Feature Archives

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.

May Day actions this year were organized with urgency in solidarity with the Palestinian people, heeding the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions to stand with Gaza. Workers and peoples around the world called for an immediate ceasefire. Marches and rallies filled the streets across Northern California on May 1, and there was no business as usual at the Port of Oakland as officials closed the port in anticipation of planned protests.

Students at UCB, Cal Poly Humboldt, Stanford, Sonoma State, SF State, Sacramento State, USF, UCSC and UCD joined students at colleges throughout the country to establish occupations in support of Palestinians. Outrage at Israel's attempted genocide in Gaza has produced a movement of encampments at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT, NYU, UT Austin, and more. Police have arrested hundreds, and yet the protests persist and expand.

After years of prayers and protests, the struggle to protect the West Berkeley Shellmound Sacred Site has prevailed. On March 12, the Berkeley City Council approved a global settlement with the owners of the Shellmound village site and adopted an ordinance giving title of the land to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. The deal results in what Ohlone tribal leaders describe as one of the most significant urban land back victories in United States history.

Even as a case awaits a California Supreme Court decision regarding student housing UC Berkeley intends to build on the land, the university went in for the kill on People's Park shortly before midnight on January 3, sending in hundreds of police to clear the park and to make way for a wall of shipping containers. Protesters were ready for the raid, but police closed nearby streets to prevent more from coming to defend the park. Several demonstrators were arrested.

Protesters in Northern California have engaged in direct actions aimed at disrupting business as usual and raising the profile of the call to free Palestine. Activists shut down the Bay Bridge. A US military vessel destined to deliver weaponry to Israel was blocked from leaving the Port of Oakland. A defense contractor's office was locked down. Communiqués posted on Indybay claim sabotage of train lines, as well as a water main at a pro-IDF fundraiser.

The city of San Pablo plans on building a new police headquarters and training facility. The Stop Cop Campus Coalition intends to prevent the new facility from being constructed, arguing such huge amounts of money would be better spent meeting the needs of city residents rather than policing them. On September 30, their second protest was held with a march down the middle of San Pablo Avenue to the site of the proposed "Cop Campus."