San Jose, CA – On May 16, around 150 people gathered at the Santa Clara County Government Center to celebrate the county’s 25th annual Palestinian Cultural Day. The event, sponsored by the county supervisors and the Palestinian Heritage Committee, celebrates the 30,000 Palestinian-Americans living in Santa Clara County and their contributions to the South Bay community.

San Jose, CA – On May 15, over 50 people in downtown San Jose to commemorate the 78th year since Al Nakba, “The Catastrophe,” where 750,000 Palestinians were violently displaced by Zionist forces for the establishment of the apartheid state of Israel.

San José, CA – The day after the Consumer Price Index report rose to 3.8% as compared to a year ago, the Producer Price Index, or PPI, report on April prices paid by businesses came in even hotter. The monthly increase in producer prices in April as compared to March was 1.4%, almost three times what economists predicted. As compared to April a year ago, the PPI was 6% higher.

San José, CA – On Tuesday, May 12, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a part of the Department of Labor, reported that the inflation rate continued to increase in April. Consumer prices, on average, were 3.8% higher than April of 2025, up from a 3.3% annual increase in March.

The rising costs of energy drove the increase in prices, on the backs of higher fuel prices as a result of Trump’s war on Iran. Gasoline prices were up 28.4% over a year ago. Electricity rates were up 6.1% from a year ago.

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.