Calendar
EVICTION SUPPORT NEEDED Thu & Fri starting 8am
All Lake Merritt camps getting booted. Bring coffee, bkfst, trashbags, lunch. Starting at columns @Lakeshore— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) February 13, 2019
Join us this Thursday at the BART Board mtg and next week to celebrate the people that made #ReclaimMLKOak possible .
Last month the Oakland City Council unanimously approved a resolution to name an unnamed street near Fruitvale Station as Oscar Grant Way. Join us and Oscar Grant’s family this Thursday at the BART Board of Directors meeting to make sure they approve the motion!
Huge THANK YOU to everyone that came out last month to support the 5th Annual People’s March to Reclaim King’s Legacy!
It was a beautiful day with about 3,000 people marching in the streets, an amazing people’s concert and a deep healing ritual lead by Lead to Life to close in the evening.
Check out more photos by the talented Amir Saadiq of that day.
We lifted up the demands of the people’s platform, held People’s Assemblies on housing, education, inter-communal violence, development, use of force, and sanctuary for all.
- ALAMEDA COUNTY Board of Supervisors Public Protection Committee meeting
- ENTIRE AGENDA HERE
- -FIRE DRONES- Several years back, Alameda County residents , because of privacy concerns, opposed a plan by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department to use “small unmanned aerial systems” AKA drones to fight crime. Ultimately the drones were purchased and a policy for its use was crafted by residents and law enforcement. Now, the Alameda County Fire Department wants its own policy to use drones to fight fires. The early stages of a policy comes before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Public Protection Committee on Thursday morning. Over the past year, Alameda County Fire has used the Sheriff’s drones to access blazes on several occasions in the county. Alameda County Sheriff’s drones were also used recently to aid in recent Northern California wildfires. The Fire Department hopes to have a policy is placed by October of this year.
Can’t Build Our Way Out
We invite our allies, the media, government staff, and funders to hear from local community groups working to house low-income people and people of color—who have experienced consecutive waves of housing crises—and built lasting solutions in the process. We will host a moderated panel to amplify the voices and accomplishments of Serve the People San Jose, The Village, and others. Panelists will discuss the importance and potential of public land, community land trusts, and permanently affordable housing structures. The event is free, but please register here, so we can provide coffee and light refreshments.
Coffee and light refreshments will be served.
If you have any questions, please contact Leslie at leslie@urbanhabitat.org.
This Valentine’s Day, we’re turning up the pressure on Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase in San Francisco. Will you join us? Click here to RSVP.
- What: Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase: Break up with private prisons or we’ll break up with you (Rally and petition delivery)
Sixty percent of the immigrants the Trump administration locked up are being held in private prisons built by companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase finance billions of dollars of their debt. All these banks need to do is stop providing loans to these companies and the private prisons they run would not be able to function.
Now is the time to use our power as customers and consumers to force these banks to act. Join us to make our demands clear to Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase on Valentine’s Day.
If Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase don’t take action to help end the criminalization and detainment of Black and Brown communities, we will by pledging and encouraging others to break up with them and switch to banks that actually respect our communities.
Click the link below to RSVP for the action in San Francisco this Thursday.
https://www.facebook.com/events/395765747898393/
On Valentine’s Day, join Mujeres Unidas y Activas, La Colectiva de Mujeres, MomsRising, Bay Resistance, Candide Group, Hand in Hand, the national FamiliesBelongTogether Coalition and others to ask WellsFargo and JPMorgan Chase To Break Up with Private Prisons and Immigration Detention Centers!
While professing respect for human rights, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase continue to fund GEO Group and CoreCivic; the biggest operators of private prisons and immigrant detention centers. Let’s tell Jamie Dimon (Chase) and Timothy Sloan (Wells) that we’re not afraid to align our money with our values. If Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase don’t take action, we will — by pledging to, and/or encouraging others to, break up with Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase and switch to banks that actually respect our communities instead!
Can’t come on the 14th at noon, but want to take action- join a bank branch action near you on the 14, 15, or 15th by signing up here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/show-love-this-valentines-day
EVICTION SUPPORT NEEDED Thu & Fri starting 8am
All Lake Merritt camps getting booted. Bring coffee, bkfst, trashbags, lunch. Starting at columns @Lakeshore— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) February 13, 2019
A lot of people have not heard in depth details of what people who are in the circumstance of not having a house to live in, go through. Join us at the Berkeley Animal Rights Center for a personal presentation from Robin Housley about that subject exactly with a surprise guest.
This surprise guest, due to a life threatening illness, lost their job while getting medical treatment and subsequently lost their place of residence. They were living without a house for nearly three years on the streets, primarily in San Francisco and the East Bay Area, before being able to get back into permanent housing. They will speak about their experience and where it has lead them.
Robin Housley has recently lived without a house spending around 2 years on the streets of Berkeley and is still active in being friends with individuals he met on his journey. He will be speaking about some of his activism, experiences and transformations throughout living without a house that forced a light in parts of him and society at large.
This is a DINNER SHARE event! Please bring a completely vegan dinner dish or side dish or drink to this event. Thank you all so much and we hope to see you there.
Please be on time, so we can start the meeting early. We’ll be discussing and planning our next direct action for the month of February, and sharing community updates.
The director sets out to tell the story of the rise and fall of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense by weaving together rare archival footage, interviews with ex-Panthers and others, and music.
Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F56O3kZ9qr0
https://www.revolutionbooks.org/
The Oakland Police Commission is holding it’s first special public hearing. The commissioners decided to focus on homelessness. #OakMtg pic.twitter.com/QA2pZ2HhQC
— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) February 2, 2019
In San Francisco we celebrate Valentine’s Week – the week of love and friendship – with an annual Nude Valentine Parade. Why nude? Because it’s much more interesting and fun that way, and because nudity and love go well together. But more importantly, this is a way to reduce the harm that prudishness does to our society.
The parade starts in the Castro District – once famous as the nation’s center of gay love – and ends in the Haight-Ashbury District – where the Summer of Love took place in the year 1967.
We will gather at Jane Warner Plaza (corner of Castro and Market Streets) at noon on Feb 16 (the Saturday following Valentine’s Day). We will walk from the plaza to Haight Street, via a mostly level route (uphill portions are not very steep). The parade ends at Haight and Stanyan Streets.
The parade itself takes about an hour, but we have the option to stay until 4pm on the sidewalks along Haight Street. Friendly visitors to the Haight-Ashbury are usually eager to chat and have their pictures taken with public nudists.
The parade is free for anyone to join, to follow, or to watch. Anyone can participate –visitors and locals, all genders, all ages. Any degree of nudity is legal at this event, and many participants will only be wearing shoes.
In the spirit of grief, love, and compassion, we will gather to honor Earth and to affirm our commitment to rebel nonviolently against government inaction on climate change. The gathering is the first step in a series of XR events this spring as we build up to International Rebellion Week in April. Please join us and join the rebellion!
This event will include a climate ribbon ceremony, a silent march, art & music and amazing speakers including:
– Joanna Macy, author of Active Hope
– Pennie Opal Plant of Idle No More
– Rhiannon Hewitt, who performed at the Pathway to Paris
– Ryan Rising of Permaculture Action Network
Please help us fill the amphitheater by spreading the word to your friends, colleagues and family members on social media. Also, please ask them to sign up on our Action Network page for updates on future actions.
Help us turn up the noise on Twitter by using the hashtag #XRBayArea and click “attending” on this Facebook event.
BRING:
A CANDLE: Please bring A CANDLE, one for each person coming. It may be windy, so we suggest a candle in a glass, or a taper candle with an improvised shield – we trust your ingenuity.
GENERAL: This is an outdoor event, so layers, an umbrella and comfortable shoes, water and your own snacks. We gather rain and shine.
KIDS: This is a kid friendly event, though there will not be specific programming for children.
ART: We have created some inspiring art for this event. We encourage everyone to create your own additional signs, banners, puppets, etc – we love your style!
WHO WE ARE:
We are the Extinction Rebellion, an international nonviolent direct action movement that represents nothing less than radical love at work. We aim to drive radical change, through nonviolent resistance, in order to avert climate breakdown and minimize the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse. In a matter of a few months, XR has sprouted up in more than 200 locations around the world and it continues to grow.
We rebel because our governments’ continued submission to fossil fuel interests is setting us on the path to climate change catastrophe and extinction. We rebel because we understand that racial healing and climate justice are inextricably linked. The communities most harmed by climate change — indigenous nations, poor communities, front line communities of color — are the ones least responsible for producing it. We rebel because the systems that have transformed our climate are fundamentally unjust. We rebel because we are in dire need of broad-based, grassroots resistance and collaboration for resilience amid deep social divisions and runaway climate change. We rebel because our kinship with all life on Earth requires us to do so.
For more information, message XR Coordination through the FB page.
On January 22nd Mike Pence made a phone call to opposition politician Juan Guaidó, essentially offering him the presidency of Venezuela. The next day, Guaidó swore an oath in which he appointed himself “Interim President of Venezuela.” Minutes later, Donald Trump officially recognized that self-appointment, in effect instigating a coup against the elected Bolivarian government of Nicholas Maduro. Since then, the mainstream corporate media has been supporting the coup, flooding the air waves and Internet with stories about chaos, poverty, corruption, and violence in Venezuela, exclusively covering anti-government marches, and showing clips of world leaders calling for the overthrow of the Venezuelan government.
Yet in a poll conducted a little more than a week before, 81% of Venezuelans had never even heard of the 35-year-old Guaido! Not mentioned in these news reports are the extremely popular education, health care, and housing programs provided by the Venezuelan government, that the U.S. government has imposed draconian economic sanctions on Venezuela, and that the U.S. has openly spent tens of millions of dollars supporting violent opposition groups. Also not mentioned is that despite all of this, Maduro won re-election in May and thousands have been marching throughout Venezuela in support of the government since the attempted coup; almost every day.
Donald Trump has threatened to use “all options, including military” against Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves that John Bolton has openly said best belong in the hands of American oil companies. The attack on Venezuela foreshadows forthcoming attacks on Cuba, Iran, and Nicaragua, as well as attacks on anyone here in the U.S. who dares to oppose this drive for domination and destruction of yet another country.
Come to a presentation and discussion to find out what’s really happening in Venezuela.
Speakers: Alicia Jrapko, Task Force on the Americas; Mehmet Bayram, Independent Journalist, Allan Miller, Economist, Activist & Writer.
Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and future plans and identify upcoming actions we can take to fight fossil fuels and work for a just and sustainable world. Old friends and newcomers are equally welcome. We need your participation and your voice! Come early to hang out and share a potluck lunch.
12:30 potluck lunch
Meeting 1-3
ALTERNATIVES TO POLICING WORKSHOP 2
Let’s talk about the “common sense” ideas about crime, morality, and safety that shape and limit how we think about policing and community safety. Many of these ideas are profoundly influenced by a particular brand of Christianity that has dominated in this country, a version of the faith that served to justify genocide and slavery and continues to uphold white supremacy in ways that are sometimes overt but more often subtle and even innocuous-seeming. How can we begin to call these “common sense” ideas into question so that we can have a different conversation?
In this interactive workshop, we will take a deep dive into both the actual history of policing and the narratives and ideologies that have shaped it. Content will include viewing and discussion of segments from two webinars, one offered by Andrea Ritchie on January 28, 2019 on the History of Policing, and one offered by SoulForce on January 8, 2018 on Christian Supremacy and Policing, both through SURJ-Faith.
Andrea Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant and police misconduct attorney and organizer who has engaged in extensive research, writing, and advocacy around criminalization of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color over the past two decades. She recently published Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color now available from Beacon Press. Read more about her and her work here: http://andreajritchie.com/bio/
SoulForce is an LGBTQI organization that sabotages Christian Supremacy through radical analysis, spiritual healing and strategic direct action. Their website reads: “Christian Supremacy is not new; the project of empire has snatched Christianity and put it into service for hundreds of years, especially in the United States and its business partners. Calling out Christian Supremacy means recognizing that the struggles against white supremacy, capitalism, and (neo)colonization – to name a few – are intricately tied to how certain sectors and expressions of Christianity are driven by power over, not justice. We believe consciousness of how this kind of religion works in the United States – its language, its cultural plumb lines, its relationship to social and financial power, its stated and unstated values – tells a more honest story of how this country came to be.”
Facilitators will be Nichola Torbett and Marcia Lovelace.
We will also ground ourselves in our values and agreements, which are rooted in transformative justice, and in our commitment to caring for our hearts, minds, and spirits as we do this work.
By donation; no one turned away for lack of funds.
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP SERIES
A growing coalition of organizations in the Bay Area is coming together to explore alternatives to calling the police to our campuses and into our neighborhoods. Over the coming year, we will be offering a series of workshops to explore alternatives to calling the police. Some of these workshops, like this one, will provide deepening analysis and a grounding in alternative ways of thinking about safety. Others will provide practical skills. All of them will lift up a transformative justice framework and emphasize the importance of self care.
The Coalition includes First Congregational Church of Oakland, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Agape Fellowship, Qal’bu Maryam, Jewish Voice for Peace, the East Bay Meditation Center, Skyline Community Church, Oakland Peace Center, Oakland LBGTQ Community Center, KinFolkz, the Omni Collective, and Black Organizing Project. We are eager to partner with additional organizations so please contact us if you are interested!
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
- 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
Liberated Lens will host a free film series commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the first Africans brought to present day America. The series will feature an event every third Sunday of the month starting February, for Black History Month, and ending in August, which marks the quadricentennial.
For the first event of the series we will show “Nightjohn” and have a discussion with Natalie Baszile, author of a novel, “Queen Sugar”.
NIGHTJOHN:
Sarny, a 12-year-old slave girl in the South, faces a relatively hopeless life. Her chief duties at the plantation of Clel Waller are serving at table, spitting tobacco juice on roses to prevent bugs, and secretly conveying intimate messages between Waller’s wife, Callie, and Dr. Chamberlaine. Then Nightjohn, a former runaway slave arrives. In exchange for a pinch of tobacco, Nightjohn secretly begins to teach Sarny to read and write, a crime punishable by death. “Words,” he says, “are freedom.
“Queen Sugar”
Queen Sugar is a novel written by Natalie Baszile, her first published novel. It is a mother-daughter story of reinvention. It tells the story about a woman, who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana. The novel was adapted as a drama television series on Oprah’s network, directed by Ava DuVernay (“Selma”, “13th”)
CANCELLED.
The birthplace of our Chicago-based comrade Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. is being targeted for foreclosure. It’s time to turn out to preserve the home where Mama Akua Njeri, formerly known as Deborah Johnson, raised her son and from where they carry on the Panther legacy of organizing their community to bring an end to predatory smash and grab tactics that cause so many to suffer in their community.
Join Community Ready Corps (Allies and Accomplices) for a conversation between community activist Cat Brooks and Mama Akua as they talk about the ongoing work and calling of Black women and girls who are at the center of this year’s #BlackSolidarityWeek.
All proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Black Solidarity Fund and will be used to support the efforts to #SaveTheHamptonHouse. Please bring your wallet and be prepared to make a donation or a pledge so that we can send Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and Mama Akua home to Chicago feeling our love and support.
Tickets are sliding scale from $5-$80, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. You will be able to purchase tickets at the door, but space will be reserved for people who purchase tickets in advance (scroll down). Tickets purchased at the door will be $5-$100.
Accessibility Information
Childcare and interpretation for Spanish and ASL provided by reservation. Please come scent-free. Venue is ADA accessible, though not fully scent-free. A scent-free, ADA-accessible bathroom is provided.
The birthplace of freedom fighter Chairman Fred Hampton is being targeted for foreclosure. Without our support, this monument to the radical legacy of the Black Panthers will be another casualty of the big banks. The Chicago community will also lose a key organizing space that currently hosts the Black Panther Cubs among other survival programs.
Join Community Ready Corps (Allies) for a special night of political education and material support for the work of Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and Mama Akua Njeri. Last year you heard from them at our “Surviving Smash & Grab” event as part of #BlackSolidarityWeek. They opened up about the assassination of twenty-one-year-old Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton Sr. just 18 months after FBI Director Edgar Hoover issued this directive:
“Prevent the Coalition of militant black nationalist groups…An effective coalition might be the first step toward a real “Mau Mau” in America, the beginning of a true black revolution.”
This year we’ll learn about the work of the Chicago Black Panther Party today, from the Panther Cubs program for youth to plans for a museum documenting the legacy of freedom fighter Chairman Fred Hampton.
This event is a fundraiser meant to solicit material support for the effort to preserve and protect the birthplace of Chairman Fred Hampton from the Oakland left. Please bring your wallet and help us send Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. and Mama Akua home to Chicago feeling our love and support.