He was the first activist I met on Telegraph Avenue when I arrived in the US in August. He is very nice, humorous, sits quietly reading a book almost everyday besides a table, exhibiting hundreds of activist stickers for sale, and a Palestinian flag flies on the other side of the table. Yet Russel still finds time also to send out tons of emails every night, with political updates, crisis alerts, calls for demonstrations. He is a walking encyclopedia on the history of Berkeley’s activism. You mention an event, and quickly he gives you the exact date, what the police did, estimates of people arrested, the final outcome of the battle, political defeats, victories.