Calendar
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.
Fighting the proposed curfew in Oakland. Protesting in Sacramento on O22. Demanding that Kamala Harris investigate the death of Alan Blueford and all other victims of police violence here in California. Speaking out against the militarization of police. Organizing a food and toy drive for the Holidays for the neediest amongst us.
Join as as we review our recent actions and plan future ones!
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.
Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally to fight unjust debt.
– The latest on our coalition efforts to Save the Berkeley Post Office and fight the privatization of our commons. Watch the video of Peter Bryne speaking at our September 28th rally on the steps of the historic downtown Berkeley Post Office.
– The latest on our efforts to help Richmond and NGO allies push for principal reduction for Richmond’s homeowners. Read an article written by two Strike Debt Bay Area members on the Richmond principal reduction / eminent domain case.
In addition, we are exploring the use of a public bank to help Richmond, CA and other communities escape the thrall of Wall Street.
– Other projects include efforts to fight against student debt in conjunction with peeps at UC Cal, action to bring awareness about the Federal Reserve on our near it’s hundredth birthday on December 23rd, 2013, a Debtors’ Union, a book group with semi-weekly discussions, investigations into the legitimacy of mortgage ownership and therefore the right to foreclose, efforts to thwart payday loan usury and more.
Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
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
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.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
Four weeks ago 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.
The Postal Service has announced that they are contracting with Staples to provide Post Office window services inside Staples stores, using Staples employees instead of Post Office employees. There is already a pseudo Post Office operating inside the Berkeley Staples store (Shattuck & Durant)
Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our Post Pffice and against privatization and non living-wage jobs. We want to send a message to CBRE, the Post Office, Staples 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!
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 trashings of peoples’ belongings have already taken place today (Monday)!
Meeting announcement Via Share the Bulb tweet Monday afternoon.
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!
The plans to pave through the middle of the historic Gill Tract Farm are set to be green-lighted this Wednesday at the City of Albany Planning & Zoning meeting. City officials appear to be discouraging public participation, saying there will be NO time for public comment, and starting the meeting one hour earlier than normal, with NO public notice on their website.
The proposed development plan would suffocate about a block’s worth of fertile soil, with a massive parking lot, strip mall, and high-end housing.
Let the city, UC, and Sprouts “Farmers Market” know we won’t stand for misuse of a rare community resource, and then join us for a general assembly to discuss next steps.
http://oaklandwiki.org/Domain_Awareness_Center
On July 31st after midnight the Oakland City Council voted unanimously to approve allocating $2 million to continue to develop the Domain Awareness Center that would integrate surveillance cameras from all over the Port of Oakland, the city, BART, AC Transit, traffic cameras, and other sensors into a local ‘fusion’ center that could effectively track private citizens movements throughout the region. Video and data feeds from all over Oakland are to be aggregated and monitored at the DAC, then analysed with license plate recognition software, thermal imaging and body movement recognition software, possibly facial recognition software, and more, all with absolutely no privacy or data-retention policies in place, or substantive debate at the committee or council level about the program. November 20th, again after midnight, the City Council voted 6-1 to find a new contractor for the DAC after it came to light that the previous major contractor, SAIC, was involved in nuclear weapons development in contravention of Oakland’s nuclear free policy.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group and others are continuing to organize against these encroachments upon our liberty and privacy.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv send an email to this address:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
The meeting will be at the sudoroom, 2141 Broadway, but the entrance is actually on 22nd Street upstairs.
