Alex Darocy Photography

On August 24, community members marched with the Santa Cruz NAACP to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Great March on Washington. The 1963 civil rights rally was also known as the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," and in Santa Cruz, those commemorating that day also broadly described their action for justice, calling it a march for, "voting rights, jobs, justice, freedom, and to end stand your ground." Speakers included Stephanie Milton who spoke out against stand your ground and other justifiable homicide laws, and Simba Kenyatta who spoke about how the City of Santa Cruz has never had a black city council member. Kenyatta proposed two local election reform measures: eliminating privately financed elections, and dividing up the voting population into districts. Community members marched through downtown Santa Cruz singing classic civil rights era hymns. When gathering at the town clock, one individual was applauded when it was announced that h...

On August 16, community members returned to La Playa Carmel for a boycott rally in support of the workers who lost their jobs when the hotel shutdown and re-opened in the summer of 2012 after a change of ownership. The Friday labor rally coincided with the final events in a series of "elite" automobile shows occurring throughout the Monterey Peninsula, and protesters marched for justice for the former workers next to Ferraris and other high end vehicles parked in front of La Playa.  Ferrari At $450 a night for the least expensive room on the weekends at La Playa Carmel, the hotel is a luxury vacation destination where expensive automobiles are commonly seen. With the shows happening, however, the median price tag of the cars outside of the hotel the day of the rally appeared to have jumped up a notch.  Two Ferraris, a Maserati, and an Aston Martin represented just a few of the expensive makes parked in front of La Playa on the day of the boycott rally. As they mar...

On August 6, San Jose Justice for Trayvon Martin held a rally at San Jose City Hall, followed by a march downtown where the group circled the federal building and then moved on to Plaza de César Chávez. The representatives of a wide variety of organizations spoke and endorsed the demands that San Jose Justice for Trayvon Martin adopted on July 18. It was announced that the next big event planned by San Jose Justice for Trayvon Martin would be a town hall meeting held in September. San Jose Justice for Trayvon Martin describes itself as, "a local mass multi-issue campaign made up of San Jose and larger Silicon Valley community members acting in support of the larger Movement of Justice for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander specifically, and more broadly a group who seek out a Social Justice Agenda regarding a halt on the continued growth of California's Prison Industrial Complex, the Criminalization of Youth based upon the Apartheid styled use of Gang Injunction &...

On July 31, community members in Santa Cruz marched to the county jail as part of "Hunger for Justice," an international day of protests and events held in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike in state detention facilities across California since July 8. According to the organization Sin Barras, 37 prisoners in the Santa Cruz County Jail have also joined the hunger strike. "The people running the [Santa Cruz County] jail are trying to say that no one in there has been on hunger strike, when we have heard from people who have been inside that they have in fact been on hunger strike," a member of Sin Barras said.  After marching to the county jail, a noise demonstration was held to let those inside, "hear and know we are outside doing this for them," organizers said.  Women inside of the detention facility did let demonstrators know they had been heard.  One inmate was yelling out and trying to communicate with the group, saying "F...