Return Anti-Fascist Teacher Yvette Felarca to Her Classroom! Stop Interrogations and Harassment of Students!
Rally in front of King Middle School
Monday, October 17, 2016
8-8:30 am
1781 Rose St. (at Grant), Berkeley, California
Also:
6:30pm Rally outside
2020 Bonar Street (at University), Berkeley California
Anti-fascist activist and teacher Yvette Felarca continues to be prevented from returning to her classroom at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School after being placed on administrative leave.
After she helped stop a neo-Nazi recruitment rally in Sacramento this summer, and was stabbed in the process, terror threats were made against Ms. Felarca and the school if she’s not fired, and instead of defending the entire community, including Ms. Felarca, the school district is capitulating to the neo-Nazis’ demands by removing her from her job.
The school district also took some of her wages back out of her bank account. Both current and former students continue to be pulled out of class and interrogated about her, now with parental notification, but the nature of the ‘interviews’ are being misrepresented.
At the last school board meeting students from all grade levels – elementary, middle, and high school, parents, fellow teachers from Berkeley and Oakland, and a diverse range of community members rallied in defense of Ms. Felarca. When board members refused to disclose their personal positions on whether she should continue to teach, and instead scurried off into a second, unagendized “closed session”, the community held its own meeting in the board room, with many more speaking out. Video of the rally and school board meeting can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdwuri1LFYI
Voice your solidarity with Yvette Felarca, and demand that she be reinstated immediately, repaid her full wages, and the harassment of her and her students be stopped: boardofed@berkeley.net, Superintendent@berkeley.net
Defend Yvette Felarca!
Non-sectarian defense of all anti-fascists!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
For more information:
Press conference with Yvette Felarca and her lawyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhVxvNt3vY
Details of what happened in Sacramento, and the neo-Nazis involved: http://antifasac.weebly.com/home/blood-in-the-valley-why-people-put-their-lives-on-the-line-to-run-nazis-out-of-sacramento
More about the fascist organizers of the Sacramento rally: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/27/violent-clashes-erupt-sacramento-between-white-nationalists-and-antifascists
Details about neo-Nazis converging in Berkeley prior to their attempted rally in Sacramento: https://itsgoingdown.org/big-nazis-on-campus/
The judge will give an update on his decision about whether to let the City of Berkeley dismiss Kayla Moore’s family’s wrongful death lawsuit.
We need to show up on October 17th to pack the courtroom to make it clear to the judge that we have NOT forgotten Kayla Moore, that her life and memory matter, and that we demand an end to racist, transphobic and ableist police violence!
We can’t let the City and BPD escape responsibility for Kayla’s death and the violence she faced, alongside so many Black, Brown, trans and disabled people who are harmed and killed by police violence.
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ABOUT KAYLA MOORE & HER FAMILY’S FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
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Kayla Moore was a Black trans women born and raised in Berkeley. She lived in the Gaia Building in downtown Berkeley. She was a published poet, and loved to cook, dance, and help people – her neighbors, friends and even strangers on the bus.
On Feb. 12, 2013, Kayla was in her home when a friend of hers called BPD to request a mental health wellness check for Kayla. Kayla had a schizophrenia diagnosis and her family and friends had called for help from the city of Berkeley before. But this night, instead of offering assistance, they immediately tried to take her into custody. Although they had no legal basis for arresting her, they wrestled her onto the ground. Kayla died face down on a futon with six police officers on top of her.
Over three years later, the officers involved have faced no consequences. This fall, the Moore family is taking the City of Berkeley and BPD to court with a wrongful death suit. But, the supposedly ‘progressive’ City of Berkeley is continuing to shirk responsibility for Kayla’s death by trying to have the Moore family’s case thrown out.
Show up MONDAY OCTOBER 17 at 9am in downtown SF to help show the judge that although the powers that be may want the case dismissed we, the community, DO NOT!
9:00am – Gathering with coffee and light breakfast
10:00am sharp – hearing begins (**line up early**)
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OTHER WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
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-CONTACT US to come to a meeting in Berkeley or about other ways to support
-EMAIL UPDATES: http://eepurl.com/b8MJnL
-ENDORSE our demands: https://actionnetwork.org/
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!
Defiant Haiti Needs Our Solidarity…
As the U.S. plots to steal
yet another Haitian Election
Over 200 years ago, Haitians rose and overthrew both slavery and colonial rule. Now, when the enemies of freedom and sovereignty are attempting to re-colonize and re-enslave Haiti, we need to act in solidarity with our Haitian comrades, in the spirit of their fierce resistance.
The irresistible momentum of Haiti’s non-stop mass movement — with tens of thousands in the streets almost daily for many months — forced annulment of 2015’s fraudulent elections. An entirely new election was set for October 2016 (now postponed due to Hurricane Matthew). But the U.S. Embassy and their allies are still scheming to block Haiti’s most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, and thwart the popular will. After being excluded since the 2004 US military coup, Lavalas was finally able to run candidates again, headed by Maryse Narcisse for President. Huge crowds all over Haiti turned out for Dr. Narcisse, former President Aristide and their grassroots campaign.
Come hear the incredible story of how this resilient people is rising up and upsetting the diabolical plans of the imperialist power to the north. And watch the heart-breaking 16-minute Film, What’s Going on in Haiti? — live footage of massacres by the US/UN military force still occupying Haiti — 12 years after the US coup that ousted and kidnapped President Aristide and the people’s unbreakable will to resist.
Presenters:
Pierre Labossiere, Co-founder, Haiti Action Committee; Board member, Haiti Emergency Relief Fund,
Dave Welsh, S.F. Labor Council delegate; Member, Haiti Action Committee
Haiti is dealing with a devastating hurricane and worsening cholera epidemic. At the same time, the Haitian people are rising up to resist the wealthy elite and their foreign backers.
Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away.
An invitation to a class on the
Structures of Racialization
At the Bay Area Public School
A free university in the Omni Commons
When the English first got to Virginia, in the early 1600s, they didn’t see themselves as “white.” It took a century for their colonialism to produce the concepts of race and white supremacy.
We’ve been fighting racism, white privilege, white supremacy, and institutional racism since then. And still, a Trump can come along with his “dogwhistle” politics, and get an instant white following at varying degrees of frenzy. Today even the most liberal cities cannot stop police racial profiling – while thee illiberal ones officiate over “stop and frisk.”
Ø What are we missing?
Ø If racism is just a “divide and rule” strategy, why has it always worked so well? Why does it still work so well?
Ø How is it that new groups, like immigrants and Muslims, can be continually targetted for racial assault (victim de jour)?
Ø If race is a social construct, what is the structure that has been constructed?
Ø Is it an economic structure? A cultural structure? What?
Ø How deep culturally does it reside in this country?
Ø Is “race” a noun or a verb?
This class will look at the the structures of policing today, of segregation yesterday, and of colonization and slavery the day before that. If the “modern concept of race” was constructed socially at a particular moment, does that imply an ending we can programmatize?
This class will be mostly discussion and dialogue. We will have to address our prejudices about prejudice in order to get to the issues of structure. There will be non-mandatory readings on line for the class. It will also be open to other texts that class members wish to propose.
Facilitator: Steve Martinot
Lise Pearlman, retired judge and legal expert, will speak about her new book American Justice on Trial at the bookstore, which outlines how the defense during the Huey Newton murder trial worked to lessen racial bias in jury selection and put into place legal and cultural precedents that still affect American jurisprudence, criminal law, and race relations.
On the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party, Pearlman’s new book American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton compares the explosive state of American race relations in 1968 to race relations today with insights from key participants and observers of the internationally-watched Oakland, California death-penalty trial that launched the Black Panther Party and transformed the American jury “of one’s peers” to the diverse cross-section we often take for granted today. The book includes comments from Newton prosecutor Lowell Jensen, pioneering black jury foreman David Harper and TV journalist Belva Davis, as well as from Huey Newton’s older brother Melvin Newton, former
Panthers Kathleen Cleaver, David Hilliard and Emory Douglas. It also includes comments from civil rights experts including Bryan Stevenson, Barry Scheck and John Burris. This book complements the nonprofit documentary project
of the same name for which Pearlman is co-producer/co-director on behalf of Arc of Justice Productions, Inc. http://www.americanjusticeontrial.com/
Lise Pearlman appeared in Stanley Nelson’s acclaimed 2015 film The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution as the country’s leading expert on the 1968 Huey Newton death penalty trial. Her first history book, The Sky’s TheLimit: People v. Newton, The Real Trial of the 20th Century? (Regent Press, 2012) won awards in the categories of law, history and multiculturalism. Pearlman was an undergraduate in the first class that included women at Yale University when Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale was tried for murder in New Haven. She then moved to the Bay Area where she attended Berkeley Law School and then clerked for California Chief Justice Donald White before practicing law in Oakland. From 1989-1995, she served as the first Presiding Judge of the California State Bar Court. Pearlman has spent almost all of her adult life in Oakland where the Newton trial took place and where she still resides.
Alice Walker calls him “a special voice to champion us, one that is… fierce, wise — a warrior for justice and peace — someone whose large heart, one senses, beyond his calm, is constantly on fire.”
Ali will be speaking on “Turning Point for the Palestine Solidarity Movement: Can Israeli Apartheid Really Be Defeated?”
Tickets available now!
$15 general admission — also: $10 low income, $25 Supporter, $50 Freedom Fighter, $100 Changemaker,http://www.mecaforpeace.org
Benefit for MECA, wheelchair accessible
Cosponsored by KPFA, Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), Jewish Voice for Peace/Bay Area
Reece Jones discusses and signs his new book Violent Borders: a major new exploration of the refugee crisis, focusing on how borders are policed.
About Violent Borders (Verso, 2016)
Forty thousand people died trying to cross international borders in the past decade, with the high-profile deaths along the shores of Europe only accounting for half of the grisly total.
In Violent Borders, Reece Jones argues that these deaths are not exceptional, but rather the result of state attempts to contain populations and control access to resources and opportunities. ‘We may live in an era of globalization,’ he writes, ‘but much of the world is increasingly focused on limiting the free movement of people.’ In Violent Borders, Jones travels the border regions of the world, documenting the billions of dollars spent on border security projects, and their dire consequences for the majority of the people in the world. While the poor are restricted by the lottery of birth to slums and the aftershocks of decolonization, the wealthy travel freely, exploiting pools of cheap labour and lax environmental regulations. With the growth of borders and resource enclosures, argues Jones, the deaths of migrants in search of a better life are intimately connected to climate change, the growth of slums, and the persistence of global wealth inequality.
About the Author:
Reece Jones is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and the author of Border Walls (Zed, 2013). He has written about border walls in the New York Times Op Ed Section, and has given talks on the topic internationally. He tweets at @reecejhawaii.
RALLY AGAINST ABUSIVE MANAGEMENT
Union Shop Stewart Angela Bibb-Merritt is being
threatened with a law off by the U.S. post office.
Angela has been a participant in Occupy and would
sometimes inform union members at her job site
of activities of Occupy.
Please join the rally to protest for our sister
Angela. She has been active in the occupation
of Staples which was threatening the lay off of
postal employees. She was also a supporter of
the Federal Reserve Occupation.
JOIN CODEPINK, WORLD CAN’T WAIT, OCCUPYSF Action Council and others at the huge PEACE banner
Theme this week is: “REFUGEES…”
Feel free to bring your own signage, photos, flyers, …Additional signs and flyers provided.
Stand (or sit) with us and the huge PEACE banner.
Return Anti-Fascist Teacher Yvette Felarca to Her Classroom! Stop Interrogations and Harassment of Students!
Anti-fascist activist and teacher Yvette Felarca continues to be prevented from returning to her classroom at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School after being placed on administrative leave.
After she helped stop a neo-Nazi recruitment rally in Sacramento this summer, and was stabbed in the process, terror threats were made against Ms. Felarca and the school if she’s not fired, and instead of defending the entire community, including Ms. Felarca, the school district is capitulating to the neo-Nazis’ demands by removing her from her job.
The school district also took some of her wages back out of her bank account. Both current and former students continue to be pulled out of class and interrogated about her, now with parental notification, but the nature of the ‘interviews’ are being misrepresented.
At the last school board meeting students from all grade levels – elementary, middle, and high school, parents, fellow teachers from Berkeley and Oakland, and a diverse range of community members rallied in defense of Ms. Felarca. When board members refused to disclose their personal positions on whether she should continue to teach, and instead scurried off into a second, unagendized “closed session”, the community held its own meeting in the board room, with many more speaking out. Video of the rally and school board meeting can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdwuri1LFYI
Voice your solidarity with Yvette Felarca, and demand that she be reinstated immediately, repaid her full wages, and the harassment of her and her students be stopped: boardofed@berkeley.net, Superintendent@berkeley.net
Defend Yvette Felarca!
Non-sectarian defense of all anti-fascists!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
For more information:
Press conference with Yvette Felarca and her lawyer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhVxvNt3vY
Details of what happened in Sacramento, and the neo-Nazis involved: http://antifasac.weebly.com/home/blood-in-the-valley-why-people-put-their-lives-on-the-line-to-run-nazis-out-of-sacramento
More about the fascist organizers of the Sacramento rally: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/27/violent-clashes-erupt-sacramento-between-white-nationalists-and-antifascists
Details about neo-Nazis converging in Berkeley prior to their attempted rally in Sacramento: https://itsgoingdown.org/big-nazis-on-campus/
Our weekly PARTY to get this hackerspace together, to provide a venue for those things that otherwise cannot be worked out through day-to-day practice.
Potluck! – bring your own tasty dish!
Sudo room, located in the southwast corner of the ground floor, is a creative community and hackerspace. We offer tools and project space for a wide range of activities: electronics, sewing/crafting, 3D and 2D manufacturing, coding, and good old-fashioned co-learning!
Hours: The space is open whenever a member is present. Come visit! Best times to drop in are evenings between 7 and 9pm. See the calendar for recurring meetups and upcoming events: https://sudoroom.org/calendar
Monthly APTP meeting, held on every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
The Anti Police-Terror Project is a project of the ONYX ORGANIZING COMMITTEE that in coalition with other organizations like Idriss Stelley Foundation, Community READY Corps and Workers World is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.
Chris Hedges on the most taboo topics in America, by author & publisher David Talbot:
“Chris Hedges has been telling truth to (and against) power since his earliest days as a radical journalist. The kinds of insights he provides into the deeply troubled state of our democracy cannot be found anywhere else. He is an intellectual heir to American radical heroes such as Thomas Paine and Noam Chomsky, and is dedicated to reigniting a shared commitment to radical equality and honesty.”
Hedges speaks clearly about the most pressing issues that face our nation. He tackles the rise of a fascist right in support of Donald Trump, which advocates xenophobia and violence in a push for American totalitarianism. He rails against …establishment elites on both sides of the aisle. He tears into the contemporary glamorization of the military and the unchecked, unchallenged hawkishness that defines contemporary American foreign policy. Moreover, he shows his support for contemporary revolts against this twisted order-such as Black Lives Matter-that represent Americans refusing to take the destruction of their country lying down.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with 15 years at the New York Times. His books include Empire of Illusion; Death of the Liberal Class; War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt; and Wages of Rebellion.
He currently writes for Truthdig.
Sabrina Jacobs is the host and producer of A Rude Awakening, a cultural and political affairs show aired weekly on KPFA.
$15 advance, $18 door.
Help stop new jail construction in Alameda County!
The Oakland Police Department’s future use of a cell-site simulator, known as Stingray, hinges on the policy’s approval by the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission and the Oakland City Council. The Stingray, and its upgraded version, the Hailstorm, poses as a cellular tower and tricks cell phones into giving up data like unique ID numbers and location. The police use it to locate a suspect or victim in an investigation, but critics have long voiced concerns about privacy and potential abuse of the powerful tool.
The commission and OPD representatives will reconvene on Thursday, Oct 20th in a special session to discuss and likely vote on an updated policy.
Video of the previous OPAC meeting.
Recent article about the Stingray, the policy, OPAC, etc.
Our guest for episode 7 of Ars Technica Live is author and space activist Ariel Waldman! She’ll tell us about what it’s like to live in space, and how we’ll make that happen.
Ariel is the founder of Spacehack.org, a directory of ways to participate in space exploration, and the global director of Science Hack Day, a 20-countries-and-growing grassroots endeavor to make things with science.
Filmed before a live audience in tiki bar Longitude each episode of Ars Technica Live is a speculative, informal conversation between Ars Technica hosts and an invited guest. The audience, drawn from Ars Technica’s readers, is also invited to join the conversation and ask questions. These aren’t soundbyte setups; they are deepcuts from the frontiers of research and creativity.
Doors are at 7pm, and the live taping is from 7:30 to 8:00pm (be sure to get there early if you want a seat). Then you can stick around for informal discussion at the bar, along with delicious tiki drinks and snacks. Can’t make it out to Oakland? Never fear! Episodes will be posted to Ars Technica the week after the live events.
Contact: Annalee Newitz (annalee@arstechnica.com)
Ariel Waldman is the author of What’s It Like in Space?: Stories from Astronauts Who’ve Been There and the co-author of a congressionally-requested National Academy of Sciences study on the future of human spaceflight. She sits on the council for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC), a program that nurtures radical, sci-fi-esque ideas that could transform future space missions. In 2013, Ariel received an honor from the White House for being a Champion of Change in citizen science.
Annalee Newitz is the tech culture editor at Ars Technica. Previously she was the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo and io9. She is the author of Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction (Doubleday). Her first novel, Autonomous, comes out in 2017 from Tor Books.
Cyrus [suh-ROOS] is the Senior Business Editor at Ars Technica, and is also an author and radio producer. His book, The Internet of Elsewhere – about the history and effects of the Internet on different countries around the world, including Senegal, Iran, Estonia and South Korea – was published by Rutgers University Press in April 2011. He previously was the Sci-Tech Editor, and host of “Spectrum” at Deutsche Welle English, Germany’s international broadcaster.
Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
Conscientious Projector Presents “Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson”
“Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson” is an exciting film packed with ideas on how we can overcome the fears that fuel endless war. It is also the heroic story of the courageous dedication of Brian, a longtime friend of the Fellowship, who lost his legs at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in 1986.
www.payingthepriceforpeace.com