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Join us on Black Friday as we condemn Walmart as the world’s largest climate criminal, destroying land and life from Richmond to Bangladesh.
This Black Friday (November 28th, 2014), we gather as peoples deeply committed to environmental and climate justice to condemn Walmart as a climate criminal and to stand side-by-side with Walmart’s workers organizing for $15/hr, full time work, and the respect they deserve.
Walmart’s war on workers is a war on planet Earth. Walmart has tried to salvage their tarnished reputation through greenwashing. But no amount of rooftop solar or energy efficient refrigerators can conceal the fact that Walmart is the world’s largest climate criminal.
Walmart’s business model – worker exploitation, intensive resource extraction, globalized production and distribution, rampant consumerism, ruthless supplier competition, and subversion of our democracy – is at war with life on Earth.
In 2012, Walmart generated $16 billion in profit. The Walton family is worth $145 billion. These unprecedented profits have been extracted from the uncompensated labor of its workers at every stage of its global chain of production, as well as from the natural world. It is this extreme concentration of wealth wielded like a chainsaw against the natural world which is at the root of the ecological crisis:
Walmart exploits workers worldwide. Walmart’s chain of production is a chain of exploitation – Thousands of subcontracted workers in Bangladesh risk and lose their lives stitching “lowest price” garments, which are moved across the country by subcontracted port truck drivers, dubbed “sweatshops on wheels,” and sold by Walmart retail associates making poverty wages.
Walmart has a massive ecological footprint. Walmart’s endless rows of plastic products and electronics demand ever intensifying oil and mineral extraction. Their stores are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. And Walmart’s globalized supply chain model makes it the largest importer of containerized ocean cargo in the U.S., one of the leading sources of pollution.
Walmart destroys local, living economies. Walmart actively drives out of business smaller, public transit-friendly, and environmentally-sustainable neighborhood retail districts, public markets, and “mom and pop” stores to make way for its -polluting, land-intensive, auto-oriented stores. Its
impoverishment of workers and communities then guarantees customers too poor to shop anywhere else.
Walmart undermines our democracy. Walmart’s PAC funnels millions of dollars to climate deniers and other lawmakers on the wrong side of climate policy – backing the Keystone XL pipeline, supporting subsidies for big oil, blocking the EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 emissions, and protecting the fracking industry from regulation.
Walmart’s funds to ALEC support mass incarceration when Walmart is committing the real crime of creating poverty and pollution.
Walmart has a massive ecological footprint. Walmart’s endless rows of plastic products and electronics demand ever intensifying oil and mineral extraction. Their stores are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. And Walmart’s globalized supply chain model makes it the largest importer of containerized ocean cargo in the U.S., one of the leading sources of pollution.
Walmart destroys local, living economies. Walmart actively drives out of business smaller, public transit-friendly, and environmentally-sustainable neighborhood retail districts, public
markets, and “mom and pop” stores to make way for its
highly-polluting, land-intensive, auto-oriented stores. Its
impoverishment of workers and communities then guarantees customers too poor to shop anywhere else.
Walmart undermines our democracy. Walmart’s PAC funnels millions of dollars to climate deniers and other lawmakers on the wrong side of climate policy – backing the Keystone XL pipeline, supporting subsidies for big oil, blocking the EPA’s ability to regulate CO2 emissions, and protecting the fracking industry from regulation.
Bangladesh.Walmart vs. the World: Putting the planet’s largest climate criminal on trial!
Friday, November 28th, 2014 at 9:30AM
Walmart, 1400 Hilltop Mall Rd, Richmond CA
Its been one year since deputy erick gelhous shot and killed 13yr old andy lopez and we still have no justice so we will keep fighting and marching til we get JUSTICE, please join us saturday nov. 29 at 1pm in the dollar tree parking lot on Sebastopol road from there we will march to the courthouse square come show your support if you really care.
THE POSTAL SERVICE HAS THE BERKELEY POST OFFICE “UNDER CONTRACT.” !!!!!!!!!!!
THE POSTAL SERVICE WANTS TO SELL THE POST OFFICE TO HUDSON-MCDONALD DEVELOPMENT GROUP.
THE CITY OF BERKELEY HAS SUED THE POST OFFICE TO STOP THE SALE. A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER IS IN PLACE UNTIL DECEMBER 17th.
A hearing will take place in Federal Court on December 11th.
Come learn about continuing developments and help us plan our next steps in opposition to this theft of our public commons.
Get an overview of the sale announcement here.
Here’s a good more general overview piece.
Davic Rovics gave a concert on the Post Office steps last Monday. Check out pictures and video of him playing.
Also CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE. and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
General Assembly tonight at 8 in #WheelerCommons
#FightTheHike
— Open UC (@theopenuc) December 2, 2014
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.
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.
#SF #BayArea #Oakland All Out to #ShutItDown for #EricGarner #MikeBrown #Ferguson 5PM 14th and BROADWAY OGP OAKLAND
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 3, 2014
Reminder for #Oakland #SanFrancisco: NLG legal # is 415-285-1011. That's 415-285-1011. Sharpie on you & then share it w/others #EricGarner
— Cindy Milstein (@CindyMilstein) December 3, 2014
.@blogdiva : OAKLAND: 5PM #OGP 14th and Broadway. Justice for #EricGarner #ICantBreathe #oakland2NY
— OccupythePort (@occupytheport) December 3, 2014
#OAKLAND: 5PM #OGP 14th & Broadway. Justice for #EricGarner #ICantBreathe #oakland2NY #ShutItDown #IndictTheSystem
— IO: (InterOccupy) (@InterOcc) December 3, 2014
The local CBS station just told 100k+ Facebook fans about the #EricGarner 5PM protest at OGP. Nice. http://t.co/d5PtUmBNdV
— Political Fail Blog (@PFailBlog) December 3, 2014
There will be three meetings of this class, on Wednesdays at 7 pm – Dec. 3, 10, and 17.
This class will investigate the structure of prison from three perspectives:
- Its ethics,
- Its inherent criminality as a system,
- Its role in the structures of racialization in the US.
Today, we live in a society in political and ethical crisis because it has instituted a revenge ethic and a desire to place people in internal exile in the place of justice and humanism. Having done so, it has created the largest prison system in the world.
Each of these perspectives cries out for the abolition of prisons. The structures of racialization in the US have always depended on a prison system. The topic of the “new Jim Crow” will not only encompass a discusstion of Michelle Alexander’s book by that title, but also the accumulating material evidence that Jim Crow has become our re-institutionalized reality.
Consider this:
The Broken Window theory, by which William Bratton turned New York City into a police state under the heel of “stop and frisk,” can stated as follows: “Even one broken window creates the condition for anti-social behavior.”
The ethics of prison abolition echoes in response to this: “The violence of even one person thrown in a cage by political authority creates the condition for violent behavior.”
The class will address questions such as the following:
1- what is the real structure of imprisonment, and what are the ethics of each of its components?
2- what is the political structure of the prison, and how does it relate to both its structural ethics, to the ideal of human rights, and to the society that we live in.
3- what structures does the political domain us to inhale people into its prison system, to remove them from their communities and habitats, and often to punish them for their attempts to survive physically and psychically?
4- what is the nature of punishment, and why is it even a social or cultural value?
5- what is the connection between social violence, victimless crime laws, and capitalism?
6- what dimensions of the present US prison system could be abolished right now, in the interest of justice, and what does it imply about this society that it refuses to do it?
7- what is the cyclic relation between slavery, prison labor, debt servitude, the prison industry, and Jim Crow?
8- with the prison industry actually materializing a foundation for a New Jim Crow (in Michelle Alexander’s sense), what evidence do we see of the government’s actual success in re-institutionalizing Jim Crow?
9- what is the structure of “racialization” in the US, what role did the former Jim Crow play in it, and what role does the prison today play in it?
If you are interested, contact me for links to some reading, or just show up on Dec. 3.
Steve Martinot
martinot4 [at] gmail.com
Last time we read Positive Money’s proposal for an alternative banking system, parts 1-4. This week we’ll finish discussing it, with parts 5-6.
Aloha.
The Politics of Debt Reading Group is a joint effort of the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.
IMPORTANT ERIC GARNER DEMONSTRATION
1 PM
IN THE QUAD… IRONICALLY THE VERY SITE OF THE INFAMOUS UCD PEPPER SPRAYING INCIDENT
— OccupyUCDavis (@OccupyUCDavis) December 4, 2014
Join us at Fruitvale Bart plaza to bring attention to widespread inequality and our shared struggles for a living wage ($15/hour) and the right to unionize without retaliation.
Nov. 29th marks the 2nd anniversary of when the first 100+ fast food workers, fed up with low wages, poor treatment and disrespect walked off the job in New York.
Let’s make it known that a minimum wage hike isn’t all we’re fighting for in Oakland and beyond!
Hosted by East Bay Fast Food Workers.
Protest Events in Bay Area over next 4 days. pic.twitter.com/C1pO4VCgHf
— OccupythePort (@occupytheport) December 4, 2014
OAKLAND: Non-RCP led March will begin at 7PM. (H/T @hyphy_republic)
— OccupythePort (@occupytheport) December 5, 2014
We hear there's a callout to meet at the cable cars at Powell and Market in #SF today at 6pm for #EricGarner #MikeBrown #Ferguson #BayArea
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 5, 2014
March tomorrow fri 27th and Telegraph 7pm #EricGarner #MikeBrown #Ferguson #SF #oakland #bayarea #ShutItDown #ICantBreath #HandsUpDontShoot
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 5, 2014
Drop the Charges, Free Them All, Shut It Down for Mike Brown!
Over the past week, brave protesters and street fighters have taken to the streets across the country igniting a brilliant revolt against the police, white supremacy and capitalism. The people of Ferguson are an inspiration to us all and their actions have sparked an unstoppable movement that has now spread nation wide. From the mass highway takeovers to the expropriation of looted goods to the disruptions of Black Friday consumerism to the street fights with police, we stand in full solidarity with all those who have put their lives and bodies on the line to help push the struggle forward and disrupt business as usual. We reject all attempts to divide those in the streets between “good protesters” and “bad protesters”. Anyone pushing this agenda is doing the work of the state and is an enemy of the movement.
Hundreds have been arrested in this rebellion including roughly 200 here in the Bay Area. All of those who are still in jail locally are facing felony charges allegedly related to the looting of various corporate stores. Not surprisingly, all of these comrades who the state has chosen to make examples of are Black.
Join us this Friday for a march and noise demo in support of the revolt and those facing state repression for their involvement in this movement.
MEET AT 27th & TELEGRAPH IN OAKLAND @ 7PM SHARP
MARCH TO THE JAIL IN DOWNTOWN
BRING FRIENDS & NOISEMAKERS
*RAIN OR SHINE*
Recent events in Ferguson have exposed shared struggles around the world, particularly in Haiti: struggles against militarization and a system of injustice.
Join us as we make connections, and discuss the work we can do right here!
From Mike Brown’s death at the hands of a white police officer in Ferguson Missouri, to the abduction of 43 students in Mexico by the government, state violence must end!
On December 6th, 1914, the joint army of Villa and Zapata took control of Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution.
One entire century later, it is sixth anniversary of the police murder of Alexis in Athens, Greece, which launched a mass uprising across the country. That rage was seen a month afterwards on the very streets of Oakland after Oscar Grant was killed by the police.
Later that year, occupations took root at universities across California, like the ones we see today at Wheeler Hall in UC Berkeley. Students were at the forefront of anti-police struggles in Greece, as well as in Mexico. This led to the abduction of 43 students by police in Ayotzinapa just over two months ago. This was only days before the anniversary of the Tlatelolco massacre, where Mexican government murdered protesting students.
Bring friends, banners, masks, megaphones, sound systems, etc.