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Black August, From Oakland to Palestine: Carrying Forward the Struggle

Dear Friends & Comrades,

Every Black August, we at Critical Resistance (CR) honor the legacy of Black freedom fighters—many of them still imprisoned—who gave their lives in the struggle for liberation. Born out of the resistance of imprisoned people in California, Black August calls us to study, build, and act in solidarity with movements resisting state violence everywhere. This year, as Palestinian prisoners face mass raids and torture under Israeli occupation, we reject the shared tactics of repression used by the US and apartheid Israel—from imprisonment, policing, and long-term solitary confinement to the killing of freedom fighters. Our liberation is bound together, and so is our resistance.

In the Bay Area, we’ve seen these tactics intensify all year. San Francisco has been targeting poor and unhoused residents through “triage centers” that cage and displace, while plans to reopen jail facilities threaten to reverse hard-won victories. In the East Bay, organizers have continued fighting a Cop Campus in San Pablo, opposing ICE’s attempt to convert the shuttered FCI Dublin into a migrant detention center, and challenging the spread of private policing and criminalization of homelessness in Fremont. These moves, alongside rightwing-funded recalls, signal a deepening of the prison industrial complex (PIC)’s reach and the urgent need to fight back.

In Oakland, resisting repression during Black August now means to us at Critical Resistance carrying forward the legacy of those who came before us—building the infrastructure to win and sustain our freedom struggles, and moving with urgency to put our bodies and lives on the line in solidarity with liberation movements worldwide. Whether we’re closing prisons, defending community spaces, or honoring elders and political prisoners whose lives shaped our movements, we know Black August is not just commemoration—it’s a call to action across walls and cages.

Oakland Chapter Updates: Summer 2025

  • To kick off Black August, Critical Resistance hosted our first-ever Cross-Wall Strategy Retreat right here in Oakland—gathering imprisoned and non-imprisoned organizers from across the country to sharpen our collective fight against prison censorship and repression. The retreat was a living example of abolition in practice: bridging inside-outside strategy, (re)building political trust, and deepening solidarity across walls. Together, we honored the Black radical tradition that roots our work while charting new paths for resistance and liberation. Thank you to our movement partners near & far who attended, struggled, and visioned with us. More details will be shared in a national newsletter later this month, so stay tuned! 

 

  • 4400 Telegraph, Critical Resistance’s exciting building project, carries forward Oakland’s organizing lineage—challenging Critical Resistance to practice our politics in place: designing for collective safety and resiliency without policing; archiving abolitionist memory; and convening neighbors and national partners to strategize, learn, and act. As a welcoming movement hub and resiliency center, we aim to convert land into shared power, modeling abolitionist economic sovereignty, co-governance, and mutual care. Right now, the building is vacant as we complete architectural design and prepare for major renovations, and we can’t wait to activate it as a resource for our movement in the Bay Area and beyond.

 

  • Another prison named for Closure: CRC in Norco will be finally shut down! The other week, we’ve secured another major win in the statewide campaign for California Prison Closure: pushing the state to close the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) in Norco by Fall 2026. CRC was identified by over 2,000 imprisoned people in 2021 as the top prison to close due to toxic, unsafe conditions. This victory–built through connecting with loved ones inside, rallying at CRC’s gates for months, building relationships with imprisoned comrades and their family members, and pressing our case at the state capitol – relied on a broad-based coalition of grassroots, faith, labor, and community organizations alongside families of imprisoned people. It fuels our next steps: prioritizing releases over transfers, guaranteeing continued access to credit-earning, education, and positive programming for anyone moved, and reinvesting the roughly $150 million in annual savings into the people of Riverside County through community-defined services, economic development, and community-informed repurposing.

 

  • Resist Repression with us Tuesday, August 19 with a panel discussion and solidarity session in support of the Golden Gate 26. Featuring speakers from the Golden Gate 26, Critical Resistance, Stanford 12, and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, this panel will examine how these respective forms of state repression work hand-in-hand to strengthen the mechanisms of each authoritarian project. We’ll talk about how our liberations are bound together, and inherently tied to the abolition of the prison industrial complex and US imperialism. 
RSVP here now. 

     

 

As Black August this year continues, we also honor the life and sacrifice of David “Giap” Johnson of the San Quentin 6, and hope our Bay Area community joins us in honoring his legacy at his memorial this Saturday, and joins us again at a Black August event at East Side Cultural Center organized by our movement partners at Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Freedom Archives, Haiti Action Committee and others on August 21 (both events featured in our announcements below).

 

Together, we carry forward the legacies of struggle that Black August teaches us—rooted in the knowledge that our movements are stronger when we fight across walls, borders, and generations. Let’s keep building toward a world free from cages, colonialism, and repression.

In solidarity & struggle,

-CR Oakland

 

 

 

More Announcements:

 

Saturday, August 16: Memorial Service for David Johnson

  • Freedom & Movement Center (4400 Market Street), Oakland CA
  • Around 3pm

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, August 19 – Resisting Repression: Panel Discussion and Solidarity Session in Support of the Golden Gate 26

  • Join Critical Resistance and movement partners for a timely discussion about the intersecting political repression of the Palestine liberation movement, immigrants, and incarcerated individuals. Featuring speakers from the Golden Gate 26, Critical Resistance, Stanford 12, and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, this panel will examine how these respective forms of state repression work hand-in-hand to strengthen the mechanisms of each authoritarian project.

  • RSVP here (location will be shared with registered attendees) 

 

Thursday, August 21: Black August  event on New Afrikan Freedom Fighters

  • Featuring an Art Exhibit, documentary screening and panel with Emory Douglas, Linda Evans, Freedom Archives, Haiti Action Committee, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Oakland, Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign, Bay Area Palestinian Youth Movement and more

 

  • 6-9pm @ East Side Cultural Center (2277 International Blvd, Oakland)