Calendar
The Free Marissa Caravan is back after traveling almost 4000 miles in 3 weeks from Oakland to Jacksonville FL for the hearing which was to determine if Marissa spent more time imprisoned in jail, imprisoned in her home, or pardoned for firing a warning shot into the ceiling, injuring no one, to ward off the man who was beating and threatening to kill her.
We’d like to tell you about our travels through-out the country, the women we met, and the experiences we shared as we worked to make Marissa Alexander a household name across our land, and her fight for freedom our “Stand up, Fight Back” cause!
And about where Marissa is at right now & what we intend to do about it!
Please bring an organic (if possible) dish to share, your loved ones, friends, allies!
Or just be there! Together we will free Marissa now!!
Co-sponsored by the Free Marissa Caravan, and the BFUU Social Justice Committee.
Wheelchair accessible.
7th Open Circle ~Connect & Collaborate on Ending Police Brutality,
Systemic Racism and Disenfranchisement of Black People & People of Color
Let’s kick this meeting off with a potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with report backs and announcements of upcoming actions followed by reflection and dialogue around the current state and thoughts or approaches on how to effect change.
We will end with breakout group topics and time to connect with folks with similar interests. Some great affinity groups have formed out of the breakout groups segment. Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
Restore The Fourth SF and Pow Magazine present
DON’T SPY ON US!
A Musical Event promoting our opposition to mass surveillance and state violence.
Musicians:
- Jimmy Dias
- Jordannah Elizabeth
- DEAR MANNY
- The Spiral Family
- Coywolf
Let’s make a public show of our commitment to stop the torture!
Leafleting and speakers (you). This fight is not over!
Cosponsors: California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC); Peoples’ Action for Rights and Community (PARC); Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS); Project: Pollinate; Sin Barras.
PHSS and many other co-sponsors and endorsers are conducting actions statewide in CA, nationwide, and internationally. These actions coincides with proposals for action from Pelican Bay State Prison Hunger Strikers, which calls for “designating a certain date each month as Prisoner Rights Day. [when] supporters would gather throughout California to expose CDDCR’s actions and rally to support efforts to secure our rights.”
We choose the 23rd of each month for the 23 or more hours every day that people are kept alone in 7 by 11 foot concrete cells.
Endorsers: Ramona Africa and The MOVE Organization; Cabrillo College Justice League; Cafe Intifada; California Peace and Freedom Party; Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) Restorative Justice Institutions; Darrell and Karen Darling; Family of Frank Alvarado Jr., killed by Salinas Police, July 10, 2014; Free Our Minds, Free Radio Santa Cruz; Rabbi Borukh Goldberg; Justice for Palestinians, San Jose; LA Laborfest; Dylcia Pagán, former Puerto Rican Political Prisoner held in US prison; Leonard Peltier Support Group Silicon Valley; Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC); South Bay Committee Against Political Repression (SBCAPR); Donna Wallach; Anti-Racist Action-LA
Questions or want to be added as co-sponsor or endorser? phssreachingout@gmail.com
http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com
@CAHungerStrike
Find us on Facebook: Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
OccupyForum presents
Film and discussion with SF anti-gentrification activists
When development officials announce a controversial plan to tear down and remake the Fulton Mall, a popular, bustling African-American and Caribbean commercial district just blocks from Anderson’s apartment, she discovers that the Mall, despite its run-down image, is the third most profitable shopping area in New York City with a rich social and cultural history. Anderson must confront her own role in the process of gentrification and investigate the forces behind it more deeply.
Anderson meets with government officials, urban planners, developers, advocates, academics, and others who both champion and criticize the plans for Fulton Mall. Only when Anderson meets Brooklyn-born and raised scholar Craig Wilder, who explains his family’s experiences of neighborhood change over generations, does Anderson come to understand that what is happening in her neighborhoods today is actually a new chapter in an old American story. The film’s ultimate questions become how to heal the deep racial wounds embedded in our urban development patterns, and how citizens can become active in fixing a broken planning process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkA6PO_gC1k
Discussion and Announcements to follow.
Get involved with the fight against solitary confinement.
Become a human rights pen pal: Contact cws@igc.org
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-mcdonald backed out of the deal in early december.
Get an overview of the sale announcement here. Here’s a good more general overview piece.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th.
Their will have been another hearing on March 19th. The federal judge will decide whether the lawsuit will continue or be dismissed – he’ll decide sometime after March 19th. We’ll be discussing the judge’s decision if he’s made it at this meeting, and our response.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
Please come to court in San Francisco to support our 2 comrades who were arrested by the during #BARTFriday.
BART police and SF Sheriffs retaliated against these two brave individuals while they were in custody. Particularly severe pain and trauma was caused to one of our arrestees, whose cane was stolen by BART PD, and despite repeated requests for mobility assistance, she was denied any help and police mocked her as they forced her to move about the BART station and jail without assistance.
—-
We still demand:
1. Disband the BART police
2. Restitution for the people: Low-income ticket discounts
3. Drop charges and ransom against the Black Friday 14
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”
— Martin Luther King
#BARTFriday was an autonomous action planned in response to the “Reclaim King’s Legacy” callout for a weekend of actions. This callout came from the Anti-Police-Terror project, a multi-racial, multi generational coalition, led by the most impacted communities, working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
On Tuesday, March 24th the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will finally vote on the county’s public safety realignment budget.
For the past six months, the Ella Baker Center has been campaigning for the supervisors to set aside more funding for community-based re-entry programs and services—instead of giving most of the money to the sheriff.
Our community-backed budget proposal is based on the reality that less people are returning to jail, and more are in need of programs and services to help them when they come home.
Come to the Board of Supervisors Meeting and make public comment to let the supervisors know that you support a Jobs Not Jails budget!
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. We meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at the SEIU Local 1000 union hall, 1433 Webster Street, 2nd Floor in downtown Oakland. These assembly meetings occur from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
Our work together encompasses:
- (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent and care workers;
- (2) current campaigns to improve wages for low-wage workers; and
- (3) efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
At this meeting we will be planning an action at OGP on April 15th (4/15 = FOR $15) in tandem with other actions around the East Bay and converging on a huge FF15 rally to commence at 4:00 PM at UC Berkeley.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better. Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
On March 23rd 1988, the People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA)—with the support of 1,500 Cuban solders and reinforcements— dealt a major blow to South African troops at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, forcing the army of apartheid South Africa to withdraw from Angola after 13 years of intervention in that country’s civil war. Nelson Mandela described the victory as “the turning point for the liberation of Africa from the scourge of apartheid.” Cuba’s solidarity with Africa has not ended. Last year, Cuba provided the largest medical team of any single foreign nation to fight against the Ebola epidemic in Africa.
We will explore Cuba’s ongoing relationship to Africa and its impacts on internationalist thought and practice through a panel discussion with Walter Turner and Phil Hutchings and a screening of the second portion of “Cuba, an African Odyssey,” a documentary film on Cuba’s role in Angola.
Walter is a longtime activist in struggle and solidarity with Africa-based struggles for social and economic justice. He is the host of “Africa Today” on KPFA (89.3 fm).
Phil Hutchings is a veteran community organizer and educator, early member of the Venceremos Brigade, and co-founder of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.
** This event is part of a larger CPE series: “In the Spirit of Bandung: The History & Future of Third World Internationalism.” Click here for a full list of upcoming events in the series: http://
We’ll be discussing the Debt and Economic systems of the ancient world for this meeting, using an article written by Michael Hudson.
Here’s the reading. Reconstructing The Origins of Interest-Bearing Debt… Last time we read through page 30, and this we’ll cover the rest of the chapter.
The Politics of Debt Reading Group is associated with the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.
Judge William Alsup will hear oral arguments on the Post Office’s “Motion to Dismiss.” The Post Office claims that since they have delisted the Berkeley Post Office from their sales website that the City of Berkeley’s lawsuit against the sale is no longer moot and should be dismissed.
This is an important milestone in the two and a half year (so far) struggle to save the Berkeley Post Office and Post Offices around the country from being sold and the Post Office itself from privatization.
(Note: This event was postponed from its original date, on March 19th)
Via Save the Berkeley Post Office:
The U.S. Postal Service has moved to dismiss the suits filed by the City of Berkeley and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Both suits call out the Postal Service for violations of federal environmental and historic preservation laws in the Postal Service’s attempt to dispose of Berkeley’s historic 1914 downtown post office.
The USPS is arguing that both suits are moot as the USPS is not currently in contract to sell the building. But statements made by the Postal Service tell us the building is still for sale. And the Postal Service has done nothing to remedy their flaunting of environmental and historic preservation laws.
Judge William Alsup will hear the case. If Judge Alsup rules that the case should proceed, the attorneys defending our historic post office anticipate a full hearing on the merits will be held in the fall of this year.
No signs are permitted in the court room, but your presence will be noted and is helpful. The federal building in SF has airport-type security so bring identification (e.g. a drivers license). Judge Alsup starts court promptly. If you’re able to come, plan on arriving early, 7:30 a.m. or thereabouts.
Chevron Refinery Rally
It’s time to take action! On Thursday, March 26th at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, Evolve will be launching a series of rallies with our partners to highlight the multi-million dollar tax breaks that corporations are getting from Prop. 13. We’re kicking off our first rally at the Chevron refinery because Chevron is saving nearly $1 billion a year from Prop. 13. That’s a billion dollars each year that should be going to our public schools and services!
Join us to take a stand against Prop 13’s massive corporate loophole! We’ll meet at Washington Park (W Cutting Blvd and S Garrard Blvd) at 12pm to start the rally. Chevron won’t go down without a fight, so it’s up to people like you to help us out-organize them, so we can finally get our schools and services the funding they deserve.
The Red Poppy Art House is pleased to present Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex on March 12th, 19th, and 26th, 2015.
In a series of interactive discussions, Marcus Shelby will delve into our justice system, its flaws, and how music can be used as a tool for reform and change; both in front and behind bars. This lecture series will culminate with a performance on Friday, March 27th.These engaging discussions will explore the blues, the prison industrial complex, mass incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, restorative justice, prison abolition, and more led by Marcus Shelby. Using readings, recorded music, poetry, video, these events are open to anyone interested in reforming our criminal justice system and how art can be part of that process.
March 12: History of Prisons, Rockefeller Laws, School-to-Prison
March 19: Mass Incarceration, The Prison Industrial Complex, Black Prison Movement; Incarcerated Women with guest speaker Naima Shalhoub
March 26: Ending the Death Penalty, Restorative Justice, Prison Abolition
March 27: Performance by Marcus Shelby Quartet: Beyond the Blues: Ending the Prison Industrial Complex
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY SYSTEM —
NEW ECONOMIC SLAVERY
by Peter Joseph
Film evenings begin with optional potluck refreshments & social hour at 6:30 pm,
followed by the film at 7:30 pm, followed by optional discussion after the film.
Humanist Hall is wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street
$5 donations are expected.
A Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) employee (now fired) attacked a homeless person some days ago. The DBA has essentially declared war on the homeless in downtown Berkeley, pushing the City Council to enact and enforce ordinances meant to criminalize the homeless.
A call has gone out to protest the DBA as a result of the incident caught on video below (trigger warning):