DRM News Oct 18, 2025 #BernieSanders#AOC#MehdiHasan Thousands packed Washington, D.C. for the “No Kings” protest as Mehdi Hasan, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and other top voices united to condemn President Donald Trump’s “authoritarian rule.” From fiery speeches to chants of “No Kings!”, protesters vowed to defend democracy and resist Trump’s growing power. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News. Mehdi Hasan, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, No Kings protest, Washington DC protest, anti Trump rally, Trump authoritarianism, Trump democracy, US politics 2025, progressive leaders, Bernie Sanders speech, AOC speech, democracy protest, Trump opposition, DRM News, civil rights rally, Washington DC march, political unrest, mass protests USA, authoritarian threat Sanders, AOC & Mehdi Hasan Unite in Fiery ‘No Kings’ Protest Against Trump “No More Kings!” — Sanders, AOC, Hasan Lead Massive Anti-Trump Rally in DC Bernie Sanders & AOC Blast Trump’s “Authoritarian Rule” at DC Protest

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(Schwartzreport)

Detainees in the U.S. Have Been Fighting Back for Decades

by Jessica Ordaz October 16, 2025 (ZocaloPublicSquare.org)

I keep thinking about José René Flores, a Los Angeles resident incarcerated at a Southern California migrant detention facility in the 1980s.

The El Centro Detention Facility, where immigration agents sent Flores, has a long and deep history of brutality. But Flores’ story is not just one of violence and violation. It is also a story of protest and solidarity—reflective of a larger lineage of resistance from inside detention, including the people the Trump administration is currently working to silence and disappear. They’ve risked their “rightless” lives with the hope that the world might learn about the inhumane conditions behind detention walls, and that they might be free.

Flores migrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1980, after being attacked by members of the National Guard, a paramilitary organization known for committing atrocities during the Salvadoran Civil War. A teenager, he was targeted for his involvement in a factory trade union and for participating in the revolutionary organization Frente de Acción Popular Unificada (FAPU). “There was terrible repression in El Salvador,” Flores told me when I interviewed him several years ago. “I was criminalized for having long hair and black glasses. Just looking different and being young meant you were a criminal, marijuanero, guerillero, and a drug addict.”

When Flores arrived in Los Angeles, he was apprehended by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials, who transported him to El Centro, because he chose to apply for political asylum. The detention center, located in California’s Imperial Valley, was built to incarcerate unauthorized Mexican men and those convicted of deportable crimes in 1945. By the time Flores got there, it had evolved from a small camp into a large-scale facility with a deep history of labor exploitation, physical abuse, and surveillance.

INS officials forced Flores and his fellow detained migrants to work as low-paid and sometimes unpaid laborers, limited their access to low-nutrient food and medical care, and oversaw a climate of physical and psychological intimidation.

Flores and a few other Salvadoran migrants decided to fight back. All of us felt the same, said Flores: “Offended. Mistreated. We wanted to tell each other not to be sad. That we were all in this together.”

In 1981, they began a 15-day hunger strike. Their refusal to eat and the use of their bodies to protest called out the violence of the state, making the public aware of the punitive nature of detention.

Due to the protest and the efforts of the immigrant aid group Concilio Manzo, the INS released Flores from the facility that same year. Soon after, in 1985, a much larger hunger strike at El Centro made international news. Fifteen migrants from around the world organized an eight-day hunger strike. Between 175 and 300 incarcerated men participated, demanding that their grievances be heard. While official INS accounts asserted that the detention center functioned simply as an administrative holding site where people waited for their deportation hearings, the stories the strikers shared with lawyers and the media framed the detention center as a site of punishment. The protesters also publicized an important factor missing from the INS narrative: why many Central Americans had migrated to the U.S. in the first place. A number of the protesters were experienced organizers in their home countries, who had been persecuted for fighting back against repressive Latin American regimes that were funded by U.S. tax dollars.

The 1985 strike resulted in further repression from INS officers. But it also helped shift the narrative around detention in the public eye, even as the U.S. continued to incarcerate immigrants and asylum seekers at sites such as the Krome North Service Processing Center in Florida, the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Acts of resistance and protest from people behind detention walls have not stopped. In the decades that have followed, migrants have demanded that lawyers and immigrant rights organizations hear and document their stories, filed class action lawsuits, and staged acts of defiance, like refusing to eat or work to challenge the cruelty of the state.

Flores’ story is not just one of violence and violation. It is also a story of protest and solidarity—reflective of a larger lineage of resistance from inside detention.

The disappearance and isolation of migrants has escalated under Trump’s “Reign of Terror.” While the strategic placement of immigration detention facilities in isolated areas is an old practice, the Trump administration took it further in February of this year, when it transferred hundreds of people to El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, commonly known as CECOT. For almost four months, the U.S. government kept the identities of those transferred secret and did not allow them to contact their families or lawyers. In CECOT, they faced violence, torture, and in some cases sexual abuse by prison guards, with inadequate food and under inhumane conditions. In March, some of those confined at CECOT organized a three-day hunger strike to demand contact with relatives and updates on their cases.

According to Andres Morales, a Venezuelan migrant detained at CECOT who has since been released, when their efforts were unsuccessful, some of them held a blood strike, cutting themselves to write SOS on the prison walls. The persistence of the incarcerated, as well as that of their loved ones, is one of the only reasons we know as much as we do about CECOT today.  

The Supreme Court blocked the practice of transferring people from the U.S. to CECOT in May. But since then, the current administration has continued to build up the infrastructure for detention in the U.S., as demonstrated by the opening of new and old ICE facilities including “Alligator Alcatraz,” and at Louisiana’s Angola prison, Camp J, which Trump termed “the Louisiana Lockup.”

Growing cases of ICE overreach, including deporting migrants before their scheduled hearings and losing track of incarcerated people, are not accidental but part of an intentionally cruel and punitive system that operates as much as possible in the shadows. As of September, the Miami Herald could not determine “the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July,” leaving their loved ones to imagine the worst.

Increasing and widespread repression inside ICE facilities has resulted in growing dissent. At the end of September, 19 incarcerated migrants commenced a hunger strike inside Camp J, calling for basic standards of care, such as prescription medication, toilet paper, and clean water.

These acts of resistance and refusal from the inside show that, despite carceral efforts to control, isolate, and strip migrants of their humanity, people will continue to find ways to fight back.

---

Jessica Ordaz is an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity.

Stephanie Keith; Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images

THE BIG STORY Mamdani vs. Cuomo Wall Street’s stance on New York’s mayoral race might surprise you. At first glance, you might think the choice between Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani is clear-cut for finance workers. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, appears to represent the antithesis of everything Wall Street is about. But a Business Insider analysis of donation data shows a much more even split between the two candidates — at least when it comes to the number of people donating to their campaigns.Across 400 financial companies, 401 workers donated to Mamdani’s campaign compared to 397 backing Cuomo. The gap, however, is much larger when considering the amount of money spent.Cuomo received 88% of the money donated, with the average amount sent to Cuomo ($1,006) dwarfing what Mamdani received ($131). When including PAC spending, Cuomo holds an even bigger edge, with 95% of the more than $9 million donated from the financial industry going to pro-Cuomo or anti-Mamdani efforts. That differential is representative of the type of finance workers backing both candidates. Front-office employees (think dealmakers and investors) are largely team Cuomo, while back-office workers (administrative-type roles or those in tech) lean toward Mamdani.

BIStill, there’s no guarantee the status quo will remain until Election Day.Tonight marks the first debate between Mamdani and Cuomo. (I suppose I should mention Republican nominee Curtis Silwa is also on the ticket, so here’s me saying that.)And as much as finance executives don’t like Mamdani and his politics (and some of them really don’t like him), they’re likely not fans of pouring money into a losing effort. Mamdani holds a double-digit lead in almost every major poll. If prediction markets are more your speed, Mamdani’s got an 88% chance of winning according to Polymarket. Outside a major slip-up in tonight’s debate, or some other unforeseen event, Mamdani has a really good chance at being Gotham City’s next mayor. And if that’s the case, some on Wall Street could change their tune. I’m not suggesting you’ll start seeing managing directors wearing Mamdani swag. But some might soften their stance to gain favor with the potential new top politician in town. If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that businesses can be flexible when it comes to politics. (Case in point: JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon said he’d help Mamdani, who he once described as “more of a Marxist than a socialist,” if he wins.)Still, there are those who aren’t prepared to give up their fight against Mamdani. Billionaire hedge funder Bill Ackman made a seven-figure donation to an anti-Mamdani super PAC as recently as Wednesday.If Mamdani ultimately wins, that could also mean another financial exodus, perhaps to Florida, like we saw during the pandemic or maybe it’ll be the big push “Y’all Street” has been preparing for.Either way, the rest of the country will be watching. If Mamdani wins, businesses and their leaders will be eager to see how the world’s financial epicenter reacts to the arrival of a democratic socialist at the helm.Read the full story

The measure follows a 500% spike in calls to ACILEP, a county hotline. It will expand the hotline hours and fund more legal aid for immigrants.

by Ayah Ali-Ahmad Oct. 15, 2025 (Oaklandside.org)

This article was originally published by KQED.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday afternoon to approve a $3.57 million emergency allocation to dramatically scale up legal services, community outreach and rapid response networks for the county’s immigrant and refugee residents.

Sourced primarily from the Measure W Essential Services Fund, the allocation includes $2.5 million for immigrant and refugee support and an additional $1 million for a flexible contingency pool. The funds will extend and increase contracts for three frontline community coalitions.

These funds extend the county’s initial $3.5 million emergency package approved on March 11, which helped establish the rapid response services now facing critical demand.

Spearheaded by Supervisors Nikki Fortunato Bas and Elisa Márquez, the action is a direct response to what county staff reports describe as “exponentially more attacks” and “unprecedented levels” of federal immigration enforcement.

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“This is about real-time response and building an infrastructure that will continue to educate and empower our communities to withstand this escalation of threats and attacks,” Márquez said.

Under the new federal budget, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is set to receive an additional $75 billion over four years, representing a more than 300% increase in enforcement and detention capacity.

Bas said that residents demanded greater support after a recent Supreme Court ruling that allows federal ICE agents to conduct stops based on perceived ethnicity, raising concerns about heightened racial profiling. The move also follows an incident last month where federal immigration officers detained a man inside an Oakland courthouse.

“With the surge in ICE arrests again, the targeting of our immigrant communities, the community has come to us to say it is urgent that we boost our capacity,” Bas said. “This will allow us to expand the rapid response hotline into the weekends and continue defending immigrants in our legal system to ensure they have due process.”

The six-month funding extension is designed to fortify the local safety net in a county where one in three residents is foreign-born and half of all children live in a mixed-status household, according to a letter from Bas and Márquez to the board recommending adoption.

Bay Area immigration arrests have doubled

Enforcement data for what ICE refers to as the San Francisco “Area of Responsibility,” which stretches from Kern County to Hawaii, Saipan and Guam and includes Alameda County, showed that immigration arrests doubled in early 2025.

This spike disproportionately impacts working-class families, particularly nationals from Mexico, Guatemala, India, El Salvador, and Honduras, according to the supervisors’ letter.

The rapid response hotline run by ACILEP, the Alameda County Immigration Legal Education Partnership, documented a 500% surge in monthly call volume since its relaunch earlier this year, receiving over 1,300 calls between March and October 2025. At Tuesday’s meeting, ACILEP said during the weekday, one person currently staffs the phone at a time, highlighting the group’s limited capacity.

The $3.57 million will support the county’s three core partners in scaling their services:

• ACILEP: The largest portion of the funding will support the expansion of the organization’s Rapid Response Hotline to operate on weekends and ensure 24/7 coverage, alongside bolstering legal services and community volunteer network coordination.
• California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice: The funds will maintain removal defense capacity, offset filing fees for low-income clients and fund legal education and outreach — ensuring immigrants in removal proceedings have access to due process and legal protection.
• Trabajadores Unidos Workers United: The group will use the funding to provide resources, mutual aid and community organizing opportunities to low-income immigrant workers and their families.

The board also designated $50,000 for the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office. This funding will help offset skyrocketing immigration application and litigation fees for low-income clients, such as the recent significant increase in costs for asylum applications and green cards following the passage of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful” budget bill.

Unlike all three of its neighboring counties — Contra Costa, San Francisco, and Santa Clara — Alameda County does not currently operate a dedicated office of immigrant and refugee affairs.

“We definitely have to do more strategic planning and develop stronger infrastructure for the long term,” Márquez said.

Alameda County Together, an ad hoc committee prioritizing equity and inclusion for residents, recommended that the county establish such an office, which would be tasked with coordinating resources, overseeing immigrant-serving programs, and advising the board of supervisors on responsive policies.

County staff have been directed to return to the board on Oct. 21 with a comprehensive coordination plan, and again on Oct. 28. The county is engaging with philanthropists, including the San Francisco Foundation’s new initiative, the Stand Together Bay Area Fund, to support these initiatives.

“It’s really important that people have a sense of belonging in this county,” Márquez said. “By us investing in these services, to acknowledge the challenges that are occurring and finding a way to mitigate that, just reaffirms our commitment to being a space and inclusive community for everyone.”

Oyster farmer Graham Platner is facing Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the state’s 2026 Democratic primary for US Senate.

 (Photo by Graham Platner/Facebook)

“DC’s choice has lost to Susan Collins five times in a row. We can’t afford a sixth,” Platner said of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee partnering with his primary opponent, Gov. Janet Mills.

Jessica Corbett

Oct 15, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

Shortly after Maine Gov. Janet Mills announced her candidacy for the US Senate on Tuesday, journalists noted her campaign‘s joint fundraising committee with the Democratic establishment—which swiftly drew strong criticism, given that she has a primary opponent, Graham Platner.

Mills entered the race to face off against Republican Sen. Susan Collins next year after weeks of speculation and reporting that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had urged the term-limited governor to do so.

RECOMMENDED…

‘People Are Being Robbed’: Maine’s Platner Credited for Showing Democrats How to Win Back Trump Voters

As Mills Enters Maine Senate Race, Platner Says Election Is Fight to ‘Retake Our Party’ for Working Class

Since Platner launched his campaign in August, the oyster farmer and military veteran has positioned himself as a champion of the working class. He has forcefully called out the oligarchy, Israel dropping US bombs on the Gaza Strip, President Donald Trump’s attacks on US cities, and Collins, who has represented Maine since 1997.

“Chuck Schumer should be focused on fighting Donald Trump and protecting healthcare for millions of Americans, not meddling in a Maine primary,” Platner—who has said he would not vote for the Senate’s top Democrat to retain his leadership position—wrote on social media Tuesday. “DC’s choice has lost to Susan Collins five times in a row. We can’t afford a sixth.”

Platner was responding to news of the Mills campaign’s fundraising partnership with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which is officially led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and works to elect party members to the chamber.

A DSCC spokesperson claimed in a Wednesday email to Newsweek that it “has not made any formal endorsements this cycle.”

https://x.com/the_vello/status/1978215646396608689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1978215646396608689%7Ctwgr%5Ed65b91c58850bd3928f4925cf769a0652129712d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2026-maine-senate-race

“Reminder: the DSCC is not some amorphous blob,” stressed Zeteo reporter Prem Thakker, pointing to Gillibrand and the group’s vice chairs: Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), Adam Schiff (Calif.), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (Del.). “These are the Democrats now fundraising for someone to become the oldest freshman (age 79) ever elected to a six-year term. All to stop Graham Platner.”

Aaron Regunberg, a climate lawyer and former Rhode Island state representative who wrote about Platner for The Nation in August, also took aim at the Senate leaders, who have strong ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

“Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand: relentlessly determined to stop the Democratic Party from ever winning back control of the Senate,” Regunberg said of the Maine Senate Victory 2026 committee. “Might as well call this the AIPAC Victory Fund.”

The Lever’s David Sirota said: “It’s very important to understand that Senate Democratic leaders deeply hate the idea of Democratic voters being allowed to choose Democratic Senate nominees without the interference of party bosses.”

Schumer and other key Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY), have also refused to endorse their own party’s nominee in next month’s New York City mayoral race: democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani.

“Any fantasies held that Democrats were interested in change have been proven undoubtedly false,” said David Griscom, a writer and co-host of the podcast Left Reckoning. “They are afraid of the kind of politics represented by Graham Platner and Zohran Mamdani, and they’ll do anything they can to stop it.”

https://x.com/SohaliV/status/1978223434933965291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1978223434933965291%7Ctwgr%5Ed65b91c58850bd3928f4925cf769a0652129712d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2026-maine-senate-race

The Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate group, declared: “It’s moves like this that have left Democratic Party leaders without any credibility. One day, they defend the need for ‘neutrality’ when it hurts the left. Then, the next, they intervene in primaries themselves.”

Some critics highlighted Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin’s calls for neutrality in primaries and the recent ouster of former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg, who supported primary challenges to “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats in blue districts.

“I’m sorry but how is this any different from the accusations the DNC made about David Hogg’s efforts to influence Dem primaries when they booted him?!” former journalist and Democratic political strategist Tara McGowan said of the Mills-DSCC committee. “And they wonder why the Democratic Party has literally the worst approval rating in history. The blind hubris is ASTOUNDING.”

Hogg himself simply said, “Well DC has their pick,” and shared multiple social media posts about Platner’s campaign.

Platner has secured endorsements from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and unions including the United Auto Workers. The committee boosting his opponent is sending some new support his way. Writer Charlotte Clymer said that “I had planned to stay out of the Maine Senate race for a while and respectfully consider the competing visions of both major candidates. But I can’t do that now.”

“It is wildly inappropriate for the DSCC to jump into a competitive primary in such a brazen and shameless way, eight months before voters go to the polls,” Clymer said. “This is a complete failure to read the room. It is incompetent. It is political malpractice. The DSCC has clearly learned nothing, and they would rather deploy the same tired, divisive strategies instead of empowering Democratic voters and earning our confidence in their process.”

“I have great respect for Gov. Janet Mills, but she is being advised very poorly on the contours of this political moment when it comes to what Democratic voters want to see,” she added. “I’ll be supporting Graham Platner in the primary.”

https://x.com/ryangrim/status/1978467405920706686?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1978467405920706686%7Ctwgr%5Ed65b91c58850bd3928f4925cf769a0652129712d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2026-maine-senate-race

Mills joining the race also hasn’t stopped the fundraising dollars from flowing to Platner. His adviser Joe Calvello noted on social media Wednesday morning: “FUN FACT: Since Gov. Mills launched her campaign, Graham Platner’s campaign has received a donation every eight seconds.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Jessica Corbett

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.

Full Bio >

By Adrienne Fong

Am not posting on a regular basis.

RESOURCES:

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See list of Calendar of Events on Palestine from AROC: https://www.araborganizing.org/events/ 

  If your post is about Palestine you can also list your action on the AROC calendar

There are events listed on Indybay that might be of interest to you(many listings in the South, North & East Bays and beyond the bay area)

Please post your actions on Indybay: https://www.indybay.org/calendar/?page_id=12

Bay Area Progressive Action Calendar

ATW Bay Area / NorCal — Action Together West

ARTICLES

A. Spain Holds National Strike in Solidarity with Palestinians – October 15, 2025

https://www.euronews.com/video/2025/10/15/spain-holds-national-strike-in-solidarity-with-palestinians

B. Daniel Lurie said S.F. doesn’t need the National Guard. Hours later, Trump said S.F. should be ‘next’ – October 15, 2025

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/lurie-message-sf-doesn-t-need-trump-to-send-guard-21101170.php

C. The Black Panthers Who Never Came Home – October 15, 2025

The Black Panthers Who Never Came Home

D. Isreal’s Mounting Ceasefire Violations in Gaza – October 15, 2025

  See Event # 4

E. Palestinian bodies bear signs of field executions; Trump conditions $20 billion Argentina bailout on Milei’s reelection; 45,000 health care workers go on strike in U.S. – October 15, 2025

Palestinian bodies bear signs of field executions;Trump conditions $20 billion Argentina bailout on Milei’s reelection; 45,000 health care workers go on strike in U.S.

F. Gaza Journalist Buried as Brother is Freed From Israeli Prison October 14, 2025

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/10/14/gaza-journalist-buried-as-brother-is-freed-from-israeli-prison#flips-6382733882112:0

Saleh Aljafarawi covered the genocide in Gaza for two years…

After Saleh was murdered all his accounts in the internet were dismantled. I know people who have been dead for years, yet their accounts on social media remain open.

F. Marc Benioff exposed himself as craven and hollow. He has company. – October 14, 2025

Marc Benioff exposed himself as craven and hollow. He has company. 

G. Nearly 3K Northern California Kaiser Permanente workers begin strike – October 14, 2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWygAX0ao70

H. Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar’s testimony from Gaza; moderated by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson – October 13, 2025

Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar’s testimony from Gaza; moderated by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

I. Portland Inflatables at ICE protest– October 11, 2025

J. The Nobel Prize goes to…war on Venezuela – October 11, 2025

The Nobel Prize goes to… war on Venezuela

K. Trump’s Orwellian Militarization of American Cities – October 9, 2025

Trump’s Orwellian Militarization of American Cities | Democracy Now!

L. Israel was part of the conspiracy to kill JFK – October 8, 2025

Israel was part of the conspiracy to kill JFK | The Electronic Intifada

M. UNGA 80: Traoré Stuns IMF—Lists 7 Alleged Harms to Africa; Debt, Austerity, Gold

4 PETITIONS

1. Ireland: Pass the Occupied Territories Bill

  SIGN: Ireland: Pass the Occupied Territories Bill

2. Stop Trump’s Military Takeover!

  SIGN: Stop Trump’s military takeover! | Demand Progress

3. Stop Trump’s far-right crusade against his political opponents

  SIGN: Take Action

4. Stop Trump’s Rigged Trade Deal from Further Hurting Working People

  SIGN: Stop Trump’s Rigged Trade Deal from Further Hurting Working People

EVENTS / ACTIONS

Wednesday, October 15 – Tuesday, October 21

Wednesday, October 15

1. Wednesday, 8:00am – 4:30pm, Court Defense, Stop the Deportations

SF Immigration Court
100 Montgomery
SF

(nr. Montgomery BART)

Protective presence at immigration court – join us between 8am – 4:30pm for the whole day or part of the day, whatever you can make! Protective presence has been maintained at 100 Montgomery in San Francisco starting in July, dramatically reducing the number of abductions from the courtroom. 

Come, be ready to flyer, be loud, and stand up to ICE! People stepping up to take direct action is the most effective way keep us and our immigrant neighbors safe, so please join us! Orientation can occur on-site and varying risk tolerances welcome! Just show up and go to the welcome table to see how you can best jump in.

Info: Court Defense – Stop the Deportations! : Indybay

2. Wednesday, 7:00pm – 9:00pm, Gregory”Joey”Johnson Speaks on Flag Burning,Fascism & Why We Should Support Refuse Fascism 

Revolution Books – Berkeley
2444 Durant Ave.
Berkeley 

Gregory “Joey” Johnson Speaks on Flag Burning, Fascism and Why We Should Support Refuse Fascism’s Call to Flood DC starting November 5th

Gregory “Joey” Johnson was the defendant in the landmark Supreme Court case in 1989 that ruled that burning the American flag in protest is symbolic speech, protected against government suppression by the First Amendment. Trump has ordered with no legal basis that “anybody burning the American Flag will be subject to one year in prison.” This is one more Trump/MAGA fascist assault on the basic rights of the people. It is fascism in power forcing blind, knee-jerk patriotism on society.

Here is where things stand as fascism shreds the rule of law:
– heavily armed gangs, masked and with no badges or ID, grab people off the streets and send them to torture chamber prisons half way around the globe;
– the Trump regime sends federal troops against people non-violently protesting these outrages
– and threatens local and state officials who refuse to go along;
– the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigates and hounds students and faculty who have opposed the genocide in Gaza;
– the Department of Justice targets people who dare to criticize or oppose the regime with firing and criminal indictments.

Big questions are posed before everyone: What will it take to stop this ripping away of basic rights, and to defeat this fascism? What will the tens of millions of people who hate this in their bones do to stop it?

 

Bring your questions, your thinking, your disagreements and your impatience to change the world! 

Info: Gregory”Joey”Johnson Speaks on Flag Burning,Fascism & Why We Should Support Refuse Fascism : Indybay 

Thursday, October 16 

3. Thursday, 7:30am – 9:00am (Pt; 10:30am-12Noon (Et), Virtual Book Launch: Displaced in Gaza: Stories from the Gaza Genocide 

Register: Register Now – Displaced in Gaza: Stories from the Gaza Genocide – YouTube 

Join us for a virtual book launch of Displaced in Gaza, A powerful collection of testimonies from Palestinians facing genocide and displacement with hope and resistance.

Displaced in Gaza aims to raise global awareness of how violent displacement has impacted the lives of Palestinians—students, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, educators, and those who already survived the Nakba of 1948. In Gaza, 2.3 million Palestinians have been subjected to starvation, mass destruction, and targeted killing. Yet they endure.

 

 This book is a commitment to the longstanding Palestinian tradition of storytelling, documenting both the horror of the genocide and the resilience of the Palestinian people. The stories in this collection are not merely accounts of suffering, they are assertions of humanity, resistance, hope, and the unbreakable bond that ties Palestinians to their homeland.

Displaced in Gaza is a collaboration between the American Friends Service Committee and the Hashim Sani Center for Palestine Studies at Universiti Malaya.

Speakers:

– Dr Yousef Aljamal is a Palestinian journalist and author from Gaza.

– Norma Hashim has been involved in advocacy and relief work for Palestine since the 2008 attacks on Gaza, and is treasurer of Viva Palestina Malaysia.

– Zoe Jannuzi works as the Palestine Activism Program Coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee.

Info: Virtual Book Launch: Displaced in Gaza: Stories from the Gaza Genocide : Indybay

 Friday, October 17
 
4. Friday, 10:30am – 12:30pm, Disrupt the Israeli Consulate
 
456 Montgomery St.
SF
 
Join Noise Against Genocide (NAG) and Autonomous Acrivists as we let the israeli consulate know that they are not welcome in SF or the Bay Area! Bring noise makers, drums, banners and flags to make a proper ruckus.
 
Info: Disrupt the israeli consulate! : Indybay

Saturday, October 18

5. Saturday, 11:00am, Rise and Resist at Tanforan Memorial

RSVP Rise and Resist at Tanforan Memorial – Action Network

San Bruno BART Station
1177 Huntington
San Bruno

No Ban! No Raids! No Camps!

Join a rally at the at the San Bruno BART station near the Tanforan shopping center. Please RSVP to receive additional updates

This action will be at former location of the Tanforan Assembly Center during WWII, calling attention to the historical parallels between the experiences of Japanese Americans and current events. Tsuru for Solidarity, in partnership with the San Francisco Japantown community and Bay Area Japanese American organizations, calls on our communities to say NO to new detention centers in Northern California and across the US. This family-friendly action will feature powerful speakers, arts and crafts for kids, and opportunities to plug in and take action together.

The Tanforan Assembly Center served as the unjust detention center for nearly 8,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II in 1942. We want to ensure their stories are remembered and that this injustice is never repeated against any peoples.

Bring your signs, water, sun protection, and POWER! If you plan to drive, please park at San Bruno BART.

WHY ARE WE HOLDING THIS ACTION? We stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities targeted by racists and inhumane state violence. As ICE raids intensify and militarized tactics escalate nationwide, the fight to remove ICE from CA has never been more urgent. Now is the time to raise our voices and share our stories. Together we must stand against detention and state violence — drawing on the legacy of Japanese American incarceration during WWII to resist its repetition today.

Join Japanese American survivors of WWII incarceration and youth calling attention to the historical parallels between US concentration camps and current ICE detention. We must not let an ICE detention facility open in Dublin, CA or anywhere in Northern California. Our community members are more likely to be arrested & detained by ICE in counties with more detention beds. This is our moment to speak out, take action, and stand in solidarity with our community members!!! Never Again is NOW!

Info: https://www.instagram.com/p/DOowOXnkjyC/    or Facebook   

6. Saturday, 12Noon – 1:30pm, No Kings Ocean Beach San Francisco

Sunset Dunes
Upper Great Highway & Judah
SF

Be part of a fun, family-friendly Resistance Festival on the westside of San Francisco. Together we’ll celebrate community and resistance with:

• Art and creative expression

• Live music and performances

• Information tables on Bay Resistance, Prop 50, voter registration and more

• Family-friendly activities and community building

A masked federal agent is seen outside a courtroom at the New York Federal Plaza Immigration Court inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York on October 10, 2025. 

(Photo by Charly Triballeau / AFP via Getty Images)

Reporting by the Wall Street Journal indicates the active “weaponization” of the agency to target the far-right president’s political opponents and groups peacefully organizing against his administration’s destruction agenda.

Jon Queally

Oct 16, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)

With reporting that President Donald Trump has ordered “sweeping changes” at the Internal Revenue Service, including aiming the agency’s criminal-investigative unit at left-leaning nonprofit groups and individual donors, critics are warning of the chilling impacts of the weaponization of state power against the Republican administration’s perceived political enemies.

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, citing various people familiar with the shift in policy, reports that a “senior IRS official involved in the effort” has already created “a list of potential targets” for the IRS criminal-investigative division, or IRS-CI, which is also being installed with more loyal “allies” of the president to administer the new direction.

RECOMMENDED…

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‘We Will Not Back Down,’ Says Indivisible as Trump Aims FBI, IRS at Liberal Groups

According to the WSJ:

The proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Shapley has told people that he is going to replace Guy Ficco, the chief of the investigative unit, who has been at the agency for decades, and that Shapley has been putting together a list of donors and groups he believes IRS investigators should look at. Among those on the list are the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups, according to a senior IRS official and another person briefed on the list. It couldn’t be determined upon what grounds Shapley would seek to begin such an investigation.

The reporting indicates that the decision to mobilize the IRS-CI for such an effort followed frustration experienced by Trump officials who encountered “obstacles in a separate effort to strip tax-exempt status from certain nonprofits,” including universities with whom the president has clashed over student protests and other campus policies.

In recent weeks, various high-level officials in the administration, including Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Pam Bondi, have been adamant that there’s a network of progressive groups and donors that represent a “violent” faction on the left, which must be dismantled and criminally prosecuted. Still, they have offered little to no evidence about who or what this network is or what criminal conduct they are talking about.

Citing people familiar with the new plan at the IRS, the WSJ reports that “some senior IRS criminal tax attorneys are already voicing concern about the methods of investigators while Trump encourages his administration to target donors and nonprofit groups.”

They are not the only ones expressing concern.

“This is using the government to destroy dissent,” said Denver Lee Riggleman III, an Air Force veteran and former Democratic congressman from Virginia. “This is textbook authoritarianism.”

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) responded to the new reporting by warning about the “weaponization” of the IRS by Trump against groups and individuals based on political speech, a clear violation of First Amendment protections and an unlawful use of the agency’s enforcement powers.

“Donald Trump believes he’s a king, and he’s determined to wield every agency under his control as a weapon to crush political opposition and silence free speech,” said Wyden in a Wednesday night statement.

“The Trump administration will try to legitimize this abuse with legal opinions and procedural lingo, but the implicit threat is that if you give to a progressive cause, they’ll deem you a terrorist and ruin your life,” he continued. “Senate Republicans have spent years faking outrage over what they called the weaponization of government. They’ve spent more than a decade moaning about the IRS scrutinizing conservative tax-exempt groups—scrutiny the IRS in fact applied to organizations across the political spectrum.”

Now, added Wyden, that “weaponization” the GOP warns about, but which never came to pass with an IRS under Democratic control, “is happening right now in front of their eyes, and unless Republicans stand up and speak out, they’ll be complicit in Trump’s assault on our Constitutional right to free speech.”

Ashley Schapitl, a former Democratic Capitol Hill staffer who served at the US Treasury Department and the US Senate Finance Committee, warned that “the total weaponization of tax enforcement leads down a dark road.”

“Needless to say, under normal circumstances,” said Schapitl, “political appointees are nowhere near and know nothing about IRS criminal investigations.”

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, said that directing the IRS to target specific people for political purposes is not just a misuse of the agency, but a criminal act under federal statute.

“It’s a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House (and all Secretaries but the AG) to order the IRS to target people,” said Reichlin-Melnick. “It’s not just a crime to DO it, it’s a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.”

As Trump openly admitted last month, and the WSJ noted in its reporting, the president has ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to identify and target those groups the White House has claimed are fomenting “political violence,” but which critics warn is just a vague use of language so Trump can target organizations that protest or organize against his policies.

“Scott will do that,” Trump said during a recent cabinet meeting in the White House, referring to the targeting of groups or donors. “That’s easy for Scott.”

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Jon Queally

Jon Queally is managing editor of Common Dreams.

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