News and Views from the People's Struggle
San José, CA – On Friday, May 8, the Bureau of Labor Statistics or BLS, which is under the federal Department of Labor, released their monthly job market report for the month of April. The report was mixed, with strength shown by businesses while households showed weaknesses, reflecting the growing polarization in the economy.
San Jose, CA – On May 7, dozens of community members gathered at Hillview Branch Library for a panel discussion led by rank-and-file union members and organizers about the state of the labor movement in the South Bay.
San José, CA – While not as visible as the spike in gasoline prices since Trump began his war on Iran, economic distress is rising as more people lose their access to food benefits, lose their health insurance and lose their homes to foreclosure.
San Jose, CA – On May 1, 1500 people gathered in East San Jose for the annual San Jose May Day march. This year marked 20 years since May Day was revived in the United States with the 2006 immigrant rights megamarches in protest of the racist, anti-immigrant Sensenbrenner bill. This year, the May Day march began at the intersection of Story and King, an historic center of the Chicano community in San Jose and the same starting location as the 2006 march.
San José, CA – On April 29, the League of Filipino Students (LFS) in SJSU held a vigil in front of the Victory Statue to honor the lives of the Toboso 19. The Toboso 19 were murdered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on April 23 in Barangays Salamanca, Toboso, and Negros Occidental. A total of 653 residents and 168 households were displaced from Barangays Salamanca and San Jose.
San José, CA – On Tuesday, April 28, the average price of gasoline rose to a four-year record high, up 41% since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that began February 28. According to the American Automobile Association, the average price of diesel fuel nationwide was $5.46 that day, up 47%, even more than gasoline.
San Jose, CA – On April 22, Earth Day, over a dozen SJSU students led by Students for a Democratic Society disrupted the campus’ newly opened “AI Center for Civic and Social Good.”
San Jose, CA – On Saturday, April 18, over 20 people gathered in front of the Microsoft office in Mountain View to protest the company’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Palestine, ICE’s deportation operations as well as their development of AI data centers causing ecological destruction.
San José, CA – On Friday, April 9 the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their report on consumer prices for March. The Consumer Price Index, or CPI surged 0.9% in March, three times as high as the price increase in February. The increase in consumer prices over the past year shot up from 2.4% in February to 3.3% in March. This year-over-year inflation rate is up by a whole percentage point from 2.3% last March, just before Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
San Jose, CA – On Tuesday March 24, community members made public comment at the San Jose City Council meeting, demanding they enact an ethical investment policy.
San José, CA – Stocks sank for a second day in a row, March 27, with all the major stock market indices dropping more than 1.5%. Stock prices were down for the week, making it four weeks in row that stocks have dropped.
San Jose, CA – On March 18, over 300 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which includes mental health professionals, clinicians and therapists, participated in a one-day strike at the Santa Clara Medical Center. The action was part of a larger strike across Northern California, which included over 2400 workers.
San José, CA – The price of regular gasoline has soared a dollar a gallon on average since Trump ordered this country to war with Iran. According to the American Automobile Association or AAA, the average price has gone from $2.96 a gallon a month ago to $3.98 gallon on March 24, or more than 34%.
How high could they go? No one really knows, but according to my “Trump secretly loves California” theory, since Trump has brought the national price of gas closer where the California price was before the war started ($4.63), it is quite possible that $5 a gallon gasoline could be seen in gas stations across the country in the near future.
San Jose, CA – On March 15, over 40 people gathered in downtown San Jose to demand an end to the U.S. war on Iran. They chanted “Hands off Iran,” to supportive honks from people driving past the protest. Community members waved Iranian and Palestinian signs and held signs reading, “No war on Iran” and “San Jose: divest from genocide.” The protest was part of the Anti-War Action Network National Day of Action.
San José, CA – Over 100 people gathered on March 8 in downtown San José for a rally and march to Robert F. Peckham Federal Building courthouse. Protesters condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s brutalization of women throughout Trump’s second term, including Renee Nicole Good, who ICE fatally shot in Minneapolis.
San José, CA – This morning, March 8, a week into Trump’s war on Iran, I went to fill up the car’s gas tank. I had been meaning to do this for a few days, but in this case, I paid for my procrastination, with the price of gas at my go-to, independent, local gas station 40 cents a gallon higher, as compared to when I last got gas before the war started.
San Jose, CA – On the evening of Tuesday, March 3, about 40 people gathered in front of the steps of Dr. MLK Jr. Library in the heart of downtown San Jose to protest U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the intensified blockade on Cuba, and the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran.
A colorful array of flags for Cuba, Venezuela and Iran flew, along with signs saying, “End the blockade on Cuba,” “Hands off Venezuela” and “No war with Iran.”
Drusie Kazanova, member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization told the crowd, “It’s barely March, we’ve already seen Trump escalate his aggression against Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, three of the world’s strongest and most steadfast opponents of U.S. imperialism.”
Kazanova continued, “The decline of U.S. imperialism is accelerating. Trump is trying to preserve the dying U.S. empire, and control of the Middle East and Latin America is a part of that project.”
Nassim Nouri, an Iranian-American and member of the Green Party of Santa Clara County, said, “Every socialist country that has raised its fist, its hope, its humanity and its resources for the people, has been subjected to crushing attacks and sanctions and deprivation by the U.S. empire.”
Akubundu Amazu of the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party spoke to the crowd, “There is a common denominator between all these places that U.S. imperialism goes against and that is oil. They all have resources that this war machine desperately needs. But the people are organizing against this!”
Joan Simon of the San Jose Peace and Justice Center spoke about the difference in peoples’ rights in Cuba and the U.S. saying, “In the Cuban constitution everyone has the right to healthcare and education. Just think about how different our country could be if we prioritized people over profit. That is why Cuba is such a danger to the U.S.”
Dyon Capote, a Cuban-American and member of San Jose Against War said, “We will not be silent at the time when Trump launches wars of aggression, and justifies the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president. Nor will we remain silent when the U.S. intensifies a policy of economic warfare on Cuba!”
Sharat Lin, another member of the San Jose Peace and Justice speaking on their experience observing elections in Cuba and Venezuela and compared it to U.S. elections, saying, “The turnout in Cuba’s constitutional referendum was 90% whereas in the U.S. we’re lucky if we get 60% participation,” highlighting how much more confidence Cubans have in their democracy than their counterparts in the U.S.
Tim Phan of Students for a Democratic Society at San Jose State University stated, “We condemn the U.S. Israeli strikes on not just Iran, but on Palestine and the rest of the world!”
Phan continued, “From Mexico to the Philippines, to Palestine and Iran, we will stop the American war machine and say, ‘Hell no!’”
The rally ended with a call to action by San Jose Against War and their allies to mobilize at the San Jose City Council meeting on March 24 at 1:30 p.m. to demand the city pass an ethical investment policy which would divest and bar any further investment in companies with ties to Israel, ICE and the prison system.
San José, CA – On Friday, March 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the jobs market took an unexpected fall in February, with a loss of 92,000 jobs.
The job losses were widespread, including manufacturing, construction, transportation and warehousing, information, temporary help, health care, leisure and hospitality, and government all shedding jobs.
San Jose, CA – On Sunday, February 15, more than 300 people gathered at San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin to commemorate the signing of Executive Order 9066, which initiated the incarceration of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans into concentration camps during World War II.
San Jose, CA – On Saturday February 28, over 100 people gathered on the corner of Stevens Creek and Winchester in San Jose to protest the U.S.– Israeli war on Iran. The emergency protest occurred less than 24 hours after news first broke about Israeli strikes on Iran, with the U.S. joining the bombing campaign shortly thereafter.