Calendar
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2014/01/03/fcc/
Protest FCC Chair Wheeler
Thurs. Jan. 9th SF Bay Area
WIRELESS MICROWAVE RADIATION KILLS
Thomas E. Wheeler, recently appointed by President Obama as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will be speaking in Mountain View and Oakland, CA on Thursday, January 9. Join planned protests and speak out against increasing wireless health damage.
Fox in Charge of the Hen House: From 1992- 2004, Wheeler headed the wireless industry lobbying group, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). During his stint at the CTIA, his own scientists told him that cell phones were causing brain tumors. He buried the data and fired the scientists.
Wheeler buried the truth. Now, we are burying the victims.
Mountain View Event
Wheeler will be speaking in Silicon Valley at the Computer History Museum – 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View. Protest outside starts at 11am, event is from 12-1pm (it is a free Commonwealth Club event and is now open to the general public.) You must sign up in advance here.
Click “register” first. Where it asks for your membership number simply enter “non-member.”
WE NEED YOU TO COME WITH SIGNS AND YOUR VOICES! We would also like to see babies, toddlers, preschoolers, teens, etc at both events. A funeral procession will be held for the victims of wireless technology. Dress in Black! Media will be there and we need to get our message across.
Oakland Event
Wheeler will be speaking at the Preservation Park Niles Hall at 1233 Preservation Park Way in Oakland at 7 pm. We will hold a rally at the main entrance on 12th St. starting at 6pm. Tickets to this free event are sold out but the public is free to attend the rally- more information here.
Again, bring your signs, voices, children, grandchildren and friends. Media will be there also. A funeral procession will be held for the victims of wireless technology. Dress in Black!
What we want:
- adequate health warnings on wireless devices
- a complete ban on wireless radiation in K-12 schools
- a recall on ‘smart meters’
- repeal of the 1996 Telecom Act
- defense of our copper-based landline network
- research-based wireless health standards
- Chair Wheeler to step down from the FCC
- Most of all, we want people to be told the truth- WIRELESS KILLS.
Please join us and spread the word to as many as possible. We look forward to seeing you there! If you have any questions about these events, or you are a member of the news media please call 925-285-5437 or 360-201-3959
Thank you so very much & we hope to see you all next week,
Ellie Marks, California Brain Tumor Association
Josh Hart, Stop Smart Meters!
p.s. please spread the word through social media- we depend on grassroots efforts to make events like these a success!
We cordially invite you to share your collective ideas and effects in the community. A night to share your projects and learn what else is happening with other collectives. If nothing else, it will be a night of art and mysticism.
6:00-7:30 – Collective discussion
7:30-8:00 – Poetry reading
8:00-9:30 – Musical ensemble
9:30-1:00 – Food and dance
Community Rally and March to City Hall.
Stop the Crude Oil Storage and Raily Transfer Facility.
Keep Pittsburg safe and healthy.
Say NO to Toxic Racism,
Say NO to any more “DUMPS” in Pittsburg,
Say NO to Hazardous Facilities
next to Housing & Schools
We need to be righteously angry.
Let folks know we are mad as hell and
we ain’t gonna tolerate this.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
OccupyForum presents
What’s That Stench???
Fossil Fuel Infrastructure Expansion
in the North Bay / Pittsburg
and the Campaign to Stop it in its Tracks
The WesPac Pittsburg Energy Infrastructure Project would transform Pittsburg CA into a major crude oil receiving, storage and shipping facility. WesPac develops, constructs, owns and operates infrastructure throughout North America for petroleum products handling, and Pittsburg is the next target for modernization and reactivation of its existing marine terminal and oil storage and transfer systems. Plans are to move Canadian tar sands crude to the Chevron and Shell refineries through pipelines and extended rail systems, load it onto ships and send it to Asia to the tune of 242,000 barrels per day. This is the same dirty crude slated for the Keystone XL pipeline, a project drawing widespread opposition. Even dirtier crude oil would be shipped to the WesPac facility from southern California. Oil would also come from a huge deposit in North Dakota, which, like the California oil, would be extracted by fracking. Do we want the Bay Area to be the locus of this scheme which threatens Pittburg and North Bay towns and our Bay,
not to mention the climate impact of burning all that fossil fuel???
Spills, leaks, blow-ups, smog, gas, fires like the one in Richmond, soil contamination, prolonged effects on area air and water quality and health effects such as asthma, cancer and birth defects, loom. Increased pollution from idling trucks, rail cars and ships — affecting wildlife, marshes and wetlands, the shoreline, polluted water in the delta (water used for drinking and agriculture), — jeopardized property values, and critically, significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions warming the climate are the risks and threats. This development would include:
� Pipelines: Expand existing pipelines and add new lines from rail cars to tanks;
� New Rail: Build crude-by-rail transload facility; extend tracks, greatly increase rail shipments right through town;
� Storage: Modernize and reactivate the site�s tanks and build new ones;
� Tanker trucks, diesel trucks: Mobilize for construction and transport: (congestion, diesel fumes, road deterioration, traffic hazards);
� Shipping: Dredge and pile drive to deepen the Bay and reopen, expand and modernize Marine Terminal
CRAIG DILWORTH in person
Author of the profound 2010 book:
TOO SMART FOR OUR OWN GOOD
The Ecological Predicament of Humankind
Our ecologically disruptive behavior – which is the same as our explosive technological know-how — is rooted in the nature of Homo Sapiens. Humankind’s development consists of an accelerating movement from situations of scarcity, to technological innovation, to increased resource availability, to increased consumption, to population growth, to resource depletion once again — in a vicious circle from the dawn of humanity and continuing today. Craig Dilworth amasses enormous evidence to prove that technology is our undoing: his Vicious Circle Principle trumps our intelligence.
January 11, 2014 marks the 12th anniversary of the opening of the prison at Guantánamo. This month as Andy Worthington and Debra Sweet tour cities and campuses raising the call, Close Guantánamo NOW! – they’ll be joined at various events by other powerful speakers including Jeffrey Kaye, Jason Leopold, Michael Kearns, and Todd Pierce. The new documentary film Doctors of the Darkside will also be shown at some events.
All three Bay Area events are open to the public including at the Stanford and Hastings campuses. Contact World Can’t Wait SF Bay, sf [at] worldcantwait.org or 415-864-5153, to volunteer your help staffing programs (we especially need videographers, photographers), and ideas for publicity and media. Donate to support the tour here: http://www.indiegogo.com
Film screening “Doctors of the Dark Side” with Andy Worthington & Debra Sweet in conversation.
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has chosen Richmond as the location for voting on its final report on the August 6, 2012, Chevron Richmond Toxic Explosion and Fire. The hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Richmond City Council Chambers at 440 Civic Center Plaza.
Please join Communities for a Better Environment, APEN, RPA, ACCE, 350.org Chevron Watch and Bay Area, the Richmond Environmental Justice Coalitionand community representatives from Pittsburg, Rodeo/Crockett and Benicia at 5:30 p.m. for a rally in the Civic Center Plaza.
This is a MAJOR event for our communities, because the CSB is recommending a new standard for regulating Big Oil’s refineries in the US – the Safety Case regime. We demand Safety First! No new Permits w/o the Safety Case!!
Please come out and support the CSB, the people of Richmond and the Bay Area refinery towns!
$12 advance tickets: brownpapertickets.com :: 800-838-3006
or Pegasus (3 locations), Marcus Books, Moe�s, Walden Pond, Diesel a Bookstore, and Modern Times.
Radical economist Richard Wolff recently exploded into the forefront of progressive thinking in the United States with his brilliantly insightful book Capitalism Hits the Fan, which chronicled Wolff’s growing alarm and insights as he watched the economic crisis build, burst, and dominate world events. His analysis differs sharply from explanations offered by politicians, media commentators, and other academics. While he retains many Marxist contentions, Wolff rejects the economic determinism typical of most schools of economics.
“Richard Wolff is the leading social economist in the country. This book is required reading for anyone concerned about a fundamental transformation of the ailing capitalist economy.” — Cornel West.
Professor of Economics Emeritus from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Wolff is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University in New York. In recent years while delivering public lectures at many colleges and universities, as well as to community and trade union meetings, he has built a reputation for blunt speaking, clarity, refreshing scorn, and an enjoyable wit.
Wolff is the author of many books, including Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism, Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism, and Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He hosts the weekly hour-long radio program Economic Update on WBAI (Pacifica Radio) and writes regularly for The Guardian, Truthout.org, and the MRZine.
�Bold, thoughtful, transformative – a powerful and challenging vision that takes us beyond both corporate capitalism and state socialism. Richard Wolff at his best!�
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The Postal Service is still trying to sell the downtown Berkeley Post Office (and privatize the entire USPS). We’re still trying to save it. The Berkeley City Council will be considering a proposal in late January to help that effort, a Zoning Overlay Ordinance that will make the entire Historic District Area (including the Post Office) less attractive to private, commercial development.
To keep up the pressure on all concerned, and let them know that the people STILL do not want Post Offices sold, Berkeley Post Office Defenders invite you to twenty-four hours of activities beginning at 11:00 AM.
Activities will include
- petition signing and flyer distribution (11- 5)
- presentations, teach-ins (11:30 – 2:00)
- music (2:00 – 5:00), including the Funky Nixons, Phat Love and Fresh Juice Party!
- arts and crafts
- dinner and a movie (6:00 – 10:00)
- letter writing (11:00 – 2:00)
- an empathy circle
- a study group
- a free clothing box
- tents and signs
- light brigade spelling out slogans of resistance (around 7:00 PM)
Come join us! Bring your friends!
Berkeley Post Office Defenders.
Please join Share The Bulb for a weekend of actions against the pending eviction of more than 50 people from the Albany Bulb!
January 17th
—————
Residents and allies of the Albany Bulb will rally at Albany City Hall at 4PM, before marching up Solano Avenue. We will stage an overnight campout on Solano Avenue, illustrating the plight of the more than 50 residents of the Albany Bulb, who, if evicted, would be forced onto Albany’s streets.
January 18th
————–
Artists will flock to the Bulb for a day of participatory art, live demonstrations, workshops, and art tours. Join us for an Art Festival at the Bulb from 12-5PM!
*****
The campout is part a West Coast Day of Action to fight the criminalization of homelessness, sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP). Cities in the Bay Area and around the country have passed laws making it impossible for homeless people to live within the law. It has become a crime to sit or lie down, to sleep in public, panhandle or otherwise conduct their lives in public view.
The eviction would force Bulb residents back into the same social narrative of police harassment and criminalization of homelessness which originally drove many of them to the Bulb.
We have successfully prevented the eviction from going forward since October, and we’re ready to take the fight into the new year! Come join us, and find out how you can help preserve this unique Bay Area treasure.
January 18th
————–
Artists will flock to the Bulb for a day of participatory art, live demonstrations, workshops, and art tours. Join us for an Art Festival at the Bulb from 12-5PM!
*****
The campout on Friday is part a West Coast Day of Action to fight the criminalization of homelessness, sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP). Cities in the Bay Area and around the country have passed laws making it impossible for homeless people to live within the law. It has become a crime to sit or lie down, to sleep in public, panhandle or otherwise conduct their lives in public view.
The eviction would force Bulb residents back into the same social narrative of police harassment and criminalization of homelessness which originally drove many of them to the Bulb.
We have successfully prevented the eviction from going forward since October, and we’re ready to take the fight into the new year! Come join us, and find out how you can help preserve this unique Bay Area treasure.
Garden Project Workday.
Free Pancake Potluck Breakfast.
Sign up to Plant a Fruit Tree in your Yard.
Restorative Justice Community Healing Circle.
Source: Facebook announcement.
Reclaiming Finance: How Time is Stolen and can be Taken Back
In The Thief of Time Terry Pratchett imagines time as a substance that can be moved from place to place. In his novel monks guard giant jars of time and make sure it flows just how it is supposed to. Though intended as humor Terry Pratchett’s novel mirrors the reality of banking. In the current global capitalist order central banks and large financial institutions direct the flow of time through currencies and credit in order to reserve it for governments and global conglomerates. Dante Popple, a senior at Bard College at Simon’s Rock studying Politics and Philosophy, will discuss the mechanisms by which banks and governments steal time and how they can be undone, and what a socialist form of finance might look like.
OccupyForum presents the film�
�
“Berkeley to Soweto”
The film will be followed by Q&A and discussion led by Andrea Pritchett,
one of the key people in the “Divestment Movement” to end Apartheid in South Africa.
Announcements to follow.
Join NYU Professor and activist Andrew Ross for a discussion of his new book:
Creditocracy and the Case for Debt Refusal
(He will also be speaking on the UC Campus on Tuesday.)
We are living in the cruel grip of a creditocracy—where the finance industry commandeers our elected governments and where the citizenry have to take out loans to meet their basic needs. The implications of mass indebtedness for any democracy are profound, and the historical record shows that whenever a creditor class becomes as powerful as Wall Street, the result has been debt bondage. Following in the ancient tradition of the jubilee, activists have had some success in repudiating the debts of developing countries. The time is ripe for a debtors movement to use the same kinds of moral and legal arguments to bring relief to household debtors in the North, and to create an alternative economy, independent of the debt-money system.
Hear histories and current news about one of today’s strongest grassroots social movements, the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST). The MST is a movement of 1.5 million landless women, men and children, who have forced the Brazilian government to redistribute 20 million acres of farmland in Brazil through the occupation of large unproductive land estates. This year marks the 30 year anniversary of the MST’s founding, and in February there will be a one-week gathering of over 20,000 MST activists to discuss the future of the movement. The MST has invited a delegation of 10 U.S. activists to attend the conference, including several Bay Area Activists.
Speakers include members of the U.S. delegation to the MST’s upcoming National Congress:
-Becky Tarlau, Friends of the MST organizer and PhD candidate at UC Berkeley.
-Shango Abiola, The Black Riders Liberation Party
-Effie Rawlings, Occupy the Farm
Andrew Ross just wrote a “movement book” for Strike Debt – Creditocracy. He has been super active in working against student debt and in Strike Debt NY.
We are living in the cruel grip of a creditocracy where the finance industry commandeers our elected governments and where the citizenry have to take out loans to meet their basic needs. The implications of mass indebtedness for any democracy are profound, and the historical record shows that whenever a creditor class becomes as powerful as Wall Street, the result has been debt bondage. Following in the ancient tradition of the jubilee, activists have had some success in repudiating the debts of developing countries. The time is ripe for a debtors movement to use the same kinds of moral and legal arguments to bring relief to household debtors in the North, and to create an alternative economy, independent of the debt-money system,
From the book blurbs:
In this lucid and accessible book, Andrew Ross argues that we are increasingly oppressed by the rule of credit and that ever more people must go into debt just to access life’s necessities. But Ross not only names the problem; more importantly, he points toward solutions. Read this book and join a debt resistors movement.
From his Wikipedia biography:
Andrew Ross is a professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. A writer for The New York Times, Artforum, The Nation, Newsweek and The Village Voice, he is also the author and/or editor of numerous books. Much of his writing focuses on labor, the urban environment, and the organization of work, from the Western world of business and high-technology to conditions of offshore labor in the Global South. Making use of social theory as well as ethnography, his writing questions the human and environmental cost of economic growth, has an activist, alternative globalization approach, and emphasizes principles of sustainability.
He has been active in the anti-sweatshop movement since the mid-1990s. From the late 1990s, he has turned his attention to the academic labor movement, both in the national AAUP, and at NYU as a vocal supporter of the graduate student union, and as a founding member of Faculty Democracy. In 2007, his co-edited volume, The University Against Itself, documented and analyzed the long strike at NYU in 2005 by GSOC-UAW (The Graduate Student Organizing Committee). A founder of the Gulf Labor Coalition, he has helped to organize campaigns to raise migrant labor standards in the United Arab Emirates. An early participant in Occupy Wall Street, he helped found the Occupy Student Debt Campaign and has been an integral member of the Occupy Debt Assembly and Strike Debt—a coalition formed in the summer of 2012 to help build a debtors movement. Strike Debt produced the Debt Resistors Operations Manual and organized the Rolling Jubilee.
He will also be speaking on Monday, the 20th in Oakland.
ATTENTION: The #DAC WILL NOT be on the agenda for the 1/21 #oakmtg. Admin plans to bring to Public Safety on 1/28, then to Council on 2/4.
per Dan Kalb
https://twitter.com/DanKalb/status/421360306829279232
So we won’t be holding a big demonstration on Tuesday the 21st, but a few folks will probably show up with a bit of chow for those that didn’t get the change-of-date message. If folks are interested we’ll show a movie at the Plaza at 7ish.
Please join us to tell the City Council what you think on February 4th:
http://occupyoakland.org/ai1ec_event/dont-sell-people-oakland-dept-homeland-security/?instance_id=259287
Click to download full-sized printable flyer
| Rally at Governor Brown’s State of the State California State Capitol Building |
 Food & Water Watch team at the Global Frackdown in Oakland (October 2013)
Governor Brown will be laying out his priorities at the 2014 State of the State Address on January 22. Banning fracking should be at the top of his list. Reserve a space on the Food & Water Watch bus leaving from San Francisco, Oakland and Vallejo and join us at a rally outside the State of the State to tell the Governor to Ban Fracking Now! Bus Pick Up Times & Locations:
The bus will return to each location by 1:00 p.m. **Carpools from Marin to Valejo are being arranged. If you are interested, email tlebherz(at)fwwatch(dot)org** Ticket Prices & Sponsorship
|
Sponsored by the League of Women Voters Oakland:
How does a city like Oakland respond to residents’ demands for more effective crime prevention and reduction while protecting everyone’s civil liberties? What is the Domain Awareness Center and how will it impact Oakland? How much surveillance is enough — or too much — to enhance our law enforcement capabilities?
Bring your ideas and a friend or neighbor to discuss these important issues with knowledgeable resource people and fellow Oaklanders.