Calendar
Here’s our first opportunity to pick up petitions for the signature-gathering phase of the campaign!
Hear now a campaign led by sex workers working with formerly incarcerated people and others, got the victim compensation law changed so sex workers can now get compensation for rape and other violence3 on the job, and people on probation or parole can get compensation if they are victims of crime.
Learn how to press for implementation and further changes.
Learn about exciting gains the local, national and international movement for decriminalization of sex work.
Keynote speaker Margaret Prescod, host of Pacifica Radio’s “Sojourner Truth.”
Speakers from All of Us or None, Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, Erotic Service Providers Union, US Prostitutes Collective.
WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS to gather the THOUSANDS OF VOTER SIGNATURES required to put our Charter Amendment on the NOVEMBER BALLOT!
THIS MEANS BOOTS ON THE GROUND! THIS MEANS YOU! IT’S TIME TO STEP UP and show your support.
A HUGE THANK YOU to those who VOLUNTEERED last Saturday to serve as petition gatherers and receive training.
WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SO MUCH! For over two years ARC has advocated on behalf of RENTER PROTECTIONS AND COMMUNITY STABILITY. Countless hours have been invested in private meetings with City officials; researching public documents, municipal code and best practices; investigating renter complaints; advising displaced renters; demonstrating and networking; monitoring the RRAC and the Housing Authority; attending and speaking at City Council meetings into the wee morning hours.
The City Council responded with a WEAK TEMPORARY ORDINANCE that’s barely window dressing and has serious LANDLORD LOOPHOLES.
ARC’s pending ballot measure to amend Alameda’s City Charter is a compendium of BEST PRACTICES and a PERMANENT SOLUTION.
TIME IS SHORT! We have only four weeks to gather thousands of VALID SIGNATURES.
CAN’T MAKE IT? Mail a donation to P.O. Box 2322, Alameda, 94501
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking
- advocating for Postal banking
- fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
- 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
- Presenting debt-related topics at forums and workshops
- and much more! Bring your own debt-related project!
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early and meet one or two of us before the formal meeting starts, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com .
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.
Spring into Action at the Gill Tract Community Farm
Join The Polish Ambassador & the UC Gill Tract Community Farm on Sunday March 20th for a day of celebration and planting for the coming Spring season. The UC Gill Tract Community Farm is a gorgeous urban farm in Albany, CA, just north of Berkeley, which grows tons of organic produce that is given away to neighbors, those without adequate nutritious food, and the surrounding community for free and by donation.
We will be digging a swale to capture rainwater and hold it in the soil, planting and beautifying the Ladybug Patch Children’s Garden, planting a hedge around the farm to stabilize the micro-climate and attract pollinators, planting out the biomass zone of the farm with a food forest of perennials, and prepping and planting the organic farm rows for Spring.
We have over 2,000 seedlings to plant!!
We will also have wonderful music and workshops throughout the day to entertain and educate, so check out the schedule below and come ready to take a break from planting and learn something new!
Detailed Workshop Schedule
10:30-11:30am Edible and Medicinal Weeds Under Your Feet
with Baruch Brian Schwardon of WateroftheVine.com
Baruch Brian will facilitate an exploration of getting to know the food and medicine all around us, as well as facilitate discussion on implications for food justice, and ecological health markers.
11:30am-1:30pm Medicinal Herb Garden Tour and Workshop
with Penny Livingston-Stark & Richard Koenig
We will be drawn to some of the 100 varieties of Medicinal Herbs and Plants on display from Traditions around the world. This will be an opportunity to become acquainted with the Herb plants, and experience how they can be successfully grown together. Penny Livingston is a world renowned Permaculturist and Leader of the Regenerative Design Institute near Bolinas California. Richard Koenig is designer and curator of Our Medicinal Herb Garden here on Our UC Gill Tract Community Farm.
12:30-1:30pm Decisive Ecological Warfare: A Workshop on Resistance Strategy
1:30-2:30pm Plant Propagation Workshop in the Ladybug Patch
w. Alexa Levy, Brooke Porter & Mallika Nair of Growing Together
(children encouraged to attend!)
2:00-2:30pm Soil Not Oil: Carbon Sequestration & Moving Away from Industrial Ag
with Miguel Robles
Hear about the connections between food production and climate change, and learn the solutions for the great transition that we are collectively undertaking, presented by Miguel Robles of the Soil Not Oil coalition.
2:30-3:30pm Nutrient Cycling with Microbes from the Wild
with Dennis Dierks
Dennis will present his techniques and experience in the wild harvesting of Lactobaccillis and other bacteria which are essential in nutrient uptake by plants, and the establishment of healthy organic ecosystems for vegetable growing as well as within our bodies. Dennis Dierks is the founding farmer for over 40 years of Paradise Valley Farm near Bolinas Ca.
3:30-4:30pm Seeds & Seed Saving
with Tali Weinberg (of Permaculture Design Course at Urban Adamah)
We’ll have some food and drinks, and please bring a potluck dish or something to share if you can!
We will have the farm stand open all day too! So come grab some produce from this urban, organic, community farm to bring home and cook; and you can even be the one to harvest produce for the streetside farm stand yourself!
Hosted by: Aunti Frances and the Self-Help Hunger Program, a self-determined food justice group
“We are here, we ain’t leavin’, so let’s break bread together!”
We will be celebrating Black History by celebrating it all year ’round: from the revolutionary events of Black August to the current struggles and organizing of people at Driver Plaza to resist gentrification. Let’s fight for Black Futures in the Ohlone Bay Area by celebrating through food, culture, story-telling, history and community!
*Come through and enjoy BBQ, speakers from different struggles, drummers from Ashby Flea Market, Danza Azteca, Live Mural from Community Rejuvenation Project, youth performances, Healing Circle, Waterless Compost Toilet demonstration, and more! Bring a dish to share for our 3rd Annual Celebration!*
Sponsored by: Self-Help Hunger Program, POOR Magazine, Farms to Grow, Phat Beets Produce, APTP, with support from members of North Oakland Restorative Justice Council
Wanna Sponsor? Volunteer? Donate? Table? Contact: Aunti Frances: auntifrances@yahoo.com (510) 395-5988
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over four years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally . Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
On the heels of continuing development on the Southernmost portion of the Gill Tract, we invite you to join us for a VIGIL (at the end of the Permaculture Action Day on the Farm).
Let’s MOURN together the destruction that UC Berkeley insists on carrying on, the loss of arable soil & its accompanying beneficial biology, and the many attacks on Mother Nature all over the globe. Let’s take this moment to express our SORROW while watching over the land in PROTECTION, knowing that this community gathering will STRENGTHEN us to defend the rest of Gill Tract even more fiercely.
To Bring:
1) Please BRING an IMAGE for the altar that represents a loss (either at the GIll Tract or any other part of the natural world).
2)Also bring FLOWERS to add to the altar.
3) You’re invited to WEAR black, or any other color or attire that may represent your mourning tradition.**
* * * * *
UC Berkeley is Paving Over This Farm Land to Build an UNaffordable Luxury Elderly Housing.
Defend Gill Tract – Restore Soil & Justice – Local Food Over Corporate Profits & Privatization of Public Land.
#DefendGillTract #BoycottSprouts #BoycottBelmontVillage
* * * * *
To particiate in the Permaculture Action Day at the Gill Tract Farm from 10-5pm prior to the Vigil, check out: https://www.facebook.com/events/1690270454519676/
OccupyForum presents…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Indigenous and Tribal Issues
in the United States and around the world:
Regarding Sovereignty and Self-Government
with Deni Leonard
The issues of Indigenous Sovereignty relate directly to the colonization of all Indigenous peoples around the world. The pathology of the predatory hegemonic imperialism of Western consciousness has been the experience of all contacts with Indigenous people, based on the assimilation to Bankrupt Morality within Western Public Policies in which they are now committing Filicide– destroying their own children to obtain objects which promise evidence of power.
As Chief Seattle stated, “What you do to Mother Earth, you do to yourself.” We are all connected, and in the context of interconnectedness, that consciousness is necessary for all of us to create the social revolution to protect the living species and the physical bioconnectedness of our existence.
We must all be the power of change!
Deni Leonard is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon and has lived in San Francisco since the middle 1970s. He arrived to teach at U.C. Berkeley and stayed to develop new initiatives for economic and political strategies for the Indigenous people. He has taught many seminars on finance, sovereignty, and business development.
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.
Meetings held Mondays at 7:00 PM
Excepting Monday March 7, when we will meet at 8:15 PM. Come one, come all!
VOLUNTEER NOW!!!
If you would like to go out on Copwatch shifts, work in our office, create art, become a Know Your Rights Trainer or help us out in other ways, WE NEED YOU! Send us an e-mail, subscribe to our email list, call our office or just come to our weekly meetings on Mondays, 2022 Blake Street, Berkeley or our weekly office hours on Wednesdays from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.
On Friday, March 11, the City Staff published two reports for the Community and Economic Development Committee. One dealt with the proposed Impact Fee ordinance and another dealt with the reprogramming of funds originally budgeted for new affordable housing. The changes proposed in these reports threaten to gut much-needed funding for affordable housing for low-income Oakland workers and residents and disproportionately impact communities of color.
Will you contact Mayor Schaaf, Councilmember-at-Large Rebecca Kaplan, and your council member? (sample email). Will you attend the Prayer Vigil and Committee meeting next Tuesday?
Tuesday Vigil and Committee Hearing
1pm – Prayer Vigil on City Hall Steps
1:30pm – Community and Economic Development (CED) Committee, City Hall, Sgt. Mark Dunakin Room – 1st Floor
Be sure to mark item 3 (Impact Fee) and item 4 (NOFA). Contact Matt@ebho.org for suggested talking points.
Please join SELC, the East Bay Community Law Center, and NoBAWC on Tuesday, March 22 in Berkeley for a participatory training and Q&A with legal experts on employee handbook basics for democratically run, worker-centered businesses.
In this teach-in on employee handbook basics for worker cooperatives, nonprofits, and other social enterprises, we will discuss a short list of essential policies for employee handbooks and why your organization should have them, especially from a legal and risk management perspective. After a short training, we will have an open discussion about novel employee policies and lessons learned from employee policies enacted at worker-centered organizations.
This event is intended for current worker-owners, social enterprises, and non-profits who want to start drafting or improve their organization’s Employee Handbook. If you need to develop policies and want to discuss how employee policies have (or have not) been successfully implemented in a worker-centered organization, this teach-in is for you!
Co-hosted with the Network of Bay Area Worker Cooperatives!
Join us to fight for a livable wage for all Bay Area workers! We collaborate in principled reflection and action on what the Bay Area livable wage would be and where we are at on the right to a livable wage.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds Community and Power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.
Our work together encompasses:
(1) The concerns of precarious, care and contingent workers,
(2) 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.
Oakland Livable Wage Assembly meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:00 PM at the SEIU Local 1000 Union Hall, 436 14th Street #200, Oakland, CA
Please love and support one another ~ We have a duty to fight ~ We have a duty to win!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/
Participatory Budgeting Workshop at Oakland City Hall, March 23rd, 6-8pm.
— CDP-Oakland (@OAKCDP) March 16, 2016
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March 23: HIP HOP FOR CHANGE and PHSS Event
- Please join Hip Hop for Change and Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS) for an evening of powerful Spoken Word and discussion from 6pm to 9pm at the Niebyl-Proctor Library in Oakland, CA.
- This event is in solidarity with the CA prisoners who challenged the torture of solitary confinement and created the historic Agreement to End Hostilities. We hope to help cultivate strong community connections inside and outside prisons and grow community support in the prisoner class struggle. The work to end solitary confinement and create true social justice continues. Social justice does not include destroying lives, families and communities with incarceration, isolation, and torture.
- Right now we must stop the cruel Sleep Deprivation that began many months ago against people in solitary at Pelican Bay and CA Central Women’s Facility.
- Wednesday, March 23rd is a day of Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement and, nationwide, groups are conducting actions as part of Together to End Solitary. This event in Oakland is connected to a nationwide momentum to end solitary confinement.
- Please share the Facebook event:
- https://www.facebook.com/events/973551582700324/
- hiphopforchange.org
- prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com
- PHSS is excited to collaborate with Hip Hop for Change! For three years, Hip Hop for Change has been educating youth about social justice issues, Hip Hop culture, history, and the power of self-expression!!! They volunteer with organizations that are uplifting historically marginalized community, they start gardens and donate thousands of hours. Hip Hop for Change throws Hip Hop shows that provide platforms for artists with empowering social justice-oriented narratives!!
Film evenings begin with optional potluck refreshments & social half hour at 7:00 pm, followed by the films at 7:30 pm, followed by optional discussion after the films.
DOUBLE FEATURE
First Film
LOOK UP! A SOCIAL ACTION DOCUMENTARY
By George Barnes
Second Film
GEOENGINEERING DANGERS DICUSSED BY OFFICIALS,
AGENCY SCIENTISTS, AND OTHER EXPERTS.
by Dane Wigington
For a description of this film, see the website at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daGuPLXVunQ
Humanist Hall is wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street
Unions and Grassroots Groups to Unite for 2016 Oakland Elections
Oakland Justice Coalition to Support Three Key Ballot Measures on Housing, Police and Workers’ Rights
Oakland — This Thursday the Oakland Justice Coalition will launch their effort to support progressive ballot initiatives and candidates in 2016, uniting a diverse coalition of groups around shared priorities. The Coalition will outline their plan to achieve huge wins for three key 2016 ballot measures through collaboration and solidarity across struggles.
WHO: The Oakland Justice Coalition includes the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the Oakland Education Association, the Anti Police-Terror Project, Block by Block Organizing Network, the Coalition for Police Accountability, the Community Democracy Project, the Oakland Green Party, the Oakland Alliance, the Oakland Livable Wage Assembly, the Oakland Tenants Union and Socialist Alternative.
WHAT: A rally and press conference to launch the Oakland Justice Coalition, with visuals of diverse and unexpected groups waving signs and coming together