Santa Ana, CA – About 25 people gathered on the afternoon of May 3, at Community Service Organization Orange County’s (CSO OC) May Day teach-in in downtown Santa Ana. Steph Dorantes introduced the event: “We are excited to have you here together for International Workers Day so we can strengthen our understanding of how we are impacted by police in our communities and how we are impacted by immigration status and what we can do to fight back against repression.”
Oakland, CA – On the afternoon of Thursday, May 1, more than 2000 community members took to the streets of Oakland in celebration of May Day.
Themes of international working-class solidarity ran through the event, starting with a youth rally in Fruitvale Plaza followed by a march to San Antonio Park where a closing rally and resource fair took place. 25 unions, grassroots organizations, and nonprofits united behind Oakland Sin Fronteras’ call, “All Power to the Workers.”
San José, CA – After a weekend of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng announced on Monday, May 12 that the United States would roll back its tariffs on Chinese imports by 115%, from 145% to 30%.
The Chinese agreed to match this tariff reduction, reducing China’s tariffs on U.S. goods from 125% to 10%. China did not agree to any of the U.S. trade demands and many U.S. news reports had to admit that China did well, with one headline from Bloomberg News reading, “Xi Defiance Pays Off as Trump Meets Most China Trade Demands.”
Santa Ana, CA – Chants of “No hate, no fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” resounded on the afternoon of May 1 as roughly 300 protesters took to the streets of downtown. The march commemorated International Workers Day. Those in the streets lifted handmade monarch butterfly puppets and signs demanding police accountability, justice for immigrants, and protection for workers’ rights. The event program featured speakers who talked about the history of May Day and the oppression of workers.
San Jose, CA – On May 1, over 1500 people gathered in San Jose for the annual International Workers Day march and rally. The event, organized by the San Jose May Day Coalition, called for a “Day Without an Immigrant” in response to recent attacks on workers and immigrants under the Trump administration.
San José, CA – Two U.S. economic reports showed that the manufacturing sector shrank in April, despite (or more likely because of) Trump’s trade war – one that is meant to increase manufacturing in the United States.
San José, CA – Look out – while the storybook villain who stole Christmas presents was green, the real life villain is orange. Donald Trump is coming for our holiday shopping season.
He is trying to brace Americans for hard times to come, saying that you might only get two dolls for Christmas instead of 30. Now, I didn’t know anyone who got 30 dolls for Christmas when I was growing up, but maybe having a multi-millionaire father gave Trump a different gift experience as a child.
Los Angeles, CA – For the 10th consecutive year, hundreds of workers, students and activists joined Centro CSO for its May Day in Boyle Heights march and rally. For this year’s event, CSO raised two main demands: “Legalization 4 All” and “No to Deportations” as part of the movement against Trump’s attacks on immigrants.
After a spirited rally at the historic Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, protesters marched to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison where immigrants are incarcerated.
San José, CA – Two recent reports on the state of the economy gave early hints of stagflation, or rising inflation and rising unemployment. The broadest report was the advanced report on Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, for the first three months of the year.
The GDP deflator, a measurement of the change in prices of all the final goods and services produced in the United States, rose at a 3.7% annual rate, much higher than the 2.4% over all of 2024.
San José, CA – One of the biggest issues that propelled Donald Trump to a comeback victory in 2024 was the economy and inflation in particular. While Trump hammered at the issue, saying that he was going to make America affordable again, Biden, Harris and most Democrats tried to deny that there was a problem, repeating over and over that the economy was in great shape.
Fullerton, CA – On April 27, over 30 family members, Orange County residents and activists gathered at Lemon Park to grieve for Jose Naranjo-Cortez, who was killed by Fullerton Police Department on April 20.
The vigil was organized by Jose Naranjo-Cortez’s family and Community Service Organization, Orange County (CSO OC) a grassroots, working-class group that fights for community control of the police.
San Jose, CA – On the evening of Monday, April 21, 30 people gathered at the San Jose Peace and Justice Center for the Mumia Freedom Tour hosted by the Freedom From Frame-Up Foundation. The focus of the event is to center the wrongful imprisonment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a prolific journalist and Black Panther political prisoner, who has been held captive in Pennsylvania prisons for over 43 years.
San José, CA – Once again, President Trump backed off in his trade war. On Tuesday, April 22, President Trump said that he would not fire Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve Bank, and that the current 145% tariffs are “not sustainable”. This led to a rally in U.S. stocks and bonds, and the U.S. dollar rose as investors showed signs of relief.
Napa, CA – Napa Valley protesters lined Soscol Avenue in the hundreds as they came out for an April 19 day of action against Trump. Many held signs denouncing Trump and his racist agenda, others held flags of solidarity with Palestine.
San Jose, CA – On April 19. thousands of people mobilized to attend the protest organized by 50501 San Jose at St. James Park to stand up against Trump, Musk and their racist and reactionary agenda.
San José, CA – Can the Trump administration win its trade war with China? This question is coming up more and more. On one hand, the Trump administration uses simple math to argue that the United States has the upper hand. Their logic is that since the United States has a large trade deficit with China in goods – that is the United States buys a lot more, almost $300 billion more from China in 2024, than China buys from the United States – then tariffs can reduce China’s exports a lot more than China can reduce U.S. exports.
San Jose, CA – On April 19, around 30 people gathered at the Arab American Cultural Center in San Jose for an educational community event to commemorate Palestinian Prisoners Day. The event focused on the case of famed Palestinian political leader and longtime political prisoner Marwan Bargouthi, who has been imprisoned by Israel on false charges for over 20 years due to his role as a leader during the Second Intifada.
Los Ángeles, CA — Más de 150 activistas, tanto veteranos como nuevos organizadores de todo EE.UU., se reunieron el fin de semana del 12 y 13 de abril en una exitosa cumbre para luchar contra las deportaciones. La Cumbre de Emergencia del Suroeste Contra las Deportaciones se convocó para unir a diversas fuerzas para luchar contra las políticas antiinmigrantes de la administración de Trump. La mayoría de los asistentes eran del suroeste de EE.UU., históricamente el hogar de la mayoría de los chicanos y mexicanos, y de un número creciente de centroamericanos.
Los Angeles, CA — More than 150 activists, both veterans and even more new organizers from all over the U.S. gathered the weekend of April 12-13, in a successful summit to fight deportations. The Emergency Southwest Summit Against Deportations was called to try to bring together a broad range of forces to fight the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration. Most of those who came were from the southwest United States, historically the home of most Chicanos and Mexicanos and a growing number of Central Americans.
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.
