San Francisco News

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.

On January 13, demonstrators rallied outside the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco to protest the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Investors Conference which brought together capitalists from around the world who profit from denying health care. They delivered the message that "health care is for people, not for profit" and also connected the genocide of Palestinians to the healthcare system.

On July 24, Israel's Prime Minister came to the US and addressed a joint session of Congress. However, more than a dozen legislators boycotted the speech because they, as do millions gthroughout the world, consider him to be a genocidal war criminal. Throughout Northern California and the US, demonstrations continue to demand Netanyahu's arrest and that the US stop enabling Israel's military as it kills Gazans by the tens of thousands.

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 May 31, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish clerics held a pray-in to demand that Senator Padilla stop supporting Israel's genocide of Palestine. Dressed in black, protesters, many with their small children and carrying effigies of killed Palestinian children, marched in a slow, mournful procession to Padilla's office's street. There they painted a large mural bearing a Papal message of peace while religious leaders addressed the crowd.

On May 11, a procession was organized in San Francisco to mark the two years since Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli military sniper. There still has been no justice for Shireen, and this impunity has led to an unprecedented attack on journalists. An estimated 140 journalists and media workers have been killed in Palestine since October 7, with more arrested, injured, and missing.

In an inexplicable move, the National Marine Fisheries Service has allowed a little known fishery that targets bottom-dwelling sablefish to expand into federally designated habitat for critically endangered Pacific leatherback turtles off the coasts of Oregon and California. The fishery's lines can wrap around sea turtles’ necks or front flippers, anchoring them to heavy pots on the seafloor, resulting in injuries and deaths.

May Day actions this year were organized with urgency in solidarity with the Palestinian people, heeding the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions to stand with Gaza. Workers and peoples around the world called for an immediate ceasefire. Marches and rallies filled the streets across Northern California on May 1, and there was no business as usual at the Port of Oakland as officials closed the port in anticipation of planned protests.

From April 19-22, thousands of young people from across Northern California took part in multiple national days of action calling on President Biden and other decision makers to declare a Climate Emergency and End Fossil Fuels. In San Francisco, Youth Vs. Apocalypse's annual youth-led Earth Day action centered intersectional demands around uplifting Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, countries suffering violence due to western imperialism.

On January 24, SFPD served a search warrant on Indybay, seeking identifying information about the author of a communiqué. The warrant included a non-disclosure order. After pushback from Electronic Frontier Foundation attorneys, SFPD agreed to take no further action on the warrant. Indybay and EFF then filed a motion to quash the warrant and vacate the gag order. On March 7, the gag order was vacated and the warrant was confirmed void.