Feature Archives

On October 19, the United Nations Special Rapporteur to the Right to Adequate Housing, Lelani Farha, released her new report documenting the “global scandal” of homeless encampments. In January of 2017, Farha spent time in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California to meet with unhoused residents and housed advocates and described the conditions as "cruel and inhuman." The only U.S. cities explicitly called out for violations in the UN’s report on global homelessness are San Francisco and Oakland.

Strikers on the picket lines at Marriott hotels in San Francisco, San José and Oakland are determined to fight poverty level wages and increased medical costs as they struggle to live in one of the most expensive areas in America. Bay Area laborers who have walked are joined by workers in Boston, Detroit, and the Hawaiian islands who are striking against the world’s most profitable hotel chain. On October 20, over 3,000 workers and supporters marched in San Francisco. Of 300 who protested in San José that day, a contingent stayed to drum and chant through the night, keeping awake the few hotel guests who crossed picket lines.

The country was transfixed when Christine Blasey Ford testified against Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh on September 27. On the same day in Palo Alto, neighbors, friends, and colleagues of Dr. Ford rallied to her support. Actions in Berkeley, San Francisco, Mountain View, and San Mateo demonstrated the Bay Area's commitment to supporting victims of sexual assault and protested what they called Republican rape culture. A major demonstration in the nation's capital will be held with a sister rally in San Mateo on October 6.

Direct Action Everywhere and co-founder Wayne Hsiung, along with dozens of unnamed individuals, are forbidden from stepping on Whole Foods property in Berkeley. On September 21, the Alameda County Superior Court granted a restraining order seeking to stop protests against the company. Whole Foods had sought to ban protests on its property throughout the entire state. Despite the court ruling, "Occupy Whole Foods" is proceeding as planned September 23-29.

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.

In a relatively quick victory after protests at the jail recently ramped up, Contra Costa Sheriff David Livingston announced on July 10 that his department will cancel its contract with ICE at the end of a 120-day waiting period. Sheriff Livingston said that protests and public pressure played a role in the decision to cancel the contract.