On August 31st, members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were accompanying their fellow worker, Erik Forman, to his first day back on the job at Starbucks in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. Erik was recently fired for labor organizing, although that was not the official explanation given by Starbucks.
Police from Plymouth, a town outside of Bloomington, prevented Erik’s supporters from getting off the light-rail and entering the mall. Erik was eventually allowed into the mall so he could get to work, although he was late as a result of all the police harassment and misinformation.
My friend David and I caught up with the group of people that were turned away from the mall. David recorded a video interview with Jake Bell about the day’s events and the future plans of the Twin Cities branch of the IWW. A Metro Transit Police officer drove past us in an SUV. The interview was finished and as we were walking away, the police officer turned around and drove to the spot where the interview was conducted. At that point the officer appeared to be looking for an unattended item that may have been left behind. No such items were found, but the police officer decided to follow us for about two miles.
Neither labor organizing nor independent media are against the law, but both activities are being repressed in the Twin Cities, and elsewhere. Read More and View Photos
On August 31st, the day before the Republican National Convention (RNC), Veterans for Peace held a rally in front of the state capitol building in St. Paul, Minnesota followed by a solemn march. Families of US soldiers and other marchers carried tombstones with the names of dead US soldiers. Meanwhile, the names of murdered Iraqis were read out loud and people responded, “We Remember.”
If the Santa Cruz chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is trying to “Keep Santa Cruz Weird”, then Ryan Coonerty was a fitting recipient for the “Hammer of Justice” award during their annual fundraiser at Long Marine Lab on August 24th. Coonerty is the mayor of Santa Cruz and either an owner of Book Shop Santa Cruz, or merely an employee of the bookstore, depending on which side of his mouth he is talking out of. His actions since becoming a Santa Cruz City Council-member in 2004, such as supporting police infiltration into community groups, should be, and in some cases have been, challenged by the ACLU. Therefore, one is left to believe that the Santa Cruz ACLU is a big supporter of irony when they award Coonerty, or just trying to do their part to ‘Keep Santa Cruz Weird.’
People throughout the Monterey Bay Area marched, danced, and sang, with style and grace, at the historic, first annual, Watsonville LGBTI Pride Celebration on August 24th. Many families and youth took part in the march and rally, as well as non-profit, community and religious organizations. The most flamboyant marchers may have been Grupo Horizontes, a social support group in Watsonville and Santa Cruz for gay and bisexual Latinos that works to elevate personal esteem and mutual respect within the queer community with a focus on personal identity. The Brown Berets, perhaps the most recognizable organization in Watsonville, received a loud applause they marched into the plaza with a spray-paint banner that translates from spanish to english as, “Liberation for All of the Oppressed.” 
On August 21st, workers and Santa Cruz community members rallied in front of La Bahia protesting a variety of issues, including the ratio of unionized labor during the reconstruction and then operation of the new hotel. Neighbors, particularly those that live on First Street, are upset that the proposed project exceeds the current legal height limit and because the site is not zoned for such a large building. Other people want to preserve, rather than destroy, the historic landmark built in the 1920s.
Details are quite sketchy, but on August 7th, police raided a home on the 700 block of Riverside Avenue in Santa Cruz. It is the 
