Calendar
Facebook event. 15NowBerkeley Facebook.
Join us March 8th at the Target Express grand opening in downtown Berkeley. We’ll have our own alternative grand opening with a target of $15/hr!
We’ll be rallying for higher minimum wages at noon in front of the Target. Drop by if you’re interested in helping out or if you have any questions. An increase in the Berkeley minimum wage doesn’t just make economic sense—it’s a necessity for workers, who literally can’t afford to pay rent in this city on less than $15/hour!
Join us for a March and Celebration of the 105th Anniversary of INTERNATIONAL WORKING WOMEN’S DAY
UPHOLD the LEGACY & POWER of WOMEN’S RESISTANCE HERE and ABROAD!
12PM Rally & Speak Out for Justice
12:30 PM March to Rise & Resist
1:30 PM Celebration for Women’s Strength & Resistance
In honor of the first women strikers in 1909, we will be commemorating the 105th Anniversary of International Working Women’s Day on March 8th. Join us as we uphold the Legacy and Power of Women’s resistance here and abroad!
At the forefront of global resistance against increasing violence and imperialism are women of color. Here in the United States, the state has continued to perpetuate violence against its own people, specifically people of color. Women in the U.S. will continue to be in the forefront of many battles — opposing U.S. wars and occupations while demanding funding for human needs, defending collective bargaining in their unions, demanding wages that allow their families to keep up with the cost of living, stopping foreclosures so they can stay in their homes, demanding contraceptives and other free preventive health care, and fighting for basic rights to affordable education, quality health care and housing, and good-paying jobs. Join us as we March to demand an end to gentrification, state violence, and militarization!
We will also have a cultural celebration after the march to remember and lift up all the women and Trans women who have come before us in the struggle. We will celebrate their legacies they have left behind and honor the women and Trans women who are fighting in the forefront today for self-determination, freedom, and liberation.
Bring your signs, banners, and noisemakers and march with us!
This International Women’s Day we will be joining in the streets with women all around the world who are marching to demand their rights.
We will be out to stand against violence against women in all forms. Against the growing number of killings of transwomen, against police brutality, against racism, street harassment, domestic violence and more. We will be coming out as we struggle to support ourselves and our families in the face of ever increasing evictions and gentrification.
We march to stand in solidarity with our sisters around the world who are fighting back as well.
We are marching to demand equality and our right to dignified lives.
Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD)
Join local artists, educators, unions, activists and workers to celebrate the recent excitement and organizing success of Adjuncts at SFAI, CCA, St. Mary’s College, Mills, Dominican University!
Performances! Installations! Speak-outs! Readings! Food! Art! Books! Socializing! Community-building!
ALL in support of low-wage precarious workers including Adjuncts, Students, Food-service Workers, Artists, Temporary Part Time Workers and the Fight for 15 campaign!
No Justice No Service is inspired by the solidarity building event, Art, Education Justice! Held in Los Angeles last Fall.
Help cultivate a cultural front for ongoing activism in arts, education, work and life.
There will be an update about http://debtcollective.org, who just announced TODAY the first ever public strike against student debt generated for a profiteering university, and plans to gather debtors together to perform giant acts of solidarity!
Join local artists, educators, unions, activists and workers to celebrate the recent excitement and organizing success of Adjuncts at SFAI, CCA, St. Mary’s College, Mills, Dominican University!
Performances! Installations! speak-outs! readings! Food! Art! Books! Socializing! Community-building!
ALL in support of low-wage precarious workers including Adjuncts, Students, Food-service Workers, Artists, Temporary Part Time Workers and the Fight for 15 campaign!
No Justice No Service is inspired by the solidarity building event, Art, Education Justice! Held in Los Angeles last Fall.
Help cultivate a cultural front for ongoing activism in arts, education, work and life.
DISABILITY LIBERATED: MOURN THE DEAD AND FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR THE LIVING.
Performance by Sins Invalid, Part 1.
Part 1 of the performance curated by Sins Invalid begins with the construction of an altar, built in part with community participation. The altar will commemorate disabled children policed and killed by parents/caregivers for not performing “ablebodied-ness”; people with disabilities who have died from incarceration in nursing homes or jails/prisons; and those who are locked up and fighting for their freedom.
CeCe McDonald, an aspiring fashion student living in Minneapolis, was attacked by a racist, transphobic mob while walking to the grocery store in July of 2010. One of her attackers, intoxicated and adorned with a swastika tattoo, died days following the incident. CeCe was charged with two murders and was threatened with up to 80 years in a cage for simply defending herself.
While imprisoned, she discovered that her story was not unique, but that she was among many Black people—particularly Black, trans women—railroaded to prison. The stories of Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, and Mumia Abu-Jamal inspired her to fight not only for her own freedom but for all the trans women who have been slain or made victims of the criminal injustice system. Since her release in January of 2014, CeCe has become a leading and outspoken activist, inspiring many to take action against mass incarceration and for racial justice and trans liberation.
Community Event & Fundraiser
Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization.
DISABILITY INCARCERATED: A SYMPOSIUM
Information on visiting the Law School can be found here.
9:15 am
Coffee in the Goldberg Room (Room 297), Berkeley Law School
10:00 am
Welcome and Introduction
Susan Schweik, UC Berkeley, and Na’ilah Nasir, UC Berkeley
Opening Remarks
Angela Davis, UC Santa Cruz
Panel 1: A Discussion with the Editors of Disability Incarcerated
Liat Ben-Moshe, University of Toledo
Allison Carey, Schippensburg University
Chris Chapman, York University
Panel 2: Responses to the Book by Berkeley Faculty
Jonathan Simon, Berkeley Law
Na’ilah Nasir, School of Education and African American Studies
Peter Manoleas, School of Social Welfare
Scott Wallin, Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies
12:00-1:00 Lunch Break
1:00-2:30
Panel 3: What now, what next? Responses by scholars, artists and activists
D. L. Adams, University of Toledo
Ella Callow, National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families
Sascha Altman DuBrul, Icarus Project
Nora Wilson, Justice Now
2:30-3:30: Film Showing: Deaf in Prison
Followed by discussion with Talila A. Lewis, H.E.A.R.D., Helping Educate to Advance the Rights of the Deaf
3:30-4:30 Break
4:30-5:30: Performance: Disability Liberated (Part II).
Sins Invalid performs live on stage in Booth Auditorium, culminating in leading the audience back to the altar space in 120 Kroeber.
5:30-6:30
Disability Liberated Sins Invalid performance concludes.
Location: 120 Kroeber
6:15 Reception/Dinner
Registration for limited number of audience members. RSVP by March 2 on our EventBrite page.
Location: Goldberg Room (Room 297), Berkeley Law School
7:15 PM Film Showing: Bethel.
Followed by discussion with filmmaker Karen Nakamura. Location: Goldberg Room (Room 297), Berkeley Law School
This event is free, open to the public and wheelchair-accessible. Please refrain from wearing scented products so that people with chemical sensitivities can join us. If you need any other disability accommodations in order to attend, including communication services, please contact Susan Schweik at sschweik@berkeley.edu.
Sponsored by: Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society; Center for the Study of Law and Society; Haas Institute Race & Educational Disparities Cluster, Diversity and Democracy Cluster, and Disability Studies Cluster; Dean Judith Little, School of Education; Dean Carla Hesse, Division of Social Sciences; Dean Anthony J. Cascardi, Division of Arts and Humanities; Social and Cultural Studies Program, School of Education; Canadian Studies; The Doreen K. Townsend Center for the Humanities
EVERY MONDAY IN MARCH FROM 600-800 PM AT THE QILOMBO.
THIS WILL BE AN ONGOING STUDY SESSION EXAMINING THE HISTORY OF THE ONGOING ZAPATISTA STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION.
SESSION I: First Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle http://www.struggle.ws/
Future sessions will likely be described at the Facebook event.
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
OccupyForum presents
STOPPING A PIPELINE
Effective Resistance
at the Unis’tot’en Blockade
The west coast of Canada is home to several indigenous territories whose lands have come under threat as the fossil fuel industry seeks to transport its product to empty tankers via numerous new pipeline projects. Freda and Toghestiy of the Wet’suwet’en nation decided 4 years ago to take action in helping their people stop the destruction of their lands. Exercising their right to practice their cultural customs on their land, they chose to build right in the path of the pipeline projects setting the stage for an ongoing blockade and reclamation of their lands at the Unis’tot’en camp.
In the ensuing years, they have confronted numerous pipeline employees who have come onto their lands, often without permission and by helicopter, to do surveying and other exploration activities. Support for the camp has been growing steadily in nearby towns and all across Canada as the camp raises the bar for what a non-violent resistance effort can achieve.
A website for the camp has been created and can be viewed here: http://unistotencamp.com/
First and foremost, the camp supports an effort to bring Wet’suwet’en people back to their lands to live traditionally and begin healing their families from the destruction wrought by western society on their culture. The plan for the future is to build homes and places of tribal gathering for those who wish to return to the land that sustains them. In order to make this happen, the camp needs the support of settlers and other indigenous tribes to hold off the development efforts of fossil fuel giants TransCanada, Enbridge, Chevron, and others. The camp organizers are opening their doors to anybody willing to provide their time and resources to building and maintaining the efforts at the blockade.
At tonight’s Forum, hear from a supporter who stayed at the camp for 3 weeks in February of this year, and how you or someone else can help get involved. Discussion and pictures of daily life at the camp will be shared. Success at the camp relies on spreading of information, fundraising, solidarity actions, and networking with other groups to find people willing to provide their labor on the grounds at the camp. There is a year round need for supporters at the camp with a couple specialized events planned for the summertime — an action camp for sharing skills and strategy, and a separate work camp for building new structures and implements needed at the camp. The continued organized effort will be desperately needed as pipeline crews converge on the eastern and western borders of the Wet’suwet’en territory sometime this year.
Other camps have started to emerge across Canada with the newest one going up only a few hundred kilometers north of the Unis’tot’en camp. This new blockade, known as Madii Lii, stands in the way of a new LNG project proposed by TransCanada. They will undoubtedly need the same outpouring of support to be successful. The continued existence of these ecosystems rests on the shoulders of those willing to put their bodies in the path of fossil fuel tycoons.
OccupyForum welcomes donations, no one turned away.
“Black Ice,” the Greenpeace struggle to stop Arctic drilling
Join us for the screening of “Black Ice”, the inspiring new film about Greenpeace members who risked their lives and freedom to stop Russian Oil giant Gazprom from drilling in the Arctic. Afterwards find out about the massive call-in campaign to President Obama asking him to stop oil drilling in Alaska.
More about this award-winning movie.
Synopsis and credits at at IMDB
Always check there and their Facebook page for last-minute changes.
March 11, 2015 people throughout the world will be acting to protest the continuing danger at Fukushima.
The Japanese pro-war Abe government has announced that the tanks surrounding Fukushima are full and they will release thousands of tons of radioactive water.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201412130042
They also are intent in reopening the nearly 50 nuclear power plants that were shutdown after the earthquake. They are also exporting nuclear power plants to Turkey and throughout the world to make more profits in this industry.
The government is also ordering families and children back to Fukushima telling them that it has been decontaminated despite continuing radiation and a growing epidemic of thyroid cancer cases. The government refused as well using a newly passed secrecy law to release information on cancer surgeries in the Fukushima region.
Reading of letters will start at 2:30 PM from around the world. Also there will be a march to PG&E on 245 Market St. near Spear St. San Francisco demanding the closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
The 32nd NNA Monthly Rally-The Fukushima Fourth Anniversary Rally
2 :30 pm The letters to PM Abe will be read loud
3 :00 The speaking out begins
Aroud 3:30 Some more letters will be read loud by actual writers.
4 :00 We start to march to the PGE headquarter on the Market St. to demand the closure of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant
4 :30 Rally Ends
Please wear something yellow, scarf, cap and whatever!
Please bring many people, many signs and your energy!
Sponsored by No Nukes Action Committee, Fukushima Response
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/
http://fukushimafourthanniversaryevents.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/fukushimawatchblogspotcom?_rdr
https://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/
www.upwa.info
Speaker: Congressman Barney Frank
Sponsor: Goldman School of Public Policy
5:30 p.m. Reception with Refreshments
6:00 p.m. Presentation and Q&A
First elected to Congress in 1980, Barney Frank represented Massachusetts’s 4th District for 32 years. He is known as a superb legislator and a pragmatic politician whose sharp intellect and sense of humor has made him one of the most influential and colorful figures in Washington. While in Congress, Frank worked to adjust America’s spending priorities to reduce the deficit, provide less funding for the military and more for important quality of life needs at home. As chair of the House Financial Services Committee, he adopted sweeping financial regulations to prevent a recurrence of the financial crisis and was a key author of the 2010 Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
Prof. Xiao is inviting a special guest, Stanislav Shalunov, co-founder of FireChat, to his class Internet Freedom on Thursday, March 12, 4-6pm.
FireChat in recent news: FireChat — an ‘off-the-grid’ smartphone app — emerged this month as the technological glue holding Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests together and a powerfulweapon in the hands of mass movements, dissidents and protesters. The app works by creating its own network outside the internet, relying simply on the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi link that exist between one phone and another (source).
In solidarity, we ask you to make time to join in sending healing prayers and healing energy to Tristan Anderson and his family on Friday March 13, 2015 the six year anniversary of Tristan’s shooting by Israeli Border Police. Tristan was shot in the head with a tear gas grenade following a demonstration against the building of the “Separation Wall” in Palestine, in the West Bank village of Ni’ilin. To this day, Tristan requires 24 hour care.
Currently, his family is in court against the government of Israel in a civil lawsuit which is scheduled to conclude on March 23. His parents, Mike and Nancy Anderson are 68 and 72 years old. This is not a symbolic lawsuit, it is a demand that the State pay for the long term care that Tristan needs to survive. Tristan is paralyzed with chronic pain on the left side of his body, he is blind in his right eye, and he has suffered severe injury to his brain. Much power lies now in the hands of the judge. But we appeal to you, our friends.
East Bay Community Forum on Race Issues with W. Kamau Bell
Join the ACLU of Northern California Staff Attorney Novella Coleman at a community forum on implicit bias and microaggression experiences in the East Bay hosted by comedian W. Kamau Bell and The Elmwood Café.
Berkeley residents, W. Kamau Bell and his wife Dr. Melissa Hudson Bell,posted a blog on his website describing an incident that happened to them on January 26th at the Elmwood Cafe. It occurred between them and an employee of the café.
Very quickly, the blog spread around the Bay Area and eventually all over the country. It was the kind of story mainstream media couldn’t resist: a local TV personality, accusations of racism, and the backdrop Berkeley – reportedly the most liberal place in America. And usually that is where a story like that ends. But not this time.
Soon after the incident Michael Pearce, an advocate for social justice and owner of the Elmwood Café reached out to the Bell family and immediately apologized. He said he wanted to know what he could do to make sure that this kind of incident never happened again. Melissa and Kamau said all they wanted was a conversation with him, and they wanted to invite the community to come participate.
On March 13 that conversation is happening, and you’re invited. Thanks to the Berkeley Unified School District, it will be at Willard Middle School. The Bells and Michael Pearce will participate on a panel in Berkeley that will be facilitated byPamela Harrison-Small former Executive Director of the Berkeley Alliance.