Calendar

RALLY AND SPEAKOUT
TELL CHANCELLOR CHRIST: HANDS OFF PEOPLE’S PARK!

People’s Park Council is hosting a rally and speakout for groups and individuals who oppose UCB’s plan to destroy People’s Park. DEMAND OPEN SPACE!

The situation is increasingly urgent as UC administration and the City of Berkeley make plans to suppress community opposition to the impending invasion of People’s Park. Tensions are rising as deadlines and rumors of deadlines circulate through the park. The placement of large dumpsters in the park; the opening of the new Rodeway Inn specifically for the residents of People’s Park and anecdotal accounts of police warning campers that it is “illegal” to trespass, all indicate that the UC will attempt to take the park soon. Despite the fact that just this week the park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, decades after it was named a City of Berkeley Landmark, UC is amassing its forces to attempt take People’s Park once and for all.

Our opposition is to the construction of ANY housing on People’s Park no matter who it is for. While the pandemic emergency required that we use public places to respond to an emergency, People’s Park is meant to be a place for all people. We all need open space and a place to be.

For the sake of the climate, for our health which depends on green spaces and trees for good air quality, for the sake of our mental health, and for the sake of our children who by nature need to have open space to explore and grow. For the sake of our history and the movement that not only built People’s Park, but also made Berkeley known internationally. We must prevent needless desecration of that sacred space. The University community and administration need to honor our rich tradition of resistance and let People’s Park remain as a community park.

Our history AND our future depend on People’s Park.

WHO: People’s Park Council
WHAT: Rally and Speakout

More information: www.peoplespark.org

oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.

We meet on the 1^st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to

oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Get the latest information on a new study that maps the future pattern of sea level rise in the coastal US,  flood risks to coastal wetlands, and where conservation efforts could help.

Register here

Climate Central will present scientific, policy, and other experts discussing the findings of their new report, their implications, and strategies for enhancing wetlands. Journalists who have covered the topic will also speak.

This workshop will include embargoed information from a peer-reviewed paper scheduled for publication on June 8. Media representatives are invited to submit questions during live Q&A, but will be asked to honor the embargo.

Speakers:

• Benjamin Strauss, CEO and Chief Scientist, Climate Central
• Kelly Van Baalen, Project Manager, Climate Central
• Siddharth Narayan, Assistant Professor, Integrated Coastal Programs, East Carolina University
• Hilary Stevens, Coastal Resilience Manager, Restore America’s Estuaries
• Mary-Carson Stiff, Policy Director, Wetlands Watch
• Tiffany Turner, Director of Climate Solutions, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
• Halle Parker, Environment Reporter, New Orleans Public Radio

You may submit questions via chat at any time during the workshop, or email your questions directly to Dan Rizza at sealevel@climatecentral.org

This webinar is the sixth in The Climate Center’s Investing in Climate Action for Jobs, Health, and Equity webinar series.

You can grab the book from here: https://t.co/Ont3yfrPrR

If you need it, we can also give you a PDF copy of the book after you register!

— The Debt Collective 🟥 (@StrikeDebt) May 10, 2022

This webinar is the sixth in The Climate Center’s Investing in Climate Action for Jobs, Health, and Equity webinar series.

June 9 in Sacramento: End the Gas Car Era

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) must step up for climate action. Join a climate justice rally outside the June 9th CARB hearing to push the Board to do the right thing and speed the transition to 100% electric vehicles. CARB’s latest clean cars proposal allows huge numbers of new dirty, gas-burning cars to be sold after 2030 and fails to ensure equitable EV access for low-income communities of color. We can’t achieve equity without a stronger 2030 sales target and mandatory provisions that support communities hit first and worst by high gas prices, tailpipe pollution and the climate crisis.

The rally will feature powerful speakers, chants, and performance art to show our collective power as we pressure CARB to take the urgent action needed. Following the rally, supporters will be encouraged to bring our policy demands inside the hearing and make public comments.

Event co-hosts include the Center for Biological Diversity, Let’s Green California, 350 Sacramento, Climate Center, Oil & Gas Action Network, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay, 350 Bay Area, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, 350 Silicon Valley, Climate Hawks Vote, Plug in America, and California Interfaith Power & Light.

Ready to rally in Sacramento? RSVP at this link.

This Thursday, Oakland Councilperson Carroll Fife will be going live in conversation with the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO) Program as well as Jame Burch from the Anti-Police Terror Project. They will talk about where the program is currently at and the state of public safety overall in Oakland.

To watch, go to the Facebook, Twitter or YouTube page on Thursday June 9th at 6:30pm.

You can read more about MACRO here.

We need a fight!

As we await Decision Day (Day X) that will more than likely overturn 50 years of legalized abortion in the US, we continue to see the Democratic Party establishment do nothing serious to fight back against this assault on bodily autonomy. Working people across the country are wringing their hands while Democratic lawmakers sit on theirs. On May 25, our comrades in New York led a sit-in at Chuck Schumer’s office calling out the gross inaction of the Democrats and demanding an immediate end to the filibuster and the codification of Roe v. Wade into law.

Here in the Bay Area, we have been planning a demonstration of our own at Nancy Pelosi’s office in San Francisco, with a similar message – we have not surrendered in this crucial fight, and we deserve leaders who won’t give up either! Baring white flags sprawled with our message of “No Surrender,” we will be calling on Speaker Pelosi to take action and end the filibuster, codify Roe, expand the Supreme Court, literally anything serious, to protect abortion rights.

Sign our petition: Democrats, No More Excuses!

US sanctions are not new and have been applied by the US in both recent history (Venezuela, Iran) and well prior (Japan 1937-45, Latin America, Africa). However, the scope & magnitude of US sanctions against Russia today represent a quantitative, as well as qualitative, higher stage and escalation of sanctions as a tool of US imperialism. The presentation will describe what’s in the US six packages of sanctions announced to date, distinguish between financial sanctions from goods & trade sanctions and individuals’ sanctions, and estimate their current stage of implementation of each. How US capitalists are enormously benefiting from the Russian sanctions. Thereafter, the discussion focuses on what’s been the impact of sanctions on Russia’s economy to date, as well as the growing consequence for Europe, US, and emerging markets economies – in terms of inflation, recession, and growing global financial marrkets’ fragility and potential instability. The presentation concludes with an assessment of the contradictions of sanctions for US imperialism and why sanctions on Russia represent a de facto declaration of economic war on Russia by the US as US imperialism comes under increasing challenge in the 21st century, becomes more aggressive in decline, and seeks to restore its prior hegemony, first in Europe and soon therefore in Asia.

Dr. Jack Rasmus, Ph.D Political Economy, teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author and producer of the various nonfiction and fictional works, including the books The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy From Reagan to Bush, Clarity Press, October 2019; Alexander Hamilton & The Origins of the Fed, Lexington books, March 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression, Clarity Press, August 2018; Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, Clarity Press, Sept. 2016.

LOGIN INFORMATION

Our Zoom room will be opened up, as usual, at 10:15 for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc.. The program (and recording) will begin as close to 10:30 am as possible and will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open until about 1 pm for informal discussion.

ZOOM LINK
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=eGFXUElQNzZFYjdLOG1Hb3pIdDV0dz09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: ICSS2610rs
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Dial by your location
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc4RrpvAiQ

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

RSVP to action@sunflower-alliance.org

Save the date for a discussion with California climate justice leaders about the growing movement to oppose the weak and inadequate draft climate plan proposed by the California Air Resources Board. Learn how we can join the push for a plan that would rapidly phase out fossil fuels and bring justice to frontline communities.

The CARB draft plan

• Doesn’t shut down any of the gas power plants that currently pollute our neighborhoods; keeps all fossil fuel gas plants operating
• Builds many new polluting power plants
• Plans for excessive greenhouse gas emissions (30 MMT ) from the electric sector every year through 2050, never reaching zero emissions
• Relies extensively on unproven technologies (Carbon Capture and Sequestration [CCS] in addition to direct air capture) instead of renewable energy
• Would not achieve carbon neutrality until 2045.

More information and a petition demanding a better plan here

We will hear from Francis Yang of the Sierra Club and the coalition that has been campaigning for a stronger plan. More speakers to be announced.

In the 1960s, students organized a Free Speech movement to resist the University of California, Berkeley, to counter administrative bans on flyering on the campus. 53 years later, there is a new battle brewing over Peoples Park with its community advocating for civic space and the University offering housing projects. As tensions grow between the City’s establishment and Park protesters, many people are caught in the middle trying to navigate college, Covid-19, and Berkeley’s unaffordable housing crisis.

One of the greatest challenges facing the Peoples Park community is that UC Berkeley and the Berkeley City Council have agreed on the development. In fact, they have already allocated over $325 million dollars to displace the homeless encampments to the Rodeway Inn and build “over 1,100” beds for students and “formerly unhoused people.”

But, there are growing concerns about adding more students to Berkeley. The Save Berkeley’s Neighborhood group sued UC Berkeley for over enrolling students, but the Supreme Court decision in their favor was nullified by the California Legislature. The UC Regents then bought a $6.5 million dollar home in Berkeley for its president while thousands of students sleep on the streets during the summer months. These groups argue that the more students we have in Berkeley, the more open space we need to protect them, and that Peoples Park is the only green space available in the neighborhood outside of UC Berkeley’s main campus.

As tensions grow between the City’s establishment and the Anarchists of Peoples Park, thousands of students, businesses, and passersby will be caught in the middle of a potential war brewing in the Southside community, echoing the 1960’s invasion of the National Guard which changed Berkeley’s history forever.

What is the quality of life like at the Rodeway Inn?

What brought you to Peoples Park and why do you fight for it? and

Is there a sustainable future possible for Peoples Park?

Join the Green Party of Alameda County for a roundtable discussion with Peoples Park activists where we ask these questions and more during our monthly Green Sunday.

~~~~
Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council follows at 7 pm, after a 30-minute break. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89559844652

Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652

PS  Organizers asked that people go to the Park whenever they can to witness what’s happening and support.   There will likely be at least one Copwatch training at the park, TBD.

https://www.savepeoplespark.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyZYPTwZTc

PPS CONGRATS to our Left Unity Slate which helped secure our ballot access.  It was a good strategy!  Thnx for voting for them.  Press release:
https://www.cagreens.org/left-unity-strategy-pays-californias-green-party-and-peace-and-freedom-party

Staged reading of ROE produced by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley performance of Roe by Lisa Loomer directed by Susannah Wood and organized by Carol Marasovic of the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women

Admission is free – reservations are highly recommended,

https://www.aeofberkeley.org/productions/upcoming-shows/378-roe-by-lisa-loomer

donations to cover the production costs are welcome send to:

Berkeley Actors Ensemble / ROE, PO Box 663, Berkeley, CA 94701

ROE at 7 pm at the Marsh 2120 at Allston Way

Staged reading of ROE produced by Actors Ensemble of Berkeley performance of Roe by Lisa Loomer directed by Susannah Wood and organized by Carol Marasovic of the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women

Admission is free – reservations are highly recommended,

donations to cover the production costs are welcome send to:

Berkeley Actors Ensemble / ROE, PO Box 663, Berkeley, CA 94701

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.

Photo Action in Oakland

12 minute walk from 12th St/Oakland BART station

June 14 is the day for coordinated photo stunts at fossil fuel infrastructure across California to challenge the narrative that high gas prices mean we need to drill for more oil. Actions are happening to communicate all the ways that Californians pay for big oil’s profits: at the gas pump, at the emergency room and with our very future. We  call on Governor Newsom to stand up to big oil’s greed, stop permitting new fossil fuels, and end neighborhood oil drilling for good. Join us on Tuesday!

Please email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to get up-to-date location information or 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, tracking equipment, 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 2022, 2021, 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 and other analytics, mass aerial surveillance, ubiquitous license plate readers, 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.