On Saturday, March 29, a Family Outing with a Cause was organized to demonstrate our continued opposition to war in Iraq. To the surprise of shoppers on Pacific Ave., hundreds of parents, grandparents, adults, children, and teens filled the sidewalk and spilled into the street. People assembled at the town clock at 1:00pm and then marched down Pacific Ave.

Marchers went up Beach Hill before having a rally organized by the Santa Cruz Peace Coalition and Barrios Unidos at Raymond Street Park in the Beach Flats. After the family picnic and speakers in the park, people again took to the streets for peace. Demonstrators walked along the beach and past the boardwalk eventually ending up at the lighthouse.

Saturday's march and rally was strongly supported by the Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, Barrios Unidos, and people like you.

[ Article I Photos and Article ]

A new generation of social justice activists, known locally as the Youth Action Coalition, organized a Peace Rally and March on Friday starting at the town clock. The march and rally included youth from local high schools, youth that have been squating at the town clock, the Santa Cruz Peace Coalition, and others. Many people joined the march as it swept from the town clock down Pacific to Laurel and then back to the town clock. Today's actions organized by the Youth Action Coalition are part of a rapidly growing social justice movement with strong roots in middle schools, high schools, community colleges, and universities throughout the world.

[ Photos I National Youth and Student Peace Coalition ]

* * * * Reports from Vandenberg! * * * *

LOMPOC, CA - As the increasingly bloody "shock and awe" assault on Iraq continues, with U.S. bombs raining down on civilian casualties from Central Baghdad to remote rural villages, acts of non-violent civil disobedience have been carried out by small groups of concerned people from throughout California. In coastal Santa Barbara county, action has been taken to non-violently breach the security and disrupt business as usual at a sprawling California Air Force Base. A critical electronic command post of the Iraq war, Vandenberg Air Force Base occupies sacred coastal land of the Indigenous Chumash people.

The highly classified strategic mission of the base means that the breaching of security perimeters by unauthorized people, specifically the unarmed nonviolent members of the Vandenberg Action Coalition, triggers disruptive alerts, partial lockdowns, and security responses that interfere with the smooth and full functioning of the strategic targeting/command facility.

Renewing their pledge to nonviolence the Vandenberg Action Coalition promises more to come. Organizers explain that they are willing to take legal and physical risk to "get in the way of the war machine that backed Saddam Hussein for years, imposes human rights atrocities through client regimes throughout the world, devastating the Iraqi people with infrastructure bombing and brutal sanctions in the 90’s, and is now raining fire and jagged steel on cities and villages."

As Iraqi, Palestinians, Columbians, and indigenous people around the world struggle against the space-age military technology of the U.S. war machine, activists here at home have placed their security at risk in a brave display of opposition to our government and solidarity with the victims of U.S. bombing.

[ Full Press Release I Reports from Vandenberg ]

Beneath The Bombs is an anti-war art exhibit on Friday, March 28, from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Cayuga Vault (1100 Soquel Ave in Santa Cruz). This free event aims to promote peace through an artwork display that generates a sense of common humanity and global compassion for the people of Iraq.

The art exhibit will put the politics of war aside and will give voice to the people neglected in the media's political debate, and its portrayal of troops and politicians at the center of that debate. Fostering understanding and empathy for the people directly impacted will be the focus of this special evening of compassion and peace through art.

Invitation to Beneath the Bombs Art Exhibit

Peace demonstrations have been taking place in Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Scotts Valley. People rallied and marched through the streets of Santa Cruz on Thursday starting at the town clock, then marching through downtown, lower ocean area, and then up Ocean St. It was a peaceful, yet militant reclamation of the entire street.

There were no known arrests and the Santa Cruz Police Department actually allowed protesters to take the streets while blocking oncoming traffic. The march continued back through the downtown area before arriving at the County Building for a rally with speakers, moment of silence, and trainings in non-violent direct action. Candlelight vigilers remained at town clock through the night.

On Friday demonstrators blocked the entrances to the Military Recruitment Center in Capitola. A Free Radio Santa Cruz (96.3fm) phone interview with one of the demonstrators was cut off by the police and the demonstrator was arrested, one of 12 arrests at the demonstration.

Audio: Days of Protest

Text Articles: Thursday in Santa Cruz -- Radical Reflection on Thursday -- "What We Did and Didn't Do" -- Students Rally and March

On Wednesday evening, more than one hundred people gathered at the Santa Cruz Clock Tower for a candlelight vigil marking the 2,000th US soldier to die in Iraq since the March, 2003 invasion.

"...we saw more flames coming up followed by a second smaller mushroom which I believe came after the second smaller explosion."“

Eugenia Johnson of Port Alto, Texas

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