Registration.

We’ll be discussing the Debt and Economic systems of the ancient world for this meeting, using an article written by Michael Hudson.

Here’s the reading.  Reconstructing The Origins of Interest-Bearing Debt… We’ll be talking about pages 1-30 this time.

The Politics of Debt Reading Group is associated with the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.

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).

We started hearing back from the implementers at the last meeting; OPD, PEC, Auditor, and the ER director talked. Now the committee has to decide what to do about what they said. See you at 6:00pm, Thursday, 12 March 2015, at Oakland City Hall.

RETALIATE AGAINST WORKER INTIMIDATION BY FAST FOOD CORPORATIONS AND POLICE

Remember two Fridays ago in San Lorenzo, CA when Jack in the box fired a worker unjustly, then called the county sheriffs when she came back with her union comrades demanding her job back???

We are fighting back with a weekly “EFF YOU FRIDAY” picket at various local Jack stores. We gotta send the message to corporations and police that we will not back down from fighting to improve workers’ lives.

WE WILL BE CONTINUING THESE ACTIONS EVERY FRIDAY AT DIFFERENT JACK-IN-THE-BOX LOCATIONS WITH THE SAME OWNER.

FRIDAY THE 13TH: Good Luck Comes to Good Bosses!

Join us for our picket line to support our union brothers and sisters at HS Lordships!

Workers at HS Lordships have been bargaining for a contract for more than four years. These longtime workers are asking for a fair contract, but management continues to propose drastic cuts in medical benefits. Workers have offered to give up sick days and vacation time and participate in a new healthcare plan with an increased deductible and reduced benefits. The restaurant, however, continues to propose making it harder for workers to qualify for healthcare.

At the restaurant, servers make $9 an hour and pay more than $500 per month for family insurance. Workers are fighting for affordable medical insurance and saying “NO MORE” to skyrocketing healthcare costs!

“I have worked at HS Lordships restaurant for ten years. I am a mother of six boys, and my family needs medical insurance in order to provide for and protect our children so they can grow and develop in the healthiest way possible. We need medical insurance that is accessible and affordable so that our basic needs can be met.”
-Adelaida Cisneros, Pantry Cook

Questions or need a ride? Contact Nicole Zapata at nzapata@unitehere.org

www.facebook.com/unitehere2850

UNITE HERE Local 2850, 1440 Broadway, Suite 208, Oakland, CA 94612, Tel. 510-893-3181

A panel discussion with:

Michael Parenti, internationally known award-winning author and lecturer. Parenti is one of the nation’s leading progressive political analysts. His most recent books include: The Face of Imperialism (2011), Waiting for Yesterday (2013) and Profit Pathology and Other Indecencies (2015)

Charlotte Silver, independent journalist formerly based in the West Bank, Palestine. Silver’s work appears in Al Jazeera English, Electronic Intifada, Alternet, The Nation and VICE News, among many other publications.

Jeff Mackler, National Secretary, Socialist Action; Admin. Comm., United National Antiwar Coalition; Director, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; author, Free Palestine!, Ukraine in Turmoil & Revolution & Counter-revolution in Egypt

You are invited to take part in this cutting edge conference that brings railroad workers, environmentalists, community activists and concerned citizens together in order to build the movement for a safer and greener railroad, one that is more responsive to the needs of workers, trackside communities, citizens in general, and society as a whole.

In recent months, public attention has been focused on the railroad in a way that it has not been for decades. In the wake of Lac Megantic and other derailments and resulting fires and explosions, the public is alarmed about oil trains and the movement of trains in general through their communities. Environmental activists are up-in-arms about the amounts of fossil fuels moving by rail. Farmers and other shippers are concerned about the congestion that has occurred in recent months, due in part to the oil boom. All of this attention gives railroad workers a golden opportunity to educate the general public about the railroad, its inherent efficiencies, its value to society, and its potential. It also gives us an invaluable opportunity to inform non-railroad workers about the situation that we face on the job every day.

The public generally has no idea what goes on daily on America’s railroads. At this conference, we plan to talk about crew fatigue, single employee train crews, excessively long and heavy trains, draconian availability policies, short staffing, limited time off work and other concerns. These issues are of concern not just to railroaders, but are of concern to environmentalists, the community at large and society in general. Non-railroaders in attendance at the conference will come away with a deeper understanding of our workplace and a greater appreciation of the issues facing us.

This will be the greatest Pi Day ever in the American history, spread the word! pic.twitter.com/am1fdrmZyu

— SciencePorn (@SciencePorn) March 6, 2015

This is a Call for Support.

Facebook event.

In the early morning of Thursday, February 26th, UC Berkeley’s office of Capital Projects brought in a huge demolition team and police force to clear-cut 60 trees on the south side of the historic Gill Tract. For 20 years, the local community, students, and faculty have attempted to create a visionary research and education center on this public land. In 2012 Occupy the Farm’s successful land occupations pushed out Whole Foods from the development, and saved 10 acres for 10 years. But 5-6 acres of the southern half of the Gill Tract is now under threat of imminent development, and our ability to create a 20 acre community-driven living laboratory for a just transition could disappear in an instant. See our website for a complete update: http://occupythefarm.org/everything-can-change-in-a-second-we-build-from-here/.

Why focus on Sprouts?

We’ve kicked out Whole Foods, and we can kick out Sprouts. Sprouts “farmer’s market” is a big-box, union-busting corporate chain supermarket that perpetuates industrial agricultural and food system injustices. Their greenwashed use of the “Farmer’s Market” term and imagery is an assault on our efforts to create a just local food system. See more:http://occupythefarm.org/boycott-sprouts/

What can you do right now?
1. Please join Occupy the Farm for a #GillTractDefense Rally and Press Conference at the Sprouts “Farmer’s Market” in Walnut Creek on March 14th at 1pm. This is a call out for support.

2. Call and Email Ted Frumkin, Sprouts’ Senior Vice President of Business Development. Tell him: “DON’T BUILD YOUR NEW STORE ON THE GILL TRACT!” tedfrumkin@sprouts.com; 602-682-1556

3. Join our social media campaign. Take a photo of yourself with your definition of a farmer’s market, and tweet: @sproutsfm Don’t pave over the Gill Tract for your greenwashed, union-busting supermarket! #BoycottSprouts #GillTractDefense #OccupyTheFarm

4. Join the Emergency Bulldozer Response Team:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/14ca3kz0dCt47XRXZ-kwoD8JEVyOWUuBH1-Y9AxILVqM/viewform?usp=send_form

We are trying to remain proactive in our strategy and response, but we are aware that the bulldozers may come any day to scrape away the top soil and lay concrete. We are preparing for active resistance on the land.

As early as next month the Oakland Zoo is going to start throwing up 8′ fences topped by 3′ of barbed wire around perhaps the most lovely park on the western flank of the East Bay hills and excluding the public from it forever unless you pay big bucks to visit the newly constructed paved roads, 50 structures, 15-car gondola, vistor center or high-end restaurant.  So I’m leading a little hike Saturday, March 14th so we can see what we are about to lose unless we fight back.

BACKGROUND

Knowland Park is a 453 acre parcel granted to the city of Oakland in 1949 with the proviso that it always remain a public park. It is a beautiful expanse of live oak woodland and grassy slopes with amazing vistas, festooned with rare and beautiful native plants and wild life. Most local residents know Knowland Park solely as the site of the Oakland Zoo, located on 100 acres of Knowland Park on its western flank near Highway 580. The zoo is run by a private non-profit, the East Bay Zoological Society (EBZS), but funded by over 1.5 million dollars of public money every year, as well as high ticket prices, $15.75 & $8 parking with no free days for the general public (there are apparently annual free days for senior citizens). The Zoo also tried to pass a 25 year parcel tax last fall, Measure A1, which would have assessed $12 annually on all properties in Alameda County from the most humble shack to the most palatial mansion or sprawling apartment complex, but it didn’t get the required 2/3rds vote.

Oaklanders can be forgiven for believing that there is no public access to Knowland Park except the Zoo. The city doesn’t post online information about it or put up signs leading to the trails, and the Office of Parks & Recreation didn’t even list Knowland as a city park until 2012 after activists repeatedly demanded it. For years I drove around the park and tried to find trail heads, and only discovered a single fire road that paralleled Golf Links Road in the main part of the park and a small network of fire roads on the eastern part of the park, accessible off of Skyline Blvd (this part of Knowland doesn’t directly link up to the rest of the park, which lies west of Golf Links Road).

But a few weeks ago I discovered the there were indeed some directions & maps to the area hosted by the Save Knowland Park folks who are attempting to halt the expansion of the Zoo into the rest of Knowland Park.  So I started exploring the area and was just bowled over by how enchanting it is, by far the most lovely grassy, oak-clad hill sides I’ve seen in the East Bay, with some of the most incredible views. (FWIW, I’ve hiked just about all the trails I can find within a 30 mile radius of O-town, and I will grant that for seasonally green grassy hills the northern part of Wildcat Regional, the Bort Meadow area of Chabot RP, Mission Peak, Garin, Briones, etc. have their charms, but this place was extra special, I felt like a Hobbit in the Shire traipsing over the slopes, except with views of the Bay Bridge, GG, Richmond Bridge, downtown SF & Oakland, etc.)

When I first heard about the Save Knowland Park movement last fall I thought, meh?, I don’t have much use for a zoo that never has free daze, and I voted against the parcel tax, but how bad can it be?  They are only gobbling up another 53 acres or so, only a eighth of a park that is basically not open to the public anyway. And what has an endangered whipsnake recently done for me personally? I figured it was just NIMBYism from the relatively well-heeled neighbors who didn’t want their viewscapes mucked with. But it turns out that the the zoo is planning to develop the vast majority of the publicly accessible parts of the western section of Knowland Park, the zoo is planning to fence off another 22 acres from the public as a “conservation easement”. This hardly seems like mitigation, they are taking land that is now protected from development, and excluding the public from its own land in order to enrich the local contractors and build a bunch of new structures & roads.

Proposed Zoo Expansion

So why did the city council vote 6-2 to allow this taking of public land with no environmental review last fall?  (Kaplan & Kalb voted against it, for those of you keeping score at home) And how can a city which can’t keep toilet papers in its public school bathrooms afford $61 million dollars to expand a zoo that most lower-income residents can’t even afford to visit?  Well, guess who funds the city councillors’ election campaigns?  Yup, developers and contractors. And most of the bills won’t become due until long after the current crop of council critters are out of office and counting the money they made from flipping properties with the help of “nonprofit” corporations.

THE PLAN FOR SATURDAY

So I’d like to meet folks at OGP (14th just west of Broadway at City Hall) at 2:30 PM Saturday morning, March 14th (3’14: Occu PI Day- and yes, I have a little reality distortion field about what exactly constitutes mourning).  It would be good if folks could give me a call at (510) 763-0591 or (415) 623-6473 (cell) or email me at biow  AT riseup  DOT net so I know about how many folks are planning to attend and can arrange to have enough car space and stock-piled liquid refreshment on the hill.  Then we can car pool to Knowland Park, about 17 minutes away. Folks that want a bit more of a hike can join me at the 106th Street entrance to Knowland Park and hike up the hill through the zoo parking lot and past the new (2012) veternary hospital that the zoo built.  The rest can join my first wife Kathy and park on one of the roads off of Malcolm Avenue that lead to the higher entrances to the tract. I selected Snowdown Avenue because it reminded me of Edward Snowdon.  Both groups will rendezvous at a spot on the hill and have some beverages, and maybe a sandwich, and then hike over to see the bison & tule elk paddock and the current gondola, and then walk around the rest of the area that is slated for development. We should be back at Snowdown Ave. by 5 PM, and can discuss what actions we can take to stop the development.

Proposed hike route, click for larger version

Please bring comfortable shoes, cameras, and whatever medications you need, I will have sandwich fixing and beverages cached at the rendezvous. Folks who are interested can repair to Slothaven (my humble abode) later for swine & beer.

LEARN MORE:

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/zoo-gone-wild/Content?oid=4059113&showFullText=true   Zoo Gone Wild, East Bay Express

http://www.saveknowland.org/

http://www.saveknowland.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FAQ-Sheet-Updated-Sept2014.pdf

http://baynature.org/2014/11/17/conservationists-take-knowland-park-controversy/

http://bayleafnewsletter.org/wp/saving-knowland-park-november-2014/

https://vimeo.com/105172300

Subscribe to the Save Knowland Park mailing list by sending an email to:

defendknowlandpark-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Essentials of Scientific Socialism: Part One of a Series

“Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.” Einstein’s comment remains true in our Century, when the growing interest in socialism is matched by a growing confusion about socialism. This workshop, led by Gene Ruyle of the ICSS, will be the first in a series seeking to overcome this confusion through study and discussion, focusing on the classics of scientific socialism: The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, by Engels, Critique of the Gotha Program, by Marx, and Fundamentals of Leninism, by Stalin. This session will focus on the Communist Manfesto. In preparation, participants are urged to read, or re-read, this important document.

There will be a rally, starting at 5pm, on March 17, in front of the Richmond City Council, demanding justice for Pedie Perez, who was shot and killed by Richmond Police Officer Wallace Jensen on September 14, 2014 shortly after midnight. He had been asked to leave Sam’s Liquor Store, due to alcohol intoxication and sit on the curb outside on the sidewalk. The officer had searched him and found no weapons. After some time, Pedie started to walk away without permission, then the cop wrestled him to the ground and put him in a vicious choke hold. Around this time, the cop shot him, claiming that Pedie was reaching for his gun. Multiple witnesses said he never reached for the cop’s gun.
Demand that PO Jensen be fired from the Richmond Police Force and prosecuted for murder. A cop like this is now wanted in the Richmond community.

Indybay listing.

On March 17th, the Berkeley City Council will consider passing laws that would prohibit

• panhandling within 10 feet of a parking pay station
• placing object within three feet of a tree well
• using bedding or blankets on the sidewalk between 7:00 AM and 10:00 PM
• attaching objects to public fixtures
• unpermitted cooking on the sidewalks

They want to up the enforcement against people who are homeless.  We can stop them if we unite.

STREETS ARE FOR EVERYONE (SAFE) COALITION