California News

A revolutionary student writes, "On January 20th students across Nevada County walked out to protest the fascist federal government, and its supporters in the school board. Building on the walkouts from last year, students self organized walkouts from at least six schools in Nevada County, convening in downtown Grass Valley. Despite attempts by liberal elements to co-opt the movement, the students stood fast in their revolutionary intent."

On January 20, Women’s March coordinated a day of action which declared, "We will walk out of work, school, and commerce because a Free America begins the moment we stop cooperating with fascism. One year into Trump’s second regime, we face an escalating fascist threat: ICE raids on our communities, troops occupying our cities, families torn apart, attacks on our trans siblings, mass surveillance, and terror used to keep us silent."

On December 17, activists with the animal rights network Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) rallied at Governor Gavin Newsom’s office, urging him to pardon jailed animal rescuer Zoe Rosenberg and ensure her immediate release. Ms. Rosenberg, a UC Berkeley student and animal cruelty investigator with DxE, was convicted of felony conspiracy and sentenced to 90 days in jail for rescuing four sick chickens from Perdue’s Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse.

On December 16, over 100 people from Bay Area faith communities shut down ICE’s San Francisco Field Office at 630 Sansome Street, chaining themselves across the two main entrances to stop ICE from kidnapping community members at their immigration check-ins. 630 Sansome also serves as ICE’s regional headquarters. Between Jan. 20 and June 26, 2,123 people were kidnapped by ICE in what they call the San Francisco "Area of Responsibility."

CrimethInc., subMedia and the Coordinadora Anarquista Tejiendo Libertad have prepared MERCENARIES, a video and poster campaign to counter ICE recruitment. They ask, "Please help us circulate these everywhere that people are at risk ... While Trump’s henchmen falsely claim that ICE is targeting 'criminals,' the real wrongdoers are those who are willing to do harm to their neighbors in return for a bribe."

On November 13, over one thousand union baristas launched a “Red Cup Rebellion” unfair labor practice strike protesting Starbucks’ union busting and failure to finalize a fair union contract. The open-ended strike begins with 65 stores across 40+ cities and comes after six months of Starbucks refusing to offer new proposals to address workers’ demands for better staffing, higher pay, and resolution of hundreds of unfair labor practice charges.

On October 24, youth from 50 middle schools, high schools, and colleges in California walked out of class in a coordinated statewide action demanding that oil and gas corporations be held financially accountable for the damage caused by their pollution. Students called on lawmakers to pass the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, SB 684/AB 1243. While not passed this legislative session, students and climate advocates are working to pass it next year.

Pesticides continue to be pervasive in the air throughout California’s agricultural regions, according to the 2023 Air Monitoring Network Report released in September by the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR). Weekly samples collected at DPR’s four air monitors detected 19 different pesticides at trace or quantifiable levels and 8 pesticides at quantifiable levels, with 80% of samples including at least one pesticide detection.

After days of Donald Trump threatening to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents began massing at Coast Guard Island in Alameda on October 23. Residents across the Bay Area responded that same day by organizing emergency rallies. At Coast Guard Island, authorities used at least one flash bang grenade on demonstrators. Shortly after the confrontation, Trump walked back his troop threat.

Events were organized across northern California to commemorate two years of resistance to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Calls were widely made for an end to the forced starvation of the Gazan population, and for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel. In Oakland, community members marched to demand an arms embargo; at UC Berkeley, students organized a mass walkout; in Petaluma, activists conducted their long-time weekly picket.

The SF Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations is calling on the University of California, San Francisco to reinstate professor of medicine Dr. Rupa Marya and publicly affirm that it will safeguard academic freedom and free speech. Dr. Marya was terminated from UCSF in May 2025, which came after her medical privileges were suspended in September 2024 over social media posts in which she criticized Israel’s genocide in Gaza.