Media
Freak Radio Santa Cruz Celebrates 15 Years Of Pirate Broadcasting
Mar 27th
Free Radio Santa Cruz celebrated 15 years of unlicensed, community supported radio on March 27th at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in downtown Santa Cruz. The night featured local musicians and brought together past and present station programmers, as well as other community members. In addition to the local musicians, Tom Lodge, a pirate radio legend and pioneer from England, spoke of the great days of Radio Caroline, which allowed for the British Invasion. Lodge recently penned a book called The Ship That Rocked The World: How Radio Caroline Defied the Establishment, Launched the British Invasion, and Made the Planet Safe for Rock and Roll.
Free Radio Santa Cruz can be picked up at 101.1 FM in most of Santa Cruz, and online at www.freakradio.org Read More and View Photos
Hidden in Plain Sight: Media Workers for Social Change, Chapter 2
Dec 9th
by Peter M
This is the second 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 Bradley, who works with Santa Cruz Indymedia. Bradley spoke about his life as a student, his work, and his connection to Mexico.
I met with Bradley in his modest Santa Cruz apartment, where he sat for an interview under a poster of Ricardo Flores Magón, an anarchist figure from the Mexican Revolution. Bradley has worked with the Santa Cruz Indymedia website since 2001, and has been one of the key people in its development. Santa Cruz Indymedia is a semi-autonomous element of Indybay, which is itself part of the worldwide network of collective-run Indymedia sites. The sites are evolving as focal points for movements against environmental degradation, capitalism, racism and patriarchy, and for non-hierarchical co-operation and social justice.
Mothers Breastfeed and Protest at Facebook’s HQ in Palo Alto
Dec 27th
M.I.L.C. (Mothers International Lactation Campaign) reports that recently, Facebook has started ‘pulling a myspace’ by not allowing people to post profile pictures of babies nursing. The pictures have been reported as ‘obscene’ and have been removed- their posters warned not to repost or fear being kicked off of Facebook.
On December 27, M.I.L.C. demonstrated in front of Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA in response to Facebook designating breastfeeding photos as obscene, removing them from member albums and profiles, banning and restoring user accounts without explanation, and not answering emails from users. Mothers breastfed their babies and displayed photos removed by Facebook as part of a coordinated and widespread campaign in support of the rights of breastfeeding mothers and their children everywhere. Read More and View Photos
Labor Organizing and Independent Media are Not Crimes
Aug 31st
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
State of the Word; The Future of Online Publishing
Aug 5th
On August 5th, the first ever WordCamp took place at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco. Users and developers of WordPress, a fantastic blogging software, were able to meet each other face to face to discuss the State of the Word and envision the future of online publishing.
WordPress.org describes WordPress as, “a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.” 
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