Author Archives: laborsolidaritycommittee

At 1:00 AM on July 1st, 2015 the Berkeley City Council tabled four ordinances that would have criminalized Berkeley’s homeless. They were up against an extremely upset, rather large crowd that had stubbornly stuck around beyond the witching hour, determined not to go down without a  fight long into the even wee-er hours of the morning. Linda Maio, sponsor of the ordinance package, relunctantly acceded to Mayor Tom Bates’ request to table and adjourn after acknowledging the fierce opposition but saying “Something has to change!” The confusion and consternation had … Continued

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MEMBERS OF THE OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL FROM THE OAKLAND PRIVACY WORKING GROUP. We are deeply concerned that the Oakland City Council is, as it was with the Domain Awareness Center, voting to allocate funds for a system that it has not debated, has not gotten public input on, is not what it is represented to be, and is troubling in its civil liberties implications. We are referring to the $150,000 line item for ‘Predictive Policing’ software that is included in the Mayor’s budget proposal. It … Continued

UCB BSU members, students, labor and community people rallied at the UC Berkley campus Sproul Plaza on June 18, 2015 to protest and condemn the terrorism and racist murder of 9 Charleston South Carolina church parishioners. They pointed out that this is a long continuation of murder and terrorism against the Black community throughout the history of the United States. The murder was also done on the anniversary of the rebellion against slavery that was planned at the church. (Video description) Oaklander Gerald Smith from the Oscar Grant Committee and … Continued

The following demands have been made by the community in the OPD officer-involved killing of Demouria Hogg on June 6th, 2015. Community Demands: If the Mayor of Oakland, the Oakland Police and the City of Oakland wish to have us believe there is any shred of accountability within, they must 1. Immediately release the name or names of the officer or officers involved in the shooting, as required by the 5/29/14 California Supreme Court decision, Long Beach Police Officers Association v City of Long Beach. 2. Immediately make public all … Continued

Everyone expected it to pass. As the Oakland Post put it before the vote City Council Set to Approve Sale of City Land for Luxury Apartment Tower and again after it Before Tuesday night’s City Council meeting, the proposal to sell a city parcel to build a luxury apartment tower at Lake Merritt seemed like a done deal. On June 2nd, with the doors blockaded and the upper galleries closed off, 90+ speakers’ names were called to speak on the proposal to sell the 12th St. parcel at a fire … Continued

Almost two years after the Domain Awareness Center first crept onto the radar of Bay Area activists… it will be allowed to power up. Two years past it was a system spec’ed to spy over all of Oakland, incorporating traffic cameras, Shotspotter, school cameras, license plate readers and social media, with no controls on information sharing with other agencies like the FBI or ICE. Now, it is a system confined to take input from the Port of Oakland (at least without Council approval of further expansion). It may not use … Continued

Occupy The Farm took their protest against Sprouts’ plan to pave the Gill Tract down to Fremont and Mountain View , Saturday, May 30th. Some of the action included a mean, if not lean, bulldozer attempted to clear out a broccoli and a grape, but instead was chased away itself. Much music, merriment and mulch, not to mention some serious messaging, was done. Successful #boycottsprouts action. No one arrested! Message delivered. Fun had by all. #OccupyTheFarm #GillTractDefense — Occupy the Farm (@occupyfarm) May 30, 2015 Check out some non-embeddable videos of the … Continued

The Mayor asked for a meeting with the protest organizers for the Sunday, May 24th rally and march. Here is the request and the reply… Arrests in Oakland protests over limit on nighttime marches #BreakTheCurfew http://t.co/GjRFf4sNKQ pic.twitter.com/w4NdM3CKFH — Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) May 25, 2015   Hello Katie, My name is Tomiquia Moss and I am the chief of staff to Mayor Schaaf. The Mayor would like a chance to meet with you and Nichola to discuss the City’s crowd control policy. I realize that you all have planned a … Continued