Calendar

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Feb
17
Fri
Black History Month Film Series @ Oakland City Hall, City Council Chambers
Feb 17 @ 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Free. Each documentary will begin promptly at 5:30 PM, discussion afterwards.  Food provided.

Feb 3 – John Henrik Clarke – A Great and Mighty Walk

Feb 10 – The House I Live In

Feb 17 – The Night Tulsa Burned

Feb 24th – 13th

 

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Constitutional Law Teach-in @ Internet Archive
Feb 17 @ 5:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Constitutional Law Teach-in at the Internet Archive with EFF and Others

EFF and other lawyers will lead a conversation about the current issues and threats in constitutional law. Focusing on specific sections and amendments we will talk about current cases on censorship, surveillance, search and seizure, and more.

Workshops on using encryption tools and maybe musical performances will accompany.
If you want to present, perform, or have other ideas, please email us.

Potluck-style: Please bring apple pie or other food
Reserve your free ticket here
Streamed via Facebook Live
Donations welcome

Lawyers Attending:

  • Cindy Cohn – Executive Director of EFF
  • Corynne McSherry – Legal Director of EFF
  • Victoria Baranetsky – First Look Media Technology Legal Fellow for the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press
  • Geoff King – Lecturer at UC Berkeley, and Non-Residential Fellow at Stanford Center for Internet and Society
  • Bill Fernholz – Lecturer In Residence at Berkeley Law

For those who cannot attend in person, we will stream the event on Facebook Live, so make sure you’re following us on Facebook.

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Mass Copwatching! – Berkeley @ Grassroots House
Feb 17 @ 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Join Berkeley Copwatch for a mass copwatching shift. We’ll be out in the streets witnessing and documenting police activity and doing outreach. No experience is required; we’ll train you in the essentials for documenting police activity and staying safe in the process. FOOD AND DRINK WILL BE PROVIDED DURING OUR DEBRIEF AT THE END OF THE SHIFT.

DETAILS

* If you are able to bring a car and be a shift driver, that would be GREAT!

* Dress prepared for being outdoors.

* Depending on how many cars are available, some of us may be walking or driving. The Grassroots House where we meet has a ramp. We want to be as accessible as possible, so please reach out if you would like to discuss accessibility in more detail.

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Feb
18
Sat
Sanctuary Education @ Islamic Cultural Center
Feb 18 @ 10:00 am – 2:30 pm

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Human Billboard: Black Lives Matter! No Trump Agenda in Oakland! @ Grand Lake Farmers Market
Feb 18 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

SURJ invites you to show up for the Movement for Black Lives and other communities targeted by Trump. Please join us in holding signs and banners to call attention to brutality by police on unarmed Black men and women, and demonstrate solidarity to all those being attacked by the White House agenda. Let’s make our empathy and support for Black and other people of color visible and public. Rain or shine!

Meet under the awning of the Grand Lake Theater of Lakeshore and MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland.

Throughout the East Bay and nationally, folks have been holding weekly gatherings on prominent street corners and freeway overpasses, holding signs and making visible our support for Black communities in these critical times. These gatherings – or “human billboards” – have been a simple yet effective way of channeling anger and sadness over injustice into collective action and solidarity.

For those of us who are white, it’s a way to stand up as a powerful white voice that opposes Trump and the white nationalist politics he represents, to commit to ending white silence and visibly supporting racial justice.
For all of us, it’s a concrete way to put our heart and soul into action – to show those we support that we stand with them and strongly oppose the Trump agenda. It’s a way to be in community with each other, to share with like-minded people a belief that a loving, humane, compassionate world is possible, and to take a small step towards making that happen.
Bring a sign with the following messaging:
Will you show up for racial justice?
No Deportations! No Border Walls!
End displacement of Black and Brown communities!
Solidarity with Undocumented Migrants!
Solidarity with Q.T.P.O.C!
We Support Our Muslim Neighbors!
Black Lives Matter!
No Deportations! No Walls!
Will you fight against Islamophobia?

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Join the Fight Against Islamophobia @ Lake Merritt, near Grand Lake Theater
Feb 18 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Are you concerned about bullying & harassment of our Muslim neighbors? Plus Anti-Muslim/anti-immigrant edicts from the new Administration? Come canvas neighborhood shops (in pairs), ask them to post signs: “We Stand With Our Muslim, Arab and Immigrant Neighbors”

Everyone welcome, rain or shine.

Hosted by Jewish Voice for Peace. Participating Organizations: Kehilla Community Synagogue, SURJ, Oakland Neighbors Inspiring Trust, Wellstone Democratic Club and more!

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Strike Debt Bay Area: Debt Resistance is NOT Futile! @ Paris Baguette
Feb 18 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

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.

Come get connected with SDBA’s projects!
  • organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now we have to keep the momentum going! We organized the forum for Public Banking in Oakland on February 9th.
  • Tiny Homes for the homeless.
  • Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
  • money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
  • helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
  • student debt resistance
  • Promoting the concept of Basic Income
  • Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
  • advocating for Postal banking
  • Presenting debt-related topics at forums and workshops
  • Bring your own debt-related project!

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 .

 Also check out our website, our twitter feed, our radio segments and our Facebook page. Take a look at our Public Banking website, Friends of the Public Bank of Oakland.
Strike Debt Bay Area is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and Strike Debt, itself an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.

Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity

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.

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Feb
19
Sun
Honduras & Colombia: Models of US Control; violence, poverty and displacement @ Niebyl Proctor Library
Feb 19 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Honduras and Colombia are centers for US Control in Latin America which has been in
process over many years. The Colombian elite has welcomed Plan Colombia, extensive military
training and 7 US military bases in exchange for “stability”, class security, money, business
interests and help opposing the mass anti-government movements over the years. The US has
centers for intelligence gathering, a new “School of the Americas”, bases with great military
capacity, ready to invade any anti-US country, such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba and Bolivia.
The US is not supporting the Peace Process in Colombia which is being attacked by US created
paramilitary armies, Gaintanistas and Urabeños. This is not to mention the many US mining and
business. Many peasant and popular leaders are being assassinated at this very moment. We
need to build opposition to the US wars around the world, be it in the Middle East, Latin
America or at home.

In Honduras, the “Alliance for Prosperity”, modeled after Plan Colombia, increases
militarization and privatization, and is responsible for increased displacement, and corruption,
violence, and repression.

The Presentation is sponsored by Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition (BALASC)
and The Task Force on the Americas.

Alice Loaiza: Lived in Colombia for many years and works with Marcha Patriotica. Also
worked with CONAP, Coordinacion Nacional de Organizaciones Agrarias y Populares and also
in international accompaniment. She has lived and worked in many parts of the country. In the
Bay Area Alice works with BALASC and The Task Force on the Americas.

Diana Bohn: Visited Honduras for third time in December, 2016, as a member of the Root
Causes of Migration Pilgrimage, which visited groups affected by the policies of the Alliance for
Prosperity, government corruption, and violence. Diana is a Task Force on the Americas Board
member and Member of BALASC.

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Sunflower Alliance General Assembly @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Feb 19 @ 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm

 Jan Kirsch of The Climate Mobilization will fill us in on climate-related politics in Sacramento this year. Plus updates on our campaigns. We need your participation and your voice.

Climate change is an emergency; it’s time to treat it like one. Although our task seems even more daunting with the new administration, we are seeing more awareness and action than we have witnessed in decades. That is the silver lining to the orange cloud. This Sunflower Alliance General Assembly features a presentation by Dr. Janice Kirsch on learning how to be a “first responder” to the climate crisis, the greatest public health threat humankind has ever faced.

Kirsch is a physician who is also trained in public health, as well as occupational and environmental medicine. She is the SF Bay Area Chapter leader of The Climate Mobilization and serves on the Steering Committee of 350 Bay Area.

12:30 PM potluck lunch

1 – 3 PM meeting

 

 

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Shadow Puppet Show to benefit First They Came for the Homeless @ The Long Haul
Feb 19 @ 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm

JOIN US to create magical shadow scenes in support of First They Come for the Homeless! Using donated tents, LED flashlights, and simple cut out shapes, we will create messages of love or inspiring scenes to promote awareness of homelessness in Berkeley. These tents will be donated to the homeless, and our shadow messages will be publicly on display on the streets of Berkeley. Now more than ever we must come together to show support and love for all.

Snacks provided

 

Image may contain: night and outdoor

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Alternatives to Calling the Police – Training @ Shelton Hall, Oakland Peace Center
Feb 19 @ 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Featuring the poor, unhoused, disabled, Black, Brown, indigenous, elder and youth leaders, artists, cultural workers of POOR Magazine who have practiced this concept for 20 years through their own collective traumas.

This workshop will include an ongoing teaching of poor peoples/traumatized peoples accountability, how to redefine a western white supremacist notion of security, and how to hold each other through trauma into a true definition of inter-dependent safety.

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Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
Feb 19 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall.  If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph.  If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  (In prior years we have agreed to meet at 4:00 PM during summer hours, that is, once Daylight Savings Time goes back into effect).

On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

ooGAOO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five 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

  1. Welcome & Introductions
  2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
  3. Announcements
  4. (Optional) Discussion Topic

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

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Community Democracy Project @ Omni Commons Basement
Feb 19 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

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!

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Feb
20
Mon
Tax the Rich Rally and Singalong – Occupella @ In front of Chase Bank
Feb 20 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Sing for an hour with the Tax the Rich crew.

Event is cancelled if it is raining.

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Who’s Got the Power? @ The Women's Building--Room A
Feb 20 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Who’s Got the Power?
A Workshop for Organizers on Analyzing the Balance of Forces

Facilitated by Rebecca Gordon of University of San Francisco Department of Philosophy, a co-founder of the War Times/Tiempo de Guerras collective, and author of Mainstreaming Torture: Ethical Approaches in the Post-9/11 United States (Oxford University Press) and American Nuremberg: The U.S. Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes (Skyhorse Publishing).

Join Center for Political Education for a workshop offering a methodology for analyzing the relationship between forces of repression – social, economic, political – and those in resistance to them. Strengthening our practice of this type of analysis at local, national, and international scales helps us understand the levers of power and who controls them as well as potential areas of vulnerability through which we may take action to shift power.

For more information contact Center for Political Education.

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Feb
21
Tue
Not my Sheriff! Not my President! No more Deportations! @ Oakland Federal Courthouse
Feb 21 @ 11:30 am – 2:00 pm

Image may contain: textBay Area organizations demand:
Alameda County Sheriff Ahern’s rescind his policy to participate in mass deportations! Sheriff Ahern is not align with the community and the rest of Alameda County elected officials who have already stand on the side of the community to reject ICE entanglement and affirm Due Process for all regardless of immigration status!


We call on Sherriff Ahern to cease and reject any further entanglement with ICE and mass deportations! Ahern must comply with community demand to not participate in Trumps Policing and Militarization state. His anti-immigrant and racist policies have no place in our County!#AhernNOTmySheriff #Trumpnotmypresident.

We are also rallying in support of the California Values Act to protect all Californians by ensuring that state and local resources are not used for mass deportations or separation of families.

We will march from the Oakland Federal building plaza to Sheriff Ahern’s office!

 

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Feb
22
Wed
Health Care for All Californians Rally – Sacramento @ North Grounds of the Capitol
Feb 22 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

It’s time for guaranteed healthcare for all Californians!

Join us in Sacramento to step up the campaign for a Healthy California – where healthcare is guaranteed for everyone in our state.

What California needs:

-Universal coverage
-No deductibles, co-pays
-Real patient choice
-Comprehensive benefits

With the future of healthcare in California and the U.S. at stake, now is the time to act

Hope to see you there!

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East Bay DSA at Cal: Community Meetup
Feb 22 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

The entrance to the building is down a corridor that runs between Addison and Center St – we’ll be meeting on the 6th floor in the UAW offices.

Hear from East Bay DSA members who study and work at Cal about what DSA is, what our East Bay chapter is working on, and what we’re involved in at Cal – and hope to be in the future!

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What Is Fascism? Is It Here, Now? @ Workers World
Feb 22 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Does the Trump presidency mean fascism is here, now? Let’s talk about what is fascism. We’ll start with a couple of short presentations, then open up for discussion, including how do we fight back?
We will have light refreshments. The space is wheelchair accessible.

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RICHARD WOLFF: An Evening of Lucid Economics and Caustic Wit @ First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
Feb 22 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

KPFA Radio 94.1FM & Democracy at Work present

RICHARD WOLFF
“An Evening of Lucid Economics and Caustic Wit”
Hosted by Anita Johnson

Richard Wolff, an American Marxist economist, well known for his work in economic methodology and class analysis, has rapidly become famous as well for his Pacifica Network Radio program, Economic Update, which is syndicated on over 60 stations. Additionally, Professor Wolff has made appearances on various television shows, radio shows and films including: Real Time with Bill Maher, The Young Turks, Moyers & Company, Charlie Rose, Al Jazeera America, The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, Charlie Rose, CrossTalk, The David Pakman Show, Democracy Now! The Empire Files, Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, and The Real News Network (TRNN).

We have the enormously ominous prospect of President Donald Trump – just as the U.S. is sinking ever deeper into hard times for the vast majority of its population. More economic downturns are coming. Capitalism’s instability, inequalities, and failures to meet our needs are provoking rising opposition. Considering the increasing problems of drought, poverty, debts, job conditions, and a worsening environment, the American dream is now entirely out of reach. Our political leaders are controlled by corporate giants and lobbies that defy anything like democracy. And President Trump.

In 1988 Wolff co-founded the journal Rethinking Marxism. Later he published Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What To Do About It, This was followed by Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism (with David Barsamian), and Democracy at Work. The New York Times Magazine has named him “America’s most prominent Marxist economist.”

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