Calendar
The future is up to us.
Join with activists, community, labor, students and faith-based groups to begin to formulate a vision, priorities and a plan of action for A BERKELEY FOR WORKING FAMILIES.
Berkeley can lead the way on expanding affordable housing, strengthening rent control, and creating livable wages, a healthy environment and expanded city services.
Sponsored by the Berkeley Minimum Wage Coalition.
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!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/
Department 110 on the 5th Floor.
This is the last day of court for the incident with the CHP from last September.
URGENT: Court support is needed TOMORROW (Thursday March 10th) for comrade being charged in the incident where undercover CHP officer drew a gun on protesters in December 2014. His trial resumes tomorrow morning at 9:30 at Wiley courthouse, department 110. It’s expected to be the last day of the trial, so let’s flood the courtroom in solidarity…
The District Attorney is currently prosecuting via a jury trial someone who was arrested by undercovers on December 10, 2014 after a protest. They are charging him with, among other things, resisting arrest. These undercovers pulled a gun on the crowd as they made the arrest. If anyone witnessed the arrest, please contact his attorney Kate Raven at 510-268-7405 or kate.raven@acgov.org to see if you can help in his defense.
“Good, stable jobs protecting the climate can help challenge the growing inequality and injustice of our society, but only if policy is designed to do so.”
Join us for a conversation with Jeremy Brecher, cofounder of the Labor Network for Sustainability and author, most recently, of the just-published Climate Insurgency: A Strategy for Survival. He has received five regional Emmy Awards for his documentary film work and holds a PhD from the Union Graduate School.
“Good, stable jobs protecting the climate can help challenge the growing inequality and injustice of our society, but only if policy is designed to do so. Climate policy needs to include strong racial, gender, age, and locational hiring requirements to counter our current employment inequality and provide a jobs pipeline for those individuals and groups who have been denied equal access to good jobs. It needs to help remedy the concentration of pollution in low-income communities, the lack of transportation, education, health, and other facilities in poor neighborhoods, and other manifestations of discrimination.”
— Jeremy Brecher, Making the Promises Real: Labor and the Paris Climate Agreement
This event is free and open to the public.
The US DoJ wants to hear your perspectives, concerns and suggestions concerning the San Francisco Police Department.
Pizza is being served for free provided by SEIU (Union).
San Francisco residents don’t miss our next community mtgs 3/8 & 3/10! We want to hear from you regarding the #SFPD. pic.twitter.com/A5dUpv4MD9
— COPS Office (@COPSOffice) March 2, 2016
March 11, 2016 is the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe that is still reverberating in Japan and around the world. The nuclear plants are still releasing thousands of tons of radioactive water and over 1000 tanks filled with contaminated radioactive water surround the broken nuclear plants.
The children and families continue to have a rising level of thyroid cancers and this uptick is taking place in other places in Japan. Despite these dangers the Japanese Abe government has said that the problem has been solved. They are demanding the the families and children return to Fukushima or lose subsidies for housing. The government is also claiming that they have “decontaminated” Fukushima and told the Olympic Committee that the problem had been solved.
The government has also raised the limits of allowable radiation to those of nuclear research facilities in Japan. The Japanese government has also passed secrecy laws threatening the journalists and investigators getting information out about the disaster and also seeks to militarize Japan by eliminating Article 9 of the constitution that limits wars and intervention. The government is seeking for the full militarization Japan including nuclear weapons despite mass opposition among the majority of the population. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have gone to the streets to demand an end to the restarting of Japan’s remaining more than 40 nuclear plants.
On March 11, 2016 people throughout the world including in San Francisco will be speaking out and calling for an end to the restarting of it’s nuclear plants, for the evacuation of the children and families in Fukushima and for the government to take responsibility for subsidizing housing outside the area.
We call for an end to the censorship laws and also against the elimination of Article 9 which will lead to further militarization and war.
We call for the closure of all nuclear plants around the world including Diablo Canyon in California which is also running on an earthquake fault like many nuclear plants in Japan.
Please Join Us and Speak Out
Initiated by No Nukes Action Committee
Endorsed by
Tri Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment), Livermore, Codepink Golden Gate Chapter, Occupy SF Action Council, Fukushima Response, Veterans for Piece- Chater #69,SF, Veterans for Peace East Bay Chapter #162, Asian Americans for Peace and Justice, EON (Ecological Options Network), BARK ( Barkers Agitating for Reactor Closure), PG&E Ratepayer Revolt, Mt.Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Walnut Creek, Sloths Against Nuclear State(反核ナマケモノの会), New York, Solar Justice, San Louis Obispo Mothers for peace, United Public Workers For Actionhttp://www.upwa.info, and more groups and much more individuals.
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/
Additional links:
http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160216/p2a/00m/0na/010000c
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/02/24/the-great-fukushima-cover-up/
https://jfissures.wordpress.com/2016/02/04/on-fukushima-prefecture-and-hiroshi-kainuma/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/five-years-after-nuclear-meltdown-no-one-knows-what-to-do-with-fukushima/2016/02/10/a9682194-c9dc-11e5-b9ab-26591104bb19_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-world%3Ahomepage%2Fcard
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34565-radioactive-water-from-fukushima-is-leaking-into-the-pacific
Please join Friends of the Earth & Common Cause for a discussion about the growing national movement to reclaim a people centered democracy.
From Presidential candidates to Oscar winners, everybody is talking about the negative impact unlimited campaign money is having on our democracy. Sometimes it feels like there’s nothing we can do about it. But the truth is, we can reclaim our political system so that it represents our concerns for the environment, and not just those of corporations and the super-rich. Now is the time to take action. It has been six years since Citizens United opened the floodgates for anti-environmental mega-donors like Monsanto use their deep pockets to poison our planet. It’s clear that to make progress on the issues we care most about, we need to stand up and fundamentally change the way we do politics – locally and nationally.
What: Panel discussion and presentation on the state of our Democracy
I’ll be joined by Berkeley Council Member Kriss Worthington, who will talk about the city’s plans to address money in politics; UC Berkeley Common Cause member Celeste Alexandra Pylko, who will share about student’s work to get money out of politics on UC campus; and Helen Grieco from Common Cause who will talk about the upcoming Democracy Awakening mass mobilization on Washington DC.
Sign up HERE or via Face Book to reserve your space! Find out more about how the current state of our democracy blocks progress on the issues you care about, and how you can take part in the largest pro-democracy mobilizations our nation has seen in decades!
JOIN US FOR A SHIFT: MASS COPWATCHING
· Friday March 11, 8 PM – 11 PM
· Thursday March 17, 5 PM – 7 PM
· Saturday March 26, 8 PM – 11 PM
Since October 2015, Berkeley Copwatch has been holding “mass copwatch” events that invite folks to join us for a shift. It’s been fun and very empowering to have a group of copwatchers patrolling our city and on the scene when police stop people.
This month we have three shifts scheduled. The Thursday shift will likely be a walking shift. Please join us; we will train you in the essentials of copwatching, how to document and how to stay safe!
Contact us at (510) 548-0425 or berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com to learn where we will be meeting.
Speak Out Now 2016 Revolutionary University
Tools for Changing Society
Join us for two days of presentations and discussion on some of the major questions of our time.
Come to all sessions or choose the ones that interest you.
(Note: Sunday is the first day of Daylight Savings time)
Saturday 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Syria and the Conflict in the Middle East
Prof. As’ad AbuKhalil,
Professor of political science at CSU Stanislaus and author of Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
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3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
The Life of Victor Serge: Learning from the Past – Looking to Our Future
Susan Weissman,
Professor of Politics at St. Mary’s College and author of Victor Serge: The Course Is Set on Hope
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7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Capitalism –a System in Crisis
Robert Brenner,
Economist and Professor of history at UCLA and an editor of the socialist journal Against the Current, and New Left Review
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Sunday
10:00 am –11:30 am
France, the Worker’s Movement Faced with the Growth of the Far Right Toni Rouvel,
an activist in the French Trotskyist group Fraction L’Etincelle
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12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Mexico: Drug Wars and State Terror
John Gibler,
Mexico – based journalist and author of Tzompaxtle and To Die in Mexico
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2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
The Environmental Crisis and the Working Class
Speak Out Now,
a Bay Area revolutionary organization.
Followed by time to discuss and socialize – refreshments provided.
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to survivors and victims of violence and police terror in Oakland.
The Baha’i community of Oakland is organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.
Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us.
Join us for the Bay Area premier of
Growing Resistance
and panel discussion
Growing Resistance, takes you to ground zero of extraction in California and shows first-hand how the drought, fracking, and climate change are impacting communities and exacerbating existing health issues, water scarcity, and poor air and water quality.
As the film shows, the Central Valley’s history of resistance hasn’t faded. Communities are rising up against the direct impacts they face and a hypocritical Governor who claims to be a “climate leader.”
Don’t miss the premier of Growing Resistance followed by a Q&A with the film’s director and four other panelist who are helping lead this movement. You’ll hear from experts in the field of law, community organizing, and public health.
RSVP: Click here to purchase your ticket! (Tickets are $5 plus a small processing fee)
All proceeds will go directly to The Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) who are working in the Central Valley to ensure that all people have the right to live, work, play and pray in a healthy environment, regardless of their race, place or income.
The film interviews residents, activists, nurses, and lawyers to tell the story of extraction happening on farmland, near homes, and next to schools.
Get your ticket now for the premier of Growing Resistance in Oakland on March 13.
This is a crucial year to break California’s dependence on fossil fuels. Momentum is on our side and the time is now to double down on our efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Together we’ve built a strong movement and celebrated some crucial victories, but we still have to keep pushing. In May, we’ll be taking bold action against fossil fuels around the world and here in California.
Join us on March 13 to hear more and watch the film that tells the story of fracking in California.
In Rojava, Kurds brought a new life to an archaic communal form. Equality for women became a crucial aspect of a social revolution. See “Witnessing Revolution in Rojava” by Paul Z. Simons in current issue of News & Letters (newsandletters.org).
It is a contrast to the crucible of death that Syria has become at the hands of old counter-revolutionary nationalisms and imperialisms, the most vile of which is the Islamic State. All state players are united in trying to erase the revolutionary humanist challenge to Assad awoken by Arab Spring.
Can Rojava’s revolution afford to stop at Bookchin’s democratic confederalism, adapted by Ocalan as the opposite to the vanguardism of Marxist-Leninism? What about the revolutiona’s internal contradictions, for example, Kurd’s participation in Putin’s blitzkrieg against human forces fighting Assad in Syria? What do we need to finally break the cycle of revolutions that transfrom into their opposite?
In California’s Central Valley, there is a crisis. Not only are communities running out of water, but over the last few years, they’ve seen an increase in dangerous forms of drilling for oil and gas. To make matters worse, the historic drought fueled by climate change is exacerbating existing health issues, water scarcity, and poor air and water quality. Luckily, the Central Valley’s history of resistance hasn’t faded. Communities are rising up against a hypocritical Governor who claims leadership on issues that are hurting communities in California today.
Join us for a screening of Growing Resistance: Drought, Oil & Climate Change in California, a 28-minute film that shares the stories of communities on the frontlines who are rising up against not only the immediate health impacts of the oil and gas industry, but against the growing climate impacts that are disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable in the state.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with:
- Shadia Fayne Wood, Director and Coordinator of Survival Media Agency
- Linda Capato Jr., US Fracking Campaign Coordinator, 350.org
- Madeline Stano, Staff Attorney, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment
- Juan Flores, Community Organizer, Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment
With filmmakers Emmitt Thrower and Leroy Moore, and also La Mesha Irizarry, Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia, and David Perry.
The documentary “Where Is Hope: The Art of Murder” chronicles disabled victims murdered by police as well as the activists/artists who have fought and are fighting against police brutality against people with disabilities. Emmitt H Thrower, a retired NY City cop turned artist/filmmaker, Leroy Moore, founder of Krip Hop Nation, La Mesha Irizarry, founder of the Idriss Steeley Foundation, and Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia of Poor Magazine intend the film as a tool to facilitate forums with discussions around this topic.
Thrower, Moore, Irizarry and Gray-Garcia will be joined by disability rights journalist and history professor David Perry.
This event is free, open to the public and wheelchair-accessible. Please refrain from wearing scented products so that people with chemical sensitivities can join us. If you need any other disability accommodations in order to attend, including communication services, please contact Susan Schweik at sschweik@berkeley.edu.
Sponsored by: Disability Rights Education Defense Fund (DREDF); Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, UC Berkeley; Haas Institute Disability Studies Cluster, UC Berkeley; Nailah Suad Nasir, Birgeneau Chair, Haas Institute Educational Disparities Cluster, UC Berkeley
For more information on the film, check out the Facebook group
Where is Hope Documentary on Police Brutality Against People with Disabilities, at https://www.facebook.com/
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!Fascism: What It Is, and How to Fight It
With Gerald Smith
Secondly, Scientific Socialism has lost the allegiance of the most politically active members of the working class internationally.Faced with declining profit levels in the sixties and seventies, the ruling class has pursued a variety of strategies to enhance its share of national income, including exporting industrial production to less developed countries, which in turn undermines the bargaining power of the most organized sections of the working class.
In tandem with this, many of the most advanced capitalist states either overtly (Brasero program in the U.S., Gastarbeiters in Germany, etc.), or covertly (destabilization of third world countries and purposely lax enforcement of border controls, etc.) encouraged mass immigration of poorly paid and legally precarious workers from less developed regions, and bureaucratically distorted state-owned economies.
This in turn feeds resentment of increasingly beleaguered sections of the working-class, often providing a fertile recruiting ground for neo-fascists. Before a serious reactionary trend can be successfully eliminated, it is necessary to understand the phenomenon: its origins, its essence, its mutations.
Gerald Smith has a long history in the Black Liberation and Workers’ movements. He is currently involved with the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia, Liberated Lense, and the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality.
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.
Justice for Richard Perkins — Anti Police-Terror Project Successfully Demands Coroners Report for Perkins Family
On Friday, March 11th, at 9:00 am on the corner of 90th and Bancroft (Where Richard was murdered), APTP will host a press conference in partnership with families that have lost loved ones to police terror and celebrate this recent victory while also raising critical questions about collusion between the sheriff’s office and Alameda County police departments to hide evidence from families who have lost loved ones to state sponsored violence.
“We don’t understand why it takes community pressure to force the coroner’s office to release the reports,” said Cat Brooks of APTP. “These families are already suffering a great loss and grieving their loved one. They rightfully want to know what happened and that report is critical in putting the pieces together.”
Yet time and time again, the coroner’s office – which is essentially the sheriff’s office – delays getting this report to the families. Yuvette Henderson was murdered by the Emeryville Police Department in February of 2015. Eight months later, it took APTP in partnership with Henderson’s family, to force them to release the report. Similarly in the case of Alan Blueford who was murdered by OPD on May 6, 2012, the community had to demonstrate at the Sheriff’s office to get the report released to family.
“They know that these reports are critical pieces of evidence,” said Dan Siegel, head legal counsel for APTP. “The longer they delay giving it to the family, the longer it takes to assess the wrongdoing on the part of OPD.”
Friday’s press conference is also the launch of APTP’s campaign for more accountability and transparency with the Sheriff’s office in relation to reports following Officer Involved Shootings. APTP will make the following demands:
– Provide families that are victims of police violence the coroner’s report within 30 days
– Investigate collusion between the Sheriff’s department and the Oakland Police Department
– Recall Sheriff A. Hearn who has a long list of egregious behaviors
– Release the ENTIRE video series to the Perkins family and their legal counsel
– Bring in an outside investigator to investigate the murder of Richard Perkins.
Ada Henderson, Richards mother and Jamison Henderson, Yuvette’s brother will speak at the press conference.
BREAKING #Oakland city council forwarding exclusive agreement with UrbanCore for E12th parcel to full city council for 3/15 vote. #SaveE12th
— E12 Peoples Proposal (@PeoplesProposal) March 3, 2016
City Hall is failing too address Oakland’s housing crisis. While thousands of working class families of color see their rents rise or face eviction, our elected officials are selling off public lands to private developers.
After a hundred people testified last week in support of A People’s Proposal in a public hearing on the future of the E 12th parcel, City Council Members are attempting to undermine democracy and community by moving forward with an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement for the UrbanCore / EBALDC proposal for E 12th, a luxury tower that includes a token amount of segregated affordable housing.
Come out Tuesday March 15th at 5 pm to oppose the UrbanCore/EBALDC proposal, fight for A People’s Proposal, and let City Council know they must create real solutions to the housing crisis now.
We want to show up BIG and LOUD and are asking supporters to:
- Pack the room for open forum at 5 pm to show City Council members right away that we do not accept luxury housing on public land. Be prepared to speak!
- Sign up online to speak during the E 12th agenda item (item #3, sign up here) and urge City Council to vote NO on an ENA with UrbanCore/EBALDC and support A People’s Proposal
- Be prepared to support the incredible organizers who have been working hard on this campaign for over a year now.
E 12th is not just about one parcel, its about the entire housing crisis in Oakland. We are inspired by the brilliance and perseverance of so many Oakland residents and everyone’s incredible support. Join us as we continue to bring the call for development without displacement and accountability from our elected officials directly to City Hall.
#SaveE12th & #publicland4publicgood!
Join our keynote speaker, internationally acclaimed urban planner James Rojas of PLACE IT! for an interactive and inspiring evening re-envisioning our water infrastructure in response to climate change. We’ll use everyday objects and our creativity to design a different water future.
Invite friends, colleagues, and neighbors and keep growing our local climate movement!
Dinner served at 6 PM. RSVP: Email rebecca@ecologycenter.org by Thursday, March 10 to reserve a meal.
Homes not Jails will be screening Shelter: a Squatumentary and hosting a panel of squatters 3/17 @ 8pm, @Longhaulinfo plz join us!
— homesnotjailsSF (@SFHNJ) March 7, 2016