Calendar
Gentrification is HERE! Organizations and neighbors in Oakland are fighting to stop it. Let’s join forces to make an even bigger impact.
Our vision is for self-determined communities where residents will thrive and make collective decisions about the resources in their neighborhoods. We want to start this journey by building a citywide movement against gentrification and displacement.
� Learn what people are doing to fight gentrification
� Hear and share what is working and what is not.
� Plug in with other people who want to get involved in the fight
� Learn about opportunities for collaboration and citywide efforts.
� Find out about the “dirty dozen” — the top evictors in our city
Food, childcare and Spanish translation provided.
RSVP and more info HERE.
Organizers of the event, which includes different Bay Area social justice organizations, community groups and coalitions, seek to build a city-wide movement against gentrification and displacement. Our community meeting will focus on pulling together all of the folks that we know of that are doing good work to fight gentrification to learn about what folks are doing, share what’s working, plug in folks that want to get involved in the fight, and identify opportunities for collaboration and city-wide efforts.
A unique partnership between community members, UC Berkeley students, academics and staff has been preparing a 1.5 acre urban farm and research center on the Gill Tract. Come join us as we celebrate this new joint venture by planting, learning, playing, and eating together!
Schedule:
11:00 AM-2:30 PM: Planting, kid friendly activities, and educational workshops presented by UC Berkeley and community organizations
12:30 PM: Lunch provided by the Berkeley Student Food Collective
2:30-3:00 PM: Open community discussion about visions for the future of this space
Sponsored by The Gill Tract Farm Coalition, Student Organic Garden Association, UC College of Natural Resources, and UC Cooperative Extension
Friends and Comrades! Hunter-Gatherers, Anti-Capitalists and Others Fighting the Powers-That-Be to Create a Sane & Sustainable Earth… Come visit my studio and take home some art… FREE! …
Saturday April 26, 2014
Noon to Midnight
2200 Adeline St., #250A (Adeline St. & Grand Ave.)
http://www.bluejayway.net/sandys_art_not_bombs/sandys%20art%20not%20bombs.html
Sandy
- Readings and collecting testimony from lovers of the Albany Bulb.
- Acoustic Music!
- Food (Pot Luck – bring something!).
- Bring your dog and enjoy the beach because you might not be able to soon.
2014/03/16 Share The Bulb – Light Brigade Action in Support of the Homeless in Albany, California from user15944994 on Vimeo.
Gray Panthers fundraiser for Lynne Stewart, defender and fighter to free political prisoners and fight racist mass incarceration
Includes singer Red Welch (of Save the Berkeley Post Office fame)
“This is Lynne’s first trip to the Bay Area since her release from Federal prison. We’ll celebrate her life and struggle and focus on the work ahead to free all political prisoners and fight racist mass incarceration. Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs to fight cancer and this event is to help raise the needed money. Lynne gave a lifetime of courageous legal help to those of us who needed it the most. Now it’s our turn to help her. Please come”
New to Strike Debt?? Don’t walk cold turkey into a bunch of radicals talking about debt! Show up a half hour early—at 2:30 PM—for an informal pre-meeting intro session. If you’d like to attend this pre-together please email strike.debt.bay.area@
Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally to fight unjust debt.
– The latest on our coalition efforts to Save the Berkeley Post Office and fight the privatization of our commons.
– The latest on our efforts to help Richmond and NGO allies push for principal reduction for Richmond’s homeowners. Read two articles here and here, written by two Strike Debt Bay Area members on the Richmond principal reduction / eminent domain case.
In addition, we are exploring the use of a public bank to help Richmond, CA and other communities escape the thrall of Wall Street.
– Work on our radio segment on KPFA
– Other projects include efforts to fight against student debt in conjunction with peeps at UC Cal via a Strike Debt UC Berkeley chapter of Strike Debt, a book group with semi-weekly discussions, investigations into the legitimacy of mortgage ownership and therefore the right to foreclose, efforts to thwart payday loan usury and more.
“Just as bosses are dependent on workers, so are lenders dependent on borrowers. If workers walk out, the enterprise stops. If borrowers refuse to pay their debts, the lenders could be in real trouble. Each side depends on the other. The millions of underwater mortgage holders, of student debtors and credit card holders, need the bank loans – but so do the banks need those borrowers, and they especially need them to cooperate by paying their monthly charges. Otherwise, the capital that the banks list on their books begins to drain away.” ~Francis Fox Piven
Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
Check out the Berkeley Post Office Defenders website too.
Open Free Speech Mic.
Are more People’s Parks the solution? Running candidates? Is Revolution possible?
What kind of organizations do workers need? How should we deal with Climate Change? What about the tree-protest on campus? What about the homeless?
Featuring Antioquia, Hali Hammer, Carol Denny, Cool Whipe, All Nation Singers, Too Much Funky, St Steven, Five Boys, Yukon Hannibal, Jim Bow the Hobob.
Special Guest: Hateman.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard.
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privaztization of services. We need to support them in these endeavors!
The Berkeley City Council is on a path to pass some sort of Zoning Overlay which may protect the Post Office against various commercial uses, or be totally ineffective. We need to stay on top of it.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response.
The Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices was also supposed to come out before the end of March – anything could happen after it comes out. Come help us plan our response.
Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Screening and discussion:
“How to Start a Revolution”
— a film on the work of Gene Sharp
Any power structure relies upon the People’s obedience to the orders of the ruler(s).
If the People do not obey, rulers have no power.
Gene Sharp is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world. In 1953-54, Sharp was jailed for nine months after protesting the conscription of soldiers for the Korean War, and wrote and organized throughout his entire life. In 1983 he founded the Albert Einstein Institution, devoted to studies and promotion of the use of nonviolent action in conflicts worldwide.
Feature documentary “How to Start a Revolution” (2011) about the global influence of Sharp’s work has been described as the unofficial film of the Occupy Wall Street movement, shown in Occupy camps in cities all over the world.
David Hartsough, longtime friend of OccupyForum, will lead a discussion on the film and Gene Sharp’s work. From his time with Martin Luther King in Montgomery Alabama to his life-long work in peacemaking including in the Soviet Union, Kosovo, Berlin, Cuba, Nicaragua, Palestine and Israel and Iran — Hartsough has spent his life working for peace and justice. Co-founder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. David has helped initiate a Global Movement to End All War. He has just returned from a peacemaking trip to Korea and Vietnam. His book, Waging Peace: Global Adventures of a Lifelong Activist, comes out in September. He is the Director of PEACEWORKERS San Francisco.
https://itunes.apple.com/movie/how-to-start-a-revolution
Global Movement to End All War www.worldbeyondwar.org.
Q&A and Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum
to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
The Community & Economic Development Committee of the City Council will be considered a “proposal” by Larry Reid to increase the minimum wage to $10.20 beginning January 1, 2015.
Come tell Reid and the other members of the committee that Oakland wants nothing less than a living wage – $15.00/hr, and that his proposal is an insult to the working class.
Panel Discussion featuring:
- Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Economics U Missourci,
- Debbie Cochrane, Research Director, Institute for College Access & Success
- Hannal Appel, UC Berkeley Visiting Scholar, Anthropology, and Strike Debt Bay Area member.
Followed by Q&A.
March with community members from across the Bay Area in the streets of Oakland!
3:30PM: Fruitvale Bart Plaza Opening Rally
4 pm: March Starts
5:30: Return to Fruitvale Bart Plaza for Closing Rally and Celebration!
Hosted by Oakland Sin Frontera (OSF) and Partners
WHY ARE WE MARCHING?
Oakland Sin Frontera
· LEGALIZATION FOR ALL UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS
· STOP THE DEPORTATION OF ALL IMMIGRANTS & SHUT DOWN DETENTION CENTERS
· UPHOLD WORKERS RIGHTS
· STOP FEDERAL AND LOCAL POLICE VIOLENCE, AND BRING OUR LOVED ONES HOME FROM PRISONS AND JAILS
· BUILD AND DEFEND STRONG AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
· END U.S. MILITARY AGGRESSION & POLICIES THAT FORCE MIGRATION
Join the Andy Lopez contingent in the May Day (May 1st) March & Rally.
The people (that’s us folks) demand Jobs, Justice & Respect for Everyone.
4:00 pm gather at El Tianguis de Roseland/Roseland Farmers Market (Formally Old Albertsons now Dollar Tree) 775 Sebastopol Road.
4:45 pm – Start March to downtown Court House Square for Rally.
Original IndyBay notice, with poster.
Happy May Day to All! Whoever wishes to come out to the farm this evening for an informal potluck and musical celebration, grab your instruments and a dish to share (and dish to eat from) and come on down round 5:30 or 6 to be together on the land we have fought so hard for. It is what we make it.
The committee to create a DAC privacy policy, formed because of the protests against the DAC, will hold its first meeting. By City Council resolution a privacy policy must be in place before the DAC can operate.
Open to public.
Come and tell the committee members: “The only good DAC is a dead DAC.”
People supporting an increase in Berkeley’s minimum wage will rally just before the Berkeley City Council meets at 7pm to consider enacting the minimum wage proposal submitted by the Berkeley Labor Commission. Because a large turnout is expected, the Council meeting will be held at Longfellow Middle School Auditorium, 1500 Derby Street (cross street Sacramento).
The Berkeley Labor Commission proposed a minimum wage beginning at $10.74 an hour for businesses with up to 50 employees, and $13.34 for larger businesses with the minimum wage adjusted yearly for inflation. Employees would also receive a medical benefit of $2.22 an hour if health insurance is not provided. The cost to consumers would be minimal. Even if the entire cost of the wage increase is passed on to consumers, the cost of grocery shopping would increase on the average less than fifty cents a week. Recognizing that workers need a living wage, San Jose and San Francisco have already increased their minimum wages. Today, for two-thirds of the workforce, wages adjusted for inflation are lower than they were 14 years ago.
Raising the minimum wage in our cities stops the erosion in the standard of living. Berkeley recognizes the effect of inflation: landlords who own rent controlled apartments in Berkeley receive an annual cost of living adjustment. Providing a living wage would not only reduce poverty. By increasing purchasing power, it would stimulate the economy and therefore reduce unemployment. For information about the minimum wage act and those who support it, contact: Harry Brill, at 510-559-3138, email harry.brill@sbcglobal.net, or Nicky Gonzalez Yuen at 510-912-3181 or email,
FROM MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA TO OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA:
THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS POWER
The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 was a watershed victory. It culminated decades of struggle by the Black and Colored South African masses, a struggle supported by millions in the U.S. and around the world. The victory brought to power the Tripartite government of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
Now, two decades later, the ANC-led Tripartite government represents big business’s interests — especially the interests of U.S. and European-based banks and corporations. This has led the government to brutally attack workers who fight back against austerity. Indeed, in 2012, at the Marikana mine, this government massacred 34 striking miners at the behest of the mine owners.
Black poverty has worsened. Inequality has worsened. Trade union officials collaborate with employers against workers, youth, and unemployed. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t the situation similar in the US, with union officials not fighting employer and government attacks on workers, like the machinists at Boeing?
But in South Africa, there’s an exciting new development: for the first time since the fall of Apartheid, there’s a serious challenge to the Tripartite government’s rule, and it comes from the largest and most militant union in Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the COSATU leadership and called for South Africans not to support the ANC in this year’s elections. It is currently building a workers’ party and united front to lead the struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization, and strike breaking.
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the national treasurer of NUMSA and past chair of NUMSA’s autoworker shop steward network, to discuss these developments.
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 7:00 PM
ILWU Hall, Henry Schmidt Room
400 N. Point St./Mason, San Francisco
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 12 NOON
UC Berkeley, McCone Hall (Room 575)
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2:00 PM
Black Repertory Theater
3201 Adeline, Berkeley
(one block south of Ashby BART)
For updates or to get involved in building for these events, contact the May Day Committee in Solidarity with South African Workers at: twsc [at] transportworkers.org. Reach us directly at (510)325-8664 or (415)282-1908
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the National Treasurer of NUMSA, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
Speaking of the massacre of 34 miners in Marikana, South Africa in August, 2012, and for building a workers’ party to lead the workers’ struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization and strike breaking.
