Calendar
Andrej Grubačić is a US-based Yugoslavian anarchist theorist, sociologist, activist, lecturer, and co-author with Staughton Lynd, of the book Wobblies and Zapatistas.
How do we retain an uncompromising analysis of the violence of the status quo, including corporate capitalism, racism, and the police system that upholds both, while transcending the tired dynamics of us (the self-righteous good guys) and them (in this case corporate execs and cops)? How do we channel our anger into resistance of systems rather than struggles with individual figureheads for those systems?
Three mini…-workshops on Saturday, October 22:
9am-noon Making It Personal: Understanding the Violence of the Status Quo: In this workshop, we’ll connect our personal suffering (often understood as “merely”’ psychological) with social trauma connected to systemic violence. We’ll also fan out and listen to as many people at the protest as we can, and then come together to share what we heard.
1-3:30pm Nonviolence Training: This workshop is for those who, understanding the violence of the status quo, are interested in interrupting that violence with nonviolence. We’ll discuss what we can learn from past movements and how it might be applied to these circumstances.
4-5:30pm Loving Our Enemies: We will gather to do a loving-kindness meditation for everyone in the 99%, and then, if we can, extend it to the 1% and to the police in the area. Then we’ll debrief what that was like and what it means for our ongoing occupation.
Meet in the northernmost part of the ampitheater area of the plaza. In the event that Occupy Oakland ends before 10/22, we will meet at St. Mary’s Center, 925 Brockhurst (at San Pablo and 32nd).
Come to one or all three workshops.
Contact us at 510-225-8561 or info@seminaryofthestreet.org.
Get trained before Saturday’s mass march!
“Oakland’s Work Holiday” is a multimedia presentation that includes 80 original photos of the 1946 strike, in addition to video clips of newsreel footage and short interviews of participants in the strike (from a video of the 60th anniversary commemoration). It aims to not only to bring to life this nearly forgotten piece of working class history, but also to serve as a call to reinvigorate the traditions of solidarity and militant tactics that made the post-World War II strike wave the fiercest episode of class struggle in United States history.
Elders from native communities will discuss what this Occupation means in relation to the understanding that we have been on occupied and stolen land.
THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Hear about the ILWU workers militant train blockade outside the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview that resulted in scuffles with riot police and 19 arrests. How can we at Occupy Oakland support Longshoremen and the next steps they are taking and build solidarity.
This workshop is being presented by Jack Gerson and Bob Mandel, who are former teachers, well-known OEA leaders, and radical activists.
Come hear a union member explain the various city unions’ debates about Occupy Oakland.
This workshop is especially geared towards folks on the Security and Safer Spaces committees, and is open to all who want to practice deescalation and have more options for resolving conflict.
We are a group of theatre activists and drama therapists comitted to racial justice. We use Theatre of the Oppressed, Playback Theatre, and many drama therapy methods. We are offering a weekly interactive theatre workshop for community members who would like to partake in a space for anti-racist community building, working through dynamics with “isms” within the movement, letting off steam, and practicing embodying our racial justice ideals together.We encourage community members who do or who would like to embody anti-racist/ racial justice oriented ideals. We acknowledge that for white activists, this means practicing having the humility and compassion to continually challenge our assumptions, and distortions, and listen deeply to people of color. This space is for people of color and white people and acknowledges that we live in a world that is racially oppressive. For People of Color, this space can be a place to acknowledge the oppressive systems we are impacted by and how those systems manifest in our interactions with our communities, families, partnerships, and ourselves in the narratives and interactions we have about ourselves, our partners, families, friends, and community.The movement, at its best, can be about embodying racial justice ideals in order to make the change we need. We are inspired by histories of resistance to racial injustice and honor these legacies. Interactive theatre, like drama therapy, Theatre of the Oppressed, and Playback Theatre, are powerful tools to help with this process.
All day teach in for reclaiming spaces, intro to squatter’s rights, guerilla gardening. 11am to 5 pm at OG Plaza
Self-defense class focused on concerns of people who are camping and occupying foreclosed homes, but all women/queer people welcome. We will probably be holding this class weekly on Sundays (time and location may vary).
Sunday 11/27 class is 1-2:30pm in North Plaza.
Class on Sunday 12/4 will also be 1-2:30pm, location to be announced.
To RSVP or inquire about future class dates: girlarmyoakland@gmail.com.
Self-defense class focused on concerns of people who are camping and occupying foreclosed homes, but all women/queer people welcome.
Class on Sunday 12/4 will be 1-2:30pm, Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza, north plaza (near flower shop)
To RSVP or for information on future class dates: girlarmyoakland@gmail.com.
A workshop of simple practices for stress relief, trauma healing, and wellness that anyone can learn. It is based on Capacitar(Capacitar International) work and also on other trauma healing work. Please come out!
“Record Occupy Oakland” will encourage all comers to write their personal experience and their personal observations. We’ll read and review essays, poems, stories, memoirs, plays, speeches, and help make them vivid and powerful. And we will be a connecting house to places where a record can be published. We can also entertain the idea of building a SLAM team. Bring paper and pens that work, or laptops, to the workshop.
North Side, Oscar Grant Plaza
Indigenous Solidarity Planning Meeting and Teach-Ins will explore some of the questions raised at the “Occupy Oakland” General Assembly on October 28 when the Memorandum of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples passed by a 97% voting majority. It will also examine subsequent discussions about a proposed name change of Occupy Oakland to Decolonize/Liberate Oakland as well as the politics of another effort to establish a teepee at OGP to honor “historic struggles of the Sioux Indians on the Plains of the U.S…. and the redwood occupations of Judi Bari and Running Wolf.”
§ What does it mean to acknowledge the United States as a colonial and imperial power? What is colonialism and imperialism?
§ What does it mean to respect and honor that Oakland is already occupied land? Who are the Chochenyo Ohlone people?
§ What does decolonization of the United States and Oakland mean? What can it mean?
What are the larger goals of Occupy Oakland and how do those goals speak to histories and realities of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism?
§ Does the name change align with the large political and economic goals of Occupy Oakland?
§ Does the name change effectively communicate these goals to a broader base of people than the word “occupy”?
§ What actions or events would speak to a decolonial movement and communicate that to folks in and outside Occupy Oakland?