Calendar

The Robin Hood Committee needs your help gathering signatures to place two initiatives on the November ballot. The initiatives will create $4.5 million for affordable housing and other city services in Berkeley by taxing the windfall profits of large landlords. Right now, Berkeley tenants are paying more than $100 million a year in excess rent, wealth that is taken out of our community. We can recapture a fraction of that by putting these measures to a vote of the people.

Join us this Sunday to pick up petitions and a partner for signature gathering.

Cant make it Sunday or want petitions earlier? Call us at 1-510-548-FAH-1. The Robin Hood Committee is supported by the Green Party of Alameda County, Councilmembers Worthington and Arreguin, Rent Board members Stephens, Harr, Soto-Vigil and Townley, the Berkeley Tenants Union and many others.
The Windfall Profits Tax on High Rents Initiative will raise the business license tax on residential rental units by 1.9%, but exempts small live-in and low-income landlords with less than 10 units. It also reduces the tax for units occupied by long-term tenants with moderate rents. In order not to discourage new construction, it allows a 20 year exemption from the increase starting with initial occupancy of the building. This is expected to raise $4.5 million annually for the City’s general fund to start with, rising as units occupied by long-term tenants turn over, as 20 year exemptions expire and as rents continue to rise. The tax cannot be passed on to tenants, since current tenants are protected by the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
The Affordable Housing Initiative will require the City Council to set aside at least $3 million annually for the Housing Trust Fund, which is used to develop affordable housing for low-income people either through new construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of existing housing by non-profit organizations. Once passed by the voters, Council will have 120 days to do a fiscal analysis and determine whether to accept the measure or to reduce or veto the allocation. The $3 million set-aside is expected to derive from the windfall profits tax revenue described above. Activists consider passage of the tax measure to be the best means of ensuring that the City can invest in affordable housing without reducing other needed services.
Background: Rents in Berkeley are rising to record highs, bringing windfall profits to most landlords while tenant incomes remain stagnant. Rents are going up because Berkeley is a very desirable place to live, not because landlords have so greatly improved the buildings they own. A strong Bay Area economy and public investments in the University, transit, parks and other public services all make Berkeley an attractive place to live. When public activities increase the value of private property it is only fair that the public recapture a small fraction of the value we the people create and use it for public benefit rather than allowing it all to be taken for private profit.
Before 1999 Berkeley had a strong rent control system that only allowed landlords to raise rents enough to provide a constitutionally required fair return on their investment but did not allow windfall profits at the expense of tenants. In 1999 the State legislature imposed �vacancy decontrol�, which now allows landlords to raise rents without limit whenever a new tenant moves in.
As a result, 85% of Berkeley’s older rentals have had vacancy increases. Tenants are now paying more than $100 million annually in additional rent, over and above what is needed to provide landlords with a fair return on their investment. Real, inflation-adjusted rents have gone up by more than 50% yet Berkeley’s landlords are taking out permits for building renovations equal in value to less than 3% of their massive annual rent increases. This transfer of wealth from Berkeley tenants to landlords, the majority of whom live outside of Berkeley, drains money from the community and increases demands for public services of all kinds, from social services to subsidized housing to public safety.

P.S. We only have until May 10 � we need you today!

STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!

Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.

Monday, April 14th the parents of Alejandro Nieto will file a Claim against the City and County of San Francisco for the egregious and wrongful death of their son (28 years old), shot dead by San Francisco Police officers on March 21st, 2014 on Bernal Hill Park.

After the filing, on the front steps of City Hall at 3:00 p.m, a representative of the Nieto Family will make a brief statement to the press. Please support the family’s claim for justice by joining us at City Hall.

The Fight to Wake up the City,

Stop Displacement,

and Take Back Control of Our Communities

There will be a screening of the workers’ cooperative documentary Shift Change

The film was premiered at Grand Lake last October. Here’s the site for the film if you are interested:

http://shiftchange.org/

Before the showing here will be a pizza and pastry pop-up at 6:00 PM!

After the film there will be a presentation by the filmmakers and a Q&A with members of local cooperatives, including Arizmendi.

To the naked eye, Local’s Corner looks like any other overpriced restaurant that’s popped up in the Mission in recent years. But it’s even worse. It has denied service–at least twice–to groups of Mission residents of color who tried to order food. Its owner, Yaron Milgrom, owns three other businesses in the neighborhood: Local’s Eatery, Local’s Market and Local’s Cellar. A server at Local’s Eatery has filed suit for sexual harassment. Join us as we tell Milgrom to respect civil rights, issue a public apology, and give back to the community through local hire, affirmative action and community benefits agreements.

At a time of massive displacement, and at a time when Alex Nieto, an unarmed man, can be killed by police at the top of Bernal hill while eating a burrito, it’s time to send a message that long-time residents and people of color have a right to live, eat and enjoy life in their own communities!

Sponsored by Mission/Bernal ACCE and Our Mission No Eviction

Facebook event.

“Oscar Grant was murdered for the first time on January 1, 2009; he would be murdered by the courts and the media soon thereafter.”

Join the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, ONYX, and Davey D in a discussion with award winning journalist and author, Thandisizwe Chimurenga on her recently released book, “No Doubt: The Murder of Oscar Grant”. Watch the book trailer.

Chimurenga uses her writing as political activism. In ‘No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant,’ she connects the systematic state-sanctioned violence against young Black males through the case of Oscar Grant’s murder by police on January 1, 2009 in California’s Bay Area.

Thandisizwe is a founding member of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (1990) and is currently a member of Black August Los Angeles. She has received awards from New America Media for “Outstanding Reporting on Health and Health Care” (2013 Ethnic Media Awards), the All African Women’s Revolutionary Union as a “Grassroots Media Advocate” (2010 Mawina Kouyate Daughters of Africa Award), and she was recognized by the African Community Centers for Unity and Self-­Determination as a “Pioneer for African Unity and Victory” (Atlanta, 2009). She came to journalism through activism and sees her writing as a form of activism.

Food will be provided. Books will be available for purchase.

Facebook.

New Deal Film Festival presented by the Save the Berkeley Post Office Committee. Films from the 30’s. Two evenings of double features: April 18th & April 25th.

SATURDAY, April 19, 10 am-1pm: SAVE THIS DATE for our big Friends of Knowland Park Earth Day Rally at the Oakland Zoo entrance!

SPECIAL GUESTS: COUNTRY JOE MCDONALD and the duo of Hali Hammer and Randy Berge! If you can only come out to help with one thing, this is it! Our goal is to turn out even more people than our last successful rally, so please come and bring your friends!

SHOWING UP MATTERS. Homemade signs are great—we will have a bunch, but bring your own if you can (or organize your own sign-making party and we’ll contribute materials!) We’ll have music, fun, some surprises and inspiration! The great places that have been saved, from Yosemite down to small bayside parcels, have been saved because lots of ordinary people took a stand and fought to protect them. This is ours – time to take to the street and stand up for what you believe in! Watch our new video!

Oakland Zoo is at the intersection of Golf Links Road and Mountain Blvd. Allow time for parking on nearby streets and walking to zoo entrance; please carpool, if possible. Let us know if you have something special you could contribute to make it a fun and fruitful rally. Bring water, sunscreen, lunch and plan a picnic in Knowland Park after the rally! Please RSVP to info@friendsofknowlandpark.org so we have a rough head count for planning purposes.

The Earth Day Action Parade

is Sat. April 19th, in conjunction with The Earth Day San Francisco Festival (EDSF). The March/Parade will be from Justin Herman Plaza at 11:30 to the main EDSF Festival at the UN Plaza, with a short Rally at the Main Stage, at 1pm. Pre-events (rallies, marches) as feed-ins from local groups across the Bay Area are being planned.

Impact – Bringing Political Action Back to Earth Day

Earth Day is the single largest day of environmental action. This year, the SF theme is “Action”. Last year 8,000 attended EDSF, aiming for 10,000 this year. Climate and environmental activism is front and central this year.

Your Message, Artistic

Not your “standard” march, The Earth Day Action Parade will be in sections that emphasize themes/messages with artistic visuals or small floats, including:  Why/Morality: Children’s Brigade and faith groups  Environmental Justice: Impacted Communities, Health impacts of Fossil Fuels,  Problems/Dangers: Keystone XL, Fracking, Big Oil refinery expansions, Extreme Weather, and  Solutions: Solar, Wind, Mass Transit, Bicycles, Electric Vehicles (EV’s), Resilient Communities…

See www.350bayarea.org/earthday-sf (under Events):
 For more information
 To Endorse or become a Sponsor
 To RSVP
 To post your organization’s Demands
 To Volunteer (many roles are available) Make The Earth Day Action Parade a significant statement and spread the word about your organization!
Organizations Contact: Rand Wrobel (rand.wrobel@gmail.com, 510.914-2349) Volunteers Contact: John Anderson (p8ton.anderson@gmail.com).

Music.

Food.

Live Art.

The Oakland Privacy Working Group will show the movie Terms & Conditions May Apply at the sudoroom on Sunday, April 20th at 6 PM.  There will be some food and drink, as well.

The movie will be shown after the sudoroom Cryptoparty, where you can learn how to protect your digital privacy.  Make a day of it!

BART OFFICERS & SANTA RITA SHERIFFS TAG-TEAM BATTERY OF NUBIA BOWE, A 19-YEAR OLD AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMAN

One might think that based on the sordid history and negative press surrounding Oakland’s law enforcement activity, officers would think twice before using excessive force on unarmed citizens.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many black and brown youth who are overly scrutinized and policed simply for existing in the skin in which they were born, nor was it the case for Nubia Bowe on Friday, March 21, 2014. On this evening, officers responded to a complaint of two young performers soliciting for money on the train. Two male passengers, and friends of Bowe, were approached by officers at the Lake Merritt station, with a witness who identified the two young men as the guilty suspects. The men were instructed by the officers to get off the train for questioning. Some of the train’s passengers stood up for the youth, telling the officers that young people they were looking for had already gotten off the train at the West Oakland station and that these three riders had not been engaged in the solicitation of passengers.

Bowe, a 19-year-old African American female and full-time student of a local security-training program, repeatedly iterated the group’s innocence, telling the officers that they were in violation of the young men’s rights. This “challenge”, as well as mounting vocal pressure from other BART riders, agitated the officers who forcibly removed Bowe from the train. One officer threw the 5’0” tall, 105 pound teen into the platform and repeatedly “roughed her up” according to one passenger. “They kept slamming her around..her mouth was full of blood” as she was ushered by her attackers to the Lake Merritt station holding cell in preparation for transport to Santa Rita County Jail on one felony and three misdemeanor charges.

Bowe’s first experience with the law quickly intensified at Santa Rita where she was taunted, battered, and denied serious medical care, as well as the usage of phone privileges by deputies at the County Jail; a jail whose condition is reported to be torturous in-and-of itself. “Three male guards and one female guard came in my cell and beat me up. They hit me then said that I assaulted one of them..they chained my wrists to my ankles and tipped me over onto the urine-soaked ground so I couldn’t get up. I could tell they were trying to break my spirit” says Bowe about the four-night stay that resulted in two additional arrest charges being tacked to her quickly growing rap sheet.

Though the felony charge has been dropped to a misdemeanor, Nubia is not yet out of the woods. As a result of the felony arrest, she was kicked out of her training program at the Treasure Island Job Corp where she was only 2 months away from graduation; she is facing criminal charges that can potentially impact the rest of her life, and she will forever have to deal with the trauma of her experiences.

Nubia’s upcoming court dates are: Mon., April 21 at 9 a.m. at the Gale-Schenone Hall of Justice, Dept. 701 located at 5672 Stoneridge Drive in Pleasanton & Wed., April 23 at 9 a.m. at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, Dept. 104 at 661 Washington Street in Oakland. Come to the courthouse to support Nubia in her uncompromising fight for justice and her future.

Fundraiser for currently striking miners!

In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from dayone, showing the courageous but isolated fi ght waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.

This is a rare opportunity to see a courageous
documentary in a class of its own — the only
feature-length documentary on the Marikana
massacre. Never before screened in the United
States, the director Rehad Desai has generously
agreed to let us screen this fi lm.
With the impending Bay
Area visit of Mphumzi
Maqungo from the National
Union of Metalworkers
of South Africa (NUMSA), this screening will
provide ample background on the rise of rankand-
fi le militancy in South Africa and the
completion of the African National Congress’ lo

The movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against the State of Israel has taken major strides recently in the United States. With divestment votes moving forward on campuses across the country, and votes to boycott Israeli institutions passed by the American Studies Association and other organizations, discussions of the movement and its objectives have entered the mainstream.

At the same time, others have redoubled their efforts to suppress discussion of Israel’s escalating war against Palestinians, promoting legislation to defund institutions that participate in boycotts, and pressuring university administrations to punish students and faculty who support BDS.

ALI ABUNIMAH is the author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine. MAX BLUMENTHAL is the author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.

They will discuss their acclaimed new books, recent developments in the Middle East and United States, and the prospects for justice in Palestine.

Sponsored by Haymarket Books and Lannan Foundation.

National website.

Local actions:

SAN FRANCISCO
Time: 10:00 AM
Address: 1700 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94109

SAN LEANDRO
Time: 1:00 PM
Address: 15555 East 14th Street #200, San Leandro, CA 94578

Berkeley Post Office Defenders and Save the Berkeley Post Office will be supporting these actions.

 Staples attacks good jobs and public post offices.

Staples and the U.S. Postal Service have cut a deal that jeopardizes your mail service and your local post office. In fact, post offices across the country are at risk – along with thousands of good jobs.

The Staples deal will replace full-service U.S. Post Offices with knock-off post offices in Staples stores that are not staffed with U.S. Postal Service employees.

A bad deal for workers and consumers.

You have a right to post offices staffed by workers who are accountable to you and the American people. You have a right to postal services provided by highly trained, uniformed Postal Service employees, who are sworn to safeguard your mail – whether it’s at the Post Office or Staples.

The Staples deal is bad for consumers like you who will pay the same for less service. And if Staples and the USPS move forward with this deal, it could lead to the end of the Postal Service as we know it.

Undermining good jobs.

In the meantime, the Staples deal is replacing good-paying jobs that our community depends on with low-wage jobs that hurt our economy.

Free Dental and Medical Care at the Bridges to Health medical and dental clinic.

First come – first serve

100% FREE FOR EVERYONE!

Complete Dental (Surgery & Cleaning)
Eye Exam & Glasses
STD/HIV screening
Medical Care
Women’s Health
Meal & Childcare Provided