The People’s Budget Collaborative held their protest yesterday at the residence of the Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco. They were a noisy bunch of fifty.
Read what The Coalition on Homelessness / Street Sheet thinks about all this.
The Newsomator is a figure of menace to these protesters. Budget battles are coming.
Let’s compare two recent events in San Francisco. This was the plan for the San Francisco Jewish Community Center the other day, but here was the result: Protests mark Israel’s 60th Anniversary at San Francisco Jewish Community Center.
Here’s what it looked like when people got hauled away. This was the scene a little later with dozens of cops settling in for the afternoon:
Management at the JCC was still uptight after the arrests, actually sending a security guard to threaten to call the cops on a photojournalist standing 25 yards away across the street. Bad form.
Compare that with the mellow Nabka at 60 Years, Free Palestine Peace and Solidarity Festival in Civic Center yesterday:
Things were just getting started, but it looked to be more like a street festival what with the smooth jazz stylings of Steely Dan on the P.A.
This more open approach would appear to be superior, if your goal is to get your point across to the general population.
Oh, it’s on!
Witches, Crones, Sirens come to the Marine Recruiting Station [on May 9, 2008] to cast spells, weave magic, invoke the foremothers, share wisdom, lead rituals to bring peace to the MRS, to protect our youth from the powerful spells of pro-war forces, to lead the men of the marine recruiting station off into the oceans of peace!
Some witches, crones and sirens are willing to risk arrest, others are not. We call on all crones, witches and sirens to come to the MRS, to bring your energy, your wisdom, your fierce determination to end war now and bring peace to our world.
What’s that? You can’t make the scene? Well then just watch it all live online courtesy of Fox News Channel on the 24/7 FoxNews Berkeley Protest Cam.
In fact, why don’t you check it out right now and see if Code Pink’s gatherings in front of the recruiting station really are as “ill-attended” as Fox says.
Witches, Crones, Sirens come to the MRS
Friday, May 9th 2008 starts at 7:30 AM
Berkeley, CA
See you tomorrow!
Check out yesterday’s march and protest at the headquarters of United Statess Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) in San Francisco.
Senator Carole Migden dropped by to call these federal raids “improper invasions.” Read about it here and see a video here.
Text after the jump.
Consider this a more-reliable-than-average rumour about the recent ICE raids on the Balazos in the San Francisco Bay Area:
We are planning to hold a protest outside the ICE office at 630 Sansome St. in SF this Monday, May 5th at 12:00 PM to condemn the raids and call for justice for immigrant workers.
It continues…
The one at 1654 Haight was open yesterday, for what it’s worth:
Government-sponsored? Propaganda? Read on and then you make the call. As has been reported, coming Saturday, April 12, to San Francisco is “‘Beijing, Are You Ready,’ a newly-released series by Oakland’s D3 Production, Inc that’s officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee.”
Right now, not many people in San Francisco have seen this production yet, but some are already wondering if it’s going to be just more Olympic propaganda.
As a clue, consider a similar production from D3 Productions from a few years back called Tibet Diary, where some Americans specifically chosen for not knowing much about Tibet are taken there and videotaped.
Take a look at looking at this video starting at 5:24 for about three minutes.
Wow. Those clips are called the money shots. Of course, the opinions expressed might very well be genuine. But after looking at the connections between party run media in China and the people behind Tibet Diary, you could be forgiven for thinking that this video is an example of government-supported propaganda.
Will Beijing, Are You Ready be a similar kind of production? See for yourself at the Main Public Library at 2:00 PM.
This is what the Meditative Peace Walk Across the Golden Gate Bridge in support of the monks in Burma looked like yesterday. Some video from ABC 7 is here.
A higher rez shot from CitizenShip One, after the jump.
Coming Saturday, April 12, is “Beijing, Are You Ready,” a newly-released series by Oakland’s D3 Production, Inc.
Officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic games, this special series features Chinese athletes in training, the construction of the bird’s nest (Beijing national stadium) and much more behind the scenes with rare access to key people and places. Viewers also will experience the variety of ways that China’s capital city is preparing to host the 2008 Olympic games – the first ever Olympics held on Chinese soil. Film producer Duffy Wang and others will be available for discussion. Cosponsored by the Chinese Center.
Well, if it’s “officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee”, it must be good, right?
Let’s get some early reviews, how about from national state television, a sub-ministry of People’s Republic of China’s central government within the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and as such it does not have any editorial independence from the PRC government.
“Beijing is counting down to the 2008 Olympic Games!”
“And the people of Beijing are busy preparing for this international sports event with great enthusiasm!”
Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, the authorities in Beijing are “absolutely wetting their pants” over the possibility of protests at torch events around the world. And those corporate sponsors of the torch relay are getting a little nervous, it seems:
“What started off as a small number of organizations threatening to create some disruption has escalated significantly,” said Dan Parr, the head of Asia-Pacific for brandRapport, a marketing consulting agency. “This must be taking some of the gloss off for some of these sponsors.”
Now let’s hear from Steven Spielberg:
“I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in
Darfur .”
Mmm. It’s almost like there’s a chance that the Olympics can backfire on a host nation.
Beijing, are you ready?
News comes from Dave Eggers in the New York Times.
“In 418,000 copies of the April 4 edition of The San Francisco Chronicle, subscribers will get a placard that on one side explains the connections between China and the genocide in Sudan, and on the other side says, “China: Extinguish the Flames of Genocide in Darfur.” How’s that for an early morning jolt?”
These placards are going to look a little something like this:
Will people need to register in advance in order to hold up these signs along the torch route? Will people need to be herded into “free speech zones,” like these pens used in Boston a while back, before they are allowed to hold up these signs?
Only time will tell.
This month’s protest against Scientolgy was bigger than last’s. What will next month bring?
As promised, the group Anonymous showed up in numbers underneath the Transamerica Pyramid. How many? Well, more than last time. Call it hundreds.
See for yourself here
This man exited the Scientology building only to be confronted by the mob.
And don’t rely on edited versions of the Tom Cruise video. Check out the whole deal in its entirety. Either you’re on board, or you’re not on board…
