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With gusto! Hundreds of people gathered at the West Oakland BART at 3:00 PM on Sunday, ready to march to the Port of Oakland, boat or no Boat. It was “No Boat.” The Zim Ship, apparently being guided by a navigator who doesn’t know port from starboard, was and still is headed west across the Pacific to locations unknown, despite it’s “official” destination remaining listed as Oakland. At current speed, Zim couldn't arrive before late Weds night. Folks, I think Ima call this one soon. #blocktheboat pic.twitter.com/mBa7OSnT9K — Heinous Ogre … Continued

The four proposals below will be on the agenda of the Occupy Oakland General Assembly for Sunday, November 2 – the third anniversary of the General Strike, one of the largest protests in Oakland’s history. The GA will be held at Oscar Grant Plaza at 4:00PM.  If a quorum of 70 people is reached, then these proposals will be voted on and could become OO resolutions.  No matter what your feelings are about these proposed endorsements, your judgment will have an effect on whatever consensus is resolved. Along with two … Continued

“They have come for the city I love…They have come for my people with military helicopters, armored vehicles, with rubber bullets, teargas with flash-bang grenades and gratuitous destruction, police bussed in from 17 departments outside Oakland with pepper spray and sticks with 40mm canisters aimed to fracture skulls, they have come for the people I love.”  When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to reject and shun a political leader, a decent respect for the opinions of Oaklanders requires that we should declare the … Continued

From the San Jose Mercury News: Confirming rumors buzzing around City Hall, the U.S. Postal Service told this newspaper Friday that the historic downtown Berkeley Post Office is “under contract but not yet sold.” From the Berkeley Daily Planet: The Berkeley City Council has received a letter from City Attorney Zach Cowan saying that he believes that the Berkeley Post Office might already been sold or at least the United States Postal Service (USPS) is in contract with a potential buyer. Pursuant to previous authorization from the Council, the city … Continued

Thinking about the Zim ship attempting to unload during August – and ultimately sailing away with most of its cargo still aboard – made me think of a story about another ship, this one from 1987: It was the spring of 1987, and a barge called the Mobro 4000 was carrying over 3,000 tons of it – a load that, for various reasons, North Carolina didn’t want to take. Thus began one of the biggest garbage sagas in modern history, a picaresque journey of a small boat overflowing with stuff … Continued

The sidewalk outside of Staples in Berkeley has been Occupied now for over 100 days. As First They Came For the Homeless, the SF Occupier group that organized the effort posted recently on their Facebook. Over 100 days and counting. The siege of staples in Berkeley continues. Still no valid complaints about our occupation. We number between 15 and 20 nightly split between 2 groups. The main info table is in the front and the tent city is in the back. The group would love to have more community support … Continued

Seven months after she was dragged off a train, beaten by BART police, taken to Santa Rita and beaten again by guards, the Alameda County District Attorney decided to halt court proceedings against Nubia Bowe. She is (almost) free, and her two companions completely so. Oct 17, 2014 THANK YOU DAN SIEGEL, ATTORNEY 4 THE PEOPLE for getting Nubia Bowe a deferred judgement at our October court date! Charges for Levi and James were dropped. Nubia will have no ankle monitor, no time in jail, no probation. (Read the original … Continued

It was to be expected, I suppose. Three Oakland police units, having nothing better to do on a Friday evening in a town where no one ever complains about crime, showed up before the Inside Urban Shield forum on the militarization of police, ostensibly to inquire into whether a gathering convened expressly to listen to speakers in an auditorium was getting ready to hella march. Fortunately, they must have gotten an emergency call for donut delivery, as they eventually left some eighty odd of us attendees to listen to excellent … Continued

  Urban Shield 2014, the glorification of the militarization of the police, was held at the Convention Center in downtown Oakland September 4th-7th this year. A number of reporters and activists “went inside” the Urban Shield convention and/or participated as volunteers for the training. exercises. The Coalition staging “Inside Urban Shield” – people from the Occupy Oakland GA, the Oakland Privacy Working Group, Code Pink and the Oscar Grant Committee – invited Shane Bauer (@ShaneBauer) and Julia Wong (@juliacarriew), two investigative reporters who got inside, to speak at the event, … Continued