Free thanksgiving meals for the community this Sat. Spread the word for those who might need it! @LibbySchaaf @Abel_Guillen @Kaplan4Oakland pic.twitter.com/NMR9GenItT

— Oak Life Church (@oaklifechurch) November 15, 2016

For all those engaging in direct action against the machine, this is a primer on civil disobedience, legal rights, first aid at protests, and digital security. Free admission, all welcome – come for the day or for a single session.

11-11:15am: Welcome – Omni Commons
Intro to the day’s agenda, space logistics, etc

11:15am-1pm: Direct Action Workshop – Krystof Lopaur
Overview of direct action tactics, security culture, and basics of civil disobedience.

1-2:30pm: Legal / Know Your Rights – Ben Rosenfeld
Encounters with cops, knowing one’s rights in the legal system, and some infosec as it relates to protests or cops.

2:30-3pm: Lunch (TBD) + Brief presentation on Radical Photojournalism

3-4:45pm: Street Medic Workshop – Michael Terry & Margaretha Haughwout
What to bring, how to play the part of a medic; and focus on a few common types of injuries: teargas; blunt injuries to the head and lacerations; stab wounds; agitation/anxiety/panic; bruises and broken bones. WIll also cover trauma and PTSD and a simple herbal first aid kit for protest situations.

4:45-6pm: Cryptoparty / Digital Security Workshop – Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) & Sudo Room
Threat modeling, mobile phone security; surveillance self-defense. Hands-on workshop will be held in Sudo Room, Omni’s hackerspace. Bring your phone and/or laptop!

The Omni Commons is located at 48th & Shattuck in North Oakland, 1/2 mile from the MacArthur BART station. The ballroom is wheelchair-accessible via a lift in the entrance hall, which also connects to a wheelchair-accessible bathroom. This is the first trial run of what we hope to become a series of trainings for Bay Area activists. If you’d like to get involved in future trainings, or host your own organizing meeting / workshop in the space, please send an email to organize AT omnicommons DOT org!

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2049587848600892/

Further information and links to handouts can be found at https://omnicommons.org/organize

There is just under a week left before the No New SF Jail Coalition’s upcoming town hall on our next steps towards a jail-free city.

On December 1st, the SF Board of Supervisors will review a series of proposals put forth by the city’s work group on alternatives to the jail at 850 Bryant. Though we successfully advanced recommendations of bail reform, supportive housing and services, we will need to keep up the pressure in order to move the city away from its reliance on jails.

While we have a lot of ideas to uplift, we also need to stay vigilant against efforts to re-entrench jailing and policing as solutions to unmet needs in our communities.

On Saturday, we’ll present the concrete steps behind our vision, which we’ve also published in tools like 8 Steps to a Jail-Free San Francisco and the San Francisco Community Health Initiative. This will be your chance to learn how you can get involved in the next steps of this city-wide fight.

We hope you can make it!

Lunch will be provided.

If you would like Spanish interpretation at the Town Hall, please email us at nosfjail@curbprisonpending.org and we will be sure to provide it.

See you there!

Fight Back Against Racism, Sexism, and Bigotry!

Donald Trump is the next President of the United States. His racist, sexist and bigoted program offers false solutions for a real crisis. He will continue the same policies of the establishment and elites that he claimed to be pushing back against.

The same Democratic Party elites that spent the majority of the campaign painting a Trump presidency as a catastrophic threat to the world are now demanding that we unite behind him. They aren’t going to stand in the way of the racist, sexist, bigoted forces let loose by Trump’s campaign. They aren’t going to stand in the way of the plans of a Trump presidency. Only a people’s movement can do that.

It is of the utmost urgency that all progressive people take to the streets in defense of immigrants, Muslims, women and all people of color. We take to the streets to advance an alternative vision. A vision of unity and solidarity in the struggle against the ravages of a system that has left half of the country in poverty and the 99% under the boot of an administration threatening to deny climate change, rights for immigrants, women and LGBTQ people, and all historically oppressed communities.

Join us in the streets to continue building a sustained mass movement fighting to take power to the people!

Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition

Join SURJ at Grand Lake Famers’ Market corner of Lakeshore and MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland, rain or shine, to call attention to injustice and demonstrate solidarity.

Throughout the East Bay and nationally, folks have been holding weekly gatherings on prominent street corners and freeway overpasses, holding signs and making visible our support for Black communities in these critical times. These gatherings – or “human billboards” – have been a simple yet effective way of channeling anger and sadness over injustice into collective action by demonstrating solidarity.

If you feel a drive to do something about the environment, immigrants’ rights, healthcare, Black Lives Matter, indigenous rights, reducing bullying, increasing a culture of peace and inclusion, or any other issues to make this community better, please come to this gathering and learn about the ways you can participate! Whether you are a long time activist or have never attended a rally in your life, your contributions matter!

Confirmed organizations (more to come!):

* Anti-Assault & Hate Crime Intervention Trainings
* Arab Resource and Organizing Center
* Asian Americans Advancing Justice- Asian Law Caucus
* Beyond Separation
* CAIR- Council on American-Islamic Relations
* Centro Legal de la Raza
* CFGF Consulting (restorative justice services for communities, families, government & faith-based agencies)
* CircleUp Education
* Community Democracy Project
* East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
* Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy
* First Christian Church of Oakland
* Food First
* The Green Life at San Quentin
* Healthcare for All- California
* HeartMath Trainings
* Jewish Voice for Peace
* Mustard Seed Immigration Law
* Network for Spiritual Progressives
* Niroga Institute
* Nueva Esperanza
* Oakland Peace Ambassadors
* Oakland Peace Center
* Oakland Women’s Center (of Women’s Centers International)
* Peer Counseling Collective at the Berkeley Free Clinic
* The Rotary Club Boat House
* Soul Shoppe
* Sunflower Alliance
* SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Oakland/Bay Area
* United Roots
* Urban Peace Movement
* White Awake

Benefit show for the Land Action 4 legal defense fund. The courts are really dragging us through the wringer…. So far, our estimated out of pocket expense is about $10k and that is with all of our lawyers donating all of their time!!

So, what do we do? Throw a parrrrrty!!!!!

Come out for some slammingly stellar musical performances, drinks, friends and all the good stuff.

$8-$28 Suggested and highly appreciated donation
notaflof

The line up:

Leftover Crack
http://www.leftovercrack.rocks/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aIf5_U5OG4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhucBTHN4yU

Mystic Priestess
https://www.facebook.com/MysticPriestess777/?fref=ts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi9-iGpr834

Kicker
http://kickersucks.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MPFQE5h-lE

Rapid Decline
https://rapiddecline1.bandcamp.com/releases

Aninako (formerly Eskapo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckpUBRFIU0s

You are invited to the next lecture featuring Civil Rights Lawyer, Mr. Fred Gray from Tuskegee, Alabama. Mr. Gray was the lawyer for Rosa Parks, and the Montgomery Improvement Association. He was also Dr. King’s personal lawyer. Mr. Gray continues practicing law today, and he has been integrally involved in the struggles to transform public schools, colleges, and universities into exemplars of educational democracy.

A benefit for NEED (Berkeley’s needle exchange) and the Radical Mental Health Collective.

• Space Toilet
• Skank Bank
• Film: OASIS… One Mission: Nobody Dies From Hep C” followed by Q&A with filmmaker
• I-MAN BANJO
• Invisible Cinema

Host: La Peña and the Free Land Project

‘
Thangs Taken: Rethinking Thanksgiving is an annual cultural arts event that brings Native and non-Native artists, activists and communities together to explore the complex history of Thanksgiving and to acknowledge the legacy of U.S. colonialism and genocide against Native Americans.
More Info
There’s also a program for kids & families, 10:00 – 11:00 am

More info

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall.  If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph.  If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  (In prior years we have agreed to meet at 4:00 PM during summer hours, that is, once Daylight Savings Time goes back into effect).

On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five 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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (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

Join us on November 20th for a panel discussion focused on reimagining the police and prison systems.

(We will continue to update this event with additional speaker information. If you’re interested in being a part of the panel, please email us at communitydemocracyproject@gmail.com)

As always, light refreshments will be provided. Immediately following the discussion, we will hold our weekly strategy meeting during which we will discuss our campaign to bring participatory budgeting to Oakland. Read the full text of our initiative at communitydemocracyproject.org
______________________________________________
Speakers:

Harrison Seuga with Asian Prisoner Support Committee, who supports AAPI prisoners & raises awareness about mass incarceration.

Cynthia Chandler with Justice Now, a prison abolitionist and human rights organization she co-founded to expose and shape successful legislation to ameliorate California’s coercive sterilization of hundreds of women in prison over the last decade.

More info: https://www.facebook.com/events/660904947412074/

Organized by: Poor Magazine, Prensa, POBRE, Homefullness & Idle No More SF Bay

Last night the Morton County Sherriff’s Department violated the human rights of Water Protectors in North Dakota and unjured 167 of our relatives. Today, we stand in solidarity and prayer with our relatives on the front lines of protecting the Missouri River.

Details rom the Indigenous Environmental Network:”On November 20th at approximately 6PM CST over 100 Water Protectors from the Oceti Sakowin and Sacred Stone Camps mobilized to a nearby bridge to remove a barricade that was built by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department and the State of North Dakota. This barricade, built after law enforcement raided the 1851 treaty camp, not only restricts North Dakota residents from using the 1806 freely but also puts the community of Cannon Ball, the camps, and the Standing Rock Tribe at risk as emergency services are unable to use that highway.

Water Protectors used a semi-truck to remove two burnt military trucks from the road and were successful at removing one truck from the bridge before police began to attack Water Protectors with tear gas, water canons, mace, rubber bullets, and sound cannons.

At 1:30am CST the Indigenous Rising Media team acquired an update from the Oceti Sakowin Medic team that nearly 200 people were injured, 12 people were hospitalized for head injuries, and one elder went into cardiac arrest at the front lines. At this time, law enforcement was still firing rubber bullets and the water cannon at Water Protectors. About 500 Water protectors gathered at the peak of the non-violent direct action.”

Today we stand in solidarity and prayer with our relatives on the frontlines. We pray for their healing, safety, courage in the face of horrendous acts of violence on the part of the Morton County Sheriff Department.

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!

Film: “13th” by Ava DuVernay

The words of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution were supposed to guarantee that slavery and involuntary servitude effectively were outlawed. With the exception of punishment for a crime where the “party shall have been convicted.” That’s the loophole. And as detailed in Ava DuVernay’s “The 13th”, the injustice system in America has not changed all that much since the earliest days of slavery. The statistics DuVernay puts onscreen say it all: African-Americans make up 6.5% of the U.S. population but a whopping 40% of the prison population  in a country with the highest level of incarceration in the world; up more than tenfold since 1970 and existing mostly to put away black and Latino men.

It all comes down to money. That was the driving force in the beginning, when slavery effectively was ended, but the South had to figure out a way to balance the economics when suddenly short about 4 million slaves. Using the loophole in the 13th Amendment, Southerners started putting blacks in prisons for petty reasons and used them as a workforce without calling them “slaves.” Today the practice is very much alive, overcrowding our prisons and filling them with minorities, the most vulnerable and underprivileged among us. Private prisons, which have become a hot-button political issue, exist to make money off incarceration, as do other factors in a system that is rigged against the poorer elements of our society.

“The 13th” is a remarkable denunciation of that system, detailing its beginnings with the end of slavery, right through the Jim Crow South, the Civil Rights movement and today’s presidential election and the seething white anger and racism on view at Donald Trump rallies. Experts, historians, and politicians such as Angela Davis, Senator Corey Booker, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Michelle Alexander, Van Jones, and the likes of Newt Gingrich explain the sorry state of incarceration today. DuVernay lays out the case that “Black lives matter” and that this movement contains a human obligation to not only understand the history, but to do something about it.

Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away.

Trudell is a 2005 documentary film about American Indian activist and poet John Trudell. The film traces Trudell’s life from his childhood in Omaha, Nebraska, through his role as a leader of the American Indian Movement. It also covers his rebirth as amusician and spoken word poet after his wife died in a house fire suspected as arson.

Heather Rae produced and directed the film, which took her more than a decade to complete. Trudell aired nationally in theU.S. on April 11, 2006 as part of the Independent Lens series on PBS.

Join with Indigenous activists and allies for an evening of solidarity with a report back panel, short film, speakers, and cultural performances as we come together to Stand With Standing Rock and raise funds to support the Water Protectors. Mni Wiconi-Water is Life – 100% of the donations will go to the people of Standing Rock.