Calendar
Join us to tell CDCr that their “security/welfare checks” are torturing the men in Pelican Bay SHU and need to stop NOW!!
Learn more here about the checks and how you can further support by sharing information and making phone calls:
Since August 2, 2015, men in Pelican Bay SHU have been awakened every 20-30 minutes, 48 times a day, due to so-called “security/welfare checks” by guards. The architecture of the Pelican Bay SHU (PB SHU) amplifies the loud noise of the ‘checks’ -metal pod doors opening and slamming closed, chains and locks rattling, guards’ boots stomping, metal rods banging against the cell doors, and the beeping of the electronic monitoring system at each cell door. Sometimes guards also shine their flashlights into people’s eyes. The people suffering these so-called “security/welfare checks” are locked in concrete solitary cells, so the noise and intrusion every 30 minutes is (additional) unavoidable torment .
As of the February 1st, it will be 181 days that these men have been tortured by sleep deprivation!! Six months.
California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation (CDCr) claims the 30-minute checks are to prevent suicide. But we know that interrupted sleep is causing serious mental and physical health problems. John R. Martinez, in solitary for 15 years and in Pelican Bay SHU for over a decade, wrote in late August: “…there is a reasonable probability that life-threatening injuries and/or even death is inevitable, as medical symptoms are only worsening but not being treated.” People locked up in PB SHU report health problems including:
severe stress
weight loss
dizziness
faintness
nausea
headaches
eye problems
stomach and bowel problems
depression
fast heart rates
John’s mother, Dolores Canales, co-founder of California Families Against Solitary Confinement and the Family Unity Network, said: “I visited my son in the Pelican Bay SHU on 12 September and he is going crazy from not being able to sleep. I’ve never seen him like this. He couldn’t think, and he fell asleep while I was talking with him from across the glass partition.” John was in that state in September after 5 and a half weeks of sleep deprivation. It has now been 5 months since the checks started on August 2, 2015.
Prisoners cannot concentrate, exercise, read, do legal work – the things that help them survive – and they can’t sleep! This is extremely cruel and dangerous.
If you can’t attend the Rally in person, please make phone calls (and call more than once!) to:
CDCR Secretary’s Office: 916-323-6001,
CDCR Director of Adult Divisions, Kelly Harrington (he): 916-445-7688
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair of Senate Public Safety Committee: 916-651-4009
Assembly Member Bill Quirk, Chair of Assembly Public Safety Committee: 916-319-2020
Governor Jerry Brown: 916-445-2481
Suggested script for calls: Begin with your name and the city and state where you live. Please tell all of them: “Stop the so-called ‘welfare’ checks in the SHU at Pelican Bay State Prison. Sleep deprivation is torture.”
You can also email CA elected officials- to STOP the ‘checks’- with this link from Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) :http://tinyurl.com/ztjcos3
Please spread the word! More people need to know about this sleep deprivation! And we want a strong showing outside CDCr. Share the articles, the American Public Health Association (APHA) letter opposing the checks, and our video. [Links below]
Any questions, don’t hesitate to send us a Facebook message or email us at phssreachingout@gmail.com
SF Bay View article
http://sfbayview.com/2015/
American Public Health Association (APHA) letter opposing the checks
http://wp.me/P1BB1k-27L
You Tube Video “Sleep Deprivation”
https://www.youtube.com/
The Guardian, Sept, 25, 2015
http://
Scientific American, Oct. 2015 “Sleep On It: Your nightly rest turns out to affect your mind and health more than anyone suspected”
https://
Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep
http://time.com/4094734/
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Cecile Pineda
Apology to a Whale
Pineda calls on us to recognize that our view of nature as a resource for convenience and profit is killing the planet. She calls on us to build our lives and our laws around the need to revere and protect the living earth and all its creatures. If the first step towards a cure is a proper diagnosis, Pineda moves us much closer to finding the cure for a culture that is killing the planet.
Cecile returns to OccupyForum this Monday evening to read from her book Apology to a Whale and lead a discussion about what humans have done to the planet, and how we can address it in our time.
The Oscar Grant Committee was born from the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant, mudered by BART police on Jan 1, 2009. We organize working class resistance in support of families whose loved ones were murdered by police.
We meet on the first Tuesday of every month.
Mayor Ed Lee told the homeless they “have to leave” for the Super Bowl.
Our response: “Hey Mayor Ed Lee, No Penalties for Poverty”
We, the people of San Francisco, demand that Super Bowl City and Ed Lee pay and invest $5 million right now in housing – we could house 500 people immediately with that money.
We also demand the use of publicly-owned assets, such as the empty Pier 29 or 80, or the land under the Freeway at 101/Cesar Chavez, and create monitored programs that support secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and access to transition/healing services.
Come out in your red & gold Niners colors to #TackleHomelessness. Join the Coalition on Homelessness as we protest the mayor’s unjust plan and demand immediate housing for our city’s unhoused residents.
Meet up is at 4:30 in front of Sinbads on Embacadero next to the Ferry Building. We are going to set up a tent city, with plenty of visuals next to the superbowl city. Bring signs and banners and cardboard cut-outs of houses. And bring tents if you don’t mind them getting confiscated.
In the meantime invite EVERYONE you know. Let’s show Mayor Lee how San Francisco stands up for our neighbors.
Homeless Statistics:
– There’s 1 shelter bed for every 6 homeless
– There’s an 8,000 person long wait for housing
– 3,300 Children make up SF’s homeless
– 61% have disabilities
– 11,000 citations were given to homeless for resting in SF last year
Superbowl-Related Statistics:
– 25% of the costs for Superbowl ads would be enough to end homelessness in SF (Each 30-second Superbowl ad costs 5 million.)
– The $5 million cost to SF to host the Superbowl would house 500 homeless people.
– SFPD is responsible for clearing out homeless people for the Super Bowl by giving them citations which are already up 30% from last year.
Citations are on the increase for sleeping on the streets of San Francisco even though there are not currently viable alternatives for the thousands of unhoused residents in that situation. The Department of Justice released a memo in mid and late 2015 stating that it is ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for cities to criminalize sleeping on the street when no viable alternatives are available. Currently, we have 1 shelter bed for every 6 people on the street.
We are uniting together to demand the end of criminalization of homelessness and increased investment in real housing solutions to “Tackle Homelessness”.
On Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 Oakland Resident and mother of two, Yuvette Henderson was killed by Emeryville Police Department in West Oakland. She was 38 years old when her life was stolen. Yuvette leaves behind a 15 year old son and an 11 year old daughter.
Please join us as we memorialize Yuvette’s murder. We will first gather at Home Depot at 7pm for a short rally, then move to a silent, candlelit march to the corner across the street from where she was killed, where we will stop to listen to close friends and family members speak and commemorate her life.
#Justice4YuvetteHenderson
#SayHerName
Please bring candles and signs for Justice for Yuvette Henderson
This is going down tonight w/ the homie @alpha1906 …His book on campus racism is a must read.. pic.twitter.com/kg2HPVnpOe
— Davey D (@mrdaveyd) February 3, 2016
Thur Feb. 4 nationwide mobilizations re TPP –
Noon PROTEST outside Feinstein’s office, One Post St., SF near Montgomery St. BART Sta.
STOP the biggest corporate power grab ever! Whether or not the Trans-Pacific Partnership is signed by then, rain or shine, we’ll protest, because Congress will still have to pass enabling legislation so enough public outcry CAN still stop it! Pls click “going” or “interested now on our FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/461850570682429/
Organizations can leave a message at 510-595-5575 to co-sponsor this protest, which means they help publicize as able and may send a speaker.
co-sponsors thus far: MOVE to AMEND east bay, BFUU Social Justice Committee, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Task Force on the Americas, Bay Area Women’s Peace Action Circle, Occupy SF Action Council, Flush the TPP, Nicaragua Center for Community Action, TRANSCEND USA, Food & Water Watch, CODE PINK, BCA Steering Committee…
http://www.flushthetpp.org/san-francisco-tpp-is-betrayal-rally/
The demand for justice is happening and needs you!
We would like to invite anyone in the Bay Area to a special concert to rally CCHI 2016 supporters called “Free the Tree Concert and Rally for Ganja Legalization” on February 4, 2015 in downtown Santa Cruz, CA, beginning at 8 p.m.
This special event continues the effort to mobilize and inform the public about qualifying the CCHI 2016 for the Nov. 8, 2016 California ballot and is generously supported by Waverider Nursery Monterey Bay. The cost is $10.00 at the door. This event is not a benefit for CCHI 2016. Donations will be accepted at the CCHI 2016 information booth at the event.
Speakers Include:
Jake Retz candidate for Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors District 2.
Palmer Kain candidate for Sate Senate District 17.
Mickey Martin Cannabis Advocate and Author of medical Marijuana 101
For Information on the event and for vending opportunities, contact:
Marc Baylen
513-403-7234
m_baylen@yahoo.com
CCHI 2016 Contacts:
Michael Jolson
Initiative Proponent
(831) 252-4367
michaeljolson111@icloud.com
Buddy Duzy
CCHI 2016 State Coordinator
(805) 252-4367
bduzy@CCHI 2016.org
Press Contact:
Daryl Wise
StreetWise PR
dsw@streetwisepr.com
This Friday, February 5th, Janet Napolitano (UC President) has invited Black Student Union leadership from all of the UC campuses to have a discussion with her about campus climate. This meeting was called to downplay the severity of anti-Blackness on UC campuses and to silence Black leaders on campus. Janet and her staff have designed this meeting to crowd out any substantive discussion about anti-Blackness and how the University of California engages in a wide range of policies and practices that are unethical and anti-Black.
The students have asked the community to come out and make their presence felt… We need as many black people as poossible and support from the broader community to show the UC that they are supported and we are ready to hold them accountable. Please wear black!! This is about anti-black violence and hostility specifically on UC campuses
- Hear:
- Special guest Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report (Coming from NYC)
- For Bernie Sanders: Tom Gallagher, Chair SF Progressive Democrats of America; former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives; author, “The Primary Route: How the 99 Percent Take On the Military Industrial Complex”
- Peter Olney, Retired Organizing Director, ILWU; Labor organizer in Massachusetts and California for over 40 years. Activist, Labor for Bernie national network. (for Saturday only)
- For Peace & Freedom Party candidate: Marsha Feinland, Vice Chair, Peace & Freedom Party, four-time P&F candidate for U.S. Senate
- For Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein: Laura Wells, Green Party/Alameda County; former Green Party candidate for California governor
- For Party for Socialism and Liberation, Gloria La Riva, PSL candidate for president; Organizer ANSWER Coalition
- For Socialist Action, Jeff Mackler, former Socialist Action candidate for U.S. Senate/CA; National Secretary, Socialist Action; Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition
- Sponsor: Socialist Action Party Initial co-sponsors: Green Party of Alameda County; SF Green Party; SF Peace and Freedom Party; Bay Area Solidarity; SF Progressive Democrats of America
- For information, tables at $20, Contact: 510-268-9429 socialistaction@lmi.net
If you missed our Welcome to the Bay Event during #96 hours – join us for the REMIX. As thousands stream into the Bay Area for the Superbowl, let’s welcome them to the Bay Area that is killing Black, Brown and poor people with impunity and pushing us out of our native cities.
We are asking you to bring your energy and passion to SFO on a very busy travel day! It is crucial that we continue to raise the realities of Amerikkka – particularly on a weekend where the Bay Area is expecting to make millions while pushing out the homeless and increasing the numbers of cops on the streets.
Please bring signs!
We’ll meet at the International terminal, just below the BART fare gates. Try to be on time, we may move around the airport. Watch this page to find us if you are running late.
BART goes right to the international terminal of the airport, but is relatively expensive. and there is parking if you want to carpool, and also other transit options: http://www.flysfo.com/to-from/public-transit.
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
Honor Black History
In celebration of Black History Month and the struggles of Black students and
activists which created it, we are inviting two scholar/activists James Garrett, and
Ray Tompkins, to join former Black Panther Gerald Smith, to discuss these
historic struggles including the 5-month student strike at San Francisco State
University in 1968-69 which led to the first Black Studies Program in the country.
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every
month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The
forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like.
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The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war
movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy,
ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
www.peaceandfreedom.org
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- staging Debtors’ Assemblies
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
- Working on ways to kickstart the drive for basic income
- and much more!
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
We ask that all of our coalition members join us this monday on the steps of City Hall as we let the Mayor know that we will not be silenced by the bread crumbs he, the chief and the DOJ have thrown us.
We have a duty to fight for our freedom and we wont stop until we get justice.
OccupyForum presents…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
OccupyForum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue on all sides of these critically important issues!
The Stolen Election in Ukraine 2004,
and What Was Done About It :
Orange Revolution
(Documentary film and discussion)
Presidential elections, Ukraine, 2004. One candidate is backed by the post-Soviet regime. Eight weeks before the election the opposition candidate is seriously poisoned. He survives, but with a severely disfigured face.
In the final voting, blatant vote fraud hands the election to the regime. Instantly, Ukranians pour into the streets by the hundreds of thousands. Fed up with censored media, corruption, and rule by wealthy oligarchs, they take over the capital, Kyiv, to enforce their will. Through snow and freezing temperatures they stand their ground, blockading government buildings, demanding a new election.
Through the eyes and in the voices of the Ukranian people, Orange Revolution tells the story of a people united, not by one leader or one party, but by one idea: to defend their vote and the future of their country.
Discussion and Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
Valero CBR proposal poses major risks. Public comment, Feb 8
Outrageous. Benicia City Staff is recommending approval of Valero’s dangerous crude-by-rail proposal, despite the “significant and unavoidable” impacts to air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, biological resources and public safety outlined by the Final EIR, which clearly identifies the “No Project Alternative” as the “Environmentally Superior Alternative.” Staff declares that federal preemeption prevents it from objecting to rail-related hazards, even as it parrots Valero’s arguments about the blessings of lowered GHGs and increased jobs and economic benefits.
Make sure you’ve already submitted your comments to the City of Benicia or at least signed the petition opposing the project. The Planning Commission will take public comments on the Final EIR on February 8th before it votes whether to approve the use permit for this project. City Staff has just issued the following instruction for speaking at the hearing:
1. Individuals can sign up by calling the Planning Department (707-746-4280). As of Tuesday there’s only an answering machine to take messages, so it seems we have to wait until Monday the 8th to phone.
2. Individuals can sign up for others besides themselves when signing up in person on the 8th! (Guess what Valero will do with this one!)
3. You don’t have to use your real name.
Here’s the announcement on the City’s CBR web page as of 2/2:
IF YOU WISH TO COMMENT DURING THE HEARING: Due to the large amount of public interest with this project, the City will be instituting a sign up system in order to speak during the public hearings. Interested members of the public will be allowed to speak in order of sign up. Sign ups will be available on the day of the meeting(s) from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Community Development Department. If you are unable to come in person, please call 707-746-4280 to be added to the list. At the hearing, please go to the sign up table just outside of the Council Chambers. Your name will be called in the order in which you signed up. You do not have to sign up in order to speak. However, you will not be called on until those who have signed up have spoken. In order to accommodate the public, we have arranged for overflow rooms in City Hall with the hearing streaming for you to view and listen. You can also view the event live from the City’s website.
Why we should make every effort to testify: If approved, this project would allow the Benicia refinery to transport 70,000 barrels per day of crude oil in two 50-tanker-car trains, instead of shipping the oil by tanker. The project would add to, and not replace, crude already brought to the refinery via pipeline. The Final EIR lists many serious unmitigatable environmental impacts should the project be approved.
Let’s remind the Planning Commission that federal preemption did not cause the San Luis Obispo County staff to roll over and automatically approve a crude-by-rail project within its own jurisdiction. Instead, it understood that it had the power to affect what happens uprail by denying the rail project it was asked to rubberstamp.
Benicians for a Safe and Healthy Community is asking all allies to attend the Benicia Planning Commission meeting on February 8 at the Benicia City Hall, 250 East L Street, Benicia. The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m., but supporters are urged to arrive by at least 5:30 p.m.—if not earlier—to get the best seats and to arrive before Valero’s supporters.
Getting There: Andrés Soto, CBE’s Richmond Organizer, is arranging car pools from Richmond, gathering at the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center at 4:00 p.m. and departing at 4:30 p.m. If you need a ride or can drive to Benicia, please contact Andrés at andres@cbecal.org or at 510.282.5363.
Please RSVP here.
Background
Updates can be found at the Benicia Independent.
The project documents can be found on the City of Benicia website.
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
Every member of the City Council says they want to stop the displacement of Black, Brown and poor people from Oakland. But there’s no better way to displace a population than to take away their access to work. Yet again, our elected leaders have failed to live up to their rhetoric or prioritize the interests of the people they represent.
The behind-closed-doors deals that are made by Oakland city officials must end. Pushing an RFP that cuts services to Oakland’s unemployed (primarily Black and Latino males) must be illuminated just as our allies have done with the mayor’s illegal protest curfew, the corrupt E. 12th St development process, and the domain awareness center.
Join us on Tuesday, February 9 at 1:30 pm at Oakland’s City Council Chambers to let the Council President and CED members know WE ARE PAYING ATTENTION AND WE DEMAND TRANSPARENCY. This illegal RFP designed to circumvent the mandated process must be stopped. Come make your voices heard.