Daily Rallies at Lakeview Elementary 746 Grand Ave. at 5pm! ( In case of a police raid, rally the next day 5 pm at Lakeview)
Public education in Oakland is under attack. Literally. On Monday, the 18th, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) police and OPD threatened the parent and teacher led sit-in at Lakeview Elementary. We re-opened the school they shut down. Now we need a mass mobilization to defend the re-opening. Instead of keeping elementary schools open, the OUSD claims they’re broke – yet 6 million dollars goes to paying the state debt each year! Yet another example of how schools are run by people who think like capitalists!
Demands:
Don’t Close the 5 Schools! Keep All Neighborhood Schools Open!
Stop Union Busting: Defend the OEA and All School Worker Unions!
Refuse the Debt: Demand the District Call on the Banks to Bailout Schools!
Fully Fund Quality Public Education For All!
Demand Tony Smith Re-Open the Schools or Resign. Re-Open or Resign!
Support
Sign the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/i-support-the-lakeview-sit-in/
Donate food or supplies: your contributions are always welcome, bring them down to Lakeview!
Sign-up to recieve emergency text blasts
text “Lakeviewsitin” to 41411
WEB: saveoaklandschools.org
EMAIL: saveoaklandschools@gmail.com
Visit: The Lakeview Elementary Sit-in is located 746 Grand Avenue in Oakland – directly across the street from the Lake Merritt Farmer’s Market and kitty corner from the Grand Lake Theatre
I think people participating in the Lakeview occupation are making a reasonable request in asking that no one wear masks. It really shouldn’t be a point of contention–provided that the request expresses the views of the collective and not a self-selected leader, which I take isn’t the case.
It’s one thing to wear a mask at a demonstration, especially one where there is likely to be confrontations with the “authorities.” While there are certainly many who look askance at masks during demos, the logic behind maintaining anonymity in such instances isn’t difficult to understand. My guess that there are quite a few Occupiers who have a more positive attitude–or at least less negative one–toward masking up now than they did a year ago.
But wearing a mask to a non-confrontational, family-oriented event–*whether or not the community has explicitly requested that masks not be worn*–makes no sense on any grounds. If you’re very concerned with maintaining anonymity, then such an event is simply not the type that you should attend. The mask makes its wearer in such a context more conspicuous, not less, in any case; it renders the ostensible purpose of wearing a mask laughable. Indeed, those who don’t feel threatened by the anonymous interlopers are likely to find them the object of derision and amusement. Either way, not a good way for Occupy to represent itself. Those who insist on doing so, as they two apparently did, should be dealt with firmly by “adults in the movement.”
Hello Fellow OOers,
I am writing concerning an incident that happened at the march and
rally in support of the Lakeview School Sit-in on Saturday June 23rd.
While the actual march and rally were successful and a good example
of what the Occupy movement can lend to popular struggles, how we can
take part in a constructive way in building a mass movement to resist
all the egregious methods of corporate control, what I witnessed I
believe to be an example of disrespect to this movement that must be
prevented. The parents and teachers organizing Save Our Schools have
been very clear, and have gone so far as to print out a list of
behaviors that they do not wish to see within the ranks of those
supporting them, no Black Bloc Tactics being one of them. Two young
men chose to ignore this and came dressed in black and wearing masks.
I asked them to remove their masks or leave and was told by them that
masks are not Black Bloc tactics. I said, “well, if its okay with the
organizers,” at which point one of them acknowledged that it wasn’t
and that they had been told not to but that it was their “right” to do
so anyway. Later, at the rally I went up to them again to ask them to
leave and was joined by another OO member that has been more involved
in the Sit-in than I have. Again, these two young men refused to
comply with the requests of the organizers and instead went to stand
front and center of the stage but towards the back.
I do not know any way, other than writing this message to the
web-site, to get the attention of fellow OOers. I think this type of
behavior dangerously threatens our ability to work with the people of
Oakland.
Thank-you, Katy