Join Boots Riley and Dave Zirin in a discussion about the role of mass culture in building resistance against racism and mass incarceration today.

ALL PROCEEDS TO BENEFIT AK PRESS to support recovery from the fire which devastated their Oakland building. (Details here http://bit.ly/19BBYDV)

Tickets on sale next week or available at the door.

Sponsored by: Haymarket Books, SoleSpace, Howard Zinn Book Fair and The Center for Sport & Social Justice @ Cal State East Bay

• Facebook event.

• There will presentations about the history of dangerous Crude By Rail, the threat from the Kinder Morgan operation in Richmond and strategies to fight for our rights to safety.

For more information contact: Andrés Soto, CBE Richmond Organizer at 510.282.5363 or at andres@cbecal.org

@crustyrustyMAD 2:00 YukonHannibal 2:15 Hali Hammer&Friends 2:45 The Harbingers 3:15Carol Denney 3:45Clyde Leland 4:15 Cracker Family Circus

— Russell Bates (@crustyrustyMAD) April 13, 2015

We have invited Richard Becker from the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) to discuss their new book: Imperialism in the 21st Century: Updating Lenin’s Theory a Century Later. The book includes chapters from the PSL on imperialism as well as Lenin’s original pamphlet, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. PSL’s new publication is intended to make a significant contribution to the ideological development of revolutionaries today and to the Marxist movement and struggle. Copies of the 210 page book will be available for purchase ($14.95)

For our full schedule, go to:

http://icssmarx.org
 

At the Assembly we will discuss and organize pickets and shutdowns for May Day, May 1, in affinity and working groups.

This week we are meeting with the Oakland Open Circle at the OMNI basement, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland, and will continue a bit after they have finished their meeting.   The Open Circle will have a potluck lunch at the Omni beginning at 3 PM and start their regular meeting at about 3:45 PM. Occupy Oakland’s own GA will begin at about 5 PM or so after the Open Circle finishes up.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly generally meets Sundays, at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway, often on the steps of City Hall. “If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Ave, Oakland  Directions

We have met on a continuous basis for more than three years! 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.

The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives voluntarily come to the GA and report on past and future actions. 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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. Discussion Topic (Optional)

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)
Occupy Oakland Kitchen Committee: (kitchen@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

Invitation To Attend Planning Meeting For *BIG* Earth Month Rally To Support Launch Of CleanPowerSF

350 SF is going to hold a very important organizing meeting to help plan a big rally that is being held by Sierra Club, 350, and others, to support CleanPowerSF (see CleanPowerSF details below).

The rally will be on April 28, 12:30pm at San Francisco City Hall – see https://www.facebook.com/events/418190375008487
​ (Save the date.)​

For his entire tenure, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has attempted to block CleanPowerSF due to campaign donations and other influence from fossil fuel energy corporation PG&E. But in January 2015 that all changed, and a decade of grassroots community campaigning has finally gotten the mayor to reverse his position.

Now that the historically anti CleanPowerSF Mayor Lee is finally saying he supports launching CleanPowerSF by the end of the year, we need to show a BIG public presence during Earth month to make clear to Lee that he needs to keep that promise.

Here are the basic details about CleanPowerSF..

CleanPowerSF

HOW IT WORKS

California Community Choice law allows any city or county to group its electricity customers into a powerful builders and buyers cooperative for installing and purchasing clean energy and efficiency for those customers. Community Choice joins together the buying power of all those customers, as a not-for-profit community service, and so gives consumers the leverage they need to get cleaner electricity at lower prices than those offered by for-profit monopoly utilities like PG&E.

Under a Community Choice program like CleanPowerSF, PG&E still maintains the wires and distribution of electricity and still sends the bill, while the Community Choice program is free to choose the energy sources, and so can ensure a cleaner and better deal on the energy itself.

The two counties that already have Community Choice (Marin and Sonoma) are delivering greener energy at lower prices than PG&E.

CleanPowerSF is planned to run the city on 50% local clean electricity by 2025!

URGENT – Come to Court on Monday in San Francisco- outside 8am, inside 8:45 support #ShutDownA14 arrestees! https://t.co/EjI78UZHQA

— ★ Revolution Books ★ (@RevolutionBksB) April 19, 2015

#ShutDownA14 -pack court MON 8AM 850 Bryant – demand charges dropped! Real criminals r ones in blue #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/HW1tYSyt99

— Revolution Club (@RevClub_bay) April 18, 2015

Apr20, 4pm Oakland- Black 2 the Land! a Black Farm Day community celebratn (Hip Hop/Reggae/Funk Benefit #AfrikaTown) https://t.co/uBJC0FWzBH

— Alyssa (@alyssa011968) April 17, 2015

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.

There was another hearing in March 26th.

Federal Judge William Alsup will decide whether the lawsuit will continue or be dismissed – he should decide sometime in the next several weeks. See our response to the Postal Service’s response to Judge Alsup’s request for them to rescind their decision to sell.

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.

Hey Everyone! Sorry, but tonight’s OCCUPYFORUM is cancelled. I have to go to the Goldman Awards, and will give a report back soon; also we’ll show this film again very soon. So sorry for the inconvenience.
xx Ruthie

OccupyForum presents
Information, discussion & community!
Monday Night Forum!!

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
Rebels With a Cause:
A Film by Helen Garvy

Descended from the Intercollegiate Socialist Society started in 1905, SDS held its first meeting in 1960. Its political manifesto, the Port Huron Statement drafted by Tom Hayden, criticized the political system of the United States for failing to achieve international peace. It critiqued Cold War foreign policy, the threat of nuclear war, and the arms race. In domestic matters, it criticized racial discrimination, economic inequality, big businesses, trade unions and political parties. In addition to its critique and analysis of the American system, the manifesto also suggested reforms: a need to reshape into two genuine political parties, for stronger power for individuals through citizen’s lobbies, for more substantial involvement by workers in business management, and for an enlarged public sector with increased government welfare, including a “program against poverty.” The manifesto provided ideas of what and how to work for and to improve, and also advocated nonviolent civil disobedience as the means by which student youth could bring forth a “participatory democracy.”

Sound familiar?

But When, in 1965, United States President Johnson dramatically escalated the war in Vietnam, SDS held the first teach-in against the war, and then hundreds more, all over the country. SDS worked to organize the march against the war in Washington that attracted 25,000 anti-war protesters, and SDS became the leading student group against the war on most U.S. campuses.

SDS pursued civil-rights and anti-war activities, was in 1967 the scene of an SDS-generated free speech movement (the University Freedom Movement) that mobilized thousands of students in massive demonstrations and other activities and coordinated series of demonstrations against the draft.

In the spring of 1968, National SDS activists led an effort on the campuses called “Ten Days of Resistance” and local chapters cooperated with the Student Mobilization Committee in rallies, marches, sit-ins and teach-ins, which culminated in a one-day strike on April 26. About a million students stayed away from classes that day, the largest student strike in the history of the United States.

The student shutdown of Columbia University in New York, led by an inter-racial alliance of Columbia SDS chapter activists and Student Afro Society activists. As a result of the mass media publicity given to Columbia, SDS activists such as Columbia SDS chairperson Mark Rudd during the Columbia Student Revolt, the organization was put on the map politically and “SDS” became a household name.

SDS in San Francisco played a major role in the Third World Student Strike at San Francisco State College. This strike, the longest student strike in U.S. history, led to the creation of Black and other ethnic studies programs on campuses across the country.

A new incarnation of SDS was founded on January 16, 2006, and by 2010 had grown to over 150 chapters around the United States. It has held five national conventions to date, including the fifth in 2010.

Come watch Rebels with a Cause and find out how they did it!

Q&A and Announcements to follow.

Donations to OccupyForum gladly accepted; no one turned away!

Friends of Postal Banking Conference Call Series w/ Guest Speakers, 1st&3rd Tuesdays each month

This free conference call is intended for anyone who wishes to learn more about postal banking and to discuss its possibilities. The first 5 minutes of each call is a straightforward review of the basics of existing USPS money services and how they can be extended to include functions such as bill pay, payroll advances, and short-term, small dollar credit. The next 10-15 minutes is time for the guest speaker to speak on any postal banking topic s/he may wish. This is followed by a 30-40 minute open discussion among invited participants. Screenshare capability, if needed, will be provided.

The list of scheduled speakers is:

April 21st, Sheldon Garon, Professor of History, Princeton University, Author of book, Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves. Presentation: Postal Financial Services, A Global Perspective, Presentation: http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/Assets/2014/07/FIN_Panel-2–Postal-Financial-Services-A-GlobalHistorical-Perspective-by-Sheldon-Garon.pdf

May 5th, David C. Williams, USPS Inspector General, OIG published Providing Non-Bank Financial Services for the Underserved (see https://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2014/rarc-wp-14-007.pdf )in January, 2014. Follow up report to be published before this conference call.

Register here.

WE FORCED THE STATE TO CONCEDE!!!!

STOP POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN OF COLOR!

Facebook event.

Tell Oakland City Council to put pressure on OPD, the District Attorney, and Alameda Coroner!

We demand them to release the police and autopsy reports in the police killing of 27-year-old mother of four, Guadalupe (“Lupe”) Manzo Ochoa. Lupe was killed by San Leandro Police in East Oakland December 7th and now OPD is investigating the shooting and refuses to be transparent with the family!

WEAR HOT PINK (Lupe’s favorite color), bring noisemakers and signs that say @[null:#Justicia4Lupe]!

*We want to get a long line of people to sign up to speak and simply state “on behalf of Lupe Ochoa’s family, release the reports!”

*Please note that the formal meeting begins at 630pm though sign up may begin as early as 530. Some of us will be in attendance early to sign up for those who wish to speak.

We will have some chants. We want to disrupt City Council and remind them that police devastated Lupe’s family and community and we want answers!

Update: sign up to speak on item number 13. It’s for an independent review board for OPD. Utilize the time to talk about how OPD cannot be trusted to investigate themselves let alone San Leandro police and that the police and coroners reports in the killing of Lupe Ochoa needs to be released now! Sign up for a speakers card online through this link:
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE STATE OF THE PLANET

with Florence Windfall

Earth Day is Everyday

We invite you to participate in our Earth Awareness meeting at Humanist Hall. Come and share your own impressions of the current state of the Earth whether your impressions come from your own experiences and ideas or from those of someone you recommend we read. You are welcome to read from material that you bring to our group or to talk about your own experiences and/or ideas. What do you think is the current condition of planet Earth and its short term and/or long term fate? And what is your reaction to these thoughts you have?

Everyone will have at least 15 minutes to make their point or express their feelings. Discussion will follow each participant’s presentation. The time allowed for discussion will be longer or shorter depending on how many participants there are. If you are not so familiar with current developments in climate change science or politics, please see the list of articles, photos, and a radio program for your reading/viewing/listening pleasure that’s on our website, shown in the link below! For more articles and videos, check out our past Earth Awareness programs that are shown on our website.

Humanist Hall is wheelchair accessible around the corner at 411 28th Street.

$5 donations are expected.