Feature Archives

The Trump administration will close the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) office in D.C. This follows a State Department promise to cut more than $300 million in funding for humanitarian assistance. These moves appear intended to force Palestinians into a "peace deal" that would deny them a state, as well as denying the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers storm the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque on a daily basis to push forward their plans to build the so-called “Third Temple.”

The Santa Cruz City Council's "Non-Protections for Renters" proposal, as rent control advocates have described it, is scheduled for a first reading during the 2:00 p.m. session on Tuesday, September 11. The ordinance would require relocation fees for tenants who experience rent increases of 10% in one year or 15% over two years, which would still allow a 42% rent increase every five years. Yes on M: Santa Cruz for Rent Control writes: We need REAL rent control: No Rent Raises over 3% once a year, Just Cause for Eviction for all renters - and heck, the city didn't even enforce its own rent freeze so of COURSE we need a Rent Board.

Prisoners in at least 17 states are coordinating sit-ins, hunger strikes, work stoppages and commissary boycotts from August 21 until September 9 — the 47th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising. At New Folsom Prison, a hunger strike started by Heriberto Garcia on August 21 has grown. On August 25, around 500 activists turned out for a solidarity rally at San Quentin Prison.

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.