Occupy The Farm and other folks supporting the Gill Tract as farmland staged a rally and blockade at Sprouts in Walnut Creek on Saturday, March 14th. Sprouts in Walnut Creek? It seems that Sprouts, Inc has negotiated an agreement with the city of Albany and UC Berkeley to build a store on the Gill Tract (the only prime farmland left in the East Bay, at San Pablo & Marin, Albany, CA), and they will literally be paving over a last small bit of paradise to put in a parking lot. … Continued
With no apparent reasonable suspicion or probable cause, fifteen or more San Francisco Police Officers descended on a group of young black men making a music video recently, demanding that they put their hands up. The young men were then handcuffed and searched. No explanation was given, no justification provided, as far as anyone has written. It has not been established whether any of the young men were arrested. Watch the first few minutes of the video, and decide for yourself whether young men of color live in a police … Continued
The Community Garden on the west side of the downtown Berkeley Post Office is looking good! Planted some two months ago and tended with care by volunteers, it’s now sprouting greenery. This all despite the outside water supply being shut off a couple of weeks ago for reasons unknown – volunteers are now bringing water to the garden on a regular basis. First They Came for the Homeless, with support from Berkeley Post Office Defenders, has now Occupied the exterior of the Post Office for 128 days, maintaining an information … Continued
A note from the AntiRepression Crew: J28 arrestees: Don’t forget to submit your claim forms by MARCH 20th!!! So far the majority of arrestees have not submitted their claims. Don’t miss out on your payback $$$$$!! Follow the link below to get the details: Claim forms must be mailed in to 99 14th St, Suite 300, Oakland, 94612. You should have received a claim form in the mail. If you did not receive one, please email it immediately to j28.legal@gmail.com! Information from the Official Settlement Website: Overview This is the … Continued
It began with a crazy idea more than two years ago. A bunch of Occupy Wall Streeter’s decided to try to raise $50K and then try to buy some defaulted-on medical debt at pennies on the dollar on the shady debt-trading exchanges, then forgive it. They called the scheme the Rolling Jubilee. They failed miserably. So badly, in fact, that they ended up raising more than $700K, got worldwide attention and, over the next two years had to buy up and forgive over $14,000,000 in both medical and student loan … Continued
On February 3rd, 2015, Yuvette Henderson was or was not shoplifting as she left Home Depot in Emeryville, CA, a small city nestled between Oakland and Berkeley. She did or did not have a gun, which she used or didn’t use (if she had it) in attempting to either carjack some passing autos or not, or maybe she was flagging down a bus. witnesses say they saw #yuvette wavin down a bus n the middle of the street. police say she was trying to high jack cars. #JusticeforYuvette — … Continued
Such is the mythology the US Postal Service would have us believe about the Berkeley Post Office. You see, Postal Service lawyers were caught lying to a Federal judge in a hearing on December 11th about the City of Berkeley’s lawsuit against the sale of its downtown Post Office. I was there in the courtroom. I heard them lie. They argued to the judge that the lawsuit should be dismissed because the downtown Berkeley Post Office was “no longer for sale.” But a quick check immediately after the hearing showed … Continued
#HellaPrivacy. That’s the new hashtag and slogan of the Oakland Privacy Working Group as it attempts to get the City Council to pass a strong privacy policy for the Domain Awareness Center. A year ago the spy center known as the DAC was, after hella protests and public outrage spearheaded by OPWG and the Muslim community, confined to keeping tabs on things only at Port of Oakland, and was not allowed to come on line until a privacy policy was developed. (See the DAC FAQ for a detailed history). An … Continued
At least 300 protesters filled the BART Board’s hearing room, plus an overflow room, and the lobby outside on Thursday, January 21st, demanding that the BART Board tell District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to drop the charges against the Black Friday 14 and not to ask for restitution payments. What they got after three hours of testimony by Black Friday shutdown participants and supporters – ranging from mention of slave patrols to the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Oscar Grant and to Nubia Bowe – was a promise by Rebecca Saltzman, one … Continued
The inaugural meeting of the new Oakland Livable Wage Assembly will take place this Tuesday, January 27th, at 6:30 PM. It is being hosted at SEIU 1000, 1433 Webster Street Oakland,CA 94612. The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. It will meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at the SEIU Local 1000, 2nd Floor in downtown Oakland. The meetings will run from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. The work of this new assembly … Continued