Calendar
Organizing meeting of City College of San Francisco students, faculty and classified staff to fight against the downsizing of public education.
Unfortunately we have lots to talk about with the latest outrage of our administration closing Civic Center Campus.
On December 9th, Judge Curtis Karnow heard oral closing arguments in the matter of the People of California vs. the ACCJC. He will issue a tentative ruling any day now. The attorneys will then have 15 days to submit written objections. Sometime after that Judge Karnow will issue his final ruling. (Perhaps February?)
AFT 2121 is calling for a rapid response the first work day after his tentative ruling. The Coalition will be organizing a rapid response after the final ruling. Please check these websites for updates.
http://www.aft2121.org/
www.saveccsf.org
We are reading up on Syriza (the Greek leftist party that could win the Jan 25th election)
and the (current) Greek debt crisis for the next meeting.
Here are some recent articles.. They are all pretty short. People should pick and choose
the ones that seem interesting to them, at least four of them.
If we can find an in-depth analysis of the current Greek fiscal/monetary situation, the reading list may get updated/augmented.
The last is an in-depth analysis of austerity in Europe. However, it is by the Heritage
foundation. It might be interesting to read this to see what the “other side” thinks, so you may wish to peruse it.
Ellen Brown:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/07/greece-takes-on-the-vampire-squid/
Some articles she cites:
Greek Left Review
Leftist Leader Urges Eurozone to End Austerity in Greece
Jacobin:
RT:
http://rt.com/op-edge/185052-greece-crisis-eu-default/
Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/01/economist-explains-1
Foreign Policy:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/08/why-greeces-economy-needs-syriza-to-win-election/
Real News:
Bill Black on US News Coverage of the “Triumph of Austerity” in Greece
Austerity: A Decisive Factor in Greek Elections: Part I, Part II
New Republic:
Paul Krugman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/opinion/paul-krugman-greece-economy-mad-as-hellas.html?_r=0
Guardian:
Greek politics and economics in numbers.
Salon:
Occupy May Be About to Win Its First National Election
Heritage foundation on austerity in Europe
San Leandro, like other cities in the Bay Area, wants to acquire a tank. Well, not a tank exactly; more like (actually, exactly like) an armored personnel carrier. The kind you see in war movies and Iraq footage.
On January 8th a rally against the tank, followed by a San Leandro City Council meeting in which much opposition to the acquisition of this vehicle was voiced, was held. (The City Council plans to hold a vote sometime in February). Most of the voices opposed were San Leandro Citizens, and a few members of the Oakland Privacy Working Group and the Bay Area Civil Liberties Coalition spoke against the vehicle.
Here is a letter a San Leandro resident, Tim Holmes, sent to the Council, finishing the thoughts he did not have time to express at the City Council hearing that evening. It is a good read and very powerful.
To the members of the San Leandro City Council:
I attended the recent community meeting regarding the plans to obtain a Bearcat, I wasn’t able to complete my comments in the time allotted, so I’m including them in full here.
I am asking you vote no and to NOT accept this vehicle.
Tools only seem neutral. You pick one up, you use it and put it back. But the tools at your disposal determine how you solve a problem. “Give someone a hammer and everything begins to look like a nail.” This tool is not neutral.
This tool CAN be used as a medical vehicle, but it is, by any real-world definition, a tank. It’s a vehicle custom-built and sold as a military vehicle, with an oxygen canister, two folding stretchers, and a “MedEvac” sticker thrown in to put a veneer of humanitarian aid to get in through the door.
It CAN be used as a shield, but any shield with holes built-in was built as a firing platform first and foremost and a shield second.
There is no question this tool will be put to use, as any tool is. And, were you to be given a attack helicopter, that too would assist in pursuing bad guys, but when going down that path justifies any tool. Brick by brick we build the world we will live in. That’s the larger picture you need to keep in mind as your decisions will impact generations to come and shape the world they live in, without their participation or permission.
We all draw a line somewhere, a line over which we feel we lose our freedoms. There are countries, now and in the past, who have taken that path, but I don’t know anyone who considers those countries better for it.
That line differs for everyone, but the discussion about where that line is for this community is being denied. Instead our police department has already decided without public input, and is creeping that line forward more and more. The ever increasing and undisclosed number of license plate cameras, community surveillance cameras, with surprise microphones no less, the proposal for the Bearcat, and more. All of this is occurring without an open debate on the tradeoffs, while the police have pat answers to every concern, never even acknowledging that there is indeed a cost, a human cost, and a cost to our individual rights.
We must govern and make decisions under the assumption that people you do not trust will in charge, because the decisions you are making will affect our grandchildren and had somebody made these decisions 30 years ago, we would live in the free society we do today, even with the legacy of abusing the rights of minorities.
People feel the comparison to Ferguson is inappropriate, but it was only a few decades ago when being black in San Leandro was more dangerous than being in Ferguson today, and our police department followed the orders of our city’s culture of racism and abuse of powers. What would those elected officials and those police officers do with this vehicle… You must make laws to protect us from their sentiments now just as we needed that then. You are hearing about police abuse of power because it happens. It happens in the Bay Area today, not just in Ferguson and not just in our past. It really happens and citizens are justifiably fearful.
Because as things stand, the only way to ensure we aren’t the ones being persecuted is to lie low, stay quiet, and not raise trouble and in a democracy that’s not an acceptable trade off, for me and many others…. that’s unacceptably over the line. That’s our reality.
As a citizen of your city, a voter, a parent, local business owner, donor, community activist, and volunteer, I ask you to vote against accepting this vehicle.
Don’t allow us to be dragged back to a time when police cars sat on the border of Oakland, where minorities were unwelcome and discriminated against, and where our police were the stooges of those whose agenda isn’t American, isn’t moral, and which does not represent the people of San Leandro, the majority of whom are already discriminated against and fear the police, and yet make up the majority population of the city.
On September 1, 2014 Anwar was falsely arrested during our 2nd Annual Community Appreciation BBQ, On this day we marched in solidarity with Ferguson and the family of Michael Brown, murdered by Ferguson Police , At the end of our march while returning back to our destination Ali Oakbaba was arrested falsely arrested by Vallejo Police , came from behind to capture and silence him for exercising his right to protest. Those of you who are active in the movement against police brutality know how dedicated he is to the movement
Please Join us as we stand in solidarity with Ali and let them know that he is not alone in this fight
PACK the BART Board Meeting for #blackfriday14!
1. Turn out to the BART Board of Directors meeting tomorrow, Thursday, January 22nd, at 4:45pm: The Bay Area Black Lives Matter chapter will be there, at 344 20th St, 3rd Flr, Oakland, CA, along with our Bay Area allies, to demand that the BART Board of Directors show the necessary leadership to put an end to this outrageous criminalization. And here is a poster you can print out to bring with you: http://goo.gl/JDHv4D
2. Call the BART Board of Directors and urge them to �pass a resolution to drop the restitution.” After 25 people called, the board signaled that they were considering changing course. Now we need to turn up the pressure and every voice counts: http://act.colorofchange.org/call/callBART/
On Thursday, January 22nd the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club will host a wide ranging discussion on the status of local police agencies, their records in our East Bay communities and the invigorated social movement that is demanding these agencies respect the communities they were hired to serve.
The panel will include Cat Brooks of ONYX and the Blackout Collective, Attorney Jim Chanin, who along with John Burris brought the suit resulting in the federal oversight of OPD, Jesse Douglas Allen-Taylor, local journalist, author and political commentator, and Rasheed Shabazz, photojournalist and online editor of the ONYX Express.
Potluck dinner begins at 6, panel around 7:15.
Join the International Socialist Organization for a discussion about the origins and function of the police and their relationship to racism, class and capitalism.
Osha is a long time stalwart civil rights attorney, advocate for the disenfranchised, artist and renaissance activist. Thursday he will be a MECA on 1101 8th Street, Berkeley, signing his latest book, Doodling On The Titanic: The Making Of Art In A World On The Brink. Faceplant
Every Thursday in January is Black Lives Film Night
This week: “Watermellon Man” (1971) narrative of a white guy who wakes up as a black man
Please come to court in San Francisco to support our 2 comrades who were arrested by the during #BARTFriday.
BART police and SF Sheriffs retaliated against these two brave individuals while they were in custody. Particularly severe pain and trauma was caused to one of our arrestees, whose cane was stolen by BART PD, and despite repeated requests for mobility assistance, she was denied any help and police mocked her as they forced her to move about the BART station and jail without assistance.
Check the Facebook event for last minute postponements, etc!
Carl Dix, co-founder of the
Stop Mass Incarceration Network
will be speaking on:
POLICE MURDER BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE ALL THE DAMN TIME!
Why does this happen?
Why are they almost never punished for their crimes?
And what will it take to end this?
During the last few months, powerful, beautiful and determined protests have been dragging some of the reality of what it means to be Black or Latino in Amerikkka out into the open for all to see. People in Ferguson first stood up to say NO MORE to police murder. Many, many people, all across the country and of different nationalities joined in determined and defiant resistance to STOP BUSINESS AS USUAL in a system where the USUAL BUSINESS is MURDER by POLICE.
The actions of the people have done more than all the commissions, all the “conversations about race,” all the “programs that (supposedly) ‘work,’” all the et cetera et cetera blah blah blah bullshit of the past two decades. And they have compelled tens of millions to confront one huge, taproot part of the ugliness that is America: America’s ghoulish, horrific practice of using people who are supposed to be “serving and protecting” to not just pen in, lock down, abuse, humiliate, and brutally attack its Black and Latino youth, as these heartless monsters do every hour of every day, but to outright murder these youth under “color of authority.” The people have, in these past months, taken a big step toward stopping this. Obama, once again, has it exactly wrong: righteous rebellion is precisely what changes things.
Carl Dix grew up in an African-American working class community of Baltimore, Maryland. While attending college, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. In 1970, he was one of six GI’s who refused orders to go to Vietnam. This was the largest mass refusal of orders to Vietnam during that war. Dix served two years in Leavenworth Military Penitentiary. It was during his incarceration that he became a revolutionary. After his release from Leavenworth, Dix returned to Baltimore, Maryland, and worked and organized at the Bethlehem Steel plant. In 1985, Carl spearheaded the publication of the Draw The Line Statement that condemned the bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia, killing 11 people, 5 of them children. In 1996, he co-foundedthe October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. In 2011, Carl, together with Dr. Cornel West, co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and initiated a campaign of civil disobedience to STOP “Stop and Frisk.” This campaign took the effort to end that racist and illegitimate policy to a higher level. In 2014, Carl and Cornel called for making October 2014 a Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.
@BellaEiko discusses why #BlackLivesMatter based upon her Oakland activism, KDVS Davis 90.3 FM, 5:30pm today, 1/23, http://t.co/5NTBGNjnXw
— KDVS (@KDVS903fm) January 24, 2015
Bay Area tweeps: Check out this event on Friday>>#BlackPanthers, #Oakland 1968, Henry Raulston Photographs pic.twitter.com/U2ek7j7U6T
— Sonny Lê (@sonnylebythebay) January 22, 2015
“Groundswell Rising”– a new film about fracking
Learn more about how fracking is poisoning our water and air, causing cancer and asthma, and how ordinary people are successfully fighting to stop the oil and gas industry from fracking in their communities. This provocative and hopeful film documents a people’s movement, a groundswell rising, challenging a system that promotes profit over health.
The film will be followed by a discussion with the director Renard Cohen and a representative of Bay Area 350 who will talk about the movement to ban fracking in California.
New York has banned fracking. We can too!
Cages Kill! Freedom Rally!
At least 6 people have died in the county jail while in the hands of the Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department and California Forensics Medical Group (CFMG) since August 2012. In April 2013, we organized a historic march and speakout, highlighting sheriff violence faced by people inside the County Jail that inspired the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury to investigate the jail’s deadly conditions.
The grand jury report named the April 6th demonstration as a primary catalyst for the investigation. In September 2014, the Grand Jury released its Final Report, which included recommendations to improve physical and mental health services in the jail. Nearly all of the research was met with utter denial from the Sheriff’s Department and CFMG, continuing a trend of disrespect for the community and confirming that they operate with little to no accountability.
These deaths are caused by the same pattern of unaccountability that recently allowed Officer Darren Wilson to walk free after killing Michael Brown. From Ferguson to Santa Cruz, it is clear that our criminal justice system targets the most vulnerable members of society: people of color, women, trans and queer people, people with disabilities, the poor, and the homeless.
Without fierce community resistance, this pattern will continue.
With the solidarity of local, national, and international movements, we are organizing a march and rally to demand that:
- 1. The Board of Supervisors cancel its contract with California Forensic Medical Group.
- 2. The Sheriff’s Department and CFMG accept responsibility for the unnatural deaths and implement the Grand Jury recommendations involving the expansion of Crisis Intervention Team mental health services.
- 3. Solitary confinement/administrative segregation and other forms of torture, such as the “restraint chair,” be abolished.
- 4. The County cancel the $25 million planned expansion of Rountree Detention Center and invest in community-based social services.
Join the demonstration!
To plug into a carpool, email sinbarras@gmail.com // let us know if you need a ride, or have a car with empty seats.
In solidarity,
Courtney Hanson
Sin Barras
A member organization of Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)
Organized by: Sin Barras, Santa Cruz County Community Coalition to Overcome Racism (SCCCCOR), Project Pollinate, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) Santa Cruz.
Endorsed by: Abolitionist Law Center, Pittsburgh, PA; Bettina Aptheker, UCSC, for purposes of identification; Cabrillo College Justice League; California Coalition for Women Prisoners; Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB); Direct Action Monterey Network; Family of Frank Alvarado Jr., killed by Salinas Police, July 10, 2014; Food Not Bombs; Freedom Archives; Global Women’s Strike and Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike; Human Rights Coalition (HRC)-Fed Up!, Pittsburgh, PA; International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ); Justice for the Dallas 6 Support Campaign, Pittsburgh, PA; Justice for Palestinians, San Jose; Legal Services for Prisoners with Children; George Lippman, Vice-Chair, Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission, for purposes of identification; the MOVE Organization and Ramona Africa; National Boricua Human Rights Network; Peak Women; Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC); Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSSC); Rabbi Borukh Goldberg; San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper; South Bay/Santa Cruz Facilitators group of the Pachamama Alliance; Queer Strike; Suppressed Histories Archives (Max Dashu); Bato Talamantez; US PROStitutes Collective; Darlene Wallach; Donna Wallach.
The planting was a few weeks ago. The gardening work continues. Join us!
More information on the Berkeley Post Office Defense against the sale and privatization here.
Pictures and videos of the soil preparation and planting here.
You are invited to join a citywide discussion about the relationship between Black & Brown communities and Law Enforcement.
On Saturday January 24, the Oakland City Council will convene a special meeting to hear from community groups and individuals about concerns raised in recent protest activities and to discuss what the City can do to improve police/community relations.
If you would like to speak at the meeting, you can fill out a speaker’s card in advance or on the day of the meeting.
#Oakland City Council #BlackLivesMatter forum flyer AND draft agenda. #oakmtg pic.twitter.com/v1Zlrsb7WZ
— TDL (@tdlove5) January 20, 2015
Sponsored by Radical Women and SFSU Rebel Voices.
The Walk for Life is a pro-life event that opposes reproductive rights, taking place two days after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Stand with us as we defend the right to a safe and legal abortion!