Calendar

The Bay Area Community Exchange (BACE) Timebank promotes and facilitates the use of Time instead of money in the exchange of goods and services.

The foundation of the Timebank is a free, open source online directory, reputation and accounting system.

These exchanges help develop stronger, more resilient connections between individuals and community service organizations which participate in them, by improving communication and the distribution of skills and resources among our participants. We work to help people meet their needs regardless of economic status.

Please join our Meetup Group:

And our timebank at:
http://www.bace.org

Join us for a screening of the powerful documentary film “The Hand That Feeds” followed by a panel discussion with a #FightFor15 worker and organizer, UC Berkeley Professor and Center for Latin American Studies Chair Harley Shaiken, and UC Berkeley Labor Center Chair Ken Jacobs.

The Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission meeting for tonight has been CANCELLED and postponed and rescheduled to next Monday night, November 9th. There is no city secretary available for tonight.

The Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission will discuss several important topics including:

1) Peace and Justice recommendations to Council about the December 2014 police response to protests, particularly mutual aid and tear gas where the PRC report was not strong. Possible support for PRC minority report.

2) Peace and Justice input on NCRIC, UASI/Urban Shield and other BPD agreements.

Your attendance and comment is welcome.

Statement to the Berkeley City  Council on NCRIC and UASI Agreements
November 2, 2014
Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission

The BPD’s agreements with NCRIC, the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, and UASI, the Urban Areas Security Initiative, come before you again on November 17. Peace and Justice reiterates our opposition to these relationships.

Every year since 2012 the BPD has released summaries of the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) it sends to NCRIC, the regional intelligence fusion center. Each year the summary contains disturbing examples of reportage on constitutionally protected speech, belief, and association, and reporting on non-criminal activity, all in violation of 28 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 23 and your 2012 order that the Department abide by it.

Unfortunately the Department does not release the current year’s summary until slightly before the Council meeting, so the public is unable to verify whether its practice has improved. Regardless, the SAR process is prone to abuse and has been shown nationally to rely on tainted reports full of racial, ethnic, and political bias. Not only are Berkeley’s own reports tainted in this way, but Berkeley receives data from far more conservative jurisdictions that make little pretense of objectivity.

The Peace and Justice Commission therefore recommends against approval of the NCRIC agreement at this time.

*

With regard to the UASI agreement, strong community concerns have arisen about the Urban Shield exercise, which is paid for by UASI. With all the turmoil and pain this country has lived through in the past year, we should know that the burden of militarized policing falls most heavily on African American and other communities of color. We support the proposal by four members of the Police Review Commission to direct the BPD to take a one-year break from participation in Urban Shield, as a beginning to demilitarizing the police department.

Beyond Urban Shield, Peace and Justice remains concerned about the entire UASI relationship. The department should cease this relationship and find other ways to get the training and equipment it needs without this entanglement with the national security, Pentagon, and espionage network.

Sincerely yours,

Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission

Minority Report:
Berkeley Police Review Commission Investigation
December 6-7, 2014 Police Response to Black Lives Matter Protest

The undersigned PRC commissioners support the majority report, which is strong in many respects.

In a few particulars, the undersigned differ from the majority report.  Below we state and explain our dissenting opinions.

Recommendations 18 and 22:  CS gas

BPD:

We recommend that BPD review its policy regarding the use of CS gas and batons in crowd control situations.

PRC:  (7.29.15)

BPD, in conjunction with the PRC, should review its policy regarding the use of CS gas and batons…with the intent of putting substantial constraints on the use of CS gas in crowd control and crowd management.  

>>  The undersigned commissioners recommend:  Prohibit CS gas in crowd control and crowd management: 

Recommendation #29:  Media credentialing
BPD: We recommend the BPD Public Information Officer investigate the viability of establishing a regional media credentialing system.

PRC  (10.8.15)

No policy should be implemented until the matter has been referred back to the PRC to establish a subcommittee to allow for a full discussion and formulation of a policy.

>> The undersigned commissioners recommend:  Support regional media credentialing, but through a system not managed by law enforcement.  Police should not be involved in determining who is legitimate media. The policy should be to recognize all media even if not credentialed by the police, and if in doubt to allow people to film and photograph.

Recommendation #31:  Video surveillance

BPD

We recommend the Department invest in quality video cameras, live stream capability and video capture software to improve situational awareness.

PRC  (9.16.15)

The PRC recognizes the need for the Department to make better-informed decisions in crowd control situations. Therefore, the department needs access to real time surveillance tools. Gathering such information will require some degree of surveillance, which raises concerns regarding citizens’ privacy. We recommend that the Council make a determination of what, if any, surveillance tools should be considered for use, and then refer the matter to the PRC to obtain community input and work with the BPD to establish the appropriate guidelines for such use.

>> The undersigned commissioners recommend adding this sentence:  “PRC should be asked to make a recommendation on any proposal for a surveillance tool before a decision is made to adopt the tool.”

Recommendation:  Mutual Aid

PRC  (10.8.15)

We believe it is critical for BPD to communicate to mutual aid responders the values of the COB, including de-escalation tactics, before and during a crowd event. BPD should continue to review its briefing and communication practices to make every effort for mutual aid responders with our policies. We request that the BPD make specific recommendations on strategies and procedures to achieve these goals.

>> The undersigned commissioners recommend:  Abide by state law, section 8618 of the Legislative Code which states, “Unless otherwise expressly provided by the parties, the responsible local official in whose jurisdiction an incident requiring mutual aid has occurred shall remain in charge at such incident, including the direction of personnel and equipment provided him through mutual aid.”[1]

Abide by the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Plan prepared by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services which states that “the jurisdiction requesting mutual aid” is responsible for “advising responders what equipment they should bring.” [2]

Abide by the 1992 the Berkeley City Council resolution mandating that the BPD take direct supervisory responsibility for all mutual aid units deployed to the maximum extent amount allowable by law.[3]  

The BPD is accountable for the actions of other departments participating in a mutual aid activity in Berkeley.  Therefore, the department should account for what policing equipment is brought into Berkeley, in particular what type of less-lethal projectiles and chemical agents, and how many rounds are discharged by mutual aid participants, what type of strikes were delivered, and how many civilian injuries were reported.

Pathfinders, BPD personnel assigned to accompany mutual aid agencies in Berkeley, will not only facilitate communication but play an active role in supervising mutual aid and ensuring that mutual aid act under BPD command and follow BPD policies.

[1] http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/GOV/1/2/d1/7/11/s8618

[2] http://www.caloes.ca.gov/LawEnforcementSite/Documents/1Blue%20Book.pdf

[3] “That the BPD take direct supervisory responsibility for all mutual aid units deployed to the maximum amount allowable by law…advise such units that they will be expected to comply with [BPD] regulations and policies,” and that if there are conflicts with other agencies over policies which cannot be resolved, “BPD reserves the right to elect not to deploy those units affected….Where the City of Berkeley has adopted more stringent standards, those will take precedence over county-wide standards within Berkeley.”  http://www.berkeleyside.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/2003-09-09-Item-54-57.pdf

Here’s your chance to learn more about market-based approaches to solving the climate crisis and an opportunity to engage with local proponents.  Efforts to put a price on carbon pollution are underway at the state and national levels.  Come hear about proposals such as a carbon tax, existing programs such as California’s cap and trade auction, and other efforts to transition toward a clean energy economy.

OccupyForum will take a field trip to COPWATCH’s Berkeley meeting.

COPWATCH is an activist group dedicated to monitoring police and protecting citizens, whose slogan is: “Refuse to be Abused.” Beginning in 1990, Copwatch ran street patrols to document police harassment of homeless people on Telegraph Avenue. Its newsletter highlighted patterns of intimidation, selective enforcement, misinformation and excessive oversight by police. Over the next decade, Copwatch held hundreds of “Know Your Rights” trainings. Copwatch spearhead demonstrations, filed complaints, used its documents to build court defense,  spoke out at investigative hearings, stood up against pepper spray and other brutal policing techniques (check their website for a full description). They have been a force to be reckoned with on every level to stop systemic police brutality, and a model for organizations in other cities.

We have the good fortune to be invited to their November meeting in Berkeley. This is gonna be deep: they’re discussing what they’ve learned recently, and want to work on regarding the militarization of police, police accountability, training, your rights on the street for yourself and others, how to be a copwatcher, and more:

� Millitarization of police and how to draw that down
� Immediate triage situations: how to behave on the streets / intervention in police stopping people, including African Americans, homeless/veterans, etc.
� Police Accountability
� Police Training
� Copwatcher training, including your rights on the streets
� Longer term strategies for dealing with police violence

In the meantime, you can take a look at “These Streets Are Watching” beforehand to get acquainted with the issues and to formulate questions.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKeM6zWfAjs

We are meeting a week earlier than normal so that we will be free to join the National Day of Action to support $15 an hour and a union, since this event is scheduled to occur on our normal 2nd Tuesday OLWA meeting day.

RSVP November 10th

Among other things we will discuss planning for a OLWA potluck and film, which is tentatively scheduled for November 14th at SEIU 1000, but may be delayed for a week so folks can watch the second Democritic debate. WooHoo Bernie. The movie will be the classic labor film Salt Of The Earth.

Join us to fight for a livable wage for all Bay Area workers! We collaborate in principled reflection and action on what the Bay Area livable wage would be and where we are at on the right to a livable wage.

The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds Community and Power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.

Our work together encompasses:

(1) The concerns of precarious, care and contingent workers,
(2) 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.

Oakland Livable Wage Assembly meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, 6:30-8:00 pm at the SEIU Local 1000 Union Hall, 436 14th Street #200, Oakland, CA

Please love and support one another ~ We have a duty to fight ~ We have a duty to win!

olwa.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/

How did two boyhood friends from Midland, Texas wind up arrested on terrorism charges at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota? Better This World follows the journey of David McKay (22) and Bradley Crowder (23) from political neophytes to accused domestic terrorists with a particular focus on the relationship they develop with a radical activist mentor in the six months leading up to their arrests. A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal, Better This World goes to the heart of the War on Terror and its impact on civil liberties and political dissent in post-9/11 America.

A co-production with ITVS, Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega’s Better This World has been called “Riveting” by The Washington Post, “Mind-boggling” by New York Magazine and “sharply focused & superbly put together” by The Hollywood Reporter. The film was given the Writers Guild of America’s Best Documentary Screenplay Award, Gotham Independent Film’s Best Doc Feature Award and an IDA Creative Achievement Award. Additional honors include Best Documentary Prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival and 3 National Emmy Nominations – including one for Best Doc.

Supporting local filmmakers since 2009

We’re going to mobilize and head to a local Sprouts store to urge customers to boycott Sprouts! Email gilltractfarm@gmail.com for more info.

Come out to defend the Gill Tract! Despite 20 years of community organizing to maintain the land for farming, green-washing super market Sprouts is still planning to build a store on the Gill Tract. Meet up to coordinate with other folks before deploying to a Sprouts store in the Bay Area. This is a great way to plug into Occupy the Farm and take a stand for the land!

JOIN CODEPINK, WORLD CAN’T WAIT, OCCUPYSF Action Council and others at the huge PEACE banner

Theme this week is: Remembering Pirate Mike’s (Stephen Michal Clift) Legacy

Feel free to bring your own signage, photos, flyers. Additional signs and flyers provided.

Pirate Mike and other Veterans for Peace have participated in this vigil highlighting various justice issues and with Codepink at Beale and Creech AFB’s against DRONES

All are welcomed!

Come support the Alameda Renters Coalition and their fight for a moratorium on rent increases and a rent control ordinance.

At the special meeting, the City Council will receive a study on the City’s rental housing market, prepared by BAE Urban Economics (BAE).  To address the rental housing market, including rapidly rising rents and low vacancy rates in Alameda, City staff will also present a range of policy options that the City Council may consider, including consideration of a temporary moratorium on rental increases or evictions without just cause.  The BAE rent study and the staff report for the special meeting will be available on the City’s website by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, 2015.

Join the California Nurses Association at a free special Labor Screening of “This Changes Everything,” a flim by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein, based on her best-selling book about climate chaos.

The film will be followed by a conversation among rank-and-file workers who have been impacted by ecological crisis and labor leaders whose unions are throwing down for climate justice.

As Naomi recently told union members: “Our current economic model is not only waging war on workers, on communities, on public services and social safety nets. It’s waging war on the life support systems of the planet itself. The conditions for life on earth. Climate change: It’s not an “issue” for you to add to the list of things to worry about it. It is a civilizational wake up call. A powerful message – spoken in the language of fires, floods, storms and droughts – telling us that we need an entirely new economic model, one based on justice and sustainability.”

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpuSt_ST4_U.

Not available on Nov. 4th? Join us for an alternate screening on November 11th at UNITE HERE Local 2 in San Francisco: https://www.facebook.com/events/151574678528299/.

Creative community and hackerspace!

Our weekly meeting to get this hackerspace together, to provide a venue for those things that otherwise cannot be worked out through day-to-day practice.

Potluck! (optional) – bring your own tasty dish!

A march for peace, humanity and an end to the corruption and oppression that keeps us all from our higher evolution.

The million masked march is collective of peaceful protesters coming together to stand against oppression and the denial of our rights. To show that we, as citizens, stand together peacefully but firmly against injustice, oppression, corruption, brutality, and corporate greed.

We stand together in support of rights and fair treatment for the homeless and displaced, for honesty and transparency in government, for equality for all people, regardless of class, gender, sexuality, religion, or affiliation. We don the masks to become one thing. United. We are the voices of those unheard, or that cannot speak up.

Unofficial location info from the Facebook page comments:

In terms of the march plan, we are near 100% certain we will be starting at the Embarcadero this year; most likely at the plaza.

Gather at City Hall 9am until 5pm
Marches begin rush hour 5pm
MillionMaskMarch.com

A gathering  to celebrate Pirate Mike’s life  – after the Million Mask March.

We will be gathering in an already-planned party at 101 Market after the Million Mask March; it will now of course become a party celebrating our beautiful comrade. Comrades! – Pirate, Cody, Kyle, Frankie Rivera

Screening of “This Changes Everything”
Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis
Thursday November 5th  8 pm
Wednesday November 11th at 6 pm

Hi All — Your friends at Diablo Rising Tide with Anthropology and Social Change at CIIS, and The New Nothing Cinema are co-hosting a screening of This Changes Everything

Filmed over 211 shoot days in nine countries and five continents over four years, This Changes Everything is an epic attempt to re-imagine the vast challenge of climate change.

Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller This Changes Everything, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from the coast of South India to Beijing and beyond. (Read more about the film below)

Our friends at Incite/Insight encourage critique and dissent, and so there will be a small panel of folks on hand (participants TBA) to facilitate an after-film discussion. We hope to see you here to watch and reflect on what is one of the most high-profile polemics on the environment in a long time.

ADMISSION: FREE
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1661621180779856/

PLEASE SHARE WIDELY

A Very Special screening of :

A VERY HEAVY AGENDA
by Robbie Martin

Post-9/11, the War on Terror had outlived its usefulness.

the U.S. needed a new enemy, so they chose an old one — Russia.

Part 1: A Catalyzing Event – 10.15.15

Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld were ubiquitous in the news media as they took every available opportunity to market to America an aggressive preemptive war policy. But from where did their ideas originate? The answer is a tightly knit and eminently well placed group of neoconservative thought leaders, chief among them Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan. Part 1 begins in the panicked weeks after 9/11, as Kagan et al. seized upon the hysteria surrounding the anthrax letter attacks to further shape America’s perception of reality, planting the seeds for endless future military engagements. George W. Bush may have been understandably perceived as an idiot, but watching these wonks and academics drive the ideological engine for his administration belies a much more sophisticated strategy at play.

(only part 1 will be screed on the evening)

COMING SOON :

Part 2: How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The New Neocons 11.1.15

After the Cold War, the US-NATO reach expanded significantly to take in most of the old Soviet Union clients in the Warsaw pact. Neoconservative darling Robert Kagan and his diplomat wife Victoria Nuland played key roles inside and out of various administrations and think tanks as they greased the skids for a US-sponsored coup in Ukraine. Part 2 shows the resurrection of old cold warriors from beltway depths to deliver blatant propaganda with techniques reminiscent of a red scare era that had only just faded from memory. US-funded outfits like Radio Free Liberty are pitted against Russia’s RT as each nation accuses the other of waging an ever more desperate and transparent “Information War”.

Part 3: Maintaining the World Order 11.15.15

“When the Berlin wall fell, our work wasn’t finished”. — Victoria Nuland, November 2013

“Fuck the EU” — Victoria Nuland, February 2014

While stage managing the American empire has undoubtedly proved to be a more difficult task now than in the bipolar world of the cold war era, it is not for lack of greed or hubris that the Kagans and others continue to sell their vision. Did they create these ideas because they truly believe in America’s right to be the dominant force in the world? Or, do these ideas help sell weapons and control resources like oil and rare minerals? Part 3 shows interview footage of an obscure PNAC member (Thomas Donnelly) taking credit for the ominous “New Pearl Harbor” phrasing in the notorious ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses’ document. But the evidence shows the genesis of the concept to be patriarch Don Kagan, in conjunction with his son Fred, in prior writings that call for ‘a catalyzing event’. Other newly sourced footage shows the pair advocating for a US military ground invasion of Palestine on September 12th, 2001 and displaying an unnerving prescience about the 9/11 attacks and subsequent anthrax letter attacks.

“We’re an empire now and when we act we create our own reality, and while you’re studying that reality—we’ll act again, creating other new realities which you can study too. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do” – Karl Rove

When you take stock of the mindset of people who not only have access to the nexuses of power, but who trade in forming and widely disseminating arguments that justify bringing America closer to a potential nuclear confrontation with Russia, it shows something more plainly Machiavellian at work, with an aim ultimately much more sinister than simply spin.

A Very Heavy Agenda is a joint production between Media Roots & RecordLabelRecords

Produced/Edited/Created by: Robbie Martin

Original Score by: Fluorescent Grey

Twitter: @FluorescentGrey

Music: soundcloud.com/fluorescentgrey

The City Attorney of San Francisco has requested a Summary Judgement in the Case of Nieto Family vs San Francisco City and County for the unlawful death of their son Alex Nieto. This means that the City has asked the Court to dismiss the case because they think there is not enough evidence for the Family to win. (This is apparently a typical move.) The Family (through their Attorney Adante Pointer) has already presented arguements to the contrary as to why there is sufficient evidence favoring the Nietos case. This is new evidence brought forth in the Discovery process. Today there is a public hearing in which the Judge will decide whether to grant or dismiss the City’s motion.

This is a public hearing.

The San Francisco Law School and UC Hastings Chapters of the National Lawyers Guild, invite you to join their esteemed panel for a discussion of the legal issues surrounding the wrongful conviction of Kevin Cooper, the death penalty and the mass incarceration of People of Color. In 1983, Mr. Cooper was convicted and sentenced to death row for the killing of a family of four in Chino Hills, San Bernadino County. He has maintained his innocence since his arrest. Mr. Cooper was scheduled to be executed in 2004, but was granted a stay of execution by the Ninth Circuit. On May 11, 2009, his petition for habeas corpus was denied en banc, upon which five judges of the Ninth Circuit dissented, stating that they believed he was innocent based on evidence tampering by the San Bernadino Sheriff’s Department.

Mr. Cooper’s attorney, Norman C. Hile of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and Carole Seligman, a member of Mr. Cooper’s Defense Committee, will serve as panelists. Mr. Cooper will be participating on the panel from San Quentin.

A film about discrimination and social reproduction in the French School System.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/139761004

Every year, hundreds of French students go through the agrégation de philosophie, a national philosophy contest to become a philosophy teacher. Through the story of Louis, Cherihene, Lyess, Marc and Stefanos, 5 students from radically different social backgrounds, the film dives into the medieval institution of La Sorbonne and the core of French style, old-school elitism.

Color – 34 minutes – 2015

The screening will be presented by the director and will be followed with a facilitated conversation on the topic of power and discrimination in education.