California

A New (Renewable) Energy Tyranny

July 16, 2023 Al Weinrub, Nonprofit Quarterly. Resist! California, Corporatism, Energy, Energy Democracy

There are two very different (and antagonistic) renewable energy models: the utility-centered, centralized energy model—the existing dominant one—and the community-centered, decentralized energy model—what energy justice advocates have been pushing for. Although both models utilize the same technologies (solar generation, energy storage, etc.), they have very different physical characteristics (remote vs local energy resources, transmission lines or not). But the key difference is that they represent very different socio-economic energy development models and very different impacts on our communities and living ecosystems.

California Amazon Strikers, Allies Blockade Massachusetts Warehouse

July 12, 2023 Steve Gillis, Workers World. Resist! Amazon, California, Massachusetts, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

Norwood, Massachusetts - With military-like tactics and discipline, over 300 Teamsters and their supporters converged in the predawn darkness on a sprawling Amazon warehouse (DCB4) and truck barn in the Boston suburb of Norwood on July 8. At exactly 4 a.m., contingents of workers moved out of the shadows of wooded side streets and, with bullhorns blaring, blocked off multiple gates with moving pickets. Picketing was led by two striking Amazon delivery drivers — Cecilia Porter and Brandi Diaz — who had flown in from Palmdale, California.

Housing Can Help Cultivate Connections

July 9, 2023 David Baker, Amanda Loper and Daniel Simons, Next City. Create! California, Community, Housing, Oakland, The Commons

Oakland, California - Shortly after the opening of Tassafaronga Village, a renewed 7.5-acre community in East Oakland, the Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project put down roots in the adjacent park. Founder Kelly Carlisle had been looking for a place to start a community farm and was inspired by the bright new neighborhood. After returning to East Oakland, where she’d spent some of her youth, as an adult, she was on the lookout for a place to make a local impact and seized on the opportunity presented by the new housing. Her nonprofit farm project – named after the Latin phrase for “actions, not words” – set out to invest in youth through urban agriculture, creating a secure and creative outdoor space for East Oakland’s youth and families.

ICE Detainees’ Hunger Strike Is Part Of A Long Fight For Freedom

July 7, 2023 James Anderson, The Real News Network. Resist! California, Detention, Human Rights, Hunger Strike, ICE

At two Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in California’s Central Valley, a cycle of resistance and retaliation has been intensifying over the past three years. Detainees at the facilities, which are operated by for-profit prison company GEO Group, have organized against abysmal conditions, prompting detention center authorities to respond with increasing levels of punitive action. A motion was filed with the Eastern District Court of California on May 18 as part of an ongoing class-action lawsuit against GEO pertaining to the facilities. The filing marked a major escalation in a multipronged campaign being waged by current and former detainees, and outside advocates, to hold ICE and GEO accountable for their mistreatment.

University Of California Is Escalating Its Crackdown On Dissent

July 5, 2023 Rafael Jaime, In These Times. Resist! California, Higher Education, Police, Repression, University of California

Just before the Fourth of July weekend, postdoctoral scholar Jessica Ng, graduate student William Schneider, and another graduate student at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), were arrested by campus police on charges of felony vandalism over $400 and conspiracy to commit a crime. They were arrested at their homes (where their personal items were confiscated including keys, phones and at least one computer), taken to San Diego county jails, and held overnight on $20,000 bail each. Their crime? Allegedly writing slogans like “Living Wage Now” on a concrete campus building — in washable markers and chalk — during a peaceful protest almost a month earlier.

Teamsters Picket Fourth California Warehouse In Expanding Amazon Strike

July 3, 2023 International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Resist! Amazon, California, Strikes, Teamsters, Unions, Worker Rights and Jobs

San Bernardino, California - Striking Amazon delivery drivers and dispatchers from Palmdale, Calif., extended their picket line to an Amazon warehouse in San Bernardino, Calif. (ONT5) today, to demand the e-commerce giant stop its unfair labor practices. The growing strike will continue until Amazon reinstates the unlawfully terminated employees, recognizes the Teamsters, respects the contract negotiated by the workers, and bargains with the Teamsters Union to address low pay and dangerous working conditions. “I work for one of the richest companies in the world, but the pay is so low that I have to work two other jobs as well to provide for my kids,” said Jovana Figueroa, a striking Amazon driver.

Public Banking Efforts Are Gaining Momentum In California

July 2, 2023 Oscar Perry Abello, Next City. Create! California, Finance, Public Banks, Small Businesses

Prince Osemwengie has been looking into every tool in the toolbox to help stem the tide of local businesses being displaced due to rising rents and rising property values in South Los Angeles: Technical assistance and legal aid for small business owners, commercial rent subsidies, tax credits for small business oriented economic development, community ownership of commercial real estate, and all the above. But with the financial system so tilted against local businesses, especially Black- and Brown-owned businesses, he believes the time has come for a more drastic solution: L.A.’s first city-owned bank. And with a recent city council vote, that solution is one step closer.

Hotel Workers Across Southern California Walk Off The Job

July 2, 2023 Helen Li, Suhauna Hussain, Susanne Rust and Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times. Resist! California, Hotel workers, Strike, Unions

Thousands of workers at hotels across Southern California walked off the job early Sunday demanding higher pay and better benefits, beginning what could be the largest U.S. hotel workers’ strike in recent memory. The strike will affect roughly 15,000 cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including the JW Marriott in the L.A. Live entertainment district and luxury destinations like the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. More than 500 workers at the InterContinental and Indigo hotels in downtown Los Angeles were the first to join the strike on Sunday, taking to the streets with picket signs at 6 a.m.

‘Pop-Up Care Villages’ Bring Joy To Community-Led Homelessness Services

July 1, 2023 Kris Kepler, Next City. Create! California, Community, Homelessness, Mutual Aid

A celebration with guests, volunteers and partners sharing conversation, hugs, love and laughter isn’t what most people associate with programs for unhoused people. But joyous gatherings may be the secret to creating trusted relationships that restore dignity, rekindle optimism and fuel a sense of opportunity for community members experiencing homelessness. Local government agencies years ago recognized the need to bring services for unhoused people together in a central location. One solution in use across the country is periodic Homeless Connect events, like the Los Angeles County series organized by council members.

Largest Hotel Workers’ Strike In Modern US History May Begin Soon

June 30, 2023 People's Dispatch. Resist! California, Los Angeles, Protests, Service Industry, Worker Rights and Jobs

On June 22, nearly 200 workers, union leaders, progressive politicians, and other community members were arrested in a mass civil disobedience action. 200 demonstrators sat down in the middle of the road in Los Angeles, subjecting themselves to arrest to demand better wages, pensions, a housing fund, benefits, and safer workloads for UNITE HERE Local 11 workers in Los Angeles. Workers are gearing up to possibly strike after their contract with Hyatt, IHG, Hilton and Marriott hotels in LA expires on June 30. Local 11 workers authorized a strike on June 8 with 96% approval. This strike would involve over 15,000 union hotel workers, the largest hotel strike in modern US history.

People Power Battery Collective

June 27, 2023 Shareable, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Batteries, California, Collective, Energy, Mutual Aid

Smoke from wildfires raging up north in Canada blew down to engulf many major U.S. cities in an apocalyptic glow that left New York City with the worst air quality in the world. For those of us in California, seeing the apocalyptic images from the east coast going viral brought us back to the many times over the last decade that we experienced the same thing — wildfires raging from northern parts of the state like the Camp Fire in Butte County that completely incinerated the town of Paradise, or the fires in southern California, or Sonoma County, or the Santa Cruz Mountains — there’s too many to really keep track of. Here in California, one of the many impacts of wildfires that we know all too well has been the loss of power — of electricity.

How Students Jumpstarted A Bold New Campaign For Debt Abolition

June 22, 2023 Eric Stoner, Waging Nonviolence. Organize! California, Higher Education, Student Activism, Student Debt

The historic movement victory to forgive student debt won last summer is under relentless attack. At the beginning of June, the Senate passed a bill blocking President Biden’s debt cancellation plan, which he subsequently vetoed. However, the plan remains on hold as the Supreme Court considers dubious challenges to it. Another blow came with the signing of the bipartisan debt ceiling deal that will restart student loan payments at the end of August. In response to these ongoing threats, students are once again taking action — rallying outside the Supreme Court in February and organizing a sit-in at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s office on Capitol Hill in May.

Big Dairy Is Milking California Dry

June 22, 2023 Ian Whitaker, In These Times. Resist! California, Dairy, Environment, Food and Agriculture

Planada, Calif. — Rita Rodriguez had prepared everything for her 57th birthday, a backyard family cookout with wine, hot dogs, popcorn, kebabs and a projector to watch Pete’s Dragon under the stars. Then came the smell of manure. “It just hits and you can’t really do anything about it,” Rodriguez says, recalling how they were forced to move inside because of the industrial Hillcrest Dairy nearby. “It was just so toxic that we couldn’t sit out there.” When Hillcrest Dairy arrived in Merced County in 2002 — originally permitted for a herd of 3,885 cows — lifelong residents Rita and husband David thought nothing of it. By 2012, though, the number of cows had more than doubled.

Who’s Unhoused In California?

June 22, 2023 Sam Levin, The Guardian. Educate! California, Homelessness, Housing, Racial disparities

Nearly half of all unhoused adults in California are over the age of 50, with Black residents dramatically overrepresented, according to the largest study of the state’s homeless population in decades. University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research released on Tuesday also revealed that 90% of the state’s homeless population lost their housing in California, with 75% of them now living in the same county where they were last housed. The study further found that nearly nine out of 10 people reported that the cost of housing was the main barrier to leaving homelessness.

A Juneteenth Call To Close Prisons

June 20, 2023 Mansa Musa, The Real News Network. Resistance Report California, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights, Juneteenth

Juneteenth has become a federal holiday—yet prison slavery under the 13th Amendment continues. Uprooting the prison industrial complex is vital to completing the abolition of slavery. In California, the Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) coalition aims to close 10 state prisons in the next 5 years as part of the People’s Plan for Prison Closure. CURB Executive Director Amber-Rose Howard joins Rattling the Bars to discuss this bold plan. Amber-Rose Howard is a poet, public speaker and organizer from Pomona, California. She currently serves as Executive Director of CURB.

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