Calendar
Public Banking:
A Sustainable Solution to Problems Caused by Private Bankers
Private banks are destroying our communities by funneling public funds out through a pipeline of rigged swap deals, municipal bonds, and pension investments. Schools in Oakland are shut down, while banks continue to be paid nearly 20% of the city’s operating budget in interest and fees. UC students are forced to pay ever higher tuition, while the banks are collecting $10 million a year from the UC. These private banking behemoths must be stopped. By arguing that they are necessary to economic survival, these banking giants get ever more public funds through bailouts. Public Banking is an alternative system to financing that has the potential to greatly diminish the power of the private banking elites. Public Banking is a sustainable and local banking solution that has garnered support world-wide. Join us for a forum where we will discuss Public Banking theory and practice.
Jane Smith will talk about how public banks actually function. An Occupy activist with a focus on Wall Street, Jane is trained in mathematics and economics, and is involved with education efforts concerning finance and banking. As a member of the Ideological Liberation Working Group (ILWG), she writes for the www.OBAU.org website.
Susan Harman will highlight efforts to institute a Public Bank in California, and how to talk to politicians about starting a public bank, focusing on interest and fiduciary responsibility. In addition to being a volunteer with the Public Banking Institute, Susan is active with CodePink and Move to Amend.
Jack Wagner will discuss his experience in organizing and educating about Public Banking in Sonoma County as a volunteer with the Public Banking Institute.
If you are part of that side which upholds the right of the Trayvon’s of this world to live and have justice, YOU MUST ACT NOW. The racial profiling that led to the murder of Trayvon and has so many Black and Latino youth facing lives of going into and out of prison must be taken on and stopped. As Zimmerman walks free again, it is like a declaration of Open Season on Black youth! This is unacceptable and must not be allowed to go down without determined mass resistance.
Come out and demonstrate!
Justice for Trayvon!
The Whole Damn System is Guilty!
Endorsed by: Advance the Struggle, Tsega Center, ONYX, Oscar Grant Committee, ISO, Nuestra Nueva América, FMLN Educacion and more to be announced.
July 16, 2013 will mark the two year anniversary of the murder of Kenneth Harding Jr. who was murdered by San Francisco police at the age of nineteen for allegedly failing to pay a $2.00 transit fare. While the family still awaits information for an investigation of the police; the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation would like to call upon everyone to come together in solidarity to support a transit shut down against the San Francisco Municipal Transit.
MUNI Transit has to take responsibility for their role in this horrific murder. They request for police officers to conduct fare inspections within the impoverished areas and upon the “impoverished” youth and people of color. We want free transit for all youth; no one should have to worry about losing their life for not having transit fare, and/or not paying transit fare. No one should be racially profiled, stopped and frisked, and/or have their rights violated to determine if they have paid transit fare. Everyone should have the right to ride transit without fear of losing their life.
We are asking for full support and cooperation from all unions especially transit, organizations, movements, and our community members. We want mothers who have lost their children to step up and speak out with us on this day and allow your cries to be heard. We want to affect the city of San Francisco’s economic system in order to allow our voices to be heard. We are asking those who stand in solidarity against police brutality and those who would like to help organize and/or endorse the shutdown to contact the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation at (415) 505-6331 or you can email justice4kennethhardingjr@gmail.com
We are all still Kenneth Harding Jr., Alan Blueford, Derrick Gaines, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Rhamarley Graham, Raheim Brown, James Rivera Jr., Gary King Jr., Mario Romero, Ernest Duenez Jr., and so many more…
THEY TAKE US DOWN WE SHUT THEM DOWN!
Tuesday, July 16th NOON – Community Bar B Que – MLK PARK 5701 3RD ST
Tuesday, July 16th 4:00pm – Muni Transit shutdown – San Francisco, Ca.
(SAME PLACE MEET AT THE SAFEWAY ON CHURCH AND DUBOCE)
Tuesday, July 16th 6:30pm – Vigil for Kenneth Harding Jr. on Kenny’s Korner @ Third St. & Oakdale
Tuesday, July 16, 5:30PM, City Council Meeting
Council is seeking to pass a resolution to administer a $2 million payout to major defense contractor, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for needed software and infrastructure to integrate “Phase 2” of the Domain Awareness Center (DAC) a mass centralized virtual data center for intelligence gathering in Oakland. If this gross violation of privacy has you concerned come out and voice your opinion on Big Oakland Brother the DAC to the Council.
http://oaklandwiki.org/Domain_Awareness_Center
Sign up to speak against increased government surveillance, Item 7.19:
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373
Andres Thomas Conteris, CloseGitmo.net – Stop U.S. Torture in Gitmo and U.S. Prisons; Director, Program of the Americans of Nonviolence International — recently interviewed hunger strikers in Pelican Bay SHU
Steven Czifra is a UC Berkeley student who spent a total of eight years in solitary confinement, including five in the Pelican Bay SHU. Along with other UC students and professors, he is taking part in a rolling solidarity fast in support of the prisoners and their demands.
Larry Everest, covers the prisoner hunger strikes for Revolution newspaper and is the author of Oil, Power & Empire: Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda. (See Revolution Interview: Carol Strickman, from Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition Prisoners’ Struggle Against “Cruel and Unusual Punishment Amounting to Torture”)
Michael Montgomery is a reporter for KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting who has covered California prison issues.
Danny Murillo was arrested at 16 years young, and sentenced to 15 years in state prison. 17 months were spent in Administrative Segregation (the hole) and six years in the Security Housing Unit (the SHU). Currently an undergrad student at UC Berkeley in the Ethnic Studies department and a George Miller Scholar.
On July 8, California prison authorities admitted that over 30,000 prisoners had joined the hunger strike by refusing meals. The Los Angeles Times said this “could be the largest prison protest in state history.” Prisoner representatives from the Pelican Bay State Prison SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement said, “our nonviolent peaceful protest of our subjection to decades of indefinite state-sanctioned torture, via long-term solitary confinement will resume…consisting of a hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] signs a legally binding agreement meeting our demands, the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement (as well as additional major reforms).” See statement here .
Co-sponsored by Revolution Books and the Stop Mass Incarceration Network-Bay Area
and Who Sells Them While the Nation Sleeps?
with Dr. Gray Brechin and Attorney Adam Ford
Dr. Gray Brechin will update us on saving magnificent buildings, unique art works, and the postal system itself that Americans are now losing to privatization. National Post Office Collaborate attorney Adam Ford is part of the litigation team working to protect the Berkeley Post Office. Mr. Ford will give us information on the progress of the case. This event is a benefit to support the legal action by the Berkeley-based National Post Office Collaborate. Come and help us raise funds for this important legal challenge! Save our Post Offices!
Citizens to Save the Berkeley Post Office
P.O. Box 805
Berkeley, Ca 94701
Last night 8 year old Alaysha #Carradine was at Khamel Hardin’s apartment at a #sleepover for his age 7 daughter and 4 year old son along with his 64 year old grandmother when at 11pm a maniac opened fire on their apartment wounding the others and #killing #Alaysha. She becomes the 54th person to be murdered in #Oakland this year.
There is a rally for her at 6:30pm today, 3400 Wilson Ave, West Oakland.
ONYX, Justice 4 Alan Blueford, Advance the Struggle, People’s Community Medics and the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation are calling for a rally, march and vigil on Friday at 6 pm. ALL OUT FOR ALL OUR BABIES will honor all of the young black and brown men and women killed as a result of state sponsored terrorism.
The fight to get justice for Trayvon Martin continues! Al Sharpton’s National Action Network is organizing actions in over 130 cities across the country this Saturday to demand that the Department of Justice prosecute George Zimmerman for violating Trayvon Martin’s civil rights. The rally in San Francisco will be at 9am this Saturday at the federal building. While we stand in San Francisco, Trayvon Martin’s parents and many others will stand in New York and Miami and all across the country. Stand with them, and join us as we add our voices to the chorus of outrage against racism and the cries of justice for Trayvon!
Endorsed by the San Francisco NAACP
Thursday, July 18, 2013 (New York, NY)—Trayvon Martin’s parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin will stand with Rev. Al Sharpton and National Action Network for the “Justice for Trayvon” 100 city vigils this Saturday, July 20th. Sybrina Fulton and her surviving son Jahvaris Fulton will stand with Rev. Al Sharpton and NAN at One Police Plaza at Noon in New York, while Trayvon’s father Tracy Martin will join NAN’s Southeast Regional Chairman and Florida chapter a the Miami location for the “100-city Justice for Trayvon” vigil.
In over one hundred cities across the United States, NAN is organizing “Justice for Trayvon” vigils on Saturday, July 20th to press the federal government to investigate civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. Hundreds of national preachers, led by Rev. Al Sharpton and NAN will hold prayer vigils and rallies in front of federal buildings calling on the Justice Department to investigate the civil rights violations made against Trayvon Martin.
Marissa Alexander, mother of 3, was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison, after firing a single warning shot into the wall to stop her husband from attacking her. She was prosecuted by the same attorney that initially refused to prosecute the murderer of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, and was ironically denied protection under the Stand Your Ground law because she didn’t run away, but stood her ground instead.
It’s not just Florida, it’s everywhere in America. The foundations of these systems that govern are bigoted; they are built broken so they can break us.
We won’t stop, can’t stop, until prisons are emptied of women defending themselves from violence, of black and brown people, and of poor people. We will fight for Marissa, we will fight to defend ourselves, and we will fight for liberation!
Free Marissa Alexander – Oakland.
Let’s return to Wells Fargo CEO/President’s $5 million penthouse home to let him know that if our friends can’t go home due to Wells Fargo evictions, then he shouldn’t be able to go home either.
The Occupy the Auctions / Evictions campaign demands an immediate bank moratorium on all predatory or for-profit evictions or foreclosures of the 99% and a halt to all for-profit foreclosure auctions and evictions.
Come help out!
Speakers: Michael Thurman of Courage to Resist, Elazar Friedman of the Oscar Grant Committee.
Discussion:
The importance of Bradley Manning’s and Julian Assange’s cases. Updates, film clips.
The need for a united front. Comparison of charges of treason to US corporate elite’s
wartime trading with Nazi Germany.
Q&A with extensive audience participation.
July 24, 2008 marks the last minimum wage increase in California.
While the cost of our basic needs–rent, groceries, healthcare, daycare, and gas–continue to increase, the minimum wage has remained at $8/hr for 5 years!
The City of Berkeley is considering a city-wide minimum wage increase, but opponents say that Berkeley workers don’t need a wage increase, and that those who work in the restaurant industry should be excluded if any increase does take effect.
No one who works hard should be living in poverty. We’re fighting to raise the floor for our lowest paid workers and to keep good paying, middle class jobs that allow us to support our families.
JOIN US! RALLY AND MARCH FOR THE MINIMUM WAGE!
5PM: Rally and March at Downtown Berkeley BART station
7PM: Berkeley Labor Commission meeting
North Berkeley Senior center – 1901 Hearst
Facebook
Initiating organizations: EBASE & FAME; Restaurant Opportunities Center; SEIU 1021; SEIU ULTCW; Unite Here 2850; ATU 1555; Our Walmart; Raise the Wage East Bay (RWEB); ACCE
Join us for a letter-writing, open mic, and live art night in solidarity with the prisoners on hunger strike. Bring your energy and your passion, and use your creativity to help build and grow in power together. Set your words and your vision down on paper in response to issues that affect us on a daily basis: racism, police brutality, and imprisonment of our friends and loved ones.
We will be mailing our pieces to prisoners on hunger strike who continue to respond with immense strength and resilience in the face of increasing deprivation. The representatives of the hunger strike are being subjected to extreme conditions of solitary confinement in Ad Seg and especially need our support and correspondence at this time.
“As the California prison hunger strike enters its 3rd week, reports of retaliation against strikers have increased. Last week it was reported that prison officials had moved at least 14 strikers from the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay to Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg), confiscated confidential legal documents, and forced cold air into their cells. Later in the week, legal advocate Marilyn McMahon and one of her paralegals were summarily banned from visiting any California prison. Reports that strikers have been moved to Ad-Seg or to entirely different facilities have also been coming from Corcoran State Prison. The denial of medical care to strikers, especially those with preexisting health conditions, remains a widespread concern for families and advocates.”
For more information: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
This event is the first in an ongoing series. Supplies will be provided. We’ll see you there!
Come joint us to raise funds for Dr. Alejandro Hurtado, who is studying medicine at the ELAM Medical School in Cuba.
The mission of ELAM is to make competent and cooperative doctors with the degree of MD (doctor of medicine), the same degree which is offered to medical graduates all over the Americas. The Latin American School of Medicine is officially recognized by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) and the World Health Organization. It is fully accredited by the Medical Board of California, which has the strictest US standards — which means that qualified US graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine are eligible to apply for residency placements in any state of the US.
It is preferred that ELAM students come from the poorest communities with the intent of returning to practice in those areas in their countries. Initially only enrolling students from Latin America and the Caribbean, the school has become open to applicants from impoverished and/or medically underserved areas in the United States and Africa.
Preference is given to applicants who are financially needy and/or people of color who show the most commitment to working in their poor communities.
Please bring items which can be hard to obtain in Cuba like dental floss (not readily available), vitamins, study snacks like power bars & jerky, and the like.
$15 Minimum Suggested Donation, no one turned away for lack of funds.
It is an “EMERGENCY SITUATION! WE HAVE TO KICK OUR SUPPORT OF THE HUNGER STRIKERS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!”
Meet us at MacArthur BART at 7:30 am for a day in Sarcramento – Speaking out, leafletting, rallying, banner-ing, and going out to the people. CALL US (510-926-5207). Facebook.
Statement by the Hunger Strikers.
Greetings of solidarity and respect to all of our supporters, all people of conscience around the world, and all similarly situated prisoners. You should know that once again our peaceful protest is making history, bringing international attention to our collective efforts to bring an end, once and for all, to the inhumane conditions and torture of indefinite solitary confinement.
We are being tortured each day by state officials (Governor Brown, his appointee CDCR Secretary Beard, and all his underlings). Increased retaliation has been perpetuated upon defenseless and starving prisoners who only seek what any human being strives for—humane treatment, dignity, equality, and justice for our families, loved ones, and ourselves. These are the fundamental rights of all people, including those incarcerated by the state. We are doing all we can, together with our outside supporters, to bring about a positive changes. Gov. Brown is not above the will of the people of California, and if he refuses to recognize the legitimacy of our human and civil rights struggle against the practices of this prison system, then it is the responsibility of the federal government and President Obama to use their powers to stop the harm being done to thousands of prisoners being held in solitary confinement.
CDCR officials are attempting to undermine the voluntary actions of prisoners who truly want better treatment and living conditions by wrongfully accusing us of forcing tens-of-thousands of prisoners across California, along with our supporters in the free world, to participate in our protest. Prisoners across the state are participating because of the inhumane conditions they are being subjected to. As HUMAN BEINGS prisoners are collectively resisting such treatment, and they are doing so peacefully. The attempted repression of our protest has not broken our spirits. In fact it has only helped to strengthen each of us—individually and collectively. Despite CDCR’s retaliations and propaganda, we remain steadfast in our commitment. We will see our peaceful hunger strike through to victory, even if this requires us to endure the torture of force-feeding. We believe at this point in our struggle we are prepared to do what is necessary in order for Gov. Brown and the CDCR to realize how serious we are, and how far and long we are willing to go to have our reasonable demands implemented.
We are hopeful that all those brave men and women across the state who are participating in this strike—all who are able health-wise—will be encouraged to issue public statements of their own, via media outlets across the country, letting the world know why they have taken part in this historic, collective struggle.
In closing, we want to inform the world that this hunger strike is far from over. We are in it for the long haul. Thus, we strongly urge Gov. Brown to return from his “get-away” vacation overseas and deal urgently with this crisis before more prisoners suffer serious health damage or death. If any deaths do occur, the responsibility for them will fall squarely on Brown and the CDCR in their callousness and inaction.
We believe that we will prevail.
In Solidarity,
PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Representatives
– Todd Ashker, C-58191, PBSP-SHU, D4-121
– Arturo Castellanos, C-17275, PBSP-SHU, D1-121
– Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry), C-35671, PBSP-SHU,D1-117
– Antonio Guillen, P-81948, PBSP-SHU, D2-106
The ONYX Organizing Committee, Advance the Struggle, People’s Community Medics, the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation, the Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition, Workers World, The Oscar Grant Foundation, Young Oakland, Healthy Hoodz and East Bay ISO call on the people to keep the pressure on the state. Not just for Trayvon but for ALL of the young Black and Brown lives that have been stolen by the state! We Need to STAY in these Streets!!!!!