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

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

Relevant Agenda Items:

5. Federal Task Force Transparency Ordinance – OPD – Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
a. Review and take possible action on the draft memoranda of understanding with federal partners (MOU)

Join the meeting

International human rights advocate and lawyer Dan Kovalik will discuss the current conflict in Ukraine in light of historical developments, in particular the collapse of the USSR, the 2014 coup and the conflict which began thereafter between the government of Kiev and the Donbas region of Ukraine. He will also report on his recent trip to the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Daniel Kovalik currently teaches international human rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.  He graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1993. He then served as in-house counsel for the United Steelworkers, AFL-CIO (USW) until 2019. The Christian Science Monitor, referring to his work defending Colombian unionists under threat of assassination, described Dan as “one of the most prominent defenders of Colombian workers in the United States.”

Dan Kovalik has written extensively on international human rights and US foreign policy for the Huffington Post and Counterpunch. He has lectured throughout the world on these subjects and frequently appears on RT. He is the author of books exposing the machinations of US imperialism in Venezuela, Iran, Russia, and an upcoming one on Nicaragua along with a book on US regime-change operations around the world. Other books include a progressive case against cancel culture and how the US violates international law.

In this video, Dan Kovalik addresses the UN Security Council on threats to international peace and security on December 9: https://media.un.org/en/asset/k12/k128iiykjr.

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.

ZOOM LINK

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Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
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The Democrats are rejoicing that they lost fewer congressional seats than had been predicted. The Republicans are ready to scuttle any meager reforms that are proposed. Donald Trump’s political career seems to be imploding, but his base is still there. Join us to discuss what it will take to change this dreary picture and build towards a socialist future.

Howie Hawkins – Environmental activist, trade unionist, Green Party candidate for president in 2020, plans to run again in 2024

Gwen McLaughlin

We are continuing our reading group on Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon this Sunday at 4pm @omnicommons and online!

DM us to join in-person or online! We will provide free PDFs as well! *Masks are required to be worn at all times during the event* pic.twitter.com/c7iRQ1aUk9

— Community Liberation Programs (@comlibprograms) January 7, 2023

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

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

The two-year civil war in Ethiopia has seen far more casualties than the Ukraine War but received a tiny fraction of the press. Estimates are that half a million people, maybe even more, have died, while the highest estimate is 100,000 in Ukraine. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, Ethiopia also saw a record number of people internally displaced by conflict in 2021, over five million.

The press it has gotten has been largely that of the genocide industrial complex, which portrays the Tegaru minority as victims in the conflict, and the Ethiopian government and its ally Eritrea as the aggressors and war criminals. This narrative is in line with the US foreign policy objective of controlling the Horn of Africa. Ann Garrison will talk about what she saw on her trip to Ethiopia and Eritrea in March, April, May and June. She will be joined by Eritrean American scholar, journalist, and activist Elias Amare.

Ann Garrison is a Contributing Editor at Black Agenda Report, a contributor to The Grayzone, Counterpunch, and Pacifica Radio, and a longtime Green.

Elias Amare is an Eritrean American scholar, activist, and host of Horn of Africa TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g40KVITOaaM

February 12: About Ukraine (more info coming soon!)

March 12: Report from Nicaragua:

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

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.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89559844652
Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652

One tap mobile
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Dial by your location
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Location Details:
Virtual through Google Meet: The Pursuit of Happiness framed in political-economic terms
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/mqd-jtmf-gkk

Join high school US History teacher David Giesen as he vets an overview–seeking your critique–of next year’s approach to US History.

The curriculum’s theme is “Liberating the Pursuit of Happiness.”

The “elevator pitch” is: The United States was created in the stated belief that governments should exist in order to facilitate a people’s ability to pursue happiness. The pursuit of happiness requires liberty to be playfully expressive. The USA is on the continuum of aligning politico-economic conditions with the sort of liberty required for people to pursue happiness.

On three successive Sunday evenings (January 8, 15, and 22) you are invited to join a virtual conference where you will remotely watch a few videos and afterwards join in discussion of those videos as they relate to the curriculum. You need not attend every session.

I welcome those desiring a short course in US history, those desirous of critiquing an unconventional approach to US history, friends of Howard Zinn-like alternate US histories, enemies of Howard Zinn-like alternate US histories, self-described woke, self-described woke-adverse, would-be US history teachers, US history teachers, and others.

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.

If raining, the press conference will be held inside the building, at the Dean’s office.
CodePink event page: https://www.codepink.org

Berkeley, CA.  Human rights groups will gather in person at UC Berkeley Law School on January 11, 2023 @ 1pm to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp on its 21st Anniversary, and for the prosecution of UC Berkeley Law Professor John Yoo for complicity in torture. The press conference is hosted by CodePink for Peace, Berkeley No More Guantanamos, Progressive Democrats of Oakland, Triple Justice, Extinction Rebellion Peace and others.

Press conference organizer and SF Bay CodePink Coordinator Cynthia Papermaster says “The U.S. carried out torture at Guantanamo. That is well established. Professor Yoo is complicit because he provided the legal opinions that Cheney and Bush relied on to order the torture at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo and elsewhere. Prosecution for complicity in torture is not discretionary; in other words, our Department of Justice is required to prosecute Yoo. Instead this disgraced lawyer walks free in Berkeley and teaches at our public university, at a salary of nearly $500,000/year. As a graduate of UC Berkeley I am horrified that he’s allowed to corrupt the minds of UC Berkeley Law students with his criminal theories. Yoo embodies the “banality of evil.” He must be prosecuted.”

Papermaster continued, saying “Yoo’s legal opinions were called “rubbish, shoddy research” by the Department of Justice. There were calls for his disbarment and firing from students and faculty at UC Berkeley, the American Bar Association and the National Lawyers Guild. The City of Berkeley passed resolutions condemning Yoo. UC Berkeley Faculty objected to Yoo receiving an endowed chair, but then-law school Dean Christopher Edley insisted on giving him the honor. In 2014, Erwin Chemerinsky, the current Dean of UC Berkeley Law School, and then Dean of UC Irvine Law School, said in a Nation magazine interview that Yoo should be criminally prosecuted.”

“I think he [John Yoo] should be,” Chemerinsky said. “All who planned, all who implemented, all who carried out the torture should be criminally prosecuted. How else do we as a society express our outrage? How else do we deter it in the future, except by criminal  prosecutions?”  https://www.thenation.com/article/prosecute-john-yoo-says-law-school-dean-erwin-chemerinsky/

Dean Chemerinsky, the Co-directors of the International Human Rights Law Clinic at the law school, Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission members and law school students have been invited to speak at the press conference. Professor Yoo will be asked to contribute to the newly-established Guantanamo Survivors Fund. https://www.nogitmos.org/guantanamo-survivors-fund 

Tell the San Francisco Police Commissioners to approve DG0 9.07. and end pretext stops now! Meeting time: 5:30 p.m. Jan. 11. Location: Police Commission at City Hall. 1 Dr Carlton B. Goodlett Place, room 400.

— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU_NorCal) January 9, 2023

Speakers

Marta Segura, M.P.H.

Marta serves as the City of Los Angeles’ founding Chief Heat Officer and Director of Climate Emergency Mobilization and is one of seven Chief Heat Officers worldwide and the only Latina in the Nation to serve in those respective roles. She is a thought leader and policy expert in environmental health, public health, and stakeholder engagement. She has worked directly with public, philanthropic, private, institutional, and non-profit sectors to design, implement, and drive equitable climate policy.

Abby Edwards

Abby Edwards leads the development, implementation, and administration of climate adaptation planning grants for the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program’s Adaptation Planning Grant Program in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. The program aims to prioritize equitable outcomes by proactively targeting investments towards climate-vulnerable communities.

Coral Abbott

Coral serves as Program Manager for Strategic Growth Council’s Community Resilience Centers program, which funds neighborhood-scale resilience centers that will provide shelter and resources during climate and other emergencies, while also acting as a year-round hub for community services and programming that build community resilience over the long term.

Shina Robinson

Shina Robinson has a deep commitment to environmental justice as the intersection of human rights, equity, health, and ecological sanity. As Resilience Hubs Manager, Shina connects Asia Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) leaders and host site partners to build a network of community-based climate resilience hubs that advance tangible models of a Just Transition in frontline communities.

Join ACCE for the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy’s event on Right to Housing.

RSVP HERE

At a time of mass houselessness, deepening tenant precarity, and the criminalization of poverty, housing justice movements are pushing for a right to housing in California. In this convening, current and former UN Special Rapporteurs on Adequate Housing provide insight and guidance on key elements of such a right, how such a right can be informed by an international human rights framework, and how such a right can become an actionable government obligation. In conversation with prominent housing justice leaders, they will take up questions such as: What does the right to housing mean for those without a right to recognized housing, notably unhoused communities? How can the right to housing address the effects of global financialization on housing markets and housing systems? Is there a vision of social housing that can be a core part of such a right? How might the right to housing remake highly unequal relations of property and land?

Featuring UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Adequate Housing:

• Leilani Farha, 2014 – 2020
• Balakrishnan Rajagopal, 2020 – 2026
• Raquel Rolnik, 2008 – 2014

With commentary by:

• Gary Blasi, Tenant Power Toolkit
• Clarissa Woo Hermosillo, ACLU Southern California
• Christina Livingston, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)
• Pete White, Los Angeles Community Action Network

Chaired by:

Ananya Roy, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
RSVP HERE

Because housing IS a human right!

ACCE Action
http://www.acceaction.org/

Why is the internet so broken, and what could ever possibly fix it? Join Internet Archive's senior policy counsel @lilabailey for a discussion with author @bentarnoff about his latest book, INTERNET FOR THE PEOPLE.
⏰ Jan 12 @ 6pm PT, IN-PERSON
🔗 https://t.co/Gn0OCZAJ4L pic.twitter.com/6jdkk1QAa6

— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) December 28, 2022

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

For December, we are reading the first part, and the beginning of the second part, of Less is More, by Jason Hickel (Amazon, Barnes & Noble).

For January, 2023, we are finishing the book.

The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now we must face up to its primary cause. Capitalism demands perpetual expansion, which is devastating the living world. There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: DEGROWTH. If we want to have a shot at halting the crisis, we need to restore the balance. We need to change how we see nature and our place in it, shifting from a philosophy of domination and extraction to one that’s rooted in reciprocity and regeneration.

We need to evolve beyond the dogmas of capitalism to a new system that is fit for the twenty-first century. But what does such a society look like? What about jobs? What about health? What about progress? This book tackles these questions and traces a clear pathway to a post-capitalist economy. An economy that’s more just, more caring, and more fun. An economy that enables human flourishing while reversing ecological breakdown. An economy that will not only lift us out of our current crisis, but restore our sense of connection to a world that’s brimming with life. By taking less, we can become more.

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.

All are welcome!