Despite California’s image as a “green” and “progressive” leader, there has been a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling in the state under Governor Jerry Brown — and most of these new wells are located in communities with above average poverty rates and/or communities of color. On August 7, 35 youths held a sit-in at Governor Jerry Brown’s office demanding a plan to phase out oil and gas extraction.

On July 30, around 50 security guards of NutriAsia and 20 members of the Philippine National Police in Marilao and Meycauayan violently dispersed the striking NutriAsia workers while an ecumenical mass was being held at the picketline near the factory gates. Nineteen were arrested. Arrestees were released two days later, but still face charges and the strike continues.

Responding to undercover video footage of cruelty, activists with Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) marched to a Petaluma factory farm which supplies eggs to Whole Foods on July 30. Over twenty police officers and Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies were present to deny protesters access to the facility. Activists then marched five miles to the Petaluma Whole Foods location, which sells the farm’s eggs bearing misleading animal welfare labeling.

In Palo Alto and San Francisco, demonstrators joined a national call-to-action by Movimiento Cosecha, a movement working for the protection of undocumented persons. The campaign targeted institutions that have contracts with ICE and profit from family separation. On July 31 in Palo Alto, protesters demonstrated in front of Palantir. From July 29 to 31 in San Francisco, a 48-hour vigil was held at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building.

On August 5, upwards of a thousand people assembled in Berkeley to march on the planned white supremacist, fascist rally. During its attempt to reach the “alt-right” rally in Martin Luther King Civic Center Park, the march repeatedly encountered heavily defended police barricades. Police fired upon the crowd with a variety of projectiles. Anti-fascists continued to march. Several City of Berkeley cars, a Marines recruiting center, and a bank had their windows smashed. Twenty people were arrested.

On July 23, hundreds attended a vigil-turned-protest for two Black women stabbed at an Oakland BART Station. Nia Wilson, 18, was stabbed to death the previous evening while standing on the platform of the MacArthur BART Station in North Oakland. Her older sister Latifah was also stabbed, but survived the attack. Speakers called on the crowd to take action to defend and protect Black women. The stabbing occurred on the eve of a planned white supremacist “Proud Boys” gathering scheduled for Berkeley August 5.

A long-standing logging road blockade defending the Rainbow Ridge in the Mattole River watershed was raided in recent days, but activists are still in the woods and on the road, struggling to hold the line. The Humboldt Redwood Company (HRC) wants to gain access to the area to log in un-entered Douglas fir forests. HRC is owned by San Francisco's Fisher family, owners of the GAP empire. Activists say the Fishers need to feel the heat.