In-person reports from the October 17 No Kings demonstrations in the Chicago area; Battle Creek, Michigan; and Oakland. Another event in Oakland supported Iran’s “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.
California
Oakland residents fight gerrymandering, defend democracy
August 22, 2025Participant’s report of the Aug. 16 demonstration in Oakland to support California’s Congressional redistricting. The demands ranged from “save democracy” to solidarity with those raided by ICE, “protect trans kids” and “resist fascism” to “defy, rebel, resist, disobey.”
Editorial: Welcome to police-state USA
July 20, 2025For immigrants—documented or undocumented—the U.S. is becoming a police state. Next year, it could be for the rest of us. The real opposition can only come from citizens and non-citizens protesting and organizing, putting their minds and bodies against a growing fascist state.
The ‘Resistance’ speaks: ‘No to Trump’
June 24, 2025Reports from participants in the June 14, 2025, “No Kings” demonstrations across the nation. Thousands took to the streets, plazas and sidewalks, not only in every state and every significant sized city, but in tiny towns and suburbs. No one wanted to miss the opportunity to oppose Trump’s cruel, inhuman, destructive policies.
Editorial: California fires reveal human power to ruin and heal
January 20, 2025In California’s worst wildfires in its history, important factors include a century of land and water mismanagement and fossil fuel use that generates global warming. The fires brought out the best, mutual aid from below, and the worst, hateful scapegoating disguising climate denial. A global vision and humane principles in organizing ourselves are fundamental to a sustainable future.
Readers’ Views: January-February 2023, Part Two
January 24, 2023Readers’ Views on: Iran and Philosophy of Revolution; Corruption of ‘Justice’; Prisoner Unity; Voices from Behind Bars
Handicap This! December 2022
December 8, 2022Asian-American disability rights activist Alice Wong’s memoir “Year of the Tiger”; In Poland, caregivers of children with disabilities called for the right to work part-time jobs while keeping government stipends; and disability rights activists critique California’s CARE Courts Act, where courts can order involuntary treatment plans for people with psychotic disorders.
Readers’ Views: July-August 2022, Part One
July 12, 2022Readers’ Views on: Supreme Court’s Attack on Women’s Freedom; Abortion, Healthcare and Women’s Movement; Abortion Unseparated from All Freedom Struggles; Gay Pride: Whose Bodies? Ours!; Colonizers Past and Present; Let Them Eat Rockets; Oppression of Homeless; Only 14 More Mass Shootings!; Church, State and Football
Readers’ Views: November-December 2021, Part Two
November 17, 2021Readers’ Views on Philosopher-revolutionaries; Youth, climate and the freedom idea; Climate crisis; California fires, FDA fails women, and Voices from behind bars.
Youth in Action: September-October 2021
September 21, 2021Youth in several Afghan cities resist Taliban; young Colombians become “First Liners” in resistance actions; high school students march in Los Gatos, Calif., and Ninnekah, Okla., to protest schools’ negligence regarding sexual abuse and harassment.
‘Generation on fire’ youth march
June 29, 2021Participant report of the Sunrise Movement youth march, “Generation on Fire,” June 10-14 in Northern California, and the lively discussions of ideas during the march.
LA pits poor against poorer Echo Park houseless
May 8, 2021On March 24, around 200 activists protested against a surprise eviction of the tent encampment in Echo Park. There is antagonism between houseless people and the families and businesses close to them. For poor communities to scapegoat even poorer people is the way that the 1% keep us fighting for space and resources while they throw us bones.
Handicap this!, March-April 2021
March 11, 2021Autistic man in UK awarded damages in a discrimination case against Virgin Active; professor at Oxnard College put on leave for berating hard-of-hearing student; “little person” banned from a cooking class at Heart of Worcestershire College; London Stansted Airport pulls special assistance from woman because she “didn’t look ill.”
Uber and Lyft put drivers in peonage with the passage of Proposition 22
November 29, 2020Proposition 22 will allow app-based transportation and delivery sector employers to keep classifying their employees as private contractors. They will not have to offer workers any of the benefits afforded to employee-classified workers under state law.
Workers vs. Proposition 22
November 10, 2020Gig companies pushed through California’s Prop 22 denying workers recognition as employees, and want similar laws in other states and countries. Other workers are bracing to see if the “gig economy” will be able to overtake their own industry.
Queer notes: May-June 2020
May 3, 2020Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling against Peruvian government in favor of Trans woman Azul Rojas Marin; LGBTQ Asians fighting hate crimes; and a coalition of LGBTQ people demanding California enact the Emergency Transgender Wellness and Equity Fund.
Prisons = death
April 29, 2020Report on the #ClemencyCoast2Coast virtual town hall held on April 8, in which former prisoners took the floor to speak about the “death camps” that prisons have turned into in the COVID-19 pandemic and to demand early release.
With COVID-19 prisons become ‘death camps’
April 13, 2020Report on the #ClemencyCoast2Coast virtual town hall held on April 8, in which former prisoners took the floor to speak about the “death camps” that prisons have turned into in the midst COVID-19 pandemic and to demand early release.
Free Sitawa Jamaa
January 21, 2020It is more important than ever to free Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, one of the four main representatives in the historic 2011-13 hunger strikes initiated in Pelican Bay prison’s Security Housing Unit, after his stroke.
The truth of the ‘Woolsey Fire’
June 26, 2019The Santa Susana Field Lab’s impact on the dangerous chemicals and isotopes released by the so-called “Woolsey Fire” are just the latest in an historic string of insults perpetrated by that lab on the environment of southeast Ventura County and Simi Valley.
Uber and Lyft drivers strike against pay cuts
April 27, 2019Uber and Lyft drivers held a 25-hour strike in Los Angeles to protest pay cuts.
California Uber/Lyft workers strike!
April 4, 2019Ex-Lyft driver reports on the strike of Uber and Lyft drivers in California and explains the hell that ridesharing businesses are foisting on their workers, the environment, and their customers.
Say ‘No!’ to life without parole
September 27, 2018On Aug. 6, 2018, a new chapter in activism around Life Without a Possibility of Parole (LWOP) in California was opened with a rally at the state capitol steps.
Voices from the inside out: The need for unity
September 17, 2018Prisoner Faruq writes about new beginnings after the California prisoners’ hunger strike and the need for unity for any new movement forward.
Queer Notes, July-August 2018
July 25, 2018Queer notes on Delaware’s anti-Transgender legislation; Gay asylum seeker and detainee Udoka Nweke; Lesbian activist Constance Kurt; Aryman Menem, founder of Tea and Talk for Syrian LGBT; and Baltic Pride’s Pride Parade in Riga, Latvia.
The end of ‘Urban Shield’
May 10, 2018First-hand report of a demonstration to end Urban Shield in San Francisco Bay Area, California, on March 27, 2018.
California fires from global warming and incompetence
November 14, 2017The massive wildfires in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area that began on the night of Oct. 8 have sent a shock wave through the entire region. Most in the region feel the fires were preventable.
Readers’ Views: September-October 2017, Part 1
September 5, 2017Readers’ Views: facing far right’s threat; don’t scapegoat; Canadian strike; Transgender troops; women’s liberation; homeless in Los Angeles; defend dissidents; why read N&L.
Picket line solidarity shuts bus yard
In person report of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) mechanics at the Foothill Transit operations yard in Pomona going on strike on the morning of Aug. 7.
Workers join ranks against Keolis Transit Service
August 8, 2017Mechanics went on strike at Foothill Transit in Pomona, Calif., and were joined on the picket line by bus drivers.
Youth in Action, July-August 2017
July 6, 2017Youth in action in Bayonne High School in New Jersey, Independence, Mo., Venice High School in Calif., Vernon Township High School in New Jersey and in Charlotte, N.C.
“Science Not Silence”
About 1,000 people rallied on Earth Day at the campus of Cal Tech in Pasadena, Calif., under the banner of “Science Not Silence,” part of nationwide protests.
The struggle for immigrants’ rights challenges humanity
The massive increase in inhuman attacks against immigrants and undocumented people in the U.S. is spurring new activism and urgency. .
‘Science Not Silence’
June 4, 2017Participants report on the April 22 Science Not Silence demonstration where about 1,000 people rallied at the campus of Cal Tech and made ready to march in defense of science and of rational thought itself.
Left’s blame game
May 2, 2017A reflection on the question “Where are all the women?” posed by a speaker at one of the several recent and massive immigrants’ rights marches in downtown L.A.
San Francisco clears more land for rich
March 17, 2017Report on the resistance against eviction and “development” in the Bay View/Hunters Point (BVHP) area in San Francisco, California.
Shared journey inside solitary
November 27, 2016Excerpt from part 2 of “Shared Journey inside the Tombs of California’s Solitary Confinement Torture Chambers” by Baridi “X” Williamson.
Need for lifelong self-development
Shared story from Jesse Perez, prisoner in solitary confinement in a California prison.
Youth in Action: July-August 2016
July 9, 2016In West Auckland, New Zealand, Massey High School students and their parents petition for weather-appropriate summer uniforms; 82 Huntsville, Alabama, Grissom High School students defy the dress code for girls because the code endorses rape culture and violates Title IX rights; across the USA Muslim youth are harassed in a variety of ways making them feel unsafe, so much so that the majority of Muslim youth believe that reporting the harassment won’t make a difference.
Jasmine Richards – Black Lives Matter speaks
July 3, 2016A revolutionary critique of the “lynching” charge against Black Lives Matter activist Jasmine Richards and how it reveals the racism endemic to U.S. society and spotlights the revolutionary Black youth fighting against it.
Boycott Driscoll’s!
May 6, 2016Chicagoans form picket line at local market in support of San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico, striking farmworkers and many shoppers show their support as well
Readers’ Views: January-February 2016, Part 1
January 25, 2016California prisoners battle barbaric ‘justice’ system; Against ISIS attacks; Women under attack; Support Maati Monjib; The Burmese Way; Race, class & politics.
Prisoners speak on Hugo ‘Yogi’ Pinell
December 11, 2015Prisoners mourn and remember assassinated prisoner Hugo ‘Yogi’ Pinell.
Philip Zimbardo and Marx’s Humanism
August 30, 2015A discussion with Philip Zimbardo followed the San Francisco premiere of “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” a movie based on his notorious 1971 experiment. It raises questions about the meaning of being human, which for Marx turned on needing human beings as free beings whose self-determining, free, conscious activity is not a mere means but the first necessity of life.
Reader’s Views, March-April 2015, Part 2
March 8, 2015The thoughts of News & Letters readers on: MARXIST-HUMANIST PHILOSOPHY IN THE WHIRLWIND OF EVENTS; SAVING THE PLANET; and VOICES FROM BEHIND THE BARS.
Solidarity with striking oil workers
March 7, 2015The first national oil refinery strike since 1980 manifested safety-related demands by the workers and garnered much labor, community, and environmentalist support.
Workshop Talks: Reclaim our labor
Working in healthcare has been transformed in a very alienating way. The workplace is drowning in fancy hi-tech machines. Cadres of bureaucrats spend their working hours promoting the product of healthcare with marketing campaigns. The rank and file hear daily admonitions to smile more and are told, “Just be glad you have a job.” Bureaucrats preach “customers come first,” while cutting service and staffing. Hospital and HMO executives are in a race to eliminate labor as much as possible in their “product.”
Readers’ Views, January-February 2015, Part 2
January 30, 2015Dunayevskaya’s letters on Hegel’s Absolutes; Bhopal toxic disaster; Voices from behind the bars
Being in the SHU
November 24, 2014Crescent City, Calif.—The physical and emotional toll of being in the SHU (prisons’ “Secure Housing Unit”): • Manic guards off their meds. • That last good photograph stamped with a boot. • Classification hearings postponed for potlucks. • The daughter whose eyes fill when you ask innocently, who are you?…
Workers can fix L.A.
November 22, 2014Los Angeles—On Oct. 28, several thousand Los Angeles City workers (mostly Latina/o and Blacks) and community supporters marched through downtown to City Hall to protest the city’s proposed 30% cut in workers’ wages and benefits. The cuts included medical coverage, bonuses and retirement benefits, as more and more of the city’s infrastructure deteriorates….