Calendar
Seventy people, many living on the Albany Bulb for years, even decades, are scheduled to be evicted from their homes beginning October 1st. (See this essay for what the Albany Bulb is and more details).
The Bulb community is sponsoring a Potluck and Open Mic event, followed by Music from BLACKBIRD RAUM of
Santa Cruz.
Protect autonomous and free space! Come visit the Bulb and see what we all can do to stop the evictions!
5:00 PM: Potluck begins.
8:00 PM: Music!
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
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: It doesn’t rain in Oakland in August or September.
If you would like to help us monetarily with our work. We don’t need much, but we do keep a phone hotline active and do flyers and posters. Any little bit helps.
THE ABOLITION OF PRISON
Can you think of such a thing? (Are you attached to a revenge ethic?)
Is it worth our time to think through such an endeavor?
(Are we concerned about what happens to those whom we have empowered the state to incarcerate?)
You’re invited to join the circle and share your questions, concerns, and insight.
We will hear presentations and discuss the issue.
Presenters:
Steve Martinot, author of an extensive essay, The Need to Abolish the Prison System: An Ethical Indictment
Marie Levin, sister of a man who’s been held in solitary confinement in California for more than 29 years
Nuri Nusrat, member of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collaborative
Judge Gail Bereola, Alameda County Superior Court
Elder Rev. Betty Williams, Alameda Race Violence Task Force
Co-Sponsors:
First Congregational Church of Oakland
Seminary of the Street
Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Nafsi ya Jamii
A film directed by Ansar Muhammad (ZAR THE DIP).
Screening followed by a panel discussion.
Sponsored by the Merritt College Black Student Union.
The Post Office could announce the sale of the Historic Downtown Berkeley Post Office any time now. Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our post office and against privatization.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Come join us for this compelling documentary which uses the metaphor of The Wizard of Oz to explain the history of the monetary system, how it has gotten us into our current economic malaise, and how we can get out of it. The movie was created by Bill Still, a documentary film maker that has been exploring monetary issues in movies since 1996.
The movie is 1:50 long, we will have a short break in the middle, and our always engaging discussion will follow!
The Secret of Oz won the Silver Sierra award at the Yosemite Film Festival and the Award of Merit at the Accolade Competition La Jolla, California.
The yellow brick, the emerald city of Oz, even Dorothy’s silver slippers (changed to ruby slippers for the movie version) were powerful symbols of author L. Frank Baum’s belief that the people – not the big banks — should control the quantity of a nation’s money. The bottom line: No More National Debt. All our money is created out of debt. But nations don’t have to borrow money from banks. Sovereign nations can create their own money — debt free — just as Abraham Lincoln did to win the Civil War. This is the secret that’s been hidden from us for over 100 years.
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.
Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
“Heidi Boghosian’s Spying on Democracy is the answer to the question, ‘if you’re not doing anything wrong, why should you care if someone’s watching you?'”
— Michael German, Senior Policy Counsel, ACLU and former FBI agent
Until the watershed leak of top-secret documents by Edward Snowden to the Guardian UK and the Washington Post, most Americans did not realize the extent to which our government is actively acquiring personal information from telecommunications companies and other corporations. As made startlingly clear, the National Security Agency (NSA) has collected information on every phone call Americans have made over the past seven years. In that same time, the NSA and the FBI have gained the ability to access emails, photos, audio and video chats, and additional content from Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Microsoft, YouTube, Skype, Apple, and others, allegedly in order to track foreign targets.
In Spying on Democracy, National Lawyers Guild Executive Director Heidi Boghosian documents the disturbing increase in surveillance of ordinary citizens and the danger it poses to our privacy, our civil liberties, and to the future of democracy itself. Boghosian reveals how technology is being used to categorize and monitor people based on their associations, their movements, their purchases, and their perceived political beliefs. She shows how corporations and government intelligence agencies mine data from sources as diverse as surveillance cameras and unmanned drones to iris scans and medical records, while combing websites, email, phone records and social media for resale to third parties, including U.S. intelligence agencies.
More info and ticket purchase.
As head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano implemented programs such as Secure communities and 287g which have deported almost 2 million undocumented immigrants. Her only background on education is getting rid of in-state tuition for undocumented youth in Arizona.
We’ll be having a rally on Tuesday at 11:00AM on Upper Sproul to protest Napolitano’s nomination. At 12:00PM students from the Multicultural coalition are going to meet with Napolitano and present their demands.
It’s important that we show that we are one! Napolitano thinks this will be a quick and easy meeting. However, we will make it clear that she is not welcome in our UC System!
Therefore, around 11:20 We’ll head out from Upper Sproul to Oakland. Where her office is located.
From October 25th -28th, 2013 in Oakland, California, Urban Shield – a trade show and training exercise for SWAT teams and police- will bring together more than 150 local, state, federal, int’l and private sector partners and defense contractors. Urban Shield has taken place over the past six years, and is hosted by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
Last week at the city of Oakland’s public safety meeting, community groups challenged the notion of funding for Urban Shield – being hidden in the language and process, by requesting a mere $200,000, to be used for “safety drills” for the Fire Department. Meanwhile, Alameda county record’s indicate that the sheriff’s office is being paid up to $7.5 million in federal funding for Urban Shield – and activities couched as anti-terrorist “safety drills” when the record demonstrates that these methods are also used on civilians in ‘scenarios’ that include public protest, stop and frisk, deportation, and the criminalization of poverty and mass incarceration.
This is our opportunity to make our voices heard again at City Hall, and say:
1) We do not want a gun show that sells militarized weapons to the police in the heart of downtown Oakland.
2) We want to know why City Council is permitting known human rights violators, to operate in the heart of the city?
3) We demand a clear budget of all public funds that are being spent on Urban Shield.
Facing Urban Shield Action Network (FUSAN) is composed of 30 diverse Bay Area groups who believe that hosting Urban Shield in Oakland is the wrong direction for public policy. FUSAN firmly rejects the use of city space and funding for Urban Shield, to practice “war games”. This partnership between police with human rights violations from Bahrain, Israel, Guam, and Brazil, deepens the possibility of continued misconduct and human rights violations already on record. Urban Shield ‘exercises’ further militarizes police responses to all kinds of emergencies, like people in crisis with mental health issues with devastating results. Urban Shield is militarizing police with more weapons, which results means increased harm to African-American, Latino and Arab and Muslim communities.
To prevent the eviction of its current residents and explore solutions.
POTLUCK + DOCUMENTARY SCREENING.
Bring your own water, camping gear, and love of the land.
The Berkeley Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing on a proposed Zoning Ordinance that would preclude the downtown Berkeley Historic District (which includes the Post Office building) from being used for commericial purposes.
While this sounds incredibly boring it is also very important. The Post Office is very scared about the potential for this ordinance to inhibit their imminent sale of the the 2000 Allston Way Post Office building to private developers.
Come make your voice heard for a strong zoning ordinance, against the sale of the Post Office, and against the privatization of our commons!
Strike Debt’s “Politics of Debt” study group will be discussing the video “Money Masters” We’ll be meeting at Au Coquelet cafe and restaurant in Berkeley, 2 blocks northwest of the downtown Berkeley BART station. The link to the “Money Masters” video (which is 3 1/2 hours long) is here.
In addition to discussing this video, we’ll also discuss which books (or articles) we’d like to read for the next several sessions, so bring your ideas.
this coming Wednesday, October 2nd, at 7:00 pm.
As millions around the country flock to theaters to watch the acclaimed film, ‘Fruitvale Station’, there is little said about the role of Oscar Grant’s father in his life. But stepping forward for the first time to tell this tale is Oscar Grant’s cousin, Samuel Morris, who will discuss the wrongful imprisonment of Oscar Grant’s father for the past 27 years and the outrage felt by many who see an innocent relative held behind bars while the man who clearly murdered Oscar walks free after a miniscule 11 month jail sentence.
Read the Liberation News’ article that discusses the Oscar Grant Jr. case:
http://www.pslweb.org/liberationnews/news/untold-story-oscar-grant.html
Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation as we discuss the story of Oscar Grant’s father and the connections between economic oppression, mass incarceration, and police brutality.
People will be staffing a table with information about California solitary confinement conditions in solidarity with the suspended prisoners’ hunger strike.
Come on down and hang out and help pass out literature.
Your support is needed, all out for a critical day for the ACAC 19: anti-colonial, anti-capitalist comrades arrested last Columbus Day weekend in San Francisco.
All Out for a Settlement Hearing on Friday, October 4th!
All 19 defendants have been ordered to appear at a “settlement hearing” on Friday, October 4 at 850 Bryant St., Department 23. Rally at noon on the steps and fill the courtroom for the hearing immediately following. This will be a key moment where the case could be settled – let’s pack the court and pressure the Judge and the DA to drop the charges!
At the settlement hearing a judge will try to negotiate a deal between the DA and the defendants. The judge will likely call all attorneys into chambers and try to convince both sides to come to an agreement that will avoid trial. Sometimes that means convincing the defense attorneys to try to sell their clients on a deal because the judge thinks that they may be convicted at trial. In this case, however, it could be more likely that the judge will tell the DA what we already know; the DA doesn’t have a case. The state may also be influenced to capitulate in order to avoid trial when they see the amount of support that the ACAC 19 has and get a taste of what trial will be like. It would be great if the last thing that the Judge and the DA see before they go into chambers was a courtroom overflowing with support for these comrades.
Please, join the support committee and the ACAC 19 at a rally at noon on the steps of the courthouse at the end of which, we will fill that courtroom with solidarity !
We will read the names of those killed by police in Northern California.
We remember. Please join us.
Stand against systemic racism and violence that cost us the lives of too many young black and brown men
causing long-lasting, detrimental affects on all our communities.
The Interfaith Tent for Justice grieves with all victims of violence and their families. Whether victims of drone attacks, bombings, torture, oppression, gang shootings, domestic violence, rape culture, systemic racism, or increased violence from police and security forces, we stand with you. No one is immune to the effects of violence, including those who are involved in the systems that use violence as a means of social control.
We will continue to work for justice for all, to the best of our abilities.
A program called Operation Ceasefire works to stop gang violence. This isn’t enough. Police must be held accountable for extrajudicial killings and violence. This is why we call for 100% Ceasefire. A long term goal, but one worth working toward.
Come check out the Justice 4 Alan Blueford table as we interact with the readily available masses of people, spreading the word about JAB’s upcoming work & direction, which is to:
•continuing to raise awareness about what Masso did to Alan & the associated coordinated cover-up
• mounting a campaign demanding Kamala Harris to prosecute Masso
• opposing Gallo’s proposed youth curfew
• educate the community & help build JAB’s base of support
• spread the word about Oct 22nd–National Anti-Police Brutality Day.
• standing in solidarity w/local labor struggles such as the upcoming BART strike.
The ONYX Organizing Committee, Healthy Hoodz, Young Oakland, oakland artists, cultural workers and families invite you to continue cultural resistance in the plaza!
OCTOBER ART OUT!
FROM COLUMBUS, TO OAKLAND TO SYRIA
Full description of the event on Facebook & RSVP.
WHY 14TH AND BROADWAY/OSCAR GRANT PLAZA?
A town plaza is a central meeting place for the people of the community. OG Plaza is our town center, our neutral meeting place for free speech and public dialouge. it was the epicenter of a bay area youth movement in the ’90s were hundreds of thousands of youth and their supporters closed down public schools to open freedom schools; halted the construction of new juvenile detention centers; interupted major corporations profit flow. it was the epicenter of the largest uprising in response to police terrorism in the history of the United States during the days of rage around oscar grant’s murder. it became the epicenter for occupy oakland.