Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

CA

By staff

A group of people standing holding signs.

San Jose, CA – On Wednesday, March 26, at noon, around 60 students gathered by the San Jose State University Student Union for a speakout for Mahmoud Khalil and other victims of ICE detainments. The program of the action put forward demands on San Jose State administration and SJSU President Cynthia Teniente Matison for increased protection against ICE, especially for mixed status and undocumented students as well as activists.

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By Uriel Magdaleno

A crowd of people marches holding banners.

Los Angeles, CA – On April 12 and 13 immigrant rights activists and organizations will be convening at the Emergency Southwest Summit Against Deportations in the historic Chicano community of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California.

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By staff

Santa Ana protest demands justice for Noe Rodriguez.

Santa Ana, CA – On March 18, over 45 people gathered at El Centro Cultural de Mexico and marched half a mile to the Santa Ana Police Department with the family of Noe Rodriguez to protest his unjust killing.

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By staff

A group of people on a sidewalk holds signs.

Los Angeles, CA – On Thursday, March 20, postal workers in Los Angeles joined a national day of action to protest against the government’s threat to privatize the U.S. Postal Service. The theme of the protest was “U.S. mail is not for sale.”

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By staff

A rgoup of people stands in front of a street. They hold signs and Palestinean flags.

San Jose, CA – On March 19, a crowd of 100 people gathered in front of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in the heart of downtown to protest the bombing of Gaza and the strikes on Yemen that have killed at least 400 Palestinians and 50 Yemenis.

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By staff

A crowd of people standing on a street corner, some holding Palestinean flags, others hold signs reading "Free Mahmoud Khalil."

San Jose, CA – On March 14, a crowd of 100 people braved the March winds to speak out in defense of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the Palestine solidarity movement at New York’s Columbia University who faces deportation on the grounds of his political work. Khalil has not been charged with any crime.

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By Emma Gottfried

Santa Ana, CA – On March 8, over 80 people gathered at Santa Ana’s Memorial Park to rally for International Women’s Day. The attendees raised flags and signs in support of LGBTQ rights, Palestinian liberation, and reproductive rights.

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By staff

International Women's Day celebration in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, CA – On March 8, activists from Centro CSO and Freedom Road Socialist Organization met up in Boyle Heights for their eighth annual celebration marking International Women’s Day. This year’s event featured a panel with speakers from different areas of work that Centro CSO is focused on such as immigration, education, and police brutality, as well as a labor activist from Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and a keynote speaker from the LAUSD school board.

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By staff

A group of people, some standing and some kneeling, in front of a building. They are holding signs that read, 'DIVEST'. One person holds a Palestinean flag.

San Jose, CA – During this week’s city council meeting, March 11, dozens of community members made public comments to demand that the city divest over $50 million from corporations with direct ties to Israel's genocide against Palestine.

Drusie Kazanova, a member of San Jose Against War, stated, “It is clear that the diverse and multicultural community of San Jose refuses to be complicit in genocide,” citing a divestment petition with over 1500 signatures, and endorsements from over 50 local businesses and community organizations. “I call on you to exercise your leadership and stand with your constituents by divesting all city funds from Israel's genocide against Palestine,” said Kazanova.

Philip Nguyen, a SEIU 521 steward, stated, “Divestment was effective in helping stop apartheid in South Africa, and it will be effective now.” San Jose adopted its “South Africa-free investment policy” in 1985 after a protracted struggle for divestment from apartheid, setting a clear precedent for today's divestment demand.

Uriel Magdaleno, a community organizer with Silicon Valley Immigration Committee, asked, “What is preventing the city council from divesting from genocide? We should focus more on prioritizing what benefits our entire community. I want to commend the city council for recently passing a resolution to reaffirm the city’s status as a sanctuary city. We also further funded the Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network,” referring to a local network that mobilizes when ICE activity is reported in the region.

“We need to prioritize expanding capacity of free legal services here for our immigrant community,” continued Magdaleno.

Public comment sparked further discussion from the city council. Councilmember Peter Ortiz, representing San Jose’s District 5, called on Maria Öberg, the city’s finance director, to speak on the city's current policy on social responsibility as it relates to investment and contracting. Öberg noted that the current investment policy has a social responsibility clause, meaning “if [the city] evaluates two investments that have the same generic terms and interest rates, we would favor buying a green bond for example.” Ortiz then asked Öberg to investigate any concerns in regards to entities that the city is invested in.

Councilmember Ortiz finished by thanking the community members for speaking, saying, “Thank you people for coming, I think it’s timely to have this conversation – not just on this issue, there's a lot of things corporations are doing right now that are impacting our community. For example, a lot of these companies are investing in measures to come after our immigrant population, in the east side – a conversation is warranted. Thank you so much.”

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement

By Philip Nguyen

Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority transit workers on the picket line.

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.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – On Monday, March 10, U.S. stock markets fell. The S&P 500, which includes 500 of the largest U.S. corporations, dropped 2.7% for the worst trading day of the new Trump administration. The NASDAQ, which is over-weighted in technology stocks, fell even more, dropping 4% as high-flying technology stocks continued their descent to earth. Both the broader market and the technology sector were led down by a 15% drop in Tesla share prices, bringing that stock down about 50% from its high just months ago.

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By staff

Community members at town hall meeting on misconduct of the sheriff's department.

Los Angeles, CA – On Thursday, February 27, at 6 p.m., Chicanos packed an East Los Angeles town hall meeting that was put on by the Civilian Oversight Commission of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and LA County. Over 60 Chicanos from East Los Angeles and the immediate surrounding area joined the meeting, both in person and virtually, to denounce the attacks on Raza by the East Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – On Friday, March 7, the Department of Labor released its report on the job market in February. This is the first report based on the labor market in the first weeks of the new Trump administration. Overall, the job market looked a little softer; job creation was a bit less, at 151,000 rather than economists’ expectations of 170,000 net new jobs. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.1% from 4.0% in January.

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By Drusie Kazanova

Protesters demand the release of Ulises Peña Lopez.

McFarland, CA - On March 2, nine community members from the South Bay took part in a car caravan from Mexican Heritage Plaza in San Jose to the Golden State Annex ICE detention center in McFarland. The community members rallied near the detention center to show support for Ulises Peña Lopez, a South Bay man who was recently brutalized by ICE, resulting in his hospitalization. Lopez was transferred from the hospital directly to the detention center without his family or legal team being notified.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – In February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on major strikes in the previous year. In 2024, there were 31 major strikes, involving 271,500 workers. A major strike is one involving at least 1000 workers and lasting at least one shift. A total of more than 3 million days’ work didn’t happen because of major strikes.

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By staff

Napa, California protest defends immigrant rights.

Napa, CA – The month of March began with a powerful display of solidarity in Wine Country, as community members rallied and marched in support of their immigrant neighbors.

On March 1, a sunny Saturday afternoon, the streets of downtown Napa buzzed with tourists sampling wine and fine dining. But cutting through the soft background of jazz music, the chants of “From Napa Valley to LA, immigrants are here to stay!” rang out, demanding attention.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – Consumers cut back on purchases in January 2025, the largest decline since February 2021. The Bureau of Economic Analysis report on Personal Income and Outlays released February 28 said that household spending fell by 0.5%, adjusted for inflation. This is much greater than the 0.2% drop expected.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – On Thursday, February 27, the Department of Labor reported that new claims for unemployment insurance jumped by 22,000, or 10% in the week ending February 22. New claims for UI have risen substantially in the first weeks of the new Trump administration. The total increase in new claims has been 34,000 or 15%.

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Por Sebastian Salinas

Marcha por los derechos de inmigrantes en San José, California.

San José, CA – El domingo 9 de febrero, el Comité de Inmigración de Silicon Valley, junto con más de 200 miembros de la comunidad, realizó una protesta y una marcha en contra de la agenda del presidente Trump y el reciente aumento de actividad de ICE en Eastside San José.

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By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA – On Monday, February 24, Denny’s, one of the three largest breakfast chains in the United States, announced that it would be rolling out an extra surcharge on eggs. Denny’s followed Waffle House, another large breakfast chain. Both are trying to pass along the rising costs of eggs, which are up almost 20% just since December. This is mainly because of the spreading bird flu, where quarantine measures have meant the killing more than 100 million poultry, including 20 million of chickens, just in the last three months of 2024.

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