Bay Area Landless People’s Alliance meeting to discuss plans, outreach, organizing regarding regional homeless communities and organizations.

For more info: https://www.facebook.com/groups/541837129562482/

Key community representatives will come together to discuss urgent immigration issues that are threatening our most vulnerable communities. Drawing on diverse backgrounds, the panelists will share their expertise and perspectives on a range of issue-areas affected by recent anti-immigration policies. Learn how each of us can effectively defend our communities and defy anti-immigration policies and attitudes. Confirmed panelists include Catherine Tactaquin, (Executive Director, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights), Martha Ockenfels-Martinez (Researcher, Human Impact Partners), and Lara Kiswani (Executive Director, Arab Resource & Organizing Center). Moderated by Eddie Yuen.

Co-presented by the Oakland Asian Cultural Center and San Francisco Poster Syndicate.

RSVP Online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/defend-defy-a-community-panel-discussion-tickets-59140288194

• NEW: Relieving millions in local Medical Debt through pennies-on-the-dollar buyback programs.
• NEW: A book group and seminar focused on Economic Inequality and Economic Theory for the modern age.
• Presenting debt and inequality related topics at forums, workshops and in radio productions.
• Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
• Money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
• Tiny Homes and other solutions for the homeless.
• Student debt resistance. Check out the Debt Collective, our sister organization
• Helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
• Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks
• Promoting the concept of Basic Income
• Advocating for Postal banking
• Organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now there’s a spinoff group
• Bring your own debt-related project!

If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com

Berkeley Earth Day is an exciting day of inspiring, life changing fun!

Berkeley Earth Day brings the Bay Area environmental community together to celebrate our vision for a sustainable future. Get inspired and connect with eco-minded comrades and learn how you can further reduce your impact on the planet and have fun doing it! This event features dozens of vendors sharing their eco-friendly products and epic activism. Hear educational and inspirational talks from experts, activists, enjoy delicious sustainable food, films and more! Compassionate Living, a non-profit organization based in the Bay Area, is proud to be the sponsor of this event.

Join us for inspiring speakers, crafts, activism, veggie food, dozens of eco-vendors and much more!  

Berkeley Earth Day is excited to host the Wild & Scenic Film Fest. One of the nation’s premier environmental and adventure film festivals, The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is a collection of films from The South Yuba River Citizens League’s annual film festival which is now in its 16th year. Wild & Scenic focuses on films which speak to the environmental concerns and celebrations of our planet. These Films showcase frontline activism and stunning cinematography. Tickets for the FilmFest are sold separately.

THIS EVENT IS PRESENTED BY

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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 for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. 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. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

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 six years, since October 2011! 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

AB 857, the crucial local public banking bill, will soon come up for a vote in the Assembly’s Banking Committee and Local Government Committee. The deadline for public comment is Wednesday, April 17. Please take a moment right now to send a letter to your Assemblymember and voice your support! You can bet our representatives are hearing from the bill’s powerful opponents, the big Wall Street banks.

And join us at our meeting to help support the public banking. Everyone welcome! Get involved!

A 6-week series to help us develop a deeper analysis and to call attention to the kinds of changes needed in the City’s budget and policies.

4/15 – Housing
4/22 – Economy
4/29 – Education
5/6 – Public Health
5/13 – Neighborhood Life
5/20 – Public Safety

The first week’s workshop on the Housing Indicators is the first of a 6-week series to help us develop a deeper analysis and to call attention to the kinds of changes needed in the City’s budget and policies.

Join us for this deeper dive into the Equity Indicators Report for the City of Oakland. Released last year, it clearly shows the effects of white supremacy on our community. Oakland posted a failing score of 33.5 out of a possible 100 across all indicators. This was the lowest score of all cities that participated in this national study.

Carroll Fife, the founder of Black Women & Elected Leadership, the Executive Director of Oakland ACCE, and one of the founding members of Community READY Corps, will join us as a guest speaker to provide some deeper analysis of the report’s findings and point us to actual solutions that will advance racial justice and equity in our housing market.

Who stands to benefit from the Green New Deal? What’s at stake?

Join us after the Sierra Club Green New Deal Town Hall to socialize and discuss about how the Green New Deal is the biggest opportunity of our lifetime to invest in the American people, and what that looks like for us.

BART Meeting Agenda Entry:

A. Surveillance Policy: Automated License Plate Readers.*
a. Surveillance Use Policy.
b. Surveillance Impact Report.
Board requested to authorize.

BART will be considering policies for ALPR usage at all BART Stations.  Their proposal is to eventually install these mass surveillance devices at all BART stations across the Bay Area that have parking facilities.

Meeting agenda is here (Item 6)

Proposed policy and impact report are here

More info here

Join us as we toast our progress so far on A PLACE TO BREATHE – a film that tells the stories of immigrant and refugee health care providers and clients in Oakland, CA and Lowell, MA. The film explores culturally responsive integrative models in health care, following individuals and families from Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay, Congo, and Cambodia.

Enjoy a special work-in-progress fundraising screening and meet the filmmakers and key players at Street Level Health Project, one of the clinics featured in the film.

Click here to watch a five minute introduction to the film.

Learn how your financial contribution can make a difference in raising awareness, expanding definitions of wellness, and supporting cross-pollination of best practices of culturally responsive, trauma-informed care. We look forward to welcoming you into our community, and hope also that you will utilize your own potential for advocacy whether as patients, providers, or community members.

6:30 pm: Reception*
7:15 pm: Filmmaker’s Introduction
7:30 pm: Work-in-Progress Screening
8:00 pm: Filmmaker Q&A

*Enjoy delicious fresh authentic Mexo-Californio cuisine from Oakland’s own Cocina Del Corazon, while quenching your thirst with wines from Dashe Cellars, and Oakland-brewed Old Kan Beer.

Not able to attend the event? Click here to support the completion of the film and the important work that Street Level Health Project provides to the Bay Area community. Donations are tax deductible.

About the Film:
A PLACE TO BREATHE weaves together immigrant and refugee stories anchored in two public health centers – Street Level Health Project in Oakland, California and Metta Health Center (a refugee-focused branch of Lowell Community Health Center) in Lowell, Massachusetts. Each has its own approach to “Whole Community” health care, which embraces the prominent role that communities play in creating diverse paths to wellbeing. The stories portrayed in our film provide powerful insight into how the current political climate impacts individuals as the uncertainty of immigration policy intersects with the future of healthcare. Yet it is the ways that communities move forward in spite of these threats, and the coping mechanisms that they develop, that are at the center of A PLACE TO BREATHE.

About the Filmmakers:
Michelle Grace Steinberg (Producer/Director) combines her sensibilities as a filmmaker and health care provider in her current film, A PLACE TO BREATHE (release date 2019), presented by her production company, Underexposed Films. Her previous films have aired on national public television, screened in a dozen film festivals internationally, and have been used as university curriculum. Michelle is also a nutritionist and herbalist at Street Level Health Project in Oakland, CA, where she works integratively with medical and mental health practitioners to provide free culturally responsive care to uninsured communities.

Robyn Bykofsky (Producer) is a filmmaker and educator who has spent 20 years teaching media and film production in underrepresented and misrepresented communities. In addition, she has designed sound for independent films that have screened at film festivals around the globe and was staff sound engineer at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Robyn received her BA in audio and video production from San Francisco State University and holds a Masters in Education with a focus in technology from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

About Street Level Health Project:
Street Level Health Project (SLHP) is an Oakland-based community center dedicated to improving the wellbeing of underinsured, uninsured, and recently arrived immigrants in Alameda County. The organization promotes self-sufficiency for marginalized people of color by creating equitable and dignified access to health and employment regardless of socioeconomic or immigration status. SLHP engages community in constructing collective power and leadership in order to advance a more just, inclusive, and empathetic society.

Accessibility: NPML is ADA accessible.

The next monthly potluck and (free!) movie night at the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center will feature The Hemp Revolution:

6:30pm potluck and socializing
7-9:30pm screening and discussion

Join us for the HEMP REVOLUTION, a film that examines the history of hemp’s criminalization and the interests behind it.

A more durable fibre than thirsty cotton for making textiles. A sustainable crop requiring almost no pesticide to thrive, making farming a cleaner process for the environment. A higher quality material than wood pulp for paper making. A non-polluting fuel, providing a cleaner energy production than via petroleum. The medicinal qualities have been used for thousands of years. The list goes on.

America went from a country which produced vast quantities of the non-narcotic crop, to the complete ban on hemp production upon the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Why has a powerful plant that provides so many human needs been much condemned for decades? Grown properly, this can be a great plant to save the planet! Join us and investigate the controversy and confusion between industrial hemp and medical marijuana.

This is a free monthly event at BBPC that falls on the last Thursday each month. Mark your calendar for upcoming films:

May 30 – The One Percent
June 27 – Flow: for Love of Water

POSTPONED. NOT HAPPENING THIS DAY.

KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents:

MAX BLUMENTHAL

“The Management of Savagery: How America’s National Security State

  Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump”

Advance tickets: $12: brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006  or Pegasus Books (3 sites),
Books Inc (Berkeley),
Moe’s,
Walden Pond Bookstore,
East Bay Books,
Mrs. Dalloway’s

“Max Blumenthal has spent the last decade transforming himself into one of the

most vital voices in journalism today, always speaking truth to power

with fearlessness and integrity.”—Reza Aslan, author of Zealot

“The Management of Savagery” excavates the real story behind America’s dealings with the world and shows how the extremist forces that now threaten peace across the globe are the inevitable flowering of America’s imperial designs. Washington’s secret funding of the mujahedin provoked the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. With guns and money, the United States has ever since sustained the extremists, including  Osama Bin Laden, who have become its enemies. The Pentagon has trained and armed jihadist elements in Afghanistan, Syria, and Libya; it has launched military interventions to change regimes in the Middle East. These failed wars abroad have made the United States more vulnerable to both terrorism as well as native ultra-nationalism. The Trump presidency is the inevitable consequence of neoconservative imperialism in the post–Cold War age. Trump’s dealings in the Middle East are likely only to exacerbate the situation.

Blumenthal’s book is a damning indictment of the bipartisan national security    consensus and warning of its present danger to democracy.

“Max Blumenthal audaciously takes in-your-face, on-the-ground journalism into the realm of   geopolitics.” —Juan Cole, author,The New Arabs and Engaging the Muslim World

Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose articles and video documentaries have appeared in the New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Guardian, Huffington Postand Salon, Al Jazeera English and many other publications. He is Senior Editor of AlterNet’s Grayzone Project and the author of Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, which won the 2014 Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Notable Book Award, the New York Time’s bestseller Republican Gomorrah: Inside  the Movement that Shattered the Party, and The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza.      

Host Nora Barrows-Friedman is a journalist, Electronic Intifada Associate Editor, autho of In Our Power: U.S. Students Organize for Justice in Palestine, and frequent KPFA Flashpoints’ guest.