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Jill Ravitch is the District Attorney for Sonoma County, where Andy Lopez was murdered by Deputy Gelhaus. Gelhaus has not yet been indicted for his crime.
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We will protest at a Campaign fundraiser for District Attorney Ravitch’s re-election. Here we will make our presence known!
We will not stand by while Ravitch refuses to do her job. She must uphold her sworn oath to uphold the law. She must do right by her community by fulfilling her sacred duty to protect and serve the citizens of Sonoma County. She must arrest Gelhaus immediately!
There will be another event, Light Up the Night for Andy Lopez, at 8:00 PM.
This is a march scheduled to take place on the 3rd of December, starting at 8:00pm. We will rally at The old court house square, and march up Santa Rosa to the Sheriffs dept. (unless people within the group “action for andy lopez” would like to start at a different location. This is Your march. This is Andy’s march so all input is welcome.. This is intended to be a peaceful action, but also an action to let the city of Santa Rosa, as well as the Sonoma County Sheriff that we will not let up, and that we will be heard. December 3rd should be a historic day in Santa Rosa.
There is also an earlier event “No arrest=No Elect” taking place at 4:30pm. This is a protest that will be held at the location of the District Attorney’s fund raiser, which she is having to raise money for a re-election campaign. Most of us will be attending this action, and then follow it up with “light up the night for Andy Lopez.
There are several reasons we are calling for a march in the dark. 1) This will cause the same police who are killing us, to spend the same money they purchase weapons and bullets to kill us with, on observing our march. 2) The 2nd reason we are calling for a march in the dark is because we are living in DARK DARK times. We live in a world, where a thug with a piece of tin on his blue shirt, can murder a 13 year old boy in cold blood, yet suffer no consequence. Because of this darkness in which we will endure, we will march in the dark……
Deputy Gelhaus may think that he killed Andy Lopez…… but he did not. Andy lives on now and forever in all of us who have been touched by this tragedy. Andy’s light will not go out, and we will be his light,3) The fear factor of this gang called the police, needs to be removed from the youth EVERYWHERE . This will help build these kids up, just as all previous and future actions that they take part in will. on December the 3rd….. We suggest all participants where black. This is not only as a symbol of mourning, but also a show of unity. We will be one on this night. To Andy’s Friends, schoolmates, peers, etc…. Ride your bikes, skate boards, scooters, or walk. Just be there. If you have a flashlight bring it. Bring pots, pans, bullhorns, or anything else to make yourself heard. Together we will bring light to the darkness in the Name of Andy Lopez.
Please mark your calendar to join Communities for a Better Environment, the Sunflower Alliance, the Richmond Environmental Justice Coalition, Idle No More, 350BayArea, Occupy, and many others for a rally at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board Meeting. We will rally at 9:00 a.m. and then go inside for the Board meeting at 9:45 a.m.
What is at Stake?
The Board will receive a report, that we have requested, to address the linkages of all of the Bay Area proposed Crude by Rail/Refinery Projects. We believe staff will try and downplay the connections and deny the Oil Industry has a Master Plan for the Bay Area Refinery Corridor.
Staff has been caving into the Oil Industry on the Regional Green House Gas Emissions Rule. It is imperative we let the Board members know the community is deeply engaged in these issues.
We need to show support to our allies on the Board who want to see Bay Area Green House Gas Emissions reduced substantially.
How Can You Help?
Contact me, Andrés Soto (andres@cbecal.org, or at 510.282.5363) and let me know if you would like to help plan the rally. This should be a relatively simple affair.
Pass the word to your friends, family and allies who are concerned about Climate Change and have them join us and/or join in the planning. I will schedule a planning meeting as soon as I hear from a critical mass of folks. It would be great to have our signs and banners for this one as well as a solid media strategy.
A delegation of us from Richmond will arrive by BART. We will meet at Richmond BART at 8:00 a.m. to catch the train and get off at the Civic Center BART Station.
Hearing starting at 9am, rally at 1pm, lobby visits in the afternoon.
On December 4th, Sheriffs throughout the state will be begging the Board of State and Community Corrections for millions of dollars to build more cages for our children. Come to Sacramento and help us show that communities across the state are united: No New Jails!
Over 33 of California’s 58 counties have plans to build new jails. While some of them claim to be reformers, we know we won’t be able to pass sentencing reform or bring our loved ones home unless we stop building cages. These projects put our counties in fiscal jeopardy, and steal resources from the life-affirming programs and services that get people out of jail and keep them out.
What happens December 4th will determine whether counties build new jails or reduce their jail populations.
But, as usual, what they aren’t counting on is us. We’re going to pack the hearing room with as many activists as we can possibly mobilize.
LowPayIsNotOkay website (find an event).
Against all odds, Fast Food Workers are organizing. In one lunch hour, you could create a tipping point for their campaign.
A whopping 52% of fast-food employees’ families are forced to rely on public assistance to put food on the table or see a doctor. That means American taxpayers are putting about $7 billion a year into fast food corporate profits. Workers are taking an enormous risk — for all of us. They’re asking us to give just one lunch hour to show solidarity and help spread their movement to new cities. Search for a rally near you and sign up to attend or to help organize.
The Berkeley Community Heeds the Call for a Grand Alliance to Defend America’s Right to a Vibrant Public Postal Service!
John Postal Workers, Berkeley Post Office Defenders, Strike Debt Bay Area, the Green Party and others interested in protecting our hard earned public resources from the profit pirates of privatization. We are gathering to discuss the next steps in this ongoing campaign and ask you to come help us formulate solutions to save our commons, in particular the Berkeley Post Office which is on the auction block.
Come learn more about our legislative, judicial and direct action tactics. Discuss how to bring democratic pressure to bear on Berkeley’s elected officials to pass a zoning overlay which would impact the ability of the Post Office to sell the downtown property. Learn more about the toxic strategy of the privateers who hope to sell off the entire Postal Service. Contribute your energy and ideas.
Statement by APWU President Mark Dimondstein.
December is Alan’s birthday month & it’s the holiday season of giving, so in that spirit, this month’s 1st Friday at the Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice is dedicated to the food & toy donation drive. Dec 6th will only be the 1st day the donation drive, after that, we will be collecting donations from M-F noon-6pm at ABC4J which is located at 2434 Telegraph Ave; the donations can be toys and non-perishable food items which will be donated to the Mary Ann Wright Foundation which carries on the work of Mother Wright.
As a special holiday bonus, FRESH JUICE PARTY will be playing inside ABC4J for Dec’s 1st Friday!!!
Please help us spread the word about The Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice Holiday Donation Drive!
Join Oakland Privacy Group peeps as we pass out literature, show a slide show, perhaps have mock-up surveillance units and discuss our opposition to the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s implementation of ‘1984’ on steroids.
Join us also for our next meeting at the Sudo Room on December 11th.
Hear John Parker, Workers World Party National Committee and International Action Center West Coast Coordinator, lead a class on Lenin, Self-Determination and The National Question. There will be lots of opportunity for discussion and questions.
Short documentary screening: “The Battle for Oscar Grant Plaza” by Jacob Crawford and co-produced by Dave Id, Indybay.org. The documentary shows how the City of Oakland and its Police tried to shut down the budding “Occupy Wall Street” movement, turning downtown Oakland into a teargas filled war zone and injuring numerous people. Police video obtained in discovery in the National Lawyers Guild’s successful lawsuit and interviews with activists and journalists about their experiences, tell the real story of the disastrous Fall 2011 police actions that pushed the troubled OPD to the brink of federal receivership.
Documentary (in it’s current state) is 25 minutes and will start around 3:15. Expect light refreshments and intellectual discourse! We’re interested in sparking conversation around police accountability in the Oakland area and beyond. If you have any interest in direct involvement with OPD accountability (especially if you are a coder!), you won’t want to miss this!
The producers and some plaintiffs (including Scott Olsen) will be present to answer any questions.
Jacob Crawford is a long time Copwatcher based out of the Bay Area in California. He joined Berkeley Copwatch in 2000 and produced the first ever “in the streets” non-dramatized know your rights video “These Streets Are Watching”. He currently is running WeCopwatch.org with other Copwatchers and has been a contributor for CopBlock.org for several years.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!! Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue on all sides of these critically important issues!
Americans don’t have a health care system, they have a free enterprise system beholden to corporate executives, shareholders and investors from the industries that benefit the most from high costs. While pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and medical product companies profit, taxpayers are getting squeezed at an accelerating rate. Our market-based, profit-driven health care system in the United States has put necessary care increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary Americans. Primary health care, the fundamental foundation of all high-performing health care systems in the world, is a critical but ignored casualty of the current system. Unfortunately, primary care is often poorly understood, even within the health professions.
Don Bechler, chair of Single Payer Now (who has worked for twenty years to pass Single Payer), will describe what has become a crisis in primary care, define its central role, analyze the reasons for its decline, and assess its impacts on patients and families. He will also show the film, “The Health Care Movie” about the Canadian Health Care System. Bechler will present a constructive approach to rebuild and transform U.S. primary care with the urgent goal to address the nation’s problems of access, cost, quality and equity of health care for all Americans.
Don Bechler is on the executive committee of the national grassroots single payer organization, Healthcare Now.
He has lead speakers training for over 1400 health care activists, and also been an officer of various UAW and the IAM unions.
David Coombs, attorney for American prisoner of conscience US Army Pvt. Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, will speak at three upcoming West Coast events hosted by the Private Manning Support Network. Mr. Coombs continues to represent the heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower recently sentenced to 35-years in military prison.
Monday, Dec. 9 at 6:30pm — Oakland CA
Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, Oakland CA 94612
Event will include Q&A with Mr. Coombs, and a fund pitch by the Support Network to benefit Pvt. Manning’s ongoing defense efforts, including pending legal appeals.
Oakland event is presented by Courage to Resist, with the support of the Bay Area Military Law Panel, Veterans for Peace-SF, War Resisters League-West, Project Censored and the Media Freedom Foundation, SF Women in Black, World Can’t Wait-SF Bay, CodePink Women for Peace-East Bay & Golden Gate, OccupySF Action Council & Environmental Justice Working Group, OccupyForum, SF LGBT Pride Celebration Committee, Queer Strike, National Lawyers Guild-SF, and the Civilian-Soldier Alliance. Wheelchair accessible. For more info, contact: Courage to Resist, 510-488-3559.
A continuing discussion on the state of our city.
Presented by the Oakland Branch of the International Socialist Organization.
At this meeting we’ll discuss how our side has begun to fight back, the challenges of activism in Oakland, and the possibilities for people to create an alternative Oakland build around our own needs and desires.
Evictions and destruction of people’s belonging began yesterday, December 9th.
This meetup announced via a tweet by ShareTheBulb yesterday (Monday) afternoon.
In 2005, Casino San Pablo promised to provide good jobs with good benefits. The Casino made $200 million a year in 2011-2012 – but its workers have had a wage freeze for 4 years, and more and more of them are working part time with no benefits!
Casino San Pay-LOW has BROKEN ITS PROMISES!
Come present the Casino with the WORST BOSS OF THE YEAR award – and a stocking of coal!
BBQ AND EATS – SPEAKOUT – RALLY – MARCH
“Join us as we record video messages of solidarity for Nisah, her family, and her community.”
Childcare provided.
HERE WE GO AGAIN, EVERYTIME WE TURN AROUND NOW ITS ONE BLACK LIFE AFTER ANOTHER ASSASSINATED, JUSTIFIED, AND SWEPT UNDER A RUG, WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR RENISHAS KILLER AS WELL AS ALL PEOPLE KILLED UNJUSTLY BY SO CALLED PROPERTY DEFENDERS AND WANNA BE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS. WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHY THEY DIDNT GET A POLICE CALL UNTIL HRS LATER, THEN FOUND HER BODY. WE SAY NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!!!
WE IN OAKLAND KNOW FAR TO WELL THE INJUSTICES OF MUREDRS THAT GET SWEPT UP UNDER THE RUG. THIS SYTEM LIES AND PROTECT EACH OTHER AGAINST MURDER ALL DAY IN THIS COUNTRY. WE IN OAKLAND KNOW THAT INJUSTICE IS A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC.
ALL FAMILIES AND SUPPORTERS OF MURDERED VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE ARE ENCOURAGED TO COME OUT AND SPEAK. BRING BANNERS, POSTERS, SIGNS WHATEVER YOU LIKE.
IN SOLIDARITY WITH DETROIT, WE WILL HAVE A SPEAKOUT, MARCH, AND RALLY THROUGH THE STREETS OF EAST OAKLAND TO EXPOSE AND BRING AWARENESS TO THIS GLOBAL EPIDEMIC DUE TO THE FACT THAT OUR COMMUNITIES ARE SUFFERING FROM LOSS OF LIFE SO MUCH THAT SOME OF US HAVE GOTTEN IMMUNED TO DEATH.
THERE WILL BE A POSTER AND BANNER MAKING EVENTAND ALSO SCREENPRINTING RENISHA MCBRIDE TSHIRTS, PLEASE BRING WHITE TSHIRTS IF YOU CAN, JUST TO MAKE SURE OTHERS CAN HAVE ONE TOO!! DATE DEC 7TH
**** WE WOULD ALSO LIKE TO MAKE A VIDEO OF THE RALLY AND MARCH TO SEND TO RENISHA FAMILY MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS.
WE WILL ALSO BE HAVING ONE ON ONE INTERVIEWS FOR FOLKS WHO WANT TO SEND THEIR OWN PERSONAL MESSAGES OF LOVE, SOLIDARITY,AND SUPPORT.
CHILDCARE PROVIDED!!!!! PLEASE BRING KIDS, KID-FRIENDLY!!!
PLEASE COME OUT TO SHOW RENISHAS FAMILY SOME LOVE AND SUPPORT.
AN INJURY TO ONE IS A INJURY TO ALL
Worker Solidarity!
Union Garden Work Party
with UNITE HERE 2850, Planting Justice, and MG!
at the Home of Isidoro Saravia-Ramos
Isidoro singing a song of struggle on the land we’ll be cultivating!
Join UNITE HERE 2850, Planting Justice, and Movement Generation in planting a “Union Garden” at the home of UNITE HERE 2850 member and Casino San Pablo dishwasher, Isidoro Saravia-Ramos.
Despite the fact that the Casino brings in over $200 million in revenue, the average Casino worker only earns $9.60/hour and hasn’t received a raise in 4 years. Workers are forced to work in a smoke-filled environment and most don’t receive health insurance. While workers continue their struggle for fairness inside the casino, workers and neighbors are joining together to build community and reclaim our own health and labor.
In inviting folks to his home to plant a garden, Isidoro said: “I am very excited to build a garden with my fellow unions members, my family, and my community. By working together on the land, we will harvest justice.”
Bring work clothes, sturdy shoes, a water bottle, and any food you want to share (to supplement the carne asada / BBQ we’ll do for lunch).
Please RSVP to gavin@plantingjustice.org.
WHAT’S THIS ALL ABOUT? DON’T KNOW WHO KALI IS? Here’s the not-so-short version:
Monday will mark another year since a beloved part of our community was ripped away from us and locked up behind bars…because he dared to love and fight for a better life and something bigger than himself.
WHY WAS HE ARRESTED? As absurd as it sounds even now, he was initially taken into custody for sitting on a public bench with a blanket. But we know the real reason they brutalized him and locked him away for 3 more years (nearly giving him a life-sentence!) was for being a bold, beautiful, black man they want so badly to break.
He was one of many arrested during the post-camp Occupy Oakland Vigil but unlike most of us who have since been released or served out our time, he is currently serving out a 3+ year sentence in state prison.
My hope is that you will join me in sending him some mad love and letting him know he is not forgotten.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Come out on Sunday to be part of the group photo and/or sign the card we’ll send him. Write him a letter of your own. Put some money on his books. Let him know he is loved and will not be forgotten!!!
The Long Haul Infoshop will be showing the documentary ‘Soweto to Berkeley’ this week, and is welcoming anti-Apartheid activists to speak.
From Soweto to Berkeley
Documentary (1987), 50 min, dir. Scott Wiseman
“Soweto to Berkeley” explores the student protests and debates at UC Berkeley in the 1980s which led to the Board of Regents decision to withdraw $3.1 billion in funds from companies doing business in South Africa. With the students’ tactics including occupations and direct actions, their organizing efforts, and their successes and failures, still resonate today.
Discussion to follow. Folks who were involved in the anti-apartheid movement in the 1980s are invited to attend and speak about their experiences.
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
The Spirit of CODEPINK: More than Marches!
with Nancy Mancias and Inder Comar
On April 3, 2014, the class action lawsuit targeting six key members of the Bush Administration will come before the United States District Court in San Francisco. Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother of four, is the lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit. George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz are the six key members mentioned in the lawsuit and all will be represented by the Department of Justice. In Saleh v. Bush, Saleh alleges that the Iraq War was not conducted in self-defense, did not have the appropriate authorization by the United Nations, and therefore constituted a crime of aggression under international law — a designation first set down in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The aim of the suit is simple:
to achieve justice for Iraqis, and to show that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law.
Nancy Mancias is a campaign organizer for CODEPINK. Mancias is a contributing writer to Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution. Beautiful Trouble brings together ten grassroots groups and dozens of seasoned artists and activists from around the world to distill their best practices into a toolbox for creative action. Among the groups included are Agit-Pop/The Other 98%, The Yes Men/Yes Labs, CODEPINK, SmartMeme, The Ruckus Society, Beyond the Choir, The Center for Artistic Activism, Waging Nonviolence, Alliance of Community Trainers and Nonviolence International. Mancias be talking about creative tactics taken from the book.
Attorney Inder Comar will join Nancy to discuss the class action lawsuit to hold Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and Wolfwotiz accountable for the illegal invasion & occupation of Iraq. CODEPINK’S creativity and strength demonstrates what has become increasingly clear: we need more than marches to successfully address the enormous problems facing our society and our democracy.
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.