“As an adjudicated insurrectionist, Trump is an illegitimate president according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and therefore every official act as president will be illegitimate.”
–Mike Zonta, co-editor of OccupySF.net
The 14th Amendment states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
Call your Congressperson and your U.S. Senators at (202) 224-3121
In fact, it’s been such a success that Mayor Daniel Lurie is using a $68 million surplus, Prop. C money that exceeds budget expectations, to replace General Fund support for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.
“Prop. C has been wildly successful,” Jennifer Friedenbach, director of the Coalition on Homelessness, told the Budget and Appropriations Committee. She said the money that came from taxing the rich has created 5,620 units of affordable housing, and has moved 8,420 people who were living on the streets into stable housing, including 2,800 children.
Lurie is now opposing another tax on the rich, Prop. D, which would bring in enough money to solve much of the budget crisis. If it passes, I look forward to hearing next year that it’s wild success has made the mayor’s job a lot easier.
Friedenbach gave a short, but critical history of why homelessness has become such an issue in the US:
“Housing First is the most effective approach to ending homelessness,” Colleen Rivecca, director of policy planning at the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Center, noted. “It is an evidence-based practice that is supported at the federal, state, and local level.”
Sponsored link
Under Housing First programs, tenants can’t be evicted for failing to meet treatment goals—that is, they can’t be thrown back on the streets if they are still struggling with substance use.
Third: The city isn’t putting enough money into funding permanent supportive housing, despite all the money coming in from Prop. C.
PSH isn’t just about putting people in rooms; it requires a trained, dedicated staff to work with every resident to address the trauma, physical and mental health issues, and substance disorders that are the result of this nation refusing to fund affordable housing.
That costs more every year, in part, Rivecca said, because the population PSH is serving is getting older, and the trauma is getting more serious. Plus: The cost of living keeps exploding in San Francisco, thanks to the latest tech boom (which the mayor happily embraces). When more rich people move into a city, the price of housing (and almost everything else) goes up, and the nonprofit workers who don’t have AI salaries need better pay to afford even marginal housing.
This is a fact that generations of mayors who supported tech booms have failed to acknowledge.
The failure to fund services in PSH creates a doom loop: Tenants and neighbors complain that the facilities aren’t well run, Dorsey demands no drugs, and public faith in the programs drops. This is a classic right-wing strategy: Refuse to fund public services, then complain that the programs are failing, and cut their funding entirely.
Prop. C will bring in $63 million more than expected this calendar year, and some $90 million more during this budget cycle. And yet, the budget for HSH is going down by more than $50 million. Sophia Kittler, the mayor’s budget director, told the supes that money that once came from the General Fund to support programs to end homelessness is now being replaced by unexpected money from Prop. C.
Sup. Shamann Walton was a bit incredulous. If the city has all this extra money, he said, why are they any cuts to HSH?
Kittler said there are no service cuts, since the Prop. C money backfills the cuts from the General Fund.
“But you could be doing so much more,” Walton said, to applause from a room full of affordable housing advocates.
Sup. Connie Chan was also disturbed. “If we know there is a forecasted revenue increase, why are we cutting services?”
Kittler said that the mayor’s approach this budget cycle will be to reduce funding for new PSH. “The emphasis has been on capacity building,” Kittler said. Now, Lurie wants to move toward stabilizing existing programs, to “not double down on capacity but improve the infrastructure,” she said.
Walton kept making the point that the city can do both.
Instead, the mayor wants to reduce the amount of new housing, while homelessness continues to increase. As Friedenbach noted, every time the city finds housing for one homeless person, three more become homeless—largely because rents keep going up.
Largely because Lurie keeps promoting this city as the AI capital of the world.
Nobody ever asked the residents to vote on whether that’s the city we want to live in.
48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
May Day rallies across the world brought workers out in force on Friday to protest against rising energy prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran, with Turkish police arresting hundreds of people in Istanbul, according to a lawyers’ association. Here’s everything you need to know about the demonstrations taking place from the Philippines to Pakistan.
Workers across the world are marching in May Day rallies Friday, calling for peace, higher wages and better working conditions as they grapple with rising energy costs and shrinking purchasing power tied to the Iran war.
The day is a public holiday in many countries, and demonstrations, some of which have turned violent in the past, are expected in many of the world’s major cities.
“Working people refuse to pay the price for Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East,” the European Trade Union Confederation, which represents 93 trade union organisations in 41 European countries, said. “Today’s rallies show working people will not stand by and see their jobs and living standards destroyed.”
In the US, activists opposing President Donald Trump’s policies are planning marches and boycotts.
France’s public holidays: The art of the long weekend
Turkish police on Friday fired tear gas and arrested hundreds of people holding May Day demonstrations in Istanbul, as thousands rallied nationwide.
According to the CHD Lawyers’ Association, at least 370 people were arrested in Istanbul, where police fired tear gas from riot-control vehicles into the crowd.
Images aired on the opposition channel HALK TV also showed the president of the Turkish Workers’ Party, Erkan Bas, engulfed in pepper spray.
May Day sees a major police deployment in Turkey every year, with a large area in the heart of Istanbul around Taksim Square sealed off.
Last year, protests moved to the Kadikoy area of the city and more than 400 people were arrested.
The number of arrests this year appeared to be approaching that level.
The CHD lawyers’ group, which was present at the rallies, said on a post on X that, at 1100 GMT “according to our information, the number of people in custody stands at 370”.
May Day demonstrations across the world
Workers’ unions traditionally use May Day to rally around wages, pensions, inequality and broader political issues.
Rising living costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East are expected to be a key theme in Friday’s rallies.
In the Philippines‘ capital of Manila, large crowds marched to call for higher wages and lower taxes as protesters denounced the US role in the Iran war. Some held banners reading “no troops, no bases, no war games, resist US-led wars.” Protesters clashed with police blocking the way near the US Embassy.
“Every Filipino worker now is aware that the situation here is deeply connected to the global crisis,” said Josua Mata, leader of SENTRO umbrella group of labor federations.
In Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto joined a May Day rally in the capital, Jakarta, greeting tens of thousands of people amid a tight police and military presence. Workers called for stronger government protection amid rising prices and difficulties in finding raw materials for their industry.
In Pakistan, May Day is a public holiday marked by rallies, but many daily wage earners cannot afford to take time off.
“How will I bring vegetables and other necessities home if I don’t work?” said Mohammad Maskeen, a 55-year-old construction worker near Islamabad.
Rising oil prices have fuelled inflation, which the government estimates at about 16 percent, in a country heavily reliant on financial support from the International Monetary Fund and allied nations.
In Italy, the government approved nearly 1 billion euros in job incentives this week, aiming to promote stable employment and curb labour abuses ahead of May Day. The measures extend tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and disadvantaged women, and seek to address exploitation tied to platform-based work. Opposition parties dismissed the package as “pure propaganda”.
In Portugal, proposed labour law changes by the centre-right government sparked a general strike and street protests last year. There is still no deal after nine months of negotiations with unions and employers. Unions say the proposals would weaken workers’ rights, including by expanding overtime limits and reducing some benefits.
May Day carries special meaning this year in France after a heated debate about whether employees should be allowed to work on the country’s most protected public holiday – the only day when most employees have a mandatory paid day off.
Almost all businesses, shops and malls are closed, and only essential sectors such as hospitals, transport and hotels are exempt.
A recent parliamentary proposal to expand work on the day prompted major outcry from unions and left-wing politicians.
“Don’t touch May Day,” workers’ unions said in a joint statement.
Faced with the controversy, the government this week introduced a bill meant to allow people staffing bakeries and florists to work on the holiday. It is customary in France to give lily of the valley flowers on May Day as a symbol of good luck.
“May 1 is not just any day,” Small and Medium-sized Businesses Minister Serge Papin said. “It symbolises social gains stemming from a century of building social rules that have led to the labour code we know in France. It is indeed a special day.”
Activists and labour unions are organising street protests and boycotts across the United States, where May Day is not a federal holiday.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and labour unions, has called on people to protest under the banner of “workers over billionaires”.
Voicing strong opposition to Trump’s policies, organisers listed thousands of May Day actions across the country and are seeking an economic blackout through “no school, no work, no shopping”.
Demands include taxing the rich and putting an end to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
While labour and immigrant rights are historically intertwined, the focus of May Day rallies in the US shifted to immigration in 2006. That’s when roughly 1 million people, including nearly half a million in Chicago alone, took to the streets to protest federal legislation that would have made living in the US without legal permission a felony.
May Day, or International Workers’ Day, dates back more than a century to a pivotal period in US labour history.
In the 1880s, unions pushed for an eight-hour workday through strikes and demonstrations. In May 1886, a Chicago rally protesting the police killing of two striking workers the day before also turned deadly when a bomb was thrown at police, who fired into the crowd in response.
Several labour activists – most of them immigrants and staunch anarchists – were convicted of conspiracy and other charges, despite the fact that the bomber had not been identified; four were executed.
Unions later designated May 1 to honour workers. A monument in Chicago’s Haymarket Square commemorates them with the inscription: “Dedicated to all workers of the world.”
May Day is now observed in much of the world from Europe to Latin America, Africa and Asia.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference held by President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC on April 6, 2026.
(Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Republicans are out of excuses and should join Democrats and stop this war,” said one congressional Democrat. “Let’s put the pressure on.”
Friday marks 60 days since President Donald Trump formally notified Congress of the US and Israel’s illegal war on Iran—a key deadline under a relevant federal law. In a new notification obtained by Politico, the White House claimed the conflict has been “terminated,” but lawmakers aren’t buying that argument.
“That’s bullshit,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said of the latest notification on social media. “This is an illegal war, and every day Republicans remain complicit and allow it to continue is another day lives are endangered, chaos erupts, and prices increase, all while Americans foot the bill.”
Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has fought to stop Trump’s assault on Iran since before it began, told Common Dreams that “Trump knows this war is deeply unpopular with his base. He’s trying to say it’s over, but the reality is that thousands of US troops are still in the region, and food and gas prices are still going up at home.”
The Republican president and some of his key allies had previewed the White House position in various remarks on Thursday.
“Look, the country’s doing really well, and that’s despite a military operation—I don’t call it a war,” Trump, a well-documented liar, told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “Iran is dying to make a deal.”
Since Trump began bombing Iran on February 28, legal experts and US lawmakers have alleged violations of international law and the Constitution, which empowers only Congress to declare war. However, both chambers are narrowly controlled by Republicans, nearly all of whom have refused to support Democratic war powers resolutions intended to end the conflict, most recently in the Senate on Thursday.
Defenders of Trump’s so-called “Operation Epic Fury” argue that he was allowed to strike Iran under the War Powers Act of 1973, which empowers the president to deploy military forces for up to 60 days as long as he notifies Congress within 48 hours. After those two months, he is required to end hostilities or seek permission from federal lawmakers to continue them.
“He seems set against doing so,” Tess Bridgeman and Oona A. Hathaway wrote Friday for Just Security. “If he refuses, he will take a war that is already doubly illegal and turn it into a triply illegal war. He will also make it clear, if it was not already, that he regards the law as no constraint on his use of the US military’s lethal power.”
On Thursday, as the latest Senate resolution was blocked in a 47-50 vote, Trump allies joined the president in suggesting that, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told NBC News in the Capitol, “We are not at war.”
“I don’t think we have an active, kinetic military bombing, firing, or anything like that. Right now, we are trying to broker a peace,” Johnson said. “I would be very reluctant to get in front of the administration in the midst of these very sensitive negotiations, so we’ll have to see how that plays out.”
The US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire on April 7, just hours after Trump’s genocidal threat to wipe out the Middle Eastern country’s “whole civilization.” That truce has since been extended, but it and another deal for Israel’s supposed targeting of Hezbollah in Lebanon are both “fragile, temporary, and in danger of collapse at any moment,” as Amnesty Internationalstressed in a Wednesday statement calling on the international community to push for sustainable peace in the region.
Throughout the ceasefire, Trump has maintained his naval blockade on Iran, which has responded to the war by closing the Strait of Hormuz to most ship traffic. Restrictions on the trade route have driven up fuel prices around the world, including across the United States, where new polling shows that over 60% of Americans say the president’s war was a “mistake.”
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth cited the ceasefire on Thursday when questioned about how the administration plans to address the 60-day deadline by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.)—a leading voice for war powers resolutions on Iran and other military aggression by the administration—during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Hegseth said that “ultimately, I would defer to the White House and White House counsel on that. However, we are in a ceasefire right now, which, [in] our understanding, means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops, in a ceasefire.”
Interjecting, Kaine responded that “I do not believe the statute would support that. I think the 60 days runs maybe tomorrow, and it’s gonna pose a really important legal question for the administration. We have serious constitutional concerns and we don’t want to layer those with additional statutory concerns.”
Before the notification to Congress on Friday, a senior Trump administration official had affirmed that what Hegseth laid out is the White House position, telling Reuters that the US military and Iran have not exchanged fire since April 7 and, for War Powers Act purposes, “the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28, have terminated.”
Highlighting Trump’s ongoing blockade of Iran, US Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) called Hegseth “flat wrong,” and declared that the Pentagon chief “does not get to rewrite the law because following it is inconvenient.”
Another California Democrat, Rep. Sara Jacobs, said on social media Thursday: “Trump’s war on Iran was illegal from day one—Congress never authorized it. Tomorrow, the statutory 60-day clock runs out too. Republicans are out of excuses and should join Democrats and stop this war. Let’s put the pressure on.”
In a video released Friday, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) noted his role in the Obama administration’s Iran nuclear deal—which Trump ditched during his first term—and emphasized the president’s “legal obligation to withdraw troops after 60 days, or come to Congress for authorization.”
It’s been 60 days since Trump started this war against Iran. But this war should've never should’ve happened, and it needs to end. Now.
Under the War Powers Act, this administration is now required withdraw our troops or make their case and seek Congressional authorization. pic.twitter.com/ebdQjvAQOW
Democrats have vowed to keep introducing war powers resolutions. As one went down in the Senate on Thursday, Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) introduced another in the House, following in the footsteps of other Congressional Progressive Caucus members.
“Americans don’t even know why we are in this war, and neither does Congress,” Balint said in a statement. “This unauthorized war is yet another example of the Trump administration’s brazen and illegal attempts to consolidate power. At a time when Americans have told us everything is too expensive, it is shameful that we are wasting upwards of a billion dollars a day on this.”
“We need it to end, to bring our service members back to safety, and to get Congress and this administration to focus on lowering the cost of living here at home,” she added. “Today, I introduced a war powers resolution which would direct the president to stop the use of US armed forces in Iran unless explicitly authorized by a declaration of war from Congress. It is essential to hold every member of Congress accountable for allowing this war to continue and put them on record for the American people to see.”
Nick Penniman, founder and CEO of the political reform group Issue One, took aim at federal lawmakers on Friday, declaring that “the American people should be deeply concerned by Congress’ failure today. Since the war in Iran started, our country has spent more than $25 billion bombing military and civilian targets in Iran. Fourteen Americans have been killed, and more than 200 have been wounded. More than 3,000 Iranians have died—half of them civilians, and many of them children. The stakes are profound, which is why Congress should be making such decisions, not just one man in the Oval Office.”
“Yet, in defiance of the Constitution, too many in Congress bow to the President. In missing the 60-day deadline to assert constitutional authority, Congress has totally failed in its most fundamental role as the first branch of government,” he continued. “The precedent set today is deeply harmful to American democracy. When the president acting alone becomes normalized, it becomes more difficult to have a government of, by, and for the people.”
“The founders were very clear that Congress, not the executive, has the final say when it comes to war and peace,” he concluded. “This can’t go on. Congress must approve all future funding for the war with Iran. Moving forward, Congress has to reassert its power in deciding when and how our country enters war. In order to do that, Congress should update the 1973 War Powers Resolution to reassert constitutional checks and balances to protect future generations of Americans.”
This article has been updated to include the White House’s new notification to Congress claiming the Iran War has been “terminated” plus comment from Issue One, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Congressman Ro Khanna.
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Demonstrators attend a May Day rally marking International Workers’ Day in New York, on May 1, 2026.
(Photo by Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
“During the ‘No Kings’ demonstrations, we showed what we’re against. May Day is the day we’re making clear what we are fighting for,” said one organizer.
In thousands of locations across the United States, workers and students are taking off from work and school and swearing off shopping on Friday as part of a national May Day protest.
May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and unions organizing the events, said more than 4,000 actions, from marches to pickets to displays of peaceful civil disobedience, were underway.
It is yet another nationwide display of coordinated resistance to the Trump administration’s agenda, including its war in Iran and its use of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to attack immigrant communities, issues that were at the forefront of March’s “No Kings” protests.
Six young protesters with the Sunrise Movement were taken into custody after blocking a bridge in Minneapolis in what they said was an act of “nonviolent noncooperation” to “stand up to the war in Iran and against ICE terrorizing our neighbors and our cities.”
Dozens more Sunrise protesters in Portland held a sit-in in the lobby of a Hilton hotel that was housing top officials with the Department of Homeland Security, leading to eight arrests.
“It’s May 1st, it’s workers’ day,” one of the protesters was recorded saying while being led away by police. “Don’t forget that you have power.”
In New York, over 100 activists lined up outside every entrance to the New York Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan, banging drums and chanting “No ICE, no war!” where they were met by a flood of cops.
“The rich get richer off the backs of poor and working class people.” A May Day protester outside the NY Stock Exchange calls for taxing the rich to fund healthcare and support for the most vulnerable.
In the spirit of May Day, a global day of solidarity among workers, Sulma Arias, the executive director of the social justice organization People’s Action, said Friday’s “Workers Over Billionaires” protests are just as much about confronting injustices as about building an alternative.
“During the ‘No Kings’ demonstrations, we showed what we’re against. May Day is the day we’re making clear what we are fighting for,” Arias said. “We are for affordable housing for low-income people. We are for free healthcare for all. We are for utility laws that ensure every home stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer at costs that a person on a fixed income can afford. We are for the right to a fair and equal vote for Americans from every race and in every state. May Day is our day to assert and defend our rights.”
“They want us afraid. They want us divided. But on May 1, we refuse.”
Despite claims by President Donald Trump that the US is entering an economic “golden age” under his leadership, a Gallup poll released this week found that 55% of Americans said their finances were getting worse, the highest number ever recorded in more than 20 years of polling, and even higher than in the doldrums of the Great Recession.
"Workers over billionaires!"
Chicago Teachers Union president @stacydavisgates urges workers to take back their power to assemble at the city's May Day rally.
A coalition of labor unions across several major cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago, and Los Angeles, has coordinated what has been called an “economic blackout,” which includes avoiding buying from private sector retailers.
“When we say ‘workers over billionaires,’ ‘billionaires’ is not just this amorphous figure, right? They’re real people,” said Jana Korn, the chief of staff for the Philadelphia Council AFL-CIO, in an interview with The Real News Network. “In Philadelphia, we’re kind of a poor city. We don’t have that many billionaires, but we have one. The CEO of Comcast is the only billionaire that lives in the city.”
“So why should we, as a city, accept that they take and take from us? And then with that money, what do they do? They donate to Trump’s ballroom project,” she continued. “People in Philadelphia are struggling… Our transportation system barely works. We’re at risk of having 17 schools close down this year.”
Some labor organizers have described economic boycotts, undertaken as part of prior mass protest movements against the second Trump administration, as an act of building strength for something larger, such as a future general strike.
“I think really for us in the labor movement,” Korn said, “[the boycott is] about how do we build the capacity to really disrupt, to strike when necessary, to shut things down when we have to. And that’s something that we have not been called to do as a labor movement in a very long time.”
Other unions have used May Day to confront their own employers directly. In New Orleans, hundreds of nurses at University Medical Center announced that they were beginning a five-day strike after attempting to negotiate a contract for more than two years.
In New York City, Amazon workers unionized with the Teamsters assembled on the steps of the public library before marching to Amazon’s corporate offices to demand the company cut its contracts with ICE, which has used its cloud computing services to target immigrants, including some Amazon workers and contractors.
Matt Multari, who has worked as an Amazon driver for a year and a half, told Mother Jones that he joined the protest to “demand the one thing that’s worth fighting for in this life: respect.”
Masih Fouladi, executive director of the California Immigrant Policy Center, said, “May Day is a moment of reckoning.”
“Immigrant communities—from farmworkers in our fields to nurses in our hospitals, from refugees fleeing war to families who have built their lives here for generations—are under siege,” she said. “They want us afraid. They want us divided. But on May 1, we refuse.”
“Workers and immigrants—documented and undocumented, native-born and newly arrived,” she said, “will stand together in the streets because we know the truth: there is no workers’ rights without immigrant rights, and there is no justice for working people here while our tax dollars fund devastation abroad.”
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Protesters march at the May Day Sin Fronteras: International Workers’ Day March and Resource Fair at Fruitvale Plaza in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, May. 1, 2026.Adahlia Cole/For the S.F. Chronicle
A May Day protest by airport service workers briefly shut down the departure-level roadway at San Francisco International Airport’s international terminal Friday, diverting traffic as demonstrators rallied over a wage dispute and broader labor concerns.
Several San Francisco elected officials were arrested after demonstrators blocked the roadway to the international terminal, including Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman, Supervisor Connie Chan and former Supervisor Jane Kim. State Sen. Josh Becker, who represents San Mateo County and part of Santa Clara County, was also arrested.
“San Francisco airport is the people’s airport,” Chan told supporters before her arrest. “We know our workers deserve fair pay, a fair contract, health care and benefits. We’re demanding that the workers get that benefits and fair pay right now.”
Before making arrests, police warned protesters to clear the street.
“I have been arrested before,” Mandelman said. “I’ve been arrested with the hotel workers, for marriage equality, and I’ve been arrested for the airport workers. These folks have been trying to get a fair contract for a year, and I wanted to be supportive on this May Day.”
The lawmakers were among approximately 25 people cited and released for their actions while protesting President Donald Trump and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The demonstration, led by SEIU, was part of a wave of May Day actions across the Bay Area focused on labor and immigrant rights. Hundreds of airport workers rallied Friday morning at the international terminal.
SFO officials said the airport had issued a free speech permit for the demonstration. In a statement, the airport said the permit process is intended to give demonstrators a place to share their message while designating areas that allow passengers to keep moving through the airport.
“As a safety precaution, the upper-level roadway at the International Terminal was temporarily closed,” SFO said.
During the closure, vehicles headed to the international terminal were routed to the lower arrivals level. Airport officials also advised travelers to use the Kiss & Fly area at the Rental Car Center for international terminal pickups and drop-offs. Domestic terminals were not affected, SFO said.
Demonstrators block roadway to SFO
Demonstrators march into San Francisco International Airport’s international terminal during May Day protests Friday. Lea Suzuki S F Chronicle
The airport later said all lanes on the international terminal roadway had reopened Friday afternoon.
May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, has long been associated with labor organizing and, in the United States, immigrant rights demonstrations. Bay Area protests were held Friday in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, Palo Alto, Santa Rosa, Alameda and other cities.
In San Francisco, demonstrators marched from Civic Center and down Market Street, passing City Hall, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building and Salesforce Tower as unions and immigrant rights groups joined actions around the region. Dozens of unions were represented, including SEIU, National Nurses United, the Teamsters and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Marchers shook tambourines and chanted, with one pushing a baby in a stroller affixed with a “future union member” sign. Some carried signs proclaiming “Stand up to Trump” and “Stop the war on Iran,” as well as a banner embroidered with the “Enough” in more than a dozen languages.
“This is really a day to say ‘enough,’” said Anne Wolf, who created the banner with others at the Richmond Art Center. “Today is also about ICE and the attacks on working people in California whose immigration status shouldn’t matter. We’re all a working community, and I think the banner expresses that as well.”
Francisco Herrera, the co-executive director of San Francisco’s Nuevo Sol Day Labor and Domestic Worker Center, said the protest was an occasion for all workers to unite, whether they’re employed by a restaurant or a bank.
“If you have a W2, if you can’t take a year off without work, you are working class,” he said.
Google employee Emma Jackson said speaking out against billionaires is especially important to her as a worker in the tech industry, which has been rocked by waves of mass layoffs in the past year.
“It’s our work that generates their billions,” Jackson said. “It’s great to be in solidarity with so many tech workers coming out against tech billionaires.”
May Day demonstrators march along Fruitvale Ave. in Oakland
Demonstrators march along Fruitvale Ave. during the Oakland Sin Fronteras: International Workers’ Day March & Resource Fair in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, May 1, 2026.Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle
Unlike the “No Kings” protests typically held on weekends, the May Day demonstration required many to leave work and school to participate. Sasha Wright, an organizer with Jobs for Justice San Francisco, was heartened to see workers’ willingness to join the protest on a weekday afternoon.
“What we’ve seen in other countries where there’s been an authoritarian takeover of the government is that it’s going to take more than marches,” Wright said. “It’s going to take other tactics, like strikes and boycotts. So it’s really exciting to see people taking that next step.”
Nicholas Weininger said he carved the time out of his day as an engineering-management consultant to join the throngs of people in San Francisco. His homemade sign featured a quote from Péter Magyar, the Hungarian Prime Minister-elect: “Never again a country without consequences.”
Joss Pearlman, 15, left class at Lick-Wilmerding High School with three friends to march with other demonstrators toward the Embarcadero.
“As teenage girls, it’s just patriarchy in general that we don’t think should exist anymore,” she said. “We’re standing up for things that affect us and affect our community.”
Protesters also briefly blocked the roadway outside Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport on Friday morning. Demonstrators gathered at the ILWU Local 6 union hall on Hegenberger Road before marching to the terminals. The union has called on the Port of Oakland to protect port jobs.
Later on Friday, protesters filled Oakland’s Fruitvale Plaza, chanting “we want justice for our people,” playing traditional Korean drums and waving signs that read “immigrant labor built this country” and “ICE out.” Demonstrators marched up 35th Avenue, before returning to Fruitvale Plaza.
In downtown Berkeley, a crowd of more than 100 sporting union T-shirts and safety vests marched to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park on Friday morning. Many held signs that denounced Trump and his administrative priorities, which many felt had prioritized corporations over working people.
“Income and wealth inequality have reached levels that are untenable,” Ida Martinac, a member of SEIU Local 1000 who also serves on the Berkeley Rent Board. “Something has to give. That’s why building labor power is so important.”
Lucy Hodgman is a Hearst Fellow on the Climate Team at the San Francisco Chronicle, covering seismic building issues, homeowners insurance and breaking energy and environment news. She previously covered politics for the Times Union, in Albany, New York, and breaking news for Politico and the Sacramento Bee.
Originally from Brooklyn, Lucy graduated from Yale University with a degree in English. Reach her at lucy.hodgman@hearst.com.
Kate Talerico is a reporter covering the East Bay, with a focus on Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda County. Before joining the Chronicle, she covered housing at the Mercury News, reporting on changes to the real estate industry and tracking how housing policy is shaped and implemented. Her first journalism job was at the Idaho Statesman, where she covered Boise’s growth leading up to the pandemic. She also lived in France for two years, teaching English to high school students. Kate graduated from Brown University with a degree in urban studies.
On May 1, 2026, San Francisco hosts major May Day actions, including a 2 PM march from Civic Center Plaza, focusing on labor rights, immigration, and anti-austerity. Expect disruptions, specifically an early morning SFO terminal demonstration, and a broader “no work, no school” movement. Major actions in San Francisco include: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
11 AM – SFO Rally: A demonstration led by SEIU-USWW and Bay Resistance at SFO’s International Terminal departure level.
2 PM – May Day “Shut it Down” March: Main march starting at Civic Center Plaza, marching toward Embarcadero.
4 PM – SF Labor Council March: Rally at Embarcadero Plaza for International Workers’ Day.
Demands: Workers are protesting for higher wages, against ICE actions, and against corporate greed. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Transit and traffic around the Civic Center and the Embarcadero may be affected. Participants are advised to join the rallies at Civic Center Plaza. [1, 2]
Every penny Republicans choose to spend on ICE and Border Patrol, on Trump’s wars of choice, and his gaudy ballroom, is money that could be going to healthcare, schools, and making life more affordable for working families in our country. The GOP is going out of its way to prove how little they care about their own constituents — and we’re going to hammer them for it. And together, we’re going to do everything we can do to block this bill.
As this fight unfolds, we’ll have more actions you can take and ways to mobilize your friends and neighbors and voters across the country — but you can get started today by contacting your Members of Congress.
Vessels taking part in the Global Sumud Flotilla 2026 Spring Mission to Gaza depart from the marina in Augusta, on the island of Sicily, Italy, on April 26, 2026.
(Photo by Baris Seckin/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“How on Earth,” asked the UN’s top Palestine expert, “is possible that Israel is allowed to assault and seize vessels in international waters just off Greece/Europe?”
Palestine defenders on Thursday condemned Israeli forces’ raid of the latest Global Sumud Flotilla—which was sailing off the Greek coast while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza—and the arrest of more than 200 of its participants, with some prominent critics calling the seizure an act of piracy.
Greenpeace International—whose MY Arctic Sunrise is the flotilla’s most prominent ship—said that the maritime convoy’s 58 vessels were “boarded and harassed by Israeli forces in international waters 45 nautical miles west of the Greek island Kythira and 600 nautical miles from Gaza.”
Flotilla organizers said on X: “Our boats were approached by military speedboats, self-identified as ‘Israel’, pointing lasers and semi-automatic weapons ordering participants to the front of the boats and to get on their hands and knees. The boat communications are being jammed and an SOS was issued.”
The organizers said 211 flotilla participants were seized by Israeli forces. Flotilla activist Yasmine Scola said members were “kidnapped.”
Global Sumud France spokesperson Helene Coron said that 10 French nationals, including communist Paris City Council Member Raphaelle Primet, were seized.
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“We don’t have the information for the other nationalities, but the boats were mixed in terms of nationality, so there were crew members from all 48 delegations,” Coron added.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that “approximately 175 activists from more than 20 boats… are now making their way peacefully to Israel.”
Responding to Israel’s interception, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakissaid on social media that his country’s government “is either complicit or incapable of defending our seas from Israel.”
“So much for freedom of navigation and international law,” he added.
Independent British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbynsaid of the flotilla members: “They were not intercepted. They were abducted in international waters. This is piracy—and is a flagrant violation of international law.”
Another British lawmaker, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, wrote on X that “last night, Israel’s navy committed an act of armed piracy in international waters, threatening unarmed civilians aboard.”
“Our government must condemn this attack, extend diplomatic protection to British participants, and work to ensure safe passage,” she added.
The migrant search and rescue group SOS Mediterranee France said on X that “attacking or threatening” Global Sumud Flotilla vessels “in international waters constitutes a violation of maritime law.”
“Furthermore, the Geneva Conventions are clear: Any person engaged in a humanitarian mission must be protected. Solidarity is not a crime, Preventing aid, however, is,” the group added.
In the United States, Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement that “Congress must demand that the Israeli apartheid government immediately release the American citizens and other humanitarian activists it kidnapped in international waters in a blatant violation of international law.”
“Our nation would not tolerate, much less fund, the kidnapping of American citizens in international waters off the coast of Greece by any other state,” Awad added. “It is long past time for the out-of-control Netanyahu regime to face consequences of its crimes, including American citizens.”
The United States supports Israel with tens of billions of dollars in armed aid, and diplomatic cover including repeated vetoes of United Nations Security Council cease-fire resolutions for Gaza.
Last year, dozens of boats carrying hundreds of activists from over 40 nations took part in the last Global Sumud Flotilla—sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic—as it attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade and deliver desperately needed humanitarian aid including food, medicines, and baby formula to starving Gazans amid a growing famine.
Israeli forces intercepted and seized the flotilla vessels in international waters in early October, arresting all aboard the boats and temporarily jailing them in Israel.
In 2010, Israeli forces raided one of the first convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea. The attackers killed nine volunteers aboard the MV Mavi Marmara, including Turkish-American teenager Furkan Doğan.
Members of past Gaza flotillas have reported abuse at the hands of their Israeli captors, although they have urged the world to focus not on them, but rather the people of Gaza, who have endured nearly 31 months of genocidal war and siege.
More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, including thousands who are still missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble. Most victims are civilians. Around 2 million other Gazans have been forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.
The Israeli government continues to blockade Gaza by land and sea, strictly limiting the entry of humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal strip.
“We renew our call on world leaders to take concrete and immediate action in the face of the genocide being inflicted by Israel on the people of Gaza,” Pujarini Sen, project lead aboard the Arctic Sunrise, said Thursday. “The international community’s ongoing failure to enforce international law leaves it culpable for Israel’s actions.”
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Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris departs the stage with Second gentleman Doug Emhoff after conceding the election, at Howard University on November 06, 2024 in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Who are party leaders protecting most by not releasing an autopsy of the former vice president’s 2024 loss to Donald Trump?
More than four months after Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin announced that he was breaking his promise to release its autopsy report on the 2024 election, the decision remains highly controversial. Arguments swirl around whether it’s wise to proceed without public scrutiny of what went wrong during the last presidential campaign. But scant attention has focused on how hiding the autopsy provides an assist to Kamala Harris, who currently leads in polling of Democrats for the party’s 2028 nomination.
As Harris eyes another run, she has a major stake in the DNC continuing to keep the autopsy under wraps—and has a lot to lose if it reaches the light of day. She must feel gratified when Martin defends keeping the autopsy secret, saying that the party should not “relitigate” the 2024 election and claiming that release of the 200-page document would result in “navel-gazing.”
Release of the entire autopsy would likely be a blow to Harris’s chances of becoming president in January 2029. Partly based on interviews with more than 300 prominent Democrats and others in all 50 states, it reportedly concludes that Harris’s unwavering support for US weapons shipments to Israel was a significant factor in her loss to Donald Trump.
While she pursued an unsuccessful strategy of wooing scarce “moderate” Republican voters, many in the Democratic base were repelled by the full backing that Harris gave to President Biden’s massive arming of Israel as civilian deaths mounted in Gaza. She adhered to Biden’s admonition that there be “no daylight” between the two of them as she campaigned for president after he withdrew from the race.
The DNC’s scrapping of the autopsy is a political gift that keeps on giving to Harris as she appears to be gearing up for the 2028 campaign.
At the time, polls showed that Harris was harming her election prospects by refusing to distance herself from Biden’s policy toward Israel. She evades that reality in her post-election book 107 Days, which dismisses antiwar protesters at her rallies as mere “hecklers.”
Harris’s protracted book tour has been beset by disruptions as well as her inability to provide cogent responses. At one appearance last fall, protesters yelled “Your legacy is genocide! Your legacy will always be genocide!” Her rejoinder was, “You know what, I am not president of the United States. You want to go to the White House and talk to him, then go on and do that.” Weeks later, speaking in Chicago, when a protester accused her of complicity in the Gaza horrors, she fired back: “Are you the same person that was telling people not to vote?”
Renewed attention to the Harris 2024 finances would also be unwelcome. Thirteen months after the election, the New York Timesreported, “some Democratic donors have demanded a more thorough accounting of how exactly the party and Ms. Harris spent $1.5 billion in 15 weeks en route to losing every battleground state in 2024.” In mid-April, NBC News noted that “to date, a full accounting has not been made of who was paid what from the $1.5 billion, though the DNC later disclosed it carried more than $20 million in debt from Harris’s loss.”
A few weeks ago, Harris told an audience of influential black leaders that she’s “thinking about” running for president again and said that “I know what the job is and I know what it requires.” Politico described those comments as “the most explicit sign yet she’ll run for president in 2028.”
Release of the entire autopsy would likely be a blow to Harris’s chances of becoming president in January 2029.
Just about the last thing Harris would need is enormous publicity about an authoritative audit from the DNC—the governing body of the Democratic party—about what was wrong with her 2024 campaign. Such an autopsy would stoke fires of negativity and apprehension about making her the party’s standard-bearer again.
The DNC’s scrapping of the autopsy is a political gift that keeps on giving to Harris as she appears to be gearing up for the 2028 campaign. A straw in the wind: The DNC national coalitions director, Gabriel Uy, recently emailed colleagues that he will leave that job in early May to “be working for VP Harris again, so let’s keep in touch.” Uy was the Nevada political director for Harris’s presidential campaign in 2019 and then deputy director of public engagement and intergovernmental affairs for Harris when she was vice president. Other high-level DNC employees will probably also be migrating to the Harris staff.
Under ongoing pressure from a variety of Democrats, Martin has begun to indicate that he will supply “top lines” summarizing the autopsy. Such a move would do little to placate critics, raising pointed questions about what was omitted and why the DNC was only willing to engage in cherry-picking instead of fully informing the party faithful.
During an MS NOW television interview in late April, while he used head-spinning illogic to defend concealing the autopsy, Martin went out of his way to say “I’m not here to protect anyone.” The interviewer had not asked if he was protecting anyone. It seemed to be an instance of “the chairman doth protest too much.”
Martin has properly emphasized that the Democratic National Committee should maintain strict neutrality in relation to presidential primaries, unlike what happened in 2016 when the DNC secretly assistedHillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders. A year ago, in a well-publicized dustup with David Hogg, then in a brief stint as DNC vice chair, Martin insisted that Hogg could not run a funding operation for candidates in party primaries and remain a DNC officer.
“I am determined to make sure we don’t repeat the same errors of the past,” Martin wrote in Time magazine. He explained that “I’ve spent the past decade making sure our party cannot ever again be perceived as having a thumb on the scale for one candidate.”
But now, in effect, Martin’s concealment of the autopsy report puts a thumb on the scale for one candidate: Kamala Harris.
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Vigil organizers displayed poster boards on Sproul Plaza featuring poetry and photos of the school and those killed in the strike. Casey Scaduto | Staff
Campus student groups organized a candlelight vigil with more than 100 attendees on Sproul Plaza on Tuesday evening to honor those killed during the Feb. 28 missile strike on Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab, Iran.
U.S. military investigators found the United States were likely responsible for the attack that killed about 168 people, including 110 students.
“The difficulty in having a candlelight vigil is that you hope that it will stop,” said ethnic studies lecturer Hatem Bazian. “But unfortunately, as we’re seeing the development around the world, it doesn’t look like there is any stopping anytime soon.”
Vigil organizers displayed poster boards featuring poetry and photos of the school and those killed in the strike. A projector played a video of Josephine Guilbeau, a former U.S. Army counterterrorism officer, in which she alleged the U.S. strike constituted a war crime. Following Guilbeau’s speech, the projector also played home videos of the children who were killed.
A member of UC Berkeley’s Ahlul Bayt Student Association, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution, said it took about two weeks to organize the event.
“I’m a graduating senior right now, and seeing these backpacks with red blood on them or these innocent faces, I can’t help but think that I’m so privileged to be able to experience my education at a university,” the member said.
Maryam Farahmand-Asil, UC Berkeley alumna and assistant professor at Northeastern University, first approached Ahlul Bayt Student Association and other student groups to organize the event.
Farahmand-Asil had been planning the event for more than a month with the intention to raise campus awareness of the missile strike.
“About 168 students were killed on a strike in just one day, during school time — they didn’t know that the war happened,” Farahand-Asil said. “We want to raise awareness to all the students … So when they see what’s happened, they just search and they see how they can help.”
Another student group that helped organize the event was the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
A member of SJP, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution, highlighted Sproul as a “great and accessible space” to hold the vigil.
Fateme D. Montazeri, a scholar at campus’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, said she connected with the event on a personal level.
“I have long followed violence in the Middle East, but this one reached me differently,” Montazeri said. “Was it because the children of Minab spoke my mother tongue? … For the first time, I could not maintain the distance between what I knew and what I felt.”
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