Calendar
For nearly 15 years Critical Resistance has been fighting against new prison and jail construction. Today, counties across the Bay Area are facing plans for new jails. Although polls show that Californians don’t want their tax dollars spent on prison and jail construction and the projects will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, sheriffs from Santa Cruz to Contra Costa are considering them.
These projects not only run the risk of putting our counties in fiscal jeopardy, they also undercut the resources available for the life-affirming programs and services that can get people out of jails and keep them out. Jails primarily target poor Black and brown communities and more than 70% of people in county jails in the Bay are there pre-trial, because they can’t afford to pay their bail or bond.
Get Involved!
Come to the Bay Area Skillshare to Fight Jails: “Bring Our Loved Ones Home”
The DAC is being debated at the City Council meeting this Tuesday. Come help organize for the meeting, for the rally, and in general against Orwell’s nightmare.
THE ENTRANCE TO THE SUDO ROOM IS ON 22ND ST!!!
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Security is tight at the federal courthouses–people will need to bring ID and be ready to go through a metal detector. No one should be carrying weapons or contraband.
Homeless people in Albany sued the East Bay city Wednesday to try to halt their impending eviction from a waterfront landfill known as the Bulb, where some of them have lived for years…
“After years of allowing and even encouraging the homeless to seek shelter on the Bulb, the city’s sudden decision to reverse course and evict Bulb residents on the eve of winter, after having made no progress to address the lack of housing or shelter in the city, puts the population at great risk,” said Maureen Sheehy, a lawyer for the plaintiffs.
The city has built the shelters and plans to open them within the next week while evicting Bulb campers, said Osha Neumann, another lawyer for the homeless. He said attorneys plan to ask a federal judge Monday for a restraining order blocking the evictions while the suit proceeds.
Also see the rally, march and organizing meeting for later on this date.
The Post Office has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
Six weeks ago we learned that perfidious Post Office Executives, who only the week before had sent a letter to the Berkeley City Council offering to negotiate until at least November 12th, had had CBRE (Richard Blum’s company) list the downtown Berkeley Post Office for sale.
Last week the Planning Commission passed on to the Berkeley City a proposed Zoning Ordinance that would make the Post Office property less desirable to potential purchasers of the capitalist variety. We are still waiting for action on this from the City Council.
Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization. We want to send a message to CBRE, the Post Office and Berkeley politicians that the sale will not be tolerated!
Check out the video of Peter Byrne’s talk at our latest Save the Post Office Rally!
Occupy Forum continues…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!! Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue on all sides of these critically important issues!
Another World Is Possible!!!
OccupyForum presents the film…
“American Autumn: An Occudoc”
and Q & A with David Hartsough
What would a world look like that had a culture and an economic system that places human need above corporate greed, and how do we bring that world into being? Who cares what it is called. Call it Socialism, Call it Real Democracy Now, and Call it Chunky-Monkey-Cherry Garcia. The world needs to change radically, it needs to change dramatically, and it needs to change fast. This documentary is an invitation for you to participate in that positive change. Frankly, because, we need you. Yes, you.
Shot on the front lines and meeting spaces of the Occupy movement in NYC, Boston, and Washington, DC from the earliest days through the end of January 2012, American Autumn: an Occudoc is an inside-looking-out-view of the Occupy movement. With interviews and insight from key organizers, thinkers and activists including Medea Benjamin, David Degraw, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Lee Camp, Naomi Klein, Nathan Schneider, Ashley Sanders, Vlad Teichberg, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, Dr. Cornel West, Kevin Zeese and many more, the film challenges us to keep on keeping on.
Writer/producer/director Dennis Trainor, Jr. weaves commentary and a fearless style that often puts the viewer right between police and protesters.
This movie is an invitation for you to join the Occupy movement, but there are no membership dues, no papers to sign. All that is required is the willingness to see the world as it is and decide that you are going to be part of the solution. Occupy is less of an organization and more of an organism, a living, breathing, multi-tentacled force that refuses to find a niche or be pushed into a corner. This organism is still a baby, and the narrative it will be telling in the years to come is yours to write.
The film will be followed by Q&A and discussion led by David Hartsough. Where do we go from here? How do we rebuild the powerful potential of the Occupy Movement? What is already happening and what needs to take place to reclaim the power of the People and help bring about a radical transformation of our society? David Hartsough has been a nonviolent activist since he met Martin Luther King, Jr in 1955. Co-Founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce, Director of PEACEWORKERS and co-author of a new Proposal to build a global movement to END ALL WARS, David has been active with Occupy Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC and with
Announcements to follow. Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
We’ll meet at Albany City Hall for a rally and then a march. After the march we will all meet to strategize and plan. This is our chance to take the organizing to the next level.
(Also, see the court hearing listing for earlier on this date)
Moderator: Dr. Crystallee Crain
Speakers:
- Emmett Till Family Representatives.
- Airicka Gordon-Taylor
- Ollie Gordon
- Wanda Johnson (mother of Oscar Grant)
- A member of the Blueford family.
- Walter Riley (civil rights attorney)
- George Calvis (community organizer)
- Clarence Thomas (labor organizer)
- Steve Pitts
(from the UC Berkeley Labor Center)
Co-sponsored by: Prophetic Justice Ministries, ISO, Black Workers Center, Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice, UC Berkeley Black Student Union, Bay Area Black Student Alliance.
Organized by: Till Family Organizing Committee.
We held our Town Hall meeting to discuss the need to get rid of the Alameda County Sheriff and District Attorney on Tuesday, November 5th.
Now it’s time to talk about the nuts and bolts of such a campaign.
Bring your organizing hat, your ideas, and your friends!
Let’s replace Ahern and O’Malley with real progressives, dedicated to the welfare of all Alameda County residents.
Join us in telling President Obama that he needs to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline!We will be rallying by Sather Gate at 12:30pm on Tuesday, November 19 in solidarity with communities across the country. Listen to speakers discuss the perils of the pipeline and pledge to take ACTION to stop this pipeline.
This would be game over for climate change, and we have no Planet B. Let’s show Obama how much Cal Students care about indigenous communities, safe water supplies, and climate change.
Cosponsored by Cal Dems, EVP Nolan Pack, CalSERVE, sTeam, Fossil Free UC, 350 Bay Area, IFG, SERC, Sierra Club Bay Area, Senator Caitlin Quinn, the ASUC Office of Environmental Sustainability, Calpirg, SERC, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
Prime Minister Lamothe & Sean Penn do NOT Speak for the Haitian Majority
Protest the Lies about Haiti in SF
On Tuesday, November 19 in San Francisco, Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and actor Sean Penn (named “Ambassador at Large for Haiti”by Michel Martelly), will spread the false message of the fraudulent Martelly government. Join Haiti Action Committee to protest against these lies, as well the corruption and repression of the Martelly/Lamothe government.
The people of Haiti are still in the midst of an occupation instigated by the United States and United Nations in 2004. As supporters of the Martelly government, which is in the process of bringing back dictatorship to Haiti, Prime Minister Lamothe and actor Sean Penn DO NOT speak in the interests of the Haitian majority.
Come stand in solidarity with the Haitian grassroots, who will be demonstrating the day before in Haiti, on the 210th anniversary of the Battle of Vertières (one of the last battles that sealed the victory of the Haitian Revolution).
Come stand in solidarity, to echo the demands of the Haitian majority:
•To protest the CORRUPTION and ILLEGALITY of the Martelly/Lamothe government.
•To protest the government’s widespread repression of the poor.
•To protest the INJUSTICE of the nearly 10-year-old US/UN occupation and the suffering it inflicts on the Haitian people.
•To support the right of the Haitian majority to fully participate in the running of their country, FREE from repression and terror.
•To support the right of Haitian children, women, and men, to have free access to education, food, jobs, housing, and healthcare.
Much valuable background information is available in Ten Steps to Dictatorship: Why the Grassroots Movement is Taking to the Streets Against President Michel Martelly by Charlie Hinton
*This shameful event is part of the Dreamforce Conference, an annual event of the cloud computing company Salesforce.com.
Purpose:
To brainstorm how to implement the principles and practices of Restorative Justice throughout the City of Oakland that will facilitate Oakland becoming a restorative city. To develop a plan of action designed to empower citizens, eradicate violence, and build community and relationships by introducing, utilizing, implementing, and maintaining ongoing restorative justice circle processes in neighborhoods, schools, families, churches, synagogues, government, justice system, hospitals, unions, and workplaces citywide until it becomes a way of life. To have restorative conversations become the cornerstone for addressing conflict and harms, promoting understanding and collaboration, celebrating Oakland’s rich diversity, and changing the culture throughout the City of Oakland and beyond.
Please join us at this initial meeting to indicate your interest, lend your voice and ideas, suggest who else needs to be a part of the discussion, and to strategize about next steps in the development of a plan of action. We will discuss a proposal that this project become a collaborative effort of the Alameda County Restorative Juvenile Justice Task Force.
Judge Gail Brewster Bereola
Alameda County Superior Court of California
There will be gathering at the Valencia Gardens entrance for a march to the 17th Valencia police station for a press conference demanding the release of both individuals, demanding all charges dropped & demanding the undercover Narcotics officer that beat DJ & 3 other individuals be fired. Please join us!
RALLY AT OAKLAND CITY HALL (OSCAR GRANT PLAZA) THIS TUESDAY AT 5:30PM, TO STOP THE CITY COUNCIL FROM CREATING A MASSIVE SURVEILLANCE CENTER FOR OPD AND DHS!!!
The Department of Homeland Security and Oakland Police are building a massive surveillance center to videotape, track, and log the movements of all Oakland residents and visitors! The Domain Awareness Center (DAC) as its called, is an unprecedented attack on our civil liberties, giving the police department unlimited access to our whereabouts. This includes a computer system that aggregates information from thousands of surveillance cameras and license plate readers, and in the future may include facial recognition software and social media data mining.
The NY Times made Oakland’s new surveillance center national news in a front page article warning Americans of its implications as similar technology spreads to other cities. This is another OPD and DHS attack on our rights, essentially criminalizing our every day lives as we are forced to live under constant surveillance as if in a prison complex.
WE CAN STOP THIS! LET’S SHOW THE CITY COUNCIL THAT THE PEOPLE OF OAKLAND ARE AGAINST WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE AND POLICE INTRUSION INTO OUR LIVES!!!
RALLY AT CITY HALL AT 5:30 PM THIS TUESDAY, NOV 19th. SPREAD THE WORD TO ALL YOUR LIST SERVS AND GROUPS. CITY HALL MEETING BEGINS AT 6:30pm
The Oakland City Council will be considering two controversial actions: Giving the City Administrator authorization to select a new Domain Awareness Center contractor in light of SAIC’s ineligibility to be that contractor because of its nuclear weapons testing involvement; and issuing a statement in support of Richmond’s efforts to help homeowners with underwater mortgages using principal reduction with the threat of eminent domain.
The former needs to be defeated. A large coalition is organizing (see the rally at 5:30). The latter needs to be supported. Strike Debt Bay Area, ACCE and other organizations have come together to make this happen.
It had been one month since the horrific murder of Andy Lopez. One month and we as a community have been completely alienated by those whom are supposed to serve and protect us.
Demands for a transparent investigation have fallen on deaf ears, as no new information has been released by the SRPD. Our District Attorney has done nothing to address this murder in an attempt to let the flame for justice die down.
Join us as we march from City Hall to the District Attorney’s office.
This march is very important to the Lopez family as it will take place on the one month anniversary of their son’s murder. There is no excuse, be there. Be there to honor this child who’s life was taken far to early. Be there to show your respects to the family. Be there, to let all know we will continue to fight for justice. Justice in the form of an immediate arrest of sheriff, Erick Gelhaus.
NO ARREST = NO ELECT
Can cops just do whatever they want?
Not if you’re WATCHING!
Come to the COPWATCH TRAINING and…
–Protecting your neighbors by watching and documenting what police do
–Preventing abuse to yourself by using your legal rights.
–Recognizing and responding to police manipulation techniques
FREE!!