Feature Archives

Hundreds of immigrant rights activists, including many students, unionists, and other allies, surrounded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in San Francisco to disrupt ICE's daily patterns of mistreatment and dehumanization. Increased ICE activity has been reported throughout the Bay Area, the Central Coast, and in the Central Valley. Reports from rapid response networks confirm that ICE agents have recently arrested hundreds of people in cities including Monterey, Oakland, Fresno, Napa, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and Salinas.

Chinga la Migra reports on an action against Francisco Cantú which took place on February 19 in San Francisco, and the cancellation of his event in Oakland the following day: After being shut down by comrades in Austin and forced to publicly admit he is against abolishing Border Patrol by comrades in New York, Cantú decided not to read from his book or discuss it as had been planned, and at the last minute, announced that he would only be signing books. A few minutes into the book signing a group of us disrupted it by reading prepared statements and handing out flyers, as well as free copies of No Wall They Can Build.

Tsunami Huerta shares a personal account of the February 3, 2018, San Francisco Two-Spirit PowWow: I'm being whisked to a PowWow. We zip along San Francisco's waterfront. I inhale the fresh sea air and hear seagulls squawking. The Two-Spirit PowWow, to over simplify, is a LGBTQ PowWow. LGBTQ fluidity may be new in a sense for we modern inhabitants of the U.S. these last few centuries, but not at all, for most, very ancient Indigenous cultures here! They/we, were accepted as an important, integral and sacred part of the community at large.

Bob M writes: In the wake of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, the high school students at that school and across the country are calling for a walkout on March 24 and again on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting in 1999. The students are calling for national leaders to listen to them, but as of yet they do not have demands other than getting AR-15s "out of the hands of people who should not have them." Many radicals still hold strong to the important point that de-arming must start with the cops and military, and not take away self-defense from oppressed communities.

Demonstrators took to the streets of San Francisco on January 26 to march and rally in defense of Afrin and the Rojava Revolution. An audio report features several interviews with members of the local Kurdish community. They discuss the unfolding situation in regards to the Turkish invasion of Rojava and the need to support the defensive forces on the ground. In recent weeks, tens of thousands have taken to the streets around the world, holding demonstrations, occupying buildings, unfurling banners at sporting events, and taking militant actions in solidarity with the struggle in Rojava.

On January 28, Bay Area Antifascists made quick work of an anti-immigrant banner which the neo-Nazi group Identity Evropa (IE) hung from the Yerba Buena Tunnel heading into San Francisco. IE were central to the organizing of the murderous "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, and have been active in Northern California since 2016. San Francisco Bay Area Antifascists write: As a strike towards the defeat of our enemies, we tore down the banner put up in the early hours of the morning which attempted to “warn” commuters of “dangerous immigrants and refugees” and spread hate and fear of immigrants who call San Francisco their home.

On January 20, the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Trump, women, children, and allies worldwide demonstrated in hundreds of cities, often in freezing temperatures, to stand up against against Donald Trump and his policies, patriarchal and racist violence and oppression, and for a brighter future for women. The numbers were massive across North America, with 300,000 Chicago, 200,000 in New York City, a half million in Los Angeles, and at least 100,000 in San Francisco. Tens of thousands marched in medium-sized cities such as Oakland, and in smaller towns such as Fresno, thousands took a stand. On January 21, many more took to the streets of Las Vegas, Berlin, Paris, London, and other cities across the globe.