Calendar
San Francisco is hosting the 83rd Annual Conference of Mayors June 19th, 2015 – June 22nd.. Around 250 Mayors will be in attendance. This is an opportunity to raise issues locally and nationally that are of concern to us.
- Black Lives Matter
- Gentrification
- Homelessness
- Privatization
- Homophobia and Transphobia
- Immigration
- The Environment
- Corporate Greed
- Wars not People
All are welcome to help plan for actions.
Sunday, May 24, 2015 is the 25th anniversary of the attack on “Earth First!” activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney by car bomb in Oakland in 1990 as Redwood Summer dawned. We will commemorate this in several ways.
At 7 pm doors to Historic Fellowship Hall will open for a Judi Bari Day evening event sponsored by the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) Social Justice Committee.
NOTE: Earlier in the day of Sunday, May 24, people will gather to mark the moment of the bombing itself where the bomb blew up Judi’s car with Darryl and Judi in it. The location is across from the intersection of E. 33rd and Park Blvd, in front of Oakland High. Gather at 11:30 am sharp. Bring signs, songs, drums for a speak out and commemoration.
Following the film, the audience can join in the discussion for a Q & A session.
Volunteers appreciated!
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee, www.bfuu.org/events
People of faith and goodwill, come out Sunday night in solidarity with #blacklivesmatter #sayhername #justiceforrekia and all those fighting for black and brown liberation in the streets of Oakland. Together we will sing, pray, meditate, and drum for justice while claiming the streets of Oakland for the people of Oakland.
Last night, the Oakland Police Department, acting on orders from Mayor Libby Schaaf, used tear gas and flash bang grenades on protestors and then violently arrested a group that was seated, holding candles and singing in solidarity with #blacklivesmatter and #sayhername movements. The mayor has declared street protests illegal after sunset. We will resist this move with nonviolent direct action and militant love, defying the Mayor’s attempts to divide our movements into day and night, tolerated and repressed.
Bring candles and drums.
Within the principles of deep econology and biocentrism, DefendKnowlandPark has formed to protest the autonomy of the largest remaining wild space in the East Bay through direction confrontation with the affront of civilization.
There is a 9 pm call to action at 14th & Bway for a protest in Oakland against the Oakland ban on nighttime protests. Who’s coming with me?
— \m/ Ⓐrmageddon \m/ (@OaklandElle) May 25, 2015
9 PM march, #Oakland in Oscar Grant Park #FTP Fuck The Police & #BreakTheCurfew
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) May 25, 2015
If you are going, be aware that OPD targets protester-looking people in the area with petty infractions. Red light violation is $480.
— Dave Id (@DaveId) May 25, 2015
Come support a comrade arrested protesting the city’s recent crackdown on Black organizing.
NOTE: court is set for 9 am but COULD be pushed to 1 pm…so check here you cant come in the morning but can make it out in the afternoon!
After a period of public comment, the Oakland Public Safety Committee will again take up recommendations from the ad hoc Committee on the Domain Awareness Center Privacy Policy.
(This was postponed from May 12th, to provide time for things to be forumulated into an ordinance)
— a strong privacy policy in place for the DAC.
— creation of a privacy policy for the City of Oakland
— a surveillance equipment acquisition ordinance, demanding open and transparent processes before acquiring such devices.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group asks you to come and stand and speak in support of these proposals, which will make Oakland a model for privacy across the nation.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.
We meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at the SEIU Local 1000 union hall in downtown Oakland at 6:30 PM.
Our work together encompasses: (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent, and care workers; (2) current campaigns to improve wages for low-wage workers; and (3) efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life. We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better.
Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
The Oakland neighborhood at Ground Zero for the proposed coal export terminal is getting informed and mobilizing. Join neighbors and friends to keep West Oakland coal-free and say NO to coal exports!
Help get the word out about the forum. If you can contribute an hour or two to canvassing, please contact Katy at katypolony@gmail.com. Here’s a flyer you can print and distribute.
Announcing a new monthly event organized by the Bay Area Anti-Repression Committee! Last Wednesday of every month!!
Come write letters to prisoners of the state. It’s our responsibility to support those who have directly faced state repression as a result of their involvement in political struggle. All movements face repression, and we need to do what we can to ensure that those who are shouldering the biggest burden have support, love, and care.
This Wednesday we will be focusing on writing letters to the Ferguson 3. They were arrested in the rebellions that took place this past fall after the murder of Mike Brown and have just been sentenced. They are feeling isolated and want as much communication as possible. Come take a few minutes to drop them a line! We will provide paper and envelopes, addresses and stamps, and will even make sure all the letters get dropped in the mail the next day.
We will also have snacks and music, and encourage you to bring food and BYOB so we can generally chill and enjoy each other’s company.
UPDATE
On Wednesday night, BPD Chief Meehan disclosed to the Police Review Commission that he will not be ready to present the results of their internal investigation on the December police response next week (May 27) as they had promised. He didn’t give any explanation except for saying that they have not finished their report, which they had said would be done by the end of April. Instead, they now say they will present two weeks later, on Wednesday June 10 (more than six months after the fact). So, please save that date.
The PRC is meeting almost every Wednesday for the next couple months, focused on the investigation of the December 6 protest response.
Next week on Wednesday, May 27 the PRC has summoned Chief Meehan to appear and answer our questions. The questions are extensive and pretty pointed. They can be found in:
These minutes also contain the approved PRC Policy Investigation Plan, including the meeting dates through July.
Chief Meehan also promised to release the long-awaited internal report on December and there will probably be questions about that.
I highly recommend people come to this meeting. In general, public attendance has dwindled to almost nothing. That’s too bad, because this is a setting in which important questions about how to constrain police behavior are being publicly debated.
A couple weeks ago the PRC voted to recommend more restrictions on the Suspicious Activity Reporting to the NCRIC fusion center. This puts more explicit language about constitutional protections in the BPD General Order N-17 on SARs. It is not the abolition of ties to NCRIC that many people have sought, but it is an opening to talk about this domestic spying network that Berkeley participates in. And unlike the other item, on crowd control, this one is a final recommendation that is on its way to the city council.
For the current policy, see
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Police/Level_3_-_General/GO%20N-17_18Sept12.pdf
<http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Police/Level_3_-_General/GO%20N-17_18Sept12.pdf>
We will be discussing the Social Credit movement…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_credit
and Basic Income and Non-Wage Money.
- Basic Income wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income#Funding
- Negative in come Tax wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_income_tax#Advocates
- Rutgers Bergman: https://decorrespondent.nl/541/Why-we-should-give-free-money-to-everyone/20798745-cb9fbb39
- Films for Action: http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-town-where-everyone-got-free-money/
- Vox: http://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6003359/basic-income-negative-income-tax-questions-explain
- Ellen Brown: http://ellenbrown.com/2014/09/01/even-the-council-on-foreign-relations-is-saying-it-time-to-rain-money-on-main-street/
The Politics of Debt Reading Group is affiliated with the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.
THIS EVENT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CANCELLED. IT IS NO LONGER ON THE OMNI CALENDAR.
Chairman Fred Hampton Jr (the son of Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton, who was assassinated by the US government) is visiting the Bay Area to build relationships and discuss strategy with activists organizing against police terrorism. This event, sponsored by CRC (Community Ready Corps) & APTP (Anti Police-Terror Project) will a panel of Oakland anti-policing activists in conversation with Chairman Fred. It will also serve as a fundraiser to send a delegation of APTP/Black Lives Matter activists to Chicago later this summer and build a national campaign to end the reign of terror by law enforcement on Afrikan communities.
Support the struggle for the self-determination and independence of the Puerto Rican people
.
Join us
in calling for the release of
OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA
Friday, May 29, 2015
Market & Powell St., SF
5:00 P.M. until 7:00 P.M.
.
The San Francisco Support Committee for the unconditional release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, calls all political, civic, religious, labor unions and the community in general to join us to demand his freedom.
Oscar López Rivera has spent thirty four years of his life imprisoned due to his unbending commitment for the independence and self-determination of our Puerto Rican nation.
Petitions from all over the globe supporting his unconditional release have been sent to the President of the United States from Nobel Prize Laureates such as Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, and Carlos Esquivel from Argentina to name a few.
The current Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, as well as countless Puerto Rican artists and celebrities, and U.S. Congressional representatives, such as Luis Gutiérrez, José Serrano and Nydia Velázquez, have also made their voices heard in support of his immediate and unconditional release.
Add your voice!
.
.
Jack Heyman, Chairman Transport Workers Solidarity Committee*
Steve Zeltzer, United Public Workers for Action*
Howard Keylor, ILWU Local 10* (Retired Member)
ANSWER Coalition
Freedom Socialist Party
Radical Women
.
.
.
Optik Allusions is a radical film & video collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California.
We make media that challenge the dominant culture. We tell stories that otherwise might remain untold. We express our alternative views of the world, have fun doing it, and welcome everyone to do so, regardless of prior experience. We learn by doing. We share resources, skills and knowledge to support each other’s creative endeavours. We make films in a spirit of collaboration, inclusivity and solidarity, supply a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops, and host film screenings. We also steward a room dedicated to media post-production at the Omni Commons. If you like to make videos and/or want to become a member, come to our tuesday meetings at 7 pm! We’re open and happy to welcome new members.
To contact us, write to:
optikallusions@lists.riseup.net
To know more about us, join our announce mailing list:
optikallusions.announce@lists.riseup.net
To become involved, come to our meetings on Tuesdays, 7pm at the Omni Commons!
Sometimes, the meetings turn into creative workshops!
To follow what has been going on, read our meeting notes.
Our YouTube Channel is still a WIP, but here are some of our video productions to this day:
The Omni Commons in 30 seconds
Oakland stands in solidarity with Ferguson
No Beauty with an Absence of Color
We are also working on a documentary about gentrification in West Oakland, as well as collaborating with the Oscar Grant Committee to document the work they do. We are organizing a film festival at the end of May 2015. See here for info on submissions!
Optik Allusions is so pleased to announce their very first Short Film Festival! Come discover our out-of-the-ordinary line up of intersectional short films from all over Oakland and all over the world!
The event will also be a fundraiser for our video collective to keep thriving: Optik Allusions provides equipment for video production and post production, organizes workshops… We share skills and resources to make films expressing points of view that are usually silenced, and tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. The fundraiser will also help pay our rent to a room dedicated to media post production.
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Optik_Allusions
Most of all, this event will be a way to connect with the greater community: YOU!
Please come hungry, because Sarah Bierman will be cooking her famous fried chicken plate with corn, and japaeno cabbage slaw. And her equally famous vegan gumbo!
Suggested Admission: $5 to $15
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Past curfew, but not enough people here to march. People are discussing plans for next #FTP march, Friday at 8PM. #Oakland #BreakTheCurfew
— Not Frantz Fanon (@violentfanon) May 26, 2015
Numbers too few to take #BreakTheCurfew to streets of #Oakland tonight, but bring ALL Y'ALL friends next Friday 5/29, #FTP @OGP 8 pm!!!
— Sophie M (@sofking1) May 26, 2015
There is no curfew for the First Amendment. We will continue to protest peacefully, and to say that #BlackLivesMatter. They cannot stop us.
— Mike Chase (@MikeChaseACLU) May 25, 2015
Fight back with organizers from the No New SF Jail Coalition!
Come out on Saturday May 30 to take action, get a copy of the just-released No New Jail in SF: The People’s Report (from Critical Resistance Oakland), and join us to elevate the broad range of practical alternatives to more cages.
There will be a panel discussion with organizers and community experts discussing the the proposed jail project and the clear opportunities SF has to build a future *free* of cages. June is a big month for the fight and we need you with us. Everyone who attends can take meaningful action and help set up next steps to make this fight stronger and fiercer!
While city officials are moving forward with plans to build a new jail, they are neglecting to consider the impacts on our community: it is destructive to criminalize people with mental health challenges, and Black, Brown, and poor San Franciscans. Mental health & substance abuse treatment, housing, jobs, healthcare, lives with dignity – that’s what public safety looks like.
We can stop this jail!
MORE INFO HERE: www.nonewsfjail.wordpress.
TAKE ACTION TODAY: https://
Invite someone from the coalition to speak to your organization or community group.
Join our email list for updates on actions and opportunities to engage.
More than just a discussion on what’s wrong, the speakers will also talk about how regular people are getting organized in their neighborhoods and fighting back.
James Tracy, author of Dispatches Against Displacement
Linda Grant, Community organizer at Qilombo
Rachel Jackson, Harm reduction & anti-police brutuality activist