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California

How Farmers Responded When Trump Administration Stopped Paying Them

Every year brings its own unique challenges for California farmers: water shortages, fires, finding laborers to do the work, bureaucrats in Sacramento adding new requirements and fees, and more. But the second term of President Donald Trump has made this year very different. As part of deep cuts across much of the government, the administration of President Donald Trump chopped $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture almost without warning. This led to widespread financial pain that affected already struggling farmers and left hungry patrons of food banks in many parts of the country desperate for other sources of healthy food. On Feb. 28, California officials warned farmers who had grown food for schools and food banks that there was funding only for work done up to Jan. 19, despite the fact that farmers had submitted invoices for work and harvests past that date.

The SEIU Strike Is An Opportunity To Build Collective Struggle

On Monday, April 28, more than 55,000 Los Angeles County workers, members of my union, Service Employees International (SEIU-721), began what is planned to be a two-day strike in response to unfair labor practices by the county. The SEIU represents workers who provide a huge range of vital services to the county, from sanitation and parks and recreation workers, to mental, public health, and homeless outreach workers. The union membership authorized the strike by 99%. The union leadership called the unfair labor practices (ULP) strike because the county has failed to fairly negotiate a new contract for months now

These Black Architects Are Helping Rebuild Altadena After The LA Wildfires

Carla Flagg remembers the joy of growing up in west Altadena. “We had these great pool parties where all the cousins and everybody would come to the Fair Oaks house,” she says, smiling, as tears welled up in her eyes. Her parents owned the house and passed it down to her sister and her sister’s kids. “ We had that home for 50-some odd years, and there are still people who know the original phone number.” Flagg’s family home was one of some 9,400 structures that were destroyed in the Eaton Fire in January. It was also one of many homes passed down within the Black community by family members. Discriminatory redlining of the 1960s steered her parents away from Pasadena, and realtors encouraged them to purchase on the west side of Altadena.

A Santa Ana Community Land Trust Energizes Innovation

It was a cool Saturday morning in Santa Ana, California, earlier this year. At the corner of Walnut and Daisy, an urban farm displayed rows of beautiful carrots and greens. Shipping containers – turned into coffee-shop business space – were painted in blues, oranges, and greens. Community artists speaking English and Spanish gathered at the center of the area to add the finishing touches to an artisan production shed. Ana Urzua, executive director of Cooperacion Santa Ana, looked out at the nearly completed construction. Ten years ago, this had only been a dream. In 2015, when the city announced plans to widen two large streets of Santa Ana and began purchasing neighboring homes and storefronts to demolish, Urzua was part of a community coalition that knew they would need to organize against it innovatively.

San Jose State University Students Protest Revocation Of Student Visas

San Jose, CA – On April 9, around 60 San Jose State students and community members gathered by the campus’s Cesar Chavez arch to protest the recent revocation of student visas by the federal government. According to San Jose State University president Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson, 12 San Jose State University International students had their F-1 visas revoked. The revocations came as part of a wave of visa revocations by the federal government, most of which are student visas. As soon as the news broke, the San Jose chapter of Students for a Democratic Society called an emergency action to put forward several demands.

Santa Clara Valley Transit Workers Begin Strike

San Jose, CA – On Monday, March 10, around 1500 bus and light rail operators and mechanics for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA), walked off the job. The workers are represented by Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 265. This is the first strike at the VTA since its founding in 1973. Around 9 a.m. upwards of 70 ATU rank-and-file members could be seen picketing in front of the VTA headquarters as the strike began. Pickets were held at four other light rail and bus yards beginning at 4 a.m. VTA and ATU have been in contract negotiations since August.

California Teachers Fight Palestine Censorship

As the Trump administration engages in a frontal assault on the teaching of race and ethnicity at the K-12 level, a quieter but no less important battle is shaping up in deep blue California. Communities of color are mobilizing statewide to defeat AB 1468, the latest bill to emerge from the CA Legislative Jewish Caucus (LJC) in its campaign to censor Palestinian voices in ethnic studies classes, and police all ethnic studies content along with it. Although the words “Gaza,” “Palestine” and “Israel” are nowhere to be found in the proposed legislation, the language of AB 1468 restricts the discipline to the “domestic experience” of “marginalized people” to discourage teachers from developing lessons on the impact of Israeli settler colonialism on Palestinian American and Muslim communities.

Lawsuit Against Congress Members Over Gaza Genocide Goes International

What began as one northern California activist’s idea to up the ante on pressure against local congressmen who support Israel’s assault on Gaza has turned into a plan to air the issue in the international arena. Retired high school history teacher Seth Donnelly, a resident of Boyes Hot Springs in Sonoma County, California, said he was fed up with his Congress member Mike Thompson, who refused to respond to phone calls, emails, and protests demanding that he stop funding Israel’s genocide in Gaza. “I even invited him to speak before a student human rights group at Rancho Cotate High School,” Donnelly said, referring to the school where he taught until recently.

Two Unions Strike The University Of California

Picket lines formed across California Wednesday as 20,000 health care, research, and technical workers in UPTE (Communications Workers Local 9119) and 37,000 patient care workers in AFSCME Local 3299 walked out on short strikes across the University of California system. AFSCME will stay out for two days, UPTE for three. Both unions are charging that the university system is engaged in unfair labor practices. They have been working under an expired contract since October. The workers struck in November, too. Then, Labor Notes’ Barbara Madeloni wrote how the UPTE workers have been remaking their union to prepare for this contract fight

New Report Details Police Repression Of Palestine Activism At UCLA

Last October, the ACLU launched a lawsuit against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), challenging the school’s administrators’ suppression of student and faculty speech. That suppression ultimately resulted in the police’s violent destruction of the school’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment amid clashes with Zionist provocateurs. “I can still hear the relentless sound of the stun grenades,” described one student protester at the time. “Trepidation still courses through my body when I think about police in riot gear shooting rubber bullets at and beating students and friends.

Over 1000 Chicanos Hit The Streets Of Los Angeles To Protest Deportations

Los Angeles, CA – On February 17, over 1000 Chicanos gathered at Placita Olvera in downtown Los Angeles to protest against ICE deportations and to fight back against Trump's racist, right-wing agenda. The rally and march were called for by Chicana activists who used social media to get the word out. Recent protests in Los Angeles have brought out large crowds of Chicanos ready to stand up and fight, with the last one, on February 2, drawing tens of thousands who took to the streets. That afternoon protesters even took over the 101 Freeway, shutting it down for hours and completely overwhelming LAPD, LASD and CHP, which were completely unprepared and caught off guard by Raza fighting back.

Action On Climate Change May Look Different Than You Expect

Talk a walk through the Los Angeles’ Arts District, and you’ll learn that there’s nothing contradictory about trying to save the world and living a luxury lifestyle. Start your tour with the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI), which proudly displays a banner stating: “the future begins here.” LACI is “a non- profit organization creating an inclusive green economy” and run “by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.” They are also supported by a “community” that includes not only the City of Los Angeles but also BMW, Wells Fargo, United Airlines, and JPMorgan Chase.

Strike At Kaiser: They Take Care Of Us, Who Will Take Care Of Them?

2400 striking behavioral health care workers in Southern California have taken to the streets – literally. On February 8, workers sat down in the middle of Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles, blocking traffic in front of Kaiser Permanente’s Los Angeles Medical Center. The strikers, members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), blocked traffic until a dozen of them, as well as California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez and other supporters, were arrested. The sit-in marked day 110 of the strike. The strikers want parity with Kaiser’s workers in Northern California, workers who won significant gains in a 2022 10-week strike.

University Of California Healthcare, Research Employees Vote To Strike

Thousands of University of California healthcare, research and technical employees voted to authorize a strike, citing what they described as systemic and ongoing staffing shortages that erode patient care and hurt research operations. The strike authorization comes amid strained negotiations between the university and University Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119, the union representing nearly 20,000 employees in various research labs and medical facilities across the 10-campus UC system. The unionized workers include nurse case managers, mental health counselors, optometrists, pharmacists, physical therapists, clinical researchers, IT analysts and animal health technicians.

Federal Workers Are Staying At Their Posts

The Trump administration is trying to push federal workers out of government, which will cripple the government’s ability to serve the public in many ways. But unions have been resisting and federal workers have been saying no thank you. A federal judge has extended the February 6 deadline for accepting these offers till Monday. Two of the largest unions representing this workforce — the American Federation of Government Employees and NFFE — advised members not to take the bait. California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged federal employees to take the unions’ advice and “to be very cautious” of the offer.
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