David Almeida
David Almeida is the partner of Sabrina Del Ponte. From Fajões, Aveiro, Portugal. Lives in San Jose, California.
Education
- Studied at San Jose State University
- Went to San Jose High School
US Teamsters on the Frontlines!
US Teamsters on the Frontlines! was a July 16 2023 Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack! webinar on the looming UPS strike.
Participants included David Almeida.
Tampa 5 protest
On August 9 2023, members of New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), along with community members and other organizations rallied to demand dropping the charges against the Tampa 5. The protest was primarily organized and hosted by SDS.
SDS member David Almeida called for action, placing a special emphasis on maintaining a persistent and stubborn movement in spite of opposition from reactionaries like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stating, “They arrest us when we protest, so we protest when they make arrests, and they cannot arrest all of us.”
Some other organizations stood in solidarity. Mark Andrews from Freedom Road Socialist Organization - San Jose, emphasized the endangerment of people’s freedom of expression and clamping down on activists is indicative of the broader fears that the ruling class has against the increasingly organized working people.
Students Against Mass Incarceration was another group that spoke out in solidarity with SDS. Students Against Mass Incarceration President Aidan Rauh drew comparisons with the repression seen in Florida with the battles between the labor movement and police forces in the Haymarket Affair nearly a century ago.[1]
SDS
In 2023 David Almeida was a leader of the Students for Democratic Society SJSU.[2]
Rally for reproductive rights
On the evening of the day of the SCOTUS decision overturning Roe v. Wade, June 24, about 400 people rallied at San José City Hall. The next day, Saturday, June 25 2022, about 2500 people gathered at San José City Hall to march through downtown.
The rally and march were led by members of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, along with New Students for a Democratic Society, Communist Party USA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America, and B.L.A.C.K. Outreach San Jose.
David Almeida from SDS spoke to the importance of Roe v. Wade to the LBGTQ community.
Andy Schaefer from FRSO spoke on the effects that this would have on poor and working-class women and other people with the ability to become pregnant, as well as women of oppressed nationalities such as Black and Chicana women.[3]
Rally in defense of Roe v. Wade
On May 16 2022, about 50 students gathered at the Olympic Black Power Statue, at San José State University, to rally in defense of Roe v. Wade.
This rally was led by members of New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), along with Student Homeless Alliance (SHA), Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).
David Almeida from SDS reminded the crowd about the decades long struggle of blood, sweat and tears that the women’s movement faced in the 1960s and 1970s to win these rights.
Muskan Parashar from YDSA identified it as a working-class issue. “Abortion rights are something 70% of Americans agree on; it’s a working-class issue, it’s a race issue, it’s a gender issue.” Parashar added, “We all know that banning abortions will not stop abortions, they will simply stop safe abortions.”
Irom Thockchom of PSL spoke to the failures of the Democrat Party. “The Democratic Party is in control of two of the three houses of government. [They] had the chance to codify Roe v. Wade, prove to us that we should vote for them and that they actually care about our rights, and the Women’s Health Protection Act lost 49-51, with our old friend, Joe Manchin, deciding that this is not a right that deserves to be protected.”
Tiffany Yep, from Student Homeless Alliance, spoke about her mother’s difficult pregnancy with her, and her other two twin siblings. Her mother had to abort the fourth fetus in her womb due to health complications.[4]
NCUC
On April 24 2021, the Northern California Unemployed Committee, or NCUC, marched in support of the fight against police crimes in the wake of the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.
David Almeida of the NCUC expressed support for community control of the police, saying, “With community control of the police, we, the community get to defund and demilitarize our police, not the government.” He went on to point out that there are still hundreds of the thousands of people here in California who are still waiting to hear about the status of their unemployment benefits.
The NCUC partnered with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, or NAARPR for the rally, which featured speakers from Anakbayan Silicon Valley, South Bay Indigenous Solidarity, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and an unemployed worker who is still waiting for their benefits.[5]