On Monday, June 20, I spoke with John on the Indynewswire program on Free Radio Santa Cruz. John gave an update from the Philly IMC space about BioDemocracy 2005 which is taking place in Philadelphia.

Audio: Download the mp3 (10:22 minutes / 4.8 MB)

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) is holding their international corporate convention in downtown Philadelphia from June 19-22. People from across the country have converged to bring attention to BIO's closed-door agenda of medicine for profit, genetically engineered agriculture and bioweapons proliferation.

Audio Recordings from BioDemocracy Conference

[ Philadelphia IMC || Philly IMC's BioDemocracy 2005 page || Reclaim The Commons || BioDev ]

So far, Santa Cruz County has managed to keep out ultra-evil Wal-Mart from its communities. Wal-Mart is now trying to come into Santa Cruz County... by locating themselves just outside of county lines in the small, unicorporated area of Pajaro. Please help fight the corporate monster!

Sometimes a moment comes when what we do, individually and together, MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE in what happens, for better or for worse, in our communities here on the Central Coast. If we respond, we win. If we fail to respond, we lose. A moment like that has arrived NOW.

At 9:30 AM on Monday morning June 20 the Monterey County Board of Supervisors will hear public comment on whether the county should regulate the development of big box superstores-- combining huge discount grocery sales with cheap consumer goods-- like the WalMart superstore proposed for the unincorporated rural area of Pajaro.

El 17 de Junio en un centro comunitario de Watsonville, California donde se dan clases de ciencias a los niños Camp Sea Lab. El Colectivo Caldo de Cultivo Urbano (de Mexico) fuimos invitadas a dar un taller de xilografia para la comunidad...

--------

On June 17 at a community center in Watsonville, California where there are science classes for children called Camp Sea Lab. El Colectivo Caldo de Cultivo Urbano from Mexico City were special guests for a workshop on printmaking for the community.

[ Camp SEA Lab || Colectivo Caldo de Cultivo Urbano desde la Ciudad de Mexico ]

WikiSCUM is a project to develop a Web-based encyclopedia of historic and contemporary underground music in Santa Cruz County, California.

Santa Cruz County has 28 years of punk history to its name. i've been doing my best to compile that history - but there's no way i can do it alone. so i've created a site that allows anyone to add information they know. It is called WikiSCUM. Wiki is the name of the software; SCUM stand for Santa Cruz Underground Music. check it out: http://scum.wikicities.com

Some 16,500 clerical workers at the University of California's nine state campuses, began a three-day strike June 13, to demand higher pay. The Coalition of University Employees, or CUE, is unaffiliated with other unions, and consists largely of women and people of color. Ninety-four percent of its members voted to strike after talks reached an impasse this spring. Vinny Lombardo reports from Santa Cruz, where 150 people held a lunch time rally. Audio

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3

[ 3-Day CUE Statewide Strike of UC June 13-15 || Coalition of University Employees (CUE) ]

The Brown Berets are part of the historical struggle of resistance of the Chicano community. Founded in 1967 by youth in the barrios of East Los Angeles, they organized to fight against police harassment, social injustice and poor education. Influenced by the legacy of this orgnization, a group of Watsonville students decided to reactivate the Brown Berets in 1994. The Watsonville Brown Berets are one of the most active local youth organizations fighting for progressive change and barrio peace.

See also: Youth and Power in Watsonville

Despite a bit of scheduling confusion, about a dozen young people organized a leaflet action on June 12, to encourage a boycott of Urban Outfitters. They're upset that company CEO Richard Hayne, is a major contributor to the Republican Party, and specifically to Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum, one of the most rabidly anti-gay US Senators.

"If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual gay sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family and that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. It all comes from, I would argue, the right to privacy that doesn't exist, in my opinion, in the United States Constitution." - Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), Associated Press, 04-22-03

Audio: Rockin' the Boat: Youth Boycott of Urban Outfitters!
Photos: Think Urban Outfitters is Gay Friendly? Think Again!
Photos: PIX: UrbanOut Boycott 6/12, part 1 | part 2

Cindy and Craig Corrie are the parents of Rachel, the young woman from Washington State who was killed in March 2003 while standing to prevent demolition of a home in the Gaza Strip.

Khaled and Samah Nasrallah, members of the extended family living in the home at the time it was destroyed by an Israeli bulldozer, will join the Corries at the event.

• Sunday, June 12
• Presentation at 7:00pm, Reception at 8:45pm
• Veteran's Memorial Hall, 856 Front St., Santa Cruz

Funds raised will be used to help reconstruct the Nasrallah home in Rafah.

Photos: Grafitti in Rafah, Gaza Strip, in memory of Rachel Corrie

Photos: Cindy and Craig Corrie at SC Vets Hall
Audio: Sprouts: Rebuilding Homes in Palestine

[ Rachel Corrie Memorial Website || Resource Center for Nonviolence ]

Local Activists Protest Their Neighbor, the World's Largest Weapons Contractor

Early on the morning of Thursday, June 9, a small group of peace activists assembled in Bonny Doon, CA outside the main gate of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons contractor. Located behind a wrought iron gate and barbed wire fences on 4,400 acres of pristine woodlands in rural Santa Cruz County, sits the sprawling complex of wherehouses, and labortories, which are used to test components and subsystems of the US Navy's Trident II missile. Vinny Lombardo reports.

Audio mp3s: Self-contained report. (2:23) || Vinny speaking with the deputies... || Grant Wilson from SCWIT speaks with the deputies...

[ Santa Cruz Weapons Inspection Team (SCWIT) || Community Concerned about Lockheed Martin (CCALM) ]

For many of today's youth, the only Santa Cruz they've known is the Santa Cruz of progressivism, surfing and the university. But it wasn't too long ago that Santa Cruz, much like other cities of California, was a hotbed of vigilante violence fueled by vehement racism and encouraged by the Santa Cruz Sentinel. Extreme forms of violence and repression of the indigenous peoples, mestizos, and the local Chinese community were heavily used in creating what we now know as Santa Cruz.

On Sunday, a group of students decided to spend a few hours at the Water St. bridge, where Francisco Arias and Jose Chamales were lynched in 1877. With a RIP sign and plenty of flyers, they made sure the community, at least for a few hours, did not forget its origins.