OTU’s Mission

The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.

Monthly Meetings

The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.

If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.

Register

Join the Berkeley Food Institute for screening of clips from the FRONTLINE PBS film, “COVID’s Hidden Toll” and discussion with the film’s creators. Along with Assemblymember and Agriculture Committee Chair Robert Rivas, and other esteemed guests, we will examine the inequities for farmworkers’ health being exposed amid the current pandemic.

The film, of which select clips will be shown, examines how the COVID crisis has hit vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers. The documentary, follows the pandemic’s victims who are essential workers often invisible to many people relying on them, including crucial farm and meat-packing workers who lack protections and are suffering higher rates of illness.

Access Coordinator
Nathalie Muñoz, namc93 [at] berkeley.edu, 510-529-1533

CART Captioning will be provided. If you require any other accommodation for effective communication in order to fully participate in this virtual event, please contact Nathalie Muñoz at least 7–10 days in advance.

Heather Ann Thompson, Flint Taylor, and Darrell Cannon discuss the legacy of police violence against Black Panthers and the Attica uprising.

This event marks the paperback release of Taylor’s book The Torture Machine: Racism and Police Violence in Chicago and is also framed by Thompson’s Pulitzer-prize winning book Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy.

RSVP to attend…

Email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to obtain Zoom meeting access info.

Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.

We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” —  to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Check out some of what we worked on in 2020 and 2019.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.  We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.

Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition, mass aerial surveillance, and other analytics, and pushing back against ICE.

On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

contact@oaklandprivacy.org

Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/

Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.  Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in various municipalities around the Bay.  To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

This month’s meeting will focus on planning APTP's 7th Annual Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy Weekend of Action to #DefundOPD.

Register here: https://t.co/D20QeJCiZY pic.twitter.com/ruV2t01cqa

— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) December 15, 2020

Bill of Rights Day 2020: Celebration & Presentation to be Followed by Breakout Sessions

Host: ACLU Northern California

Thursday December 17th at 5:30 PM PT

RSVP: https://action.aclu.org/webform/bill-rights-day-2020

Despite the pandemic, the misinformation, and the tumult of 2020, our democracy persists. We’re grateful to everyone who helped make progress in a challenging year.

Celebrate and regroup with us at our annual Bill of Rights Day. This event will begin with a short program followed by rotating breakout sessions that will give you a chance to learn from ACLU staff about what’s next for our organizing and advocacy work and how you can get involved in moving forward a justice and civil liberties agenda in 2021.

_____________________________________________________________

What is National Bill of Rights Day?

https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/bill-of-rights

Bill of Rights Day on December 15th is a “celebration of the Bill of Rights, the first
10 amendments to the Constitution, which spell out our rights as Americans. It guarantees
civil rights and liberties such as freedom of speech, press, and religion. It sets rules for due process of law and reserves all powers not delegated to the Federal Government to the people or the states. The original joint resolution proposing the Bill of Rights is on permanent display at the National Archives in Washington, DC.”

For more Bill of Rights history, go to the ACLU webpage: https://www.aclu.org/united-states-bill-rights-first-10-amendments-constitution

Zoom RSVP https://bit.ly/usprosd17

details sent day of Event

The event aims to uplift sex workers’ historic and current struggles against violence and poverty and to honor those who have lost their lives along the way. It will build support for the campaign in California that won compensation for violence against sex workers and formerly incarcerated people; uplift the work of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, who are campaigning for justice and to establish a permanent memorial for the scores of Black women serial murder victims in South Los Angeles, and stand in solidarity with those campaigning for justice for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2 spirits. Slideshow, video clips, speakers, music. On the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

Event convened by US PROStitutes Collective.

4. Department of Race and Equity Presentation and Training
Department of Race and Equity Director Darlene Flynn will present an overview of the
Department’s goals and objectives. She will also deliver a training on Racial Equity as
required by OMC 2.45.190(M). This is a new item. (Attachment 4).

To observe the meeting by video conference, please click on this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81331204296 at the noticed meeting time.

ECOTOPIA 2050 5-PART SPEAKER SERIES

Ecotopia 2050 is designed as a 5 Episode speaker discussion series with the first episode serving as an introduction/prelude to the event. The speaker discussion series is paired with corresponding book club meetings that give participants a more intimate opportunity to discuss the themes of the book in the community.

Based on the 1975 blockbuster utopian novel Ecotopia, this discussion and book club event series revisit some of the futuristic visions of the Ernest Callenbach classic. His visionary ideas, and those of his generation, that he so skillfully captured in Ecotopia are a fascinating amalgam of technical, economic, societal, and cultural transformations. They are predictive on so many levels, and the series will explore what has come true, what remains on the list of things to do that were proposed, and what new visions we might begin to pull together in the construction of an updated Ecotopian vision of today.

Registration Instructions
1. Choose your experience (single episode) or full series
2. Are you joining the book club? *choose the add on
Note: You must be registered for the full series if you register for book club.
3. Check out.
4. A secure Zoom link will be sent 24 hours ahead of event time to registered email.

Register Here

RSVP 

The Medicare for All Committee and Racial Solidarity Committee will be co-hosting night school with a screening of “Power To Heal: Medicare And The Civil Rights Revolution”. This is a 60-minute documentary that exposes the history of Medicare in the USA, and how it helped desegregate hospitals around the nation.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83792221558?pwd=aGx1S0k3eGJ3WXBvaitxdjdUYkdVdz09

Meeting ID: 837 9222 1558

Passcode: medicare

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Hey Friends!

Wanted to extend an invite to housing activist folks to come visit Youth Spirit’s Tiny House Empowerment Village some weekend soon. We are doing “builds” Sat and Sun 930 to 4pm every weekend at 633 Hegenberger Rd near the Coliseum and its a ton of fun. Deeply Spirited and also Covid safe. Text 510-282-0396 for directions from BART.

Stop by and say hello!! We would love to show folks around!

Current login info here

Sun, Dec 20, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

CONFIRMED: The Present Farmers’ Movement in India: A Working Class Perspective
The present farmers’ movement in India has evoked a lot of interest among progressive and democratic circles around the world. In this context, certain questions need to be answered: What do these farmers actually want? What are their principal demands? What are the three Farm Bills and whom does they benefit? Where are the demands of poor peasantry and agricultural proletariat in this entire picture? Where do the urban working class of India figure in this scenario? As Plekhanov once said, living people think on living questions and these are some of the living questions of our times. As Marxists, we need to answer these questions in order to articulate a proletarian position on these issues
Our speaker is Abhinav Sinha (Editor, ‘Mazdoor Bigul‘, Writer ‘Red Polemique‘ Blog and Political Activist, Delhi, India) to speak on this topic.

Sun, Dec 27, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
CONFIRMED: The Three Concepts of Freedom

Synopsis: In this session we will compare and contrast the Liberal, Democratic, and the communist concepts of freedom. We will discuss that the Liberal freedom consists of the legal guarantees against outside intrusions. Democratic freedom emphasizes the right to participate in the life of the community, and the communist understanding of it consists of self-determination, i.e. non-alienated life.

Our speaker, Kambiz Sakhai, was born and educated in Iran. His studies included: Sociology, Middle Eastern Studies and Psychology. He has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 30 years. He is one of the founders of ICSS. 

Moderator: Raj Sahai

Sun, Jan 3, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
Open Planning Meeting
CONFIRMED: Group Discussion: 2020-2021 The Year in Review and Preview.
Time to get together, talk about what happened in 2020, and discuss our hopes, fears, and tasks for 2021. Everyone is welcome to participate in the discussion. Concrete proposals welcomed and will be  considered by the Program Committee.

Sun, Jan 10, 2021: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
CONFIRMED: Michael Roberts,  The Story of the Year of the COVID: But What Now for 2021?
2020 will go down in history – a worldwide pandemic from a previously unknown virus deadly to humans, killing millions or leaving them with permanent health problems; forcing lockdowns across the world that destroyed the world economy in the worst slump in the history of capitalism; and driving millions globally into poverty and loss of livelihood.  Where did all this come from?  Can capitalism come out of this unscarred?  With vaccines on the way is the crisis over?  What are the prospects for lives and livelihoods in 2021?

Raj Sahai is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join the 12/27 Zoom Meeting

Sun Dec 27, 2020 10:15am – 1:15pm Pacific Time

Raj Sahai is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=TTdlcFlnZEVCdWt2VlRHeWZLeHNKQT09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607

Passcode: 6MwQP7

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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbXBRf3FyY

The DSA Labor Ed Study Series: Lessons from the 1930s for the 2020s presents a film screening of The Killing Floor, which highlights the plight of workers fighting to build an interracial union in the meatpacking industry in the years leading up to the Chicago race riot of 1919.

The screening is open to everyone. Participants of our Labor reading groups are encouraged to join and reflect on this period leading up to the Great Depression, as we currently read about Black workers and the fight against racism in the 30s. We’ll host a short discussion after the film for those who stick around.

RSVP for Zoom link.

Oakland Greens is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/97697733389?pwd=aTlqSitGU3RHTHhzSWdXcktKbHVXdz09

Meeting ID: 976 9773 3389
Passcode: 245368
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We meet over Zoom. If you’d like to join us, and aren’t on our organizers’ list, drop us an email and we’ll send you an invitation.

If you would like to join the meeting early and get an introduction to the concepts of public banking, or more locally to who we are and what we do, please email us and we’ll see you online at 6:30.

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