Calendar
When BART workers went on strike July 1, the whole Bay Area was affected. BART hired a major union buster to put the workers on strike, then blame the workers in a highly visible battle to bring Wisconsin-style attacks to the Bay Area and drive down living standards for all of us. The 30-day contract extension expires Sunday, August 4 at midnight, yet BART management still refuses to negotiate, likely forcing the workers out again starting Monday, August 5.
BART workers represented by ATU 1555 and SEIU 1021 invite all workers to stand up against Wisconsin-style attacks in the Bay Area on Thursday, August 1 at 5pm at Frank Ogawa Plaza (Oscar Grant Plaza).
Special Guest: Bill McKibben
As the planet lurches past the ominous milestone of 400 parts per million atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and Big Oil continues its irresponsible pursuit of ever more and dirtier fossil carbon to pump into our air, and local refineries begin to import Canadian tar sands for processing in the Bay Area, the moment has come to stand up to the industry that is wrecking our future.
Please join 350.org, several Richmond community groups, local unions, Gathering Tribes, Urban Tilth, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and others, three days ahead of the anniversary of the Chevron refinery’s (most recent) explosion and fire, for a march and spirited rally at the refinery’s main gate.
March: From Richmond BART to Chevron refinery
Rally: Main entrance to Chevron Refinery, Point Richmond
Article: Bay Area Battles Chevron’s Dangerous Tar Sands Refinery
It has been one month since CA Prisoners began a hunger strike demanding an end to indefinite solitary confinement and the cruel, inhumane and torturous conditions of confinement in CA Security House Units (SHU).
Stand in solidarity with CA prisoner hunger strikers as they enter their second months of an indefinite hunger strike:
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity.
STOP THE TORTURE!
One down and no end in sight… A bike ride following ART OUT! in solidarity with CA Prison Hunger Strikers, come out and help bring their message to the public sphere and wake up these sleeping masses. Let’s make their demand a reality!
~*In Memory of Billy “Guero” Sell*~
-Prisoner Demands-
• Eliminate group punishments for individual rules violations.
• Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
• Comply with the 2006 recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.
• Provide adequate food.
• Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.
And in Support of the Hunger Strikers 5 Demands.
Bike for the Strike!!
Meet Up at 9 PM Friday August 9th at Oscar Grant Plaza.
Following Art Out 6-9 PM
Brought to you by Onyx, Young Oakland, & Hella Free Store
Sign Making & Bike Repair 2-6 PM
11:00 a.m. : Meet at the Berkeley Post Office, with signs and banners. Hear speakers, and sing with the music.
12 noon : March to CONNECT THE DOTS between FedEx, UPS, and the Blum Center at U.C.
Protest those who want to privatize our public postal service and eliminate union jobs.
We will then return to the Berkeley Post Office
There is a danger that the encampment may be raided and closed soon. Please support our
actions to protect our public property! See you Saturday!
SAVE OUR PUBLIC COMMONS
Committee to Save the Berkeley Post Office
Occupy and JAB photographer Daniel Arauz is to be arraigned tomorrow.
Everyone knows Daniel. He’s been taking pictures and videos at activist
events around Oakland forever. Most recently he took a great set of photos
for the rally and occupation at the Berkeley Post Office.
Some weeks ago he got pulled down and arrested by OPD for taking
pictures of the freeway blockade by Treyvon Martin protesters. He was
the only person arrested and they took his camera.
On Monday, at 9:00 AM, Daniel will arraigned at Wiley Manuel Courthouse
(7th & Washington, one block from the Police Station) in Oakland.
Please come out and support him!!
12 noon press conference, with Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, Stop Mass Incarceration Network, people formerly Incarcerated in California Dept. of Corrections (CDCR) SHUs, SHU inmates’ families, and other voices of support and conscience.
If you want to go and need a ride, let us know at the contact number. If you can give a ride, please let us know as well. Most of us are meeting at the MacArthur BART Station @ 8am, but let us know if that doesn’t work for you and we’ll see what we can do.
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, in support of the California Prison Hunger Strikers and their 5 Demands invite the public to visit an installation of a life-sized mock Security Housing Unit (SHU) Cell on the California State Capitol South Steps in Sacramento.
This stark multimedia installation will allow visitors to acquire a tactile and visceral understanding of the reality of solitary confinement that over 4,000 California prisoners have endured for years and decades, and why this is cruel and unusual punishment deemed torture by the UN and human rights groups. The installation includes images of SHU cells and prisoners and moving testimony from prisoners and others.
On July 8, 2013, 30,000 California prisoners began a hunger strike to end the torture of solitary confinement and for their basic rights and humanity. Their central demand is “comply with the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.” Now, 100’s of prisoners have gone over one month without food and many more in many prisons have supported the strike and gone on and off the hunger strike since its beginning. Millions throughout society support the prisoners, including prominent voices such as Jay Leno, Danny Glover, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Steinem; yet Governor Jerry Brown and the California Dept. of Corrections refuse to meet their just demands, have retaliated against the hunger strikers, and have publicly vilified the prisoners and the hunger strike. In a July 6 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, CDCR secretary Jeffrey Beard claimed that the notorious SHU “is not ‘solitary confinement.’”
On July 5, Amnesty International stated that “rather than improving,” conditions in California prisons “have actually significantly deteriorated:” On July 22, 2013, Amnesty International called California Prisons and the CDCR’s response to the hunger strike an “affront to human rights.”
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network states “This is an EMERGENCY! One hunger striker, Billy ‘Guero’ Sell, has already died. Many more people need to stand NOW with the prisoner hunger strikers!”
City College provides an excellent education to tens of thousands of students, yet the ACCJC accreditation commission is threatening to close our school in 2014. We will not let this happen! CCSF must remain open and accessible to the Bay Area’s diverse communities. Students will march on City Hall to pressure Mayor Ed Lee to demand the immediate reversal of the ACCJC’s unjust decision, which is currently under appeal. If the Mayor actually supports CCSF and its students, he needs to join with us to take action against the ACCJC — an illegitimate, out of control body — and its imposition of cuts and privatization.
Are you outraged that California will start FORCE FEEDING people soon??
Come out and show your support for the thousands of prisoners who have participated in this peaceful hunger strike since July 8!
Come show your opposition to the recent ruling that prisoners can be force fed against their wishes!
They need our support NOW more than ever. We cannot remain silent while California denies these people’s humanity.
We will meet to rally at 5pm, then march to Jerry Brown’s condo on Telegraph and 27th!
PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS AND SHARE WIDELY!!
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Great news – three fired Oakland Airport worker leaders are headed back to work! Join them as they stand up for good jobs and organizing rights for themselves and other OAK fast food workers!
“I can’t wait to go back to work at the airport,” said Subway cashier Hakima Arhab. “My co-workers are feeling so strong – they understand now that we can stick together and stand up for our rights, and win!”
On August 12, the airport’s Subway and Jamba Juice franchises agreed to reinstate Hakima, Bikram Thapa, and Diamond Ford, who were fired last summer after they spoke out against injustices and labor law violations on the job.
Subway also agreed to restore the schedule of Hayat Selmani, who lost work hours after she began participating in the campaign (Hayat was one of the workers who struck to protest unfair labor practices at the airport on July 14). All four workers will receive back pay.
In May, the National Labor Relations Board issued complaints against Subway and Jamba Juice for retaliating against workers for organizing. The reinstatements are part of the settlement of that case.
But the airport workers’ fight isn’t over. Workers at Subway, Jamba Juice and four other airport fast food restaurants are demanding a card check agreement – so they can decide whether to unionize without fear of retaliation. Unionized fast food workers at the airport enjoy job security, living wages, and affordable family health care.
Join the workers for an action inside and outside Terminal 2 – and show the restaurants that the community is standing up for good jobs at OAK!
On Saturday, August 24th at 5pm join us at Oscar Grant Plaza to march in solidarity with the California prisoners on the 48th day of their hunger strike. As they organize behind the closed doors of solitary, let our support ring loudly through the streets. Let us voice the demands of the prisoners and demand justice for Guero, the first prisoner to die participating in the hunger strike (may he rest in peace.)
Come ready to make some noise!!
Sponsored by the Anti-repression crew.
Israel Hernandez was an artist who used a variety of mediums, including graffiti, under the name Reefa. On the morning of August 6th, Hernandez was tasered to death by Miami Beach police, who proceeded to high-five and congratulate each other. This sick incident of police brutality is nothing new, and the list of people slain by police gets longer and longer.
The evening of August 24th we will gather to seek justice for yet another wrongful death at the hands of the state, and decorate the city how Reefa did when he was murdered.
Original call for action on IndyBay.
More info on the murder from the Miami Herald.
Direct Action.
DEFY Rotten #NSA Contractor #CSC AT #VMWorld2013.
Also Tuesday and Wednesday, same time, same place.
STOP THE WAR ON YOUTH OF COLOR
JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN –
JAIL ZIMMERMAN!
OVERTURN ‘STAND YOUR GROUND’ LAWS!
JOBS & EDUCATION
NOT MASS INCARCERATION!
END RACIAL PROFILING OF ALL FORMS!
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR INCLUDING STOP-AND-FRISK!
IMMIGRANT RIGHTS NOW
STOP DEPORTATIONS!
A LIVING WAGE AND UNION RIGHTS
FOR LOW-WAGE AND ALL WORKERS!
Stop Urban Shield Militarization & Surveillance of Our Communities
On Wed., August 28, after we’ve marched in Washington on Aug. 24 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the great march against racism in Washington, D.C., led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the People’s Power Assembly Movement calls on activists across the U.S. to hold local JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN ASSEMBLIES, including rallies, speak-outs, marches in public squares or in front of federal buildings or local police headquarters.
Webpage for the national call for this event.
Local Endorsers: ILWU Local 10, ONYX Organizing Committee, Dignidad y Resistencia, Oscar Grant Foundation, Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition, Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement, Kenneth Harding Foundation, Peoples Community Medics, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Workers World Party, Urban Black Men United, Tsega Center, IWW, Peoples Database Project, Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee-Berkeley , Monterey Peace & Justice Center, Dan Siegel – attorney, Anne Weills – attorney, Shane Hoff – UTU Local 1741
f you work in a fast food or retail store anywhere in the country, the most effective thing you can do right now is make plans to take to the streets on August 29. Encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same. The more of us who go on strike that day, the louder our message will be that it is not right for companies making billions in profits to pay their workers pennies.
Come support low-wage workers at a rally demanding a living wage and a right to form a union without retalitation. Across the country, thousands of workers are coming together to call for better pay and workplace respect. Now it’s time for the East Bay to join the fight for a living wage so workers can provide food, shelter and clothing for their families, and improve the economy for everyone.
Tomorrow morning August 30 fast-food workers in Oakland will return to their shifts. They need supportive members of the public to accompany them. If you can show up, you will show both the workers and the fast-food giants that the workers do not stand alone. It will make it MUCH harder for management to retaliate against them.
Just show up at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) office at 2501 International Blvd. Suite 2D (between 25th and 26th Ave in East Oakland) at 6:30AM. For any questions, email ACCE at oakland@calorganize.org. “
80 Oakland Airport food and retail workers will walk off the job tomorrow morning to protest unfair labor practices by their employer Host International.
We’ve been in negotiations with Host for a year, and the company’s most recent proposals would gut our contract–drastically reducing vacation and sick days; eliminating pensions, paid meal breaks, and even overtime pay on shifts longer than eight hours; cutting pay for new hires and freezing longtime workers’ wages for five years; and removing workers from the union’s affordable health insurance plan.
Come down and join workers from Starbucks, Chili’s, California Pizza Kitchen, and other shops on the picket lines. We will be on strike all day, with rallies at 7am, noon, and 5pm at Terminal 2!
We will be shuttling people from the parking lot of the ILWU Local 6 office at 99 Hegenberger Road before the 7am and 5pm rallies. If you want a ride to the airport, please meet us there by 6:45am or 4:45pm.
UNITE HERE Local 2850, 1440 Broadway, Suite 208, Oakland, CA 94612, Tel. 510-893-3181, Fax 510-893-5362
We are demanding that the United States government not start a hypocritical and destructive war against #Syria. Join us at Oscar Grant Plaza this Saturday August 31st, starting at 12 noon. We need to show the fierce opposition against US imperialism that exists in our nation! This protest will last as long as people feel willing to make it last.