Calendar
Please show up at the City Council meeting at 6:30 PM, July 3oth on the third floor of City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland and tell the City Council what YOU think.
Fill out a speaker card on Agenda item 35 so you can let your voice be heard at the City Council meeting.
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373
Read more here.
Government Surveillance: Panel & Film Screening
From Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers in 1971 to Edward Snowden’s NSA bombshell in 2013, whistleblowers have risked everything to leak dangerous government secrets.
Explore Government Secrecy, Privacy, and Surveillance with us at The New Parkway Theater next Wednesday, July 31, for an evening panel and film screening.
Panel discussion featuring:
Nicole A. Ozer, Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California
Cindy Cohn, Legal Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Judith Ehrlich, Director, Writer, Producer, The Most Dangerous Man in America
Moderated by Declan McCullagh, Chief Political Correspondent, Senior Writer, CNET
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is the true story of what happens when a former Pentagon insider, Daniel Ellsberg, armed only with his conscience, steadfast determination, and a file cabinet full of classified documents, decides to challenge an “Imperial” Presidency – answerable to neither Congress, the press nor the people – in order to help end the Vietnam War.
Admission is free, but space is limited. RSVP is required for entry.
When: July 31, 2013 (5:30 – 8:30 p.m.) Doors open at 5:30, panel begins at 6:15, followed by the film screening at 7. Food and drink purchases available.
Send a message to Attorney General Eric Holder and Bureau of Prisons Director Charles Samuels Jr. that Lynne deserves compassionate release!
Long-time National Lawyers Guild member and activist lawyer Lynne Stewart needs our help and she needs it now! The Federal Bureau of Prisons has denied Lynne Stewart’s application for compassionate release, despite recommendations in favor from the warden at her facility, the Regional Office Director, and vetting of Stewart’s release plans by the Federal Probation Office in New York.
Lynne Stewart’s condition is deteriorating rapidly. Medical treatment to arrest the cancer that is metastasizing in her body has been halted because she is too weak to receive it. She remains in isolation, as her white blood cell count is so low that she is at risk for generalized infection.
For over 30 years, Lynne Stewart devoted her life to the oppressed – a constant advocate for the countless many deprived in the United States of their freedom and their rights. She, herself, was targeted and prosecuted because she defended vigorously her unpopular clients – people the U.S. government sought to execute, disappear, and demonize.
In 2006, Lynne Stewart was sentenced to 28-months. In 2009, she was resentenced to 10 years in federal prison in response to the vindictive dictates of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In the fall, the Supreme Court will consider her Certiorari petition on the basis of both Lynne’s and her client’s first amendment rights.
Lynne Stewart’s prosecution and continued imprisonment are an attempt to intimidate all attorneys who would represent unpopular clients, particularly those accused of being terrorists. It is a message to those of us in the legal community who understand how important it is that everyone accused of a crime, especially those accused of the most serious crimes, have a capable attorney both able and willing to zealously defend them.
When BART workers went on strike July 1, the whole Bay Area was affected. BART hired a major union buster to put the workers on strike, then blame the workers in a highly visible battle to bring Wisconsin-style attacks to the Bay Area and drive down living standards for all of us. The 30-day contract extension expires Sunday, August 4 at midnight, yet BART management still refuses to negotiate, likely forcing the workers out again starting Monday, August 5.
BART workers represented by ATU 1555 and SEIU 1021 invite all workers to stand up against Wisconsin-style attacks in the Bay Area on Thursday, August 1 at 5pm at Frank Ogawa Plaza (Oscar Grant Plaza).
Join Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition members calling attention to the fate of Alan Blueford, murdered by Oakland Police Officer Miguel Masso, and all those who have suffered similar fates.
The Interfaith Tent will once again be handing out fliers, talking with people, and reading the names of those killed by police on August 2nd @ OPD Headquarters on 7th and Broadway.
We will then walk up Broadway and Telegraph, towards First Friday, talking with people as we go. At previous events this was very effective. Our “Stop Police Violence” signs made people want to talk with us.
Special Guest: Bill McKibben
As the planet lurches past the ominous milestone of 400 parts per million atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and Big Oil continues its irresponsible pursuit of ever more and dirtier fossil carbon to pump into our air, and local refineries begin to import Canadian tar sands for processing in the Bay Area, the moment has come to stand up to the industry that is wrecking our future.
Please join 350.org, several Richmond community groups, local unions, Gathering Tribes, Urban Tilth, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and others, three days ahead of the anniversary of the Chevron refinery’s (most recent) explosion and fire, for a march and spirited rally at the refinery’s main gate.
March: From Richmond BART to Chevron refinery
Rally: Main entrance to Chevron Refinery, Point Richmond
Article: Bay Area Battles Chevron’s Dangerous Tar Sands Refinery
Non-violence and conflict de-escalation training.
It has been one month since CA Prisoners began a hunger strike demanding an end to indefinite solitary confinement and the cruel, inhumane and torturous conditions of confinement in CA Security House Units (SHU).
Stand in solidarity with CA prisoner hunger strikers as they enter their second months of an indefinite hunger strike:
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity.
STOP THE TORTURE!
Learn about your rights under the US Constitution with respect to being questioned, stopped and/or arrested by police.
One down and no end in sight… A bike ride following ART OUT! in solidarity with CA Prison Hunger Strikers, come out and help bring their message to the public sphere and wake up these sleeping masses. Let’s make their demand a reality!
~*In Memory of Billy “Guero” Sell*~
-Prisoner Demands-
• Eliminate group punishments for individual rules violations.
• Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
• Comply with the 2006 recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.
• Provide adequate food.
• Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.
And in Support of the Hunger Strikers 5 Demands.
Bike for the Strike!!
Meet Up at 9 PM Friday August 9th at Oscar Grant Plaza.
Following Art Out 6-9 PM
Brought to you by Onyx, Young Oakland, & Hella Free Store
Sign Making & Bike Repair 2-6 PM
11:00 a.m. : Meet at the Berkeley Post Office, with signs and banners. Hear speakers, and sing with the music.
12 noon : March to CONNECT THE DOTS between FedEx, UPS, and the Blum Center at U.C.
Protest those who want to privatize our public postal service and eliminate union jobs.
We will then return to the Berkeley Post Office
There is a danger that the encampment may be raided and closed soon. Please support our
actions to protect our public property! See you Saturday!
SAVE OUR PUBLIC COMMONS
Committee to Save the Berkeley Post Office
Occupy and JAB photographer Daniel Arauz is to be arraigned tomorrow.
Everyone knows Daniel. He’s been taking pictures and videos at activist
events around Oakland forever. Most recently he took a great set of photos
for the rally and occupation at the Berkeley Post Office.
Some weeks ago he got pulled down and arrested by OPD for taking
pictures of the freeway blockade by Treyvon Martin protesters. He was
the only person arrested and they took his camera.
On Monday, at 9:00 AM, Daniel will arraigned at Wiley Manuel Courthouse
(7th & Washington, one block from the Police Station) in Oakland.
Please come out and support him!!
Occupy Oakland’s John Torok will be a featured speaker.
Labor is one of the oldest popular movements in modern history with impact on all aspects of life. Throughout its tumultuous history from the first strikes in the Gilded Age to the Great Depression and on to today organized labor has faced many challenges in the campaign to improve the lives of working Americans. Tonight we will be learning more about the labor movement as it stands today, the ideas that guide unions in their struggles, the enduring connection between labor and the broader social justice movement, and how they get the job done. We will be hearing from three labor organizers about their experiences in the labor movement and their ideas for moving union and social justice work forward in the 21st century.
12 noon press conference, with Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, Stop Mass Incarceration Network, people formerly Incarcerated in California Dept. of Corrections (CDCR) SHUs, SHU inmates’ families, and other voices of support and conscience.
If you want to go and need a ride, let us know at the contact number. If you can give a ride, please let us know as well. Most of us are meeting at the MacArthur BART Station @ 8am, but let us know if that doesn’t work for you and we’ll see what we can do.
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, in support of the California Prison Hunger Strikers and their 5 Demands invite the public to visit an installation of a life-sized mock Security Housing Unit (SHU) Cell on the California State Capitol South Steps in Sacramento.
This stark multimedia installation will allow visitors to acquire a tactile and visceral understanding of the reality of solitary confinement that over 4,000 California prisoners have endured for years and decades, and why this is cruel and unusual punishment deemed torture by the UN and human rights groups. The installation includes images of SHU cells and prisoners and moving testimony from prisoners and others.
On July 8, 2013, 30,000 California prisoners began a hunger strike to end the torture of solitary confinement and for their basic rights and humanity. Their central demand is “comply with the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.” Now, 100’s of prisoners have gone over one month without food and many more in many prisons have supported the strike and gone on and off the hunger strike since its beginning. Millions throughout society support the prisoners, including prominent voices such as Jay Leno, Danny Glover, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Steinem; yet Governor Jerry Brown and the California Dept. of Corrections refuse to meet their just demands, have retaliated against the hunger strikers, and have publicly vilified the prisoners and the hunger strike. In a July 6 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, CDCR secretary Jeffrey Beard claimed that the notorious SHU “is not ‘solitary confinement.’”
On July 5, Amnesty International stated that “rather than improving,” conditions in California prisons “have actually significantly deteriorated:” On July 22, 2013, Amnesty International called California Prisons and the CDCR’s response to the hunger strike an “affront to human rights.”
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network states “This is an EMERGENCY! One hunger striker, Billy ‘Guero’ Sell, has already died. Many more people need to stand NOW with the prisoner hunger strikers!”
With an introduction by Bato Talamantez, member of the San Quentin 6, indicted following the “Black August” events of 1971. The SQ6 trial was the longest in CA history. Bato is also an organizer with the current California Prisoner Hunger Strike.
This feature film chronicles the political eduction and prison organizaing of revolutionary hero George Jackson while in San Quentin, covering the last 14 months of his life. Jackson would spend 11 yrs in jail (7 in solitary) for a $70 gas station robbery in 1960.
Save Our Berkeley Post Office!
MUSIC on the Downtown Post Office Steps
Hear the latest News
Featuring
Dave Welsh on the Keyboard,
Rude Boy–Vocals and Rap
Hali Hammer with Save our Post Office and more
Damian with Keyboard and Magic
Occupella with Freedom songs
and others
Also: Fresh Juice Party will be doing Chalk Art!
Save our Berkeley Post Office
HALT THE HEIST ~ SAVE OUR PUBLIC COMMONS
Save The Berkeley Post Office
Strike Debt Bay Area
Please join the Civil Liberties Committee of the SF 99% Coalition and the Unitarian Universalists for Peace-SF for a free workshop on NSA surveillance and what we can do about it.
Government surveillance affects our activism on many issues, but especially campaigns relating to US foreign policy and wars. It is unconstitutional, counter-productive to legitimate antiterrorism work, and an outrageous waste of our tax dollars. End the Surveillance State and Restore the 4th!
Goals for this fast-paced 2 hr workshop include: share info on actions already taken in response to NSA revelations; plan for coordinated, strategic actions; role play how to respond to the “I have nothing to hide so why should I worry” conversation; brainstorm and start to create handouts and other materials; sign on to a statement of support for Edward Snowden; prepare a joint calendar of actions and events for the fall.
Short presentations by attorneys and organizers on the NSA revelations, lawsuits, and organizing methods will be followed by breakout groups around specific demands and actions, including plans for the ongoing August congressional recess.
Confirmed speakers include National Lawyers Guild attorney Sharon Adams (also of the Coalition for a Safe Berkeley) and attorney Joe Nicholson. Please come with your ideas, a folder for written materials, and your commitment to our constitutional rights. Note: laptops are welcome but there is no Wi-Fi available. RSVP to: sf99percent@gmail.com
Speakers will include teachers from the College as well as a community member who is part of Radical Women of SF, a trailblazing socialist feminist organization that has been at the vanguard of fighting for CCSF.
Bruce Neuberger: author of “The Lettuce Wars” and teacher of Adult Education and ESL
Rick Baum: political science teacher
Nancy Reiko Kato: Radical Women of SF
Sponsored by the Occupy Forum in San Francisco.