FireWorks writes: From the blockading of Google buses to the blockading of major freeways. From riots against white supremacy and police in Oakland to anti-tech and gentrification brawls in San Francisco, 2014 was an explosive year. Battles erupted in a variety of places and around various issues. Against surveillance, against the eviction of squats and homeless camps, against Israeli attacks on Gaza at the Port of Oakland, and in workplaces and neighborhoods across the region. While the bay changed for the worse: thousands were evicted and displaced, the cost of living and rent soared, poverty, deportations, and cuts to basic services grew, and police across the region continued to go on the offensive killing and brutalizing many; people fought back in new and exciting ways. This year in review looks at some of the key struggles and outbreaks of rebellion that shook the bay area to its core.

2014 was a year of explosive anger, highlighted most graphically against gentrification, displacement, and a white supremacist system of policing and incarceration. But 2014 was also a time of many different and varied struggles – and one of the most exciting things by the end of the year was to see these different veins of contestation coming together. This review will look at some of the struggles, actions, and social upheavals which rocked the bay area and how everyday people took part in them.

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