This year, the month of February has an extra day - Leap Day, Sunday the 29th. This unclaimed, extra day allows a window for us to jump out of the runaway train of modern society. Let this day be a blank canvas, which we can transform into anything our hearts and minds desire for the world we most want to live in. Let us tap into our own wild, fearless creativity to turn the everyday grind of war, capitalism and inequality into a new society based on mutual aid, cooperation, freedom and love. In short, let us use Leap Day as a no-holds-barred day of action to break out of the mold we as activists have been stuck in for far too long.

The call for a day of action on Leap Day is completely open-ended, with nothing off-limits in terms of tactics, goals, or strategies. Some of us have already begun planning a party of sorts, which will take place on Leap Day and will feature creative resistance, anarchist fun and games, and much more. And everyone who wishes Santa Cruz and our society as a whole to become greater, fairer, more equal and free is invited. Bring yourself, any costumes, toys, music, art, and anything else that helps you create the new world within the dying shell of this one.

Converge at 1 PM on Sunday (2/29) at San Lorenzo Park

Pirates Reclaim The Streets at Haight & Ashbury On Valentine's Day

[ Background on Reclaim The Streets I RTS, San Francisco I A Modality of Resistance I Organizing Suggestions ]

'Audio mp3 of SCIMC Reporter Bradley reporting on Police abuse to himself and others during FTAA Protests in Miami.\n\n[ Rockin\' the Boat Interview of Local activists at FTAA ]'

Hiroshima Day Commemoration in Santa Cruz

At 8.15am August 6, 1945, a nuclear bomb was exploded 500 metres above the city of Hiroshima. It is estimated 140,000 people, mainly women, old men and children, died directly and in the few months after the bomb exploded. Its effects can still be seen today in the survivors and their descendants. Saturday August 9 is the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of the city of Nagasaki. Historical research shows the use of nuclear weapons could have been avoided, and all those deaths prevented, if diplomatic alternatives had been properly pursued. The USA continues to use nuclear weapons of mass destruction, as in depleted uranium munitions, used recently in Iraq.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel and its city reporter Dan White continue to “white out� or distort police harassment of activists and poor people.

We salute the Houseless Community of Santa Cruz for its unreported and unappreciated human rights struggle this last year.

This article contains examples of why it is even more ilegal to be homeless in Santa Cruz.

The afternoon of Monday, July 28th, was filled with music and enjoyment on at least one street corner of Pacific Ave. A four piece 'Jug Band' got people dancing while Santa Cruz Food Not Bombs (Comida sin Bombas) fed people's hungry bellies.

As part of an international day of action, a teach-in to save the life of Stanley Tookie Williams took place at UC Santa Cruz on November 30, 2005.

Speakers included Elisa Sanchez, Hector, Lance Lindsay, professor Paul Ortiz and professor Angela Davis.

There was also a very special performance from Rainbow Theatre.

On December 6, 2005, the US Supreme Court began to decide the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment which denies federal funding for schools that don't allow military recruitment on campus in the case of FAIR v Rumsfeld. Rallies and marches were held nationwide in solidarity with the counter-recruitment activists in the Supreme Court case.

The Santa Cruz Chapter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship has created a scroll with 28,000 names in Arabic of Iraqi civilians who have died in the war. This is one of the most conservative of the reported numbers of Iraqi civilian deaths.

As part of the nationwide day of action, the scroll was displayed at the military recruitment center on 41st Avenue in Capitola along with other signs and banners opposing the continued war in Iraq and the daily loss of Iraqi and American lives.

The army, marines and navy recruitment offices in Capitola were voluntarily closed, though the air force office remained open for business.

Four peace activists working with Christian Peacemaker Teams were kidnapped in Baghdad and are being held hostage by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. Listen to an interview with Cliff Kendi, a CPT member who's spent many months in Iraq, plus an interview with Huwaida Arraf a spokesperson for the International Solidarity Movement. Then, an AP newswire story is read, and an appeal for letters of support. 39:18

radio.indymedia.org/uploads/rtb_1202_cpt_ism.mp3

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 2:30, in the College 8 Red Room (UCSC), there will be a report-back from the Common Ground relief efforts going on in the ravaged city of New Orleans. The event will focus on the state of the city and surrounding areas, hit both by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and on the ways which these tradgedies combined with the region's corruption and racism to create a truly devastating situation for it's residents.

There is still no power in much of the city. Trash pickup is sporadic, making it very difficult for people to begin the cleaning process. People are being evicted from their homes, their belongings thrown into the street. There are still national-guard enforced curfews in much of the city.

Common Ground is a grassroots group which has risen from the rubble to provide, in a very DIY fashion, many of the services which the local, federal, and state aid groups, as well as the nonprofits, have neglected to provide. Under the banner Solidarity not Charity, common ground is attempting to help people rebuild their homes and lives, and to combat the racism which led to the current situation.

Report-back
20 min. video presentation
Q&A