Calendar
Panel Discussion featuring:
- Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Economics U Missourci,
- Debbie Cochrane, Research Director, Institute for College Access & Success
- Hannal Appel, UC Berkeley Visiting Scholar, Anthropology, and Strike Debt Bay Area member.
Followed by Q&A.
March with community members from across the Bay Area in the streets of Oakland!
3:30PM: Fruitvale Bart Plaza Opening Rally
4 pm: March Starts
5:30: Return to Fruitvale Bart Plaza for Closing Rally and Celebration!
Hosted by Oakland Sin Frontera (OSF) and Partners
WHY ARE WE MARCHING?
Oakland Sin Frontera
· LEGALIZATION FOR ALL UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
· STOP THE DEPORTATION OF ALL IMMIGRANTS & SHUT DOWN DETENTION CENTERS
· UPHOLD WORKERS RIGHTS
· STOP FEDERAL AND LOCAL POLICE VIOLENCE, AND BRING OUR LOVED ONES HOME FROM PRISONS AND JAILS
· BUILD AND DEFEND STRONG AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
· END U.S. MILITARY AGGRESSION & POLICIES THAT FORCE MIGRATION
Join the Andy Lopez contingent in the May Day (May 1st) March & Rally.
The people (that’s us folks) demand Jobs, Justice & Respect for Everyone.
4:00 pm gather at El Tianguis de Roseland/Roseland Farmers Market (Formally Old Albertsons now Dollar Tree) 775 Sebastopol Road.
4:45 pm – Start March to downtown Court House Square for Rally.
Original IndyBay notice, with poster.
Happy May Day to All! Whoever wishes to come out to the farm this evening for an informal potluck and musical celebration, grab your instruments and a dish to share (and dish to eat from) and come on down round 5:30 or 6 to be together on the land we have fought so hard for. It is what we make it.
The committee to create a DAC privacy policy, formed because of the protests against the DAC, will hold its first meeting. By City Council resolution a privacy policy must be in place before the DAC can operate.
Open to public.
Come and tell the committee members: “The only good DAC is a dead DAC.”
People supporting an increase in Berkeley’s minimum wage will rally just before the Berkeley City Council meets at 7pm to consider enacting the minimum wage proposal submitted by the Berkeley Labor Commission. Because a large turnout is expected, the Council meeting will be held at Longfellow Middle School Auditorium, 1500 Derby Street (cross street Sacramento).
The Berkeley Labor Commission proposed a minimum wage beginning at $10.74 an hour for businesses with up to 50 employees, and $13.34 for larger businesses with the minimum wage adjusted yearly for inflation. Employees would also receive a medical benefit of $2.22 an hour if health insurance is not provided. The cost to consumers would be minimal. Even if the entire cost of the wage increase is passed on to consumers, the cost of grocery shopping would increase on the average less than fifty cents a week. Recognizing that workers need a living wage, San Jose and San Francisco have already increased their minimum wages. Today, for two-thirds of the workforce, wages adjusted for inflation are lower than they were 14 years ago.
Raising the minimum wage in our cities stops the erosion in the standard of living. Berkeley recognizes the effect of inflation: landlords who own rent controlled apartments in Berkeley receive an annual cost of living adjustment. Providing a living wage would not only reduce poverty. By increasing purchasing power, it would stimulate the economy and therefore reduce unemployment. For information about the minimum wage act and those who support it, contact: Harry Brill, at 510-559-3138, email harry.brill@sbcglobal.net, or Nicky Gonzalez Yuen at 510-912-3181 or email,
FROM MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA TO OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA:
THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS POWER
The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 was a watershed victory. It culminated decades of struggle by the Black and Colored South African masses, a struggle supported by millions in the U.S. and around the world. The victory brought to power the Tripartite government of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Now, two decades later, the ANC-led Tripartite government represents big business’s interests — especially the interests of U.S. and European-based banks and corporations. This has led the government to brutally attack workers who fight back against austerity. Indeed, in 2012, at the Marikana mine, this government massacred 34 striking miners at the behest of the mine owners.
Black poverty has worsened. Inequality has worsened. Trade union officials collaborate with employers against workers, youth, and unemployed. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t the situation similar in the US, with union officials not fighting employer and government attacks on workers, like the machinists at Boeing?
But in South Africa, there’s an exciting new development: for the first time since the fall of Apartheid, there’s a serious challenge to the Tripartite government’s rule, and it comes from the largest and most militant union in Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the COSATU leadership and called for South Africans not to support the ANC in this year’s elections. It is currently building a workers’ party and united front to lead the struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization, and strike breaking.
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the national treasurer of NUMSA and past chair of NUMSA’s autoworker shop steward network, to discuss these developments.
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 7:00 PM
ILWU Hall, Henry Schmidt Room
400 N. Point St./Mason, San Francisco
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 12 NOON
UC Berkeley, McCone Hall (Room 575)
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2:00 PM
Black Repertory Theater
3201 Adeline, Berkeley
(one block south of Ashby BART)
For updates or to get involved in building for these events, contact the May Day Committee in Solidarity with South African Workers at: twsc [at] transportworkers.org. Reach us directly at (510)325-8664 or (415)282-1908
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the National Treasurer of NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
Speaking of the massacre of 34 miners in Marikana, South Africa in August, 2012, and for building a workers’ party to lead the workers’ struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization and strike breaking.
FROM MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA TO OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA:
THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS POWER
The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 was a watershed victory. It culminated decades of struggle by the Black and Colored South African masses, a struggle supported by millions in the U.S. and around the world. The victory brought to power the Tripartite government of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Now, two decades later, the ANC-led Tripartite government represents big business’s interests — especially the interests of U.S. and European-based banks and corporations. This has led the government to brutally attack workers who fight back against austerity. Indeed, in 2012, at the Marikana mine, this government massacred 34 striking miners at the behest of the mine owners.
Black poverty has worsened. Inequality has worsened. Trade union officials collaborate with employers against workers, youth, and unemployed. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t the situation similar in the US, with union officials not fighting employer and government attacks on workers, like the machinists at Boeing?
But in South Africa, there’s an exciting new development: for the first time since the fall of Apartheid, there’s a serious challenge to the Tripartite government’s rule, and it comes from the largest and most militant union in Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the COSATU leadership and called for South Africans not to support the ANC in this year’s elections. It is currently building a workers’ party and united front to lead the struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization, and strike breaking.
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the national treasurer of NUMSA and past chair of NUMSA’s autoworker shop steward network, to discuss these developments.
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 7:00 PM
ILWU Hall, Henry Schmidt Room
400 N. Point St./Mason, San Francisco
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 12 NOON
UC Berkeley, McCone Hall (Room 575)
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2:00 PM
Black Repertory Theater
3201 Adeline, Berkeley
(one block south of Ashby BART)
For updates or to get involved in building for these events, contact the May Day Committee in Solidarity with South African Workers at: twsc [at] transportworkers.org. Reach us directly at (510)325-8664 or (415)282-1908
As we Honor Alan Blueford on the 2nd year anniversary of his death The Blueford family would like to invite you to the Alan Blueford Walk-A-Thon “Use you Heels to help Heal” our community.
We have a flatbed truck w/professional sound, and 3 confirmed performers:
Zar The Dip, Ras Ceylon, and Phanom, who is a rapper from Tracy who also happens to be Alan’s friend.
Check out the JAB website and also please join & share the Facebook event page.
RALLY!
Introducing the Downtown Initiative to Save the Public Commons and
to ensure a Green Pathway for Downtown.
This would establish the Historic District’s Zoning Overlay and protect the Post Office along with other historic buildings.
Gather Signatures and Sign the Initiative
Music by Hali Hammer, Dave �Redd� Welsh, and others
FROM MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA TO OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA:
THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS POWER
The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 was a watershed victory. It culminated decades of struggle by the Black and Colored South African masses, a struggle supported by millions in the U.S. and around the world. The victory brought to power the Tripartite government of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Now, two decades later, the ANC-led Tripartite government represents big business’s interests — especially the interests of U.S. and European-based banks and corporations. This has led the government to brutally attack workers who fight back against austerity. Indeed, in 2012, at the Marikana mine, this government massacred 34 striking miners at the behest of the mine owners.
Black poverty has worsened. Inequality has worsened. Trade union officials collaborate with employers against workers, youth, and unemployed. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t the situation similar in the US, with union officials not fighting employer and government attacks on workers, like the machinists at Boeing?
But in South Africa, there’s an exciting new development: for the first time since the fall of Apartheid, there’s a serious challenge to the Tripartite government’s rule, and it comes from the largest and most militant union in Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the COSATU leadership and called for South Africans not to support the ANC in this year’s elections. It is currently building a workers’ party and united front to lead the struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization, and strike breaking.
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the national treasurer of NUMSA and past chair of NUMSA’s autoworker shop steward network, to discuss these developments.
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 7:00 PM
ILWU Hall, Henry Schmidt Room
400 N. Point St./Mason, San Francisco
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 12 NOON
UC Berkeley, McCone Hall (Room 575)
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2:00 PM
Black Repertory Theater
3201 Adeline, Berkeley
(one block south of Ashby BART)
For updates or to get involved in building for these events, contact the May Day Committee in Solidarity with South African Workers at: twsc [at] transportworkers.org. Reach us directly at (510)325-8664 or (415)282-1908
DESTROYING
THEIR STRUCTURES AND THREATENING THE REMAINING RESIDENTS
Join us for a fun day and NIGHT of making art! TILL 10PM Graffiti boards will be provided but bring your own painting supplies! Open air!!FOOD NOT BOMBS MUSIC
The Bulb is Gorgeous and tons of fun!
Community members of the Albany Bulb are being targeted and arrested — evicting folks to break up the “homeless” (not), group and develop the landfill they live on.
TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND VIRAL AMBERS 3 MIN SPEACH which is on youtube,com/orionorion99 click amber playlist
Show solidarity and keep Comrade Jihad on the streets doing revolutionary work for the people by bringing your car in for a thorough clean. Music, snacks, raffle (need not be present to win), and more. Carwash by donation, $5-20 on Sunday, May 4th from 10am-4pm. The carwash will be in the parking lot of Just Cause/Causa Justa, 3268 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA.
The Black Riders Liberation Party, the Intercommunal Solidarity Committee and the Break the Lock initiative snatched Comrade Jihad out of the belly of the beast, even though out on bail he still owes the fascist state $5,700. He was arrested in East Oakland last year in a frame-up as retaliation for his tireless Watch a Pig activity and other revolutionary actions. He was scheduled to be released, but the fascist pigs took him to Santa Clara County Jail and arraigned him on new bogus charges instead.
We call on comrades, supporters, and sympathizers to rise to the occasion and show material solidarity with Comrade Jihad. He needs funds for a legal defense team and to pay the bail bondsman so he can stay out of jail and continue his revolutionary activity on the street.
Welcome Home Lynne Stewart!
Free all political prisoners! End racist mass incarceration! Abolish the death penalty! Stop police brutality and murder!
Initial Bay Area Tour Schedule:
Friday, May 2: San Francisco, Host: National Lawyers Guild, 6 pm 518 Valencia St., SF
Saturday, May 3, Palo Alto, Host: Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, afternoon
Saturday, May 3, San Jose, Host, San Jose Peace and Justice Center & NLG South Bat, evening
Sunday, May 4, Oakland, Host: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
Monday, May 5: Marin, evening
Tuesday, May 6: Sacramento, evening
Tour endorsers (initial list): SF Bay Area National Lawyers Guild � Middle East Children�’s Alliance � United National Antiwar Coalition � Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal � World Can’t Wait � Freedom Socialist Pa Party � Marin Peace and Justice Center � Peninsula Peace and Justice Center � Sacracramento Area Peace Council � WILPF � SF Gray Panthers � Socialist Acti Action � International Action Center � Freedom Archives
Deliver Signatures to Senator Feinstein’s Office.
A Year Has Passed since Edward Snowden’s Revelations.
In that year, Senator Feinstein has continued to undermine reform efforts
Press Conference featuring the signatories of the Shame On Feinstein letter.
We will discuss our demands for real NSA reform. We invite all signatories and members of the press to attend.
- As the April 12th construction groundbreaking ceremony for the controversial UCB Jacobs Hall site at Ridge and Le Roy, community outrage grew about the planned destruction of a beautiful redwood grove, the damage inflicted to the neighborhood’s historical character, and major concerns about the privatized funding in general and Qualcomm’s untrustworthiness in particular. Instead of addressing the concerns of the community transparently, the University cowardly transferred the ceremony to a location that was undisclosed to protestors, intentionally suppressing their first-amendment right to express legitimate grievances publicly. Over the past several weeks, they have utilized typical tactics such as protestor intimidation, massive police presence, and lying about the project timetable. After the ceremony they moved quickly to level the site, leaving a heartbreakingly desolate scene. Caring activists returned several days later to honor the fallen trees and plant new ones in their place, expressing a renewed commitment to preserving this as forested open public space for student and community use. Now it is time to ramp up the efforts to educate one another about the many problems surrounding this project, and mobilize the community in order to prevent the University from moving any further forward with this contentious development. Please join us this Monday May 5th from 12-5pm for a day of teach-outs, organizing discussions, planting, volleyball, and picnicking. Below you will find more information about the issues that have been raised with this project.
- Neighborhood preservation groups and community members have cried out that this project further damages the historic character of this north-side region, both due to the increased exposure of Soda hall’s north face after the tree removal, as well as the addition of Jacob’s Hall. The volleyball court served as an important community building resource for Computer Scientists and others, and its removal represents a loss of valuable outdoor public common space. The redwood trees provided an excellent shady space for students to congregate for study and discussion, and the sturdy well-spaced branches could afford an exhilarating and safe climbing experience. This redwood grove destruction echoes the callousness shown by the University when they removed the Memorial Oak Grove in 2008 despite passionate and convincing please about the importance of saving this unique and sacred large-tree grove, and in spite of the Berkeley laws which prohibit the removal of large Oak trees within city limits. The University has the nerve to offer an offensive token concession that they will use the tree’s body to manufacture some of the building’s furniture, which only serves as a greenwashing measure while addressing none of the real concerns.
- Paul Jacobs is providing $20 million for the Design Institute from his family’s Qualcomm money, which is problematic due to a number of serious ethical and legal concerns. UC Regent Sherry Lansing is suspected of serious conflict of interest violations due to involvement with brokering UC investment deals with Qualcomm while simultaneously serving on their corporate board. The San Diego based company is potentially untrustworthy as a partner because they are under scrutiny for allegedly colluding with the NSA to design illegal and dangerous backdoors in their mobile phone wireless chips, and they are also the focus of a major anti-monopoly probe by the Chinese government. Even without definitively proving the criminality of Qualcomm, one should be quite concerned about the erosive effect that corporate privatized funding arrangements have on the University’s integrity and culture, and also suspicious that our public funding has been intentionally slashed over the decades in order to justify the encroachment of corporate entities into our precious public sphere.
- You are encouraged to express your condemnation of the Jacobs Hall tree removal and privatized funding arrangement in as many venues and formats as possible. It is crucial that we succeed in reaching out to more students, faculty and community members in order to educate people, inspire deep discussion, and mobilize around the possibility of preserving this space for both trees and people to enjoy without the intrusion of a contentious building. Feel free to join us this Monday May 5th from 12-5pm for a day of education and action, and stay tuned for more events throughout the week and month. We wish those lovely old trees were still with us, but we look forward coming together in their honor and moving forward with love and creativity.
- Sincerely, The Open University www.CalOpenU.org
- The Open University is a working group that was born out of Occupy Cal in November 2011, that has continued to use diverse tactics to address the crucial issues identified by this populist activist coalition. We believe in integrative big-picture activism, and are passionate about helping create more community, transparency, wisdom, sustainability, and balance in the world. We stand firmly against inequality, exploitation, discrimination, brainwashing, oppression, torture, militarism, privatization, corporatization, surveillance, colonialism, ecocide and genocide. We coordinate research about historical and current critical struggles which implicate our University, and arrange teach-outs by students, faculty and community members about repressed radical topics in outdoor spaces on campus. We reclaim public common spaces in service of coalition building, discussion facilitation, and as venues for direct action in the name of positive change. We also perform hard-hitting political guerrilla theatre in high-impact environments, which viscerally inspires the public to ask tough questions, and challenges the acceptability of the administration’s behavior in high profile spaces that they are accustomed to dominating. We are an open group of trust-worthy, dedicated, and experienced activists who welcome collaboration with anyone who genuinely cares about saving the world.
Join CURYJ to reclaim Cinco de Mayo from cultural commodification!
We will be building community through culture and ceremony to remember our ancestors who fought colonialism.
Come celebrate the release of a photo novela that CURYJ youth produced, alongside:
-Live music, spoken word and poetry
-Danza
-Free Food
-DJ D
Community Peoples Cinco de Mayo Event in East Oakland May 5th Monday from 5:00pm till 8:00pm Gruopo Puyakan will be performing Traditional Afro Colombian Music there will also be Danza Azteca poetry speakers and More. at the eats side arts Alliance come support this event.
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.
We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard.
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privaztization of services. We need to support them in these endeavors!
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response.
We join with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley.
The Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices was also supposed to come out before the end of March – anything could happen after it comes out. Come help us plan our response.
Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!