For over a decade the Anti Police-Terror Project has called for a week of action and a mass march on MLK Day to reclaim the revolutionary spirit of Dr. King. Towards the end of King's short life he had moved towards a politic rooted in Black liberation and freedom, while vociferously rejecting war, capitalism, and white supremacy. On January 20, people will fill the streets of Oakland to Reclaim King's Radical Legacy for the 11th year in a row.
"The Heart of Gaza" is a photo exhibition featuring the work of Ahmed Younis, a photojournalist in Gaza who's been documenting life during the ongoing aggression. Since Oct 2023, Ahmed has been risking his life on a daily basis to document the atrocities being committed against the people of Gaza, and show the world their experiences. Ahmed's photos will be on display through April at Shawarmaji restaurant in Oakland.
Riseup is a small anarchist, anti-capitalist, volunteer-run, social movement organization offering secure email, email lists, a VPN service, chat, and other online services to support activists engaged in various social justice causes. Riseup.net was launched in Seattle in 1999 with borrowed equipment by activists, who became known as "Riseup Birds." It quickly grew, and twenty-five years later still provides vital anti-surveillance digital infrastructure.
Casey Support Committee writes, "Casey is a dedicated community educator, writer, distroist, and printer who has committed their life to struggles for liberation. A federal investigation by the FBI and several other law enforcement agencies resulted in Casey’s arrest for alleged politically motivated 'crimes.' Since June 17 2024, Casey has been incarcerated at Santa Rita Jail facing federal felonies that could result in up to 20 years of imprisonment."
On Dec 20, 2024 the editors of anarchist media project It’s Going Down (IGD) announced that they were "taking a hiatus [...] with the hopes that other projects can find their footing." However just a week later on Dec 28, IGD posted an update that they are "Going Forward" and that "Life, finds a way. So will we. See you soon."
In a newly released statement from anarchist media project It’s Going Down, they explain that "10 years ago a group of people set out to create a new media platform to document and give voice to autonomous social movements happening across so-called North America. It’s Going Down (IGD) has had an impact and audience beyond what many of us thought was possible, and we’re proud of the work that we’ve done over the past ten years."
Daniel Andreas San Diego had been hunted by the FBI for 20 years, wanted for questioning in the 2003 bombings of Chiron and Shaklee, two businesses paying Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) to murder 500 animals per day testing products such as oven cleaner and pesticides. The bombed offices were only slightly damaged, injuring no one; there was an ongoing international campaign at the time to crush HLS called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).
On the night of December 8, Maersk's Emeryville office was vandalized "because they are merchants of death." In a communique published by "Some ordinary autonomous queers" they explain that Maersk, a Danish shipping and logistics conglomerate, ships "military cargo for the Zionist entity to use in their genocide of Palestinians. This includes parts for the F-35 jets bombing Gaza right now. We did this in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance."
In spite of a year of popular mobilization against arming Israel's genocide of Palestine and in contravention of US law, President Biden and Congress are continuing massive arms shipments to Israel. The People's Arms Embargo has responded with ongoing blockades at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California. “If the U.S. government won’t stop shipping arms to Israel, then we will establish a People’s Arms Embargo to stop it ourselves," organizers say.
On September 26, Bay Area residents rallied outside the entrance to Chevron’s global headquarters in San Ramon to protest its fueling of Israel’s genocide. The company is heavily invested in the Israeli economy, supplying most of its military and civilian fuel. The Tamar gas platform, off the Gaza coast, supplies up to 70% of Israel's gas needs. Chevron, a pillar of the Israeli economy, benefits no Palestinians and enables the ongoing genocide.
On July 24, Israel's Prime Minister came to the US and addressed a joint session of Congress. However, more than a dozen legislators boycotted the speech because they, as do millions gthroughout the world, consider him to be a genocidal war criminal. Throughout Northern California and the US, demonstrations continue to demand Netanyahu's arrest and that the US stop enabling Israel's military as it kills Gazans by the tens of thousands.
The first U.S. countywide vote to prohibit factory farms will take place on November 5 in Sonoma County. This historic measure was named Measure J after the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors asked the Registrar of Voters to assign the already intensely debated initiative a measure letter months earlier than normal. The battle over the ballot measure comes after a decade of investigations into Sonoma County factory farms.
Golden Gate Fields in the East Bay is finally shutting down. For the last race day on June 9, animal rights activists gathered to mourn the deaths of all the horses who have died there since it opened 1941. Dressed in black, with a coffin and holding flowers, activists held a short funeral procession. They spoke of horse racing's abuse of horses for sport and of how the animals are slaughtered when no longer useful.
On May 11, a procession was organized in San Francisco to mark the two years since Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli military sniper. There still has been no justice for Shireen, and this impunity has led to an unprecedented attack on journalists. An estimated 140 journalists and media workers have been killed in Palestine since October 7, with more arrested, injured, and missing.
The UCSC Campus Mobile Crisis Team (CMCT) is the first of its kind on a University of California campus. The CMCT provides an empathetic, non-police response to emergency calls regarding mental health crises on campus. Following a series of police killings in the U.S., including the choking death of George Floyd in May, 2020, worldwide protests called for the expansion of non-police crisis teams for community safety.
In an inexplicable move, the National Marine Fisheries Service has allowed a little known fishery that targets bottom-dwelling sablefish to expand into federally designated habitat for critically endangered Pacific leatherback turtles off the coasts of Oregon and California. The fishery's lines can wrap around sea turtles’ necks or front flippers, anchoring them to heavy pots on the seafloor, resulting in injuries and deaths.
On May 31, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish clerics held a pray-in to demand that Senator Padilla stop supporting Israel's genocide of Palestine. Dressed in black, protesters, many with their small children and carrying effigies of killed Palestinian children, marched in a slow, mournful procession to Padilla's office's street. There they painted a large mural bearing a Papal message of peace while religious leaders addressed the crowd.
Through products like Project Nimbus, Google profits directly by enhancing Israeli surveillance and control over Palestinians. Recent reporting shows Google signed a deal with the Ministry of Defense. On May 14, pro-Palestinian protesters rallied near the entrance to Google’s annual developer conference, many chaining themselves together. Thousands of attendees waiting to enter the Google event were delayed and had to be redirected.
From April 19-22, thousands of young people from across Northern California took part in multiple national days of action calling on President Biden and other decision makers to declare a Climate Emergency and End Fossil Fuels. In San Francisco, Youth Vs. Apocalypse's annual youth-led Earth Day action centered intersectional demands around uplifting Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, countries suffering violence due to western imperialism.
On April 18, workers at the REI store in Santa Cruz voted 32-12 in favor of forming a union. The workers filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on March 14, at which time they announced their intent to join United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) Local 5. The Santa Cruz REI store is the second REI location in the Bay Area to unionize, and the tenth nationwide.