Calendar
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 3:30 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
~ Open circle will begin at 3:30 with a speaker who has lost their loved one to police terror, followed by checkins and updates from other families present.
~ Reflection and dialogue on how we can help support them in their fight for justice.
~ Brief announcements for upcoming events.
~ Working groups: tbd
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
Members, co-directors, and supporters of The Community Democracy Project (Oakland) (“CDP”) gather signatures every single day to get our initiative on the 2016 ballot. If our initiative passes, Oakland will have the strongest #PeoplesBudget in the United States!
Co-Director Shawn McDougal is being charged with a misdemeanor: “Interfering with a Business” (California Penal Code Section 602.1) for engaging his neighbors shopping at the Oakland Grocery Outlet.
The security guards at the Grocery Outlet demanded that Shawn stop gathering signatures near the entrance of the store. They wanted him to relocate to an isolated spot with little to no foot traffic.
Shawn peacefully asserted his right to circulate petitions in any and all public access areas, including private/corporate property. He continued to gather signatures while the security guards hassled him.
Eventually the guards called the Oakland Police Department because Shawn was “trespassing.” The responding officers threatened Shawn with arrest if he did not leave the premises.
Since Shawn’s shift was minutes from being over, Shawn decided to comply instead of spending the weekend in jail. Still, the cops gave Shawn a citation and now he risks being convicted of a misdemeanor.
JOIN US at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse (Department #107) to support Shawn and to let the City of Oakland know that we as a community will stand up against corporate and police harassment!
We’ll bring CDP pins and posters! See you on Monday at 9:00am!
After the hearing, we’ll debrief over brunch at a location TBD.
Join fast food workers and community supporters next Monday for our second ever action in San Francisco. We’ve raised the wage in SF, now let’s lead the way for the rest of the country. June 22nd is the last hearing of the New York state wage board. The board is investigating wages in the fast food industry and poised to make a decision in late June – early July. With a combination of local and national pressure there is a real chance to get workers to $15 in the state of New York. This impact would have a ripple effect throughout the country. Let’s do this!
Subject: Creating The Department Of Race And Equity
From: Councilmember Desley Brooks
Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Amending Chapter 2.29 Of The Oakland Municipal Code Entitled, “City Agencies, Departments And Offices”, Which Established The Organizational Structure Of The City Under The City Administrator’s Jurisdiction In Accordance With The Requirements Of The City Charter Section 600, To Create The Department Of Race And Equity By December 2015, That Will Report Directly To The City Administrator; Establishing Definitions And Implementation Steps Related To A Citywide Strategy Of A Fair And Just City; And Receive An Informational Report Identifying The Timeline And All Steps Necessary To Implement The Department By December 2015 [TITLE CHANGE]
Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue on all sides of these important issues
on the
Trans and/or Women’s Action Camp: A discussion on why inclusive/safer spaces are crucial to successful direct action organizing
From the Dine’ women defending their native lands against destructive mining, to the eco-feminists defending forests from logging and developing; from the immigrant and trans women defending their lives from the prison industrial complex, to the parents and midwifes defending their bodies and babies from the patriarchal medical establishment, women and trans folks have always been powerhouses of political action, and�TWAC aims to support this in a safe(r) environment.
At the age of 8 Eva started her activist career when she learned that the death penalty existed. Her wise kid brain could not see any justice in killing a human being. From there Eva has continued to be curious about the world, for a time pursuing a life in scientific research, changing her mind when she found that being in a lab just wasn’t enough for her even though she still loves it. She has spent years doing community organizing, working with incarcerated youth, planting gardens, and striving to create spaces where people of marginalized identities can participate in meaningful organizing.
Attending and helping organize TWAC has been a life changing experience for Eva. She has gained a new level of confidence from the skills she learned both from participating in twac and from the experience of organizing it. No where else has she felt more supported and encouraged by her fellow organizers and activist comrades.
Announcements will follow.
Donations to OccupyForum
to cover our costs are encouraged;
no one turned away!
We will be distributing literature and engaging members of the public in conversations about torturous conditions within California’s prisons. Please join us.
END SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
June is Torture Awareness Month.
Torture Awareness Month is recognized around the world. On June 26, 1987, the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment was adopted. The UN declared June 26 “International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.”
More than 80,000 people in U.S. are caged in tiny cells for 23 or more hours every day, often for years and decades on end.
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 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at the SEIU Local 1000 union hall in downtown Oakland at 6:30 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. 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.
OptikAllusions is a digital filmmaking collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California. We share resources, skills and knowledge to help each other tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. We make films in a spirit of collaboration and solidarity, share a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops.
If you’d like to make videos or want to become a member, join us for our weekly meeting and a workshop!
We usually, meet briefly and then work on projects. It’s open to all!
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Optik_Allusions
Meet at the Simon Bolivar Statue in UN Plaza (Hyde Street between McAllister & Market) – a short walk from Civic Center BART in San Francisco
A draconian and racist policy of ethnic cleansing in the Dominican Republic threatens a quarter of a million people with deportation to Haiti. Second and third generation Dominicans who are classified as Haitian have been stripped of citizenship and declared “migrants.” Vigilante mobs and legal authorities alike are pushing people out of their homes and taking their property. Anyone who is Black and under the age of 85 may be classified as Haitian, even if they were born in the DR and have no ties to Haiti. They are being expelled from the country and made stateless.
We join with individuals and organizations across the country, the Caribbean and the globe to denounce this injustice and demand the government of the Dominican Republic reverse its unjust law and end forced expulsion of its citizens. No Human Being Is Illegal.
At the same time, we cannot ignore or fail to denounce our own government which under the Obama Administration by 2014 was responsible for the mass deportation of over two million immigrants and the annual incarceration of half a million people in horrific detention facilities awaiting immigration proceedings across the country. No Human Being Is Illegal.
Updates on our progress, organizing strategies and developing work plan to get Public Safety Oversight measure on the Nov 2016 ballot
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, to support privacy ordinances now being considered by the Oakland City Council emerging from the effort to fight the DAC, and help in other fights to preserve and restore our privacy around the Bay Area, in California and nationwide.
OPWG was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network, and its members helped draft the Privacy Policy that puts further restrictions on the now Port-restricted DAC.
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
A film screening of Fuck Off, Google! (55min)
A short film exploring the recent rebellion against Google and the desolation that is has brought to our communities. The film traces the path that the rebellion took on the streets of the Bay Area and points to a way out for all those who seek a life that is not built on slavery and exploitation.
A variety of food, drinks, and literature will be provided for free. The event will take place in the Omni Ballroom. The event will be sliding scale. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
The SF City Planning Commission needs to hear your voice! The Planning Department is trying to short cut the process and force through plans for a new jail. They have tried to declare that there will be no significant impact to SF by filing a “mitigated negative declaration.” San Franciscans won’t stand for this!
Join us as we demand a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR)! Because over 160 people submitted public comment in opposition, our appeal will be heard in a public hearing tomorrow. Now is the time to take action against a new jail.
We need everyone to come out and voice their concerns at the appeals hearing:
What: Public Hearing on Appeals – Agenda Item #4
A jail is not healthy for the environment or community. If built, the jail will create many impacts to the neighborhood that have not been sufficiently studied: noise, air quality, loss of parking, wind and shadow on the playground at Victoria Manalo park. And, as if this were not enough, the nearby SRO tenants will likely lose their home. Furthermore, it is troubling that prisoner exercise yards will be open to toxic freeway smog. We demand the city conduct a full Environmental Impact Report that includes studying alternatives and a no-build option.
We can stop this jail, and we will. See you tomorrow at City Hall!
This Thursday an Oakland Police Department helicopter pilot will brief the public on OPD’s use of Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera systems. Stop by 25 June 2015, 6pm – 7pm, Room 4, Oakland City Hall.This may be your only chance to comment on the policy before it’s sent to the council.
Meeting Agenda
- 6:00pm: Call to Order, determination of Quorum
- 6:05pm: Review and approval of minutes from May 28 meeting.
- 6:10pm: Discuss DAC related action at June 2 City Council meeting.
- 6:20pm: Presentation from OPD Helicopter pilot on FLIR use.
- 6:35pm: Discuss and take possible action on Forward Looking Infrared thermal imaging system (“FLIR”) policy.
- 7:00pm: Open Forum
Pull the Plug on Jail Expansion
Where: 1500 Capitol Avenue, First Floor Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814
Who: Board of State and Community Corrections
Join community members from across California as we come together to stop the funding stream for new jails.
Over 40 of California’s 58 counties have plans to build new jails. While some of them claim to be for treatment or to just replace existing jails, we know we won’t be able to continue to pass sentencing reform or bring our loved ones home unless we stop building cages. These projects put our counties in fiscal jeopardy, and they also undercut the resources available for the life-affirming programs and services that can get people out of jails and keep them out. And with the passage of Prop.47 we know there is no need to build more jails!
Come to Sacramento and help us show that communities across the state are united: No New Jails!
Governor Brown, who continues to position himself as a climate leader while his own permissive dirty drilling and fracking policies undercut his efforts – and also while these policies poison untold quantities of water during an epic drought, will be speaking at a ceremony commemorating the signing of the UN Charter. We’re going to be outside to remind him that climate leaders don’t frack – and responsible leaders don’t poison our water!
Join us in San Francisco as we put pressure the Governor for a fracking ban! Help us send a clear message: TRUE climate leaders don’t create policies that further contribute to climate change, nor do they allow the poisoning of our precious water resources during an historic drought. Period.
Bring noisemakers, signs, and your friends! See you there!
On Jan 20, 2015, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office released a 3-page report completely exonerating Officer Wallace Jensen of any wrongdoing in the shooting of Pedie Perez:
“We conclude that … the officer acted in lawful self- defense, Based on our review, we believe the officer’s actions constitute Justifiable Homicide.”
The District Attorney’s report states that the office must be guided by the “law that states that the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Jensen’s actions were not in self-defense” but the report in no way even discusses two eye witnesses that claim that his actions were absolutely NOT in self-defense. Their narratives have been excluded, but in fact their testimony should be considered by a trier of fact who should make the determination of whether they are credible in a legal proceeding. At least two eye witnesses contradict Officer Jensen’s story, providing ample grounds to initiate a prosecution of the officer for murder in this case.
We reject the coverup and call for openness and transparency with an independent investigation and an independent prosecutor.
PLEASE COME to the Rally and March, if you can…NO JUSTICE . NO PEACE…ALL LIVES MATTER…END POLICE BRUTALITY and WORSE YET…END MURDER, by KILLER-COPS! Wallace Jensen belongs in JAIL…he had absolutely NO REASON to KILL Pedie…”JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE”…We Don’t Think So!
Break the chains, and bring on the hot links! The Justice Collective will host a summer barbecue in celebration of our community’s ongoing efforts to achieve justice and freedom for all Black and Brown lives.
It’s a chance both to honor the work of POC organizers and activists working toward racial and economic justice, and to publicly hold space together in protest against the ongoing gentrification of Oakland. The possibilities are endless, but we need YOU, your vision and enthusiasm to make this event a reality!
We want to co-create this event with our members and friends! Join the BBQ Planning Committee by emailing tia (at)thejusticecollective.org and express your interest!
This is a special screening to the base of activists who have donated to make the film happen, or to anyone actively interested in remedies to the Supreme Court’s Orwellian-named “Citizens United” decision, which made corporations legal “persons” with the right to spend as much money as they like to, and try to buy US elections. Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee. Some Social Justice Committee members are in a protest scene as “extras”.
For more info on the film and how to make a contribution to the filmmakers: http://www.peaceteam.net/citizens_united2.php