Calendar

If you have never come before, come and get involved!
If you have been participating, come and get re-energized!
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Although we have made tremendous gains, the fight is not over. We are still fighting for the college we want and the college all of our students deserve.  We agree with the City Attorney who says that the issue at City College is the principle of open access education for all versus success for a few.
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COME TO HEAR UPDATES
Restoration, the legal suit, Board of Trustee status and elections, etc.
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COME TO SET DIRECTION AND PLAN ACTIONS
To influence the BOT race, to lobby the Board of Governors to bring back our democratically elected BOT, etc. etc
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COME TO HELP SAVE OUR CITY COLLEGE
Keep our college a community college!
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AGENDA
5:00 – 5:30 pm
Short history and where we are at this point
5:30 � 6:00 pm
Reports from students, lobby committee, etc.
6:00 � 6:15 pm
Entertaining skit
6:15 – 6:45
Brainstorming for activities of Coalition for Fall and beyond.
6:45 – 7:15
Discussion of Coalition structure.
7:15 – 7:30
Announcements and wrap up.
7:45 � 8:00 pm
Slide show

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When:
2nd & 4th Thursdays
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Where:
Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
14th & Broadway

Read the announcement from the City of Oakland City Administrator’s Weekly Report (April 25, 2014):

This committee was created by City Council action during the discussions earlier in the year about the Port Domain Awareness Center (DAC). The goal of the DAC is to improve readiness to prevent, respond to and recover from major emergencies in the Oakland region and ensure better multi-agency coordination across the larger San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the Privacy and Data Retention Policy is to ensure there are safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violations of individuals’ privacy rights and civil liberties. The meeting is open to the public. For questions about the Ad Hoc Committee, please contact Joe DeVries, Assistant to the City

We need to show up to these meetings and pressure the City to adopt a privacy policy that makes privacy a priority, not only “security” or administrative convenience.

 The purpose of our tour is to generate audiences under one roof that want to get big $$$ out of politics with folks that want to reboot America led by renewables with those wiped out thanks to ’08.

Following is a brief description of the film:

Patrick Lovell is an accidental filmmaker/activist. Lovell was in the midst of living his American Dream when suddenly his world caved in. The Lovell’s would find themselves in the midst of the collapse of Americas middle class and like millions would eventually lose their home to foreclosure. Patrick figured out a way to make a film using his story as the entry point to broader truth that America is no longer a Democracy, that free markets have been overrun by global monopolies and the American Dream is Dead! Lovell crisscrossed the country surfing the Occupy Wall Street Wave to discover America is corrupt, defunct and unsustainable, but more importantly, how we can turn the tables on the dark forces that are undermining the American ideal to reboot the American Dream. 

Starring Bernie Sanders, Van Jones, James Hansen, Jeremy Rifkin, Mary Boyle, Jeffry Sachs, Music by Michael Franti and a slew of ordinary Americans rising becoming extraordinary. �

Here’s some recent radio:
http://kboo.fm/content/forward13wakinguptheamericandreamadocumentaryaboutfo

Here’s some national TV interviews:
http://www.msnbc.com/the-cycle/watch/waking-up-the-american-dream-226604099690
Mortgage Crisis Gets Personal <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctr77TgXVTo>

Berkeley in the Sixties” is kicking off the 50^th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement this week at the Pacific Film Archive. 

Veterans of the Free Speech Movement will be there.

Oakland California, to Ferguson, Missouri

FUCK THE POLICE MARCH

Wear all Black

Ferguson, Missouri.

To the good people of Ferguson, resisting fascism – and taking your streets: You are not alone. We will continue to take the streets here in Oakland in solidarity!

On August 31st, @LostVoices14 found a noose hanging in the Ferguson camp, showing the KKK are alive & well.
(video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWiUqcSWD_c)
We will take the streets behind an Anti-Fascist banner. We will march against the fascism of racist police forces everywhere, and the racists they empower. KKK impunity ends with the barbaric acts of Aug 31 and the finding of a hanging noose.

Oakland California!
The time has come for more than state justice for these atrocities. The time has come to draw a line in the sand and say “no more racist police killings or beatings.”

Newly awoken resistance groups across the USA, Anonymous, Occupy alumni, East Bay radicals, and many others are drawing a line in the sand that runs right down the middle of Main Street in Ferguson, Missouri. We will no longer watch the powerful oppress the downtrodden without letting our anger sing. We are simply defending ourselves and our sisters and brothers against racism and abuse of power.

Feed each other, keep each other safe – and stay in the streets until we are totally victorious in all our demands!

Rising Tide co-founder, environmental campaigner and

renowned author George Marshall will talk about his new book

“Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to

Ignore Climate Change”

It’ll be right before the climate march in NYC and our solidarity actions in the East Bay and SF, and we expect lively conversation about dynamics in the movements to address climate change and climate justice.

 
RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1462038400737108/
DONATIONS: $5-15 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds.

This event is a Rising Tide production.

About the book:

Why, even with overwhelming scientific evidence, do most people still not feel or accept the full threat of climate change – or even talk about it?

What is this psychological mechanism that allows us to know something is true but act as if it is not? In this groundbreaking and engaging look at one of the most important issues facing us today, George Marshall, world renowned for his work on the psychology of climate change denial, shows that even when we accept that climate change is a dire problem, our human brains are wired to ignore it and argues that we can overcome this.

With engaging stories and drawing on years of his own research, Marshall confirms that humans are wired to respond strongest to threats that are visible, immediate, have historical precedent, have direct personal impact, and are caused by an “enemy.” Climate change is none of these – it’s invisible, unprecedented, drawn out, impacts us indirectly, and is caused by us. Taking the reader deep into our evolutionary origins, Marshall argues that once we understand what excites, threatens, and motivates us, we can rethink and reimagine climate change. In the end, his book is both about climate change and about the qualities that make us human: our limitations, our strengths, and how we can grow as we deal with the greatest challenge we have ever faced.

Interfaith prayer meeting for healing, dedicated to the survivors and victims of violence and police brutality in Oakland.

We are 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.

Please feel free to bring quotes or passages to share
All are welcome

We will serve simple breakfast.

The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!

The Postal Service outsourced Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.

And we’re fighting against both!

Come help us plan our next steps.

On July 29th, at our invite, Ralph Nader spoke on the steps of the Berkeley Post Office against privatization and corporatism. Watch and listen to his talk here.

We began the “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management!  Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, the San Francisco Labor Council and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!

All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples.  The American Federation of Teachers, AFCSME and UNITE HERE did too.

Check out our correspondence with the President of the American Postal Workers Union, Mark Dimondstein. The APWU has been leading the charge against Staples.

For most of July the sidewalk in front of Staples was ‘occupied’ 24/7 by an intrepid band of San Francisco occupiers with solidarity and support from BPOD members distributing literature and convincing people not to shop at Staples.  They’re back! Come hang out with them outside Staples at Durant & Shattuck.

And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response.  Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out  recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.

We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley.  We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition. The Berkeley Planning Commission passed a similar zoning ordinance (finally) on August 27th.  It will have gone before the City Council on September 9th.

Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors recently endorsed Postal Banking.  Pew Research held a day-long seminar on Postal Banking.  The Postal unions and other groups have announced plans for a conference on postal banking in November.

AND CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE.

BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.

 The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is having a rally at Oakland City Hall on the 17th.

There will be first person report backs from Ferguson, including one from Nadia Kayali, a lawyer with the EFF.

There will be a handful of speakers followed by music from a PA and food and an opportunity for people circulating in parallel, yet disconnected, circles to meet one another and expand the organizing potential across the greater Bay Area.

Or next Politics of Debt meeting will be a presentation by Chong Kee Tan on Bay Bucks, a local alternative currency.  We’ll hear him speak and then have a Q&A period, perhaps leasing into a broader discussion.

Or next meeting will be one week following, on September 24th,  instead of two. We’ll discuss chapters 21-23 of Ellen Brown’s Web of Debt.

Meeting of the City of Oakland’s “Privacy and Data Retention Ad Hoc Advisory Committee” – open to the public.

When:
2nd & 4th Thursdays
6:00pm – 8:00pm

Where:
Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
14th & Broadway

Read the announcement from the City of Oakland City Administrator’s Weekly Report (April 25, 2014):

This committee was created by City Council action during the discussions earlier in the year about the Port Domain Awareness Center (DAC). The goal of the DAC is to improve readiness to prevent, respond to and recover from major emergencies in the Oakland region and ensure better multi-agency coordination across the larger San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the Privacy and Data Retention Policy is to ensure there are safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violations of individuals’ privacy rights and civil liberties. The meeting is open to the public. For questions about the Ad Hoc Committee, please contact Joe DeVries, Assistant to the City

We need to show up to these meetings and pressure the City to adopt a privacy policy that makes privacy a priority, not only “security” or administrative convenience.

We’re excited to let you know about the 2nd training in our “Support
from Outside the Walls” series.

The invite is here https://www.facebook.com/events/663599277069128/
Please help us spread the word.

People in prison are often required to exhaust internal, administrative
complaint processes before they can take a case to court. In California,
non-lawyers and lawyers can be a huge help to people with their
complaints against the prison system. Learn how to assist California
inmates with their administrative appeals in this session led by Sajad
Shakoor of the Tayba Foundation.

Please RSVP & complete this poll so we can customize the training and
connect you with projects http://tinyurl.com/Walls-Pre-Training-Survey

Materials from last training and this training are here
http://caitlinkellyhenry.com/support/

This training will focus on practical skills development for activists,
legal workers, and lawyers to understand the nitty gritty methods and
best practices for “Supporting People in California Prisons to Address
and Appeal Grievances.”

Come to a forum about militarization and repression in our communities, from
Ferguson to Gaza to Oakland. Hear speakers actively fighting to stop this.
– “Uncle Bobby” Johnson (Oscar Grant’s uncle), reporting back from Ferguson
– Clarence Thomas, ILWU Local 10 member, former SFSU BSU leader, with a worker’s
perspective on the Block the Boat for Gaza campaign, which stopped an Israeli Zim ship from
unloading most of its cargo at the Port of Oakland

Sponsored by the Black Student Union in conjunction with Workers World Party

The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!

The Postal Service outsourced Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.

And we’re fighting against both!

Come help us plan our next steps.

On July 29th, at our invite, Ralph Nader spoke on the steps of the Berkeley Post Office against privatization and corporatism. Watch and listen to his talk here.

We began the “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management!  Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by a large number of national and local unions, including teachers’ unions and the AFL-CIO.

All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples.  The American Federation of Teachers, AFCSME and UNITE HERE did too.

Check out our correspondence with the President of the American Postal Workers Union, Mark Dimondstein. The APWU has been leading the charge against Staples.

For almost three months the Berkeley Staples has been ‘occupied’ 24/7 by an intrepid band of San Francisco occupiers with solidarity and support from BPOD members distributing literature and convincing people not to shop at Staples.  They’re still there! Come hang out with them outside Staples at Durant & Shattuck.

And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response.  Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out  recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.

We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley.  We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.  The City Council passed the ordinance in a first reading on September 9th. The 2nd reading is September 30th.

Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors recently endorsed Postal Banking.  Pew Research held a day-long seminar on Postal Banking.  The Postal unions and other groups have announced plans for a conference on postal banking in November.

AND CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE.

BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.