In the face of multiple crises – COVID-19, massive unemployment, climate chaos, systemic racism – DSA chapters around the country are rising up with #FightForOurLives. The Biden administration will pursue austerity unless we unite and pressure them to help the multi-racial working class instead.

Join us on December 12 as we raise 5 key demands for federal action:

✔️ A Federal Jobs Guarantee Act
✔️ The Health Care Emergency Guarantee Act
✔️ The Protect the Right to Organize Act
✔️ The #ClimatePresident Action Plan
✔️ Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad

We’ll convene at the Oakland Federal Building (1301 Clay St.) starting at noon to rally for the programs we urgently need and deserve. We will wear masks and practice physical distancing.

Bring banners, picket signs, noisemakers, musical instruments, and high spirits, because now’s the time to #FightForOurLives!

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87642436529?pwd=OUttbmpiOHp6VDZTdFI3MGdIRnY2UT09

Zoom Meeting ID: 876 4243 6529
Passcode: 934748

Zoom link
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88942674394

Ensure Equitable Transit for All: We believe that public transit should be reliable, accessible, cheap and free, particularly on bus transit. We believe that transit should not be just a useful option for getting around, but the most frequent and fast option.

Accountability for Public Transit: EBTRU will hold local officials and government agencies accountable for how they treat public transit and public transit riders. Our goal is to be a unified voice that both city, county government and management at AC Transit, Westcat, the County Connection and BART hear.

Bring All Transit Riders to the Table: Prioritizing bus riders is our first priority as a bus riders union. Being a bus rider is key to our membership. Black and Brown residents, Seniors, the disabled, and workers of the East Bay are the most reliant on bus service. We will make bus service decisions easy to understand alongside a network of established community organizations.

Reduce Reliance on Private Cars: EBTRU advocates for policies and projects that will improve the quality of public transit service throughout our region while also lowering carbon emissions that primarily come from cars. This includes efforts to improve on-time performance, enhance existing service, and prioritize public streets for public transit over for-profit, polluter automobiles.

Encourage Transformative Improvements: EBTRU advocates for improvements to transit service that produce time savings, reliability, increased access, and safety for transit riders and transit operators. We support transit agencies in efforts to be bold in making service useful to passengers and re-purposing infrastructure to be advantageous to bus and zero/low-emission transportation modes.

REGISTER ONLINE: https://bit.ly/casiwebinar

Speakers:

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Nick Estes
Navid Farnia
Toussaint Losier
Moderator: Suzanne Adely

President-Elect Joe Biden announced as early as November 24, just three weeks after the election, that one of his greatest priorities as the new president will be to restore the United States to its rightful place as an international leader. This is of course a euphemism for the restoration of U.S. imperialism, and Biden’s cabinet nominees reflect such aspirations. Biden’s pick for Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, has been complicit in the CIA’s use of torture and drone warfare, while Biden’s nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, stated in her lauded speech on November 24 that “America is back.”

But it is the nomination of Tony Blinken as Secretary of State that is the most telling. Blinken once called for the partition of Iraq, and has advocated for the bombing of Syria and Libya, reflecting an embrace of chaos and destruction as the backbones of U.S. foreign policy in the Arab region. Now Blinken’s got his eye on China. Recently, Blinken announced that the U.S. should prioritize its “relations” with China.

“China poses a growing challenge, arguably the biggest challenge, we face from another nation state: economically, technologically, militarily, even diplomatically…. So I think the question we have to ask ourselves is, ‘What is the most effective strategy to protect and advance our security, our prosperity, our values when it comes to engaging with China?’ And I think the Vice President would tell you that we have to start by putting ourselves in a position of strength from which to engage China so that the relationship moves forward more on our terms than on theirs.”

There is no question that U.S. imperialism will soon experience a resurgence. But anti-imperialist movements throughout the world have also entered a new phase of resistance and even victory. The success of the Bolivian people against the U.S. sponsored coup and the return of Evo Morales to Bolivia is one of the greatest anti-imperialist victories in recent memory, and is sure to usher in more anti-imperialist triumphs. In the face of a multilateral geopolitical landscape, a weakened U.S. economy and divided ruling class, and a new wave of anti-imperialist resistance, how much longer can U.S. imperialism survive?

Please join the Committee for Anti-Imperialists in Solidarity with Iran as we end our workshop series on U.S. imperialism. Panelists will discuss the future of U.S. imperialism and global repression under the incoming Biden administration. Specific topics of discussion include recent assassinations of Iranian government officials and coup attempts in Venezuela, the role of AFRICOM in expanding U.S. imperial power, the demise of liberalism and the rise of fascism as it effects U.S. imperial policy, and links between domestic policing and militarism abroad. This discussion will be undergirded by an analysis of U.S. continental imperialism as the process of racial capitalist accumulation that allowed the U.S. to launch overseas imperialism, presented by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz.

And stay tuned for our next workshop series, which will focus on Iran and the Arab region. Our first workshop in this series, scheduled for January, is entitled “U.S.-Iran Relations in the Biden Era: What’s Next?”, and includes Richard Falk, Sasan Fayazmanesh, Vira Ameli and others. And in March, we will host “Iran and Palestine: A History of Joint Struggle.”

OTU’s Mission

The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.

Monthly Meetings

The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.

If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.

California passed the Racial Justice Act…now what? Join the community teach-in on Tuesday, Dec. 15th to learn more about this new law and how we can use it to fight racism in the court system! To register: https://t.co/8Eg5QQxcBM pic.twitter.com/QZ1h65ZOMF

— Ella Baker Center (@ellabakercenter) December 9, 2020

Register

Join the Berkeley Food Institute for screening of clips from the FRONTLINE PBS film, “COVID’s Hidden Toll” and discussion with the film’s creators. Along with Assemblymember and Agriculture Committee Chair Robert Rivas, and other esteemed guests, we will examine the inequities for farmworkers’ health being exposed amid the current pandemic.

The film, of which select clips will be shown, examines how the COVID crisis has hit vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers. The documentary, follows the pandemic’s victims who are essential workers often invisible to many people relying on them, including crucial farm and meat-packing workers who lack protections and are suffering higher rates of illness.

Access Coordinator
Nathalie Muñoz, namc93 [at] berkeley.edu, 510-529-1533

CART Captioning will be provided. If you require any other accommodation for effective communication in order to fully participate in this virtual event, please contact Nathalie Muñoz at least 7–10 days in advance.

Heather Ann Thompson, Flint Taylor, and Darrell Cannon discuss the legacy of police violence against Black Panthers and the Attica uprising.

This event marks the paperback release of Taylor’s book The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago and is also framed by Thompson’s Pulitzer-prize winning book Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.

RSVP to attend…

Email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to obtain Zoom meeting access info.

Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.

We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” —  to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Check out some of what we worked on in 2020 and 2019.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.  We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.

Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition, mass aerial surveillance, and other analytics, and pushing back against ICE.

On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

contact@oaklandprivacy.org

Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/

Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.  Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in various municipalities around the Bay.  To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

This month’s meeting will focus on planning APTP's 7th Annual Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy Weekend of Action to #DefundOPD.

Register here: https://t.co/D20QeJCiZY pic.twitter.com/ruV2t01cqa

— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) December 15, 2020

Bill of Rights Day 2020: Celebration & Presentation to be Followed by Breakout Sessions

Host: ACLU Northern California

Thursday December 17th at 5:30 PM PT

RSVP: https://action.aclu.org/webform/bill-rights-day-2020

Despite the pandemic, the misinformation, and the tumult of 2020, our democracy persists. We’re grateful to everyone who helped make progress in a challenging year.

Celebrate and regroup with us at our annual Bill of Rights Day. This event will begin with a short program followed by rotating breakout sessions that will give you a chance to learn from ACLU staff about what’s next for our organizing and advocacy work and how you can get involved in moving forward a justice and civil liberties agenda in 2021.

_____________________________________________________________

What is National Bill of Rights Day?

https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/bill-of-rights

Bill of Rights Day on December 15th is a “celebration of the Bill of Rights, the first
10 amendments to the Constitution, which spell out our rights as Americans. It guarantees
civil rights and liberties such as freedom of speech, press, and religion. It sets rules for due process of law and reserves all powers not delegated to the Federal Government to the people or the states. The original joint resolution proposing the Bill of Rights is on permanent display at the National Archives in Washington, DC.”

For more Bill of Rights history, go to the ACLU webpage: https://www.aclu.org/united-states-bill-rights-first-10-amendments-constitution

Zoom RSVP https://bit.ly/usprosd17

details sent day of Event

The event aims to uplift sex workers’ historic and current struggles against violence and poverty and to honor those who have lost their lives along the way. It will build support for the campaign in California that won compensation for violence against sex workers and formerly incarcerated people; uplift the work of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, who are campaigning for justice and to establish a permanent memorial for the scores of Black women serial murder victims in South Los Angeles, and stand in solidarity with those campaigning for justice for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2 spirits. Slideshow, video clips, speakers, music. On the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Event convened by US PROStitutes Collective.

4. Department of Race and Equity Presentation and Training
Department of Race and Equity Director Darlene Flynn will present an overview of the
Department’s goals and objectives. She will also deliver a training on Racial Equity as
required by OMC 2.45.190(M). This is a new item. (Attachment 4).

To observe the meeting by video conference, please click on this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81331204296 at the noticed meeting time.