Calendar
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!
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.
Join Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub, and other invasions of privacy by our benighted City Government
Stop by and learn how you can help guard Oakland’s right not to be spied on by the government & if you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
For more information on the DAC check out
Come help plan continued actions in the fight for justice for Yvette Henderson, gunned down by Emeryville police.
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- our next Debtors’ Assembly
- saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- and much more!
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
At the Assembly we will discuss and organize pickets and shutdowns for May Day, May 1, in affinity and working groups.
Get involved with the fight against solitary confinement.
Become a human rights pen pal: Contact cws@igc.org
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.
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 review our actions on 4/15 – shutting down the McDonald’s in West Oakland, the march from OGP to Sproul, and our participation in the mass rally on Sproul. We will plan for future actions including various potential May Day (May 1st) events.
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.
There’s (or soon will be) a new world-wide lending institution in town. What affect will it have on the global economy? On the IMF and World Bank? On US control of the world’s monetary system? We’re discussing the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank being pushed by China and how it effects American hegemony over the worldwide banking system.
A few articles we’ll be reading. More may be coming.
Hudson on the Real News Net:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=13470
William Engdahl (a reference in Ellen Brown’s works):
http://journal-neo.org/2015/04/10/aiib-brics-development-bank-and-an-emerging-world/
Another similar one:
http://www.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog/u-s-hegemony-and-dollar-threatened-by-new-chinese-bank/
New York Times editorial: Japan Must Join China’s Bank
Five Things about the Asian Infrastructure Bank
Demystifying the Asian Infrastructure Bank
The Guardian: In defence of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Joseph Stiglitz
Wikipedia: Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
The Diplomat: China’s AIIB and the US Reputation Risk
The Politics of Debt Reading Group is affiliated with the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.
Come to a meeting about what we learn from the real history of May Day, the Marxist traditions of working class organizing in America and discuss what we need to do today to continue the fight.
Followed by a social/fundraiser for the Socialism 2015 conference. www.socialismconference.org
Addressing police violenceand systematic racism through community building and direct action.
Open Circle, first and foremost, is an opportunity to build community with one another. Secondly, it is a space to reflect and collaborate on strategies and actions to bring an end to these egregious crimes.
Please join us for the 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 speakers who have lost their loved ones to police violence. Then updates / 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 working groups to organize and plan next steps in the struggle.
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
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.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th. There was another hearing in March 26th. Federal Judge William Alsup decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the Postal Service says it is not currently selling the building. But we’re not fooled. The Postal Service could “find” a buyer at any moment. Fortunately, the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the lawsuit could be refiled.
Check out our response to the Judge’s order.
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.
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality. In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity.
Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression.
Sisters and brothers the Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.
The Oscar Grant Committee meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month.
How the Gentrifiers are Gentrifying City College: Land Grabs, Student Push-out Policies and Downsizing
Join in a roundtable discussion of the rotten underbelly of the City College accreditation crisis: An official in Sacramento told Tom Ammiano that Mayor Lee did not want the elected Board of Trustees to be reinstated yet, as important real estate deals need
to be completed.
We will analyze the “January surprises” in which the current administration pushed out some 3100 already-
enrolled students in a single week—in the middle of a major enrollment crisis! On January 7, 2015, some
1400 students with small overdue payments were robo-dropped about five weeks before their financial aid
arrived, throwing their work schedules and childcare arrangements into chaos, and losing the college many
thousands in state appropriations.
On January 9th, the administration announced the abrupt closure of the Civic Center Tenderloin campus on
one afternoon’s notice, on the grounds of seismic concerns. When some 2000 new immigrant students
showed up for their ESL classes on Monday, the doors were locked and the administration provided
directions to alternate sites—written in English! Only 300 students ever made it to an alternate site. 1700
more students gone—the same “disposable” non-credit students de-prioritized by the Student Success Act
and the administration. Fiasco– or downsizing policy?
We will have a round table to share analysis and information (invited speakers below):
The Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism—short videos on lessons from Chicago, where public school
closures have been concentrated in gentrifying Black and Latino neighborhoods close to valuable downtown
real estate;
A short slideshow on the Reservoir Wars in the 80s and 90s, in which the real estate industry
unsuccessfully tried three times to pass a ballot measure for luxury housing development at the Reservoir.
Grassroots organizing won the day! The real estate industry also tried to tear down Balboa High School to
build condos—grassroots organizing won the day!
MECHA and Asian Student Union organizers will discuss the payment policy;
James Tracy will discuss the Civic Center closure and community resistance;
AFT 2121;
Update on the PAEC and the May 5th meeting about the Reservoir.
Terminal Logistics Solutions, the developers of City-owned land at the former Oakland Army base, announced this week that it has received $53 million dollars from four Utah counties to export up to six million tons of Utah coal out of Oakland each year. It intends to begin construction on a mega shipping terminal within a few months.
Terminal Solutions? Six million tons annually? Do we need any more symbolic reminders that this project needs to be shut down?
Sign this emergency petition to the Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Fossil fuel activists recognize this as yet another instance of whack-a mole. Jess Dervin-Ackerman of the Sierra Club points out that “major organizing victories squashing export proposals in Oregon and Washington mean that Big Coal has turned its sights on California. Bay Area communities are already burdened by poor air quality caused by our five oil refineries and the shipping industry. We even have some coal snaking through our neighborhoods by rail and shipping out of a private terminal in Richmond. Now Oakland is in Big Coal’s crosshairs.”
Oakland Fossil Fuel Resistance, a coalition of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Sierra Club, 350 East Bay and Sunflower Alliance, is meeting at the Sierra Club office in Berkeley on Thursday at 4 pm to begin community mobilization against the project. Oakland residents are particularly urged to attend.
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
Essentials of Scientific Socialism
Part of an ongoing series
“Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.”
Einstein’s comment remains true in our Century, when the growing interest in socialism is matched by a growing confusion about socialism. This workshop, led by Gene Ruyle of the ICSS, will be part of an ongoing series seeking to overcome this confusion through study and discussion, focusing on the classics of scientific socialism: The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, by Engels, Critique of the Gotha Program, by Marx, and Fundamentals of Leninism, by Stalin. This session will focus on a close reading of the Communist Manifesto. In preparation, participants are urged to read, or re-read, this important document.
Sunflower Alliance general meetings offer a great opportunity to learn more about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice efforts in our region. Your voice matters.
We welcome newcomers.
Occupy Forum devoted to planning and expanding the coalition event of
“Listen Up Mayors…coming up June 19-22
at Union Square, SF and other locations nearby TBD.
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter
Stop “Fracking” Mother Earth
Stop Crude By Rail
People Before Profits
Homelessness is not a Crime
Medicare for All
Strike Against Student Debt
Tax the Rich
and Jobs Not Jails
These essential demands have been opposed by most Big City US Mayors.
So….Listen Up Mayors.. We are the 99%
In the SF Bay Area,
Gentrification and Home Foreclosures
only serve the 1%
WE MUST RESIST TOGETHER
also see http://www.ussocialforum.net/ussfgoals
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.
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.
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.