Peninsula News

On January 20, Women’s March is coordinating a day of action which declares, "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 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.

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.

On August 25, Aleyda Rodriguez was grabbed by ICE agents in East Palo Alto as she, her husband, and their child were leaving to go to work and school. She fainted when agents pulled her out of her car and carried her away. She was brought to Stanford Hospital, kept under watch of armed guards, and five days later discharged to DHS while in a catatonic state. Shortly after, hospital workers and community members staged a protest.

Demonstrators in Palo Alto blockaded the offices of data company Palantir on June 26, and returned for a similar action on July 14, demanding the company stop building surveillance systems for ICE and working with the Israeli government. Actions took place in Palo Alto frequently in the years 2016 to 2020, before Palantir moved its headquarters to Denver. Demonstrations have started up at the remaining Palo Alto office in earnest again.

Activists in Northern California are not waiting for court challenges to stop Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Protests are ongoing and have cropped up outside Tesla showrooms in Berkeley, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Corte Madera and Seaside, amongst other locations. The earliest of these happened on a national day of action on February 15. The action at the Van Ness Tesla location in SF grew to about a thousand people.

Through products like Project Nimbus, Google profits directly by enhancing Israeli surveillance and control over Palestinians. Recent reporting shows Google signed a deal with the Ministry of Defense. On May 14, pro-Palestinian protesters rallied near the entrance to Google’s annual developer conference, many chaining themselves together. Thousands of attendees waiting to enter the Google event were delayed and had to be redirected.