The once free-spirited city of San Francisco is now a “Company Town,” a playground for tech moguls of the “sharing economy.” Airbnb is the biggest hotel. Uber privatizes transit. And now these companies want political power as well. Meanwhile, middle class and ethnic communities are driven out by skyrocketing rents and evictions–sparking a grassroots backlash that challenges the oligarchy of tech. Is this the future of cities around the world? The feature-length documentary, “Company Town,” is the story of an intense election campaign to determine the fate of the city at the epicenter of the digital revolution.
Produced and directed by Deborah Kaufman and Alan Snitow. Edited by Manuel Tsingaris. With Aaron Peskin, Julie Christensen, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Ron Conway,Brian Chesky, Joe “Fitz” Rodriguez, Jeffrey Kwong, Sunny Angulo, Shaw San Liu, Gordon Chin, Lina Chen. David Campos, Patrick Hannon, Chris Lehane David Talbot & Willie Brown. USA. 2016. 77 mins.
Come to this week’s Post Salon Community Assembly to participate in a community discussion about what we can do now and after the election to affect the city’s economic direction.
Some of the questions are:
Could City Departments have different policies, priorities and personnel?
How are department heads who make economic, workforce and planning decisions picked and what assumptions do they bring to the job?
What is the ethnic make-up of these decision-makers?
Could residents be more involved in making those decisions?
Is it necessary that the Planning Commission approve almost every major development that comes before it? Are those developments necessarily good for us?
*We walk together in public witness to unity in the community in the season of US elections.
* We reject all forms of Islamophobia, racism and religious prejudice
* We affirm the call from Standing Rock and over 100 tribes to protect Native people, land, water and sacred sites
* We call for the end of mass incarceration and the militarization of our streets, skies, schools and borders
* We celebrate multifaith unity in the community grounded in justice
LOCATION AND TIME
Starting time & location: 2 PM
Kehilla Synagogue 1300 Grand Avenue, Piedmont, CA
Ending time & location: 5 PM
Lighthouse Mosque 620 42nd St, Oakland, CA
The walk is 4 miles and takes about 2 1/2 hours with 2 ten minute stops along the way at Lake Merritt and Oscar Grant Plaza, proceeding on Telegraph Ave.
The day features faith based/ceremonial offerings including a youth offering and banner. The Walk is child and family friendly. Snacks provided at the end of the day. There will be a van accompanying walkers who need a ride part of the way.
The Walk for Justice is done in the spirit of pilgrimage
Please bring signs that reflect our message.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over four years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally . Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
Liberated Lens Collective is a community media project based in Oakland, California. We share resources, skills and knowledge to tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. We believe that story telling belongs to everyone. We do not depend on mainstream media or an expensive film school: we empower ourselves to make our own images!
We learn by doing. We teach eachother. We work horizontally, and operate by consensus. We make films in a spirit of collaboration, inclusivity and solidarity, maintain a film equipment library for creative projects, organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops, and host film screenings. In May 2015 we organized the Films 2 The People Short Film Festival.
To be updated about what we do, join our announce mailing list: Liberated_Lens.announce@lists.riseup.net
To get involved, come to our meetings! We’re open and happy to welcome you, no matter your experience level. Sometimes, the meetings turn into creative workshops!
This screening is co-presented by the Berkeley FILM Foundation and features a post-film discussion.
An audience favorite at the 2015 Mill Valley Film Festival, this joy-filled portrait of septuagenarian Edythe Boone captures the Berkeley-based muralist as she oversees transformative community and student social justice art projects and grapples with the chokehold death of her nephew, Eric Garner whose final words – I Can’t Breathe – ignited a national outcry for racial justice. An intimate portrait of an extraordinary artist-activist, Edythe’s story shows not what it is to be Black or to lose a loved one, but what it is to be human.
Join us post screening for a Q & A with Mo Morris, filmmaker, Edythe Boone and Oscar Grant’s “Uncle Bobby” (Cephus) Johnson.
Tonight Long Haul hosts the anarchist study group. 8-10 PM.https://t.co/l5lSwoHk6X
— Long Haul Infoshop (@Longhaulinfo) November 1, 2016
This court support event is due to the aggressive an unlawful arrest of 7 protesters who were speaking out on the killing of Colby Friday shot in the Back By Officer David Wells.
3 of the 7 arrested where juvenile females – 1 was attacted with a baton . Stockton police chief Eric Jones Refuses To release body camera footage to exonerate his officers of any wrong doing . What is he hiding from the public?
David Wells admitted to not having his camera on that day. Also attacted was a 8 year old who was identified as Colby Friday’s Daughters.. please invite an share . Stockton Ca is Ground Zero
JOIN CODEPINK, WORLD CAN’T WAIT, OCCUPYSF Action Council and others at the huge PEACE banner
Theme this week is: “REFUGEES…”
Feel free to bring your own signage, photos, flyers, …Additional signs and flyers provided.
Stand (or sit) with us and the huge PEACE banner.
6:30pm Rally outside
7:30pm Speak out inside (fill out speakers cards before)
Anti-fascist activist and teacher Yvette Felarca has been removed from her classroom at Martin Luther King Jr Middle School in Berkeley, California, for helping stop a neo-Nazi recruitment rally on the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento this summer.
After Ms. Felarca was stabbed and beaten by the fascists, terror threats were made against her and the school if she’s not fired. Instead of defending the entire community, including Ms. Felarca, the school district is capitulating to the neo-Nazis’ demands by taking disciplinary measures against her and removing her from her job.
Prior to being put on administrative leave on September 21 the school district reached back into her bank account after depositing her wages, and took them back out, suddenly challenging previously approved sick days and leaves already taken.
Since then, both current and former students have been pulled out of class and interrogated about her, without their parents’ informed consent, targeting immigrant and limited english speaking families in particular.
Ms. Felarca has been teaching ELD (English as a Second Language) and Humanities at King Middle School for a decade. She is a member of the Executive Board of her union, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers (BFT), and is a founding member of the Equal Opportunity Now/By Any Means Necessary (EON/BAMN) Caucus, an organization working on civil rights issues.
The actions against Ms. Felarca are directly counter to the Berkeley school district’s historic embrace of the fight against racism and fascism. Three district schools are named after civil rights leaders – Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, and Malcolm X, and Berkeley was one of the very first school districts to voluntarily desegregate.
Students from all grade levels – elementary, middle, and high school, as well as parents, fellow teachers from Berkeley and Oakland, and a diverse range of community members have been rallying in defense of Ms. Felarca. Please join us in speaking out:
Come to the school board on November 2, write to the board members, and encourage your unions, collectives, and congregations to write letters and resolutions in solidarity with Yvette Felarca.
Demand that she be reinstated immediately, repaid her full wages, and the harassment of her and her students be stopped!
Write to: boardofed@berkeley.net, Superintendent@berkeley.net,
CC: yvette.felarca@ueaa.net
An injury to one is an injury to all!
More Details and Background:
Grievance of Yvette Felarca: https://occupyoakland.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Grievance-of-Yvette-Felarca1.pdf
Press conference with Yvette Felarca and her lawyer, September 28: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHhVxvNt3vY
September 21 school board meeting, public comments by Yvette Felarca, her students who demonstrated how she helped empower them, parents who praised her teaching style and expressed concern about recent racist activities in the schools, fellow workers who wondered about the implications of the district’s actions for other teachers, and community members who told personal stories about fascism in their own lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jg2giLt6Fu4
October 5 rally outside the school board meeting, and public comments inside by more students, parents, teachers, and community members speaking in defense of Ms. Felarca. When board members refused to disclose their personal positions on whether she should continue to teach, and instead scurried off into a second, unagendized “closed session”, the community held its own meeting in the board room, with many more speaking out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdwuri1LFYI
October 19 school board meeting, more public comments in defense of Ms. Felarca, including a description of an interrogation by a student, remote participation from a former student who called in from Mexico City, and a standing ovation from one of the student representatives on the board: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az4GFkzEfSo
Report of what happened in Sacramento, and the neo-Nazis involved: http://antifasac.weebly.com/home/blood-in-the-valley-why-people-put-their-lives-on-the-line-to-run-nazis-out-of-sacramento
More about the fascist organizers of the Sacramento rally: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/06/27/violent-clashes-erupt-sacramento-between-white-nationalists-and-antifascists
Details about neo-Nazis converging in Berkeley prior to their attempted rally in Sacramento: https://itsgoingdown.org/big-nazis-on-campus/
Article about racist events at Berkeley High School over the last couple of years, including racist pages in the yearbook which had to be recalled, a noose hanging from a tree, and a terror threat citing the KKK on a school computer, which resulted in a walkout by the majority of students: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/11/04/racist-threats-posted-on-berkeley-high-library-computer/
In case of BPD eviction, a new location will be sent-out!
Please share this announcement with sympathizers of First They Came for the Homeless
The proposal of First They Came for the Homeless to create an intentional community of people without housing options was rejected by Berkeley’s City Council last night (Nov. 1).
This means we remain subject to police raids and evictions, which makes it more difficult for us to provided a place for Berkeley’s homeless where they can safely sleep and get food and assistance for their critical needs.
Our response to the City of Berkeley’s rejection of our proposal for a drug and alcohol-free tent village is to organize the tremendous support and encouragement we’ve received from Berkeley’s housed community to actively demonstrate the benefits of our model to the satisfaction of City officials harboring doubts.
Please come to the General Assembly to contribute to our plan for next steps and find out how you can help.
A summary of the current situation:
First They Came for the Homeless members have established a peaceful, clean, drug and alcohol free collective in the face of cold temperatures, wind and rain, ongoing police raids, lack of basic resources, and duplicitous city officials. The collective entered into dialogues in good faith with city officials who have proved unable to meet the need of sheltering homeless people in Berkeley.
A strong proposal from First They Came for the Homeless and community members to create an intentional community with a stable location for tents, water, garbage pick up and sanitation resources (such as was recently established in Oakland) was dismissed by Berkeley’s City Council Tuesday night (Nov. 1). In the city’s reports, there was a lack of recognition shown to the collective’s contribution, false allegations were made, they failed to address the immediate issues for the many whose lives are at risk, and the city manager office alluded to future police raids (each of which is estimated to cost about $30,000).
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Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
Come stand with the mothers of murdered children and family members from 12:00 – 2:00 every Friday
to pressure District Atty George Gascon to charge killer SFPD cops with murder
who executed Mario Woods, Jessica Nelson, Luis Gongora Pat, Alex Nieto, and all the rest.
Bring signs! STOP POLICE MURDER!
We have signs that say “Mario Woods is our Son”, and signs for each one murdered.
Please find the box of signs and “Say Their Names” for the Media.
5:30pm: Happy hour + food
7pm: Event
Critical Resistance (CR) invites you to join us for “Profiles in Abolition: Strong Communities Beyond Policing” featuring Asha Ransby-Sporn of Black Youth Project 100, CR co-founder Dylan Rodriguez, and Naomi Murakawa (author of The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America). Moderated by Lara Kiswani of Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC).
This event will sharpen our vision to eliminate reliance on policing and increase our community power and wellbeing without law enforcement and prisons. We are excited to feature organizers and scholars from across the country who have been fighting the violence of policing with dedicated campaigns, writing, and Black, radical, queer and internationalist imaginations. Our speakers will engage in lively conversation about lessons learned and strategies to uplift as we build for a world beyond policing. The event will feature cultural performance and contributions from inside organizers that raise the spirit of liberation.
“Strong Communities Beyond Policing” is the third event in Profiles in Abolition, a national series highlighting the ongoing struggle to abolish the prison industrial complex. We are excited to bring together a community audience of organizers and freedom fighters who have worked so hard to bring us to this opportune political moment. Proceeds will benefit Critical Resistance and our grassroots organizing for abolition and community self-determination. www.criticalresistance.org/abolition
VENUE INFO: Humanist Hall is wheelchair accessible and this event is fragrance free. Please come scent free to respect participants with chemical sensitivities.
Wheelchair users enter from 411 28th Street. Front doors of building are 390 27th Street.
Parking info: http://www.humanisthall.net/DIRECTIONS.html
Public transit: Humanist Hall is close to many Bus Stops at Broadway/29th St and Telegraph/27th St.
It is .7 miles from the Downtown 19th St BART station.
If you have any further questions about the event, please contact: jess@criticalresistance.org. We look forward to seeing you there!
Red Warrior MARCH & PRAYER walk to honor our relatives the Oceti Sakowin and all of the nations that have joined in the struggle against#DakotaAccessPipeline
We will gather at 24th and Telegraph.
Wear Red. Bring medicine, candles, reminders of our power.
Come in prayer.
“INJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS A THREAT TO JUSTICE EVERYWHERE” – MLK Jr.
We stand in solidarity against the Dakota Access Pipeline!
Our relatives at #StandingRock need our help URGENTLY to bring attention to the corruption that is a threatening our water. As inhabitants of Mother Earth we all have the obligation to protect her by any means necessary so join us, lets live while thinking of the #Next7Generations.
Hold picket signs to educate, awaken, and inspire our communities to take action and help us stop the construction of the #DAPL. This event is for those of us who want to take part, but are unable to make it to North Dakota. Lets show our solidarity.
Lets stand with our relatives, we will not allow for the rape of Native land. We stand with water protectors and land defenders, we will not allow the government and these greedy corporations to get away with this brutality.
Join us on Friday!
(Backup location if Paris Baguette has no seating: Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater, outside of City Hall.)
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.
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early , meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com .
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.
Bing Bing, Bong Bong, Bing Bing: Songs to Make Coffee Houses Great Again
A great night of protest songs from the GREATEST songwriters EVER. In truth, these are some of the best protest singers in the Bay Area.
Admission free. The artists will gladly accept tips and will be selling their CDs.
Performers:
Clyde Leland: Berkeley singer-songwriter performs with the John Prine cover band Peace Monkeys and writes songs that are sometimes funny, political, poignant, and usually in the key of C. As Grampa Clyde, he sings for preschools and daycare centers throughout the Bay Area.
www.grampasings.com
Marcus Duskin has been singing protest songs since age 9. He is currently writing a musical autobiography “The Folk This! Songbook”, an ensemble whose repertoire covers the spectrum of radical protest songs.
Mike Rufo is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Rufo’s songs and poems arc across the waves of life reflect his impassioned engagement with the world.
www.mikerufomusic.com
Seizure Machine: Bongo drums, a synthesizer, and rap music for weirdos… this is Seizure Machine. Topics covered during this musical set will range from the Ebola virus to the fast food industry.
https://www.youtube.com/
Pete Kronowitt recently released his fourth full length album, A Lone Voice, featuring songs spanning acoustic pop and indie-folk, and evoking an era when music was made to battle injustice.
https://