FREE MUMIA NOW!
BOOK LAUNCH AND PANEL AS PART OF LABORFEST 2023
[In person event. Attendees are politely requested to mask.]
Speakers:
Eliot Lee Grossman, attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal, 2001-2003
Rachel Wolkenstein, attorney for Mumia Abu-Jamal, 1995-1999
Gerald Smith, Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal (LAC) cordially invites you to a panel discussion to launch a new book on the Mumia Abu-Jamal case written by his former attorney, Eliot Lee Grossman. Mr. Grossman represented Mumia, with his colleagues Marlene Kamish, British barrister Nick Brown, and J. Michael Farrell, from  2001-2003, and saved his life by convincing a federal judge to overturn his death sentence, a decision later upheld on appeal.
The panel includes attorney Rachel Wolkenstein who, as head of the Partisan Defense Committee, brought Mumia’s case to national and international prominence, represented Mumia from 1995-1999 with co-counsel Jonathan Piper, and investigated, discovered and developed new evidence of Mumia’s innocence. Ex-Black Panther Gerald Smith will also speak on behalf of the LAC.
Mumia narrowly escaped execution for a crime he did not commit, but has been imprisoned for over 40 years despite his innocence. Mr. Grossman’s new book traces the history of Mumia’s case from December 9, 1981, when a white Philadelphia police officer was murdered and Mumia was shot, beaten by the Philadelphia police and framed for the killing, through trial, appeal, six state post-conviction petitions, and numerous appeals to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court, to the present and continuing struggle to Free Mumia!
Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing by the author. Join our panelists to discuss how the labor movement and its allies can revitalize the international campaign to Free Mumia Now!
For Labor Action to Free Mumia!
Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Speaker: Simone Chun.
Can there be peace in Korea under the US imperialistic strategy? Can there be peace in Korea when the US is at a virtual war with China? Simone Chun’s talk will show that the greatest threat to peace and stability in northeast Asia is the U.S. imperialistic quest and military encirclement of China. She will argue that the US peace movement must seriously oppose US imperial policy as a focal point of its struggle, and join its voice with the South Korean public as they campaign to regain their sovereignty and independence.
Our speaker, Simone Chun, is a researcher and activist focusing on inter-Korean relations and U.S. foreign policy in the Korean Peninsula. She has served as an assistant professor at Suffolk University, a lecturer at Northeast University and an associate in research at Harvard University’s Korea Institute. She is on the Korea Policy Institute Board of Directors, and serves on the advisory board for CODEPINK. She can be found on Twitter at @simonechun
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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.
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!
Extinction Rebellion presents this film, “an insider’s view of the world of direct action . . . the battle between frontline communities, activists and fossil fuel corporations,” followed by a discussion with Michael Levitin, author of Generation Occupy: Reawakening American Democracy.
Finite: The Climate of Change tells the story of a community in Germany where activists stepped forward to save an ancient forest from one of Europe’s biggest coal mines. They formed an unlikely alliance with a frustrated community in rural England who were forced into action to protect their homes from a new opencast coal mine.
The screening will also feature a pre-recorded introduction from director Rich Felgate.
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
Diana Bohn and Don Macleay will discuss the current situation in Nicaragua and what it me ans for the US solidarity movements and the Green Party.
Our speakers have a long history with Nicaragua dating back to the time of the Sandinista Popular Revolution 1979-1990. Since then they have both been involved in Nicaragua solidarity and support of human rights.
The current government of Nicaragua has the Sandinista name, but not the revolutionary practice, the human rights record and has lost the support of almost all of the original generation of Sandinistas. From 2018 to today, repression has ramped up, civil rights have been eliminated and democratic practice only exists in name.
The challenge for the democratic left, solidarity movements and the Green Party USA is to both support civil rights and oppose foreign intervention. We need to stand up against political repression in all parts of the world. At the same time, res pect for other national sovereignty is something we should do for all nations, especially the countries where our state department has a long history of interference.
There will be a short presentation followed by open discussion.
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UPCOMING EVENT:
Wed, July 5, 5:30 pm — Path to Win Single Payer NOW — Online Webinar — Register at http://bit.ly/Path2SinglePayer — Join Dr. Jill Stein for an online discussion of U.S. health care with healthcare experts and activists including Dr. Claire Cohen, Don Fitz, Ryan Skolnick, and Dr. Margaret Flowers — The profit-driven U.S. health care system has produced staggering healthcare inequities, patient suffering and death, declining health outcomes, and massive medical debt. A single-payer system would cover comprehensive health care for everyone from head to toe regardless of citizenship or employment. It will be free at the point of service and cost less than the current system — Registration is required for this free event. Please contact Lauren Filla (filla.lauren@gmail.com) with any questions — Co-Hosted by: the Green Party of California & the Missouri Green Party — Co-Sponsored by: National Single Payer, Physicians for a National Health Program, OR, People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, Green Parties of Washington, Florida, and Illinois, and many others
SPEAKER: Mariya P Ivancheva
Based on extensive fieldwork in Venezuela, The Alternative University outlines the origins and day-to-day functioning of the colossal effort of late President Hugo Chávez’s government to create a university that challenged national and global higher education norms. The session will commence with reading from the book and outlining some of its main themes. It will then open a dialogue will participants about some of the lessons that the book carries and challenges that the Venezuelan experiment poses to the possibility of revolutionary change in higher education.
The Sudo Room, a creative community and hackerspace at Omni Commons, invites all Women/NB people for “Coding Owls – A WNB Coding Night”: bring your computer and a coding project and have fun! We can help each other if you have coding related questions/bugs or just keep company while hacking! If you are a beginner, we can help you get started (even if you’ve never coded before!). And if you’re an intermediate programmer looking for a challenge, we can help you find problems to work on. No computer? No problem: we can provide one for the night. Coders of all abilities are welcome! All coding languages are welcome! Bringing a WNB friend is highly recommended. Coding is more fun with friends! Join in person if you’re in Oakland or online anywhere else in the world!
The idea is also to be a safe space for WNB in the tech world, besides promoting empowerment, also to provide emotional support for those facing challenges in a work environment, tech job search or anything else related.
Your host: Juliana A. (pronouns she/her) is originally from Brazil, has been living in the US for 10 years, and has been working as a software engineer since 2020, after finishing a software engineering bootcamp for women/nb people only. She has worked with Ruby on Rails, Python, SQL, JavaScript, React, Typescript.
Coding Owls – A WNB Coding Night
Virtual: https://meet.waag.org/turtlesturtlesturtles
Omni Commons and Sudoroom policy is presently that EVERYONE MUST WEAR A MASK AT ALL TIMES INSIDE THE BUILDING.
If you get to the door (at the corner of 48th and shattuck) and you can’t get in, call 510-844-0014 or 510-740-5758.
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.
Hardware hack night – each Tuesday, we welcome sudoers new and old to bring their hardware projects to the space, or simply come by to learn and tinker! All welcome, 7pm til… whomever’s left standing!
You can also jump in virtually via https://meet.waag.org/turtlesturtlesturtles !
Some stuff people have been working on:
Please email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to get up-to-date location information or obtain Zoom meeting access info.
(THE JANUARY 17TH MEETING, 2024 WAS MOVED TO JANUARY 24TH)
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for privacy, surveillance regulation of both corporations and the state, and government transparency, 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 in 2018 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 street surveillance, and fighting to ensure local governments adhere to State privacy and transparency regulations.
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:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/
Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy, and/or on Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@oaklandprivacy
Join Oil and Gas Action Network for an electrifying block party/action against Wells Fargo, one of the top four US banks funding the climate crisis.
Before Wells Fargo releases their quarterly earnings report, we’ll party in a high-energy day with talented musicians, dancers, street theater, and more. Dance, sing, and help harness the power of community to escalate resistance to profit-driven climate destruction.
Host Contact: info@oilgasaction.org
After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, we have lost our funding. Street Spirit ceased publication on July 1, but we will not give up! Our newspaper is an invaluable source of East Bay news, and a vital resource for the people who sell it. Come party with us to support our effort to relaunch.
Tickets: We are selling tickets on a sliding scale of $5 to $500. Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds, so come even if you can’t pay and you’ll be invited in!
Learn: Alexis Madrigal will moderate a panel about East Bay homelessness, Street Spirit, and what our community stands to lose without it. Guests on the panel will include Street Spirit Editor Alastair Boone, Talya Husbands-Hankin of Oakland’s Love and Justice in the Streets, and Street Spirit vendors.
Dance: Music by Shruggs
Eat: Food by Hausa Vegan
Hang: Let’s get to know each other! Street Spirit has no future without the community of people who read and support it. Meet and chat with the amazing journalists, advocates, vendors, artists, and East Bay residents who lift us up.
*Flyer by Sucharitha Yelimeli*
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our June and July meetings we are reading Poverty by America, by Matthew Desmond.
For our June meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.
For the July meeting we will finish the book.
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
In this landmark book, acclaimed sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Those of us who are financially secure exploit the poor, driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. We prioritize the subsidization of our wealth over the alleviation of poverty, designing a welfare state that gives the most to those who need the least. And we stockpile opportunity in exclusive communities, creating zones of concentrated riches alongside those of concentrated despair. Some lives are made small so that others may grow.
Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He calls on us all to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and, at last, true freedom.
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, Beyond Money, Less is More, Cannibal Capitalism, and Debt, the First 5000 Years.
Imagine a future of community policing, police commissions with real authority, and registered Green Party police chiefs. What would a Green Party police force look like? Demilitarized officers, biodiesel-fueled vehicles, and hemp weapons? How would you create a police force with Green Party values? Well, the irregular cast with special guests will discuss the possibilities with you and theorize on how to make an entirely new police system a reality.
Join us – virtual doors open at 6 PM (witth the best pre-show music diversity). The discussion begins at 6:30 PM PST on ZOOM.
Organized by the Oakland Greens:
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
The Sudo Room, a creative community and hackerspace at Omni Commons, invites all Women/NB people for “Coding Owls – A WNB Coding Night”: bring your computer and a coding project and have fun! We can help each other if you have coding related questions/bugs or just keep company while hacking! If you are a beginner, we can help you get started (even if you’ve never coded before!). And if you’re an intermediate programmer looking for a challenge, we can help you find problems to work on. No computer? No problem: we can provide one for the night. Coders of all abilities are welcome! All coding languages are welcome! Bringing a WNB friend is highly recommended. Coding is more fun with friends! Join in person if you’re in Oakland or online anywhere else in the world!
The idea is also to be a safe space for WNB in the tech world, besides promoting empowerment, also to provide emotional support for those facing challenges in a work environment, tech job search or anything else related.
Your host: Juliana A. (pronouns she/her) is originally from Brazil, has been living in the US for 10 years, and has been working as a software engineer since 2020, after finishing a software engineering bootcamp for women/nb people only. She has worked with Ruby on Rails, Python, SQL, JavaScript, React, Typescript.
Coding Owls – A WNB Coding Night
Virtual: https://meet.waag.org/turtlesturtlesturtles
Omni Commons and Sudoroom policy is presently that EVERYONE MUST WEAR A MASK AT ALL TIMES INSIDE THE BUILDING.
If you get to the door (at the corner of 48th and shattuck) and you can’t get in, call 510-844-0014 or 510-740-5758.
Troy’s book examines a piece of critical and understudied Latin American social movement and anarchist history involving the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU). Militants the FAU were involved shop floor struggles, neighborhood organizing, and armed guerrilla warfare–alongside the Tupamaros–against the US backed dictatorship which took power in Uruguay starting in 1973.
This event will feature readings from the book, a broader contextual discussion about revolutionary social movements in Latin America during the period, and lessons for revolutionaries today.
RSVP on Facebook by clicking this link!
We will be discussing the basics of capitalism. It is highly recommended to read the required readings as this night school will be geared more toward discussion.
Required Readings:
Recommended Readings TBD
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 876 5957 9868
Passcode: 945476
