Central Valley News - Sacramento, Fresno, & All of Central Valley

May Day actions are being organized this year with particular urgency in solidarity with the Palestinian people, heeding the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions to stand with Gaza. Marches and rallies will fill the streets across Northern California on May 1, and there will be no business as usual at the Port of Oakland as working people from all across the Bay Area will be converging to shut it down.

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.

Millions of people worldwide are standing in solidarity with Palestinians as Israel wages war on Gaza. Marches and rallies have demanded a ceasefire, the end of US military support for Israel, and that Palestine be freed once and for all. Every week there are more protests in cities large and small, including in many that have never seen a pro-Palestinian demonstration. In San Francisco, tens of thousands have marched against Israel's war on Gaza.

At sunrise on October 19, youth climate activists associated with the group Occupy Beale gave a speech decrying the imperialist military-industrial complex, responsible for countless ecological atrocities, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. Four activists, banners in hand, then marched across the demarcation line at the Schneider gate of Beale Air Force Base. Military police detained three of them for over an hour.

On September 16, thousands rallied and marched in Sacramento in solidarity with New York City's massive March to End Fossil Fuels. Starting with colorful rallies in Sacramento's Old Town, protesters marched to the Tower Bridge and displayed a huge banner demanding an end of fossil fuel use. Sign bearing kayakers in the river joined in. Smaller demonstrations happened in Palo Alto and other cities.

On May 19, Governor Newsom announced a legislative package and signed an executive order that would gut the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to expedite the construction of the Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir, and other controversial infrastructure projects, drawing condemnation from environmental groups. On May 25, the California Senate Budget Committee voted to temporarily block the plan, ending the proposal for this legislative year.

In San Francisco on May 1, IBU-ILWU ferry boat workers marched and rallied at Alcatraz Cruises at Pier 33 which is owned by the anti-union Hornblower company. In San José, union members and allies gathered from throughout the South Bay and beyond, then took to the streets. They chanted, "Up, up with liberation! Down, down with deportation!" In Fresno, around 200 people marched through downtown to advocate immigrants' rights.

The Western States Petroleum Association and big oil companies peddle their influence through a variety of means, from campaign spending and lobbying legislators to creating astroturf groups and sponsoring business-friendly journalistic events. Numerous media events are paid for by oil dollars, earning the companies favorable mentions by journalistic organizations. Meanwhile, a total of 897 oil drilling permits have been approved thus far in 2023.