Calendar
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-Mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-Mcdonald backed out of the deal in early December.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th. There was another hearing in March 26th. Federal Judge William Alsup decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the Postal Service says it is not currently selling the building. But we’re not fooled. The Postal Service could “find” a buyer at any moment. Fortunately, the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the lawsuit could be refiled.
Check out our response to the Judge’s order.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
2011: Understanding the Role of Cyberspace and Social Change
In 2011 demonstrations, direct action, revolt, and revolution swept the world. This wave of revolt, the largest since 1989 and 1969, was in part a product of ongoing technological changes and how people used them to bring about social change. Beginning in Tunisia and ending in Hong Kong the wave of revolt was born in a digital sea.
How cyberspace and digital technology facilitated the upheaval of 2011 is an element that is well-known and becoming better understood all the time. Mobile technology, social media, and the growth of the Internet have made it possible for a handful of activists to achieve unprecedented exposure and impact. Through examining how the 2011 movements used computer and communication technology to plan, organize, and mobilize for action we can achieve even greater successes.
Join Occupy Forum, facilitated by Ryan Smith, for a talk and discussion of how cyberspace made 2011 possible and what we can learn from that year. Working together we can better use the developments of the Digital Revolution to bring about social justice for everyone.
Q&A and Announcements to follow.
Donations to OccupyForum gladly accepted; no one turned away!
DON’T FRACK / NUKE OUR MOTHER EARTHJoin the coming together of two great clean energy movements!
David Braun of CALIFORNIANS AGAINST FRACKING, Linda Seeley
and Harvey Wasserman
of the movement to SHUT DIABLO CANYON, (California’s last two reactors), will join together to facilitate a union of these two great campaigns.
This unique, pathbreaking collaboration will allow us to join forces and free our state of its addiction to technologies that destroy our water supply and threaten us all.
Now these two great movements come together. On June 2nd, the Occupy Forum will host an activist gathering of frack and nuke activists to jointly plot strategy for getting to a green-powered California and Earth.
HARVEY WASSERMAN helped coin the phrase “No Nukes” in 1973 and was arrested at Diablo in 1984. He writes and speaks worldwide on a safe “Solartopian” future.
This coming-together is a unique and powerful event. Be a part of it!!!!
Donations welcome. Announcements will follow. Wheelchair accessible.
http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/14/indian-point-transformer-fire/
Faith Against Fracking 15 minute film here:
https://vimeo.com/125489886 Password: faithagainstfracking
Community Rights Ordinances www.movementrights.org/aboutus.html
Note: This is the topic that caused activists to shut down the City Council meeting last month.
Sign the petition against the sale!
Subject: DDA For 12th Street Remainder Parcel From: Economic & Workforce Development Department
Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Authorizing: (1) The City Administrator, Without Returning To The City Council, To Negotiate And Execute A Disposition And Development Agreement And Related Documents Between The City Of Oakland, And A Development Entity Comprised Of Urbancore Development, LLC, And UDR, Inc., (Or Its Related Entities Or Affiliates) For Sale Of The 12th Street Remainder Parcel Located At E12th Street And 2nd Avenue For No Less Than $5.1 Million And Development As A Residential Mixed-Use Project, All Of The Foregoing Documents To Be In A Form And Content Substantially In Conformance With The Term Sheet Attached As Exhibit A; (2) Set -Aside Of No More Than $500,000 From Land Sales Proceeds For Remediation Of Property, And (3) Appropriation Of $200,000 From Land Sales Proceeds To Fund An Asset Portfolio Management Plan
The Domain Awareness Center Privacy policy is up for a vote, along with related measures to be discussed. For background see The Oakland Privacy Working Group blog post “All Out for the Oakland City Council Meeting” and other posts on that site.
Note: This item is late on the agenda as it stands. Agenda items can be moved around. There is no real way to know approximately what time it will come up, as there are other controversial items on the agenda.
OPWG has a few talking points specific to this item:
- The policy is an important demonstration of how citizenry, staff and the Council can work together. Pass it as presented, with no additional exceptions, especially any allowing OPD to spy on residents w/o reasonable suspicion under ANY circumstances.
- A policy is ineffective without a means of enforcement.
- “Injunctive relief,” as proposed, is a good enforcement mechanism, neither overly burdensome nor toothless.
- Without enforcement the work of nine citizens who donated their time and expertise for an entire year of meetings and analysis will have been thrown out the window.
- A City-wide privacy committee, which will be coming before you in the future, is a must. The risks to privacy are only going to get bigger as technology becomes more sophisticated. As such their first task should be drafting a Surveillance Equipment Acquisition Ordinance, as recommended by the Ad Hoc DAC Privacy Committee.
Note: This item is last on the City Council Agenda. There is no good estimate of what time it will come before the Council.
This item has raised many questions, among them being why the FBI needs an office inside OPD when they have offices in downtown Oakland already; whether they are really installing a mini-DAC and not telling anyone, whether Oakland would be implicitly or explicitly cooperating in FBI investigations of marijuana operations, spying on Muslims and undocumented immigrants, harassing and tracking protesters and activists, and why such sophisticated and expensive computer equipment is needed for such a simple thing as a “Shared Work Space.”
Subject: FBI-OPD Joint Workspace From: Oakland Police Department
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The City Administrator Or Designee To Enter Into A Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) With The Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) Violent Criminal Threat Section (VCTS), To Facilitate The Joint Purchase And Installation Of A Computer Network Infrastructure, Computers And Furniture At The Police Administration Building (PAB) To Create A Shared Work Space For The Safe Streets Taskforce, And Waiving The Advertising And Bidding Requirements For The City’s Expenditure Of $63,000.00 Toward The Purchase Of Said Items
“Please come speak out against the toxic destruction of the East Bay Hills at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, where they will decide whether to accept the FEMA grant for the project.”
check out these websites for more information about the project:
http://www.saveeastbayhills.org/
http://milliontrees.me/
http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/
(especially: http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wildfire.html and http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wpad.html for the decade long history of this project)
http://hillsconservationnetwork.org/
http://treespiritproject.com/sfbayclearcut/
(sign up to participate in the July 18 nude photo shoot in the threatened forest)
Via email alert:
There’s been a lot of activity recently on the FEMA vegetation management front. For those who don’t know, despite 12,000+ comments opposing the plan to clearcut the Berkeley/Oakland hills FEMA released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that called for the destruction of up to 400,000 healthy trees and the application of unprecedented amounts of toxic herbicides over a 10 year period. As a result of this unfortunate decision HCN filed suit agains FEMA in Federal court in March, also naming the City of Oakland, East Bay Regional Park District, and UC Berkeley.
Last Tuesday we had a press conference at City Hall. That night the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee recommended the Oakland City Council accept $4 million of FEMA money and commit the City to spend an additional $1.5 million in taxpayer matching funds and a CEQA EIR. All this to implement a plan that will actually increase the risk of fire in the hills. Imagine, a City that’s broke spending $1.5 million to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees for no good reason.
Together we have a lot of work to do to raise awareness to stop the clear-cut and poisoning of the hills.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Tell the city of Oakland that you don’t want them to take the FEMA money to kill trees for 2 generations and douse the hills with TOXIC herbicides for at least a decade.
Tuesday June 2nd at 6 pm, the Oakland City Council is going to vote on whether to accept $4,000,000 in federal FEMA funds to deforest and poison the Oakland hills and to increase local taxpayer contribution to the effort to more than $880,000.
The City of Oakland appears intent on clearcutting 100+ acres of forests and spreading thousands of gallons of toxic herbicides in wildlife corridors, recreation areas, dog parks, and residential neighborhoods. Please contact council members and urge them to vote No.
If at all possible, please plan on attending Tuesday’s meeting and speaking. This is your last opportunity to influence the City of Oakland!
OptikAllusions is a digital filmmaking collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California. We share resources, skills and knowledge to help each other tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. We make films in a spirit of collaboration and solidarity, share a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops.
If you’d like to make videos or want to become a member, join us for our weekly meeting and a workshop!
We usually, meet briefly and then work on projects. It’s open to all!
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Optik_Allusions
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality. In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity.
Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression.
Sisters and brothers the Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.
The Oscar Grant Committee meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month.
Every 1st Wed of the Month @ the Omni.
The Bay Area Community Exchange (BACE) Timebank promotes and facilitates the use of Time instead of money in the exchange of goods and services.
The foundation of the Timebank is a free, open source online directory, reputation and accounting system.
These exchanges help develop stronger, more resilient connections between individuals and community service organizations which participate in them, by improving communication and the distribution of skills and resources among our participants. We work to help people meet their needs regardless of economic status.
Please join our Meetup Group:
And our timebank at:
http://www.bace.org
Do you think the ACCJC treats California’s Community colleges unfairly? The next ACCJC meeting will be on Friday, June 5th in Oakland. You can bet that AFT 2121 and CFT leaders from across the state will be there to tell them what we think! Want to help? Invite your friends and come out to join us!
ACCJC, TREAT OUR COLLEGES FAIRLY!
Rally and press conference
Friday, June 5th at 1pm
Hilton Oakland Airport Hotel
1 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland
RSVP and invite on Facebook
ACCJC will host meetings at this hotel on June 3, 4, 5. Legislation is being sent now to the Assembly that will reform ACCJC accreditation practices. This event is to raise awareness and put pressure on key legislators to consider passing this legislation for a fair accreditation process for all community colleges. The ACCJC treats California’s Community colleges unfairly and this harms thousands of students. California’s State Superior Court ruled that the ACCJC broke the law when it tried to close City College of San Francisco and the Department of Education criticized the ACCJC for its treatment of our California community colleges. The California Federation of Teachers, the City College faculty union and other supporters from across California have been fighting for fair accreditation reforms. We are holding a protest and press conference outside of the ACCJC’s next meeting. Please join us!
http://www.aft2121.org/2015/05/the-the-accjc-to-treat-our-colleges-fairly-rally-on-june-5th-in-oakland/
RSVP and invite people to the event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/839111249505673/
www.facebook.com/saveccsf
info@saveccsf.org
www.saveccsf.org
The Oakland First Fridays street festival is here once again June 5th from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. This month’s event will feature one-of-a-kind arts and crafts vendors, delectable eats, and unique entertainment to bring the diverse Oakland community together in a way only First Fridays can.
Five blocks of Telegraph Avenue, from West Grand to 27th Street, will be closed to through traffic making room for 30 food vendors, musical acts, and community groups and over 75 artists, makers, crafters and performers of all sorts. The music stages will have performances through the entire evening from Pistachio, Andre Thierry & Zydeco Magic and Baby & The Luvies among others. Event goers are encouraged to visit food trucks and entrepreneurs Antonik’s BBQ, Mama Africa, Hooked Crustaceans, Charlie Frank’s Pies, Bok Ssam, Girl Friday Zeppole, Kainbigan, The Stroopie Gourmet, Fist of Flour Pizza Co., Tacolicious, Sunrise Deli, Opies, Torpedo Sushi, and more offering up their hand crafted meals.
Open mic & cyphers happen EVERY 1st Friday & EVERY 2nd Saturday of the month at The Alan Blueford Center for Justice 2434 Telegraph Ave Oakland, CA 94612.
Show starts at 7pm-ish, give or take an hour or so 😉 depending on the time of the year–we probably start later in the summer & earlier in the winter.
All ages are welcome.
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Prisoners of Consciousness Committee: http://chairmanfredjr.blogspot.com/
Ras Ceylon: https://www.reverbnation.com/rasceylon
Ras Ceylon: https://rasceylon.bandcamp.com/
The Alan Blueford Center for Justice on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE?…
The Alan Blueford Center for Justice on Twitter: @abc4justice
Our streets have been stolen from us, our rights have been stolen from us, our PEOPLE have been stolen from us. It is time to take them back!
It is unconstitutional to repress our right to hold space in the very place that was built on the backs of our ancestors. We’ve been told too many times that we don’t belong here: through the over-policing and criminalization of our communities, through the militarization of the police force, through gentrification, through unlawful curfews and state sanctioned violence against our communities.
The new curfew imposed on our people IS NOT going to stop us from holding space in the streets that BELONG TO US!
Black people and allies, it is time to come together and take back what rightfully belongs to us.
This Friday (1st Friday) we plan to #BreakTheCurfew! We will be meeting at Oscar Grant Plaza and marching…
Please bring:
A scarf or handkerchief
Earplugs
More details to come…
Note: A recent callout suggests meeting at 19th & Telegraph. See below.
#Fuckthecurfew #Fuckyoursummit AKA We also revolt in the day! #SUNBLOC
The morning after the #fuckthecurfew march the city is hosting “The 2015 Oakland Summit” where “Mayor Libby Schaaf and Chief of police Sean Whent will share their vision of Oakland through “Community Policing”
We are strongly opposed to their “vision of Oakland” and seek to abolish the police as well as the state. As an alternative we hope to organize our hoods to build community and push out the police who have always brutalized us.
The People will gather 9 AM at Lake Merritt Amphitheater VS
The Pigs will Gather at 9 AM at Laney College 900 Fallon St.
Either march with us or go #shutitdown from the inside!
For some reason Libby Schaff thinks she can erase the black and brown radical tradition from Oakland. She thinks she can erase black and brown militants from the streets. LITTLE DID SHE KNOW SHE CAN’T! We will resist and revolt in the day as we always have.
The festival is free, including the keynotes, interviews and panels on various downtown stages during the day. But we expect many of those indoor sessions to be full. How to make sure you get in? Stand in line for a couple of hours? Who wants to spend valuable festival time doing that when you could be exploring exhibitors, visiting the 50,000-book Lacuna installation, or having lunch?
Solution: Tickets! By two means:
(1) Best is to get single tickets in advance. Reserve single tickets. There is a button next to each session on the schedule, and you can reserve your place via Eventbrite for a small processing fee for each session.
(2) Get tickets on the day of the festival. A quantity will be held in a Box Office at the event site, first come first served, for free.
Or.. a standby line outside each venue will allow people without tickets access to any seat five minutes before the start of the session.
- Balloons Aloft! Uphold Berkeley’s need for affordable housing!
- Balloons Aloft! Come to downtown Berkeley to see balloons aloft at 194 feet, marking the height and dimensions
- of this LA developer’s monstrous 18-story luxury condo high rise for 2211 Harold Way:
- Demolish the Shattuck Cinemas and Habitot Museum and terminate their 50 employees for an 18-story luxury condo high rise across the street from the Berkeley Public Library?! Turn Downtown into a construction site for three years, intensifying traffic congestion and harming businesses? Make a mockery of Berkeley’s need for affordable housing? Block the view of the Golden Gate from UCB’s Campanile? Is this what we voted for?
You are not a loan! Are you in debt? Are you outraged by the debt system? Join the growing resistance! Attend the 4th Strike Debt Bay Area’s Debtors’ Assembly.
Come to the Assembly to learn about tools for escaping the closing walls of debt, to share resources and skills, and to magnify our assembled energy. As we share our experiences we can begin to take back from the financiers what they have taken from us….. our freedom and our future.
Organized by Strike Debt Bay Area. Facebook, Website, Twitter
More information: strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com
Strike Debt Bay Area is affiliated with strikedebt.org, rollingjubilee.org, and debtcollective.org