Calendar
TPP 101: WHAT IS THE TPP AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE? Sign up here:
Once you sign up, you will get the number and login link to the meeting room.
Free Movie: Let the Fire Burn (2013 documentary Directed by Jason Osder) Found footage film about the May 13, 1985 bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia that killed 11 people (including 5 children) and destroyed 61 homes. Free.
- A resolution for the Peace and Justice Commission to consider recommending to the Berkeley City Council, making permanent the current one-year moratorium on BPD acquisition and use of drones, which expires this February, will be heard.
- Your presence and comment in support of this effort is welcome.
1 PM PRESS CONFERENCE in front of the building.
2 PM HEARING in Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers’ Courtroom.
(bring your ID to get into the building)
Defend Student Protesters’ Free Speech Rights! Stop the Resegregation and Privatization of UC Berkeley!
Defend the Right to Public Higher Education for All!
Fight Police Brutality! A Badge is Not a License to Brutalize and Kill!
UCB student and community protesters have a right to bring the UC Berkeley administration, UC Police, and Alameda County Sheriffs to trial for brutalizing student protesters on UC Berkeley’s campus during the Occupy Wall Street movement!
Demand Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers rule in favor of an open and public trial, not an individual judicial “summary judgement”!
DETAILS: The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) will present our case against the UC administrators, UC Berkeley Police (UCPD), and Alameda County Sheriffs Officers (ACSO) responsible for the brutal police riot on peaceful student protesters on November 9, 2011 when students at UC Berkeley tried to set up an encampment in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Students protested to oppose income inequality, to defend public education, and to restore affirmative action at UC Berkeley. To this day, the UC administration and the police are defending and justifying their attack. They want to protect their prerogative to repeat this kind of brutal censorship of student political protest when it is aimed at furthering equality and integration.
BAMN has filed a federal lawsuit (Felarca v. Birgeneau) on behalf of 21 student and community activist Plaintiffs against UC Berkeley (UCB) administrators, UCB police and Alameda County Sheriffs for police brutality, false arrests and violation of their free-speech rights. In our lawsuit against UC Berkeley administrators and police, we intend to put the former Chancellor and the top administrators responsible for the attack, together with the police officers and supervisors in charge, on the stand to have to answer, publicly and under cross-examination, for their decisions and actions that led to a police riot on peaceful protesters.
All the evidence uncovered in BAMN’s case shows that the UCB administration were completely responsible for the police violence on Nov 9, 2011 because they were afraid of the movement growing on campus that could unite with the Latina/o and black communities of Oakland and wage winning struggles for public education. The administrator defendants deemed the political speech of the student movement so hostile to the financial and political interests of the university’s private donors and corporate investors that their response to the specter of Oakland uniting with the student movement at UC Berkeley was to have riot police violently suppress and attempt to disperse the demonstration by force.
Thousands of students gathered to defend the tents that had been put up by Occupy Cal from the administration’s efforts to take them down. Videos of baton-wielding police beating students and even some professors, while the protesters held the line and refused to retreat, went viral and gained national media attention.
The UC administration authorized the use of batons against the student protest in violation of its own policies on November 9. Then UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, sanctioned the use of indiscriminate force to terrorize and disperse the second protest action on that day, even as public outrage over the earlier violence was growing. The UCB anti- Occupy policy was so fanatical that students were banned from even walking through the campus with tents,bullhorns or “signage” of which the administration disapproved. People across the country were shocked that police would brutally beat peaceful protesters at UC Berkeley, the historic site and center of the Free Speech Movement of the 1960s.
The UC Berkeley administrator defendants claim they have the exclusive and unfettered right to dictate any and all “time, place, and manner” restrictions on student political speech. To absolutely no one’s surprise, these restrictions are only ever invoked against the most progressive and popular student political speech – against the fee hikes, against privatization, against the increasing racism, sexism, and inequality at UC Berkeley and in this society.
Chancellor Birgeneau made clear that the decision to suppress Occupy on the campus and to shut down the movement was also fueled by fear of the campus being “taken over” by “outside anarchists” on to the campus. Other members of the Chancellor’s “Crisis Management Team,” in charge of formulating the policing policies for the day, referred to their fears of “intransigents” coming to the campus. The term “non-affiliates” was also used as code to describe the people and politics they were hostile to and wanted to keep barricaded off from the campus. This was understood among them as code for denying people from Oakland access to the campus. The variety of demagogy against ‘outsiders’ has never had anything to do with protecting the right of students to govern their own campus and fight for their own interests. It’s a defense of elitism, of racism, of discrimination against immigrants, and in end it’s a reflection of the administration’s fear of its own students and their potential to join and lead a national movement. UC Berkeley is the world’s premiere public university because of its history of radical student protest and the gains won and enforced by the student movement. All the hallmarks of a great university – academic freedom, social criticism, honest scientific inquiry, and a dedication to the ideals of democracy, equality and justice – were won by struggles waged on this campus and in our communities.
In contrast to the fear and pessimism of the University, the anger and optimism of the new generation of civil rights and immigrant rights leaders are already propelling our whole society in the direction of freedom and equality. The explosive and militant mass resistance in Ferguson, Baltimore, Oakland and Berkeley show that the status quo is becoming increasingly unviable and volatile. In the Bay Area, BAMN played an active, and at times, crucial leadership role in the Oakland and Berkeley marches to win justice. BAMN is building a movement that can connect our campus with the ongoing struggles of minority, progressive and oppressed people around the world. The growing inequality and polarization in the United States and across the world means no shortage of struggle in the next period of history. Whether these struggles win or lose is a question of leadership – it’s up to us and what we do. Come fill the courtroom for this court case, where the power of the people can make and shift history!
LINKS TO OUR UCPD POLICE BRUTALITY TRIBUNAL:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/
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Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
Get the word out! January 5, tell the mayor & council: Keep rents fair & low – stop the unjust evictions!! #alamtg pic.twitter.com/10RYsR4nLc
— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) December 28, 2015
Item 7.11 (On Consent)
Subject: Creation Of A Privacy Advisory Commission
From: Office Of The City Administrator
Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Establishing The Privacy Advisory Commission, Providing For The Appointment Of Members Thereof, And Defining The Duties And Functions Of Said Commission.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group invites you to come and support the creation of a first-of-its-kind privacy commission for Oakland, an outgrowth of our work opposing the Domain Awareness Center.
Tomorrow! #ReclaimSF pic.twitter.com/PMeK4rnR2O
— FireWorks (@FireWorksBAY) January 6, 2016
Kurdish Film Series in #Oakland coming up in solidarity w #Rojava first one Dec 20th 5:30pm @ 1501 Harrison St pic.twitter.com/u2CnfVpbFC
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 17, 2015
Calling all Twitter & Facebook users! We need your help!
Thursday Jan. 7, a team from the E. 12th Coalition and SAHA (our partner developer) will meet with city staff to review a People’s Proposal for E. 12th! This is a major step in our campaign, but the fight is not over. We need to keep up the pressure on city council members to support our proposal.
We are thrilled that District 5 Councilmember Noel Gallo has officially endorsed our proposal (!) and we want to lift him up as a champion and an example for other council members. Will you help by sending 3 tweets or Facebook posts TOMORROW using#SaveE12th?
What you can do:
1. THANK GALLO
Sample Tweet:
Thank you @NoelGallo5, for supporting @PeoplesProposal for 100% affordable housing on E. 12th St.! #SaveE12th
Sample Facebook:
Thank you, Councilmember Noel Gallo, for your support of A People’s Proposal for E 12th! By supporting this community generated plan you show that you care about the people of Oakland and want the greatest public good out of our city’s public land. #SaveE12th
Noel Gallo
https://www.facebook.com/noelgallodistrict5
2. PRESSURE ABEL GUILLEN
Sample Tweet:
I am asking @Abel_Guillen to support @PeoplesProposal for 100% affordable housing on E. 12th St. #SaveE12th
Sample Facebook:
Councilmember Guillen, please support A People’s Proposal for the East 12th parcel. It’s the only proposal designed with direct input from Eastlake residents and it includes more affordable housing than any other proposal on the table. As the representative for District 2 you play a special role and the community is looking to you for leadership. I am asking you to support the vision of Oakland residents by endorsing A People’s Proposal! #SaveE12th
Abel Guillen
https://www.facebook.com/AbelGuillen
3. PRESSURE CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
Sample Tweet:
I am asking @DanKalb @annieforoakland @desleyb @LynetteGM to support @PeoplesProposal for 100% affordable housing on E. 12th. #SaveE12th
Annie Campbell-Washington, District 4 @annieforoakland
Dan Kalb, District 1 @DanKalb
Desley Brooks, District 6 @desleyb
Lynette Gibson-McElhaney, District 3 @LynetteGM
Sample Facebook:
Councilmember _________, please support A People’s Proposal for the East 12th parcel. It’s the only proposal designed with direct input from Eastlake residents and it includes more affordable housing than any other proposal on the table. I am asking you to support the vision of Oakland residents by endorsing A People’s Proposal! #SaveE12th
Dan Kalb
https://www.facebook.com/DanKalb
Annie Campbell Washington
https://www.facebook.com/anniewashington
Desley Brooks
https://www.facebook.com/desleyb
Lynette Gibson McElhaney
https://www.facebook.com/lynettemcelhaney
#SaveE12th!
“Suhr & Lee: Stop Killing SF & Its Black, Brown, Disabled & Poor People -Mayor Lie Must Resign & Greg Suhr Must be fired”
Bring a car, truck if you have on to help folks who are disabled- we will drive, march, walk up to his house which is three blocks away
Statement by impacted, displaced, and po’Lice terrorized:
For Mario Woods and all crimes of displacement and police terror against our poor, Black, Brown and disabled bodies we, the most impacted, are calling for the resignations of the San Francisco Mayor and Police Chief
“As a Black activist with a disability I have seen/read in 2015 alone three high-profile cases of police brutality against Black disabled men on the streets of San Francisco including the recent killing of Mario Woods,Today in 2015 we realize that more promises of training is not the only answer, it’s time for institutional changes in the police department and on the police commission board..” said Leroy Moore, Race and Disability writer for POOR Magazine and founder of Krip Hop Nation.
In response to San Francisco Police murders of Mario Woods, a disabled, African-American resident of the Bayview Hunters Point district of San Francisco, Amilcar Lopez earlier this year and Alex Nieto last year, a group of poor, disabled, Black, Brown, homeless and poor residents, advocates and youth who have personally dealt with eviction, displacement and police terror are demanding the immediate resignation of police chief Greg Suhr and his overseer SF Mayor, Ed Lee. This latest tragedy involving a young man of color murdered by police is directly connected to Mayor Lee’s prioritization of wealthy development over people. As well, we are putting forth and demanding an urgent solution; to elect a community member to the Police Review Commission and the San Francisco Planning Commission.
…In the beginning of the year we saw Bo Frierson of the Filmore almost tipped over from his wheelchair by an officer, in August we have seen seventeen cops take down Musa Fudge, a Black homeless man with a prosthetic leg in downtown and now a deadly shooting of Mario Woods, a Black man with a history of mental health disabilities in the Bayview district. Back in 2001 the community fought for the police crisis training after the shooting of another Black man with mental health disabilities, Idriss Stelley however more than ten years later, less than half of the department has undergone the training,and the watered down version of the training and funding snatched away and the recent shooting, all points to the effectiveness of the training has always been questionable and now have been seen as a band-aide that has never been the purpose to heal it is the purpose to keep the public quiet as the institutional culture of police continues to be hidden from the community . Leroy Moore.
“As the mother of a mentally disabled young African Sun who was murdered by San Francisco police department after a 911 call for help and who was involved in training police for years, iI don’t believe training can stop the police culture of murder against black, brown and disabled people,” said Mesha Irazarry, mother of Po’Lice murder victim Idriss Stelley. She continued, “They should defund the police and give the money to mental health providers, expecting police to respond to a mental health crisis is like expecting a mortician to deliver your baby.”
“Mayor Lee and Chief Suhr have shown a lack of leadership in this crisis. The Mayor in particular has shown no leadership at all levels and his reaction to the murder indicates how out of touch he is with the community. Mayor Lee and Chief Suhr need to resign”, said Tony Robles, Board president of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation.
The brutality of San Francisco police and housing policies against San Francisco’s low-income, African-American and communities of color are so flagrant that our collaboration of very grassroots, poor and impacted people-led organizations have no choice but to come forward with this demand before we are no longer here, said Lisa “Tiny” Gray-Garcia, Poverty Scholar and co-author of this statement and author of Criminal of Poverty, Growing Up Homeless in America. She continued, “Police policies put in place by Mayor Lee’s administration have increased our homelessness, have increased our arrests and incarceration and have led to our eventual removal as poor people, as disabled people, as people of color.”
The co-authors of this statement represent the most impacted residents of San Francisco, a city with less than 3% of its African-American population left,down from over 20%, a city with a police chief who enables the extra-judicial killing of its young Black , Brown and poor residents and a City run by a Mayor who because of his investment in luxury development and displacement, makes it impossible for its Black, Brown and Low-income elders and families to remain here.
This media release is co-authored by disabled, homeless, poor, Black and Brown leaders at POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, the Idriss Stelley Foundation, Krip Hop Nation and The Manilatown Heritage Foundation and The Coalition on Homelessnes #######
link to statement:http://www.poormagazine.org/mario-woods-san-francisco-call-mayor-police-chief-resign
What really happened at the Paris Climate Talks and what does it mean now that they are over? Hear first hand from Kathy Dervin, 350 Bay Area, and other local activists.
Why does local action matter? Learn about the City of Berkeley’s progress in reaching its climate action goals and how YOU can take action now through the Transition Streets program and the Berkeley Climate Action Coalition. Bring your questions and ideas on how we’re going to transition to a lower carbon, more equitable and connected future. Please feel free to bring a snack to share around 6:30 pm (ditching plastics if you can). Film starts at 7.
For more info: info [at] transitionberkeley.com
website: http://www.transitionberkeley.com
This event is co-sponsored by Transition Berkeley, the BFUU’s Social Justice Committee, the Ecology Center and the Berkeley Climate Action Coalition
Wheelchair accessible.
Court Support for Janye
Janye’s next court date is January 8, 2016 at Wiley Manuel in Oakland at 8am in Dept 112. Please Note the 8am time (not a mistake).
The fight isn’t over. Let’s keep the pressure on the kangaroo court!
SUPPORT JANYE WALLER! – arrested in an obvious case of racial profiling, in which the cops said he “fit the description” of a crime he did not commit. A witness to the “crime” immediately confirmed that Janye had nothing to do with it, but Janye was still taken into custody where he was questioned and then leveled with serious charges related to last year’s protests in Oakland against the non-indictments for the murders of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
JANYE WALLER IS A YOUNG BLACK ACTIVIST, A LOCAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA. He lives and works in Oakland, providing financial support to his mother, his two younger brothers, and his cousin. He attended Berkeley Community College where he planned to major in Accounting, but had to take leave in order to help support his family, and he hopes to return to college soon. Janye also volunteers at a social center in West Oakland that works to empower black and indigenous people living in the Bay Area through education and mutual aid. Within this space Janye works tirelessly, helping coordinate and administer programs focusing on skills like urban farming, which foster both community and individual autonomy.
JANYE IS THE ONLY PERSON WHO IS CURRENTLY FACING SERIOUS CHARGES AFTER THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FLOODED THE STREETS DURING THE WAVE OF PROTESTS IN THE BAY AREA LAST WINTER. After several high profile police killings of young black men, the Bay Area, like much of the rest of the country, surged into a wave of protest and resistance. The state responded by using the legal system as a tool of repression, threatening incarceration and steep fines for some of those involved in these actions. It is sad but obvious that the one person getting targeted for that beautiful moment of protest is a strong and politicized young black man.
Mayor Lee has been decidedly absent as we have sought dialogue with him about Chief Suhr’s inability to run a police force. Chief Suhr has created a culture of racism and brutalization that gave those five officers permission to assassinate Mario Woods. If he will not fire Chief Suhr, who refuses to step down, then we will let him know that he can go too. If we do not get justice, he will not get peace!!! We will be at the doors of San Francisco’s City Hall for the Mayor’s Inauguration not in celebration, but in protest!
Everyone please try to wear black. The mayor may be celebrating his re-election but we will turn it into a funeral march in honor of Mario Woods
#calltoaction #justice4mariowoods #mariowoods #shutdownSF #BlackLivesMatter #firechiefsuhr pic.twitter.com/18O61d9eck
— Justice4MarioWoods (@Justice4MWNow) January 2, 2016
Middle East – Justice First, Peace at Last
- The Communist Party USA (Oakland/Berkeley) invites you to a discussion: Middle East – Justice First, Peace at Last.
- Suggested Readings:
- Communist Party of Israel, ‘Palestinian & Israeli Protesters: “The Last Day of the Occupation is the First Day of Peace”’ http://maki.org.il/en/?p=6287.
- Uri Avnery, ‘ The Reign of Absurdiocy’. http://www.politicalaffairs.net/a-powerfful-isreali-critique-of-the-concept-of-international-terrorism-and-wars-without-end-against-it-by-norman-markowitz/.
- Salam Ali, ‘The Iraqi Uprising Against Corruption And Sectarianism, http://iraqiletter.blogspot.com/
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.
In April, it was two years since we started holding these prayer meetings at the Baha’i Center. Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us. We will serve a simple breakfast.
- Despite unparalleled demonization, military threats, and sanctions the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) opens an unprecedented window into life in cities and countryside alike, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) where the Cold War lives on, and how the country took a hitherto little-known path towards socialism.
- Gloria La Riva is a lifelong social activist and organizer with the ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She visited North Korea in 1989 and 2015.
- Sharat G. Lin, PhD writes on global political economy, labor migration, and public health. He is a research fellow and former president of the San José Peace and Justice Center.
4:30 pm Program Part 1:
Issues Roundtable, Gitmo, misc. topics
6:00 pm Vegetarian Potluck Dinner
live music, Mike Rufo, Vic Sadot, Francis Collins
7:00-9:00pm Program, Part 2:
Joanna Macy: Keynote on “Active Hope”
Speakers/Facilitators
Harvey Wasserman and Jon Simon: Clean Elections and Voting Machines
Dennis Burnstein, KPFA host, poet
Donald Goldmacher, “Heist” filmmaker/producer: the new Berkeley Progressive Alliance
Linda Seeley, SLO Mothers for Peace: Shut Diablo Canyon Now!
Shahid Buttar, Bill of Rights Defense Committee/Defending Dissent Foundation: Privacy Rights, Surveillance
Cynthia Papermaster, No More Gitmos and Ann Fagan Ginger, Meiklejohn Institute: Shut Gitmo and Prosecute Torture
Anna Cecelia Blackshaw: SURJ (Standing Up for Racial Justice)
Susan Harman: Public Banking
Toby Blome, Codepink: Ending Drone Wars
George Lippmann: Berkeley Peace & Justice Commission, Police Accountability Civilize and De-militarize the police; stop police murders and brutality
John Lindsay-Poland, AFSC: Stop Urban Shield Audit the Pentagon, End U.S. Wars of Occupation and Plunder
Many activists are overwhelmed with the variety of issues needing their attention. The number of meetings, protests, and actions of various sorts are causing burnout, but worse, we are not seeing many victories and we need some victories to have hope and to keep going to make this world a just and healthy one.
This 2016 election year will be a real opportunity for change if we take advantage of the predicted huge voter turnout to turn the corporate-funded Republicans and Democrats out of office who are not protecting the environment, upholding the law, or legislating for citizens’ needs. Can we unite behind progressive candidates and elect them? We think so. We know it’s possible given the current disgust with the mainstream political parties, the gridlock in Washington, and the corruption that’s evident and literally killing us.
The hoped-for goal of the gathering will be to identify actions and strategies that are, or could, lead to victories on the local, state, national and international level.
Another goal is to cross-pollinate and enhance our limited resources by working together more, by sharing ideas, support and communication so we can better join our voices and creative actions for more clout and more effective results.
A behind the scenes look at the Emergency Room at Highland hospital in Oakland.
Please come support Nailah, a comrade who was part of last year’s uprisings and is having charges filed against her in the last days before her statute of limitations is up
- AND FREE QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR ALL :
- The Oasis Clinic in Oakland, CA, which treats patients with Hepatitis-C (HCV), is calling for a demonstration to protest the outrageous price-gouging of Big Pharma corporations, like Gilead Sciences, which hike-up the cost for essential, life-saving medications such as the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, in order to reap huge profits. The Oasis Clinic’s demand is:
- PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal urges you to support this demonstration! As many as 700,000 prisoners are among the nearly 5.2 million Americans infected with HCV, according to the Center for Disease Control, and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is among them.
- MOBILIZE AT THE JP MORGAN HEALTH CARE CONFERENCE.
- This JP Morgan investor conference is an invitation-only event which entices corporate CEOs, CFOs, investors and other opportunist big-wigs to slurp up the profits that can be made from gouging the victims of life-threatening diseases such as Hepatitis-C. This includes Gilead Sciences, the “owner” of Harvoni, which is the effective new cure for HCV.
- One pill a day for 12 weeks does the trick with a 95 percent cure rate, but Gilead charges $1,000 per pill, or nearly $100,000 for a full course of treatment!!
- Prisoners are among the most likely to contract Hep-C, and among the least likely to receive the newly available cure for the disease, due to both the exaggerated price, and the refusal of prison administrations to provide proper health care to inmates!
- Mumia Abu-Jamal was infected in 1981, after he was shot by police and treated as a prisoner for his wounds. Falsely convicted for killing a cop and sent to death row (he’s now serving life without the possibility of parole), Mumia’s infection began to show symptoms in 2015, which is typical for this slow-incubating but usually fatal (if untreated) disease. Mass mobilization by supporters is the only reason Mumia got any medical attention at all, and he is still denied the curative Harvoni treatment which alone can ensure his survival! The PA prison system is trying to kill Mumia by medical neglect!
- In violation of National Institute of Health (NIH) regulations, Gilead canceled its program to supply a certain amount of the drug at low cost. And the New York Times reported that in “a complicated deal to sell hepatitis drugs at a small fraction of their usual cost while imposing tight restrictions intended to protect lucrative markets in the West… for the past year, Gilead has sold the drug to the Egyptian government for about $10 a pill.”
- Mumia Abu-Jamal, though he suffered near death for lack of treatment last year, is the first one to point out that he is only one of many. He supports the demands for treatment of some 10,000 prisoners in Pennsylvania alone who suffer from HCV infection.
- In a recent federal appeal, lawyers fighting for treatment of Mumia brought out evidence in court of a secret PA Department of Corrections (DOC) protocol which explicitly provides for observation, but not treatment, of HCV infected prisoners!
- WE DEMAND:
- PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!
- IMMEDIATE AND FREE TREATMENT FOR ALL HCV-INFECTED PRISONERS!
- NO EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!
- JAIL DRUG PROFITEERS, FREE MUMIA!
- This message from:
- Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
- PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610