This Friday, Bay Area Jewish clergy from Bend the Arc are leading an action outside the ICE building to denounce the administration’s recent threats to conduct mass raids in San Francisco and other Northern California cities.

THIS IS AN URGENT CALL TO ACTION TO ALL CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF FAITH TO SEND A POWERFUL AND PROPHETIC MESSAGE:

NO MORE TERRORIZING OUR COMMUNITIES.
NO MORE CRIMINALIZING OUR NEIGHBORS.
NO MORE TEARING OUR FAMILIES APART.
WE ARE ALL CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF G-D.

Last week, 86 rabbis and Jewish advocates were arrested in a civil disobedience action while staging a civil disobedience action in D.C. in support of a Clean DREAM Act.

Today, Sen. Chuck Schumer caved in to Republic pressure and agreed fund the government on a short-term basis, in exchange for a promise from Sen. Mitch McConnell to work out a DACA fix at a later date.

While Congress passes one continuing resolution after another, 850 undocumented youth are losing their DACA protections each week. The youth have been declaring: we don’t need a solution next month, we need one right now.

All are welcome to join this action to proclaim unequivocally #LetMyPeopleStay.

Link to Facebook Event Here

Friday, January 26th, 5pm @ Powell Bart in San Francisco pic.twitter.com/TFHiwFVgNv

— Berkeley Antifa (@berkeleyantifa) January 22, 2018

The vast system of U.S. surveillance is in the hands of a President who is violating our constitutional and human rights. It’s vital that organizers protect their digital security so we can continue to work for social change.

The Ella Baker Center and The Center for Media Justice – home of the Media Action Grassroots Network – in partnership with Wellstone Action, would like to invite you to an evening of dialogue on 21st century policing, the impact on our community, and what we can do to protect ourselves and defend our rights.

Join us for a panel presentation about the current state of surveillance. Our panel will feature:

Malkia Cyril, Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Media Justice
Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor:*
Tunisia Owens, Policy Manager of The Ella Baker Center for Human RIghts
And more!

Immediately following the panel presentation we will have a mixer with light refreshments.

Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to the event.

Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor – https://virginia-eubanks.com/books/

The 12th Annual Social Justice Symposium will be on Saturday, January 27, 2018, with the theme: Raising Voices, Driving Action.

The Social Justice Symposium (SJS) is a student-organized event that serves as space for the community to meet and discuss social justice work in the Bay Area.

Strike Debt Bay Area will be presenting one of the seminars, from 10:30 AM – 12:00 noon, entitled

Financial Inequality: How We Got Here and How We Get Out

The Social Justice Symposium is an annual FREE event organized by students in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.

We are thrilled to have Zion I as our keynote speaker. Zion I is a Bay Area native and concious rapper that speaks to the social and political challenges of our time.

The Social Justice Symposium aims to integrate critical analysis and academic learning with direct practice and action efforts. We challenge the belief that social justice is limited to civil and political rights. As such, we seek actions emphasizing liberatory principles that also support economic, social, cultural, environmental, and collective rights.

Due to our event space capacity of 400 people, we are offering 325 registration slots for guaranteed attendance. Once these slots have been filled, registration will be closed and the remaining 75 spaces will be allotted for first-come-first-serve arrival on the day of the event. You must register through the ticketing website in order to reserve your spot ahead of time.

To RSVP, make a donation, or buy some symposium swag, visit https://ucbsjs.bpt.me/

SCHEDULE:
Doors and breakfast begin: 8:30 am
Keynote: 9:30-10:30 am
Workshop sessions: 10:30-12:00, 1:30-3:00, and 3:10-4:30
There will be a silent auction throughout the day with all proceeds going to future symposiums. Lunch will be provided at the event.

Directions and parking information: http://socialwelfare.berkeley.edu/social-justice-symposium-directions-parking-and-site-notes

The following fantastic organizations and people will be presenting workshops at the symposium: Destiny Arts Center, HIV Education Project, Community Works West, The Center for Harm Reduction and Therapy, Haven Connect, Coalition on Homelessness, Strike Debt Bay Area, The Dellums Institute for Social Justice, Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Safe Return Project, BAYPeace, and GRADD

We are committed to alternative perspectives and collaboration with community groups to achieve a sustainable movement for social change. The objectives of the symposium are:

● To raise awareness, build knowledge and reflect on social justice work;
● To provide a space for participants to network, discuss, and share strategies to work toward social change;
● To bridge the gap between micro and macro practice areas and social change;
● To share successful social justice strategies from different perspectives or professions;
● To encourage participants to explore creative, radical ways to serve as change agents; and
● To develop the practical skills to further a sustainable and action-oriented movement for social justice in participants’ professional lives and in their communities.

Our working definition of social justice is:
Social justice is a process, not an outcome, which seeks fair (re)distribution of resources, opportunities, and responsibilities; challenges the roots of oppression and injustice; empowers all people to exercise self-determination and realize their full potential; and builds social solidarity and community capacity for collaborative action.

Register here

Bay Area activists of color and allies: Learn how to protect yourself from surveillance at a digital security training!

The vast system of U.S. surveillance is in the hands of a President who is violating our constitutional and human rights. As organizers, it’s vital that we protect our digital security so we can continue to work for social change.

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and The Center for Media Justice – home of the Media Action Grassroots Network – in partnership with Wellstone Action and United We Dream, would like to invite activists and organizers to join us for a FREE digital security training to protect community activism and protest.

Our team of expert security practitioners are flying in from around the country to share the history and current reality of surveillance in a digital age and under the Trump Administration, and use interactive practices and learning-in-action to get your phone, computer, apps, and services secure.

Where:

• Oakland, CA (Exact location will be sent to you via email upon completion of pre-registration survey. Event space is wheelchair-accessible.)

What you will learn: Participants will learn surveillance self-defense — including sustainable digital security practices to keep you and your personal or social movement networks safe from 21st century threats including

• Direct police and government surveillance of activists
• Indirect government surveillance using third-party developers
• Spying by your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• Doxxing, exposure, and online harassment

*Please be sure to bring your mobile devices with you as you will be working to secure them throughout the day!

This training is grounded in cultural relevance, self-determination, relationships, and racial justice – and driven by art, community organizing, generative somatics and popular education.

In January, 5% of all Saturday brunch proceeds at Reem’s will be donated to the Arab Resource & Organizing Center!

Join AROC at Reem’s on Saturdays and support local Arab organizing!

AROC is a local grasssroots organization that builds power in the Arab and Muslim community through immigration services, organizing and mobilizing against racism, war, repression and Zionism.

@AROCBayArea
www.araborganizing.org

This interfaith gathering includes presentations, three half-hour videos, and Q&A time to inform faith communities and others about the dangers and realities of drone warfare. Action suggestions for followup.

Panel Presenters include:

Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The former president of the National Lawyers Guild and criminal defense attorney is a legal scholar, political analyst and social critic who is editor and contributor to Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.

Lisa Hajjar, is a professor of sociology at the University of California – Santa Barbara, with courtesy appointments in Global and International Studies, and Middle East Studies. She is a contributor to Life in the Age of Drone Warfare. Her work focuses mainly on issues relating to law and conflict, military courts and occupations, human rights and international law, and torture and targeted killing.

Lisa Ling, is a former technical sergeant in the U.S. Air Force. She is featured in the heralded documentary National Bird, which, according to The Washington Post, is “artful, profoundly unsettling.” In an article for The Guardian, Ling noted how little the public knew about the U.S. drone program and its consequences.

Two films produced by the Interfaith Network on Drone Warfare for congregations will be screened along with a half-hour version of National Bird

Issues addressed include:
Why is the faith community concerned about drone warfare?

What is the effect of drone warfare on drone operators?

https://www.facebook.com/events/151943795433074/

On January 27th at 11:30 a.m., people of the Bay Area will unite to stand up for reproductive justice. This coalition will come together this year and in future years to drown out the voices of the Walk for Life, a mass march organized by sexist, right-wing, Christian fundamentalists.

They are building a movement to take away our right to have an abortion and to limit access to reproductive healthcare, contraception, and sex education. They oppose the basic rights of women and other oppressed people to bodily autonomy and self-determination.

We are residents of the Bay Area – women and trans folks, anti-sexist men, people of color, working class people, leftists, liberals, and others. We stand together to defend our right to have an abortion and to confront sexist hate on the streets of San Francisco.

It is time to speak out against sexism in our society and take action to keep each other safe. We represent a majority, like the millions who participated in the Women’s March and the #MeToo campaign. We hope to demonstrate that sexist bigots are unwelcome in the Bay Area, a place where women, the queer community, immigrants, and others have historically fought to defend their communities from those who would take away our agency. This year, we stand together in solidarity to confront the right-wing now, so that their movement cannot make further advances. This cannot wait until November 2018 or 2020.

Please join us at the Rally for Reproductive Justice in San Francisco on January 27! Confront the sexist bigots of the Walk for Life! Stand in solidarity with women and all oppressed people!

Endorsed by:
UC Student-Workers Union – UAW Local 2865
United Educators of San Francisco
International Socialist Organization
Workers’ Voice / La Voz de los Trabajadores
Democratic Socialists of America SF
Left Party / Partido de Izquierda

Refuse Fascism Bay Area

Socialist Action

Bay It Forward

CODEPINK San Francisco
ResistanceSF
South Beach District 6 Democratic Club of San Francisco
Democratic Socialists of America Lower Peninsula branch of Silicon Valley

What can we do to have a real voice in political issues?

                  Neighborhood assemblies:

Lessons from People’s Assemblies in Jackson, MS

and Cuba’s Municipal Assemblies

 with Steve Martinot, neighborhood activist and Berkeley Planning Commissioner

Why do important issues never seem to get resolved?

�      Affordable housing
�      An end to rent increases and rent-gouging displacement
�      Shelter if not housing for the homeless
�      Policing that serves people rather than impose social control
�      An end to industrial and infrastructure pollution

These issues become endless issues because we give them to people who are not effected by them – the elite we elect too speak for us, but are not us.

What would give us a voice in our own affairs?

�      Local assemblies in which to discuss among ourselves what to do.
�      Neighborhood assemblies in which to make our own autonomous decisions
�      Community Councils that would bring together the decisions of neighborhood assemblies

Where do we see this kind of system working? In Jackson, Mississippi, and in Cuba, in its system of Municipal Assemblies. Cuba’s local assemblies are legislative for neighborhoods and cities. Composed of people elected from neighborhoods, they are composed of delegates representing 100 to 200 people. These local assemblies make policy on real issues: city maintenance, land use, housing, labor disputes, and sports facilities.

Their meetings are open and permit dialogue between people and delegates. People are not limited to “comments,” as in Berkeley. The delegates live in the neighborhoods and environments about which they pass measures.

Please join us on January 27, West Berkeley Library, to learn about neighborhood assemblies, Cuba’s Municipal Assemblies, and the possibility for “direct democracy.”

Steve Martinot has been a union and community organizer, lecturer at the Center for Interdisciplinary Programs at SFSU, and written extensively on the structure of racism and white supremacy in the US, as well as on corporate economics and culture.

How do we approach the challenging conversations in our lives, whether it’s about confederate flags, Donald Trump, cultural appropriation, Palestine/Israel, or even just racism and racial justice in general?

This workshop is an opportunity to dive in much deeper with structured time to practice a range of difficult conversations around highly-charged racial issues. We will be sharing some basic skill-building tools in how to approach conversations, and then explore scenarios relevant to the lives of participants. This will include examination of some of the ways that internalized sexism can impact our courageous speaking capacities.

Small group work, role-plays, and Theater of the Oppressed techniques will support seeing tough communication blocks in a new light. We’ll try out what feels challenging, in a relatively low-stakes and supportive environment, allowing ourselves time to debrief, reflect, and learn from each other.

Tickets are sliding scale $15 – $25. No one turned away for lack of funds. Contact basebuilding@surjbayarea.org with ticket requests or questions.

Accessibility Information

The space is wheelchair accessible. We ask that you do your best to arrive at the event scent/fragrance free to keep the space as low-scent as possible to support people with chemical and scent sensitivities – please see https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/ for helpful information.

From Mass Incarceration to Restorative Justice: How Contra Costa County is Developing the Blue Print for Criminal Justice Reform

Presented by the ACLU’s Berkeley/North East Bay Chapter

The Berkeley/North East Bay chapter of the ACLU is pleased to present a Criminal Justice Reform panel with newly appointed District Attorney Diana Becton and Public Defenders Ali Saidi and Jeff Landau. Topics will include the current state of criminal justice reform in Contra Costa County and D.A. Becton’s holistic approach for future reform including dismantling the school to prison pipeline for juvenile offenders and bail reform. This is a great opportunity for all who are interested in criminal justice reform to meet those who will be leading the way.

This event is also the Berkeley/North East Bay chapter’s Annual Meeting and Chapter Board Election.

For almost 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. The ACLU protects your freedom through a nationwide network of staffed offices in every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Berkeley/North East Bay Chapter is active in the North East Region of the San Francisco Bay (California, USA), including Albany, Berkeley, Crockett, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Hercules, Kensington, Pinole, Richmond, Rodeo, Montalvin Manor and San Pablo.

South Berkeley Medicare for All Social and Political Discussion