Calendar
Come watch a screening of The Bail Trap and learn what you can to do reform the money bail system in California.
California’s money bail system hurts families. One of the Ella Baker Center’s members, Tracey Bell-Borden, knows that firsthand.
When Tracey’s daughter Tai was arrested, her bail was set at $100,000. Tracey faced an impossible choice: let her daughter stay in jail or pay $10,000 to a bail bondsman so that her daughter could come home before her trial.
On Sunday, July 23rd Tracey and the Ella Baker Center are hosting a free screening of The Bail Trap, a short film featuring Tracey and Tai’s story. Come to the screening to learn what you can do to end the injustice of money bail.
The event is free and open to the public, and the theater is wheelchair accessible. RSVP on Facebook.
The Ella Baker Center is working with organizations across the state to reform California’s money bail system so that less families have to face the injustice that Tracey’s did.
Following the film screening, we will have a panel discussion about bail, including an overview of the California Money Bail Reform Act (Senate Bil 10) and what you can do to help us pass this legislation.
We hope to see you there.
P.S. Want to help us plan our Night Out for Safety and Liberation event on August 1? Come to our next member meeting on Monday, July 24 from 6-8 p.m. at CompassPoint in Oakland. RSVP on Facebook.
Potluck lunch: 12:30 PM
Meeting 1 – 3 PM
Hey folks, because some of us will be indisposed on the last Sunday of July we are holding our monthly feed a week early on Sunday, July 23rd, at 3 PM.
Hasta la pasta,
Ed Not Bombs
Feed The People!
The last Sunday of every month attendees of the OO GA get together a little earlier than usual, at 3 PM (2 PM in the winter) to share some food with each other and the community. There should be a table, utensils/plates, meat and veggie entrees and whatnot, courtesy of the Kitchen Committee (such at he is), so just bring yourself, or something to share as well if you’d like.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at the Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway in the amphitheater. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. During the colder months we meet at 3 PM.
The OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for more than five years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally . Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Occupy Oakland Kitchen Committee: (kitchen@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (In prior years we have agreed to meet at 3:00 PM during winter hours, that is, once Daylight Savings Time ends).
On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
Special Assembly (with dinner!)
To advance the progressive agenda, we HAVE to win elections. Join our Special Assembly at BFUU with focus on how we can harness our progressive energy to help turn districts outside the Bay Area from red to blue! Led by the Indivisible Berkeley Elections team.
Bring snacks to share! Bring friends!
Questions? Email elections+owner@indivisibleberkeley.org.
We document current events, make films together, steward an editing suite and share a film equipment library. We also host film screenings, often with local directors, and put on an annual short film festival for independent Bay Area filmmakers. Our goal is to make the digital filmmaking accessible – no overpriced college degree or certificate program required!
We are also a good group to reach out to if you’d like to screen a film at the Omni. We can be reached at [ liberatedlens@lists.riseup.net ].
We usually meet in the basement, unless otherwise noted.
It’s time for us to demand healthcare for the people!
We are calling on all community members, healthcare providers, formerly incarcerated folks and their families to make your voices heard.
After two years of fighting the jail expansion in Alameda County, we have finally won our hearing on alternatives to incarceration for those who suffer from mental illness.
However, the county is doing everything in their power to fast track the jail expansion without community input. There is no such thing as mental health in a jail. The first step the county needs to take in implementing alternatives is to stop expansion.
Let’s show them that we are watching and paying attention. That’s why we need everyone to come out on July 24th and have all eyes on the Board of Supervisors.
Please join us for a meeting with the public health and public safety committees.
Why: To urge the Board of Supervisors to invest in alternatives to incarceration for those who need mental health support.
Are you in? Feel free to email decarceratealamedacounty@gmail.com to RSVP or ask us any questions about the hearing.
In community,
Decarcerate Alameda County
Member of Californians United for a Responsible Budget
- Follow us on social media @curbprisons FACEBOOK // INSTAGRAM // TWITTER
- Oakland Office: 1322 Webster St #210, Oakland CA 94612
- LA Office: Chuco’s Justice Center, 1137 E. Redondo Blvd,. Inglewood CA 90302
- Please click here to support our work with a donation
Harry Brill said at our last gathering that Tax the Rich is now the longest running rally in the history of Berkeley. September 12, 2017 will be the 6th anniversary
Feasibility study authorization delayed
The City Council vote to authorize a feasibility study on a public bank didn’t happen at the July 18th meeting as expected. Instead, this item has been moved to the agenda for September 19th. According to Council staff, the vote was put off due to the overly long agenda for the last meeting before summer break.
This delay is a big disappointment, of course, but there’s plenty to do in the next two months. The new budget provides only $75,000 of the study’s total cost of $100,000. When the Council does finally authorize it, their authorization will be contingent on finding outside sources for the last $25,000. So, fundraising is now a top priority for us.
How you can help grow our grassroots movement
In addition to fundraising, we need to continue building a broad base of public support for the Public Bank of Oakland. You can help by connecting us with local groups that you know about. We need:
� Tabling opportunities. We have been tabling at First Fridays and farmers’ markets around town, and we are looking for other locations. Know of an upcoming neighborhood festival or other event? Spots in East Oakland and West Oakland are especially needed.
� Speaking opportunities. We are looking for locaal organizations that would like to host a talk about the benefits of public banking. Can you suggest a political group, union local, religious community, neighborhood association, business or coop?
� Signers for our letter to City Council. More thhan forty local groups, including Causa Justa::Just Cause, Ella Baker Center, and Idle No More Bay Area, have already signed our open letter in support of PBO. We’d like to keep growing the list. Please let us know of groups to reach out to.
Talking up our public bank
We’ll need more people to do all the tabling and speaking events we’re lining up. Talking about public banking is fun! Most of the people we talk to are really glad to find out about it. If you’d like to join our outreach efforts by tabling or just passing our petition around your neighborhood – please contact us or attend our next outreach meeting on Tuesday, August 1st at 6:00pm. We’ll be in the outside seating area at Max’s Diner, 500 12th Street, Oakland.
A small reminder about donating
We don’t want to turn our newsletter into a constant plea for money, but donations and pledges are definitely needed. All thhe work of FPBO is done by volunteers. Please donate directly on our website or pledge by emailing contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org. Thank you!
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
OccupyForum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Film: Our National Bird
Directed by Sonia Kennebeck
Directed by Sonia Kennebeck and executive-produced by Wim Wenders, National Bird takes us to Afghanistan, where the maimed survivors of a mistaken drone strike on unarmed civilians in February 2010, which killed 23 people, describe what happened when they were attacked. The gung-ho attitude of the drone operatives is juxtaposed with raw footage of the dead bodies (some children) returning to their anguished friends and family. Kennebeck also juxtaposes Obama’s speeches about drones in which he claims that they are able to “take out” insurgents without harming those around them with the testimonies of those who know that this is false.
In her book, “Drone Warfare”, CODEPINK’S Medea Benjamin documents the growing menace of drone warfare, with an extensive analysis of who is producing the drones, where they are being used, who are “piloting” these unmanned planes, who are the victims and what are the legal and moral implications. Benjamin documents how the U.S. government’s use of drones to murder hundreds of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen has increased the danger to our national security, and reveals the vocal international citizen opposition that challenges the legality and morality of America’s extrajudicial execution drones before they kill here at home.
National Bird reminds us that we’re living in an electronic haze, where life and death are decided on the basis of, as often as not, caprice. Detachment and a lack of accountability are rewarded where responsibility and compassion are shunned. For many servicemen and women, time in service may be little different than a video game gone mad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8hPK7G-5bw trailer
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2013/10/case-against-drones-201310267541941623.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/the-case-against-drone-strikes-on-people-who-only-act-like-terrorists/278744/
https://codepink.myshopify.com/products/drone-warfare-killing-by-remote-control
Time will be allotted for discussion and announcements.
Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
THIS WILL BE OUR LAST FORUM UNTIL LATE AUGUST! STAY TUNED…
It’s all hands on deck at the Ella Baker Center this month and we need your help to make Oakland’s Night Out for Safety & Liberation (NOSL) Block Party the best one yet!
Come to this member meeting to learn how you can thrown down for Oakland’s 5th annual NOSL Block Party on August 1st at Defremery Park, the historic West Oakland Black Panther Party community space. You will have a chance to put finishing touches to the program, sign up for volunteer and outreach roles, and build with fierce community leaders.
Click here for more information on Night Out for Safety & Liberation (NOSL): http://
Vegetarian dinner will be provided. The meeting space is wheelchair accesible. Please contact Tash at tash@ellabakercenter.org or 510-428-3939 x2435 if you have accesibility needs and/or questions.
Featuring Joanna Macy, Starhawk, and Ahmed Salah.
Active Hope events aim to lift us out of inaction and despair and into a beautiful, caring world of peace, love, and concern for all beings. This program will include inspiration from those working to save the world; bringing us together and unifying us in this work. It will include voices from the First Nations people, social and environmental justice activists, music, delicious organic vegetarian food, a book signing, heart connections, and inspiration to action.
Book signing, information tables, opportunities for action and networking. Wheelchair accessible.
6 pm potluck dinner; 6:30 pm Program.
Sponsored by Codepink Golden Gate:
Join us Tuesday, July 25th to learn about a California Climate Dividend Fund.
Though we’re likely at least a decade away from a federal basic income, people often debate whether there are policies that states can enact as “stepping stones” to help pave the way.
California State Senator Bob Wieckowski introduced a bill (SB 775) that would create a Climate Dividend Fund a fund to return carbon auctionn revenue to Californians in the form of regular, unconditional payments. Carbon dividends are one popularly discussed stepping stone policy to a universal basic income.
Join us as we hear from Senator Wieckowski on his bill and the Climate Dividend Fund. We’ll discuss his views on universal basic income and the legislation.
The event will be hosted at Covo, a coworking space just off of 6th and Mission. Snacks and drinks will be available.
To attend, please RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/277990942608844/
Program:
– 6:30 Doors open
– 7:00 Program starts
– 8:00 Program concludes, stay for networking and community
See you on the 25th!
The Universal Income Project Team
Mai Masri’s award-winning film, 3000 NIGHTS!
Accused of helping a teenaged boy on the run, a newly-wed Palestinian schoolteacher gives birth to her child, in chains, in an Israeli high-security prison — where she fights to protect him and to survive herself. Palestinian filmmaker Mai Masri’s film 3000 NIGHTS explores the meaning of motherhood, love, betrayal, and the solidarity of women prisoners. Masri says it is about “resilience, resistance, and above all, a film about hope.”
Selected as the Jordanian entry for Best Foreign Language Film for 2017 Oscars.
“See this film, see it Now!” — Ken Loach, Cannes Film Festival
Benefit for MECA’s programs for Palestinian & Syrian refugee children.
Wheelchair accessible.
Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper will offer his thoughts on “Police Accountability: Reimagining and Reengineering the Cop Culture,”followed by a Q & A faciliated by Reggie Lyles, Deacon of Allen Temple Baptist Church, former police captain for Berkeley and Novato police departments and former public safety advisor to Mayor Jean Quan.
After the discussion, Chief Stamper will be available to sign his latest book To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police which will be available for sale on site.
From to Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police:
“Reflecting the reality that increased militarization does not represent progress, American law enforcement today is arguably as corrupt bigoted, brutal and trigger-happy as it was during the 1960s and 1970s, not to mention earlier eras.”
From Breaking Rank:
“One of the strengths, and drawbacks, of public employment law is that individual employees, from the cop on the beat to the police chief, are rarely held personally liable, financially.(That’s if their actions spring from the ‘course and scope’ of their duties. The provision is a strength because having the city pick up the tab for damages means beat cops and police chiefs don’t have that excuse for not taking bold action when they should. It’s a problem because it licenses some cops to drive like maniacs, shoot people for any cause, or ram a brom handle up a man’s rectum with impunity.”
Sponsored by Coalition for Police Accountability
COMMUNITY SCOPING MEETING
Phillips 66 has applied for Air District permission to launch what clearly looks like yet another tar sands project. There will be another opportunity to comment about the scope and content of the draft Environmental Impact Report in a July 27th meeting scheduled by the Air District for Vallejo, given potential impacts on that city. A September 2016 oil spill in San Pablo Bay sent 120 Vallejo residents to the hospital and caused 1500 noxious odor complaints. The BAAQMD subsequently found Phillips 66 and the operator of the leaking oil tanker equally responsible.
You can read the Notice of Preparation here in order to tell the Air District what you think should be covered in an analysis of the impacts of P66’s latest attempt to expand its tar sands refining. Please weigh in with written comments.
According to the Air District project description, this P66 wharf expansion “would increase the amount of crude and gas oil brought by ship to the Marine Terminal at the Phillips 66 San Francisco Refinery in Rodeo, California. The refinery processes crude oil delivered by ship from a variety of domestic and foreign sources to the Marine Terminal, as well as crude oil received from central California by pipeline.”
The marine terminal expansion would enable P66 to receive and process higher rates of ship-delivered crude and gas oil, replacing roughly equivalent volumes of pipeline-delivered crudes with shipborne crudes.
Two prior Air District approvals allowed P66 to increase its permitted limits from 30,682 barrels per day (bbl/day) in 2012, to 51,182 bbl/day in 2013. Now P66 seeks a permit increase of 78,818 bbl/day to 130,000 bbl/day, on an annual rolling average basis. It also wants to increase crude or gas oil deliveries from 59 ships up to a total of 135 tankers or ships in any 12 consecutive months.
The Notice of Preparation isn’t as heavy a slog as you might think. Please read it carefully and suggest areas of significant impact that the DEIR must cover.
Here are some useful comments on marine impacts of a tar sands spill:
Baykeeper Comments on Phillips 66 Marine Terminal Permit Revision Project
tar-sands-tanker-threat-ip
tar-sands-health-effects-IB
NAS 2015 Dilbit Study Final
west-coast-tar-sands-threat-report
Green et al. – 2017 – Oil sands and the marine environment current know
SEND EMAIL OR WRITTEN COMMENTS BY 5 PM, AUGUST 28, 2017 TO:
Barry Young, Senior Advanced Projects Advisor
Engineering Division
Bay Area Air Quality Management District
375 Beale St., Ste. 600
San Francisco, CA 94105
Email: P66MarineTerminalPermit Revision[at]baaqmd.gov
For more information, contact Barry Young: byoung[at]baaqmd.gov.
On December 7, Phil Tagami filed suit against the City of Oakland seeking to overturn the City of Oakland’s ban on storage and handling of coal at the new shipping terminal to be built on public land near the foot of the Bay Bridge. Come learn about the lawsuit and share ideas on the role community activists can play in defeating Phil Tagami in the current phase of the struggle.
No Coal in Oakland and allies have vowed to support the City in its fight to keep coal out of Oakland. NCIO meets regularly to plan actions that will strengthen Oakland’s resistance to coal. Only through continued mobilization and a strong alliance with our neighbors in the labor, faith, environmental, social justice, climate justice, racial justice, public health, and business communities can we ensure defeat of the plan to build the coal terminal.
Come stand with the mothers of murdered children and family members this and every Friday to pressure District Atty George Gascon to charge killer SFPD cops with murder who executed Mario Woods, Jessica Nelson, Luis Gongora Pat, Alex Nieto, and all the rest.
Bring signs! STOP POLICE MURDER! We have signs that say “Mario Woods is our Son”, and signs for each one murdered.
Please find the box of signs and “Say Their Names” for the Media.
“Heather Booth: Changing the World” @ San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Click here to RSVP and get more details and ticket information. (Be sure to get tickets before they sell out!)
This inspiring film is being promoted with the line “Heather Booth is the most influential person you’ve never heard of,” but we’ve heard of her. We know her well! Heather Booth has been a partner with the PCCC in many fights…and now one of our own is featured in a movie.
From 2008 – 2010 Heather worked closely with Elizabeth Warren to overcome massive opposition from Wall Street to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
But this film goes back long before that, tracing Heather’s ongoing legacy and exploring how social change really happens. Through her life and work, this film explores many of the most pivotal moments in progressive movements that altered our history over the last fifty years.
From her early work in the 1960s with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Freedom Summer Project, Booth went on to found the Women’s Radical Action Program, and JANE — an organization that helped approximately 11,000 women find abortion providers before Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in the U.S.
Heather has trained thousands of activists, was involved in organizing Citizens Action and Campaign for America’s Future, and has worked with USAction, MoveOn, People’s Action, the NAACP National Voter Fund, Alliance for Citizenship, the Voter Participation Center, National Organization for Women, the National Council of La Raza, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the Center for Community Change.
This film will leave you inspired to organize and change the world!
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk – “We Called It a Work Holiday”
With Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society.
This year is the 70th anniversary of the Oakland General Strike. This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that began spontaneously with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking – mostly women – retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department stores whose picket line was being broken by scabs escorted by police.
Within 24 hours, it involved over 100,000 workers and shut down nearly all commerce in the East Bay for 54 hours. In 1946 there were six general strikes across the U.S.; that year set the all-time record year for strikes and work stoppages. The Oakland “Work Holiday” was the last general strike to ever occur in the U.S. This walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
See also:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKs-lhBgiM
http://www.laborfest.net/2017/2017schedule.htm