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California

Landmark Agreement Boosts Native Ecosystems On Point Reyes

January 18, 2025 Erik Molvar, Counter Punch. , , ,
A historic agreement has just been struck to settle a decades-long land-use conflict over the future of cattle and wildlife on Point Reyes National Seashore. Under the deal, most of the beef and dairy ranches on Point Reyes National Seashore will depart, and former ranch lands will be managed as a Scenic Landscape Zone according to a new General Management Plan approved by the National Park Service. Tule elk will have the freedom to roam unmolested throughout Point Reyes National Seashore, opportunities for public recreation will improve, and the land will have the opportunity to return to native coastal grassland.

Los Angeles Fires Ravage Communities, Expose Systemic Issues

January 14, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Several wildfires continue to burn in Eaton, Palisades, and other parts of the greater Los Angeles area, incurring a death toll of at least 24 people. Thus far the total area burned has reached nearly 40,000 acres, larger than each of the city limits of San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Boston and Miami. Over 150,000 people have been forced to flee from their homes, and the Eaton and Palisades fires alone have destroyed over 12,000 structures. As of the time of writing, the Palisades fire is only 14% contained and the Eaton fire is 33% contained.  Wildfires are highly unusual in Southern California during this time of year.

Arab Street Corner Bakery Challenges Inequality with Cooperation

January 12, 2025 Mari Nishitani, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , , , , , ,
Reem’s California is an Arab bakery shop in San Francisco. Proudly embracing the slogan “Arab Street Food made with California Love,” this restaurant serves traditional Arab bread infused with fresh, locally sourced ingredients from California. As soon as you step in, you will be welcomed by a vibrant mural titled “Seeds of Love” which includes a quote by Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan: “If it were in my hands, if I were able to flip this world, if I possessed the ability to fill this world with seeds of love.” This space is filled with the inviting aroma of freshly baked bread, a scent infused with the love, care, and mutual support of Palestinian Americans and local community organizers.

LA Fires: The Santa Ana Blowback of Capitalist Climate Change Neglect

January 10, 2025 The Black Alliance for Peace. , , , ,
The incendiary cataclysms in Los Angeles, California remind us that the root cause of the climate crisis exacerbating the fires spreading throughout that city and surrounding areas is fossil fuel production emblematic of runaway capitalism fueled by white “supremacy” ideology, patriarchy, and colonization. And while it’s easy to focus solely on the fires, it’s important to note that the associated smoke will be the main culprit in the loss of life due to environmental racism that has assaulted the public health of Black, Brown, Indigenous and all poor and working class people in Los Angeles and throughout the country.

‘Weather Whiplash’ Is Fueling The Los Angeles Fires

January 10, 2025 Kate Yoder, Grist. , , , ,
It’s supposed to be the rainy season in Southern California, but the last time Los Angeles measured more than a tenth-inch of rain was eight months ago, after the city logged one of the soggiest periods in its recorded history. Since then, bone-dry conditions have set the stage for the catastrophic wildfires now descending upon the metropolis from multiple directions. This quick cycling between very wet and very dry periods — one example of what scientists have come to call “weather whiplash” — creates prime conditions for wildfires: The rain encourages an abundance of brush and grass, and once all that vegetation dries out, it only takes a spark and a gust of wind to fuel a deadly fire.

Demand The Reinstatement Of Dr. Rupa Marya At UC San Francisco

December 30, 2024 Alice Rothchild, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
In September 2024, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) placed Dr. Rupa Marya on paid leave and threatened her medical license. These actions against Dr. Marya, a professor of medicine who has written extensively on the health impacts of systemic oppression, provoked many important questions. After being approached by alarmed students, Dr. Marya raised concerns about the implications of admitting students who may have recently served in the Israeli Defense Force, which has credibly been accused of human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

Coalition Wins Victory For The BDS Movement In California

December 28, 2024 Vish Soroushian, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
Organizers and workers from across Alameda County, California, scored a major victory for the BDS movement on December 10th, successfully pressuring the Board of Supervisors to vote to develop an ethical investment policy that, when implemented, could move tens of millions of dollars in investments out of companies profiting off of Israel’s genocide and system of apartheid. The County Treasurer, who is an independent elected official, also announced that he had already dropped $12 million in bonds in Caterpillar (CAT), which directly profits from Israeli apartheid and the ongoing genocide, after sustained organizing from county residents and organizations requesting him to do so. He further pledged to dump the county’s remaining CAT bond, worth $20 million.

How The LA Tenants Union Fights Displacement With Community

December 26, 2024 Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis, In These Times. , , , ,
The first LA Tenants Union meeting was a ​“renter’s rights workshop.” Soon, we realized, all three parts of that framework had to go. “Renter,” because we had to broaden our understanding of the populations who live in antagonism to rent, including people who live outside. ​“Workshop,” because we couldn’t just offer resources to individual tenants and send them on their way. ​“Rights,” because what few tenants had weren’t easy to use and didn’t stop landlords from acting otherwise. And the right we want to win, the human right to housing, will take another kind of housing system, another kind of state, and another kind of world.

Lessons On Building Independent Progressive Power In A City

December 2, 2024 Steve Early, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
In 2006 Richmond, California became the largest city in the U.S. to elect a Green Party member as its mayor (a record it still holds). The successful candidate, who served eight years in that office, was Gayle McLaughlin, a leading critic of Chevron Corporation, the city’s largest employer and biggest polluter. McLaughlin co-founded the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) and is now an East Bay DSA member as well.  In 2004, she was the sole RPA representative on the council, long dominated by friends of Big Oil. In January 2025, that seven-member body will have a progressive-majority of four, including DSA-backed Vice-Mayor Claudia Jimenez, who was re-elected to the council this fall.  Richmond’s current mayor is Eduardo Martinez, one of just seven city hall leaders in the country who belong to DSA.

Workers On The Picket Line

November 26, 2024 Marie Kelly, Workers World. , , , ,
Union workers at CVS stores in California asserted their rights by holding a three-day Unfair Labor Practice strike at seven CVS store locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The workers are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Not one CVS union member crossed the picket line, which represents 7,000 CVS workers in southern California. The strike came after UFCW filed ULP charges against CVS with the National Labor Relations Board, citing unlawful surveillance of workers, retaliation against union supporters and prohibiting workers from engaging in union activity.

How Advocates Won Bike, Bus And Pedestrian Improvements

November 26, 2024 Maylin Tu, Next City. , , , , , ,
Think people won’t vote for safer streets? Think again. In March, Los Angeles voters passed the Healthy Streets LA ballot measure with over 65% of the vote. What’s the story? L.A. already had a plan — Mobility Plan 2035 passed in 2015 — to create a network of safe routes for biking, driving and walking. There was only one problem: The city had implemented only about 5% of it. In 2020, StreetsLA (a.k.a. the Bureau of Street Services) was taking advantage of the pandemic shutdown to rapidly repave city streets. The transportation advocacy organization Streets For All saw an opportunity to implement complete street improvements during repaving.

Organizing To Strike: How 20,000 California Workers Got Ready

November 19, 2024 Barbara Madeloni, Labor Notes. , , , ,
Michael McGlenn is a clinical psychologist at the University of California-San Diego. Three years ago, feeling the pinch of dues, he looked into dropping the union. He felt that “the best I could do was see the person in front of me and care for them,” he said, and as far as he could see, the union had nothing to do with what happened in his office. That was until a member organizer went to see him. They talked about how his ability to care for his patients was related to turnover and understaffing that could only be fixed through collective action. That conversation not only kept McGlenn in the University Professional and Technical Employees—years later, he is a leader on his campus.

Even California Moved Right With Pro-Prison Ballot Measure

November 17, 2024 Katie Rose Quandt, Truthout. , , , ,
Amid the onslaught of dismal news on Election Day, Californians passed a “tough-on-crime” ballot initiative that will lengthen sentences for some theft and drug crimes — a policy that equity-focused advocates warn will vastly increase incarceration rates in the state. Proposition 36 — also known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act — passed overwhelmingly 70-30 at the ballot box. The measure, which was funded and supported by big box stores, prosecutors and law enforcement groups, is a response to what many perceive as triple crises.

UCSF Health Professionals Charge Leadership With Complicity In Genocide

November 11, 2024 UC People’s Tribunal For Palestine, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , , ,
Almost a year ago, on October 31, 2023, faculty held a press conference in front of the Helen Diller Medical Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in order to amplify the warnings of Palestinian colleagues at al-Ahli Hospital who predicted that Israel’s bombing of the hospital would be the first in a campaign that would decimate Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure. At the time, British-Palestinian surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah, addressing the world while standing among the dead, stated that Israel’s targeting of al-Ahli Hospital signaled a decisive shift, marking the moment when its assault on Gaza “stopped being a war, and became a genocide.”

East Los Angeles Community Victory! Extera Charter Project Stopped!

November 1, 2024 Carlos Montes, Fight Back! News!. , , , ,
Los Angeles, CA – On October 29, East Los Angeles (ELA) residents, led by the community group Centro CSO, scored a major win against a proposed charter school in their neighborhood. Centro CSO members and residents spoke at a meeting of the LA County Board of Supervisors to oppose Extera Charter School’s plan to build a new facility on Gage and Eastman Avenues. Angelina Chavez, a community member voiced her concerns, stating, “This project will bring constant traffic, noise, and pollution to our quiet street.” At the meeting, Extera representatives brought over 60 parents, mostly mothers in Extera T-shirts, to voice support.
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