Calendar
We need your support on March 17 to show the mayor and OPD what’s right for Oakland.
Join us for the LAST MEETING of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force!
On the table are some of the most forward-thinking proposals in the country. Thanks to our organizing, the Task Force advisory boards have proposed a set of bold, smart, transformative recommendations that will completely reimagine public safety in the Town. These proposals are overwhelmingly popular across Oakland’s communities.
But opponents aligned with the Mayor and OPD are fighting tooth and nail to thwart the people’s will, even engaging in a series of coordinated attacks against APTP and other BIPOC-led organizations in our Defund Police Coalition.
We are on the cusp of victory for our communities and we need YOUR SOLIDARITY! Join us.
Where: bit.ly/reimaginefinalmtg
Typically we have our monthly general meetings on the third Wednesday of every month, but we need a groundswell of community members to make SO MUCH NOISE at this final Task Force meeting that we drown out those who have forgotten or rejected the mandate of the Task Force: to defund OPD by 50% and invest in community services that actually keep us safe.
Please urge the Task Force to adopt the recommendations from our Defund Coalition Report. Add a personal touch to your comments when possible, as unique comments tend to have a greater impact.
RSVP
Together, we forced the city to create this Task Force last summer to chart a course towards defunding OPD by 50% and refunding our communities. We hit the streets by the THOUSANDS. We gave HUNDREDS OF HOURS of public comment. Now we need EVERYONE to show out and push the Task Force over the finish line. Join us to DEMAND that the final recommendations they send on to City Council are as strong as possible. We will accept nothing less.
le like you.
In 2020, access to public information became even more challenging. Government at all levels cited the pandemic for refusing to respond to records requests. Yet news organizations across the country published essential accountability journalism, breaking through barriers to open government. Hear from journalists from The Advocate, The Brown Institute, plus a First Amendment Coalition attorney, on how they navigated barriers to public records to tell important stories about COVID-19, official misconduct and beyond.
JOIN US FOR THE AB 1177 ADVOCATES’ BRIEFING. Join us for a briefing call and learn more about this crucial new bill to help close the racial financial access gap.
Advocates’ briefing invite and Zoom registration link.
Nearly 1 in 4 Californians are unbanked or underbanked – they either do not have a baank account, or despite having a bank account, still largely rely on alternative financial services, such as payday lenders, prepaid debit cards, and pawn shops. The unbanked and underbanked pay more for their financial services, have fewer opportunities to build credit, and are rejected for loans more often.
Low-wage workers earning less than $15 per hour make up 80.7% of the state’s unbanked. Nearly half of all Black households in California and 41% of all Latino households are unbanked or underbanked compared to 15.5% of white households.
AB 1177 – the California Public Banking Option Acct – will provide Californians with a no-cost banking option. This bill creates the BankCal program, allowing Californians to open a no-fee, no-penalty account with an associated debit card.
Join the fight for equitable banking access with the 3 action items above!
UPDATED AUTHORS LIST!
Authors: Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago, David Chiu, Mike Gipson, Ash Kalra, Alex Lee, Wendy Carrillo, Eduardo Garcia, Lorena Gonzalez.
Coauthors: Assemblymembers Rob Bonta, Laura Friedman, Luz Rivas, Reggie Jones-Sawyer, Phil Ting, Buffy Wicks, Senators Maria Elana Durazo, Ben Hueso, Lena Gonzalez, Scott Wiener.
Sponsors: Service Employees International Union (SEIU) CA, California Public Banking Alliance (CPBA), California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC).
Learn more at bankcalnow.com.
SAVE THE DATE!
We will hold a press conference March 30 with SEIU California to officially launch AB 1177, the California Public Banking Option Act. Details soon!
Register here.
Join Communities for a Better Environment, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, and the Richmond Our Power Coalition (ROPC) at the first of a series of ROPC Just Transition town halls. At Decommissioning Refineries in the Bay Area, imagine the progressive closure of Bay Area refineries where the host communities and workers are protected economically and socially! For the City of Richmond, this means imagining a future Beyond Chevron.
Richmond is trapped in a toxic relationship with Chevron. For over a century:
- Chevron has polluted Richmond’s air, water, land, and politics,
- Chevron has pitted community groups against one another through its philanthropy,
- Chevron has gaslit and lied to Richmond, claiming that its toxic flaring and daily emissions are safe.
It’s time to envision a future Beyond Chevron. Working together we can make sure that the inevitable transition from Chevron and the extractive economy supports communities and workers, centers justice and healing, and builds a regenerative, feminist economy.
Come join this community town hall hosted by Communities for a Better Environment to hear stories from community members and to vision together what can come next.
** Priority attendance for Richmond / San Pablo residents and those directly impacted by Chevron. **
Have any access needs, questions, or concerns? Feel free to reach out to zolboo@cbecal.org.
Hundreds of thousands of farmers and farm-workers in India have been protesting for over 111 days seeking repeal of the three new farm laws. What started in the Indian state of Punjab as a protest against the deregulation of the agrarian economy and doing away with the limited protections the farmers have had, quickly evolved into the largest mass mobilization in post-colonial India. Despite efforts from the hyper-nationalist ruling party to derail and delegitimize the movement, it continues to grow having cut across class, caste, and gender, and threatens to challenge the prevailing alliance between the state and capital.
Join us as we discuss the development of one of the largest agrarian struggles in the world in recent history!
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82158800683?pwd=N2J6UjgxNWhNak1WRWdUdm9CUit4QT09
Meeting ID: 821 5880 0683
Passcode: 340756
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,82158800683#,,,,,,0#,,340756# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,82158800683#,,,,,,0#,,340756# US (Houston)
Part II: Non Violent Direct Action (NVDA) Training
Discussion facilitated by Marian Doub and Nikki Sachs
We are deeply grateful to The Society of Fearless Grandmothers for offering this training in August 2020 during the cocooning enforced by the global pandemic crisis. The Society of Fearless Grandmothers trains older women in NVDA, how to organize, how to become a police liaison, and how to nonviolently stand between law enforcement and those behind us conducting nonviolent direct actions. The Society of Fearless Grandmothers is a wholly volunteer community service organization.
This is a wonderful pre-recorded training about how to show up well as a guest and ally in solidarity and be prepared for justice and clean water, air and soil action, led by experienced Society of Fearless Grandmothers NVDA Trainers Pennie Opal Plant and Alison Ehara Brown, founders of the Society of Fearless Grandmothers, Idle No More San Francisco Bay, and signers of the Indigenous Women of Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty. Facilitators will include information on “Getting Organized”, which will continue into the April training.
This training covers topics to orient and prepare for a wide range of creative, nonviolent actions. Topics will cover the ABCs of creating or joining actions with a variety of roles and tactics that match your passions and abilities: strategic use of nonviolence in social movements, affinity groups, liaison with police and media, how to create beautiful direct actions, how to provide jail support, and other topics. The training will break out into smaller group sessions to reflect more deeply on our personal understandings as elder women committed to speaking out and acting in support of a healthy, clean, safe and restored planet for all beings. We’ll practice nonviolent techniques for preventing or de-escalating potentially violent situations and how to understand and work with the emotions that can be triggered or evoked.
The video does not need to be watched prior to the training, however you are encouraged to do so if you can. Our experience is that we get something new or deeper out of each fresh viewing, and you may get more from the training if you do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0uJ6yYbECE
We are inspired by the work of the Society of Fearless Grandmothers and recognize that their work is done on a wholly voluntary basis. As guests on stolen land, we are humble and embrace the gift of their wisdom in this training with our deep gratitude. You can make a contribution today to their sister organization, Movement Rights, to help their work with tribal communities to stop fracking and pipelines and protect the Rights of Nature.
https://www.movementrights.org/donation-page/
https://www.facebook.com/fearlessgrandmothers
Kiss the Ground is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on a new, old approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that has the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.
Kiss the Ground reveals that, by regenerating the world’s soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth’s climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Using compelling graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, the film artfully illustrates how, by drawing down atmospheric carbon, soil is the missing piece of the climate puzzle.
This movie is positioned to catalyze a movement to accomplish the impossible – to solve humanity’s greatest challenge, to balance the climate and secure our species future.
This film will be open to watch from home from the 21st-23rd of March.
Free and open to all. Donations are welcome and go to support our local arts community. Make donations at https://pentanglearts.org/get-involved/donations/
Hosted by Sustainable Woodstock and Pentangle Arts. Made possible by our underwriters VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION and MASCOMA BANK and sponsors Ellaway Group, The Unicorn, and Mark Knott DDS.
Please Join The Palestinian Youth Movement, Addameer, California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Freedom Archives, The Arab Resource and Organizing Center and US Palestinian Community Network for Art Against Imprisonment, a Virtual Art Exhibit, that features art from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people
in Palestine and in the US. As a small testament to their creativity, imagination, and expressions of solidarity!
Join us in launching this exhibit with former political
prisoners: Hafez Omar, Linda Evans, and Oscar Lopez Rivera. Also, we will have and Anmar Rafeedie, cultural worker and long time member of El-Fanoun Palestinian Dance Troupe; and a message from Kevin Cooper
currently on California’s death row.
with musical artist:
Naima Shaloub; and with more to come.
Register here: tinyurl.com/artagainstprisons
The topic will be the history of the 1930s. Not the Great Depression but the *responses* to it. Firstly the Great Labor Rebellion: the CP-led California farmworkers strike, the three left-led general strikes of 1934, the sitdown strikes, and the rise of the CIO. And secondly the capitalist response, the New Deal and FDR, how the capitalist class coopted Labor’s Giant Step, and how black people, Chicanos and women were mistreated under New Deal legislation.
Our speaker is John Holmes who teaches history at Merritt College in California, and is currently on the executive council of the Peralta Federation of Teachers, representing part timers. He was previously an activist in the typographical union.
LOGIN INFORMATION
The meeting will be opened up, as usual, at 10:15 for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc. We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open for informal discussion.
Login info will be posted by here by Friday, Mar 19, 2021
Our Spring Equinox meeting will feature in-depth presentations on biofuels and renewable diesel refining. Our speakers are:
- Jackie Garcia Mann, of 350 Contra Costa
- Gary Graham Hughes, California Policy Monitor, Biofuelwatch
- Maureen Brennan, Rodeo resident and activist
Steve Nadel will round out the program with a report on the Air District Rule 6-5, the particulate matter regulation coming up soon for a final vote by the Board of Directors.
Feel free to email us in advance with any questions you’d like our speakers to discuss. Reach out to action@sunflower-alliance.org.
This very important conversation needs your participation and your voice. Come join us!
Co-sponsored by 350 Contra Costa.
March 7th Event
There are many discussions today about the nature of the working class and their capacity to fight for their own interests. Usually, we look at history to learn about the workers’ movement, but what potential exists in the modern international working class? What does a modern workers’ struggle really look like? What recent examples are there of workers organizing against the conditions they face and exerting their power? Join us in this movie series as we explore these questions by looking at workers’ struggles that happened in our lifetime.
Worker’s Republic
For six days in December of 2008 during the financial collapse, laid-off Chicago factory workers took over their closing workplace, declaring they would not leave until the owners and creditors agreed to pay them the severance they were promised. Republic’s credit line had been cut off by Bank of America, despite receiving billions of dollars in federal bank bailout money.
Succeed or fail, these 260 workers decided, “If I don’t fight, I know I’ll lose. If I do fight, at least I stand a chance of winning.”
Workers Republic shows how everyday people may be the most qualified to forge a better world. And in the struggle to save their jobs they were a beacon of hope and optimism for others to look to.
Friendly reminder this is a series occurring every two weeks
Where: Please join us at 6pm for a brief presentation and to watch via shared screen, and look for zoom and movie link upon RSVP if you prefer to watch on your own. Discussion will start at 7pm
March 21st event:
There are many discussions today about the nature of the working class and their capacity to fight for their own interests. Usually, we look at history to learn about the workers’ movement, but what potential exists in the modern international working class? What does a modern workers’ struggle really look like? What recent examples are there of workers organizing against the conditions they face and exerting their power? Join us in this movie series as we explore these questions by looking at workers’ struggles that happened in our lifetime.
Coming for A Visit
Undocumented migrants win the battle to get their papers. A historic strike filmed from within.Paris, 2009. More than 6000 undocumented migrants (sans-papiers) go on strike to demand their legalization. These are restaurant, construction, and janitorial workers who pay taxes and are all exploited by staffing companies who refuse to help them get their papers!
Coming for a Visit, shows the hard day-to-day work of organizing, the challenges of dealing with unions, and the key role that revolutionaries can play. Oh, and did we say these workers won?! This is an inspiring movie with lessons to learn.
Kiss the Ground is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on a new, old approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that has the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.
Kiss the Ground reveals that, by regenerating the world’s soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth’s climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Using compelling graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, the film artfully illustrates how, by drawing down atmospheric carbon, soil is the missing piece of the climate puzzle.
This movie is positioned to catalyze a movement to accomplish the impossible – to solve humanity’s greatest challenge, to balance the climate and secure our species future.
This film will be open to watch from home from the 21st-23rd of March.
Free and open to all. Donations are welcome and go to support our local arts community. Make donations at https://pentanglearts.org/get-involved/donations/
Hosted by Sustainable Woodstock and Pentangle Arts. Made possible by our underwriters VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION and MASCOMA BANK and sponsors Ellaway Group, The Unicorn, and Mark Knott DDS.
Learn about the brave and brilliant data scientists and activists fighting the threat artificial intelligence poses to civil rights. Watch #CodedBias through @IndependentLens on @PBS in March 2021. pic.twitter.com/flpEdLLFFl
— Coded Bias Documentary (@CodedBias) February 25, 2021
Kiss the Ground is a full-length documentary narrated by Woody Harrelson that sheds light on a new, old approach to farming called “regenerative agriculture” that has the potential to balance our climate, replenish our vast water supplies, and feed the world.
Kiss the Ground reveals that, by regenerating the world’s soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth’s climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Using compelling graphics and visuals, along with striking NASA and NOAA footage, the film artfully illustrates how, by drawing down atmospheric carbon, soil is the missing piece of the climate puzzle.
This movie is positioned to catalyze a movement to accomplish the impossible – to solve humanity’s greatest challenge, to balance the climate and secure our species future.
This film will be open to watch from home from the 21st-23rd of March.
Free and open to all. Donations are welcome and go to support our local arts community. Make donations at https://pentanglearts.org/get-involved/donations/
Hosted by Sustainable Woodstock and Pentangle Arts. Made possible by our underwriters VERMONT COMMUNITY FOUNDATION and MASCOMA BANK and sponsors Ellaway Group, The Unicorn, and Mark Knott DDS.
Register for this free event: @CatsCommentary (APTP co-founder) & James Burch (APTP director of policy) speaking @cwclub on 3/25 about Reimagining Public Safety.
It's a crucial time for this convo, the safest communities don't have the most cops.https://t.co/HiBU13sltx
— Anti Police-Terror Project (@APTPaction) March 13, 2021
Amid nationwide reckoning with racial justice and calls to reimagine policing in America’s cities, Oakland has moved ahead with plans to change its public safety funding and performance.
The Defund OPD campaign was launched by the Anti Policy Terror Project five years ago. Join us for a discussion with two leaders in the effort to change the criminal justice system.
About the Speakers
Cat Brooks is an activist, performer, politician and speaker or who has served as the communications director for Coaching Corps, as executive director of Youth Together and executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Brooks is the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) whose mission is to rapidly respond to and ultimately eradicate what it calls state violence in communities of color. With APTP, she shepherded the development of a “first responders” process, which provides resources and training for a rapid community-based response to police violence. She also helped negotiate the passage of AB392, AB 931 and SB 1421 and has organized with local housing advocates to bring Proposition 10 (Repeal Costa Hawkins) to the ballot in November. n late 2018, Cat was the runner up in the Oakland mayoral race. Brooks currently serves as the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, a network of grassroots activists providing rapid response and healing justice in response to all forms of state violence across California. In addition, she is touring her one-woman show, Tasha, about the in-custody murder of Natasha McKenna in the Fairfax County Jail. She lives in West Oakland with her daughter.
Born and raised in Natick, MA, James Burch grew up with the direct impacts of a punitive carceral system within his immediate family; all three of his siblings have been entangled in the criminal justice system for their entire lives. To address this, James became a lawyer after attending Yale University and Georgetown Law School. Upon moving to the Bay Area, James became an active member of the Anti Police-Terror Project, eventually becoming the director of policy and a member of the Black Leadership Team. Burch now works as the policy director for the Justice Teams Network (JTN), a statewide coalition working to end state violence in California. James is also the current president of the National Lawyers Guild of the Bay Area.
This is a free, online-only program; you must pre-register to receive a link to the live-stream event. We welcome donations made during registration to support the production of our online programming.
Oakland Police Commission 3/25 6:30 PM
https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Police-Commission-3.25.21-Agenda-Packet.pdf
Interesting Agenda Items:
V. 2021 California Police Reform Legislation Former Commissioner Tara Anderson and Gabriel Garcia of Youth Alive will review 2021 bill language currently being considered by the State of California. The Commission will discuss and may vote to send letters of support for these bills.
VI. Reimagining Public Safety Task Force Update Former Commissioner Ginale Harris will share an update on the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force.
VII. Resolution on Sunsetting the Use of the BearCat The Commission will review, and may vote to approve, a resolution regarding the sunsetting the use of the BearCat.
RESOLVED, the Oakland Police Department shall, within six (6) months, return to the Oakland Police Commission with a proposed replacement for the Department’s BearCat armored vehicle that satisfies the Department’s needs for sufficient protective capacity, the Department’s needs for sufficient storage capacity, and the community’s need for police equipment that can be accepted as appropriate for use by civilian law enforcement agencies; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, the Oakland Police Commission shall, within sixty (60) days of the Department’s identification of a potential replacement vehicle(s), convene a public hearing, on the appropriateness of the Department’s proposed replacement vehicle(s); and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, the Oakland Police Department shall, within twenty-four (24) months, cease its use of the BearCat armored vehicle and instead use the Department’s armored Suburban and/or replacement armored vehicles as authorized by policy unless the Department and the Commission jointly concur and report to the Council that a replacement vehicle cannot be realistically acquired in time, and a new deadline is enacted; and be it
FURTHER RESOLVED, the Oakland Police Department shall not, absent exigent circumstances, seek, solicit, or accept the deployment and use of overtly militarized armored vehicles by outside agencies under mutual aid agreements, overtly militarized for the purposes of this resolution, meaning any vehicle that a reasonable resident might perceive as emblematic of a militarized approach to policing in our community.
