaks' account. In a statement released on its blog, PayPal accused WikiLeaks of violating its acceptable use policy by "encourag[ing], promot[ing], facilitat[ing] or instruct[ing] others to engage in illegal activity." WikiLeaks has struggled to stay online after initiating the slow release of over 250,000 leaked US diplomatic cables known as Cablegate, and is now available on several mirrors such as wikileaks.indymedia.org.
John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America and Food Revolution, says the film Bold Native "is the controversial story of young adults who just can’t sit by and stay silent in the face of massive cruelty to animals. Unwilling to passively succumb to resignation and despair, they take a stand, not just with their words, but with their actions. Some might see them as threats to society, others might admire them as self-sacrificing heroes, but no one could see this remarkable film and not gain a greater understanding of what courage really means.”
Marc Sapir writes, "The core paid staff (representing perhaps 30-50 staff people at KPFA) essentially seized control of KPFA this morning [November 9th] to rally their listener base to resist efforts that could restore KPFA to financial solvency for the first time in 2 years, and bring it back from the brink of collapse (KPFA does not now have cash income to pay the staff regularly). What goes unstated is that the majority of staff at KPFA—over 150 programmers and producers--the people who keep the station on air 24/7 are volunteers are not represented in these antics."
Environmental activists at San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network (R.A.N.) pulled off an elaborate hoax on San Ramon-headquartered Chevron on Monday. Together with spoof specialists The Yes Men, R.A.N. created a look alike web site mocking Chevron's new “We Agree” advertising campaign. The political prank included phony press releases and a slogan attributed to Chevron “We Agree: Oil companies should clean up their messes."
On the morning of September 24th, FBI agents served grand jury subpoenas and raided the homes of several anti-war and social justice activists in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois. The federal law cited in the search warrants prohibits, "providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations." The Supreme Court recently rejected a free speech challenge to the material support law from humanitarian aid groups.
A protest took place in San Francisco on Tuesday, September 28th at the Federal Building at 7th St. and Mission St.
On September 15th, protesters gathered in front of Senator Feinstein's office in downtown San Francisco to demand full and fair employment. Federal economic stimulus funding passed by Congress last year created jobs in non-profit organizations to provide services to the community in the Jobs Now and Community Jobs Program. That funding ends September 30, 2010, and so do those jobs.
On September 16th, Daniel Ellsberg, US Army Col. and diplomat Ann Wright (ret.), senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern (ret.), and KPFA morning host Aimee Allison spoke in Oakland to kick off a nationwide campaign to free alleged whistleblower Bradley Manning, accused of leaking thousands of documents and combat video showing the gunning down of Iraqi civilians and journalists. The event was be streamed live on Indybay as well as Michael Moore's website.
The Bay Area is commemorating the 90th anniversary of women's suffrage this week with speakers, films, costumes, and concerns. Members of the national organization Radical Women put out a call on the occasion of Women's Equality Day this year saying, "It's time to reclaim and re-energize a fighting, militant feminist movement!" In San Mateo, US Congresswomen Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo warned that women's reproductive rights continue to be threatened.
Protests took place on July 29th throughout Arizona, and around the U.S. and Mexico, against attacks on immigrants. These protests happened the day that Arizona's anti-immigrant law, SB1070, went into effect. There were actions in San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities throughout the Bay Area and beyond. The day before, federal judge Bolton blocked several of the most controversial aspects of Arizona's immigration law from taking effect.
For weeks, as the trial of Johannes Mehserle for the murder of Oscar Grant has progressed, city leaders have been stirring up fears of "outside agitators" bringing trouble to Oakland should Mehserle be acquitted or found guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter rather than the maximum now available, second degree murder. Corporate television stations have been running near daily coverage of Oakland police preparing to quell riots, while local non-profits have been disseminating talking points geared toward "inoculating" Oakland youth from their own feelings of anger. In Oakland, a community gathering has been called for 14th Street and Broadway at 6pm the day the verdict is announced. For further updates, see the next related Indybay feature.
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