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Drum Circle and Food Not Bombs at Santa Cruz Farmers Market

Published on January 9, 2008 in Arts & Creation, Community Building, Police

The Wednesday afternoon of August 15th, 2007, seemed like a typical day at the Santa Cruz Farmers Market. Farmers, or their employees, were busy selling fruits and vegetables grown in the Monterey Bay Area, and throughout California. Meanwhile, customers of the market and other folks gathered in the parking lot alongside the market to share vegetarian food and enjoy the music of a community drum circle. Unfortunately, this traditional weekly community gathering has recently been repressed by the Santa Cruz police and deemed illegal thanks to the passage of a new city ordinance that prohibits people from being in a parking lot or garage, unless they have a vehicle there (and then only for fifteen minutes). Read More and View Photos

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Santa Cruz Last Night DIY Parade and Street Party

Published on December 31, 2007 in Arts & Creation, Community Building

Hundreds of people marched down Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz on December 31st, 2007, as part of the Last Night DIY Celebration while hundreds of spectators lined the sidewalks and cheered. The parade ended with a street party at the intersection of Cooper and Pacific that featured firedancers, lots of musicians, free hugs, unicyclists, a fire barrel, brazen square dancing, a pillow fight and much more!

The Last Night DIY Parade and Street Party is a do-it-yourself, unpermited, decentralized, grassroots and open New Year’s Eve celebration with a focus on self-reliance. It is not only a celebration, but a celebration of the power we all have when we gather together to make something happen. Read More and View Photos of the Parade and the Street Party

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2007 Practical Activism Conference at UCSC featuring Angela Davis

Published on October 27, 2007 in Audio, Community Building, Education

Hundreds of students crowded into the College Nine-Ten Multipurpose Room on October 27th for the 5th annual Practical Activism Conference at UC Santa Cruz. The room’s capacity was maxed out when Angela Davis spoke and approximately 175 students heard the speech through speakers setup outside the Multipurpose Room. Activist organizations based on campus and in the community were tabling, food was provided and the workshops were very well attended.

Angela Davis spoke about many topics, including solidarity with the antiwar demonstration in San Francisco and those around the United States taking place at the same time, the meaning of “Practical Activism”, growing up in Birmingham, Alabama during Jim Crow segregation, the importance of imagination in activism, a brief history of her persecution, organized resistance in the 1930s and 1960s, prisons, the juggernaut of privatization, attacks on education and the ongoing plans for the privatization of the University of California, the racist theories of James Watson, connecting the issues, the plan for a Blackwater training camp in Potrero, the role Blackwater wants to play in repression along the US / Mexico border and the need for global solidarity. Read More, Listen to Audio and View Photos

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Ongoing Protest Against the Santa Cruz Sleeping Ban

Published on August 16, 2007 in Community Building

In response to an endless stream of tickets from police and rangers for illegal sleeping, Santa Cruz homeless people are now engaged in an ongoing protest against the sleeping ban. In the early morning of August 16th, over 30 people were sleeping on the hard bricks at City Hall. People have slept at City Hall, 809 Center Street, every night since August 12th to visualize their lack of a place to legally sleep. There are no plans to end the protest until people are allowed to legally sleep somewhere.

The following photographs were taken late in the night of August 13th and early in the morning of August 16th. The photographs are being published in an effort to raise awareness of the terrible situation that homeless people face when their human need to sleep is treated as a criminal act. People should not have to worry about harassment and tickets from police and rangers when they cover up with a blanket or fall asleep at night. Read More and View Photos

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Sir! No Sir! and Sleeping Ban Protest at City Hall

Published on August 12, 2007 in Arts & Creation, Community Building

Santa Cruz City Hall was the most recent location to be transformed into an outdoor movie theater by the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In collective and guests. On August 12th, the Santa Cruz Guerilla Drive-In and Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom (HUFF) presented a special screening of Sir! No Sir!, David Zeiger’s documentary chronicling the largely forgotten anti-war activities of American GIs and other members of the military during the Vietnam era. The screening was one of many activities which took place on August 12th in Santa Cruz as part of an organizing effort for a federal lawsuit against Santa Cruz’s cruel sleeping ban. Read More and View Photos

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