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Over 400 people organized by Californians for a Fair Water Policy, a statewide coalition opposing Gov. Brown’s massive water export tunnels, attended a rally on December 13 at the State Capitol protesting the Bay Delta Conservation Plan as the 120 day comment period for the BDCP and environmental documents began. Tunnel opponents pointed out “fatal flaws” of the tunnels they said would be too costly, create no new water and do nothing to increase regional water self-reliance.
On November 29, Black Friday 2013, Walmart employees, family members, and allies protested at hundreds of Walmart stores across the U.S. to demand improved working conditions, including increased wages, full-time jobs, and an end to retaliatory practices against those who stand up for workers' rights. Numerous workers chose to strike for the day, despite the fact that Walmart commonly fires striking and protesting workers. Strikers were members of OUR Walmart, a non-union workers group that draws support from the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.
In Roseville, over 100 people including Walmart Associates, labor union leaders, and community activists converged on the Walmart on Pleasant Grove Boulevard. “We're standing with Walmart Associates across the nation today,” said Meisha Bradley, who works at the Florin Road Walmart and is a member of OUR Walmart. “I consider this protest to be a big success - we got young and old people here today and we’re going to win this fight together." Roseville police arrested 15 people for failure to disperse while blocking a street near the store.
In Clovis, protesters held signs in front of the Shaw avenue Walmart. Walmart employee Anthony Goytia said, “I am a father of three. With the insufficient hours and the low pay that I get at Walmart, I will make around $12,000 this year. I don’t need cable or to own a house, but I shouldn’t have to rely on food stamps or donate plasma just to feed my kids when I have a job.”
In San Leandro, more than six hundred people protested at the Hesperian Boulevard Walmart. The Brass Liberation Orchestra performed. San Leandro police arrested 15 people for failure to disperse as they blocked a street near the store. In the evening, a large dollar sign in the parking lot was set on fire.
 Roseville report |
Fresno/Covis report |
 San Leandro announcement |
OUR Walmart website
Previous Related Indybay Feature:
Richmond and San Leandro Walmart Workers Protest in National Action on Black Friday 2012
Friends and family from coast to coast are mourning the loss of 28-year-old Anthony Messer, who died in Santa Cruz on the evening of December 2. Anthony was well known across California as a veteran of the U.S. military, a political activist, a traveler, and a generally friendly person who exuded positivity. Funeral services were held for him on December 9 in Chipley, Florida.
Students and workers at UC Santa Cruz blocked both entrances and shut the campus down in support of a University of California-wide unfair labor practices strike on November 20, called for by AFSCME 3299. The strike was called in response to a, "coordinated campaign of illegal intimidation, coercion, and threats," against UC Patient Care and Service Workers who participated in a walk out in May over unsafe staffing levels at UC supported hospitals.
University of California student academic workers from around the state who serve as union negotiators gathered at UC Santa Cruz to meet with UC managers during the second day of the northern California bargaining session. To bring more voices to the process, a march to the bargaining location in the Humanities building was held and the group attempted to coax managers out of hiding with a sing along.
On the morning of October 22nd, supporters and members of some 50 families of those executed by California police will converge on Sacramento as part of the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. They will demand an end to police violence from California Attorney General Kamala Harris. They will demand proper investigations into their loved ones' deaths — not whitewashes performed by police investigating themselves and District Attorneys refusing to thoroughly investigate the police.
The event is being organized across multiple channels, including families of victims, The Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and Anonymous. One of the key organizing groups is the Duenez family and supporters. Ernesto Duenez Jr. was gunned down on June 8, 2011, in Manteca, California, in what many have called a police execution. John Moody, who killed Duenez, was cleared of the shooting of Ernesto Duenez Jr. on December 13, 2012 by the county District Attorney, just a day before the police video of the incident was released to the public. And so, with essentially no check, police murders and assaults continue; the ranks of those killed are added to in the United States at an unparalleled pace.
After the rally In Sacramento, there will be another in Oakland at 2:30pm at 73rd and International Blvd. and one at 4:30pm at the Fruitvale BART Station. There will also be events held in Fresno, Hayward, Redding, Los Angeles, San Diego, and other cities in California and across the United States.
Read More |
Oakland events |
October 22nd Coalition list of events
On October 5, the eighth U.S. fur farm raid since July saw 2,000 mink freed from a farm in New Holstein, Wisconsin. Across the U.S., over 10,000 animals have been released since July — a level of activity not seen since the late 1990s. The latest raid also marks the 100th (known) release of animals from a fur farm since the Animal Liberation Front officially began it's fur farm campaign in 1995. The ALF appears to be targeting newly discovered farms, with six of the eight farms visited this summer having been made public in the last two years.
As the U.S. government marched towards war with Syria in late August, anti-war groups and activists across the state responded with two weeks of emergency demonstrations.
U.S. air and naval forces off the Syrian coast are ready to launch missile and air strikes at any time, and Britain and France, the former colonizers of the region, are set to join in the assault. Activists say the U.S. is taking a page from the second Iraq War playbook, and is once again using WMDs as justification for an attack; this time against forces loyal to Assad without unequivocal evidence of who is responsible. Groups say the U.S. is entering a war without a coherent plan or clear objectives, which can only lead to a disaster in which the primary victims will be the sons and daughters of Syria.
The ANSWER Coalition organized a series of protests, and actions were planned for the offices of Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer. Events were also held at well known anti-war protest locations such as Peace Crossroads in San Jose and on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz.
Fresno:  No Attack on Syria!
San Francsico: San Francisco: Hands off Syria! |  Anti-War Rally against proposed attack on Syria
San Jose: No War on Syria Demonstration at Peace Crossroads in San José
Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Protest Against U.S. War in Syria
On August 17, two members of the 'Walmart 60' picketed the Salinas Walmart store. They and their supporters continue to ask that members of Wallmart's Board of Directors reinstate the more than 60 workers, known as the Walmart 60, who were fired after protesting working conditions at the retail giant. A number of recent events protesting working conditions at Walmarts in the greater Bay Area lead up to a march in San Francisco on September 5 as part of a national day of action in support of the striking workers who lost their jobs.
Walmart's poor treatment of its Associates was put into context when it was revealed in a recent study that each Walmart store costs taxpayers nearly $1 million in government subsidies for programs such as food stamps and other public assistance that struggling workers rely on to survive. The Associates want the public to know that the vast majority of Walmart workers aren't paid enough to afford basic health care, to pay for rent and utilities, or to keep food on the table, yet the Walton family who controls the retail chain has more wealth than the bottom 42% of American earners combined.
The protest at the Salinas Walmart took place on August 17, the same day Walmart Board Chair and Walton heir Rob Walton planned to race two of his race cars, worth more than $16 million dollars, at the annual Monterey Motorsports Reunion at nearby Laguna Seca Raceway. "I'm here today in Salinas to tell the shoppers and everybody out here in Salinas that Rob Walton of Walmart is really supplying his 16 million dollar race car that he is doing this weekend with taxpayers money," Dominck Ware of the Walmart 60 said.
Read More with Video and Photos |
See Also: Workers United Will Never Be Divided! SF Rally And March To Defend Fired WalMart Workers
Previous Coverage: Richmond and San Leandro Walmart Workers Protest in National Action on Black Friday 2012
Long-term trends show that climate change is impacting the Lake Tahoe Basin with drier years, less precipitation, higher lake temperatures and projected lower lake levels. These conclusions are found within the 2013 Tahoe State of the Lake Report released on August 7 by the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at the University of California, Davis.
2012 was a dry year for Lake Tahoe, with precipitation 71 percent of the long-term average. While 2012 was not considered an unusual weather year at Lake Tahoe, consequences of climate change could be seen. Annual average surface temperature was 52.8 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest ever recorded for Lake Tahoe. Snow has decreased as a fraction of total precipitation, from an average of 51 percent in 1910 to 36 percent in 2012. A continued long-term trend of fewer days with below-freezing temperatures caused snow melt to peak on May 4, earlier than historical conditions. Lake level experienced a net loss in 2012.
UC Davis researchers have been continuously monitoring Lake Tahoe's clarity, physics, chemistry and biology since 1968. This long-term data set helps inform and measure progress toward Tahoe's restoration goals. In addition to clarity, algae and weather data, this year's report describes new research that assesses the impact of 21st century climate change trends on the lake; uses an autonomous, underwater glider to examine water quality across the lake; and measures not just clarity, but the quantifiable "blueness" of Lake Tahoe along the color spectrum.
 Read More with a PDF of the Report
Assembly member Das Williams (D-Santa Barbara) and eight other California lawmakers are calling on the Department of Interior and Environmental Protection Agency to investigate reports of fracking (hydraulic fracturing) beneath the seabed floor off the California Coast. Assembly members Mark Stone, Marc Levine, Richard Bloom, Adrin Nazarian, Bob Wieckowski and Senators Fran Pavley, Noreen Evans and Hannah-Beth Jackson have signed on in support of Williams' letter to federal regulators.
The legislators are asking for a strict review and possible new regulations of fracking in the ocean - less than 8 months after the completion of a network of questionable state "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling and spills, pollution, wind and wave energy projects, military testing and all human impacts other than sustainable fishing and gathering.
On August 3, it was reported that oil companies have used hydraulic fracturing at least a dozen times to “force open cracks beneath the seabed" in the Santa Barbara Channel. The Santa Barbara Channel was the site of the tragic 1969 oil spill that killed countless birds and marine life. “The fact that hydraulic fracturing is occurring off our California coast with little or no review is a frightening thought,” Williams said. “We, as residents and noble citizens, must stand together to call for greater scrutiny. We cannot take chances that could irreparably harm us all.”
Read More | See Also: Ocean fracking should be no surprise | Oil lobby leads California spending as ocean fracking proceeds | California Coastal Commission Urged to Protect Coast From Offshore Fracking | Lawsuit filed against fracking as oil lobbyist says it's 'safe' | Californians Oppose Expanded Fracking | Oil company wants to expand drilling as MPAs become effective | California's Fracking Regulatory Bill: Less Than Zero
Previous Coverage: New California Water Grab for Fracking and Agribusiness
On July 31, community members in Santa Cruz marched to the county jail as part of "Hunger for Justice," an international day of protests and events held in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike in state detention facilities across California since July 8. According to the organization Sin Barras, 37 prisoners in the Santa Cruz County Jail have also joined the hunger strike.
The federal government announced on August 2 the start of two new analyses of fracking risks to California public lands. The Bureau of Land Management will begin developing a new “environmental impact statement” for fracking in Central California, along with a statewide independent scientific assessment of the dangerous oil extraction process. Completion of the environmental impact statement and scientific review are likely to take more than a year.
At the UC Regents meeting on July 18 at the UCSF Mission Bay Campus, students and workers protested the appointment of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napaolitano as the president of the UC education system because of her role in targeting immigrant youth and immigrant workers.
Protesters demanded that the UC Board of Regents reject their appointment of Napalitano to be the chancellor of UC because of her record as secretary of the Homeland Security Department in terrorizing and arresting over 1 million immigrant workers including UC students. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom who was at the meeting, defended the appointment.
In a separate press release, the UC Student-Workers Union, UAW 2865, stated, "Although Napolitano has political and managerial experience, she does not have the academic qualifications, scholarly expertise, or other experience in education that would be appropriate for heading an institution of higher learning. Napolitano’s experience at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) qualifies her to manage a security, law enforcement, or disaster management agency, but not the world’s premier public university system."
Read More with Photos | On the Recent Nomination of Janet Napolitano for UC President | Napolitano to Head University of California
Following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman, on July 13, hundreds took to the streets in Napa, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francsisco, San Jose, and Santa Cruz. At rallies, candle light vigils, and marches, community members have called for justice for Trayvon and an end to the racial profiling and police abuses that occur on a day-to-day basis across the country. Demonstrations for justice continue locally and nationally.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit on July 10 challenging San Benito County’s approval of a major new oil development in the Salinas Valley watershed. The 15 new oil wells approved by the county last month will use cyclic steam injection, a dangerous and polluting form of oil extraction that targets heavy crude. The new wells would be located in an area used by California condors, which are critically endangered, along with other wildlife.
On July 4th, about 100 people marched from Oscar Grant Plaza to the Glenn Dyer Alameda County Jail as riot police staged inside the Oakland police department headquarters. Marchers were acting in solidarity with hunger strikers in the SHU (Special Housing Units), "prisons within prisons," where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for years and even decades. Prisoners within the SHU can only leave the isolation units after they inform on others, a policy called "debriefing," even if they have no information to give to prison authorities.
Marchers played music, passed out informational flyers, wrote graffiti slogans and put up informational stickers, and upon reaching the jail on 7th and Clay streets, shot off fireworks for about twenty minutes. The fireworks lit up the night sky and prisoners responded by throwing up raised fists in the window and turning lights on and off to let those know outside that they could hear them.
On July 8th, California prisoners began a hunger strike and work stoppage in order to insist upon five core demands that the governor and the Department of Corrections have failed to implement since negotiations surrounding the previous hunger strikes of 2011.
Read More | PrisonerHungerStrikeSolidarity.wordpress.com
July 13, Corcoran State Prison: Statewide Mobilization to Support Prisoner Hunger Strike
Pelican Bay State Prison, Crescent City: Demo To Support Prisoner Hunger Strike & END Long Term Solitary Confinement
Oakland: California Prisoners Set to Hunger Strike July 8th | Rally in Support of CA HUNGER STRIKERS!
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