The Social Justice Symposium (SJS) is a student-organized event that serves as space for the community to meet and discuss social justice work in the Bay Area.
This year, our keynote speaker is George Galvis. Galvis holds both a Bachelor of Arts in Ethnic Studies and a Master’s in City Planning from UC Berkeley where he was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar and Public Policy & International Affairs (PPIA) Fellow. Galvis is the co-founder and executive director of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ, pronounced courage). Galvis advocates for at-risk youth, prisoners and formerly imprisoned individuals with children. He has led statewide advocacy efforts to transform punitive school and juvenile justice policies that disparately impact youth of color and has developed traditional rites of passage programs as healthy alternatives to gang violence.
The owner of the Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland has added two free morning screenings of “The Manchurian Candidate” this weekend, citing escalating Russia collusion allegations against President Trump.
Grand Lake owner Allen Michaan has been open about his left-leaning political stances in the past, often expressing them in giant letters on the theater’s marquee — on Thanksgiving he crafted an anti-Trump message that ended “JAIL TO THE CHIEF!!”
Michaan said he set up the screenings, at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 26-27, “in honor of the cascading revelations regarding our treasonous president.”
Oakland theater owner, citing Trump, screens ‘Manchurian Candidate’ for free
Kamala Harris for President has chosen Oakland for her initial Campaign Launch Rally on January 27, 12:00pm.
What are you going to do, Oakland, when Kamala Harris sets up shop in our town to push her phony “progressive prosecutor” schtick? Her campaign slogan at this point is “Kamala Harris for the People,” but we know she is anything but a candidate for the people, all of the people, those who lost their homes to predatory banks, for instance. She claims to be “tough, principled, fearless,” but we know none of that is true. She’s certainly not tough on the wealthy and powerful. She’s just another ambitious corpocrat trying to pretend she’s further to the left than she’s ever actually been.
She’s pitching herself as “a lifelong public safety and civil rights leader” and it’s time we stand up to say, “hell no.” Jailing people of color does not equal public safety and prosecutors violating defendants’ rights is not civil rights. Among the early staff members she has chosen include her sister Maya Harris, who was a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. We don’t need any more establishment democrats, and definitely not in prosecutor’s clothing.
Her main campaign headquarters will be in Baltimore, but her West Coast operations will be run out of Oakland. Let’s literally run her out of Oakland by not letting her peddle her lies here unchallenged. She doesn’t get to claim her record has been “taking on the Wall Street Banks for middle-class homeowners” without being mocked in public.
This is not a listing for an organized protest at the campaign kick-off rally, but a call for concerned citizens and organizations to make plans to resist her campaign, starting at the very first event. Bare minimum, show up on January 27 with signs and literature to let Kamala stans know how unacceptable this cop is as a presidential candidate. Let her followers on social media know the truth when she spews lies.
When you see photographs of Harris laughing, remember she’s laughing at you, especially if you fall for her liberal claptrap.
Learn more:
A thread on Kamala Harris’s terrible record on criminal justice
https://twitter.com/Copmala/status/1085688776381419520
Kamala Harris: can a ‘top cop’ win over progressives in 2020?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/19/kamala-harris-2020-election-top-cop-prosecutor
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. (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months, once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).
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
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
Collection of work from the Zapatista territory by Caitlon Manning
Eastwind Books of Berkeley and Oakland Asian Cultural Center welcomeLAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI is the dramatic life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China’s 1949 Communist revolution—a heartrending precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today.
Shanghai has historically been China’s jewel, its richest, most modern and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao’s proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, members of the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus have revealed their stories to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds of exiles about their journey through one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. From these moving accounts, Zia weaves together the stories of four young Shanghai residents who wrestled with the decision to abandon everything for an uncertain life as refugees in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States.
Helen Zia is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, a finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize,. Zia is the co-author, with Wen Ho Lee, of My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused of Being a Spy. She is also a former executive editor of Ms. magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from the City University of New York School of Law and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
*Angelina Gomez Lopez
2017, 11:06
by Caitlin Manning and Joe Bender
Angelina Gomez Lopez, an indigenous woman potter from Amatenango, Chiapas, is part of “the Resistance”. Her journey towards liberation began when she joined a women’s group organized by the Diocesian Coordination of Women.
*Ik’ti Jme ‘tike (Dark Moon)
2013, 50:25
Experimental documentary by Ronyk and Thomas John
The daily life of Maya poet Angelina Suyul is portrayed using an unconventional audiovisual language that approaches both the personality and identity of its female protagonist as well as the meanings of her poetry.
The screening will be followed by Q and A with the filmmakers and a discussion on the current situation in Chiapas with members of the Chiapas Support Committee.
Chiapas Support Committee will be selling crafts by Zapatista artisans. Profits from the sales, and half of the donations at the door, will go towards a fund to build schools in Zapatista territory. For more info on this project and for updated information on Zapatistas, see https://chiapas-support.org/
Doors open at 4:30, films start at 5pm.
Say NO to the CPUC! The California Public Utilities Commission has scheduled a surprise emergency hearing to allow PG&E to pursue debtor-in-possession financing.
Please come to the CPUC Auditorium at 505 Van Ness to speak against giving PG&E a $6 billion bailout and allowing it to duck its debts from last year’s Camp Fire.
The first item is to determine an emergency situation under which the normal 10-day agenda notice can be waived according to Gov’t Code 11125.5(b). The second and third items grant exemptions from PUC Code sections to allow PG&E to do this.
Videocast is at http://www.adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc/
The Oakland School Board has just scheduled a special meeting (less than 72 hours notice) for 6pm on Monday with only one item on the agenda, a final vote in the closure of ROOTS Middle School. The school board can not be allowed to displace our students and families from their neighborhood school. We are asking everyone to help, even if you don’t live in Oakland.
1. Please email the Oakland School Board and ask them to keep ROOTS open and demand that any “redesign” of the school can not displace any of the current students.
Aimee.eng [at] ousd.org
Jody.london [at] ousd.org
Jumoke.hintonhodge [at] ousd.org
Gary.yee [at] ousd.org
Shanthi.gonzales [at] ousd.org
Roseann.torres [at] ousd.org
James.harris [at] ousd.org
2. Please sign and share the community petition. We want people outside of Oakland to also sign. There are already over 2700 signatures and we want to show maximum support when it’s submitted to the school board on Monday.
https://www.change.org/p/keeppublicschoolsopen-gmail-com-keep-our-neighborhood-public-schools-open-f805c663-e4b0-49d6-8837-bc1863c4a0ee?recruiter=926411481&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition
3. Attend Monday’s 6pm school board meeting at La Escuelita 1050 2nd Ave. The ROOTS closure is the only item on the agenda. You can also submit an Ecomment on the school board website: https://ousd.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
4. We need legal help and advice. If the school board votes to close ROOTS we will be filing an injunction and we’ll need some help and guidance.
Please help us save ROOTS and send a message to the school board that we will not accept the continued closure and displacement of our neighborhood public schools. Thanks.
#NoCutsNoClosures
#EraseTheBoard
#FailureByDesign
#WeChoose
Here’s the link to the presentation: https://ousd.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6991988&GUID=580873AF-48BE-4507-BF01-6E0C7CDBEF1D
And the resolution: https://ousd.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6991989&GUID=EF8774C2-43AA-418C-B2C7-3AAE5B440C7A
Imagine. A vision of thriving communities across the globe. So much has been known of aspects of this vision for 20 years, 50 years, and even centuries. Why have we not made more progress?
Our Historic Moment offers a vision for the world, in both book and video form, that is rooted in The Natural Step and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, weaving together renewable resource use, ecological health, radical inclusivity and equity. Our Historic Moment explores the barriers to greater progress that we’ve encountered to date to achieving this vision, and offers solutions for positive change, looking at the most strategic places to apply our efforts. At heart, Our Historic Moment encourages big picture thinking, and encourages us to see our roles within the greater framework.
Please join us and contribute to the discussion!
Join the next meeting of the Sunrise Movement, an army of young people fighting to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs.
And/or attend one of their Bay Area Green New Deal launch parties to kick off the local Green New Deal campaign.
NOTE: If you no longer qualify as a youth, please pass this on to young people you know.
See the readings that we’ll be discussing after a brief introduction from our members.
Join the pioneering environmental justice organization West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project for its annual fundraiser/holiday party/celebration of the birthday of its founder, Ms Margaret Gordon.
The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project has led the community of West Oakland in fights against environmental racism for many years. They also throw a great party, featuring fun, music, and food (gumbo, vegan gumbo, red beans and rice, salad and dessert).
And raffle tickets
The encampment at E 12th & 23rd Ave got eviction notice, happening over a week:
Thursday 1/31
Friday 2/1
Thurs 2/7
Fri 2/8.We’re asking for folks to come for eviction support at 8 am each day – bringing coffee, breakfast, and doing copwatch/documentation.
— The Village, Oakland (@VillageOakland) January 29, 2019
JOINT WALK‐IN CLINICS with Public Defender and EBCLC
*Please bring your statewide CA DOJ RAP sheet
if you have it or we can give information at clinic*
We may be able to help with:
Dismissal of Conviction – PC 1203.4
Felony Reduction / Prop 47 and 64 Relief
Early Termination of Probation
Certificate of Rehabilitation
Sealing Arrest Record – Factual Innocence
Juvenile Record Sealing
Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants and
Survivors of Human Trafficking
Employment denials due to criminal background
reports
Occupational Licensing Denials(DSS, Security
Guard)
Voting Rights, Jury Service Rights
We are stopping the destruction of trees and trying to stop the construction of housing. Trying to give land back to Ohlone, who are a landless tribe
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents
advance tickets: $12: brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006
or Pegasus Books (3 sites), Books Inc (Berkeley), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore,
East Bay Books Mrs. Dalloway’s
$15 door
Dahr Jamail has journeyed along many of the geographical front lines of our environmental crisis, from Alaska to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the Amazon rain forest, to discover the consequences of the loss of ice to nature and to humans. The End of Ice is the firsthand chronicle of his travels, during which he scaled Denali, the highest peak in North America, swam in warm crystal waters around Pacific coral reefs, explored the tundra of St. Paul Island and spoke with some of the last subsistence seal-hunters of the Bering Sea. Accompanied by climate scientists and people whose families for centuries have fished and farmed in the various places he visits, Dahr begins to accept the dark fact that earth is almost certainly in a hospice situation. Ironically, this renews his passion for the planet’s wild places, cherishing the earth in an entirely new way. Like no other book, The End of Ice offers a true narrative that includes photographs throughout by Dahr of his journey across the world, of the catastrophic reality of our predicament, and the incalculable necessity of relishing this vulnerable planet while it is still possible. The author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, Dahr is an accomplished mountaineer and climbing guide. He has won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism and the Izzy ‘Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.
Antonia Juhasz is a leading energy analyst, author, and investigative journalist specializing in oil. An award-winning writer, her articles appear in Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, CNN.com, The Nation, Ms., The Advocate, and many more. Antonia is the author of three books: Black Tide (2011), The Tyranny of Oil (2008), and The Bush Agenda (2006). Her investigations have taken her a mile below the ocean surface in the Gulf of Mexico to the rainforests of the Ecuadoran Amazon, from the deserts of Afghanistan to the fracking fields of North Dakota, from the Alaskan Arctic to the beaches of Santa Barbara, and many more places in between. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelors Degree in Public Policy from Brown University. She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors. Antonia founded and runs the (Un)Covering Oil Investigative Reporting Program. She delivered the lecture, “Covering Catastrophe: Environmental Destruction and Resistance in the Age of Trump,” at Yale in November 2017. Antonia reported from Standing Rock on the Dakota Access Pipeline for Pacific Standard Magazine and Grist. She completed a series of six articles for Newsweek on the UN Paris climate talks, reporting from Alaska, North Dakota and Paris. Recently she co-hosted KPFA Radio’s Up/Front show.
KPFA benefit
The encampment at E 12th & 23rd Ave got eviction notice, happening over a week:
Thursday 1/31
Friday 2/1
Thurs 2/7
Fri 2/8.We’re asking for folks to come for eviction support at 8 am each day – bringing coffee, breakfast, and doing copwatch/documentation.
— The Village, Oakland (@VillageOakland) January 29, 2019
Location is ADA accessible
The Center for the Study of Law and Society is pleased to announce
The CSLS Special Book Event
Tony Platt, CSLS Distinguished Affiliated Scholar, Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime & Punishment in the United States (St. Martin’s Press, January 2019)
Moderated by: Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law, and Faculty Director, Center for the Study of Law & Society, UC Berkeley
Comments by: Rebecca McLennan, Professor of History, UC Berkeley
Angela Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, UC Santa Cruz
Jonathan Simon, Faculty Director
Rosann Greenspan, Executive Director