Feature Archives

Members of the Yemeni-American community and world peace activists grieved on the third anniversary of the loss of 40 children whose lives were taken by a 500 pound US-made, Saudi and United Arab Emirates-led bomb. On August 8 in San Francisco, demonstrators laid down 40 pairs of shoes and 40 backpacks to memorialize each child's life. Speakers at the rally co-hosted by Yemini Alliance Committee said that the US government is complicit in the devastation to life and land as it continues to arm Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Line 3 is a tar sands oil pipeline that violates the treaty rights of Minnesota tribes. On July 16, five activists were cited at a demonstration at the federal building in San Francisco that was organized to draw attention to President Biden's inaction on the issue. The Line 3 pipeline is a project of Canadian fossil fuel company Enbridge, to increase their exports of tar sands oil. Climate and Indigenous rights activists in the Bay Area again stood up to stop the construction of Line 3 in solidarity with a National Day of Action on August 13.

Conservation groups and whale lovers gathered on June 8, World Oceans Day, at Crissy Field Beach in San Francisco to honor the 12 dead whales that have washed up in the Bay Area this year and to call for greater protections. Attendees called for solutions to the three top threats to whales: ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear and climate change. Against the backdrop of the Golden Gate, speakers at the event called for a mandatory 10-knot speed limits for ships passing through whale habitat along California’s coast.

In the absence of an "official" Pride parade this year, San Francisco's LGBTQ community marched down Polk Street to City Hall for the People's March and Rally on June 27. With signs, banners, and costumes, the diverse crowd of roughly a thousand people followed a custom built bus sound truck, proclaiming "Make Racism Wrong Again", and four march leaders. Unlike San Francisco's previous Pride parades, UPS, United Airlines, Apple, and other corporate sponsors were absent.

Actions marking May Day across Northern California demanded worker rights, housing for all, and racial justice, expressing solidarity with the Chilean general strike. Marches and rallies were held in San Francisco, Oakland, San José, Fresno, Mountain View, and other cities. In Oakland, a vacant house was reclaimed and a nighttime march called for abolishing the police. In Alameda, protesters rallied outside the homes of those who called police on Mario Gonzalez.

Before dawn on March 5, the houses of six University of California, Berkeley, officials were struck with graffiti and vandalism. On April 16, another action "repainted" houses believed to be owned by members of the San Francisco Graffiti Advisory Board. On May 2, nine Sullivan Management Company properties were similarly targeted, following a May Day direct action that reclaimed a long-vacant SMC property. On May 7, Oakland police vehicles were damaged.

In continuing resistance to anti-Asian hate crimes, over a thousand people marched from Union Square to a rally at the Embarcadero on March 26. Themed "Rise Up With Asians," the march included Black, Latino, and other allies who carried signs denouncing the continuing U.S. history of crimes against ethnic and racial minorities, particularly Asian women.
Rallies and marches have also been held in Oakland, Redwood City, and other Bay Area cities.