In the Mission District of San Francisco, Station 40 has served the Bay Area community as an anti-authoritarian collective living and organizing space for nearly two decades. Five years ago, their landlord attempted to evict them, only to be forced to back down by a powerful coordinated solidarity campaign. Now, Station 40 has taken the initiative to respond to the crisis currently playing out across the world, unilaterally declaring a rent strike in response to the economic precarity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Station 40 on Rent Strike
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California on Coronavirus Lockdown
California residents have been ordered to "stay at home" to suppress the spread of COVID-19. Stringent mitigation measures mean millions are without an income. Students face the possibility of going hungry. Curbside communities and incarcerated persons are especially at risk for contracting the virus. The stress and isolation of the pandemic take a toll on mental health. Not waiting for government action, people are stepping up with mutual aid efforts to assist those most in need.
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Homeless Families Take Action in Time of Housing and Health Crisis
Demanding action for homeless families at higher risk from coronavirus, homeless and housing insecure families successfully moved into six vacant, state-owned properties in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles on March 14, with scores of community supporters coming out in support. In the next few days, similar families reclaimed more houses, with thirteen providing shelter now. CalTrans owns the houses, and activists estimate that nearly 200 sit vacant.
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Lessons from Depression-era Mutual Aid
anonymous writes: As coronavirus spreads and the death toll begins to climb, our most immediate concern is (and should remain) staying healthy and supporting our communities through the immediate crisis. As radicals, however, we must also begin to strategize how we will respond to the economic collapse that will continue to affect our lives long after a vaccine or herd immunity render the virus itself a past issue. Looking back to our local history, we can learn a great deal from Great Depression era worker self-organizing and mutual aid.
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Bay Area Rent Strike
Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Tenant and Neighborhood Councils, and other Bay Area folks are producing and sharing information on how to organize a rent strike. They write: We can work together to prevent eviction and foreclosure. We can keep each other housed and fed. We must demand an immediate suspension of rent and mortgage payments for everyone. And if this demand is not met, we must refuse to pay our rents and our mortgages, together.
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SF May Day Car Caravan
A coalition of organizations is organizing a SF May Day Car Caravan on Friday, May 1 to demand the cancellation of rent, mortgage, and utility payments as well as homes for all and a debt free future for tenants, homeless residents, workers and families. The COVID-19 pandemic has further unveiled the deep inequality in our economic and housing systems. In California, renters make up almost half of the population. 55% of renters are considered cost-burdened, with low-income people and people of color suffering the worst instability.
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On May Day 2020, Two Homeless Women Move into Vacant Property in San Francisco
Taking inspiration from Moms4Housing, ReclaimSF organized to directly meet the real needs of unhoused neighbors and to demand bolder initiatives from elected officials. On May Day 2020, two homeless women occupied a vacant building in San Francisco's Castro District. A few hours later, about twenty-five SFPD officers wearing "Blue Lives Matter" face masks forcibly evicted the building occupiers.
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Dueling May Day Protests at SF City Hall
A coalition of activists marked May Day with demands to cancel rent, mortgage and utility payments for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic with a car caravan at San Francisco city hall, and also counter-protested against a simultaneous Republican-sponsored demonstration to "open" up the economy. Republicans want to resume economic activity as soon as possible in an attempt to salvage the reelection of Trump, wrapping their intentions in American flags and slogans of "freedom" and "liberty."
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Uprisings Explode Across the Country After Murder of George Floyd
Demonstrations continue around the Bay Area in the name of George Floyd, who was murdered by Minneapolis police on May 25, with tens of thousands taking to the streets. Protests in every corner of the Bay Area have been met with police force. Demonstrators say they won’t be stopping despite the risks posed by police attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out the full feature with coverage from across Northern California.
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Libby Schaaf Gets a Wake-Up Call
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's Oakmore estate was hit with graffiti and a noise demonstration in the early morning on July 21. A communiqué posted to Indybay states, "We left a note on her garage, and treated her to a nice fireworks display and the musical notes of pots and pans and assorted noisemakers. Our message to Libby and other elected officials is simple: You have the power to take the boot off our necks — so we have the duty to struggle against you until that boot is lifted. You can't hide from your responsibility!"
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Facebook Bans Multiple Anarchist and Antifascist Pages
On August 19, Facebook took down multiple pages they believe to be connected with crimethinc.com and itsgoingdown.org, among other anarchist and anti-fascist projects, officially on the pretext that they “support violence.” A joint statement issued in response connects Facebook's action with Trump demanding a crackdown in a series of social media posts explicitly blaming anarchists and anti-fascists for the countrywide wave of protests precipitated by persistent police violence in the United States.
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The U.S. Mail is Not for Sale
Despite limited concessions by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy following public outcry against mail delaying tactics, community members and postal workers rallied to demand that Congress save the US Postal Service in protests across the US. Naturally the San Francisco Bay Area was no exception. Many here have long been concerned about privatization schemes. A national day of action on August 22 drew protests throughout the Bay Area.
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"These Are Climate Fires"
President Trump has said little about the wildfires raging in California, Oregon and Washington for weeks, other than to suggest poor forest management was primarily to blame. “These are climate fires,” says Timothy Ingalsbee, an Oregon-based wildland fire ecologist and former wildland firefighter. “Though some scientists hesitate to attribute a single event to climate change, these are exactly the conditions predicted by climatologists.”
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Poor People's Caravan Targets Senators Feinstein and Harris
On Monday, October 5, a Poor People's Campaign car caravan demonstrated in front of Senators Feinstein's and Harris' San Francisco offices. Led by a truck with a large sign demanding that McConnell not steal the Supreme Court, about thirty cars, a motorcycle and a bicycle assembled in the ILWU parking lot on Second Street and made their way to the Senators' downtown offices. The event notice described the protest as against "the meanness, misery, and mayhem of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Senate enablers."
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Moms for Housing Rack Up Victories
After nearly a year of struggle, Moms for Housing announced on October 9 that their house on Magnolia Street in West Oakland had been purchased. Moms4Housing co-founder Dominique Walker declared, "This is officially Moms' House." In November, Dominique Walker and her allies running as the "Right to Housing" slate were elected to the Berkeley rent board. ACCE Director and Moms4Housing co-founder Carroll Fife claimed victory as Oakland's D3 councilmember-elect.
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Graffiti and Vandalism Protests Hit Both Sides of the Bay
Before dawn on March 5, the houses of six University of California, Berkeley, officials were struck with graffiti and vandalism. On April 16, another action "repainted" houses believed to be owned by members of the San Francisco Graffiti Advisory Board. On May 2, nine Sullivan Management Company properties were similarly targeted, following a May Day direct action that reclaimed a long-vacant SMC property. On May 7, Oakland police vehicles were damaged.
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May Day Marches Return to the Bay Area
Actions marking May Day across Northern California demanded worker rights, housing for all, and racial justice, expressing solidarity with the Chilean general strike. Marches and rallies were held in San Francisco, Oakland, San José, Fresno, Mountain View, and other cities. In Oakland, a vacant house was reclaimed and a nighttime march called for abolishing the police. In Alameda, protesters rallied outside the homes of those who called police on Mario Gonzalez.
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Mindful Intelligence: Alan Clements on his New Book and Film
Alan Clements has been on a quest for freedom that’s taken him to Myanmar, Yugoslavia, Australia, Bali, and even to Santa Cruz. He’s been a Buddhist monk, a performer, and an investigative journalist in areas of war and extreme conflict. Clements’ books, stage performances, and World Dharma meditation retreats have always grappled with the challenge of living open-hearted and authentic in a world of suffering and violence. His latest book — Extinction X-Rated — is part autobiography and partly a “dark satire about good and evil.”
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Anti-Fascists Fight Back at Straight Pride Rally in Modesto
On August 27, anti-LGBTQ+ bigots, Proud Boys, and other white nationalists held a Straight Pride rally in the Central Valley town of Modesto, California. After announcing their rally location weeks ahead of time, only thirty alt-righters showed up at the Planned Parenthood location. There they faced about two hundred reproductive justice and LGBTQ-rights supporters who shouted down the small group of right-wing extremists.
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No Free Speech or Democracy with Oligarchy
On October 27, Elon Musk purchased the social media company Twitter for $44 billion. He proceeded to gut infrastructure and slash workers, including unionized janitorial staff. Musk welcomed back avowed neo-Nazis while banning leftist accounts and critical journalists. A series of protests have been held at Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco. A huge mural was painted on the street: "No Free Speech or Democracy with Oligarchy."
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Chevron Doubles Profits as Drivers Gouged at the Gas Pumps
The news of Chevron’s record profits and record oil and gas production in the U.S. comes as data from the Bureau of Land Management reveals that President Biden approved more oil and gas drilling permits in his first two years in office than former President Trump. Legislation is under consideration in California to establish a windfall profits cap on how much oil refiners can make in profit per gallon of gasoline.
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Street Theater Depicts Apocalyptic Vision of Climate Destruction
On March 21, an extreme wind and rain "atmospheric river" smacked San Francisco as demonstrators showed up and cut up for climate justice. Elder activists portrayed our anticipated climate future with street theater in front of Wells Fargo headquarters and sang out new lyrics to tunes familiar to their generation. A coalition of environmental groups that organized the event included a new movement of people aged 60 and beyond called Third Act.
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French Working People Will Not Accept Retirement Age Increase
Though technically legal, over seventy percent of the French people feel that the way President Macron pushed through legislation raising the retirement age was a violation of their democratic rights. He relied on Article 49.3, which allows legislation to pass without voting. Even though the Constitutional Assembly claimed the increase was legitimate, working people continue to reject the "reform." Huge demonstrations have wracked the country.
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"Fentalyfe" Poster Campaign Redecorated
In a pseudonymous communiqué published on Indybay on May 21, "some vandals" write: Under the cover of night, with the Frisco fog as our accomplice, a crew of friends vandalized over 10 of the right-wing, pro-police “Fentalyfe” street poster installations.... These disturbing posters are part of a $300k campaign, by reactionary group Together SF, that is shaming drug and Narcan users, and calling for the racist criminalization of poor people.
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French See Democracy Fading
In response to anti-government protests after police murdered a seventeen-year-old boy of Algerian descent, the French government has taken a number of repressive anti-democratic actions. Several hundred protesters were tried, convicted, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms within just forty-eight hours. One teenager with no prior record was sent to prison for a year and a month for allegedly throwing an empty soda can at a group of police.
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Wells Fargo Headquarters Blocked to Stop "Business As Usual"
On July 14, climate activists demanded a stop to Wells Fargo's reckless funding of fossil fuels. The action was part of a "block party" by local climate action groups that included loud chanting, carnival style games, music, street painting and dancing. Protesters said they timed their event to keep the pressure on the bank as it released its quarterly earnings report. Six protesters locked themselves down to block the entrance and were arrested.
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Cities for People, Not for Profit
More than a decade ago, artists and musicians created a vibrant hub for the arts in an abandoned shopping mall in Porto, Portugal. City officials long sought to close the DIY space and finally moved on the Stop Shopping Center in late July. For over 10 days, more than 500 musicians were forcibly evicted from their workspace by police and city authorities, with over 100 rehearsal rooms and workplaces closed down. Thousands came out to protest the eviction.
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Massive Opposition to APEC Summit
As billionaires and politicians met behind ten-foot-high metal walls, tens of thousands of demonstrators protested outside. Member nations of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit claim to have "Inclusive, Collaborative Solutions for Just Transitions," but opponents call this greenwashing and maintain that years of corporate neoliberalism are responsible for economic inequality, oppression, the climate crisis, and war.
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Taking Direct Action Against US Support for Israel's War on Gaza
Protesters in Northern California have engaged in direct actions aimed at disrupting business as usual and raising the profile of the call to free Palestine. Activists shut down the Bay Bridge. A US military vessel destined to deliver weaponry to Israel was blocked from leaving the Port of Oakland. A defense contractor's office was locked down. Communiqués posted on Indybay claim sabotage of train lines, as well as a water main at a pro-IDF fundraiser.
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UC Berkeley Moves to Kill People's Park Forever
Even as a case awaits a California Supreme Court decision regarding student housing UC Berkeley intends to build on the land, the university went in for the kill on People's Park shortly before midnight on January 3, sending in hundreds of police to clear the park and to make way for a wall of shipping containers. Protesters were ready for the raid, but police closed nearby streets to prevent more from coming to defend the park. Several demonstrators were arrested.
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