Calendar
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
Four weeks ago the Planning Commission passed on to the Berkeley City a proposed Zoning Ordinance that would make the Post Office property less desirable to potential purchasers of the capitalist variety. We are still waiting for action on this from the City Council.
The Postal Service has announced that they are contracting with Staples to provide Post Office window services inside Staples stores, using Staples employees instead of Post Office employees. There is already a pseudo Post Office operating inside the Berkeley Staples store (Shattuck & Durant)
Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our Post Pffice and against privatization and non living-wage jobs. We want to send a message to CBRE, the Post Office, Staples and Berkeley politicians that the sale will not be tolerated!
Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk at our latest Save the Post Office Rally!
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!! Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue on all sides of these critically important issues!
Americans don’t have a health care system, they have a free enterprise system beholden to corporate executives, shareholders and investors from the industries that benefit the most from high costs. While pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and medical product companies profit, taxpayers are getting squeezed at an accelerating rate. Our market-based, profit-driven health care system in the United States has put necessary care increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary Americans. Primary health care, the fundamental foundation of all high-performing health care systems in the world, is a critical but ignored casualty of the current system. Unfortunately, primary care is often poorly understood, even within the health professions.
Don Bechler, chair of Single Payer Now (who has worked for twenty years to pass Single Payer), will describe what has become a crisis in primary care, define its central role, analyze the reasons for its decline, and assess its impacts on patients and families. He will also show the film, “The Health Care Movie” about the Canadian Health Care System. Bechler will present a constructive approach to rebuild and transform U.S. primary care with the urgent goal to address the nation’s problems of access, cost, quality and equity of health care for all Americans.
Don Bechler is on the executive committee of the national grassroots single payer organization, Healthcare Now.
He has lead speakers training for over 1400 health care activists, and also been an officer of various UAW and the IAM unions.
David Coombs, attorney for American prisoner of conscience US Army Pvt. Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, will speak at three upcoming West Coast events hosted by the Private Manning Support Network. Mr. Coombs continues to represent the heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower recently sentenced to 35-years in military prison.
Monday, Dec. 9 at 6:30pm — Oakland CA
Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland CA 94612
Event will include Q&A with Mr. Coombs, and a fund pitch by the Support Network to benefit Pvt. Manning’s ongoing defense efforts, including pending legal appeals.
Oakland event is presented by Courage to Resist, with the support of the Bay Area Military Law Panel, Veterans for Peace-SF, War Resisters League-West, Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation, SF Women in Black, World Can’t Wait-SF Bay, CodePink Women for Peace-East Bay & Golden Gate, OccupySF Action Council & Environmental Justice Working Group, OccupyForum, SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, Queer Strike, National Lawyers Guild-SF, and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance. Wheelchair accessible. For more info, contact: Courage to Resist, 510-488-3559.
A continuing discussion on the state of our city.
Presented by the Oakland Branch of the International Socialist Organization.
At this meeting we’ll discuss how our side has begun to fight back, the challenges of activism in Oakland, and the possibilities for people to create an alternative Oakland build around our own needs and desires.
Evictions and trashings of peoples’ belongings have already taken place today (Monday)!
Meeting announcement Via Share the Bulb tweet Monday afternoon.
Evictions and destruction of people’s belonging began yesterday, December 9th.
This meetup announced via a tweet by ShareTheBulb yesterday (Monday) afternoon.
In 2005, Casino San Pablo promised to provide good jobs with good benefits. The Casino made $200 million a year in 2011-2012 – but its workers have had a wage freeze for 4 years, and more and more of them are working part time with no benefits!
Casino San Pay-LOW has BROKEN ITS PROMISES!
Come present the Casino with the WORST BOSS OF THE YEAR award – and a stocking of coal!
The plans to pave through the middle of the historic Gill Tract Farm are set to be green-lighted this Wednesday at the City of Albany Planning & Zoning meeting. City officials appear to be discouraging public participation, saying there will be NO time for public comment, and starting the meeting one hour earlier than normal, with NO public notice on their website.
The proposed development plan would suffocate about a block’s worth of fertile soil, with a massive parking lot, strip mall, and high-end housing.
Let the city, UC, and Sprouts “Farmers Market” know we won’t stand for misuse of a rare community resource, and then join us for a general assembly to discuss next steps.
http://oaklandwiki.org/Domain_Awareness_Center
On July 31st after midnight the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to approve allocating $2 million to continue to develop the Domain Awareness Center that would integrate surveillance cameras from all over the Port of Oakland, the city, BART, AC Transit, traffic cameras, and other sensors into a local ‘fusion’ center that could effectively track private citizens movements throughout the region. Video and data feeds from all over Oakland are to be aggregated and monitored at the DAC, then analysed with license plate recognition software, thermal imaging and body movement recognition software, possibly facial recognition software, and more, all with absolutely no privacy or data-retention policies in place, or substantive debate at the committee or council level about the program. November 20th, again after midnight, the City Council voted 6-1 to find a new contractor for the DAC after it came to light that the previous major contractor, SAIC, was involved in nuclear weapons development in contravention of Oakland’s nuclear free policy.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group and others are continuing to organize against these encroachments upon our liberty and privacy.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv send an email to this address:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
The meeting will be at the sudoroom, 2141 Broadway, but the entrance is actually on 22nd Street upstairs.
Instead of a reading, we’ll discuss Bill Still’s award-winning full-length documentary video, “The Secret of Oz.” The video includes a review of monetary history so we can better understand solutions to today’s economic problems. It’s available free online, here. In addition, a lot of positive reviews are on Amazon.
BBQ AND EATS – SPEAKOUT – RALLY – MARCH
“Join us as we record video messages of solidarity for Nisah, her family, and her community.”
Childcare provided.
HERE WE GO AGAIN, EVERYTIME WE TURN AROUND NOW ITS ONE BLACK LIFE AFTER ANOTHER ASSASSINATED, JUSTIFIED, AND SWEPT UNDER A RUG, WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR RENISHAS KILLER AS WELL AS ALL PEOPLE KILLED UNJUSTLY BY SO CALLED PROPERTY DEFENDERS AND WANNA BE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS. WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHY THEY DIDNT GET A POLICE CALL UNTIL HRS LATER, THEN FOUND HER BODY. WE SAY NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!!!
WE IN OAKLAND KNOW FAR TO WELL THE INJUSTICES OF MUREDRS THAT GET SWEPT UP UNDER THE RUG. THIS SYTEM LIES AND PROTECT EACH OTHER AGAINST MURDER ALL DAY IN THIS COUNTRY. WE IN OAKLAND KNOW THAT INJUSTICE IS A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC.
ALL FAMILIES AND SUPPORTERS OF MURDERED VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ARE ENCOURAGED TO COME OUT AND SPEAK. BRING BANNERS, POSTERS, SIGNS WHATEVER YOU LIKE.
IN SOLIDARITY WITH DETROIT, WE WILL HAVE A SPEAKOUT, MARCH, AND RALLY THROUGH THE STREETS OF EAST OAKLAND TO EXPOSE AND BRING AWARENESS TO THIS GLOBAL EPIDEMIC DUE TO THE FACT THAT OUR COMMUNITIES ARE SUFFERING FROM LOSS OF LIFE SO MUCH THAT SOME OF US HAVE GOTTEN IMMUNED TO DEATH.
THERE WILL BE A POSTER AND BANNER MAKING EVENTAND ALSO SCREENPRINTING RENISHA MCBRIDE TSHIRTS, PLEASE BRING WHITE TSHIRTS IF YOU CAN, JUST TO MAKE SURE OTHERS CAN HAVE ONE TOO!! DATE DEC 7TH
**** WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO MAKE A VIDEO OF THE RALLY AND MARCH TO SEND TO RENISHA FAMILY MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS.
WE WILL ALSO BE HAVING ONE ON ONE INTERVIEWS FOR FOLKS WHO WANT TO SEND THEIR OWN PERSONAL MESSAGES OF LOVE, SOLIDARITY,AND SUPPORT.
CHILDCARE PROVIDED!!!!! PLEASE BRING KIDS, KID-FRIENDLY!!!
PLEASE COME OUT TO SHOW RENISHAS FAMILY SOME LOVE AND SUPPORT.
AN INJURY TO ONE IS A INJURY TO ALL
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Worker Solidarity!
Union Garden Work Party
with UNITE HERE 2850, Planting Justice, and MG!
at the Home of Isidoro Saravia-Ramos
Isidoro singing a song of struggle on the land we’ll be cultivating!
Join UNITE HERE 2850, Planting Justice, and Movement Generation in planting a “Union Garden” at the home of UNITE HERE 2850 member and Casino San Pablo dishwasher, Isidoro Saravia-Ramos.
Despite the fact that the Casino brings in over $200 million in revenue, the average Casino worker only earns $9.60/hour and hasn’t received a raise in 4 years. Workers are forced to work in a smoke-filled environment and most don’t receive health insurance. While workers continue their struggle for fairness inside the casino, workers and neighbors are joining together to build community and reclaim our own health and labor.
In inviting folks to his home to plant a garden, Isidoro said: “I am very excited to build a garden with my fellow unions members, my family, and my community. By working together on the land, we will harvest justice.”
Bring work clothes, sturdy shoes, a water bottle, and any food you want to share (to supplement the carne asada / BBQ we’ll do for lunch).
Please RSVP to gavin@plantingjustice.org.
Through the end of January we will have General Assembly at the sudoroom on 2141 Broadway, Oakland, CA.
Here are instructions to access the room, the entrance is on 22nd Street:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Getting_there
This Sunday will be a Cryptoparty at the sudoroom, along with the third Sunday in January, these will be opportunities to update your digital profile so the government can’t easily track your every move. More blather on this to follow this afternoon when I have a moment.
Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally and has equal decision-making power. Occupy Oakland’s General Assembly uses a participatory decision-making process appropriately called, “Occupy Oakland’s Collective Decision-Making Process.” Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
Autonomous Action & the General Assembly
The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and associated groups that report back to the general assembly. Everyone participating in Occupy Oakland should be part of at least one associated group. Occupy Oakland encourages autonomous actions that do not require consensus from the General Assembly. This encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome
- Welcome Announcements
- Agenda Overview
- Forum
- Reports from Committees, Subcommittees, Caucuses, & Working Groups
- Action Announcements
- General Announcements
WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT? DON’T KNOW WHO KALI IS? Here’s the not-so-short version:
Monday will mark another year since a beloved part of our community was ripped away from us and locked up behind bars…because he dared to love and fight for a better life and something bigger than himself.
WHY WAS HE ARRESTED? As absurd as it sounds even now, he was initially taken into custody for sitting on a public bench with a blanket. But we know the real reason they brutalized him and locked him away for 3 more years (nearly giving him a life-sentence!) was for being a bold, beautiful, black man they want so badly to break.
He was one of many arrested during the post-camp Occupy Oakland Vigil but unlike most of us who have since been released or served out our time, he is currently serving out a 3+ year sentence in state prison.
My hope is that you will join me in sending him some mad love and letting him know he is not forgotten.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Come out on Sunday to be part of the group photo and/or sign the card we’ll send him. Write him a letter of your own. Put some money on his books. Let him know he is loved and will not be forgotten!!!
The Long Haul Infoshop will be showing the documentary ‘Soweto to Berkeley’ this week, and is welcoming anti-Apartheid activists to speak.
From Soweto to Berkeley
Documentary (1987), 50 min, dir. Scott Wiseman
“Soweto to Berkeley” explores the student protests and debates at UC Berkeley in the 1980s which led to the Board of Regents decision to withdraw $3.1 billion in funds from companies doing business in South Africa. With the students’ tactics including occupations and direct actions, their organizing efforts, and their successes and failures, still resonate today.
Discussion to follow. Folks who were involved in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s are invited to attend and speak about their experiences.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
Five weeks ago the Planning Commission passed on to the Berkeley City a proposed Zoning Ordinance that would make the Post Office property less desirable to potential purchasers of the capitalist variety. We are still waiting for action on this from the City Council.
The Postal Service has announced that they are contracting with Staples to provide Post Office window services inside Staples stores, using Staples employees instead of Post Office employees. There is already a pseudo Post Office operating inside the Berkeley Staples store (Shattuck & Durant)
Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our Post Office and against privatization and non living-wage jobs. We want to send a message to CBRE, the Post Office, Staples and Berkeley politicians that the sale will not be tolerated!
We will likely be planning an action at the Berkeley Staples for Saturday, Dec 21st. Come help up!
Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk at our latest Save the Post Office Rally!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
The Spirit of CODEPINK: More than Marches!
with Nancy Mancias and Inder Comar
On April 3, 2014, the class action lawsuit targeting six key members of the Bush Administration will come before the United States District Court in San Francisco. Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother of four, is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit. George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz are the six key members mentioned in the lawsuit and all will be represented by the Department of Justice. In Saleh v. Bush, Saleh alleges that the Iraq War was not conducted in self-defense, did not have the appropriate authorization by the United Nations, and therefore constituted a crime of aggression under international law — a designation first set down in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The aim of the suit is simple:
to achieve justice for Iraqis, and to show that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law.
Nancy Mancias is a campaign organizer for CODEPINK. Mancias is a contributing writer to Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution. Beautiful Trouble brings together ten grassroots groups and dozens of seasoned artists and activists from around the world to distill their best practices into a toolbox for creative action. Among the groups included are Agit-Pop/The Other 98%, The Yes Men/Yes Labs, CODEPINK, SmartMeme, The Ruckus Society, Beyond the Choir, The Center for Artistic Activism, Waging Nonviolence, Alliance of Community Trainers and Nonviolence International. Mancias be talking about creative tactics taken from the book.
Attorney Inder Comar will join Nancy to discuss the class action lawsuit to hold Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and Wolfwotiz accountable for the illegal invasion & occupation of Iraq. CODEPINK’S creativity and strength demonstrates what has become increasingly clear: we need more than marches to successfully address the enormous problems facing our society and our democracy.
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.
Mail Carrier Tyson Jerome Barnette was killed recently while delivering mail after dark in Maryland. He would never have been delivering mail after dark but for USPS mismanagement, under staffing, and the mass closings of mail processing centers. Monetary reasons are the why of after dark mail delivery. Never again should the USPS “lose a life to save a dollar.”
Join us for
SINGING ON THE STEPS
OF THE BERKELEY MAIN POST OFFICE
with Hali Hammer, Dave Welsh & Anna DeLeon
and remembering Tyson Jerome Barnette.
(Event will be cancelling if raining)