San José, CA – On Saturday, July 31 members and supporters of the Northern California Unemployed Committee or NCUC rallied to protest the coming end of federal unemployment benefits set for September 6. Speakers pointed out how 9 million unemployed people will be losing their benefits and the rest will have their payments cut in half.

John Root spoke about his troubles with the California unemployment insurance system, stating, “I got no benefits for four months and had to depend on family to survive. I was calling up to 30 or 40 times a day without a response. The unemployment system is broken.” Root pointed out that there are more than a million other unemployed in California with similar experiences.

There were also speakers from the South Bay Mutual Aid, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the NCUC. The NCUC is calling for another protest at the local office of Congressperson Zoe Lofgren on August 23.

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San Jose, CA – On April 24, the Northern California Unemployed Committee, or NCUC, marched in support of the fight against police crimes in the wake of the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

David Almeida of the NCUC expressed support for community control of the police, saying, “With community control of the police, we, the community get to defund and demilitarize our police, not the government.” He went on to point out that there are still hundreds of the thousands of people here in California who are still waiting to hear about the status of their unemployment benefits.

The NCUC partnered with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, or NAARPR for the rally, which featured speakers from Anakbayan Silicon Valley, South Bay Indigenous Solidarity, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and an unemployed worker who is still waiting for their benefits.

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The speakers recognized the need for systemic change and racism’s connection to capitalism. One speaker, Alex Woolner of the Northern California Unemployed Committee, stated, “It is poverty that drives crime. With millions unemployed crime will only go up, something that our militarized police will use to justify increasing their already bloated budgets,” and he continued, “They will siphon money that could provide us with meaningful employment, with housing, and unemployment benefits, which is money that is desperately needed as our government’s lack of response to COVID-19 grinds on.” Speakers pointed out that we should remember that the militarization of the police comes at the expense of badly needed social services; we can either have a militarized police force or higher standards of living and a better quality of life. The choice is obvious to a majority of the population.

Filipino activists connected George Floyd’s execution to a local killing. Angelo Quinto was a Filipino-American from Antioch, California, and the Antioch Police Department murdered him on December 26, 2020 in the same fashion as Floyd. He suffered from mental illness. He would have turned 31 on March 10, 2021. Their murders are similar. A speaker from Anakbayan, Basheer Rydhan, declared that one can “trace back all of these problems and you will find that they all lead to a fundamental problem of capitalism with imperialism as its highest stage, and racism is its conjoined twin.”

Mike Paradela, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, demanded that communities have control over police, stating, “History shows that when the oppressed masses assert control over the police and have independent political power, the ruling class is unnerved and labels them a threat. Why are they a threat one might ask? They’re a threat because they are expressing their democratic rights! They are a threat because they have the political means to safeguard their humanity, dignity and right to life! They are a threat because they are the masters of their own destiny and makers of their history and their future.”

Another key highlight included the necessity of all oppressed nationalities to unite against the common enemy of the U.S. monopoly capitalists. All the speakers expressed the need for people to unite as one to win justice for George Floyd.

Anakbayan, FRSO, NAARPR, and the Northern California Unemployed Committee all demanded that communities have control over the police.

Seeing a coalition of activists and a community gather to demand justice is a welcome sight. The action excited many of the organizers to build a local movement to fight for George Floyd and Angelo Quinto!

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San José, CA – On February 13, the Northern California Unemployed Committee (NCUC) held its first protest in San José. The protest was called for the day after the IRS began accepting 2020 tax returns, to demand that the federal government stop taxing benefits for the unemployed. The protest also called for the restoration of the $600 weekly unemployment supplement.

The protest began at a branch of Bank of America in downtown San Jose. Mike Paradela, of the Unemployed Committee, introduced the protest, saying that Bank of America profits from running the debit card program through which California unemployment benefits are paid. Masao Suzuki, a member of the Unemployed Committee and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, was the protest’s first speaker. Suzuki said many economists are talking about the so-called ‘K-shaped’ economy with more and more economic inequality, which reflects the reality that we live in society dominated by monopoly capitalists.

The protesters then marched to the federal building, carry signs saying, “Tax the rich, not the poor” and “Stop the tax on unemployment benefits.” There were spirited chants like “$600 per week! Don’t be cheap!” with a back-and-forth between the emcee and protesters. At the downtown federal building, Nina Vishwakarma of the Unemployed Committee spoke of the special oppression that women were going through in this recession. She spoke of her close friend, a grocery store worker, who contracted COVID-19 at work, while the store was allowing maskless customers in the store. This was just another example of how “The pandemic has put many working women in the difficult position of choosing between their financial security and they own safety, as well as the safety of their loved ones.”

A former restaurant worker spoke about their experience as the restaurant industry closed down. They were initially denied unemployment insurance and lost a whole month of benefits. Things went from bad to worse when the $600 per week supplement stopped at the end of July. Their co-workers couldn’t afford the Bay Area anymore and about 40% of their co-workers had left the Bay Area, while many others have left the restaurant industry.

The protesters finished the event with a spirited march back to the Bank of America building.

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