Calendar
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 Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Post Offices was 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!
Local actions:
SAN FRANCISCO
Time: 10:00 AM
Address: 1700 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109
SAN LEANDRO
Time: 1:00 PM
Address: 15555 East 14th Street #200, San Leandro, CA 94578
Berkeley Post Office Defenders and Save the Berkeley Post Office will be supporting these actions.
Staples attacks good jobs and public post offices.
Staples and the U.S. Postal Service have cut a deal that jeopardizes your mail service and your local post office. In fact, post offices across the country are at risk – along with thousands of good jobs.
The Staples deal will replace full-service U.S. Post Offices with knock-off post offices in Staples stores that are not staffed with U.S. Postal Service employees.
A bad deal for workers and consumers.
You have a right to post offices staffed by workers who are accountable to you and the American people. You have a right to postal services provided by highly trained, uniformed Postal Service employees, who are sworn to safeguard your mail – whether it’s at the Post Office or Staples.
The Staples deal is bad for consumers like you who will pay the same for less service. And if Staples and the USPS move forward with this deal, it could lead to the end of the Postal Service as we know it.
Undermining good jobs.
In the meantime, the Staples deal is replacing good-paying jobs that our community depends on with low-wage jobs that hurt our economy.
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.
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.
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
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.”
- As the April 12th construction groundbreaking ceremony for the controversial UCB Jacobs Hall site at Ridge and Le Roy, community outrage grew about the planned destruction of a beautiful redwood grove, the damage inflicted to the neighborhood’s historical character, and major concerns about the privatized funding in general and Qualcomm’s untrustworthiness in particular. Instead of addressing the concerns of the community transparently, the University cowardly transferred the ceremony to a location that was undisclosed to protestors, intentionally suppressing their first-amendment right to express legitimate grievances publicly. Over the past several weeks, they have utilized typical tactics such as protestor intimidation, massive police presence, and lying about the project timetable. After the ceremony they moved quickly to level the site, leaving a heartbreakingly desolate scene. Caring activists returned several days later to honor the fallen trees and plant new ones in their place, expressing a renewed commitment to preserving this as forested open public space for student and community use. Now it is time to ramp up the efforts to educate one another about the many problems surrounding this project, and mobilize the community in order to prevent the University from moving any further forward with this contentious development. Please join us this Monday May 5th from 12-5pm for a day of teach-outs, organizing discussions, planting, volleyball, and picnicking. Below you will find more information about the issues that have been raised with this project.
- Neighborhood preservation groups and community members have cried out that this project further damages the historic character of this north-side region, both due to the increased exposure of Soda hall’s north face after the tree removal, as well as the addition of Jacob’s Hall. The volleyball court served as an important community building resource for Computer Scientists and others, and its removal represents a loss of valuable outdoor public common space. The redwood trees provided an excellent shady space for students to congregate for study and discussion, and the sturdy well-spaced branches could afford an exhilarating and safe climbing experience. This redwood grove destruction echoes the callousness shown by the University when they removed the Memorial Oak Grove in 2008 despite passionate and convincing please about the importance of saving this unique and sacred large-tree grove, and in spite of the Berkeley laws which prohibit the removal of large Oak trees within city limits. The University has the nerve to offer an offensive token concession that they will use the tree’s body to manufacture some of the building’s furniture, which only serves as a greenwashing measure while addressing none of the real concerns.
- Paul Jacobs is providing $20 million for the Design Institute from his family’s Qualcomm money, which is problematic due to a number of serious ethical and legal concerns. UC Regent Sherry Lansing is suspected of serious conflict of interest violations due to involvement with brokering UC investment deals with Qualcomm while simultaneously serving on their corporate board. The San Diego based company is potentially untrustworthy as a partner because they are under scrutiny for allegedly colluding with the NSA to design illegal and dangerous backdoors in their mobile phone wireless chips, and they are also the focus of a major anti-monopoly probe by the Chinese government. Even without definitively proving the criminality of Qualcomm, one should be quite concerned about the erosive effect that corporate privatized funding arrangements have on the University’s integrity and culture, and also suspicious that our public funding has been intentionally slashed over the decades in order to justify the encroachment of corporate entities into our precious public sphere.
- You are encouraged to express your condemnation of the Jacobs Hall tree removal and privatized funding arrangement in as many venues and formats as possible. It is crucial that we succeed in reaching out to more students, faculty and community members in order to educate people, inspire deep discussion, and mobilize around the possibility of preserving this space for both trees and people to enjoy without the intrusion of a contentious building. Feel free to join us this Monday May 5th from 12-5pm for a day of education and action, and stay tuned for more events throughout the week and month. We wish those lovely old trees were still with us, but we look forward coming together in their honor and moving forward with love and creativity.
- Sincerely, The Open University www.CalOpenU.org
- The Open University is a working group that was born out of Occupy Cal in November 2011, that has continued to use diverse tactics to address the crucial issues identified by this populist activist coalition. We believe in integrative big-picture activism, and are passionate about helping create more community, transparency, wisdom, sustainability, and balance in the world. We stand firmly against inequality, exploitation, discrimination, brainwashing, oppression, torture, militarism, privatization, corporatization, surveillance, colonialism, ecocide and genocide. We coordinate research about historical and current critical struggles which implicate our University, and arrange teach-outs by students, faculty and community members about repressed radical topics in outdoor spaces on campus. We reclaim public common spaces in service of coalition building, discussion facilitation, and as venues for direct action in the name of positive change. We also perform hard-hitting political guerrilla theatre in high-impact environments, which viscerally inspires the public to ask tough questions, and challenges the acceptability of the administration’s behavior in high profile spaces that they are accustomed to dominating. We are an open group of trust-worthy, dedicated, and experienced activists who welcome collaboration with anyone who genuinely cares about saving the world.
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!
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.
We join with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley.
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!
Here is the PDF for the final class meeting on Michael Hudson’s The Bubble and Beyond. We will like meet upstairs.
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!
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 came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We join with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. The last two days of signature gathering will follow this meeting – come and pick up materials to help the effort by gathering signatures.
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!
Panel Discussion on anarchism — past, present, and future — with Ramsey Kanaan (AK Press & PM Press), Liz Highleyman (journalist and historian), and Joey Cain (Bound Together Bookstore, LGBT activist)
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Ramsey Kanaan has republished works of classical anarchist theory by Peter Kropotkin, Alexander Berkman, Rudolf Rocker, Emma Goldman and others, while encouraging the development of contemporary anarchist theory and analysis, such as libertarian socialist Murray Bookchin‘s Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm, which he commissioned for AK Press. He was involved in the early UK anarcho-punk musical scene as lead singer of the Scottish anarcho-punk band Political Asylum. He belongs to Folk This, which performs folk songs from the past, including from the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, and the Paris Commune, and hymns and anthems of the IWW. Kanaan played a key role in the five-year anti-poll tax campaign that ultimately brought down Margaret Thatcher. He is one of the founders of the San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair and is a member of Bound Together Books in San Francisco, a collectively run anarchist bookstore. He is a contributing host and producer at KPFA.
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Joey Cain has been a member of the Bound Together Anarchist Collective Bookstore for three and a half decades and co-produced the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair for 17 years. He has served on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, was instrumental in getting a statue of Harvey Milk placed in SF City Hall, and has been involved in advocating for Private Chelsea Manning. He curates exhibits on radical LGBT History at the SF Main Public Library and serves on the Board of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Association.
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Liz Highleyman considers herself a philosophical anarchist, though an eclectic one without allegiance to any particular party line. She’s written widely on the topic of anarchism and radical politics, including an Introduction to Anarchism that has been propagated over the web and translated into several languages. Since 1999 she has been involved with the global justice movement and has written several related articles, including articles on drug pricing and patents for AlterNet, AIDS drug access in developing countries for BETA, and an essay on queer activism and the global justice movement for the book From ACT UP to the WTO .
Did you know Governor Brown will release his revised 2014-15 budget proposal tomorrow?
In recent years we’ve seen $15 billion dollars of cuts to social safety net programs, and we know to build a stronger healthier California for everyone we need invest in programs not prisons.
Folks across California are furious that the the Governor has proposed more prison spending including $500 million to build new jails.
On Wednesday, we’ll be joining up with the California Partnership organizing rallies and press conferences across the state.
Can you can join us and help get the word out?
Statewide Day of Action – Wednesday May 14th
San Francisco
Time: 1:30pm
Location: State Building 350 McAllister Street
Join striking fast food workers and allies from 36 countries and 150 U.S. cities, including Oakland, as we call out some of the world’s worst corporate behavior. With success in exposing widespread wage theft and in the wake of new reports showing an industry with the largest pay gaps between CEOs and workers, we’re demanding change, $15 for workers and a union.
5:30 AM Meet at ACCE Oakland Offices 2501 International Blvd
10:30 AM Meet at 14th St and Alice the Library in Downtown Oakland, 135 14th St.
On May 15th, the #FightFor15 goes global! http://t.co/qWreiqJSZO #FastFoodGlobal pic.twitter.com/AcCIkH91SW
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) May 7, 2014
BREAKING: Fast Workers Announce GLOBAL STRIKE on May 15th! #FastFoodGlobal pic.twitter.com/SKe6Srtk3Q
— The Other 98% (@other98) May 7, 2014
The KPFA Community Advisory Board invites you to an information and
music sharing Town Hall gathering in West Oakland .
We want to hear from youth, listeners, community members, musicians and media activists about your favorite music, community actions and programming ideas. Learn about creating press releases and posting announcements. Help KPFA to address our cultural, political and economic challenges now.
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.
Thomas Gokey from Strike Debt New York City – creative debt thinker and Rolling Jubilee organizer – will be joining us!
– 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 broadcast periodically on KPFA.
– A project to bring non-profit, non-usurious payday loan services to Vallejo and Oakland.
– 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, and moe.
“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.
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. the California Teachers Union passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. We need to continue the pressure on Staples and encourage other unions to pass resolutions denouncing the Post Office’s agreement with Staples.
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. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. The last signature gathering was last week – come find out whether we succeeded!
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!
Cyclists from around the Bay Area will meet outside Richmond BART at 10am to bike the math of climate change to Chevron and tell the company to stop fueling climate chaos and become a renewable energy company. For more info: tubernation@sbcglobal.net
Chevron Corporation’s victims around the world have come together in a joint Statement to reject the transnational’s substandard operations and corporate practices. The affected communities extend an invitation to actively participate in the International Anti Chevron Day, on May 21st, 2014. The Statement is also signed by the organizations that support the victim’s worldwide plight, and demand that Chevron acknowledges its responsibility for all the damage it has procured to the environment and human rights. Any organization that wishes to collaborate with this global action can sign the Declaration in support and contribute through social media and publics events that will be held on May 21st. All requests should be sent to: info@antichevron.com
Or next politics of debt class will be at Xolo Taqueria on Telegraph avenue in downtown Oakland in the upstairs room.
We will be reading from Richard Heinberg’s The End of Growth, which looks at the energy limitations facing our politician’s attempts to restart the economic growth machine. There are implications for finance and bubble making as well. Much thanks to Spencer for scanning the chapters!