Calendar
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
After a reading of the 1852 speech of Frederick Douglas to the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Rochester, NY, we will discuss two of the political institutions bequeathed us by the slaveowners: the Electoral College and the U.S. Senate.
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. Speaker’s affiliations are listed for identification only. The opinions expressed do not reflect the official views of the Peace and Freedom Party.
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.
Revolution Books invites readers young & old to join us for an afternoon of storytelling & discussion with Sarah Cronin featuring five wonderful books for children.
Featured speaker: Sarah Cronin – Youth Educator and Freelance Journalist for TheAntiMedia.org
YOU’RE INVITED!
Resistance Summer Community Cookout in Berkeley
Resistance Summer is here!
Since November, Americans of all political stripes have been relentless in peaceful resistance to the divisive and dangerous policies of the Trump administration and its enablers in Congress, in state governments, and in corporate America. And with the Senate actively working to pass Trumpcare within weeks and the Supreme Court upholding parts of the Muslim ban, there is still much work ahead of us.
But we know that taking the time to acknowledge all we have accomplished together and to connect with one another is what will sustain our movement and keep the resistance strong for weeks and months to come. That’s why we’re kicking off Resistance Summer with almost 500 community cookouts in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
Come share food, stories, ideas, and opinions with fellow progressives and discuss actions we can take, in our own communities during the recess and the weeks ahead, to stop the GOP’s attempt to rip away life-saving health care from tens of millions of Americans.
Will you join a Resistance Summer community cookout near you this weekend?
YES, I’LL BE THERE!
The Tony Award-winning SF Mime Troupe opens in the Bay Area July 1, 2 & 4 with its 58th season premiering “WALLS“
| WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!L. Mary Jones (Velina Brown) knows all about fear. As a top agent for I.C.E. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – she knows how to stoke fear to keep her country safe. Fear of people like Bahdoon Samakab (Rotimi Agbabiaka), a Somali refugee escaping oppression, fear of Cliodhna Aghabullogue (Lizzie Calogero), an Irish woman yearning to be American, and fear of Zaniyah Nahuatl (Marilet Martinez), whose family comes from… here. As a foreigner in a land her people have worked for thousands of years suddenly Zaniyah is a criminal, an illegal, a “bad hombre.” What part of herself will this American give up to pass as “American?” Will she? Can she? Should she? Can someone leave part of themselves behind without losing their mind? And is it better or worse that she crossed the border to find Agent L. Mary Jones – the woman she loves? |
This Monday join nurses, patients, and community members as we take action again at the Capitol with the message:
Speaker Rendon: Don’t deny democracy,
Where: State Capitol South Steps (near 10th & N St) Sacramento, Ca.
Some bus transportation will be available. Sign up for a seat on the bus below.
Grass Valley/Auburn: https://goo.gl/SnC9jH
Oakland/Davis: https://goo.gl/GeHwvn
Other actions to take. Make Your Voice Heard!
Please keep the calls coming to both speaker Rendon (562) 529-3250 & (916)319-2063 and your Assemblymember (855-271-8515
Tell them: Don’t deny democracy, pass SB 562. Stop holding our healthcare hostage!
Please connect with the campaign via Facebook post and twitter:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pg/CampaignForAHealthyCalifornia/events
HealthyCA: http://www.healthyca.org/event/tell-speaker-rendon-dont-hold-healthcare-hostage
Twitter: @4healthyCA
Workers of the World Unite!
From Ha Noi to Havana: Eyewitness Report Backs
Nadya Williams toured Viet Nam with the annual spring Veterans For Peace delegation that she has coordinated for the past 6 years.
Michelle Kern was a member of a delegation that recently met with leaders of the Communist Party and Government of Cuba.
Join us for an afternoon with good people, good food, and good discussion for a great cause
program at 2:00 pm
All proceeds support the new People’s World website(peoplesworld.org) and the continuing struggle for peace & justice!
A series of 5 minute presentations of hackery and radical projects from the bay and beyond, followed by socializing and hacking!
Sponsored by the Sudo Room.
AGENDA:
- 5:00pm: Call to Order, determination of quorum 2.
- 5:05pm: Review and approval of June 1 meeting minutes 3.
- 5:10pm: Open Forum 4.
- 5:15pm: Staff update on Surveillance Equipment Ordinance status 5.
- 5:20pm: Discuss and take possible action on city attorney feedback regarding Non-Cooperation With Anti-Registry Ordinance
- 5:30pm: Review take possible action on draft Privacy Advisory Commission Annual Report 7.
- 5:45pm: Continue ongoing Database Review with outside entities 8.
- 6:10pm: Discuss and take possible action on Oakland Police Department’s automated license plate reader policy
Join Transition Berkeley for a film screening of Smog of the Sea, followed by a discussion with San Francisco’s Senior Commercial Zero Waste Coordinator, Jack Macy, who will share info about local efforts to reduce single use plastics. Smog of the Sea follows the crew of @5Gyres SEA change research expedition, as they discover that the great ocean garbage patch is actually a “fog” of microplastics – trillions of barely visible shards – permeating the world’s oceans. The crew includes renowned surfers Keith & Dan Malloy, musician Jack Johnson, spearfisher woman Kimi Werner, and bodysurfer Mark Cunningham. Using sparkling underwater cinematography and live-action footage of the crew’s research, Smog of the Sea makes an artful call to action for rethinking single-use plastic.
Attendees are invited to meet and greet and asked to bring healthy snacks to share if possible. The film will begin at 7:00 and discussion will follow, as well as hands-on opportunities to create alternatives to plastic packaging.
Co-Sponsors: Transition Berkeley, Social Justice Committee (Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists)
This event is part of our series for Plastic-Free July. Learn more here.
Mumia’s Struggle For Freedom at Crucial Stage!
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been kept alive while on the slow death row of life
imprisonment without parole, by those who came out to support him worldwide in
the fight to get him hepatitis-C treatment! Now, let’s act to finally free him!
“…I’m Hep C “negative”! Aint’t that a gas? I wanna thank you and the
brothers in N. Cali for helping to make it happen. Without a people’s movement
we would have never gotten into ct. W/out it, we never coulda won…”
– Excerpt from Mumia’s letter to the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Mumia’s Hepatitis-C infection, which came from a blood transfusion in the hospital
after he was critically wounded from police shooting him on December 9, 1981, is
cured due to active support by thousands of supporters who tirelessly resisted the
PA prison system’s refusal to supply the needed medication. Mumia’s federal legal
victory is now the precedent to provide Hep-C treatment to thousands of prisoners.
Mumia’s New Legal Action
Now, Mumia has a new legal action pending in the Pennsylvania courts, and the movement of Mumia’s supporters worldwide has called for actions to free Mumia on July 7th.
Mumia’s legal action is based on the 2016 US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Williams v Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor who “had significant personal involvement” in a “critical decision” cannot later sit in judgment in appeals concerning the very same case. This was found to be a conflict of interest, which violates the due process right to an impartial appeal. In the Williams case, the former DA, then judge, was one Ronald Castille. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Williams now has the right to re-litigate all of his legal arguments that were previously rejected. In Mumia’s case, the very same Ronald Castille was the Philadelphia District Attorney who argued to uphold Mumia’s frame-up conviction and death sentence in 1989 and then as a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice denied all Mumia’s post-conviction appeals from 1998-2008. Last August Mumia filed a post-conviction appeal based on the Williams decision. A legal victory in Mumia’s action will reinstate his appeal rights to assert his innocence and the wholesale denial of his due process trial rights.
Mumia Won “Discovery” But DA’s Office Stonewalls
On April 28, 2017 Mumia Abu-Jamal won in court against the prosecution motion to dismiss Mumia’s new appeal. The
judge also ordered the District Attorney’s Office to disclose all files and information that would support Mumia’s claims
that his state appeal process was corrupted because Philadelphia District Attorney Ronald Castille was involved in
prosecuting Mumia’s appeals. Not surprisingly, the DA’s office did not comply. Only public documents from Mumia’s
case that have Castille’s name listed as District Attorney were released. Mumia’s lawyers have demanded “full
compliance” with the judge’s order and the judge issued a new order to the DA to release the files by July 7.
The DA’s office states there is no evidence of Castille’s involvement in Mumia’s case. This is a cover-up of the
prosecutorial, police and judicial frame-up of Mumia. It is inconceivable that Castille as District Attorney did not make
“critical decisions” on Mumia’s appeal given that he was elected to that office as a “law-and-order” and pro-death penalty
candidate. When he ran for Supreme Court justice he openly bragged that he put 45 men on death row. Castille also stated
publicly that he was personally responsible for all filings in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mumia Challenges Race Discrimination and Lies in Prosecution
Mumia’s appeals included direct challenges to the practice of racial discrimination in jury selection, as well as
prosecution’s arguments that told jury’s they could ignore the responsibility for sentencing someone to death, since a
defendant had “appeal after appeal.” Mumia also challenged the prosecution using his teenaged membership in the Black
Panther Party to argue that Mumia had a life-long intent to kill a police officer. These issues were fought in the PA
Supreme Court and then in the U.S. Supreme Court by Mumia while Castille was the District Attorney.
As DA, Castille produced a training videotape to instruct prosecutors how to evade the1986 Batson decision, a US
Supreme Court ruling which banned racial discrimination in jury selection. Prosecutors were told how to keep Black
people off their juries and how to conceal this discriminatory purpose.
During Mumia’s 1988 appeals to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, the D.A.’s office
argued that Mumia could not prove the prosecution’s discriminatory motive when they removed Black people from his
jury. The existence of the videotape, which was the very evidence of the discriminatory motive, was suppressed.
Former Prosecutor Sits In Judgement On Mumia’s Case
As a PA Supreme Court Judge, Castille sat in judgment over all the appeals of Mumia’s case since 1998, including the
issues of his direct appeal—jury selection (Batson), jury integrity (appeal after appeal), membership in the Black Panther
Party, as well as the new evidence of coercion of witnesses, of falsified ballistics, the confession of Arnold Beverly, who
confessed to being the actual killer, and the racial bias of the trial and post-conviction hearing judge Albert Sabo, who
stated, “I’m gonna help ‘em fry the n—-r”.
In 1996 and again in 2002 Mumia’s lawyers demanded that Castille recuse himself from hearing the case, on account of
his earlier role as prosecutor over the same case. In each instance, Castille refused to recuse himself, stating he had no
knowledge of Mumia’s case. Castille denied any knowledge of the DA/TV videotape.
Yet Castille’s alleged “non-involvement” is what the current Philadelphia DA now wants us to believe, as their office has
refused the full “discovery” of evidence of Castille’s collusion (in framing Mumia), which was ordered by the
Philadelphia Court earlier this year! This is why we call for action now.
Demand Full Disclosure of Documents in Mumia’s Case!
We need to free Mumia now, and demand full disclosure of documents in his case! The Williams decision could lead to
the throwing out of all the negative decisions on Mumia’s appeals by the PA Supreme Court, which, in turn, could lead to
throwing out his original false conviction! But all of Mumia’s scant victories in court, such as the reversal of his original
death sentence, have depended on the mass mobilization of his supporters worldwide.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a journalist, a former Black Panther, a MOVE supporter and an innocent political prisoner. His
freedom from false murder charges is long overdue, after 36 years for a crime he did not commit. Winning Mumia’s
freedom is a fight against this injustice system and paves the way for others, as did his victory to get Hep-C treatment,
which is precedent for Pennsylvania prisoners as well as other thousands nationwide.
Former political prisoners such as Panther Albert Woodfox, whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, and Puerto Rican
Nationalist/activist Oscar Lopez Rivera have recently achieved freedom with the help and support of masses of
supporters. Now, let us move on.
In 1995 we mobilized in the thousands against the death warrant issued by the Pennsylvania governor; and in 1999
Longshore workers on the entire West Coast of the US shut down all ports to free Mumia. Also in 1999, Oakland teachers
held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland Schools on Mumia and the death penalty.
Join us at Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway, Oakland, on Friday July 7th, at 4 pm. Rally and march to the
Federal Building, with flyers to distribute on Mumia’s case. Solidarity with Mumia and all his worldwide
supporters! Free Mumia Now!
The July 7th action, called by the Labor Action To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal in Oakland, is initially endorsed by: Oakland
Teachers For Mumia, Oscar Grant Committee, Oscar Grant’s Uncle Bobby of Love Not Blood Campaign, Workers
World Party, Speak Out, Party of Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition, Freedom Socialist Party, Socialist
Viewpoint, Mobilization To Free Mumia, Socialist Action, and Doro Chiba-the Japanese Railway Workers Union.
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal • July 2017 • labor donated
We’re excited to grow The Anti-Policing Health Workers cohort. Join us for a two day training on Saturday July 1st and Saturday July 8th, 10am-5pm in Oakland.
We strongly encourage applicants to attend an upcoming Know Your Options workshop so you have a clear sense of our program goals and politics.
Click here to see the schedule.
New cohort members will train alongside the 2015 OPP Health Workers and members of Critical Resistance- Oakland. New cohort members will be skilled up to facilitate and join us in offering more workshops to communities for 2017-2018.
Would you help us recruit? You can download the flyer here.
The Tony Award-winning SF Mime Troupe opens in the Bay Area July 1, 2 & 4 with its 58th season premiering “WALLS“
| WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!L. Mary Jones (Velina Brown) knows all about fear. As a top agent for I.C.E. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – she knows how to stoke fear to keep her country safe. Fear of people like Bahdoon Samakab (Rotimi Agbabiaka), a Somali refugee escaping oppression, fear of Cliodhna Aghabullogue (Lizzie Calogero), an Irish woman yearning to be American, and fear of Zaniyah Nahuatl (Marilet Martinez), whose family comes from… here. As a foreigner in a land her people have worked for thousands of years suddenly Zaniyah is a criminal, an illegal, a “bad hombre.” What part of herself will this American give up to pass as “American?” Will she? Can she? Should she? Can someone leave part of themselves behind without losing their mind? And is it better or worse that she crossed the border to find Agent L. Mary Jones – the woman she loves? |
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to survivors and victims of violence and police terror in Oakland.
“Remember the saying: ‘Of all pilgrimages the greatest is to relieve the sorrow-laden heart.'” ~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The Baha’i community of Oakland is organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.
Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us. Simple breakfast will be served.
“Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” ~ Bahá’u’lláh
The city of Oakland's government won't feed it's most vulnerable people. We will. It is our duty.#PeoplesBreakfastOakland pic.twitter.com/N7z8cnhkZh
— DaHonorable Brotha B (@BlakeDontCrack) July 2, 2017
The Tony Award-winning SF Mime Troupe opens in the Bay Area July 1, 2 & 4 with its 58th season premiering “WALLS“
| WALLS asks the question: How can a nation of immigrants declare war on immigration? The answer: FEAR!L. Mary Jones (Velina Brown) knows all about fear. As a top agent for I.C.E. – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – she knows how to stoke fear to keep her country safe. Fear of people like Bahdoon Samakab (Rotimi Agbabiaka), a Somali refugee escaping oppression, fear of Cliodhna Aghabullogue (Lizzie Calogero), an Irish woman yearning to be American, and fear of Zaniyah Nahuatl (Marilet Martinez), whose family comes from… here. As a foreigner in a land her people have worked for thousands of years suddenly Zaniyah is a criminal, an illegal, a “bad hombre.” What part of herself will this American give up to pass as “American?” Will she? Can she? Should she? Can someone leave part of themselves behind without losing their mind? And is it better or worse that she crossed the border to find Agent L. Mary Jones – the woman she loves? |
What is the history of violent white supremacist groups? What is the relationship between our government and these hate groups? What are our legalcies of resisting this violence? How do we support those of us who are targeted and repressed while working towards our shared goal of community resilence? We must come together in defense of our neighbors, elders, youth, friends, families, movements and ourselves!
A panel discussion will be followed by small group sessions about how to organize effective community defense.
Speakers:
- Lara Kiswani, AROC
- Judith Mirkinson, NLG
- Tur-Ha Ak, APTP
- Danielle, AFFIRM
Our goal is the purchase of a porta potty for The Poor Tour. The city, after months, still has not helped. The encampment is stressing neighbors by needing to use the bathroom. Enough is enough. We are forced to take matters into our own hands.
Please share.
We document current events, make films together, steward an editing suite and share a film equipment library. We also host film screenings, often with local directors, and put on an annual short film festival for independent Bay Area filmmakers. Our goal is to make the digital filmmaking accessible – no overpriced college degree or certificate program required!
We are also a good group to reach out to if you’d like to screen a film at the Omni. We can be reached at [ liberatedlens@lists.riseup.net ].
We usually meet in the basement, unless otherwise noted.
On July 11th, several key bills are being heard by California Senate and Assembly committees, and SURJ has been asked to show up to support!
PLEASE RSVP BELOW!
Earlier that day, the Assembly Public Safety committee is hearing another vital bill – SB 10, the California Bail Reform Act — which would ensure that people are not held in dangerous, overcrowded jails after arrest simply because they cannot afford to post bail. SB 10 is co-sponsored by the Ella Baker Center and Essie Justice Group.
Come join SURJ members on July 11th to attend these important hearings and support these important bills! We will be organizing carpools!
For more information, please email basebuilding@surjbayarea.org
We the People will hold a “People’s Assembly Health Committee” Hearing on SB 562 where the people will vote! We are joining with the Poor People’s Lobby day on SB 562 and will highlight stories of patients, seniors, nurses, doctors, business and it wouldn’t be complete with out a few words of doom and gloom from our industry opposition J. We have buses coming from multiple locations. Please help push out this event and mobilize a great assembly!
Buses coming from around the state!
RSVP here: http://bit.ly/PeoplesAssemblyHealthCommittee
OAKLAND:
STOP 1: Pick up @ 10:00AM at 22nd and Kaiser Plaza (next to CNA Headquarters in Oakland)
Please check Facebook and our web site for more.