Feature Archives

At vigils recalling Ruth Bader Ginsburg's groundbreaking life, speakers said that many civil rights, particularly abortion rights, could be rolled back. Raising candles, many demonstrators observed silence in her honor, while others voiced serious concern about what her death would mean to the composition of the US Supreme Court and ultimately what it could mean for justice and equality for women and all historically oppressed people.

Facebook blocked hundreds of accounts days before a September 21 online event targeting the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The pipeline is set to cut through sovereign Wet’suwet’en land, defiantly ignoring hereditary chiefs of their rights, title, and consent for the project. The project would lock in decades of increased fracked gas and the impacts to climate, air, water and the risks posed to Indigenous camps built along the route.

The police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and too many more, have mobilized unprecedented numbers of people to take to the streets and declare that Black Lives Matter. Black people are 300% more likely to be killed at the hands of police than white people. Black people have been 28% of those killed by police since 2013 despite being only 13% of the population. A central feature of the current uprisings is the call to defund police departments, a demand also taking root in Santa Cruz.

Despite limited concessions by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy following public outcry against mail delaying tactics, community members and postal workers rallied to demand that Congress save the US Postal Service in protests across the US. Naturally the San Francisco Bay Area was no exception. Many here have long been concerned about privatization schemes. A national day of action on August 22 drew protests throughout the Bay Area.

On August 19, Facebook took down multiple pages they believe to be connected with crimethinc.com and itsgoingdown.org, among other anarchist and anti-fascist projects, officially on the pretext that they “support violence.” A joint statement issued in response says Facebook lumping anarchists and anti-fascists together with far-right militias, who explicitly support the state and especially the current administration, is a strategic move to muddy the issues.

Protests against ICE detention centers are continuing. On August 8, a large crowd of demonstrators held a rally in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza and then marched to the ICE building at 630 Sansome Street. They demanded that Gov. Newsom and AG Becerra immediately end all California cooperation with ICE. While speakers addressed the crowd, “bloody” red hands were imprinted on the building’s entrance and walls.

On July 25, about 2,000 people gathered at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland to stand in solidarity with the uprising in Portland, Oregon. They expressed outrage at Trump’s order to send federal agents into U.S. cities including Portland. Many spoke out against systemic racism, institutionalized white supremacy and the need to defund and dismantle the police. Others expressed outrage with Trump’s order to send Federal agents into U.S. cities under a racist “Law and Order” pretext.