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/
*WE HATE SANTA RITA JAIL*
A fundraiser for Oakland IWOC
6pm to close
Come share in the hatred of our county jail (and every other jail, prison, and detention center) and support you favorite local abolitionist crew. All proceeds go toward IWOC’s direct material support program for late night releasees from Santa Rita.
Every week we bring a crew of people out to Santa Rita Jail to meet people as they are released. We share pizza, cigarettes, warm clothes, rides to BART with our neighbors who are getting out late at night. This material support and care work is a small but meaningful way to address the harm caused by incarceration in our Bay Area community. We need your help to keep this project going strong. Please spread the word and we hope to see you Friday
Food and drink provided by Tamarack
Short presentation by IWOC Oakland
Vinyl by Left of the Dial
Inside, Outside, All on the Same Side!
The new California Progressive Alliance seeks to elevate progressive ideas; promote the creation of local political alliances and coalitions for political power; support corporate-free progressive candidates and issue-based electoral campaigns; and expand the communication and dialogue among all our progressive family in the state of California, respecting and supporting the work done by all.
The CPA is having is founding convention in San Luis Obispo March 30-31!
Register by January 31 and get 25% off with early bird registration for our founding Convention in San Luis Obispo March 30-31. Speakers include former Supervisor and VP candidate Matt Gonzalez, SLO Mayor Heidi Harmon, former Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, and panels on our 2019 priorities. Organize with us!
Remember, to vote on proposals, officers, and founding documents, you must be a dues-paying CPA member (all are welcome at the convention!). Join now, here.
Walk through groundbreaking interactive and immersive exhibits. Meet leading civil rights activists. Learn how to reduce prison populations, protect immigrants, and ensure everyone’s constitutional right to vote. Take action.
A family-friendly event for people of all ages. Free + open to all.
RSVP at ACLU100.org
Schedule below (subject to change)
ALL DAY ACTIVITIES:
Art workshops led by Artismobilus, Justice For Our Lives. Screen printing with Lukas WhatWhat and face painting with Miss Naomi Bee.
Network with Bay Area and California non-profits making the change happen, including: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Heyday Books, Initiate Justice, League of Women Voters of the U.S., Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), ACILEP network for immigrant rights, Youth Speaks, Oakland Public Library, Secure Justice, Design Action Collective,
Anti-Recidivism Coalition, TGI Justice Project (TGIJP), and ACCESS Women’s Health Justice.
SATURDAY, MARCH 30
10:00 am–4:00 pm
Qulture Collective vendor village featuring local queer and POC artists and makers
11:45 am–12:45 am
SambaFunk! featuring FUNKTERNAL
A collective of dancers, musicians and drummers spreading JOY and social consciousness through their work.
1:00 pm–1:05 pm
W. Kamau Bell – sociopolitical comedian and host of docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell
1:05 pm–2:00 pm
Act to Save Lives: Panel Discussion on Critical Police Reform
Featuring Stevante Clark, brother of Stephon Clark, Uncle Bobby from Love Not Blood Campaign, and James Burch from Anti Police-Terror Project . Moderated by Miguel Quezada from CURYJ
2:00 pm–2:30 pm
Dancing Earth
A collaborative group of intertribal indigenous dance artists
2:30 pm–3:30 pm
Audiopharmacy
Spawned from its roots in hip hop, Audiopharmacy intricately fuses live instrumentation and global musical styles
3:30 pm–4:30 pm
Jonah Melvon featuring adeshamusic
A sibling duo playing music from a new project by Jonah Melvon, Rain Water, and Adesha’s inspiring soul music collection
4:30 pm–5:30 pm
Man Haters: Women, Queers, Comedy
An all-women comedy group based in Oakland, California featuring Irene Tu, Dominique Gelin, Brooke Heinichen and Alexandria Love
6:00 pm–7:00 pm
Hip Hop for Change
A non-profit dedicated to using Hip Hop as a means of positive cultural change
SUNDAY, MARCH 31
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
The Void
Funky jazz soul from Oakland youth
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
West Grand Brass Band
Dixieland brass band tradition combined with modern musical genres and sounds
1:00 pm– 2:00pm
Art as Activism
Panel featuring Gregory Sale, lead artist at the Future IDs Project, Inno Negara who wrote the best-selling A is for Activist, Rob Liu Trujillo illustrator, author, and co-founder of the Trust Your Struggle, and Sabiha Basrai from Design Action Collective. Moderated by Gigi Harney, ACLU of Northern California Creative Strategist.
2:00 pm– 3:00 pm
Book signing with best selling author Inno Nagara
4:00 pm– 5:00 pm
Mission Delirium
An invitation to revel in the sound of earth shaking drums and face-melting brass
You’re Invited to a Breakfast of Waffles & Zapatismo!
Zapatista Autonomy:
Challenging Solidarity & Organizing in the U.S.
* 10:30am Waffles, coffee, getting to know each other
* 11:00 a.m. Pablo Gonzalez presentation with discussion.
On Pablo Gonzalez
Pablo Gonzalez teaches at UC Berkeley. A first generation Chicano scholar-activist/anthropologist, Pablo is immersed in studying the political and cultural resonance of social movements. In particular, the resonance of Indigenous social movements on Chicanas/os and people of color in the U.S.
Gonzalez has a book manuscript, “Autonomy Road: The Cultural Politics of Chicana/o Autonomous Organizing in Los Angeles California,” which describes a 20-year history of solidarity and political organizing between Chicana/o communities in the U.S. and the Zapatista indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico.
The Chiapas Support Committee invites you to join us for a community breakfast and a discussion to deepen our understanding of and relationships with the struggles of Zapatista and Indigenous communities in Mexico and what solidarity looks like in the current political and economic climate. Expressing and organizing solidarity has many race, gender, class facets. How do we speak about Indigenous struggles, how are they linked to our struggles in the U.S., what is the task and responsibility (if any) of U.S.-based social justice movements, anti-racist, environmental justice, racial justice and Indigenous struggles and movements?
We have more questions than answers. The discussion requires we ask the right and critical questions in time and reflect and organize. What are your questions?
Join us in an urgent and intimate dialogue and discussion of what matters most to us in this period of rising capitalist strife and repression.
PLUS HOLD THE DATE:
¡Viva Zapata!
Zapata Across the Borders: Image & Reality
Film Screening & Discussion of the Marlon Brando classic: ¡Viva Zapata!
Also at the Omni
Sat. April 13, 2019, 7 pm
$5-10 donation at the door
For more info:
www.chiapas-support.org
Walk through groundbreaking interactive and immersive exhibits. Meet leading civil rights activists. Learn how to reduce prison populations, protect immigrants, and ensure everyone’s constitutional right to vote. Take action.
A family-friendly event for people of all ages. Free + open to all.
RSVP at ACLU100.org
Schedule below (subject to change)
ALL DAY ACTIVITIES:
Art workshops led by Artismobilus, Justice For Our Lives. Screen printing with Lukas WhatWhat and face painting with Miss Naomi Bee.
Network with Bay Area and California non-profits making the change happen, including: Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Heyday Books, Initiate Justice, League of Women Voters of the U.S., Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), ACILEP network for immigrant rights, Youth Speaks, Oakland Public Library, Secure Justice, Design Action Collective,
Anti-Recidivism Coalition, TGI Justice Project (TGIJP), and ACCESS Women’s Health Justice.
SATURDAY, MARCH 30
10:00 am–4:00 pm
Qulture Collective vendor village featuring local queer and POC artists and makers
11:45 am–12:45 am
SambaFunk! featuring FUNKTERNAL
A collective of dancers, musicians and drummers spreading JOY and social consciousness through their work.
1:00 pm–1:05 pm
W. Kamau Bell – sociopolitical comedian and host of docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell
1:05 pm–2:00 pm
Act to Save Lives: Panel Discussion on Critical Police Reform
Featuring Stevante Clark, brother of Stephon Clark, Uncle Bobby from Love Not Blood Campaign, and James Burch from Anti Police-Terror Project . Moderated by Miguel Quezada from CURYJ
2:00 pm–2:30 pm
Dancing Earth
A collaborative group of intertribal indigenous dance artists
2:30 pm–3:30 pm
Audiopharmacy
Spawned from its roots in hip hop, Audiopharmacy intricately fuses live instrumentation and global musical styles
3:30 pm–4:30 pm
Jonah Melvon featuring adeshamusic
A sibling duo playing music from a new project by Jonah Melvon, Rain Water, and Adesha’s inspiring soul music collection
4:30 pm–5:30 pm
Man Haters: Women, Queers, Comedy
An all-women comedy group based in Oakland, California featuring Irene Tu, Dominique Gelin, Brooke Heinichen and Alexandria Love
6:00 pm–7:00 pm
Hip Hop for Change
A non-profit dedicated to using Hip Hop as a means of positive cultural change
SUNDAY, MARCH 31
11:00 am – 12:00 pm
The Void
Funky jazz soul from Oakland youth
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
West Grand Brass Band
Dixieland brass band tradition combined with modern musical genres and sounds
1:00 pm– 2:00pm
Art as Activism
Panel featuring Gregory Sale, lead artist at the Future IDs Project, Inno Negara who wrote the best-selling A is for Activist, Rob Liu Trujillo illustrator, author, and co-founder of the Trust Your Struggle, and Sabiha Basrai from Design Action Collective. Moderated by Gigi Harney, ACLU of Northern California Creative Strategist.
2:00 pm– 3:00 pm
Book signing with best selling author Inno Nagara
4:00 pm– 5:00 pm
Mission Delirium
An invitation to revel in the sound of earth shaking drums and face-melting brass
What skills, tools and approaches are useful in encouraging white people to sustain balanced engagement with anti-racism/racial justice education and work? How can we cultivate resilience (as opposed to white fragility) in ourselves, our communities, and our movements?
White Fragility is defined by Robin DiAngelo as “A state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation (2011).” What skills, tools and approaches are useful in encouraging white people to sustain balanced engagement with anti-racism/racial justice education and work? How can we cultivate resilience (as opposed to white fragility) in ourselves, our communities, and our movements? Resilience is, in part, defined as:
1. Staying with the conversation
2. Giving and receiving information and feedback from facilitators and peers without becoming highly defensive, reactive, or shut down/dissociated for long period of time
3. Managing the guilt and shame that can arise in learning about the history and current reality of race and racism in the US.
This workshop will explore the role of the body, community, spirituality, intellectual knowledge and other themes that you bring from your experience. We will cover basic information about how the brain and body responds to perceived threats, and explore how to work with this toward greater resilience in moments of challenge.
This workshop is for all experience levels. Participants will be invited to discuss in small groups, move around the space, and hold their bodies in different shapes for 1-2 minutes if available. Content will be presented in both verbal and written formats.
Is industrial civilization compatible with economic democracy, or is democratic socialism impossible in a globalized industrial society? This presentation will examine the powerful material conditions that have frustrated every effort to replace capitalism with genuine democratic socialism. Hopefully, this will become the starting point for a discussion about what kinds of energy sources and technologies are most conducive to democratic control.
Strongly suggested background reading:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/30/democratic-socialism-the-impossible-dream/
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/01/why-did-socialism-fail/
Craig Collins, Ph.D. is the author of Toxic Loopholes (Cambridge University Press), which examines America’s dysfunctional system of environmental protection. He teaches political science and environmental law at California State University East Bay and was a founding member of the Green Party of California.
His forthcoming books: Marx & Mother Nature and Rising From the Ruins: Catabolic Capitalism & Green Resistance reformulate Marx’s theory of history & social change and examine the emerging struggle to replace catabolic capitalism with a thriving, just, ecologically resilient society.
Panel and Dialog:
Jose Bernal: Senior Organizer Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. Serves on the S.F. Reentry Council; advocates for restorative justice policies; spearheaded campaigns to de-privatize reentry services and end gang injunctions. Graduate of Stanford University’s Project ReMade program, a course aimed at empowering the formerly incarcerated.
Jonathon Simon: directs the Center for the Study of Law and Society at UC and teaches about punishment, prisons, and mass incarceration. His books include, Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Society and Created a Culture of Fear (2009) and Mass Incarceration on Trial: A Remarkable Court Decision and the Future of Prisons in America (2014). Simon believes that invoking human dignity can fuel efforts to change the direction of the carceral state. Listen to his interview on Dignity and The Carceral State: https://kpfa.org/episode/against-the-grain-april-4-2018/
Starr King Room-light lunch provided
For this February assembly, we’ll be preparing to protest: TANC is planning a rally for sometime in the next couple months. We’ll also be brainstorming a longer-term project to work with the public housing. We’ll also be checking up on other projects, including tenant councils.
Let’s get organized against the Bay Area housing market!
Our general assemblies are open and free for anyone to join. We’ll be discussing ongoing projects: tenant organizing, houseless organizing, public housing organizing and more. Rent is too high, and we’ve got to organize and fight against marketized housing. Come through and let’s get organized against the housing market!
– – – – – – – – – – – –
We are a group of Bay Area tenants who are fed up with rising rents, evictions, and harassment at the hands of landlords. We are fed up with our neighbors having no option but to live unsheltered and at constant risk of police harassment. We want to stop landlords, developers, and cops from looting our communities.
A council is a group of tenants who work together to wield collective power against a shared landlord in order to improve their conditions. While, in general, councils may organize for more affordable, habitable, and safer housing, the issues that a council decides to organize around is ultimately dictated by its members. Councils can be powerful because they can directly apply their collective pressure on their landlord without the permission of city hall or other third parties.
TANC will help organize councils and bring them together as a network. While councils interface directly with their landlord, they can find support from other councils who rent from different landlords. We will assist in getting the word out to tenants and researching landlords. Neighbors will get to know each other during dinners, BBQs, and other events that TANC will support. We will compile complaints that are common across councils and aid in seeking their resolution. Councils will discuss and demand timely repairs, and support tenants threatened with eviction. Ultimately, the point is to reconfigure power dynamics of landlords and tenants in the Bay Area.
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
From Soweto to Berkeley, an important, seldom-seen documentary, made in 1987 by Scott Wiseman, about the massive, militant anti-Apartheid movement at U.C. Berkeley in 1985-86 that succeeded in getting the University to divest its holdings in companies doing business with South Africa.
When Nelson Mandela spoke at the Oakland Coliseum on 30 June 1990, he thanked specifically both ILWU Local 10 and the movement at U.C. Berkeley for their contribution to the struggle that had led to his release a few months earlier and the beginning of the end of apartheid in South Africa. Mandela’s Oakland speech can be seen on YouTube:
Part 1, Part 2
The references to the Bay Area solidarity actions are near the start of Part 2.
The film is 50 minutes long and will be followed by discussion. People who were participants in the struggle are especially encouraged to attend and share their recollections.
UPDATE
The Board of Supervisors, for a reason unknown to us, canceled their scheduled Transportation and Planning Committee meeting scheduled for Monday 3/4, at which this issue was scheduled to be heard. As far as we know, the issue will be heard Monday April 1st at 9am. Please come, and spread the word!
We have an historic opportunity to place a moratorium on Bayer’s (formerly Monsanto’s) RoundUp, and all toxic herbicides containing glyphosate in Alameda County. We need YOU to come out on April 1st and to spread the word. The Transportation/Planning Committee of the BOS will be considering the moratorium, and it won’t happen without mass turnout and thousands of signatures. Please sign and share this petition: https://www.change.org/p/alameda-county-board-of-supervisors-ban-roundup-glyphosates-in-alameda-county?recruiter=6256975&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_petition
Here’s the deal: Alameda County agencies still spray thousands of gallons of RoundUp on Alameda County residents without their knowledge, despite clear scientific evidence spanning years of studies around the globe demonstrating glyphosate’s toxicity to humans and Life. They only post notifications when they spray on public trails/trailheads, but the vast majority of RoundUp is sprayed on literally thousands of linear miles of waterways and flood control channels, many of which border homes and backyards of East Oakland and unincorporated Alameda County residents. These residents are NOT warned, and are being put at risk by Alameda County agencies and officials by toxic RoundUp “drift”.
RoundUp is associated with higher rates of cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, early pregnancy terminations, low-birth weight, endocrine disruption, and it kills beneficial gut bacteria which is linked to a growing list of health problems. With this knowledge, Alameda County agencies are at risk for class action lawsuits if they don’t stop. Like Dewayne Johnson, who recently won a $289 million settlement against Monsanto, the Alameda County workers who are tasked with spraying this poison are also at great risk. And in this moment of severe climate disruption, why would Alameda County continue to spray RoundUp directly into the waterways of the Bay???
Let’s follow the lead of our indigenous elders who are leading this fight to force Alameda County to stop using glyphosates. Goats are being used by the county already with great results, at a comparable financial expense. Let’s have Alameda County join the dozens and dozens of cities and countries who have banned glyphosates, and help inspire other cities and counties throughout the U.S. to follow suit!
We’re still playing every Monday that it doesn’t rain!
Occupella organizes informal public singing at Bay Area occupation sites, marches and at BART stations. We sing to promote peace, justice, and an end to corporate domination, especially in support of the Occupy movement.
Music has the power to build spirit, foster a sense of unity, convey messages and emotions, spread information, and bring joy to participants and audience alike. See spirited clip of an action at BART. Check out the actions calendar and come add your voice. There are lots of ways to participate and everyone is welcome.
Next Organizers’ Meeting: Come Get Involved in the Effort to Create a Regional Public Bank!
Some of our working groups meet between organizers’ meetings, and others just confer by phone and email. You can plug into any one of these:
Just send us a note and we’ll help you get connected to the work you want to do.
The Advocacy Working Group meets with public officials, government staff and other stakeholders to learn what they can teach us about integrating a public bank into existing systems, and to convince them to support our bank. Drop us a note (contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org) if you want to participate. Read a report on a recent Sacramento lobbying and public testimony outing.
The Outreach Working Group needs organizers, and people to staff tables and talk to folks about public banking. Send us a note at contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org if you can help.
The ad hoc Governance Working Group is working on updating our governance plan in light of new information. Drop us a note at contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org if you want to be part of this effort.
In the way of all things in springtime, we want to engage what is emerging around us and begin to assess where we need to be in the months to come. You’re invited to join us for a “What’s Next for OJC” conversation. The focus of this meeting will be the beginning of our engagement around these questions:
Snacks provided.
P.S. Copies of our platforms and other material will be available at the meeting. Contact info@oaklandjustice.org to get copies in advance.
Because of the COVID pandemic we will be meeting virtually via Zoom on the first Monday of the month.
Meeting ID: 828 0976 4186
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality.
In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.
We meet on the 1st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to
oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Our monthly member meeting is tonight! Join us for a conversation with council member Nikki Bas and a delicious dinner from #7flavors. Can't wait to see you there! pic.twitter.com/ka432Yk5mE
— Ella Baker Center (@ellabakercenter) April 3, 2019