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After the March for Our Lives, What Will You Do? Progressive Activist Calendar March 23-April 2, 2018

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With rallies in over 830 cities worldwide, a handful of survivors of the Valentines Day shootings in Parkland Florida will have inspired one of the single largest expressions of political protest in history. The March for Our Lives can’t end when the day’s events have concluded.

If there ever was a time when assuming everything will be okay in the long run was a bad idea, this is it. There’s an unhinged man-child of privilege in the White House who is seemingly hell-bent on undermining the ideals most people believe this country was founded on. All forms of bigotry, be they racist, misogynist, or religious intolerance, are now being normalized. History clearly shows the next step on this path will be the state using its power to abet or conduct violent acts against those considered the ‘other.’

If you have not registered to vote, do so now. Everything you need to know, including how to register online is to be found on this page at the Women’s March San Diego site. Hopefully, someday they’ll do me the favor of listing this calendar in their Activist Resources.

A revolutionary way to learn about local politics: don’t miss the unique forum on the first Sunday in April, hosted by Flip the 49tth activists.   [Read more…]

ACLU: Greyhound Must Stop Giving Border Patrol Permission to Conduct Bus Raids

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Greyhound buses, once a symbol of travel on America’s vast highways, have become rolling traps where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents routinely board to unlawfully interrogate, detain and arrest passengers.

The agents, with the agreement of Greyhound, stage surprise boardings without warrants to question riders about their citizenship and travel plans. In many cases, all too reminiscent of police states, the agents demand to see a passenger’s “documents.”

The warrantless raids, which saw a rapid increase in the past year, are not only a blatant disregard of passengers’ constitutional rights, they are also clearly driven by racial profiling.   [Read more…]

Free Lyft Rides for March for Our Lives Attendees in San Diego, 49 Other Cities

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On March 24, those around the country will join March for Our Lives demonstrations to demand that their lives and safety become a priority. This movement has been led by student organizers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which less than a month and a half ago was the site of one of the nation’s deadliest school massacres.

Earlier this month, Lyft Co-Founders John Zimmer and Logan Green shared their support for the civic engagement these students have inspired by offering free Lyft rides to marches around the country.   [Read more…]

What to Do About All the Good Food Getting Trashed

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By Walter Einenkel / Daily Kos

Back in summer 2015, France’s Parliament voted to end food waste at grocery stores. After a judicial decision concerning the constitutionality of such a law, it went into effect at the beginning of 2016. 

The law banned groceries from throwing away edible food—a practice the entire developed world partakes in. Under the law, not donating edible foods you are getting rid of can result in a $4,500 fine—every time.

As NPR reports, after more than a year in practice, the French law has not turned France into some totalitarian dystopia.

  [Read more…]

The Impact of the Student-Led March for Our Lives, Even Before Local and Nationwide March 24 Rallies

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The mission and moral clarity of the student survivors of the Valentines Day shooting in Parkland, Florida continues to have a nationwide impact. Locally there will be March for Our Lives rallies on Saturday in Temecula, Escondido, and downtown San Diego. And these mass gatherings are not occurring in a vacuum.

Indivisible 49 and its coalition partners moved its weekly protest on Tuesday from the Vista office of Rep. Darrell Issa to the Oceanside office of State Assemblyman Rocky Chávez, who seeks to replace Issa in Congress.  Several hundred people showed up to make their feelings known about Chavez’s 93% approval rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and its endorsement during his last campaign.

The Del Mar City Council is asking directors of the nearby fairgrounds to end their relationship with the Crossroads of the West Gun Show, held there five times a year. According to the Union-Tribune, they have also reached out to 78th District Assemblyman Todd Gloria and State Sen. Toni Atkins to draw up legislation prohibiting gun shows at the facility. The City of Solana Beach will be considering a similar action.   [Read more…]

Rapid Response Network Needed More Than Ever After Recent ICE Arrests

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By Edward Sifuentes

While much of the local media’s attention was focused on President Trump’s March 13 visit to the border wall prototypes in Otay Mesa, a team of ICE agents deployed throughout Escondido early the same morning and arrested 22 people.

The agents were allegedly targeting people who had deportation orders, but they also picked up undocumented immigrants who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. In ICE jargon, those arrests are known as “collaterals.”

Later in the week, ICE announced the three-day operation netted a total 115 people, including seven in Imperial County. Most of them – 65 – had no criminal convictions.   [Read more…]

The National School Walkout: Welcome to the Future

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Sometimes just the act of standing up against injustice starts to make things right.  Speaking the truth to power can be redemptive. That’s how it felt last week as I watched my own family and my students (who I love like family) take part in the National School Walkout Day.  If you are middle-aged like me and have participated in too many protests and political activities to count, it’s easy to start to see activism as work, a job that needs to be done but takes its toll– particularly in these grim times.  You get tired, weary of the endless fight.

Then, once in a while, something happens that gives you renewed life, helps you see the world again with fresh eyes.

That’s what watching my kid get ready for the Roosevelt Middle School Walkout did for me. One night as he was talking about the planning with me, I asked him why he believed it was important for him to do this.     [Read more…]

It’s Time to Start Thinking About the June 5 Elections Progressive Activist Calendar, March 16-26, 2018

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It’s off to the races time. The June Primary races, that is.

The deadline for candidates to file has passed, and now it’s time or the sorting process to begin. Over the past few months, various organizations have vetted candidates. Some have already made endorsements. (We’ll have a list of who likes who posted next week.) Others are still in the process.

There is already a major controversy in Democratic circles triggered by endorsements announced by Micky Kasparian’s rump labor organization, the Working Families Council. I will write more on this shortly.   [Read more…]

San Diego Vets for Peace Bring My Lai Memorial Exhibit to San Diego

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Who Will Control the Narrative?

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the civilian massacre of My Lai, the Vietnamese village that was destroyed by US forces during the Vietnam War. The Pentagon is spending $63 million dollars to glorify our unnecessary, unjust and immoral military actions in Vietnam and in our continuing wars today. The My Lai Memorial Exhibit honors the Vietnamese who died in what they refer to as the American War. It is a strong, anti-war response to the Pentagon’s campaign and is a way of assuring that the Vietnam War does not slip down the memory hole.

The exhibit, which is traveling the whole country and installed in San Diego this week, is a critical element in fulfilling the Veterans for Peace mission — to seek justice for veterans and the victims of war, expose the true costs of war and to work for peace.   [Read more…]

ACLU: California Students Have the Right to Protest

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By Edward Sifuentes / ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties

Ahead of planned student walkouts this month, the ACLU of California has advised school officials across the state to adhere to constitutional and state laws protecting students who are expressing themselves politically.

Citing California Education Code, the ACLU stated that students may not be suspended for participating in walkouts or off-campus protests. School officials may choose to punish students less harshly (or not at all) for participating in walk-outs and protests, as long as all expressive activity is treated equally regardless of content or viewpoint.

“The First Amendment prohibits schools from disciplining a student more harshly for missing class for a protest than for any other unexcused absence,” said Peter Eliasberg, Manheim Family Attorney for First Amendment Rights at the ACLU of Southern California.   [Read more…]

Industrial Workers of the World Returns to San Diego

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Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW) Returns To San Diego

The Industrial Workers of the World has (re)chartered a San Diego General Membership Branch. The IWW is a union for all workers, regardless of employment, status, race, or orientation, since 1905. From 1907 San Diego-Tijuana IWW members have been instrumental in the Mexican Revolution, the San Diego Free Speech Fight, and organizing in our region.

By IWW / new indicator

For the first time in several decades, the IWW, also known as “the Wobblies”, is organizing workers again in San Diego. The IWW’s General Executive Board has issued a new charter for a San Diego General Membership Branch (GMB). A “branch” is the IWW term for a union local.

“We are an international union with autonomous locals, independent of all political parties, with a bottom-up structure, by and for workers” says the new Branch Secretary, Preston Chipps. He continued, “The IWW was founded in 1905 and the first union in this country to welcome women and all races.” Chipps is an old hand in the labor movement in San Diego and is the retired chair of the San Diego State University (SDSU) Labor Council, the coalition of campus unions.   [Read more…]

500 Rally in San Ysidro Against Trump and His Wall

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In a parking lot of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in San Ysidro, 500 San Diegans rallied against President Trump and his wall. Trump was over at the prototypes during part of the rally.

The general theme, “Build Bridges Not Walls”, was highly visible as a variety of faith-based organizations and groups that have mobilized since Trump’s election came together to oppose his policies on the wall, immigration and other issues. Folks from Women’s March, Indivisible, ImpeachTrump mingled with immigrants’ rights groups and Democratic party activists.   [Read more…]

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