Calendar

We are pleased to announce the North American Premiere of our feature documentary National Bird at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and the West Coast Premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May.

National Bird follows the journeys of three whistleblowers who are determined to break the silence around the secret U.S. drone war. Their stories take dramatic turns, leading one of the veterans to Afghanistan where she learns about one of the worst U.S. airstrikes to have impacted civilians. For the first time, the Afghan survivors, men and women, speak openly about what has happened to them.

National Bird was made by a team of mostly women – in front of the camera and behind.

We would love to share our film with you on the big screen and hope you can make it to one of our screenings. Each will be followed by a Q&A with protagonist Lisa and director Sonia Kennebeck.

Sunday, May 1, at 8 PM

The Victoria Theatre, San Francisco

Monday, May 2, at 3 PM

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, San Francisco

Tuesday, May 3, at 4 PM

Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley

For tickets, please visit the SFIFF website for more information.

And please forward this email, follow, like and promote us on Facebook and Twitter!

We hope to see you soon!

Almost 40 East Bay hotel and food service workers flooded City Hall last week to tell the City Council that we don’t need poverty-wage hotels in Oakland – we need good jobs that support workers, families and communities of color. The workers will be back at City Hall tomorrow night – stand with them!

This winter, employees at the Holiday Inn Express on Hegenberger complained that their bosses were breaking Oakland’s minimum wage law. The City of Oakland investigated and issued a report showing many violations, and ordered the owners to pay back wages and a $5,000 fine.

But the very next month, the City gave the Holiday Inn Express owners a permit to open a new Hampton Inn in Chinatown.

Local 2850 appealed that decision, and our appeal will be heard by the Planning Commission tomorrow night. Please come out and show the City that our community has low-wage workers’ backs. This is our chance to support development that supports our community, and stop a project from hotel owners with a history of mistreating low-wage workers.

Supporters of #Frisco5 plan to march to SF City Hall at 12:30pm to talk w/ Mayor Ed Lee. Unclear if mtg will happen. pic.twitter.com/HnC201Ng88

— Brian Flores (@BrianFloresKTVU) May 3, 2016

The police commission and the mayor are the only two governing bodies which have the power to fire the chief of police. Police Chief Greg Suhr will be at this meeting.  One of the Frisco 5 was admitted to the hospital this morning. We must show up en masse at this meeting to let them see, hear and feel the people’s discontent!

The meeting is in room 400 on the 4th floor.

http://sanfranciscopolice.org/meeting/police-commission-may-4-2016-agenda

RSVP For All Screenings

Our ally Amazon Watch is proud to have supported Josh by accompanying him and his crew to the Amazon to see firsthand the effects of climate change and the fossil fuel industry.

Stay after the film for a Q&A with filmmaker Josh Fox, environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, and Leila Salazar-López of Amazon Watch. Gabriel Mayers, a musician featured in the film will also perform.

Oakland: #reentry workshop 5/5, legal clinic 5/25 for folks who’ve served prison time. https://t.co/yneAIjybA1 @ROOTandREBOUND #smartjustice

— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU_NorCal) April 21, 2016

In California, the Certificate of Rehabilitation (COR) is a powerful but underutilized legal tool for people who served time in state prison for a past conviction to prove their successful rehabilitation after years of success back in society. CORs help restore some of the civil rights and opportunities that individuals with criminal records are stripped of, and applicants have the right under law to FREE legal representation by a public defender in the county where they reside (not the county where the conviction happened).

Stand with Verizon Strikers

RSVP here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/support-verizon-strikers
This strike is a part of an upsurge in working class & oppressed peoples’ actions & movements: Shut down Trump, Stand against Islamophobia & immigrant bashing, Black Lives Matter, No to anti-trans laws, last year’s USW oil workers strike, the UAW Kohler strike, Wisconsin’s “Day Without Latinos,” the Chicago Teachers Union strike, the incredible Boston school bus drivers’ victory, the Fight-for-$15-&-a-union movement of low-wage workers, to name a few. A victory for the CWA and IBEW will be yet another boost that helps all workers that are fighting for justice in the workplace & society. Onward to victory! Our greatest weapon is Solidarity. This strike is about all of us!

@marymad the time has been changed to three

— HungerForJusticeSF (@hngr4justicesf) May 6, 2016

As a showing of unity, let’s fittingly gather, connect and build as a community at the United Nations Plaza. As their health continues to decline, let’s gather in a peaceful loving show of support and solidarity for the FRISCO 5, those who have fallen in the struggle and victims of injustice. Meet new people and build new bridges. All power to the people! One love

Please join us pic.twitter.com/lNxrPQyepY

— jeralynn (@mommablueford) May 5, 2016

Please join us at Oakland First Friday to table and canvass! We’ll focus on collecting signature for our three Oakland ballot initiatives, as well as voter registration.

We haven’t been assigned a space yet, but the political groups are always located together at the south end of the event on Telegraph between Grand and 23rd. We’ll have a table with two chairs and signage.

Please share this event with your friends! There is so much foot traffic at Oakland First Fridays that we’ll need all the help we can get.

We’re working to get these three measures on the ballot:

From the Coalition for Police Accountability: Measure X turns the current Citizens’ Police Review Board into a Police Commission that has power to approve police policies and discipline officers who are found guilty of misconduct.

From the Oakland Tenants Union: Oakland’s “Renters Upgrade” would expand Oakland’s current “Just Cause for Eviction” law and provide greater ability for the city to enforce existing laws amidst a wave of unfair evictions and widespread harassment as demand for housing in Oakland grows.

With Green for the Heart Chakra & Peace for what we Cultivate in the Space- Alan Blueford Center for Justice (First Friday). May 6th is the exact day Alan Blueford’s life was taken at 18 years old by an Oakland police officer. So we come together- hearts open, creativity flowing, band live- to transcend, so are you coming through?

‪#‎TatuVision‬ ‪#‎OneLove‬ ‪#‎ABC4J‬

The Communist Party USA (Oakland/Berkeley)
invites you to a discussion: Police Militarization
Suggested Readings:

Ana Conner &Tara Tabassi, ‘Ending Police Militarization, One City at a Time’
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33001-ending-police-militarization-one-city-at-a-tim

Stephen Graham, Cities Under Seige, The New Military Urbanism
http://libcom.org/files/Graham,%20Stephen%20-%20Cities%20Under%20Siege.%20The%20New%20Military%20Urbanism_0.pdf This is a book length piece – worth reading introduction and skimming the rest

From the Peace and Freedom Party Platform: “The drive for greater profits by multi-national corporations which direct U.S. foreign policy is a major cause of war. We stand for peace between nations and the right of all peoples to self-determination. We support an ongoing socialist transformation everywhere.” We have confirmed speakers to address issues of war, imperialism, revolution, and socialism in Haiti (Pierre Labossiere), Puerto Rico (Ricardo Ortiz), and Venezuela (Laura Wells).

FREE! Please buy food & drink at the Pub. All ages welcome! FREE!

This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like.

The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near 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 Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over four 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.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. 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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (Optional) Discussion Topic

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)
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

Sing for an hour on Solano Avenue at the old Oaks Theater, Berkeley.

@MLNow @48hills @sfexaminer @sfchronicle @sjmercnews @EastBayTimes #SFPD pic.twitter.com/TY0lC1STEd

— Mary Kelly Persyn (@mkpersyn) May 7, 2016

Ahmed Salah was imprisoned, tortured and nearly killed by the Egyptian authorities. After making it out of the country he was born in, by sheer luck, Salah’s memoir of co-designing and implementing the Egyptian revolution during the “Arab Spring” was published on April 4th, 2016. Salah will discuss his newly released book, and field questions and dialogue.

For more event information: https://www.facebook.com/events/115739705491611/

The Assassination Complex reveals stunning details of the government’s secretive and horrific drone warfare program, based on documents supplied by a confidential source in the intelligence community.

Drones are a tool, not a policy. The policy is assassination. Proponents of drone warfare, however, prefer the term “targeted killings.” But drone strikes Frequently kill people who are not the intended target. Unless it can be proven otherwise, the government refers to these unintended victims as “enemies killed in action.” These deaths – all too often of women and children – dwarf the number of actual combatants who have been murdered by drones. They have generated among foreign populations intense anger toward the U.S., and they have become a recruiting tool for jihadists.

Jeremy Scahill and his colleagues on The Intercept obtained a cache of classified slides from a source within the intelligence community that provides a startling window onto the Inner workings of the U.S. military’s drone operations. These documents make it possible to begin the necessary, long-overdue debate about this 14-year campaign of targeted killing that has been deliberately hidden from the public, and exactly why it is conducted so ruinously in so many places.

Jeremy Scahill, one of the three founding editors of The Intercept, is an investigative reporter, war correspondent, author of the internationally bestselling books Dirty Wars and Blackwater, and twice a recipient of the George Pol Award.  He will also discuss The Intercept, the investigative web magazine founded by Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, and Jeremy Scahill, a publication of First Look Media.

Brian Edwards-Tiekert, host of this one-time event, is the daily host of UpFront, KPFA’s popular hour-long news magazine with a strong focus on state and local issues.