Calendar
Join the Alameda Renters Coalition for a BBQ and launch party for our new website! All are welcome — long-time friends, family, kids, pets, and those just learning about us! We’ll have barbeque from a special member and Alameda resident, opportunities to get involved with the Coalition’s exciting summer work, and games for kids. Hope to see you there!
The first West Oakland screening of Dogtown Redemption is this Saturday Producer/co-director Amir Soltani will discuss the film after the screening. Find out more at DogtownRedemption.
Shot over seven years, DOGTOWN REDEMPTION is not only the intimate story of recyclers in West Oakland but a journey through a landscape of love and loss, devotion and addiction, prejudice and poverty.
A surprising number of Americans make their living off a vast river of trash. DOGTOWN REDEMPTION follows this river, and its inhabitants in a lively, bustling yet invisible corner of California. Every year, Californians buy about 22 billion carbonated and non-carbonated drinks in aluminum, glass, and plastic containers—a river of trash. Under California law beverage containers can be redeemed for a few cents per container. As a result of this legal innovation, trash can be turned into cash—a lifeline for a subculture of marginalized recyclers: the unemployed and underemployed, the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled, former criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes can reclaim the pride and joy that comes with having a job.
We follow the lives of three recyclers: Jason Witt, the titan of recycling; Landon Goodwin, a former minister, and addict who struggles with his own fall from grace; and Miss Hayok Kay, the ultimate outsider, formerly a Polkacide drummer from a prominent Korean-American family, now at the mercy of the elements and predators. Through them, we are introduced to the art, science, economics and politics of recycling: what it offers, how it touches the poor and why it matters to all of us.
We follow their lives through the prism of a single recycling center: Alliance Metals, located in West Oakland. With annual sales in the millions, Alliance is an anomaly in an otherwise depressed neighborhood that has witnessed the steady flight, erosion and collapse of American industry. Its owner, Jay Anast, purchases bottles and cans from shopping cart recyclers. His business operates as a financial hub and community center, turning Alliance not only into a center of economic activity but a Fellini set populated with the most improbable of characters—the pirates of trash. By virtually any measure, the denizens of the recycling center—the poorest of the poor—should be dead. But they defy Darwin. Poverty has turned them into the masters of improvisation and ingenuity.
In the view of the residents of Magnolia Row and other new developments in West Oakland, Jay’s time is up. His business is noisy, smelly, ugly and dirty—a giant garbage can. It attracts blight: scavengers, drug dealers, and criminals who depress, destroy and disrespect the promise of the American dream. The rattle of the shopping carts, missing garbage cans, litter on the streets, public defecation, theft, crime and trespassing are offered as evidence that the recyclers are not only stealing garbage but are a blight upon the neighborhood.
Dogged by addiction, mental health issues, homelessness and poverty, the recyclers’ grip on life remains tenuous. Recycling serves as the only constant in their life. Yet with commodity prices collapsing, the neighbors calling for a ban on shopping cart traffic, and the city launching a sting against Alliance Metals, their way of life is threatened from all sides. As the battle for the future of the recycling center heats up, a larger debate over the history, culture and future of West Oakland grows more intense.
The question of who owns our garbage makes these otherwise marginal characters important voices in a conflict over race, class and space in a modern American city. And that war is not only one waged on the streets, but also at City Hall—a battle over who defines the rules that equate poverty and recycling with blight, crime and theft.
DOGTOWN REDEMPTION humanizes and celebrates this other America; the America that many of us do not see. That a small recycling center has allowed so many to survive on a daily basis—for years, even decades—is a minor miracle. A reminder that even in trash there can be life, love and redemption.
Justice4Tyranny’s work is a visual exploration of the world’s social oppressions. He takes complex social ideas puts them into multifaceted layers of visual metaphors using symbolism and sattire. Among many themes, he highlights themes of heroinism, mass incarceration, subjugation of womyn, and gentrification. He is one of the premier emerging artists rising in the Bay Area and this work is a must see.
Artist Talk 7pm
Open reception with light refreshments following.
Tonight in #Oakland at 7pm, Building for National Prison Work Strike on Sept 9th. https://t.co/cAwaJJIJll pic.twitter.com/aG0BxOPO1A
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) June 18, 2016
SJC Presents the Film “Power of the Weak”
“The Power of the Weak” film, sponsored by BFUU’s SJC and the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity, is a documentary film by independent German filmmaker Tobias Kriele, which highlights being disabled does not have to mean weak. In this film, Jorgito, a young Cuban with severe cerebral palsy, shows how a society structured to support human development can make the disabled powerful.
Refreshments available.
June 18th, El Rio, Frisco500 bail fundraiser & benefit for the family of Jessica Nelson.. ✊🏾https://t.co/96OA2ToeH2 pic.twitter.com/gokhnDiDWT
— Equipto (@EQUIPTO) June 9, 2016
Come hear clean energy mavin Carol Weed of the Contra Costa Clean Energy Alliance on the status of Community Choice Energy in CoCo County, the three options under consideration, and next steps.
Come to the cryptoparty! We will have talks about electronic privacy, encryption technology, and why it matters. There will also be volunteers waiting to help you install encryption software on your computer and phone. Refreshments will also be present.
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
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (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
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
Signers of the Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth Treaty, Idle No More SF Bay and our allies from Diablo Rising Tide invite you to a Summer Solstice Action:
With love in your hearts for all you hold dear, we invite you to join us on the Summer Solstice to protect and defend the sacred system of life on Mother Earth’s belly by joining us at the gates of Shell in Martinez, California.The Indigenous Women of the Americas Defending Mother Earth (more at www.IndigenousWomenRising.org) calls upon us and all of our relatives on each Solstice & Equinox to:
Nonviolently rise up with others in your communities and around the world to demand immediate changes in the laws that have created the destruction
Commit nonviolent acts of civil disobedience where destruction is occurring until it is stopped
Continue these acts until “business as usual” is halted and life on Mother Earth is safe for generations to come
Our responsibilities as Indigenous women of the Americas and our allies: “demand that we act to ensure healthy air, water, soil, seeds and a safe climate so that life may continue. There are those who have forgotten that we live in a natural system with natural laws that govern that system: the Laws of Mother Earth & Father Sky. These laws have been violated to such an extreme degree that the sacred system of life is now threatened and does not have the capacity for life to continue safely in the way in which it has existed for millions of years.”
More from the Treaty:
“There have never been more unjust laws than the ones that exist now which are allowing the destruction of the environment that we need to exist. For these reasons we invite our sisters and their allies around the world to join us in teach‐ins and nonviolent direct actions at all of the facilities and seats of power that are causing the destruction. We invite you to do this calmly, without malice, and with the love in your hearts for everything you hold dear.As tribal women, our love is clear, unconditional and strong. Our traditional Indigenous ways of life instruct us that women hold the wisdom necessary to guide the leaders toward understanding the needs of children and the unborn. Through this treaty initiative we are raising our voices to give direction to government leaders and those holding seats of power to adjust the man‐made laws in accordance with the natural laws.”
On June 20, activists from 35+ countries will be demanding FREEDOM FOR OSCAR. Join us in Oakland. Oscar is a community organizer, a Vietnam veteran and a political prisoner for 35 years. Join this international day of solidarity following the UN Decolonization Committee Hearings to demand Oscar’s immediate relase. Let us add our voices demanding that President Obama commute Oscar’s sentence!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Film and Discussion with Ted Frazier
Harry Bridges (July 28, 1901–March 30, 1990) was an Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). In 1937, he led several chapters in forming a new union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), adding warehouse workers to its membership, and led it for the next 40 years.
Harry Bridges — A Man and his Union chronicles the life of one of America’s most important and controversial left-wing labor leaders. He headed the International Longshoremen and Warehouseman Union from the 1930s to the 1970s and was a champion of workers’ causes on an international scale.
Harry Bridges was as controversial as he was charismatic. He was prosecuted by FDR, Truman, and Eisenhower alike, and convicted by a federal jury for having lied about Communist Party membership — a conviction which was set aside. On the West Coast, Bridges still excites passions both for and against the labor movement. In our current incarnation, the Movement looks to the unions to amplify the struggle.
Time will be allotted for announcements.
@sanasaleem OPD is rotten to its core and Libby’s got to go. Press conference on Tuesday 6/21 at 10 am in front of OPD HQ #byelibby
— APTP First Response (@aptpresponse) June 21, 2016
OPD is rotten to its core and Libby’s got to go
On Tuesday, June 21st at 10:00 AM, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), in coalition with Oakland Rising ACTION, Black Lives Matter, Causa Justa, Just Cause, Black Power Network, Ella Baker Center, Asians 4 Black Lives and the Oakland Alliance will hold a press conference in front of the Oakland Police Department.
Oakland’s police department has entered its 13th year of federal oversight, and as investigative reporters, academic researchers and our own soon-to-be ex-mayor have revealed over the last month, it’s clear that nothing has changed since the Riders case.
“OPD is still a bastion of predatory loose cannons who have seen time and again that they will not face accountability for killing, abusing and exploiting our community members,” said Asantewaa Boykin of APTP.
The Oakland community condemns the Mayor’s underwriting of state violence that began when she spent her entire first day in office with OPD. Since that day, OPD has murdered 7 Black men with no consequences.
“Instead of stepping back to acknowledge her mistake, the mayor has doubled down on her support for state-sponsored executions through her words and financial prioritization of policing over the education and employment of our youth,” continued Boykin.
The police department currently squanders 60% of the City of Oakland’s budget. The City Administrator, Mayor and Board of Supervisors have shown and stated that they’re incapable of managing the “frat house” with guns and handcuffs that prowls our streets day and night.
The community demands immediate action and commits to working toward building an Oakland where all of us can live free of police terror.
Demands
1. Community-controlled policing – Establish a fully funded community-nominated and controlled civilian review board with the power to hire, fire and discipline all members of the OPD.
2. Defund OPD and invest in the community – Cut the policing budget in half and redirect those millions into community-run job centers, programming for youth, re-entry resources, mental health services, tenant protections and education and very low-income housing.
3. Address the child sexual exploitation scandal in a meaningful way – Launch a full investigation by an outside agency that will investigate criminal cases influenced by predatory officers and account for the trafficking investigations they have compromised. Additionally, OPD must Publicly state that coercion and enticement of a minor is never the fault of the child.
4. Resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf
Speak up Oakland! Tell City Council how you feel.
Ya’ll know that “rent is too damn high”. Community has been working hard this year to put into place measures to protect renters by asking the city to enact a #HousingMoratorium (which ends July 5th!) and additional ordinances on the November Ballot. Plus, given the recent upheaval with the policy, the Mayor and City Council are looking to reallocate funding from the police budget to other things.
Key items are as follows:
1. Item 16 on the Agenda: The Renter’s Protection Ordinance will do the following:
– Require owners to file a petition for rent increases above 60% Consumer Price Index for Bay Area. Currently, if a tenant gets a drastic rent increase, they have to petition to the city for arbitration, which places the burden of time, money, stress on the renter. This item will ask the landlord to justify the rent increase.
– Modify New Construction Exemptions to apply to developments built after Jan. 2002
– Require relocation funding to tenants in Owner Occupancy Evictions.
– Limit City Council’s ability to modify ordinances
– Increase of the transparency of the Office of Rent Program, requiring regular reports to city council.
– Establish new composition of the Rent Board to have majority renters. (Currently 2 renters, 2 Landlords, 3 neutral members, 1 neutral alternate). Initiative asks for 4 tenant members, 3 other members. One per district). Kaplan’s alternate proposal asks for an increase to 6 alternates.
– Board independence from City Council, City Attorney and City Administration.
Learn more here: http://www.oaklandtenantsunion.org/protect-oakland-renters-…
2. Item 14 on the agenda. Affordable Housing preference policy for local neighborhoods (ie a percentage of affordable housing is reserved for those that live in that district), and a residency or Oakland worker requirement for participants in Oakland’s First Time Buyer Loan Program.
3. Item 13 on the agenda: City Budget adjustments.
– Money for training OPD
– Delaying (Schaaf) or Eliminating (Rebecca Kaplan) the next OPD Training Academy to hire new cops
– Set aside 1.5 Million to fund Police Commission (may soon be voted on to be placed on the ballot in November)
Article: http://m.eastbayexpress.com/…/town-business-delete-the-poli…
Get involved in the campaign to stop Solitary Confinement.
JOIN CODEPINK, WORLD CAN’T WAIT, OCCUPYSF Action Council and others at the huge PEACE banner
Feel free to bring your own signage, photos, flyers, …Additional signs and flyers provided.
Stand (or sit) with us and the huge PEACE banner.
On the steps facing Market Street, below Feinstein’s office,
Directly above the Montgomery BART/Muni station.
Come to the Ella Baker Center’s June member meeting to learn how to get involved with our local campaigns to win jobs not jails, books not bars, and healthcare not handcuffs in Oakland. The meeting will now be held on June 22nd; the June 14th meeting has been canceled.
Free dinner will be provided and all are welcome.
The event is hosted at La Cultura Cura Cultural Arts Cafe, a social enterprise of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice that aims to employ and empower systems impacted youth and young adults.
Join us for free weekly meditation happy hour on Wednesdays, co-hosted by the Art of Living Eastbay Berkeley/Oakland.
We will teach simple and easy guided meditation and breathing techniques to let go of stress and trauma, let your hair down, and celebrate!
We believe that love is the universal language. We also believe that love is the universal cure to heal what ails societies worldwide. These meditation happy hours are our love offering to the community and are the result of a beautiful new & evolving partnership w/The Art of Living facilitated by Neelam Patil…& the universe ♥
A film about the search for truth & justice for human rights crimes committed by the Salvadoran military during the Civil War in the 1980s. The film follows the efforts by the families of the four U.S. churchwomen raped and murdered in El Salvador in 1980 to bring two leading Salvadoran Generals into a U.S. courtroom. Several Salvadoran survivors of torture are also featured who confront the same Generals in the same Florida courtroom using the same legal concept: command responsibility. 90 min.
Peter Stern, one of the attorneys, will speak after the screening.
Sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco;
For more info about the film: http://
RSVP: http://www.nlgsf.org/