Calendar
Dearest friends, family and fellow farmers,
We need your voices and bodies in Albany this Wednesday! Despite a successful referendum, citizen appeal, 2 current lawsuits, and 15 years of public comments against the commercial development of the Gill Tract Farm, Albany City Council will be voting on a development plan to place a large parking lot and chain grocery store (“Sprouts”) on the south side of the Gill Tract. The city council moved this vote up from the original date of March 17th, so please help us get the word out about the new date and time!
This a very important vote and the outcome will greatly impact the struggle for the Gill Tract. Please join us to voice your opposition to this development:
If you can’t come, please email or call UCB Vice-chancellor of Real Estate Rob Lalanne (415-908-1500) and Chancellor Nicholas Dirks (510-642-7464). Tell them we want preserve this land as a center for agroecological research and local, sustainable urban farming, and demand that they stop commercial development of public farmlands!
We meet on a once-every-two-week-or-so schedule, discussing debt, money, how our financial system does (and usually does not) work, and the politics of it all.
Here is the PDF for chapters 2 & 3 for Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. These are the chapters we will discuss next meeting:
- Here is a link to the scan for the preface of Michael Hudson’s The Bubble and Beyond. Please read it and come with an idea for which chapters you would like the class to read.
Michael Hudson’s ‘The Bubble and Beyond.’
Support the Trayvon 2, Hannibal Shakur (Lamar Caldwell) and Tanzeen Doha. They were arrested while protesting the George Zimmerman not-guilty verdict in the murder of Trayvon Martin. The Trayvon 2 are being railroaded through the judicial system on false charges.
This is going to be a very important date, so let’s pack the court room to show our community support.
There will be a rally at 8AM and the hearing starts around 8:30 AM.
For a lot more information, legal defense fund donation link, and video.
Student Debt National Day of Action
Wells Fargo Student Loans,
– John Stumpf, and
–Chevron Oil Company.
What do these three have in common?
They’ve created the student debt crisis impacting our communities and growing inequality in education.
283% CSU fee increase since 2002
$170 million in student debt
135% community college tuition increase since 2006-2007.
25% less funding for higher education since 2009.
Today, we have much less funding for education because corporations are not paying their fair share forcing the average student to graduate college with over $30,000 in debt. Two companies are leading the effort to limit their taxes and maximize their profits through high student loans, environmental impacts and tens of millions spent on aggressive lobbying. John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo and Chevron Board Member is at the center of the student debt crisis.
STAND WITH STUDENTS TO DEMAND JOHN STUMPF:
1. Modify Wells Fargo loans to reduce student and household debt;
2. Support $2 billion each year for our CA schools by getting Chevron to withdraw opposition to the Oil Extraction Tax.
Participating organizations:
Jobs With Justice
San Francisco ACCE
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment
Student Labor Action Project
CCSF Student Labor Action Project- SLAP
Draw your impressions of your neighborhood or whatever else you want!
We’ll have paper, drawing stuff, and scanners, and in the end we’ll add your drawings of Oakland to the Oakland Wiki! You can make drawings to illustrate different entries (Dog Park anyone? )
We’ll be discussing chapters 6 & 7 from Michael Hudson’s The Bubble and Beyond. Here’s a PDF.
Massive Women’s Convergence on the Golden Gate Bridge
Activists from Bay Area CodePink, No Nukes Action Committee and Fukushima Response will form a united front on the Golden Gate Bridge in recognition of women’s global effort for a better world.
10:00 Rally, Music, Dance, S.F. side of Golden Gate Bridge.
11:00 March across the eastern walkway, starting on either side of the bridge, to meet in middle for convergence for peace, equality and environmental justice.
12:00 (SF side)
Honoring women activists, past & present.
All are encouraged to represent a woman peace & social justice activist from around the world, and to share her story through a mini-bio, a poem, a photo, song and or story.
The convergence themes will include:
1. Women United to End War & Violence:
In solidarity with the Afghan women working for peace & justice and an end to brutal occupation. Please wear sky blue scarves to symbolize the blue sky that we all share, and our inherent right to peace, justice and economic equality.
2. Nuke-Free World Now! On the 3rd anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, we stand in solidarity with the women of Japan who demand an end to all nuclear power and weapons and a commitment to a safe and nuclear free environment for all.
3. E.R.A. NOW. In the 21st Century it is an abomination that the Equal Rights Amendment has still not been ratified. This day will mark the send off of a year long campaign & march from San Francisco to Washington DC to culminate on March 8, 2015, when Helen de Boissiere, accompanied by supporters, will arrive in DC to chain herself to the White House fence, demanding passage of the E.R.A.
Sponsored by Bay Area CodePink, No Nukes Action Committee and Fukushima Response
Prosecuting Attorney Angela Corey is planning to push for consecutive sentencing in Marissa’s upcoming re-trial, pushing for a 60 year sentence for firing a warning shot, causing no injury, to protect herself from her abusive husband. We cannot allow this to happen! It’s time to drop the charges against Marissa Alexander and let her get back to the work of raising her children and living her life.
This Saturday, International Women’s Day, at 2pm we will gather in Oscar Grant Plaza for a march into West Oakland to bring awareness to Marissa’s case. We will have information to give to folks and will move at a pace that allows for both participation and important conversations with our neighbors. Families are encouraged to participate!
New to Strike Debt?? Don’t walk cold turkey into a bunch of radicals talking about debt! Show up a half hour early—at 2:30 PM—for an informal pre-meeting intro session. If you’d like to attend this pre-together please email strike.debt.bay.area@
Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally to fight unjust debt.
– 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.
– 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 Strike Debt UC Berkeley chapter of Strike Debt, 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
Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
Check out the Berkeley Post Office Defenders website too.
GG’s statement on homelessness at the Albany City Council:
http://www.youtube.com/user/orionorion99?feature=watch
Benefit for Berkeley Copwatch.
Doors open at 7pm. Show starts at 7:30.
Berkeley Copwatch invites you to “In Love and Struggle” a celebration of International Women’s Day. Its all happening on March 8th at 7:30pm at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley. This night will feature dance and spoken word performances by our own MC Kaila Love , Students for Hip Hop and surprise dramatic performances. There will also be a special guest appearance by hip hop diva Vixen Noir, and at beginning at 9pm The Average Dyke Band will have you on your feet and dancing to old school funk, R &B, modern and more.
This event is dedicated to the memory of Kayla Moore and all who have suffered or died at the hands of police and is a benefit for Berkeley Copwatch.
For more information go to www.berkeleycopwatch.org and check us out on Facebook: Justice 4 Kayla Moore
On March 5th, we are sorry to report that Albany City Council chose to ignore the overwhelming crowd of farm supporters, and instead approved the UC’s development plan for the southern half of the Gill Tract. This public farmland is an invaluable and rare resource, but if the UC Administration has its way, it will be developed it for purely commercial uses that have nothing to do with Berkeley’s mission and responsibilities as a public land grant university.
After the meeting, many of the people who had come to speak to City Council had an impromptu meeting and announced several followup events:
- 1) A brainstorming and power-mapping forum for the community to propose and deliberate actions that might prevent the development.
- 2) A kickoff event for campus organizing. Let’s bring some pressure to bear on the UC Administration!
“Lunch with the Chancellor”
Meet in front of California Hall, on the UC campus
112 Hilgard Hall on UC campus
Can’t come out? Keep making calls!
Please continue to email or call UCB Vice-chancellor of Real Estate Rob Lalanne (415-908-1500) and Chancellor Nicholas Dirks (510-642-7464). Tell them we want preserve ALL of this land as a center for agroecological research and local, sustainable urban farming, and demand that they stop commercial development of public farmlands!
Teach-In on Technology, Race and Civil Liberties: The Case of Oakland’s Domain Awareness Center presented by the Oakland Privacy Working Group
Join us for Presentations followed by Questions and Answers with Cat Brooks and Eddan Katz.
* Cat Brooks, an Oakland community and equal rights activist and performance artist, is co-chair of the Onyx Organizing Committee ( https://www.facebook.com/onyxorganizingcommittee ).
* Eddan Katz, co-founder of Oakland’s creative community hacker space, The Sudo Room, is a member of the Oakland Privacy Working Group ( https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com/ ).
Wheelchair accessible. Buses pass by regularly. Ashby BART is approximately 7 blocks away.
SPONSOR: Green Sundays are a series of free programs and discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party of Alameda County follows at 6:45 p.m. Council meetings are always open to anyone who is interested.
Celebrate Slingshot Collective’s 26th birthday
Slingshot is a quarterly, independent, radical, newspaper published in the East Bay since 1988 by the Slingshot Collective. We also publish the annual Slingshot Organizer radical calendar planner. We are an all volunteer, non-profit, tax exempt project of the Long Haul.
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.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
The City Council is on a path to pass some sort of Zoning Overlay which may protect the Post Office against various commercial uses, or be totally ineffective. We need to stay on top of it.
The American Postal Workers Union is planning more actions against Staples; we need to support them. We are going to start a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign.
Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked and we need to be on the leading edge of that. We hope to holding a forum on postal and public banking soon on the Post Office steps. Come help us plan it!
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
AND CHECK OUT OUR SPIFFY NEW WEBSITE.
This Monday, we will start promptly at 6!!
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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
Got water?
Our water commons is leaking away,
next thing you know they’ll be selling us air
Water is essential for life. We are 65% water and are not likely to survive more than three days without it. Water is not just for drinking, but for other essential processes like growing food and for sanitation. Fresh water is in limited supply. Despite its preciousness, however, water is being violated by pollution and waste, and commercialization all over the globe. Corporations are privatizing and exploiting water supplies where people can least afford it. Climate change is turning more and more of the earth’s surface to desert, and when the rains do come, they come more often as violent storms. California’s most recent drought has brought our regional water issues to the front pages, including the question of why Northern California reservoirs are empty and SoCal reservoirs are full. How can we cope with and reverse this global and local water crisis?
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla is the Executive Director for Restore the Delta, which works in the areas of public education and outreach so that all Californians recognize the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta as part of California’s natural heritage, deserving of restoration. Prior to joining the campaign, Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla served as the Business Development Manager for the Planning and Conservation League in Sacramento. Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla has also worked in education, business and communications. Over the last seven years, Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla has worked to give Delta residents a voice in the myriad of government processes leading to the proposed peripheral tunnels project, or Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
Adam Scow is the California Director of Food & Water Watch, a national organization dedicated to protecting our right to safe food and clean water. He is responsible for developing strategy for local, state, and campaigns. Adam is a co-founder of Californians against Fracking and has won several campaigns to defeat attempts to privatize our water. He has served on the planning committee for the annual California Water Policy Conference.
Check out the Blue-Gold action plan!
http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/actionplan/index.html
National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
to Meet in Oakland on Sale of Historic Post Offices
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) will be meeting in Oakland on March 11, 2014, to hear testimony on the sale of historic post offices and its effect on communities, historic buildings and historic districts. The ACHP is an independent federal agency that promotes preservation and sustainable use of our nation’s historic resources and its members are appointed by President Obama.
The Council is required to develop and submit a plan to Congress by April 17, 2014 to make sure that the U.S. Postal Service follows the law in handling its historic buildings. The ACHP invited groups working on historic preservation to make presentations from 1:45-4:30 PM at the Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland. The meeting is OPEN to the public. The public can also submit their concerns in writing.
The ACHP invites written comments from interested organizations and the public regarding the USPS’s disposal of historic facilities for consideration as the ACHP prepares its report. Please provide any comments by April 1, 2014, by email to uspsreport@achp.gov or by fax: 202-606-5072. Comments can also be sent to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 803, Washington, DC 20004, ATTN: USPS Report
http://www.achp.gov/news_20140228_comments.html
The #KamalaHarrisJailKillerCop
Assuming they are not stuck inside the courthouse there will be a press conference at 10:00 AM just outside discussing new developments in the case.
The Harris8 did standing civil disobedience in the lobby of the State Building, demanding that State Attorney General Kamala Harris prosecute all killer cops, while a rally was going on outside. The rally included speakers from a number of families of victims of killer cops.
Background: How Two Elder Activists Found Themselves in Oakland’s Jail… And Lived to Fight the Next Day.
Background: “Here They Come!” Imperial Storm Troopers Arrive to Arrest Killer Cop Protesters.
Background: Nine Arrests in Civil Disobedience Action Protesting Killer Cops.
The San Francisco School Bus Drivers (UTU 1741) are inviting you to a picket of Veolia’s para-transit office. This protest is in support of the 4 Union leaders fired by Veolia in Boston. Veolia’s anti-Union record is as bad as its environmental and human rights record.
Steve Gillis, Vice President of Boston School Bus Drivers Union, was one of the fired Union leaders. He was a featured speaker at the anti-Veolia Conference in SF on 2/8. Veolia locked out 800 drivers and fired the leadership of the Union (USW 8751) when they engaged in a protected union activity protesting Unfair Labor Practices by Veolia.
Over a period of only 3 months after Veolia won a contract for school busing in Boston Veolia succeeded in violating every term and condition of the Union contract that they had signed. The Union had, in that short time, filed 18 unfair labor practice charges and over 175 individual & class action grievances.
The fired Union leaders were the Vice President, The Chair of the Grievance committee, the three-term past President and the Recording Secretary. This was an attempt to decapitate the Union.
USW 8751 has asked for solidarity pickets at Veolia’s offices & businesses. Such protests have already had an effect and the Boston School Bus Drivers emphasize that right now things are at a critical juncture in negotiations to get their jobs back and the actions are more important than ever.
We will have signs, but feel free to bring your own signs.
Support Tristan and loved ones as we mark five years since the shooting of Bay Area activist, Tristan Anderson. Tristan was severely injured when he was shot in the head with a (American made) tear gas grenade by Israeli Military Police during a protest in Occupied Palestine in 2009 in the village of Ni’ilin. Tristan became paralyzed on about half his body and lives with severe permanent injury to his brain.
We honor Tristan and rage at our own government for it’s direct role in the misery of Gaza, the tear gas over Taksim, the police killings of Alan Blueford, Oscar Grant, Kenneth Harding Jr…
The US Government sends huge shipments of tear gas to be used against our sister movements around the world… what side are WE are?
4:00 PM: Free Feast.
5:00 PM: Speakers.
6:00 PM: March.
7:00 PM: Solidarity & Healing.