Calendar
With the momentum of nationwide actions for divestment currently happening, we call on Chancellor Dirks to stand with students, not with fossil fuels. Join us for a climate sleepover and Breakfast for Divestment!
Get trained on direct actions, media, and other skills and come support Fossil Free Cal as they fight for a livable future!
We envision a future not overwhelmed by a global (and state-wide) water crisis, rising sea levels, ravaged by superstorms, and plagued with economic and racial injustice, ruled by the fossil fuel industry for the sake of profit over people. We envision a planet where all can thrive together.
What:
A night-long action that includes music, speakers, spoken word, important trainings about media and direct action, and FUN (of course)
On Thursday morning at 9am, we will set up a table for the Breakfast for Divestment and await Chancellor Dirks’ arrival.
Dirks has been invited in person to attend our breakfast to publicly endorse our campaign so that he can finally answer the question: whose side are you on? the side of corporations or the side of your students?
Join us and bring your friends!
P.S.: Prior to our event, please join us in signing on our pledge!
From the Berkeley Daily Planet
An interfaith coalition representing over 40 Berkeley religious congregations is organizing “Interfaith Actions in Solidarity with Homeless” people Thursday April 9 5pm to 6:15am Friday–at Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza, Center and Shattuck Street, Berkeley.
Events will start with blessing of a meal at 5pm to 5:30pm by Rev. Michael McBride, long time pastor of The Way Christian Center; followed by An Interfaith Service 5:30pm to 6:15pm involving more than 20 local clergy 5:30pm to 6:15pm; followed by a “Night Out Sleeping Vigil” 6:15pm to 8pm & 6:15am in which clergy & members of the interfaith religious community will sleep on the BART Plaza with homeless people.
The event is in response to the proposed passage of new anti-homeless laws by Berkeley City Council on March 17th, despite Berkeley voters opposing passage of Measure S no-sitting laws in 2012 and the recent violent assault on a homeless man by one of the Downtown Business Association’s private “Ambassadors.”
According to Sally Hindman, a Quaker & Executive Director of Youth Spirit Artworks, “All the great religions of the world call us to stand up for justice—so we will be lying down tonight—sleeping on the sidewalk with Berkeley’s homeless. There are two year long waiting lists housing in Alameda County, so the very last thing we would want to do now is criminalize homeless people forced to live outside in our doorways!”
Pastor Michael McBride states, “Having just celebrated Easter, as Christians we are gathering to express God’s love and deep compassion for all people—including homeless people.” This is a Black Lives Matters issue as well—since a predominance of those being criminalized, who will be ticketed and arrested with these new laws are, once again, African American.
Celebrating Passover, Rabbi Michael Lerner of Beyt Tikkun emphasizes, “The clear message of our faith is that those who do not care for the poor and oppressed are defiling God’s name.”
Zen Abbot Geri Rosen adds, “in the Zen Buddhist tradition our practice calls us to selflessness, to peaceful positive solutions, never hurtfulness or violence. We move toward practices of loving kindness. There are multiple creative proposals for approaching the challenge of homelessness in downtown Berkeley we would want the City to support.”
Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman highlights, “Forty percent of homeless youth are marginalized LGBTQI young people who have left their homes and otherwise been forced out on the street—the very last thing our traditions call us to do is make life harder for them than it already is.”
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. We meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at the SEIU Local 1000 union hall, 1433 Webster Street, 2nd Floor in downtown Oakland. These assembly meetings occur from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
Our work together encompasses:
- (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent and care workers;
- (2) current campaigns to improve wages for low-wage workers; and
- (3) efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
At this meeting we will be planning an action at OGP on April 15th (4/15 = FOR $15) in tandem with other actions around the East Bay and converging on a huge FF15 rally to commence at 3:00 PM at UC Berkeley.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better. Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
A meeting to come up with a collective proposal for Direct Actions on MayDay.
Vigil and march in loving memory of Yuvette Henderson. All aspects of the action are planned to be peaceful. This event is organized by the Anti-Police Terror Project with permission from the family of Yuvette Henderson. The APTP demands an open and public investigation, while knowing that a fair investigation will never occur if that investigation is left solely in the hands of the police. We have continued to make the following demands:
– Release of the video tapes that contain the shooting or any lead-up to the shooting of Yuvette Henderson
– Leave without pay for Michelle Shepherd and Warren Williams, the officers involved in the killing of Yuvette Henderson, while they are being investigated and, ultimately, the termination of Shepard and Williams from the Emeryville Police Department.
– The immediate return or destruction of all military styled weapons and accessories in the possession of the Emeryville Police Department and specifically the AR-15 rifles, like the one used to murder Justice 4 Yuvette Henderson -AR-15’s are a military-grade, automatic weapon; the same weapon used by the United States military in wars throughout the world.
– An account on what happened to Yuvette while in contact with Home Depot security, an explanation regarding how she sustained the head injury on Home Depot property, and a reason as to why she never saw the paramedics as a result of her head injury.
Get involved with the fight against solitary confinement.
Become a human rights pen pal: Contact cws@igc.org
Since April 10th 2012, Oakland and Stockton have become one in the fight against police brutality. Donnie Smith-Downs has gone coast to coast in support of victims of police killing. She has shown us that solidarity is an action word by her presence in the fight against police brutality and the militarization of local police departments. Her son James Rivera was shot with an AR-15, piercing his body leaving holes the size of tennis balls.
Since 4/10 /12 Stockton has had a number of police killings, and momma Dionne has become a source of strength for those families in her community. The justice for James Rivera coalition over the past few years have been able to spread the word about the racism in Stockton police department that the department of justice is giving 6 cities funding to combat racism in, and Stockton is one of them. Show your solidarity with Dionne Smith-Downs as she fights for others in her community. Let’s imitate what her and Cyndi Mitchell have shown us.
Rally and March will begin at 12:30 PM at Eden Park, Stockton.
HS student in #Oakland challenging you to #ShutDownA14 https://t.co/KAock7PZwy #WalterScott @mrdaveyd @Carl_Dix pic.twitter.com/3c1Nx2YK7P
— Revolution Club (@RevClub_bay) April 11, 2015
Stop Business as Usual.
No School! No Work!
Say No More! To The System Giving a Green Light to Killer Cops!
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. We meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month.
Our work together encompasses:
- (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent and care workers;
- (2) current campaigns to improve wages for low-wage workers; and
- (3) efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
At this meeting we will doing final planning for an action at 8:00 AM April 15th (4/15 = FOR $15) in tandem with other actions around the East Bay, and our FF15 March at 1:00 PM starting at Oscar Grant Plaza which will converge on a huge FF15 rally to commence at 3:30 PM at UC Berkeley.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better. Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
Sprouts is known for their low pay, labor violations and union-busting. Across the country, fast food and minimum wage workers are standing up and speaking out for their rights. On 4/15, we are shutting down Sprouts to protest their paving of historic farmland at the Gill Tract, and to stand with workers across the country demanding $15 and a Union.
Join us on April 15th, as we protest the paving of historic farmland at the opening of a new Sprouts in San Rafael – sandwiched in the middle of a DAY OF ACTIONS in solidarity with the Nationwide Fight for Fifteen.
Join us throughout the day as we travel from Oakland to San Rafael and back to Berkeley!
Tentative Schedule
8am: McDonald’s action in Oakland with Fight for Fifteen! Location TBA
12pm: Sprouts shut down in San Rafael
3pm: Return for Rally & March in Berkeley!
More information about why Occupy the Farm is calling for a national boycott of Sprouts “Farmers Market”: www.BoycottSprouts.com
We need not only land, but a complete transformation of the food system. That means challenging corporations, and lifting up workers. Join us!
On April 15, join the Fight for $15 and be part of the largest low-wage worker protests in modern American history.
There is a crisis in America. Working families have endured decades of stagnant incomes. We are increasingly forced to choose between keeping a roof over our heads, paying our bills or feeding our kids.
Meanwhile, the corporations we work for have record profits and their executives earn ever-increasing salaries.
On April 15, here in the Bay Area, families, workers, people of faith, students, artists, leaders, and community supporters will be taking to the streets to say that “We won’t stand for this.”
This movement unites adjunctprofessors airportworkers,walmartworkers, fastfoodworkers & homecareworkers. #fightfor15 pic.twitter.com/DKLLyJJC7P
— Food Chain Workers (@foodchainworker) March 31, 2015
The Anti-Police Terrorism Project is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee that in coalition with other organizations like the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Workers World and Healthy Hoodz is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.
We meet the 3rd Wednesday of every month.
At the Assembly we will discuss and organize pickets and shutdowns for May Day, May 1, in affinity and working groups.
This week we are meeting with the Oakland Open Circle at the OMNI basement, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland, and will continue a bit after they have finished their meeting. The Open Circle will have a potluck lunch at the Omni beginning at 3 PM and start their regular meeting at about 3:45 PM. Occupy Oakland’s own GA will begin at about 5 PM or so after the Open Circle finishes up.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly generally meets Sundays, at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway, often on the steps of City Hall. “If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Ave, Oakland Directions
We have met on a continuous basis for more than three years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives voluntarily come to the GA and report on past and future actions. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- Discussion Topic (Optional)
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Occupy Oakland Kitchen Committee: (kitchen@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders: http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice: https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group: https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
Please join us for the Potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with updates and announcements of upcoming actions followed by reflection and dialogue around the current state and thoughts or approaches on how to effect change.
We will end with working groups to organize and plan our next steps in the struggle.
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
Invitation To Attend Planning Meeting For *BIG* Earth Month Rally To Support Launch Of CleanPowerSF
350 SF is going to hold a very important organizing meeting to help plan a big rally that is being held by Sierra Club, 350, and others, to support CleanPowerSF (see CleanPowerSF details below).
The rally will be on April 28, 12:30pm at San Francisco City Hall – see https://www.facebook.com/events/418190375008487
(Save the date.)
For his entire tenure, San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee has attempted to block CleanPowerSF due to campaign donations and other influence from fossil fuel energy corporation PG&E. But in January 2015 that all changed, and a decade of grassroots community campaigning has finally gotten the mayor to reverse his position.
Now that the historically anti CleanPowerSF Mayor Lee is finally saying he supports launching CleanPowerSF by the end of the year, we need to show a BIG public presence during Earth month to make clear to Lee that he needs to keep that promise.
Here are the basic details about CleanPowerSF..
CleanPowerSF
HOW IT WORKS
California Community Choice law allows any city or county to group its electricity customers into a powerful builders and buyers cooperative for installing and purchasing clean energy and efficiency for those customers. Community Choice joins together the buying power of all those customers, as a not-for-profit community service, and so gives consumers the leverage they need to get cleaner electricity at lower prices than those offered by for-profit monopoly utilities like PG&E.
Under a Community Choice program like CleanPowerSF, PG&E still maintains the wires and distribution of electricity and still sends the bill, while the Community Choice program is free to choose the energy sources, and so can ensure a cleaner and better deal on the energy itself.
The two counties that already have Community Choice (Marin and Sonoma) are delivering greener energy at lower prices than PG&E.
CleanPowerSF is planned to run the city on 50% local clean electricity by 2025!
Get involved with the fight against solitary confinement.
Become a human rights pen pal: Contact cws@igc.org
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-Mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-mcdonald backed out of the deal in early december.
Get an overview of the sale announcement here. Here’s a good more general overview piece.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th.
There was another hearing in March 26th.
Federal Judge William Alsup will decide whether the lawsuit will continue or be dismissed – he should decide sometime in the next several weeks. See our response to the Postal Service’s response to Judge Alsup’s request for them to rescind their decision to sell.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
STOP POLICE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN OF COLOR!
Tell Oakland City Council to put pressure on OPD, the District Attorney, and Alameda Coroner!
We demand them to release the police and autopsy reports in the police killing of 27-year-old mother of four, Guadalupe (“Lupe”) Manzo Ochoa. Lupe was killed by San Leandro Police in East Oakland December 7th and now OPD is investigating the shooting and refuses to be transparent with the family!
WEAR HOT PINK (Lupe’s favorite color), bring noisemakers and signs that say @[null:#Justicia4Lupe]!
*We want to get a long line of people to sign up to speak and simply state “on behalf of Lupe Ochoa’s family, release the reports!”
*Please note that the formal meeting begins at 630pm though sign up may begin as early as 530. Some of us will be in attendance early to sign up for those who wish to speak.
We will have some chants. We want to disrupt City Council and remind them that police devastated Lupe’s family and community and we want answers!
Update: sign up to speak on item number 13. It’s for an independent review board for OPD. Utilize the time to talk about how OPD cannot be trusted to investigate themselves let alone San Leandro police and that the police and coroners reports in the killing of Lupe Ochoa needs to be released now! Sign up for a speakers card online through this link:
http://