Calendar

Direct action against Sprouts Farmers Market in the South Bay.

Be there or be square.

Location, Time TBA.

Bring a wooden spoon.

Email occupyfarm@gmail.com for more details

Donations desperately needed as well.  Send to

Prison Literature Project

P.O Box 1253

Berkeley, CA 94701

Defenders of the forests of the East Bay Hills will be meeting to discuss and organize this weekend. Please spread the word and come join us!

If you’ve not signed up on the East Bay Hills Forest Defense discussion and organizing list, please do so here (or get in touch if you need help signing up): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/eastbayhills

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 in April 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.

In the latest developments, Berkeley has Declared War on Its Homeless, and an ordinance criminalizing the homeless wil come before the City Council on June 30th. (See here and here.)

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.

TWO SQUARE FEET!

That’s the amount of bedding you’d be allowed if you had to sleep on a sidewalk in Berkeley under new anti-homeless laws the City Council will consider on June 30th. Also, you’d have to move it every hour.  And it would only be permitted if you were “in transit.”

Shelters are always full. The parks are closed at night. How well would you sleep if you were homeless in Berkeley?

JOIN THE EMERGENCY PROTEST!

Called by SAFE (Streets Are For Everyone)

After the protest and before the item comes up on the agenda, join fellow activists:

June 30 is the big day. And we need everyone we can get there. We’ve tried a lot in advance we’ve sent postcards, we’ve had a couple of good actions, we’ve met with (or are about to meet with) the Councilmembers but it may come down to what happens in City Council chambers Tuesday evening.

Tuesday’s agenda is a heavy one: We’re item #14. Before us come the entirety of the City budget, and the Campanile view vote. Both of these will draw crowds. We can expect our item to start late, and to keep us there late.

Fortunately, Councilmember Worthington has reserved a respite room at the top of New City Hall (the one on Milvia). We’ll be sharing it with the Adeline Corridor and Campanile folks. In the hours leading up to our item, we’ll have movies, maybe music, perhaps a teach-in or two, and food. If you want to enjoy yourself while waiting for our item, you can do that. If you want to nap until our item’s up, you can do that, too. Additionally, there are other ways you can support our item throughout the budget and Campanile portions of the meeting. It’s going to be a long night, but we really need everyone we can get there.

As part of the budget, the City Council may be voting to fund “PredPol,” a predictive policing software system. Come speak in opposition to this idea as part of the budget items on the agenda (Items #7 and #9), and read the Oakland Privacy Working Group’s Open Letter to the City Council as to why this system is a bad idea.

The Berkeley City Council is Considering an Ordinance to Criminalize the Homeless!

It would make it a crime to

• Place personal property on the sidewalk for more than one hour
• Place political or other free speech materials on almost any sidewalk without a permit
• Lie on or in a public planter
• Attempt to communicate with someone at or near a parking meter
• Go to the bathroom in public, without providing open public restrooms!

Tell the City Council:
“House keys not handcuffs! The solution to homelessness is housing.”
Every recent study about helping the homeless has concluded such!

Berkeley City Council Meeting, Old City Hall, June 30^th beginning at 7:00 PM, Item #30.
Warning: The ordinance(s) are the last item on the agenda- it might go late into the night.

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

After such a beautiful and historic Pride weekend, it was heartbreaking to wake up to the news that a mural that celebrates Latino/Chicano LGBT culture in the Mission was destroyed yet again, this time by arson.

The Mission is a neighborhood that has a long history of tolerance and acceptance of all people. The actions of the individual or individuals who perpetrated this hate crime do not reflect the values of the Mission or San Francisco. Homophobia or hate of any kind has no place in our neighborhood.

In this critical time, it is important that we as a Mission community come together and show that we respect and appreciate the value of every individual. Through our peaceful assembly let’s send a loud and clear message of unity and acceptance.

We discuss various monetary and debt-related topics. For our next meeting we will be reading an essay by one of our own, Spencer Veale, on reforming the monetary system.

Here is the essay:

spencer-veale-manifesto-v1

The Politics of Debt Reading Group is affiliated with the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.

This opening event of the 21st annual Laborfest is produced by another San Francisco treasure, the 56 year old San Francisco Mime Troupe. The 4th of July weekend shows will take place July 3, 4 and 5, 2015 with live music at 1:30 p.m. and the 1.5 hour or so show at 2 p.m. The biggest crowd is of course on the 4th of July. Bring a picnic lunch, water, your suntan/sunscreen lotion as needed (and it is always sunny in the Mission District), sign the petitions that you like, and enjoy some of the best traditions of San Francisco with the SF Mime Troupe and Laborfest.

LaborFest was established in 1994 to institutionalize the history and culture of working people in an annual labor cultural, film and arts festival. It consists of a month of movies, music, bike rides, boat rides, bus rides, and walking tours so you learn labor history while you enjoy your rich labor cultural heritage. It begins every July 5th, which is the anniversary of the 1934 “Bloody Thursday” event. On that day, two workers Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise were shot and killed in San Francisco. They were supporting the longshoremen and maritime workers strike. This incident brought about the San Francisco General Strike which shut down the entire city and led to hundreds of thousands of workers joining the trade union movement.

It is as a direct result of the 1934 general strikes of San Francisco, Minneapolis and Toledo that in 1935, we won Social Security, unemployment insurance and the right to organize labor unions. One of the tasks that remains is to win socialized medicine, guaranteeing free medical care to all from cradle to grave, paid for with our tax dollars, instead of paying for war.

This year’s free original show by the SF Mime Troupe, performed by professional actors, is Freedomland. The synopsis is:

A door is blown off its hinges! Into a blasted room of scarred walls and shattered windows, armed with M-16’s, America’s bravest duck and dodge for cover, finally training their deadly gun sights on… an old black man watching TV on his couch? This isn’t Baghdad or Kandahar – its home, and for ex- Black Panther Malcolm Haywood, it’s just another wrong door police raid in the War on Drugs. So of course Malcolm is horrified when the grandson he’s tried to protect, Nathaniel, returns from serving in Afghanistan only to find another war zone at home – and one where young Black men like Nathaniel are in the crosshairs! Meanwhile the Mayor and the Police Chief – one desperate for votes, the other desperate to fund his militarized police force – ramp up the fear (and their shiny new tank) to fight the newest, drug threat to America. Worse than weed, meth, coke, crack, or crank, it’s… SNORF!!
See also http://www.laborfest.net/2015/2015schedule.htm
http://sfmt.org/schedule/ More Northern California shows

Songwriting duo Craig Casey (guitar, vox) & Pratibha Gautam (keys, vox) are the backbone of this sprawling musical, artistic and political juggernaut. FJP is NOT yo’ momma’s protest music! Defying easy categorization, their infuriatingly catchy songs range from pop, reggae, acoustic, gospel, and hard rock. FJP plays a large collection of wildly danceable original tunes full of punch…er, we mean: juice!

Their debut full-length album, “Where’s Our Change?” is available on iTunes, Amazon, Reverb Nation and through the official website: www.FreshJuiceParty.com. FJP’s second release is an EP of digital downloads coming in 2015. All of FJP’s music is recorded by Craig Casey.

The OKC/CA/NYC band has a refreshing blend of message & medium. FJP’s lyrics harken revolution and change, and interplay with your mind and heart; meanwhile, their deeply satisfying grooves meld with your soul, and keep your feet happy and tapping. Their genre-hopping, varied sound has been compared to Bowie, Dylan, Santana, Bob Marley, Elvis Costello, The Beatles & XTC.

Known as much for making the news as making music and art, FJP has been the subject of a commentary on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, featured in the NY Times Magazine inside cover, mentioned in a TIMES NOW interview by Julian Assange, as well as many other prominent national and international news outlets.

First Friday FTP!

HASHTAGS: #JUSTICEFORDEMOURIA #BREAKTHECURFEW #BLACKANDBROWNLIBERATION #NOJUSTICENOPEACE #FIRSTFRIDAYFTP #FFFTP

Big Changes for Cuba

What is the meaning of the partial normalization of relations with the U.S.? Does the updating of the Cuban economic model herald the restoration of capitalism? Zenobia Thompson will answer these and other questions from American supporters of Cuba. She was a member of a delegation from the Communist Party, USA that met in February with leaders of the Cuban Communist Party and Government and toured important institutions.

In Solidarity with Disarm NYPD, and in Conspiracy with the Black, Brown and Red Rebellion, We Call on all those who Support the Self Determination of the Oppressed to a Flag Burning Gathering at Oakland Police Headquarters on the 4th of July.

[We will convene at Oscar Grant Plaza if we are blocked from the Oakland Police Department]

Facebook event & more info.

Sponsored by Bay Area Intifada

Fredrick Douglass once asked “to what to the slave is the 4th of July?” This question is more relevant now than ever. With the rise of white supremacist terrorist attacks on New Afrikan people it is clear that the u.s. government is unwilling to defend the most basic Human Rights of it’s so called “citizens”. Black and Brown people’s can no longer be governed by a system designed to exploit and exterminate us, it’s time we governed our selves.

This will be a discussion about the importance of Independence and Self-Determination for colonized peoples and the contradiction of the so called Independence of the united snakkkes on the 4th of july aka “the 4th of the lie.”

Guest Speakers:
–Russell Shoatz III, son of Black Liberation Army Political Prisoner Russell Maroon Shoatz.

–Shaka At-thinnin, Founder of Black August Organizing Commitee B.A.O.C.

The discussion will be followed by dinner and a political Hip Hop performance by local artists.

With a lot of people out of  town, the OO GA is cancelled this week. Please ignore the subsequent listing.