Democratic Socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are raising the expectations of millions of people across the United States and bringing them into a political awakening. The membership of DSA, the largest socialist organization in the United States, is rapidly growing by the thousands. Millions of everyday people are calling for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal rent control, and more.

But what is democratic socialism? What does it mean to be a member of DSA?

Let’s talk about it.

Join us to discuss what our political moment calls for, make new friends, and get plugged into our fight for democratic control of the things that we need for all of us to live a dignified life.

Please RSVP to get the Zoom link and other information.

Public Banking Gathers Momentum in 2020

   Public Banking is a root solution that helps all other solutions from healthcare and COVID-19 to a real Green New Deal. Public banks partner with community banks and serve the interest of the public, not Wall Street. The 100-year-old Bank of North Dakota is currently the only state bank, but this year that could change. In fall of 2019 California passed a law that established a pathway for public banks at all levels from municipal to state. Now in 2020, due to the COVID-19 crisis, more possibilities have opened up. The Public Banking Institute sent a letter to the Governors and Treasurers of all states, outlining the steps that can be taken to both deal with the short term crisis, and change the system for the long-term. We’ll talk about the opportunities we have in front of us right now.

Laura Wells ran as the Green Party candidate for Governor in 2010 on a platform of Public Banking and “Tax the Rich” by reforming Prop 13.

LOG-IN INFORMATION

Please note that the invitation SAYS 10:30, however, the meeting will be opened up at 10:15 for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi etc. We intend to start the presentation by 10:35.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85783667404…

Meeting ID: 857 8366 7404
Password: 746872
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k8svz6HE6

North Oakland Neighbors! We are doing our distribution again and we would love your support for these dates:

Sunday 5.17 (Donations) 11am-1pm
Wednesday 5.20 (Donations) 3pm-5pm
Sunday 5.24 (Donations) 11am-1pm
Wednesday 5.27 (Donations) 3pm-5pm
Sunday 5.31 (Distribution) 10am-5pm

Wednesdays & Sundays (5/17, 20, 24, 27):

We are asking OUR HOUSED neighbors to contribute hygiene supplies, canned food, bottled water, rain gear, tarps, garbage bags, $$ et al to be redistributed on Sunday May 31st to encampments in North Oakland dealing with the COVID 19. We will sanitize and package your donations add a hot packaged meal and fresh fruit to the care kits to be distributed to North Oakland Encampments and surrounding encampments.

In order to properly sanitize and maintain social distancing we are collective the materials on April 26th &29th and aiming to distribute 500 hot meals and care kits on May 31st. Overflow resources will be distributed by sister orgs throughout Oakland.

To donate goods or volunteer please sign up here! :
https://forms.gle/gihhATtsXYyiNsVC9

Donate $$: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2956825734339312/2956825774339308/

***We need YOUR HELP!!!! If you have any of the items below that you can donate to your unhoused neighbors please do one of the following things:

-Drop off at 4799 Shattuck Ave (OMNI Commons)

or

-We can PICK UP FROM YOUR PORCH Sunday AM (for address within ~2.5 miles of 4799 Shattuck Ave)
**fill out this form https://forms.gle/B3J5c3PL55vmsiVK6 or email Diana at diwu118@gmail.com / text +1 510 898 6992 and volunteers will pick up from your porch (also email if you have a car and can pick up or redistribute)

*****
Items we need:
FOOD/WATER
– canned food: tuna, beans, jams, peanut butter, meats, soups, etc.
– Bagged rice, beans/pulses
– ramen, mac & cheese (easy to heat)
– Frozen Meats/Tofu (for future meals)
– bottled water
– juice packs
– Vitamin C tablets/EmergenC

HYGIENE PRODUCTS
– New tooth brush, toothpaste, deodorant
– soap (bar and liquid)
– pads and tampons
– hand sanitizer
– New wrapped toilet paper/paper towels
– Disinfectant Wipes
– Rubbing Alcohol/Bleach
– Unopened masks/gloves
– New in Package: socks and underwear
-Homemade masks

SHELTER AND GEAR SUPPORT
– rain gear
– tents
– tarp
– Garbage bags
– 5 gallon water containers

OTHER
– Dog Food
– $$$ Donate
– Ziplock Bags
– batteries

Donate $$$ on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2956825734339312/2956825774339308/

****
We will be organizing on an ongoing basis so funds or supplies not distributed will go out the following weeks.

Want to stay plugged in with the community restorative justice rapid response team? Text communityrj to 33222.

Partners for this distribution include: North Oakland Restorative Justice Council, Self Help Hunger Program, PLACE for Sustainable Living, Critical Resistance, The Omni and more to follow.

***As for safety we are a small group and we are wearing gloves and masks and sanitizing our items and maintaining recommend distances from each other and limiting numbers of involved people.

Main Distribution Event: MAy 31st (Sun) 10am-5pm
Sign up to volunteer for a shift for the main day. Some roles include people to help assemble bags, folks with cars to help caravan the supplies to the unhoused, etc. Please email Diana at diwu118@gmail.com / text +1 510 898 6992 to do so.

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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 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 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

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 six years, since October 2011! 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

Email us for the Zoom link if you want to join, and also let us know if you’d like to plan an earlier conversation to bring you up to speed.

Things May Be Happening Fast

The COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant economic chaos cannot possibly be configured as good in any way. At the same time, the government bodies in the East Bay which have to support public banking for us to move forward are showing a substantially heightened level of interest. It’s too soon for us to say anything definite, so we’ll just say that we’re moving faster than we have in a long time.

Working Group Meetings:

Some of our working groups meet between organizers’ meetings, and others just confer by phone and email. You can plug into any one of these:

• Outreach to Organizations
• Outreach to Individuals
• Digital Outreach
• Advocacy (working with politicians)
• Governance
• California Public Banking Alliance
• Fundraising
• Operations

Just send us a note and we’ll help you get connected to the work you want to do.

Let’s face it, we could all use a vacation right now, but the closest that most of us can get to a palm tree is that one Zoom background of a beach. We have the solution: dress for the vacation you want, chill down or shake up something special to drink, locate your most vacated virtual background, and join the East Bay DSA for our first virtual Socializing with Socialists.

Staying at home all day can be kind of isolating, but if we have to be isolated, let’s be isolated together! We’ll meet up to get to know each other better with games and time to socialize. Come to build relationships, meet new people, and learn about how you can get involved in organizing with DSA during times of social distancing.

RSVP here for the Zoom link!

The Audit Ahern Coalition that’s based in the Ella Baker Center and includes several other organizations is holding a Zoom meeting to rethink our approach and perhaps launch new directions for our efforts to do something about:  our terrible County Sheriff Ahern, his bloated budget and latest successful move to get a lot more money for incarceration; the human rights abuses by his office; the poor conditions, large number of deaths, and Covid-19 crisis at the County Jail (Santa Rita); the need for more decarceration, diversion programs, and community mental health and substance abuse resources, etc.

The group may be shifting focus to the extent of changing the name of the coalition away from “Audit Ahern.”

Here’s the info from the coalition:

“We will be having our general coalition meeting next Tuesday, 5/26. This meeting will be open to new organizers who want to join our decarceration/ jail divestment efforts and can commit to adding capacity to the coalition. Will send out the agenda to our coalition by Monday.

You will need to register in order to access this meeting. Please register.
Here is the link:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcpdeCqqj8oHNwCePnGBkI92N9y5r6TYiVH

Tell Oakland City Council and Mayor Schaaf: Protect our public services!
Circle Lake Merritt

STARTING POINT: Lucky’s parking lot by Lake Merritt

********************************

Mayor Schaaf will be announcing her budget proposal on Tuesday, May 26. During this crisis, in which public services are needed more than ever, we reject all cuts to city services. The City needs to use its ‘rainy day’ reserve money meant for times like this. We are going to caravan around Lake Merritt to show the City Council and Mayor Schaaf that Oakland is united against austerity budgets.

In our fight against austerity, we are confronting both poverty and racism. African-Americans are more likely to die of COVID-19 than any other group in the U.S. Meanwhile, over 70% of city employees are people of color, and almost 40% are African-American. Attacking city workers will only deepen the pain of this crisis for Oakland’s working-class black neighborhoods. To fulfill the promise that black lives matter, we must maintain and restore public services that create access to employment, health care, affordable housing, and more.

The caravan will be clockwise, so it runs along the lake side of the street. We will bring signs and put them on your car for you with safe tape.

Join Oakland Voices for a conversation about journalists covering Oakland during the COVID-19 pandemic. Guests include: Davey D, host of Hard Knock Radio; and Darwin Bondgraham, news editor for Berkeleyside’s forthcoming Oakland newsroom. Moderated by Rasheed Shabazz and introduced by Momo Chang of Oakland Voices.

oaklandvoices.us
RSVP: https://bit.ly/ovweb-0526

A conversation among reporters, editors, and other media makers.

I'll be talking about reporting during the #COVID19 pandemic alongside Davey D with Rasheed Shabazz tonight, 7pm. Join us here – https://t.co/4QnkKlaDyw pic.twitter.com/MPBnnURMA3

— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) May 26, 2020

Join us for a virtual protest the night before the Facebook shareholders’ meeting

Pro-democracy activists have a message for Facebook shareholders: “Wake the ZUCK Up!” We’ll project this message and others onto the side of the Facebook building in San Francisco the night before the shareholders’ virtual meeting. We’ll be urging the shareholders to protect the public from lies, hate, and disinformation in political advertisements during the 2020 election season.

Watch a livestream of the action at https://www.facebook.com/GlobalExchange/

Shareholders will be considering a proposal to study and report on Facebook’s political ads policy (see the Facebook shareholders proxy statement, proposal seven, page 71), which exempts ads by politicians and political campaigns from Facebook’s community standards policy and its fact-checking process.

At the projection protest on Tuesday night, Don’t Let Facebook ZUCK Up our Democracy coalition activists will call on Facebook to refuse political ads that lie, refuse to sell political ad microtargeting, and deny service to anyone seeking to disrupt the 2020 election. And they will remind Facebook shareholders that Truth Matters.

Sponsored by Don’t Let Facebook ZUCK UP our Democracy, Media Alliance, Global Exchange, Indivisible SF-Peninsula CA 14, Raging Grannies Action League, Vigil for Democracy, and others Projection by ResistanceSF.

Join the Labor Network for Sustainability, the Climate Justice Alliance, the Indigenous Environmental Network and a team of scholars and activists for the launch of the Just Transition Listening Project. The first session will focus on action in the unfolding economic crisis, featuring the renowned Noam Chomsky, just transition scholar Robert Pollin, and Economic Policy Institute president Thea Lee.

Over the course of the next four months, the Just Transition Listening Project will bring together the stories of workers and community members as they experience extreme changes in their local economy – the impact of plant closures, jobs lost to automation, company downsizing and market changes, industries impacted by climate change.

The Labor Network for Sustainability writes:

“The need for a large-scale Just Transition for workers and communities has never been more urgent as more than 30 million workers have applied for unemployment in the past month. Many face the likelihood that they will never go back to their previous jobs. The Coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis developing as a result offer an important barometer of whether and how we are prepared socially, politically and economically for massive changes to our economy. The shift to the green economy we need in order to confront the climate crisis will require economic shifts on a similar scale.

“The Just Transition Listening Projectwill offer us important lessons, shared through the experience of workers and community members who have been through such transitions, are going through them now and who face them in the near future.

“We will learn what is in place and what is lacking in government, private sector and community support. We will learn how people adjusted or are adjusting to the changes in their life and work, aspirations for their community and the vision for their local and our global economy.

“These stories will be made available online, through social media and summarized in a published report for policy makers with our findings and recommendations.”

WHEN

Wednesday, May 27, 5 PM PDT

WHERE

register here

• To observe, the public may view the televised video conference by viewing KTOP channel 10 on Xfinity (Comcast) or ATT
Channel 99 and locating City of Oakland KTOP – Channel 10
• To observe the meeting by video conference, please click on this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87212045112 at the noticed meeting time. Instructions on how to join a meeting by video
conference are available at: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193, which is a webpage entitled “Joining a
Meeting”

Some Agenda Items of Possible Interest:

X. Commission Discussion of, and Possible Action On, City Administration’s Proposed
Budget of May 26, 2020
The Commission will discuss, and possibly take action on, the proposed City budget that is
expected to be released on May 26. This item was discussed on 4.23.20 and 5.14.20.

XI. OPD Discipline Disparity Report
The Commission will discuss the recent OPD Discipline Disparity Report and status of the
RFP for the Oakland Black Officers Association (OBOA) investigation contract. This is a
new item. (Attachment 11).

XII. Measure LL Ballot Measure Initiative
The Commission will provide an update on the status of the ballot measure regarding
changes to Measure LL. This is a new item.

North Oakland Neighbors! We are doing our distribution again and we would love your support for these dates:

Sunday 5.17 (Donations) 11am-1pm
Wednesday 5.20 (Donations) 3pm-5pm
Sunday 5.24 (Donations) 11am-1pm
Wednesday 5.27 (Donations) 3pm-5pm
Sunday 5.31 (Distribution) 10am-5pm

Wednesdays & Sundays (5/17, 20, 24, 27):

We are asking OUR HOUSED neighbors to contribute hygiene supplies, canned food, bottled water, rain gear, tarps, garbage bags, $$ et al to be redistributed on Sunday May 31st to encampments in North Oakland dealing with the COVID 19. We will sanitize and package your donations add a hot packaged meal and fresh fruit to the care kits to be distributed to North Oakland Encampments and surrounding encampments.

In order to properly sanitize and maintain social distancing we are collective the materials on April 26th &29th and aiming to distribute 500 hot meals and care kits on May 31st. Overflow resources will be distributed by sister orgs throughout Oakland.

To donate goods or volunteer please sign up here! :
https://forms.gle/gihhATtsXYyiNsVC9

Donate $$: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2956825734339312/2956825774339308/

***We need YOUR HELP!!!! If you have any of the items below that you can donate to your unhoused neighbors please do one of the following things:

-Drop off at 4799 Shattuck Ave (OMNI Commons)

or

-We can PICK UP FROM YOUR PORCH Sunday AM (for address within ~2.5 miles of 4799 Shattuck Ave)
**fill out this form https://forms.gle/B3J5c3PL55vmsiVK6 or email Diana at diwu118@gmail.com / text +1 510 898 6992 and volunteers will pick up from your porch (also email if you have a car and can pick up or redistribute)

*****
Items we need:
FOOD/WATER
– canned food: tuna, beans, jams, peanut butter, meats, soups, etc.
– Bagged rice, beans/pulses
– ramen, mac & cheese (easy to heat)
– Frozen Meats/Tofu (for future meals)
– bottled water
– juice packs
– Vitamin C tablets/EmergenC

HYGIENE PRODUCTS
– New tooth brush, toothpaste, deodorant
– soap (bar and liquid)
– pads and tampons
– hand sanitizer
– New wrapped toilet paper/paper towels
– Disinfectant Wipes
– Rubbing Alcohol/Bleach
– Unopened masks/gloves
– New in Package: socks and underwear
-Homemade masks

SHELTER AND GEAR SUPPORT
– rain gear
– tents
– tarp
– Garbage bags
– 5 gallon water containers

OTHER
– Dog Food
– $$$ Donate
– Ziplock Bags
– batteries

Donate $$$ on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2956825734339312/2956825774339308/

****
We will be organizing on an ongoing basis so funds or supplies not distributed will go out the following weeks.

Want to stay plugged in with the community restorative justice rapid response team? Text communityrj to 33222.

Partners for this distribution include: North Oakland Restorative Justice Council, Self Help Hunger Program, PLACE for Sustainable Living, Critical Resistance, The Omni and more to follow.

***As for safety we are a small group and we are wearing gloves and masks and sanitizing our items and maintaining recommend distances from each other and limiting numbers of involved people.

Main Distribution Event: MAy 31st (Sun) 10am-5pm
Sign up to volunteer for a shift for the main day. Some roles include people to help assemble bags, folks with cars to help caravan the supplies to the unhoused, etc. Please email Diana at diwu118@gmail.com / text +1 510 898 6992 to do so.

We are getting the hang of these virtual All Member Meetings! We hope you found it easy to manage with our Come Zoom with Us guide.

Sylvia Chi and Debbie Notkin of Public Bank of the East Bay will present on Public Banking

Once again, the AMM virtual meeting room will be open starting at 12:30 p.m. so you can test logging on and checking out all the Zoom features and then the meeting itself will start at 1:00 p.m. To maintain security we’ll send you the link two days before the event.

Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/indivisible-east-bay-may-31-virtual-all-member-meeting-tickets-104664426116