US News

On January 4, thousands of people rallied and marched in Northern California, proclaiming "US Out Of Iraq" and "No War With Iran." Various groups, including ANSWER Coalition and Code Pink, called for a rally and march in San Francisco before the U.S. assassinated Iranian general Qassem Suleimani near the Baghdad airport on January 3. That extrajudicial killing swelled the turnout in San Francisco while anti-war activists quickly announced similar actions at other Northern California locations then and throughout the month. A Global Day of Protest is scheduled for Saturday, January 25.

On the evening of December 17, the day before the US House of Congress was set to vote on Articles of Impeachment against Donald Trump, the nation erupted into hundreds of demonstrations urging a vote to impeach. The San Francisco Bay area was no exception. Organized by Indivisible, MoveOn and others, there were demonstrations locally in over forty cities and towns. The following day, December 18, the House voted to impeach Trump on two counts related to his scheme to get Ukraine to announce investigations into his political rivals: Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress.

Two decades is a long time and a lot has happened in the movement for global justice since the first Independent Media Center was established in preparation for the World Trade Organization protests that began in Seattle on November 30, 1999. The global IMC network exploded on the scene in cities around the world within a few years of N30. It didn't come easy, though. Volunteers have been arrested, jailed, maimed, and even killed by state forces. While the network has contracted in the intervening years, Independent Media Centers continue to make major contributions supporting worldwide struggles for justice.

On November 1, Nancy Pelosi said she is "not a big fan of Medicare for All." Likewise, U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo, who chairs the Subcommittee on Health, has been criticized for being "in the pocket of Big Pharma." At rallies in front of both Congresswomen's offices this fall, protesters asked why neither of them represent what their constituents want. Both Congresswomen will face opposition from candidates who support Medicare-for-All. The primary election in California is set for March 3, 2020.

Leon Kunstenaar writes: While the concentration camps and violence at the border are in the news, the less visible, massive number of deportations from areas away from the border explodes.... At D.H.S., after much personnel turnover and turmoil, Trump no longer needs to cope with pushback from various officials resisting his policies. He is now surrounded by extreme ideologues in the mold of Stephen Miller. Rather than large headline generating raids and impressive but useless walls, he will use quiet but continual attacks on individuals enabled by “big data”.

On October 4, the Trump administration dismissed protests and made a formal decision to open 725,500 acres of public lands and mineral estate across California’s Central Coast and the Bay Area to new oil and gas drilling and fracking. The public lands the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has earmarked for leasing are in the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Merced, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Stanislaus. The move will end a more than five-year-old moratorium on leasing federal public land and mineral estate in the state to oil companies.

Trump tried and failed to keep his September 17 Silicon Valley fundraiser location secret, putting out misleading information to get protestors to go to the wrong place or simply give up. Then, he misused secret service and local police to try to block protestors from the only road with access to the Palo Alto Republican fundraiser. Despite his efforts, protesters managed to discover the true location as a home owned by Sun MicroSystems co-founder Scott McNealy and created a spectacle that the presidential motorcade and shuttle buses with rich donors would see.

Climate Strikes began on September 20, three days out from the United Nation's climate emergency summit in New York, and continued to September 27. As young climate strikers have shown, there is huge power in sustained action week after week to match the scale of the climate emergency. Millions walked out from home, work, school or university to declare a climate emergency and to show politicians what action in line with climate science and justice means.

As separatists and government-backed forces battle for control of the Yemeni capital, innocent civilians continue to suffer. On August 16, Yemeni-Americans and allies gathered in front of San Francisco's Federal Building where they called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to lead the House in progressive foreign policies as regards the war in Yemen. They want the House-Senate conference on the National Defense Authorization Act to include the Smith-Khanna amendment to end all U.S. participation in the Saudi-led war in Yemen and the Malinowski amendment to stop bomb sales to Saudi Arabia.

Angry activists mobilized on August 16, blocking the cafeteria entrance at Palantir Technologies' headquarters in Palo Alto. They were protesting the $20 billion data-mining company's ICE Investigative Case Management contract that enables Immigration and Custom Enforcement to track the every move of undocumented immigrants. After Palantir announced on August 20 that they would be renewing their ICE contract, the Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps Bay Area called for an emergency mass mobilization.

In response to reports that CEO of SoulCycle and Equinox Stephen Ross will be holding a fundraiser for the Donald Trump reelection campaign, members of the LGBT community launched a boycott of these businesses with a protest in front of Soul Cycle's Harvey Milk Plaza location on August 7 in San Francisco. Demonstrators said they are angry that the owner of the fitness center chains, who also owns the Miami Dolphins, is supporting a racist, homophobic, and sexist president. They are calling on current members to cancel their memberships and decline to renew them.

Plans for a mass roundup of migrant families that have received deportation orders, announced on June 21, set off protests throughout the nation as Americans reacted in horror. Outraged particularly by eye witness reports of mistreatment and deaths of migrant children held in barbarous conditions, everyday citizens joined long-time activists to say "never again" to incarceration based on race or citizenship. People throughout the Bay Area and across the nation demonstrated June 22 through July 5. Indybay has coverage from many of these demos. Another round of protests will start with an international day of action on July 12.

A "Wear Orange" walk across the Golden Gate Bridge on June 8 recognized the gun violence epidemic and . honored its victims. Orange was the color Hadiya Pendleton, murdered at the age of fifteen in Chicago, wore and has become the symbol of the movement for gun safety laws. It was one of hundreds of events across the country organized by chapters of Mom Demands Action for Gun Sense in America and other organizations that promote non-violence. At the Marin overlook, protesters holding photos of lost loved ones gathered around the statue, The Lonely Sailor.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Wild Fish Conservancy sued the Trump administration in April for mismanaging West Coast salmon fisheries and harming critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales, a violation of the Endangered Species Act. That orca population has dropped to just 75 individuals, mostly because declining salmon runs have left them without enough to eat. The National Marine Fisheries Service responded by committing to expanded designation of critical habitat off the coasts of Washington, Oregon and California.