Category: Civil Disobedience

Hundreds of mostly young protesters swarmed downtown San Diego on Sunday, Feb. 2, protesting Trump’s immigration policies and raids by ICE. After converging on the Convention Center, the crowd set off on a huge loop through downtown, taking over streets with their march, many waving Mexican flags and signs of protest. I saw a few American flags and a good number of half-American, half-Mexican flags.

San Diego police accommodated the demonstrators, corralling off streets as they went. It appeared to be a non-permitted event — yet it was very festive.

The marchers returned to the area near the Convention Center — now several thousands. Vehicles bearing flags followed the demonstration — and besides chants, yells and the blare of horns, the event was entirely peaceful.

A large protest against Trump immigration policies was held in National City Friday afternoon. Hundreds of people jammed National Avenue — and an eventual street take-over resulted in teargas being used by police after it was called an “illegal protest.”

Starting out as a peaceful protest, the demonstration quickly grew in size, as Highland Avenue was swarmed with people.

“I see a lot of youth which I’m happy to see here that are out here supporting. I see a lot of families with kids. I see a lot of older people as well,” said Violet, an immigration activist.

By Brett Wilkins / Common Dreams / Jan 20, 2025

Just minutes before leaving office, Joe Biden on Monday commuted the life prison sentence of Leonard Peltier, the elderly American Indian Movement activist who supporters say was framed for the murder of two federal agents during a 1975 reservation shootout.

“It’s finally over, I’m going home,” Peltier, who is 80 years old, said in a statement released by the Indigenous-led activist group NDN Collective. “I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me.”

While not the full pardon for which he and his defenders have long fought, the outgoing Democratic president’s commutation will allow Peltier—who has been imprisoned for nearly a half-century—to “spend his remaining days in home confinement,” according to Biden’s statement, which was no longer posted on the White House website after Republican President Donald Trump took office Monday afternoon.

Trump has said he wants to use active duty U.S. troops to quell protests and round up immigrants. Will the military comply?

By Michael Hirsh / POLITICO Reader Supported News / January 13, 2025

The last time an American president deployed the U.S. military domestically under the Insurrection Act — during the deadly Los Angeles riots in 1992 — Douglas Ollivant was there. Ollivant, then a young Army first lieutenant, says things went fairly smoothly because it was somebody else — the cops — doing the head-cracking to restore order, not his 7th Infantry Division. He and his troops didn’t have to detain or shoot at anyone.

“There was real sensitivity about keeping federal troops away from the front lines,” said Ollivant, who was ordered in by President George H.W. Bush as rioters in central-south LA set fire to buildings, assaulted police and bystanders, pelted cars with rocks and smashed store windows in the aftermath of the videotaped police beating of Rodney King, a Black motorist. “They tried to keep us in support roles, backing up the police.”

By the end of six days of rioting, 63 people were dead and 2,383 injured — though reportedly none at the hands of the military.

Amid all the laudatory and respectful accounts of former President Jimmy Carter in today’s press — he just passed away at the age of 100 — one key thing is missing in all the biographies of the Habitat for Humanity builder of affordable houses that was not covered — or even mentioned. And it was something that turned off an entire generation of college students to the peanut farmer-turned politician.

Carefully reading both the 6 pages of today’s Union-Tribune and the multiple pages at the LA Times tributes to Carter, there was not one mention, not one word of this Carter move that ruined his reputation among the young.

During late 1979, Carter called for the re-instituting of the military draft for all young Americans — during an era where relations with the Soviet Union were tearing thin and there was much saber-rattling in our country. The draft for the Vietnam war had ended in 1973 — and now, a mere 6 years later, Carter wanted it back. And in doing so, he caused the creation of a nation-wide and militant anti-draft movement that formed as a direct result of his fomenting another round of US militarism.

Immediately, anti-draft groups formed and held demonstrations against Carter and his draft amid calls to resist.

San Diego was no different. College and university students were the first group to mobilize in the new movement, other than longtime peaceniks who had paused their activism after the Vietnam war had ended.

Now is your best chance to find my book, The May 1970 Rebellion, available for a promotional price at @Smashwords as part of their 2024 End of Year Sale!

Find my book and many more at here through January 1!

Frank Gormlie Book-Signing
and Talk on The May 1970 Rebellion
Saturday, Dec. 14, 1–3 pm

Frank Gormlie will be available for book-signing
and will give a short presentation on his book,
what led him to write it and
what it means for us today in the Trump Era.

Frank Gormlie, editor here at OB Rag, is having a book-signing event with his new book, The May 1970 Rebellion, at La Playa Books in Point Loma on Saturday, November 23rd.

The book-signing will be from 2 to 4 pm at La Playa, located at 1026 Rosecrans Street, San Diego, CA 92106-3019 — their phone is (619) 226-2601. As it’s a weekend, parking should be relatively easy.

The book covers the May 1970 student upheaval caused by President Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia and the subsequent repression. Currently, it’s in an ebook mode — and the paperback version Print on Demand (POD) is also available at Amazon and at Barnes & Noble. (The paperback is in two volumes.)

By John Yarkoni  / Exclusive to OB Rag

Some of you may have heard that name before, The Brown Berets. You might’ve heard about the 1970 Moratorium that happened up in LA, or the March Through Aztlán that happened the year after. Or maybe, you’ve heard stories of riots and cop killers.

If that’s your perspective, then you haven’t heard the whole story. The history of the Brown Berets, especially the often overlooked San Diego Berets, is less one of blood in the streets and more one of grassroots community organization.