Calendar

9896
Jan
11
Sat
Stop WesPac! Rally and March in Pittsburg, CA @ Mariner Park
Jan 11 @ 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Community Rally and March to City Hall.

Stop the Crude Oil Storage and Raily Transfer Facility.

Keep Pittsburg safe and healthy.

Say NO to Toxic Racism,
Say NO to any more “DUMPS” in Pittsburg,
Say NO to Hazardous Facilities
next to Housing & Schools
We need to be righteously angry.
Let folks know we are mad as hell and
we ain’t gonna tolerate this.

Information on WesPac.

54471
Public Forum To Organize Actions for March 15th: International Day Against Police Brutality. @ Alan Blueford Center for Justice
Jan 11 @ 10:00 pm – 11:30 pm

On January 11th we will be holding a public forum to organize actions for March 15th, international day against police brutality. This forum will take place at the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, which is located near 25th on Telegraph Ave in Oakland.

Everyone is invited! We encourage approaching this forum as individuals rather than as an organization.

Hope to see you there!

54485
Jan
12
Sun
OO General Assembly: Moved to SUDOROOM through January @ The Sudoroom
Jan 12 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

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

  1. Welcome
  2. Welcome Announcements
  3. Agenda Overview
  4. Forum
  5. Reports from Committees, Subcommittees, Caucuses, & Working Groups
  6. Action Announcements
  7. General Announcements

Occupy Oakland GA

54350
Jan
14
Tue
Berkeley Post Office Defenders General Assembly. Help Plan Our Next Steps! @ Downtown Berkeley Post Office
Jan 14 @ 2:00 am – 3:30 am

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.

Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our Post Office and against privatization and non living-wage jobs:

 

24 Hours to Save the Post Office! A Festival of Celebration and Resistance.

It’s happening Saturday starting at 11:00 AM at the Post Office and going for 24 hours.

In November 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 and are organizing to put pressure on City Council members and the Mayor to make sure this measure is brought up and passed. We collected 600 petition signatures so far as part of that pressure and are aiming for a lot more!

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).  We conducted our first action against this privatization of postal services on December 21st.

 

Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk at one of our Save the Post Office Rallies in the Fall of2013!

54555
Occupy Forum: “What’s that Stench?” Fossil Fuel Infrastructure Expansion in the Bay Area. @ Global Exchange, 2nd floor, near 16th St. BART
Jan 14 @ 2:00 am – 3:00 am

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue

on all sides of these critically important issues!

OccupyForum presents

 What’s That Stench??? 

Fossil Fuel Infrastructure Expansion

in the North Bay / Pittsburg

and the Campaign to Stop it in its Tracks

 

The WesPac Pittsburg Energy Infrastructure Project would transform Pittsburg CA into a major crude oil receiving, storage and shipping facility. WesPac develops, constructs, owns and operates infrastructure throughout North America for petroleum products handling, and Pittsburg is the next target for modernization and reactivation of its existing marine terminal and oil storage and transfer systems.  Plans are to move Canadian tar sands crude to the Chevron and Shell refineries through pipelines and extended rail systems, load it onto ships and send it to Asia to the tune of 242,000 barrels per day. This is the same dirty crude slated for the Keystone XL pipeline, a project drawing widespread opposition. Even dirtier crude oil would be shipped to the WesPac facility from southern California. Oil would also come from a huge deposit in North Dakota, which, like the California oil, would be extracted by fracking. Do we want the Bay Area to be the locus of this scheme which threatens Pittburg and North Bay towns and our Bay,

not to mention the climate impact of burning all that fossil fuel???

Lyana Monterey from the Pittsburg Community, Diane Bailey (senior scientist with the NRDC), Valerie Love from the Center from Biological Diversity, Ernest Machen and Damien Luzzo from Sunflower Alliance, and Dr. Henry C. Clark from Richmond Progressive Alliance will give us the backstory and details about what a growing coalition of folks is doing to stop WesPac in its tracks. We will cover: how the community got organized; the science, health, air quality and regulatory laws; the ecology; the big picture re: tar sands and climate; crude by rail; the coalition-building and activism developing, community rights-based ordinances and how they might be applied in Pittsburg, and, with you, brainstorm how we can all work together to stop this.
Spills, leaks, blow-ups, smog, gas, fires like the one in Richmond, soil contamination, prolonged effects on area air and water quality and health effects such as asthma, cancer and birth defects, loom. Increased pollution from idling trucks, rail cars and ships — affecting wildlife, marshes and wetlands, the shoreline, polluted water in the delta (water used for drinking and agriculture), — jeopardized property values, and critically, significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions warming the climate are the risks and threats. This development would include:

Pipelines: Expand existing pipelines and add new lines from rail cars to tanks;

New Rail: Build crude-by-rail transload facility; extend tracks, greatly increase rail shipments right through town;

Storage: Modernize and reactivate the site�s tanks and build new ones;

Tanker trucks, diesel trucks: Mobilize for construction and transport: (congestion, diesel fumes, road deterioration, traffic hazards);

Shipping: Dredge and pile drive to deepen the Bay and reopen, expand and modernize Marine Terminal

54557
Craig Dilworth, Author: Too Smart For Our Own Good. @ Humanist Hall
Jan 14 @ 3:00 am – 5:00 am

CRAIG DILWORTH in person

Author of the profound 2010 book:

TOO SMART FOR OUR OWN GOOD

The Ecological Predicament of Humankind

Our ecologically disruptive behavior – which is the same as our explosive technological know-how — is rooted in the nature of Homo Sapiens. Humankind’s development consists of an accelerating movement from situations of scarcity, to technological innovation, to increased resource availability, to increased consumption, to population growth, to resource depletion once again — in a vicious circle from the dawn of humanity and continuing today. Craig Dilworth amasses enormous evidence to prove that technology is our undoing: his Vicious Circle Principle trumps our intelligence.

A review of this book.

54553
Jan
15
Wed
The 2014 Close Guantánamo NOW Speaking Tour: Film screening “Doctors of the Dark Side.” @ Revolution Books (at Telegraph, under parking structure)
Jan 15 @ 3:00 am – 5:00 am

January 11, 2014 marks the 12th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo. This month as Andy Worthington and Debra Sweet tour cities and campuses raising the call, Close Guantánamo NOW! – they’ll be joined at various events by other powerful speakers including Jeffrey Kaye, Jason Leopold, Michael Kearns, and Todd Pierce. The new documentary film Doctors of the Darkside will also be shown at some events.

All three Bay Area events are open to the public including at the Stanford and Hastings campuses. Contact World Can’t Wait SF Bay, sf [at] worldcantwait.org or 415-864-5153, to volunteer your help staffing programs (we especially need videographers, photographers), and ideas for publicity and media. Donate to support the tour here: http://www.indiegogo.com

Film screening “Doctors of the Dark Side” with Andy Worthington & Debra Sweet in conversation.

IndyBay notice.

San Francisco event.

54554
Jan
16
Thu
Rally in Richmond: We demand Safety First! No new Permits w/o the Safety Case!! @ Civic Center Plaza
Jan 16 @ 1:30 am – 2:30 am

The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has chosen Richmond as the location for voting on its final report on the August 6, 2012, Chevron Richmond Toxic Explosion and Fire. The hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Richmond City Council Chambers at 440 Civic Center Plaza.

Please join Communities for a Better Environment, APEN, RPA, ACCE, 350.org Chevron Watch and Bay Area, the Richmond Environmental Justice Coalitionand community representatives from Pittsburg, Rodeo/Crockett and Benicia at 5:30 p.m. for a rally in the Civic Center Plaza.

This is a MAJOR event for our communities, because the CSB is recommending a new standard for regulating Big Oil’s refineries in the US – the Safety Case regime. We demand Safety First! No new Permits w/o the Safety Case!!

Please come out and support the CSB, the people of Richmond and the Bay Area refinery towns!

54574
San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Meeting @ Redstone Building, Room 301
Jan 16 @ 2:00 am – 4:00 am

San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Meeting. The Living Wage Coalition is building a grassroots movement of low-wage workers and their allies to win economic justice. Anyone who works full time should be able to survive on what they earn and support themselves and their children. Come to be a part of discussing next steps in pursuing an economic justice agenda.

54577
Organize Against the DAC @ The Sudoroom (entrance on 22nd St, buzzer)
Jan 16 @ 2:30 am – 3:45 am

The Oakland Privacy Working Group will meet at the Sudoroom Wednesday Jan. 15th at 6:30 to organize to stop the planned building of an Oakland-wide surveillance grid to monitor the citizens of the East Bay.

Approval for a contractor to take over Phase II of the DAC contract from SAIC – summarily dismissed months ago for violations of Oakland’s Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance – is supposed to take place at the January 21st City Council meeting.

For more information on the insidiousness of the DAC and how it came to b in Oakland check out the DAC FAQ, the Oakland Wiki Domain Awareness Page and the Oakland Privacy WordPress.

OPG hopes to have a large presence and a big rally on February 4th in front of City Hall at Oscar Grant Plaza, and YOU ARE INVITED.  We are planning to have potluck food & drink  at the plaza at 6:15 before going in to the council chambers to voice our opinions on this spy-network. So far the City has always scheduled this skulduggery as the last item on the agenda, well after midnight, to try to discourage public comment, so we are planning to show movies in the Plaza to keep folks entertained while waiting for the item to come up.  Let’s stop this fucking thing, privacy is an essential element of freedom.

Getting There

Join Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide mass surveillance center.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to: oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

F04-quan-rat-flyer

Also, please sign the on line petition to stop the DAC

On line petition to stop the DAC


On line petition to stop the DAC

54512
Richard Wolff on his New Book: Capitalism Hits the Fan. @ First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Jan 16 @ 3:30 am – 5:00 am

$12 advance tickets: brownpapertickets.com :: 800-838-3006
or Pegasus (3 locations), Marcus Books, Moe�s, Walden Pond, Diesel a Bookstore, and Modern Times.
$15 /door

Radical economist Richard Wolff recently exploded into the forefront of progressive thinking in the United States with his brilliantly insightful book Capitalism Hits the Fan, which chronicled Wolff’s growing alarm and insights as he watched the economic crisis build, burst, and dominate world events. His analysis differs sharply from explanations offered by politicians, media commentators, and other academics. While he retains many Marxist contentions, Wolff rejects the economic determinism typical of most schools of economics.

“Richard Wolff is the leading social economist in the country. This book is required reading for anyone concerned about a fundamental transformation of the ailing capitalist economy.”  — Cornel West.

Professor of Economics Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Wolff is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York. In recent years while delivering public lectures at many colleges and universities, as well as to community and trade union meetings, he has built a reputation for blunt speaking, clarity, refreshing scorn, and an enjoyable wit.

Wolff is the author of many books, including Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism, Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, and Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He hosts the weekly hour-long radio program Economic Update on WBAI (Pacifica Radio) and writes regularly for The Guardian, Truthout.org, and the MRZine.
�Bold, thoughtful, transformative – a powerful and challenging vision that takes us beyond both corporate capitalism and state socialism. Richard Wolff at his best!�

`

54543
Jan
18
Sat
24 Hours to Save the Post Office! A Festival of Celebration and Resistance. @ Downtown Berkeley Post Office
Jan 18 – Jan 19 all-day

The Postal Service is still trying to sell the downtown Berkeley Post Office (and privatize the entire USPS). We’re still trying to save it.  The Berkeley City Council will be considering a proposal in late January to help that effort, a Zoning Overlay Ordinance that will make the entire Historic District Area (including the Post Office) less attractive to private, commercial development.

To keep up the pressure on all concerned, and let them know that the people STILL do not want Post Offices sold, Berkeley Post Office Defenders invite you to twenty-four hours of activities beginning at 11:00 AM.

Activities will include

  • petition signing and flyer distribution (11- 5)
  • presentations, teach-ins (11:30 – 2:00)
  • music (2:00 – 5:00), including the Funky Nixons, Phat Love and Fresh Juice Party!
  • arts and crafts
  • dinner and a movie (6:00 – 10:00)
  • letter writing (11:00 – 2:00)
  • an empathy circle
  • a study group
  • a free clothing box
  • tents and signs
  • light brigade spelling out slogans of resistance (around 7:00 PM)

Come join us! Bring your friends!

Berkeley Post Office Defenders.

 photo save-post-office-banner2-small_zps4c680d6b.jpg

54519
Share The Bulb! Rally, March, Campout and Art Festival Day of Action! @ Albany City Hall & Albany Bulb
Jan 18 @ 12:00 am – Jan 19 @ 1:00 am

Please join Share The Bulb for a weekend of actions against the pending eviction of more than 50 people from the Albany Bulb!

January 17th
—————
Residents and allies of the Albany Bulb will rally at Albany City Hall at 4PM, before marching up Solano Avenue. We will stage an overnight campout on Solano Avenue, illustrating the plight of the more than 50 residents of the Albany Bulb, who, if evicted, would be forced onto Albany’s streets.

January 18th
————–
Artists will flock to the Bulb for a day of participatory art, live demonstrations, workshops, and art tours. Join us for an Art Festival at the Bulb from 12-5PM!

*****

The campout is part a West Coast Day of Action to fight the criminalization of homelessness, sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP). Cities in the Bay Area and around the country have passed laws making it impossible for homeless people to live within the law. It has become a crime to sit or lie down, to sleep in public, panhandle or otherwise conduct their lives in public view.

The eviction would force Bulb residents back into the same social narrative of police harassment and criminalization of homelessness which originally drove many of them to the Bulb.

We have successfully prevented the eviction from going forward since October, and we’re ready to take the fight into the new year! Come join us, and find out how you can help preserve this unique Bay Area treasure.

Facebook event & RSVP.

Share the Bulb Facebook.

54558
Foreclosure Defense Meetup @ Sudo Room (entrance on 22nd St, use buzzer)
Jan 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

If you’re interested in direct action related to local foreclosure defense, show up early and learn more.

Original notice.

54552
Share The Bulb! Rally, Art Festival and Day of Action at the Bulb!
Jan 18 @ 8:00 pm – Jan 19 @ 1:00 am

January 18th
————–
Artists will flock to the Bulb for a day of participatory art, live demonstrations, workshops, and art tours. Join us for an Art Festival at the Bulb from 12-5PM!

*****

The campout on Friday is part a West Coast Day of Action to fight the criminalization of homelessness, sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP). Cities in the Bay Area and around the country have passed laws making it impossible for homeless people to live within the law. It has become a crime to sit or lie down, to sleep in public, panhandle or otherwise conduct their lives in public view.

The eviction would force Bulb residents back into the same social narrative of police harassment and criminalization of homelessness which originally drove many of them to the Bulb.

We have successfully prevented the eviction from going forward since October, and we’re ready to take the fight into the new year! Come join us, and find out how you can help preserve this unique Bay Area treasure.

Friday’s action.

Facebook event & RSVP.

Share the Bulb Facebook.

54559
Come Speak Out Against the SF jail @ Redstone Building
Jan 18 @ 10:00 pm – Jan 19 @ 12:00 am

The San Francisco Gray Panthers are very concerned about issues of mass incarceration, prison expansion, profiling of minorities and youth, and the criminalization of poverty. Particularly in San Francisco, with such extremes of wealth and poverty, it seems outrageous to build more jail space, when three-quarters of prisoners are there because they’re too poor to make bail.

We are helping to organize two important upcoming events to stop the new jail and we hope you will join us!

Here’s the details:

Saturday, January 18th: Attend our Town Hall meeting to speak out about the jail plan, and get prepared for the upcoming Supervisors meeting: 2-4 PM at the Redstone Building, 2940 16th Street (near mission). Download the event flier here.

Thursday, January 23rd: Speak out at the San Francisco Supervisor�s Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee Hearing on the Jail Replacement Project: 1-3:30pm, in City Hall Room 250.

54545
Strike Debt Bay Area: Ideas Into Action. @ Applied Research Center
Jan 18 @ 11:00 pm – Jan 19 @ 1:30 am

Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally to fight unjust debt.

 photo da3-color_zpsf9036587.jpg

– The latest on our coalition efforts to Save the Berkeley Post Office and fight the privatization of our commons.

– The latest on our efforts to help Richmond and NGO allies push for principal reduction for Richmond’s homeowners. Read an article written by two Strike Debt Bay Area members on the Richmond principal reduction / eminent domain case.

In addition, we are exploring the use of a public bank to help Richmond, CA and other communities escape the thrall of Wall Street.

– A report on FedUp, our action in coalition with Occupy SF and others to highlight (and Illuminate!) the Fed’s contributions to the ills of our economy and call for it to become unprivatized.

– Work on our radio segment on KPFA

– Other projects include efforts to fight against student debt in conjunction with peeps at UC Cal via a Debtors’ Union, a book group with semi-weekly discussions, investigations into the legitimacy of mortgage ownership and therefore the right to foreclose, efforts to thwart payday loan usury and more.

“Just as bosses are dependent on workers, so are lenders dependent on borrowers. If workers walk out, the enterprise stops. If borrowers refuse to pay their debts, the lenders could be in real trouble. Each side depends on the other. The millions of underwater mortgage holders, of student debtors and credit card holders, need the bank loans –  but so do the banks need those borrowers, and they especially need them to cooperate by paying their monthly charges. Otherwise, the capital that the banks list on their books begins to drain away.” ~Francis Fox Piven

Calling all organizers for 2014! No experience necessary – just radical ideas and big dreams.

Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

54394
Jan
19
Sun
OO General Assembly: Moved to SUDOROOM through January @ The Sudoroom
Jan 19 @ 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

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

  1. Welcome
  2. Welcome Announcements
  3. Agenda Overview
  4. Forum
  5. Reports from Committees, Subcommittees, Caucuses, & Working Groups
  6. Action Announcements
  7. General Announcements

Occupy Oakland GA

54350
MLK JR Day of Service, Sponsored by Phatbeets. @ Edible Park
Jan 19 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Garden Project Workday.
Free Pancake Potluck Breakfast.
Sign up to Plant a Fruit Tree in your Yard.
Restorative Justice Community Healing Circle.

Source: Facebook announcement.

54515
Sunday at the Marxist Library: Reclaiming Finance. @ Niebyl-Proctor Library
Jan 19 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Reclaiming Finance: How Time is Stolen and can be Taken Back

In The Thief of Time Terry Pratchett imagines time as a substance that can be moved from place to place. In his novel monks guard giant jars of time and make sure it flows just how it is supposed to. Though intended as humor Terry Pratchett’s novel mirrors the reality of banking. In the current global capitalist order central banks and large financial institutions direct the flow of time through currencies and credit in order to reserve it for governments and global conglomerates. Dante Popple, a senior at Bard College at Simon’s Rock studying Politics and Philosophy, will discuss the mechanisms by which banks and governments steal time and how they can be undone, and what a socialist form of finance might look like.

54621