Alameda County Board of Supervisors Meeting on AB 481Find the Zoom link for the Board meeting here!

The American Friends Service Committee has let us know that next week, the Board will be reviewing a military equipment use policy from Sheriff Ahern that would continue to authorize using his arsenal of military weapons for any purpose, including future pre-dawn raids on families. The sheriff’s military equipment inventory includes over 450 assault weapons, 3 armored vehicles, 162 drones, and much more. See the full toolkit from AFSC here, and make your voice heard on the issue on Tuesday!

This coming Tuesday, Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors will be voting for the first of two times on the sheriff’s draft policy on militarized equipment. Since AB 481 passed, all law enforcement agencies in California are required to list their militarized equipment (drones, robots, “less lethal” beanbag rounds, chemical weapons like flashbangs, tear gas, and pepper spray; armored vehicles, rifles). They’re also required to write policies dictating how each piece of weaponry is to be used. These policies must be approved by a governing body (a county board of supervisors, or a city council), and they must be presented at meetings where members of the public can comment.

The sheriff’s office has done all right at listing the equipment. They’ve done remarkably poorly at writing useful, restrictive policies, even though restrictive policies save lives. (To wit, they haven’t ruled out using their tank-like BearCat as a shooting platform, even though all the uses of it they enumerate in the policy are defensive. They haven’t ruled out using flashbangs when children are likely to be present. They haven’t ruled out aiming less lethal ammunition at the parts of the body where they are likeliest to cause death or permanent injury.) And in fact, they’ve used this policy implementation process to lobby for *more* militarized equipment (four pepperball launchers, to be used in Santa Rita Jail).

On Tuesday, Aug. 9, Supervisors will be voting for the first time on the policy. American Friends Service Committee has– again!– written a helpful guide to writing a comment. You can share your comment with supervisors in writing before 3 pm Monday (send it to CBS@acgov.org), you can read it aloud during the meeting, or you can do both. All public comment at Tuesday’s meeting will come at the beginning, 9:30 am.

Zoom link for the meeting: Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Know your rights! Learn tips for documenting police in protest situations. Join us Wednesday, August 10 at 6:30pm to learn your rights in police interactions, strategies for documenting police, and specific tips for copwatching at protests. pic.twitter.com/aLcqZHK46M

— Berkeley Copwatch (@Copwatch411) August 5, 2022

Join us tonight for a rally before the board meeting, and send messages today!

Then show up for the board meeting TODAY at 5:30 pm and a rally beforehand at 4:30pm to demand that OUSD:

• STOP firing teachers for supporting the Parker liberation and other school closures
• STOP the violence that sent multiple activists to the hospital last Thursday

Send your message!

Mr. Gordon, a longtime teacher and now substitute, learned of his firing on August 8, the first day of the school year. Firing a district employee who has publicly criticized district officials at several recent school board meetings and who has done effective media outreach for the Parker Liberation is a blatant attack on speech and press freedom. Mr. Gordon is also involved in the teacher’s union.

A beloved OUSD contract teacher also recently learned that their contract would not be renewed for the 2022-23 school year. This teacher was about to begin their sixth year with OUSD, is a dedicated advocate for teachers, students, and families displaced by OUSD’s school closure policies, and a supporter of the Parker Liberation.

OUSD’s actions are in violation of a letter issued by Chief Governance Officer Josh Daniels to OUSD employees Moses Omolade and André San-Chez during their hunger strike protest against school closures, stating that: “OUSD will not retaliate against any OUSD employee involved in protesting school closures […] or supporting those who are involved in such protests.”

Send messages to OUSD board members demanding they stop firing teachers and attacking our community!

These firings are also part of a clear pattern of what is now sporadically violent repression waged by OUSD against teachers, parents, and community members protesting school closures, privatization, and gentrification in Oakland.

We call on OUSD Chief Talent Officer Tara Gard, Chief Governance Officer Josh Daniels, and Superintendent Dr. Kyla Johnson-Trammell to immediately reverse the decision to terminate these educators, and to cease retaliating against anyone involved in protest against the district’s school closure policies!

Love and solidarity,
APTP
Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. We support families surviving police terror in their fight for justice, documenting police abuses and connecting impacted families and community members with resources, legal referrals, and opportunities for healing.

Feed the Hood 22 + #ShockGForever 2 is fast approaching! Join us and the Digital Underground crew August 13, 9 AM @ East Oakland Collective, 7800 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland.

More info and volunteer registration – https://t.co/v9d12aDEt3. pic.twitter.com/ULdsLB13z5

— East Oakland Collective (@EOakCollective) July 27, 2022

Advocates from all over Northern California will converge at the Capitol to demand this administration take REAL climate action and make a plan to phase out fossil fuels in our state.

A recent Supreme Court decision is obstructing federal climate action, oil and gas wells are leaking, and the climate crisis keeps getting worse by the day. We need California to take real leadership now more than ever.

We will demand real action from the Newsom administration to protect our communities by ending all new oil and gas drilling permits, phasing out oil and gas production in the state, rolling out a safety buffer and stopping all new permits.

Read more about the event on our website, or go straight to the RSVP page and TURN OUT on Saturday if you can make it!

As the climate crisis gets worse and worse — and the Supreme Court and the filibuster are blocking federal climate action — now more than ever, we need California to take the lead.

Join a statewide coalition of climate action organizations in Sacramento August 13 to tell Governor Newsom to take real action:
* end all new oil and gas drilling permits
* phase out oil and gas production in the state
* rolling out a safety buffer between fossil fuel operations and communities
* stop all new permits.

Details/RSVP

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the the online invite.

For August, 2022 we’re reading the first four chapters of  Beyond Money – A Postcapitalist Strategy, by Anitra Nelson. Available at Pluto Press, Amazon.  For September, we’re reading the remaining chapters.

‘A fascinating portal into arguments about why we need to get beyond money’ – Harry Cleaver

What would a world without money look like? This book is a lively thought experiment that deepens our understanding of how money is the driver of political power, environmental destruction and social inequality today, arguing that it has to be abolished rather than repurposed to achieve a postcapitalist future.

Grounded in historical debates about money, Anitra Nelson draws on a spectrum of political and economic thought and activism, including feminism, ecoanarchism, degrowth, permaculture, autonomism, Marxism and ecosocialism. Looking to Indigenous rights activism and the defence of commons, an international network of activists engaged in a fight for a money-free society emerges.

Beyond Money shows that, by organising around post-money versions of the future, activists have a hope of creating a world that embodies their radical values and visions.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth,  Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and Beyond Money.

The México Solidarity Project, SINTTIA, and the continuing importance of international working class solidarity

The presentation will include clips from a documentary film and current footage from Labor Notes 2022 Conference with commentary. Not pedantic or dogmatic — more observational with moments of humor (sorely needed).

Our speaker, Anne Lewis, is an independent documentary-maker and professor of practice at UT-Austin. Her work reveals working class people fighting for social change. Anne was associate director/assistant camera for HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A. After the strike, she moved to the east Kentucky coalfields where she lived for 25 years. Documentaries she produced, directed, and edited include: ANNE BRADEN: SOUTHERN PATRIOT; MORRISTOWN: IN THE AIR AND SUN, a working class critique of globalization; JUSTICE IN THE COALFIELDS about the UMWA strike against Pittston; ON OUR OWN LAND about community organizing against stripmining; CHEMICAL VALLEY about environmental racism; FAST FOOD WOMEN; and A STRIKE AND AN UPRISING (IN TEXAS).

Anne recently completed a series of print and video pieces with Jennifer Harbury about the U.S./Mexico border, and RAULRSALINAS AND THE POETRY OF LIBERATION: UN TRIP. She is a proud member of the executive board of the Texas State Employees Union, TSEU-CWA 6186. www.annelewis.org

LOGIN INFORMATION

Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am 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 may remain open later for informal discussion.

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RSVP

Maybe you’ve been getting our emails for months or years but never come to a DSA event. Maybe you’re a veteran leftist with decades of battles under your belt. Maybe you’re a new member ready to take the next step and get organized.

Wherever you’re coming from, we want to hang out with you!

🌹  Hear what we’re currently working on

💪  Get more involved in critical fights right here in the East Bay

🥨  Eat some snacks

Right now, we’re grappling with a conservative attack on our reproductive rights, a looming climate catastrophe, and a Democratic establishment unwilling to fight for working people. But at the same time, Amazon and Starbucks workers are building power in their workplaces and DSA is fighting for a Tax the Rich ballot measure in Oakland.

There’s never been a more pressing time to make the jump from socialist to *organized* socialist. And that starts with meeting your comrades and taking action. Plus, it’ll be fun, we promise. Join us!

Invite all your union friends and the socialism-curious!

Look for us at Snow Park (the corner of Harrison St and 19th Street next to Lake Merritt).

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

John Fisher, son of the late Donald Fisher (of The Gap and related corporate wealth), personifies the connections between these two struggles.  Not only is Fisher (the younger), principal owner of the A’s, pushing for the gentrification grab at the Howard Terminal, but he is a major force in the push for charter schools. not only in Oakland, but nationally, through the Kipp Schools network.

Given the continuing struggles on both fronts, with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) / Oakland Police Department (OPD) repressive actions at the Parker Liberation School this week, and more protest about the Howard Terminal project, despite the votes of the city council, it is important to revisit these critical issues and the broader corporate politics involved.

Jack Gerson is a retired Oakland teacher who writes on and analyzes  issues related to education, politics, public health and the pandemic.  Before retiring, he was on the executive board and bargaining team of the Oakland teachers union (OEA).  Among other things, he helped organize OEA’s campaign to bail out schools not banks and end foreclosures, and the Occupy Oakland education committee’s 18 day occupation of Lakeview Elementary in 2012 to protest school closures.

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 of the Green Party follows at 7:00 pm, after a 30-minute break. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

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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.

Join us tonight on Zoom & make a call to stop CARE Court today!

 
Where: Online: CC and ASL will be provided Register here!

APTP is also in solidarity with fights across the state and world to reclaim public spaces. Community is fighting back against privatization and criminalization of poverty from Parker Elementary in Oakland to People’s Park in Berkeley to 24th Street Plaza in San Francisco to Echo Park in LA and BEYOND! We’ll cover some of these struggles, as well as the situation at Wood Street encampment, the largest encampment in Oakland.
Join APTP’s General Meeting
Reminder: if you haven’t already, please don’t forget to call your assemblymember TODAY  (844) 537-1657  and urge them to vote NO on CARCARE Court!

A legislative staffer will be tallying the calls they receive. Here’s how to call:

1. Dial (844) 537-1657
2. The automated system will ask you to state your street, city, and zip code then you will be connected to your assemblymember’s office
3. Tell the staff person your name, where you live and then you can say:

“I am a California resident calling in opposition to SB 1338, the bill to establish CARE Courts. I urge you to vote NO. All evidence shows that providing housing AND adequately-resourced, intensive, voluntary outpatient treatment  – not court-ordered treatment – is most effective for treating the poopulation CARE Court seeks to serve. California doesn’t need to spend millions on another racist court system. Thank you for your time.”
This CARE Court proposal has a $65 million starting cost and claims to combat houselessness and support people with mental health disabilities, but provides no funding to permanent supportive housing or mental health services such as peer supporters and community-based organizations. The bill instead pushes for ineffectual forced treatment and allocation of funds to expand our racist criminal legal system.

The bill will be voted on any day now and then it will move quickly to Newsom’s desk to become law. This is our last real chance to stop this bill.

Call your assemblymember TODAY at (844) 537-1657 to tell them why they should oppose CARE Court (SB 1338).

Love and solidarity,
APTP

P.S. Having trouble with the line? Click here to call your legislator instead.