March 4 will be a day of strikes and protests to defend public education for students, teachers, faculty, campus workers and members of the community in California. The movement to save our schools is building at every level of the public education system. Health care and many other public services are also on the chopping block, and thousands of people are expected to rally together to demand new priorities in the state budget and to stop the cuts.

At 3:00pm, we'll gather at 24th and Mission BART in San Francisco. There will be a rally of potentially thousands of teachers and students who will march up to the San Francisco Civic Center for a mass convergence and rally around 5pm.

Please join us in raising our voices against the budget cuts, and to support students, teachers, health care workers, and others as we struggle and march for our rights and futures.

For more info about the March 4th actions, you can checkout the coverage at SocialistWorker.org, and visit AgainstCuts.org.

Fernando Barba is the artistic director of legendary Brazilian body music group Barbatuques. For anyone interested in learning body music, or deepening your expression of rhythm, this workshop is not to be missed. Barbatuques headlined the International Body Music Festival last year and electrified the festival. Fernando is fantastic as both a performer and teacher.

There will be two classes on Tuesday, one at 6:30pm for people with a little experience with body music (attending any of my ongoing maracatu classes or any of the workshops at the Body Music Festival would count), and the other at 8:00pm for all levels.

Only $15 a class, or $25 for both.

Every year in SF, there's a march through the Mission to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). For the past few years, Maracatu Luta has participated, and we've always felt it was the best parade of the year -- incredible energy and atmosphere. Instead of the police barricades of SF carnival, there was nothing to distinguish the "performers" and the "audience". It really reminded me of carnival in Pernambuco, where the groups just parade informally through the streets and the crowds merge with the bands. However, instead of the drunken revelry of carnival, there was deep respect and an atmosphere of mutual support.

The parade starts at 7:00pm at Bryant and 24th St., marches up 24th St. to Mission St. (stopping at the Mission Cultural Center) and then back down 25th St. to Garfield Square where people setup alters, art installations, and lots of the musicians keep playing. We'll meet at 6:00pm at 24th + Mission BART to get ourselves organized, then we'll all march down together to the start of the procession.

Jorge Alabe's Grupo Samba Rio will be performing at Il Pirata in San Francisco, and Maracatu Luta will be the special guest performers that night. It's a costume party, (pre-Halloween), so it should be a fun night with a good crowd. There will be a set of pagode, followed by maracatu, and then the Samba Rio bateria for to close the night. Hope to see you there!

On Tuesday May 26th, the California Supreme Court will announce its decision on the constitutionality of anti-gay Proposition 8, which denies marriage rights to same-sex couples in the state of California. With public opinion swinging solidly in favor of marriage equality and ending discrimination against LGBT couples, and a string of LGBT rights victories in other states (Iowa and New Hampshire in particular), there's reason for optimism that the CA supreme court will do the right thing, overturn Prop 8, and uphold civil rights for all couples in our state. In that case, there's going to be a big celebration in the streets of SF to commemorate another historic victory.

However, no one can be sure which way the courts will rule, and it's definitely possible that they're going to uphold this bigoted law. In that case, there's going to be a large protest to demand our civil rights, and express our public outcry that people in this state are losing their rights. In addition to the evening rally and march, there will be a protest with non-violent civil disobedience Tuesday morning at 10:00am. For more information about that, check out http://onestruggleonefight.com.

Jorge Alabe's Grupo Samba Rio will be performing at Il Pirata in San Francisco on the Friday night before SF Carnaval. We've been invited as special guest performers that night. Should be a fun night with a good crowd, and a nice way to bring some maracatu goodness to the weekend of SF Carnaval. Hope to see you there!

May 1st is International Workers Day, the original "Labor day", which started in Chicago during the struggle for the 8 hour day. Today, it's celebrated around the world in just about every country except the one where it started -- here in the U.S. In the past few years, that's changed, especially in 2006 with the "mega marches" for immigrants' rights and the "Day Without and Immigrant" protests.

This year, there are going to be two main May Day events in the Bay Area -- one in the SF Mission, and one starting in the Fruitvale district of Oakland, followed by a march to City Hall. Seeing as how we're based in Oakland, I thought it'd be nice for us to participate in the Oakland event. It's a Friday, but the march itself is starting at 4:30pm, so I'm hoping folks can make it. For more info, you can check out the flyer for the Oakland event.