US News

As of March 2024, 894,898 acres across the western United States are slated to be logged under a "community protection" measure proposed by the U.S. Forest Service. Resistance is growing. In addition to a lawsuit filed against the agency by a coalition in California, a National Day of Forest-Climate Action will take place on May 28, and the group Lost Sierra Forest Defense is organizing a Climate Action Camp in Plumas County from May 23-29.

Students at UCB, Cal Poly Humboldt, Stanford, Sonoma State, SF State, Sacramento State, USF, UCSC and UCD joined students at colleges throughout the country to establish occupations in support of Palestinians. Outrage at Israel's attempted genocide in Gaza has produced a movement of encampments at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, MIT, NYU, UT Austin, and more. Police have arrested hundreds, and yet the protests persist and expand.

On January 20, thousands traveled to San Francisco to protest the continued availability of abortion. Lacking local support, the Catholic Church hires dozens of busses to transport their flock for the Walk for Life annually. As in previous years, their event this year attracted members of hate groups, with some giving nazi salutes. Counter-protesters assembled in front the San Francisco Public Library to confront marchers as they passed.

Protesters in Northern California have engaged in direct actions aimed at disrupting business as usual and raising the profile of the call to free Palestine. Activists shut down the Bay Bridge. A US military vessel destined to deliver weaponry to Israel was blocked from leaving the Port of Oakland. A defense contractor's office was locked down. Communiqués posted on Indybay claim sabotage of train lines, as well as a water main at a pro-IDF fundraiser.

Millions of people worldwide are standing in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel wages war on Gaza. Marches and rallies have demanded a ceasefire, the end of US military support for Israel, and that Palestine be freed once and for all. Every week there are more protests in cities large and small, including in many that have never seen a pro-Palestinian demonstration. In San Francisco, tens of thousands have marched against Israel's war on Gaza.

Over 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced and face serious malnutrition and dehydration. Nearly 15,000 have been killed, a third of whom are children. Around 50% of all residential housing in the strip has been destroyed. Israel has killed over 200 medical and aid workers, and 65 journalists. It has bombed and raided hospitals, schools, UN facilities, and more, allowing in barely enough supplies to keep the population from starving to death.

At sunrise on October 19, youth climate activists associated with the group Occupy Beale gave a speech decrying the imperialist military-industrial complex, responsible for countless ecological atrocities, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. Four activists, banners in hand, then marched across the demarcation line at the Schneider gate of Beale Air Force Base. Military police detained three of them for over an hour.

The newly-formed Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) will hold its inaugural bicoastal conference, Battling the “IHRA Definition”: Theory & Activism, on October 13-14. Through the lens of research on structural racism, state violence, and social justice movements, the conference will analyze political campaigns that seek to codify the “IHRA definition” of antisemitism, and efforts to oppose IHRA policies.

More than 8,500 workers have formed unions at over 340 Starbucks stores in the U.S. With thousands more to go, customers and labor advocates are hitting the streets this summer to keep pressure on the union-busting company. On July 31, the national bus tour of Starbucks workers made a stop to rally at San Francisco City Hall. On August 7, Starbucks customers across the U.S. held a day of action targeting locations not yet unionized.

From the solidarity website: "Peppy and Krystal are exceptional and caring humans. For decades they have been active participants in solidarity with oppressed and marginalized people. Their tireless advocacy and community building has put them in the crosshairs of state repression. They will both undoubtedly face a long and arduous court process in the months, if not years, ahead.... Today they need our support."