Calendar

How the Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant  won 96,000 votes in Seattle

Speakers from Socialist Alternative will tell us how councilor Kshama Sawant was popularly elected to the Seattle City Council in November 2013. This was the first time in a hundred years that a socialist had won a mass election in Seattle. We used this victory to promote the movement for the $15/hr minimum wage. Seattle’s April 2014 law established the highest minimum wage in the US at the time and legitimized $15 as a winnable demand. The fight for 15 and a union is gaining strength.

We believe that capitalism needs to be challenged on the street, in the workplace and at the ballot box, and that after a couple of decades of retreat, the ideas of marxism and socialism are once again being embraced by young people.

noon-1 :Annual Native American drumming and blessing
1 pm – Soul/Katy Stuck
1:15- Dennis D Banjoman
1:30- Khadejha Valeré
1:45- Occupella
2pm- Andrea Prichett and Friends
2:45- Speakers etc.
3:00 – The Shelley Doty X-Tet
3:45- Speakers etc.
4:00- Beeswax
4:45- Speakers etc.
5:00- The Funky Nixons
5:45- Closing speakers, etc.

The Hidden Story of Tanzania’s Socialist Villages – to Today’s Black Jacobins in Haiti, featuring Selma James and Danny Glover.

Pierre Labossiere of Haiti Action Committee

Book co-editor Nina Lopez

Pacifica Radio’s Margaret Prescod

St Paul AME Church
2024 Ashby Avenue, Berkeley
sponsored by Marcus Books, co-sponsored by KPFA

A Forum on Police Community Relations

On September 14, 2014 Richard “Pedie” Perez was shot and killed by Richmond Police Officer Wallace Jensen. The 24 year -old Pedie was intoxicated and resisting arrest, but according to attorney John Burris who is representing the Perez family, he was not threatening. Police and eyewitnesses give different accounts. The District Attorney refused to indict Jensen calling it a case of justifiable homicide. The RPD internal investigation is ongoing, but Officer Jensen has been returned to active duty.

The Oscar Grant Committee has interviewed eyewitnesses who do not believe that the shooting was justified. This is the first lethal shooting by Richmond Police since 2007. “The killing of an unarmed man by a…police officer…deserves equal attention to other controversial examples of cops using deadly force,” the victim’s father said referring to protests in Ferguson and around the country.

Throughout the nation, the shock of so many shootings of unarmed people by police officers has shaken confidence in an institution that is sworn to protect. Rather than feeling protected by police, many individuals and communities feel threatened.

• What can we, as citizens, do to make sure that police do not use excessive force?
  How can we have an impact on police policy & training?
• How can we help make sure that the shooting of Pedie Perez gets a thorough and fair investigation?
• What can we do to demand accountability of local law enforcement?

Join us to learn more about what happened to Pedie Perez and why the family and many others find the fatal shooting to be unwarranted as well as to discuss these difficult issues and prepare for upcoming City meetings where you can make a difference.

Sponsored by the Richmond Progressive Alliance & The Oscar Grant Committee 

Please come meet Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, on Sunday, April 26^th at 6 pm at the La Pena Cultural Center and join us for the one-woman play, My Name is Rachel Corrie, to be performed by actress Ashley Malloy. Cindy, Craig and Ashley will be answering your questions at the Talkback after the play!   Please buy your tickets now ($10 in advance, $15 at the door) at La Pena’s website here! 

We will be overview/scouting of the Zoo’s cruel, gentrifying, and neo-colonial “California Trail” Development Plans as well as identifying native plants and trees that are to be cut down unless we stop them.

A Rideshare is being organized, stay tuned!  You can take the 46L from Coliseum Bart or the North Oakland MacArthur 57 bus to a Foothill Square and by picked up there.

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!

The Human Rights Commission will hold a special mtg. to hear testimony/stories from those with encounters with the Richmond PD.  The HRC is a sympathetic group. This meeting was requested by George Galvis and others in response the the recent shooting of Leno Gonzales by Richmond PD.

For more info. contact George Galvis with  “Communities for Restorative Youth Justice”.  Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice | Newsletter All are invited to attend this HRC mtg. on April 27th.

Abby and Evan will have a pre-trial hearing on the charges against them for participating in the BART shutdown on Bart Friday, part of a #BlackLivesMatter weekend of action.

Come stand in solidarity with them!

Facebook page:

Come support Antoinette and Evan, arrested unjustly at the BART Friday action in January. BART police and SF Sheriffs targeted these two brave individuals while they were in custody. Particularly severe pain and trauma was caused to Antoinette, 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. The proceedings are a farce. The judge has denied dismissing charges despite vague charges, lack of evidence and the brutal manner of arrest, and is proceeding with pretrial. Please come out and show the judge, BART police and SF Sheriffs that an injury to one is an injury to all.

Join us to celebrate Earth Day and San Francisco’s #cleanenergy future by rallying to tell city leaders we need to step up our game on climate action and launch #CleanPowerSF this year! (After talking about it since 2004.)

We’ll hear from community leaders, organizers, students, and residents about why launching CleanPower in 2015 is critical to the city taking meaningful climate action — then we’ll head into City Hall to tell policymakers in their 1:30 meeting that SF cannot wait any longer: we need a clean energy program for our city now!

Event Sponsors include:
San Francisco Green Party
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice
Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club
Sierra Club, SF Bay Chapter
350 SF Bay Area
LEAN Energy US
San Francisco League of Conservation Voters
Our City
Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council

Training 8

Meeting People Where They’re At

This training will teach participants how to be conscious of the experiences and conditions incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people face, in order to improve participants’ advocacy. Trainers will focus on methods to increase mindfulness and improve relationship building and advocacy skills during phone calls, correspondence, visits, and other support activities. Examples will be drawn from experiences at CDCR Women’s facilities.

RSVP & Survey: Please complete to shape venue, content, and number of copies for the series.
Email List Sign up for announcements here http://eepurl.com/7WwfL 

 

Materials, resources, and flyers for this training series are available here http://caitlinkellyhenry.com/support/
Cost If you can afford to, please donate to cover expenses http://www.nlgsf.org/contribute.

• Invite Here https://www.facebook.com/events/421294274710875

• Windy Click, California Coalition for Women Prisoners Coordinating Committee Leader, Parole Support Coordinator, Spitfire Speaker’s Bureau Coordinator http://www.womenprisoners.org/about/. Windy is a survivor of prison and prisoner rights organizer. She was released in 2012 from Valley State Prison for Women where she did 17 years on a 15 to life sentence. Windy was a leader inside prison educating on Domestic Violence and Health Education. She has been a member of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners for the past 13 years.
• Samantha Rogers, Program Coordinator, California Coalition for Women Prisoners http://www.womenprisoners.org/about/ (bio forthcoming)
• Nora E. Wilson, Director of Legal Advocacy, Justice Now http://jnow.org/who.html is a prison abolitionist, attorney, and human rights activist. As Director of Legal Advocacy at Justice Now, she coordinates direct service provision to people in prison, trains future lawyers and activists in advocating for people in California prisons, and provides support to family and friends advocating for loved ones inside. Such support ensures people in prison and communities targeted for imprisonment the physical and emotional respite required to take part in Justice Now’s systemic change activities. Nora grew up in a conservative town in the deep South and learned from watching her mother advocate on behalf of a family member in prison. During law school, she discovered the most meaningful work she had ever undertaken through an internship with National Advocates for Pregnant Women, where she worked to secure the human and civil rights, health, and welfare of pregnant and parenting women who were suffering harm at the hands of the criminal justice system. After law school, Nora moved from the East Coast to become a proud resident of the East Bay. She began volunteering with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco and soon discovered Justice Now. Nora continued her legal training at Justice Now for over a year before she became a Staff Attorney, specializing in provision of direct services and medical advocacy on behalf of people in women’s prisons, as well as compassionate release advocacy and support on behalf of terminally ill and permanently incapacitated people in California prisons. In January 2015, when Justice Now adopted a collective staff structure, Nora transitioned to the role of Director of Legal Advocacy. She received her BA in Political Science from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia and her JD from Fordham University School of Law in New York City.

Come make May Day banners and Picket Signs with us at the Omni to the May Day #SHUTITDOWN activities in Oakland!

Can’t paint? You can support us by bringing paint, brushes, fabric, flag poles, ect.

You will also be able to pick up May Day flyers for last minute distribution!

nternational Workers Day Regional Festival and March

1:30-3:30 Festival @ Civic Center Plaza
3:30 Regional March to 24th and Mission
5:00-5:30 Closing program @ 24th and Mission

More info, RSVP.

Silicon Valley De-Bug’s Class Conscious Photographers and Studio Grand present the opening night of:

Eyes on the Movement:
Images from Bay Area Activist Photographers

Powered by working class people and captured by photographers embedded in these struggles.

Photography, music, cultural performances, and refreshments. Special digital slideshow photo exhibit from that day’s May 1st marches.

Photographers include Brooke Anderson, David Bacon, Jenny Cain, Charisse Domingo, Elizabeth Gonzalez, Isabel Gonzalez, Najib Joe Hakim, Jean Leasiolagi, Abraham Menor, Antonio Nava, Karen Ng, Ronald Orlando, Leopoldo Pena, Daniel Zapien.