Several hundred people gathered in Oakland on July 25 to protest ICE killings. The demonstration included an “ofrenda” to honor the 35 people who died in 2026 while in detention, shortly after release, or at the hands of ICE.
Oakland
No Kings rallies cover the U.S. for the third time
April 1, 2026In-person reports of the March 28 No Kings demonstrations in Chicago, Evanston, the San Francisco Bay Area, Detroit and Washington, D.C. The events were held in 3,300 locations in the U.S., plus several more in other countries. Eight million people took part.
Oakland in solidarity with Minneapolis: ICE OUT!
February 7, 2026Participant’s report of a demonstration at Fruitvale Bart station, one of many actions in solidarity with the general strike in Minneapolis that took place around the San Francisco Bay Area on January 30.
Oaklanders show up for immigrants
January 24, 2026With the chant “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” hundreds of people rallied Jan. 20 in many Oakland neighborhoods.
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.”
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.
‘Hands Off’ everything, demands Oakland, Calif.
April 21, 2025Participant’s report of the “Hands Off” protest in Oakland, California. New is the totality of the issues coming together in this moment. Can civil society’s multiple struggles find their own unifying non-state-oriented idea of freedom?
Climate strike, Oakland, Sept. 2022
September 26, 2022Hundreds of youth participated in the Oakland event of the international climate strike on Sept. 23, 2022.
‘Care, not jail’
July 5, 2021On June 22, Decarcerate Alameda County called on Oakland’s City Council to move $43 million from the sheriff’s proposed budget and designate a total of $122 million to fund mental health and housing.
Rally for Amazon workers’ union drive
March 11, 2021Participant report of a solidarity demonstration in Oakland in front of a Whole Foods store, as part of a national day of solidarity to support Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon workers struggling for union recognition.
Count every vote!
November 28, 2020In virtually every Bay Area city at least several hundred came out to “Count Every Vote” rallies on Nov. 4, the day after the election with the feeling, as one speaker put it, “vacillating between anxiety and hope.”
Pandemic as battlefield
March 30, 2020The battle against the COVID-19 pandemic is a battle over how society will change, mirroring the battle over how to confront and adapt to the climate and extinction crisis. Strikes are erupting across the world.
Frightening refineries
November 17, 2019Dangers of refineries to nearby inhabited areas. .
Idle No More in San Francisco
September 2, 2019Report on a panel discussion in Oakland, Calif., with Idle No More featuring Kanahus Manuel, organizer of “tiny house warriors” to stop the Trans Mountain pipeline.
Creating homes for ex-prisoners
September 1, 2019Excerpts from a talk by Terah Lawyer, ex-prisoner and coordinator of the Homecoming Project for Impact Justice that finds private homes for prisoners on probation.
Oakland, Calif., teachers strike!
March 14, 2019On Feb. 22 over 3,000 Oakland teachers went on strike, demanding better wages, smaller class sizes, more nurses and counselors and a stop to school closings. Many students and their families showed up on the picket lines.
Presidents Day 2019 demonstration in Oakland, Calif.
March 10, 2019With just 72 hours notice, over 50,000 people came together in 48 states in almost 300 events to protest Donald Trump on Presidents Day. While the events were organized by MoveOn.org as a response to Trump’s fake emergency declaration, their call was answered spontaneously by many.
How to celebrate Presidents’ Day
February 21, 2019An inperson report on how people in Oakland, California, creatively protested President Trump on Presidents’ Day.
Demonstrations for refugees cover the entire U.S.
July 25, 2018“Families Belong Together!” was the rallying cry for in over 700 cities and towns across the U.S. and some in other countries. Rallies of tens of thousands were held June 30 in Chicago, Los Angeles, and several other cities.
Women demand: ‘End money bail!’
July 23, 2018For Mothers’ Day 2018, Essie Justice Group; Young Women’s Freedom Center; Transgender, Gender-variant, Intersex Justice Project; and other mostly Black women demonstrated in front of the Oakland courthouse demanding an end to money bail. .
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.
Youth March for Our Lives
Participants at the March for Our Lives against gun violence in the Bay Area, Calif., Detroit, Mich., and Chicago, Ill. report on the militancy and humanism in the marches in their areas.
Queer Notes: March-April 2018
March 11, 2018Queer Notes takes up the launch of The Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project; the Grupo Gay da Bahia, the oldest LGBT rights group in Brazil; and the out LGBT athletes at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
‘Silence is compliance’: Women march in Oakland Calif.
March 8, 2018On Jan. 20 thousands marched, some again wearing “Pussy hats,” in the second annual Women’s March. Police decided beforehand to estimate the crowd at 50,000, though it was clear that many, many more were actually there in one of several huge marches in the Bay Area.
Queer Notes: January-February 2017
February 3, 2017Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity; a Transgender boy is thrown out of a Cub Scout pack in New Jersey; and a vigil held by friends and family of people at the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, California.
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal!
In-person report of demonstration of several hundred in Oakland that was part of a National Day of Action to Free Mumia Now and Free Hep-C Meds for All Prisoners.
Readers’ Views: January-February 2017, Part I
January 31, 2017Readers’ Views on: environmental and social crises; Martin Luther King Day; healthcare crisis, Donald Trump and the election; brutal “justice”; and who reads News & Letters.
Oakland, Detroit march on Martin Luther King Day
January 26, 2017Reports by participants of celebrations and protests on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Oakland, Calif., and Detroit, Mich.
The Ghost Ship fire
A view of the fire at the Ghost Ship that takes into account the capitalist nature of rents, evictions, land use, and how youth, by the way the live their lives, are fighting back.
Democracy in the streets votes Trump out!
January 23, 2017Reports from the huge Women’s March from participants in Chicago, Ill., Detroit, Mich., Oakland, Calif., Nashville, Tenn., Memphis, Tenn., Los Angeles, Calif., and New York City.
No! to ‘Urban Shield’
December 1, 2016First hand report of demonstration at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton to protest the growing militarization of police departments and their attacks on minority communities.
Uber scams drivers
November 30, 2016A woman ex-Uber driver details how they exploit their drivers with late fees, turning off your car, and their desire to get rid of their drivers altogether.
Not my president!
In-person report of Oakland, California, demonstration against Donald Trump’s election win.
Solidarity with Standing Rock: Water Is Life
November 26, 2016Participant reports of Chicago and Oakland actions in solidarity with the Standing Rock Lakota who are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. #NoDAPL
‘China on Strike’
May 18, 2016Chinese worker-activists reveal the recent history of laborers in action for their rights and seek an exchange of ideas with U.S. labor activists.
No coal trains in Oakland, California
March 12, 2016Protesters succeed in keeping coal trains from passing through Oakland, California, on their way to unload coal at a port terminal.
‘If you ship it we will block it’ stopping the bomb trains
September 6, 2015Report of a lively demonstration in the San Francisco Bay Area against trains carrying tons of coal that can cause huge explosions and yet travel through highly populated areas.
Nate Wilks’ life matters
September 3, 2015A report of the protest in Oakland, Calif., over the police killing of Nathaniel WIlks.
Black Lives Matter actions: Baltimore, Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles
June 30, 2015Demonstrations in Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and Los Angeles show the ongoing militant character of the Black Lives Matter movement as mostly young Black protesters take their anger and demands to the streets.
Oakland March for Climate Leadership
March 11, 2015The March for Climate Leadership demanded justice for people of color, as they are disproportionately harmed by toxic waste and sea level rise.
Workshop Talks: Reclaim our labor
March 7, 2015Working 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 1
January 30, 2015From Ferguson to Staten Island; Revolutionary Rojava; Youth Protest; Violence Against Women; Detroit Solidarity; Paris March; Recalling Mary Jo
Rage against lawless police murders
January 28, 2015Participant reports from several Black Lives Matter protests in different cities.
Workshop Talks: CNA nurses strike to save lives
January 27, 20152,600 mental health clinicians in California carried out a week-long strike over Kaiser Permanente’s “failure to provide timely, adequate care to patients.”
Prison hunger strike commemorated
November 24, 2014From the November-December 2014 issue of News & Letters
Oakland, Calif.—On Sept. 6 about 100 people in Mosswood Park commemorated one year since the suspension of the historic 60-day hunger strike, the third of its kind, by California prisoners opposing the torture of solitary confinement. The Security Housing Units (SHU) prisoners’ unprecedented cross-race [=>]
Nurses strike for care
November 22, 2014Oakland, Calif.–On Nov. 11 and 12 thousands of California nurses struck Kaiser hospitals over systemic cutbacks in patient care. Speaking at a noon rally in Oakland, a nurse described how she was prevented from giving care by Kaiser policies and quoted the saying, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act,” adding, “we are all revolutionaries.”
Protests stop Israeli ship from unloading
August 30, 2014From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Oakland, Calif.—On Saturday Aug. 16 thousands of marchers descended on Pier 57 at the Port of Oakland to prevent unloading of an Israeli ZIM Lines cargo ship. “Block the Boat” organizers say the Piraeus, originally scheduled to dock at 5:00 AM, rescheduled to 3:00 PM [=>]
We march in Oakland for #NMOS14
August 29, 2014From the September-October 2014 issue of News & Letters
Oakland, Calif.—Several hundred came out on Aug. 14 to a vigil in Oscar Grant Plaza, as part of a national day of protest over the police murder of Michael Brown. We read out the names of a growing number of unarmed young Black men executed [=>]
Stop the spies and lies
May 19, 2014200 youths of all races gathered at the Norwalk Fusion Center on the First National Day of Protest. Protests were also held in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Boston, Dallas, San Francisco and Oakland.
Stop police spying
March 29, 2014Oakland City Council delayed voting on a Domain Awareness Center that would allow police and other agencies to deploy a network of cameras and computers to monitor Twitter and Facebook. If not for the mayor’s decision to delay the vote, the measure would have been defeated.