Calendar
Postal Police have raided/harassed the Occupation/Vigil at the Post Office opposing its sale and the privatization of the Postal Service for four mornings: Thursday, 12/4, Friday, Sunday and Monday.
They did not show up again Tuesday morning, fortunately. Let’s make sure they don’t again, or if they do, have a crowd waiting for them, as we did Monday morning and again on Tuesday.
Berkeley Post Office Defenders welcomes your support!
East Oakland rally and march. Justice for Mike Brown, Eric Garner and all victims of police brutality and murder. Bring the outrage to the scene of numerous police killings: Brownie Polk, Alan Blueford, Derrick Jones, Jose Buenrostro, Andrew Moppin… to name just a few Black, Brown and Native American young victims of the New Jim Crow.
Ferguson is Everywhere
Justice for Michael Brown and Eric Garner
Police Murder and Brutality Must Stop
Update: live-from- #Ferguson tribunal moved to 2537 Haste St. to accommodate larger crowd 4pm; then march from Telegraph and Bancroft 7pm
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 10, 2014
Tribunal 4PM @ Room 174 Barrows Hall, UCB (near Bancroft + Telegraph); afterward MARCH gathers @ Bancroft + Telegraph
#berkeleyprotests
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 10, 2014
The night of December 6, over 500 UC-Berkeley students and community members marched to demand justice for Mike Brown and Eric Garner. Police from across the East Bay rioted against the peaceful crowd, with batons, tear gas, and rubber bullets. They broke one person’s leg, inflicted other injuries, and indiscriminately arrested members of the crowd.
But UC-Berkeley students and community members poured into the streets to protest this violent onslaught and STAYED STRONG FOR NINE HOURS. Inspired by the heroic example of Ferguson, we showed that WE WON’T BACK DOWN!
Protesters voted to MARCH AGAIN this MONDAY, DEC. 8 at 5:00pm at the intersection of Bancroft and Telegraph, for THESE DEMANDS:
* Jail Darren Wilson, Daniel Pantaleo, and All Killer Cops
* End the Racist Coverups by the District Attorneys and Grand Juries
* Down with the New Jim Crow! Down with the Police From Ferguson to Ayotzinapa to Staten Island: March Against State Repression
* Release the Berkeley protesters arrested and drop all charges.
*** BERKELEY ASKS OTHER CAMPUSES AND COMMUNITIES TO JOIN US IN SOLIDARITY ***
*** SHARE PHOTOS + VIDEO FROM THAT DAY TO GET OUT THE TRUTH ***
2014 Worst Boss of the Year: Hs. Lordships, Don’t Steal Our Healthcare!
Workers at H’s Lordships restaurant have been bargaining a contract for four years. These longtime workers are asking for a fair contract, however management continues to propose drastic takeaways. Workers have offered to give up sick days and vacation time and participate in a new plan with a high deductible and reduced benefits. But the restaurant is proposing to increase healthcare eligibility so that as many workers would lose their health insurance all together. For those who still qualify, they are also proposing shifting another $290 per month of the cost of family medical from the Employer to the worker.
To make matters worse, they are now threatening to unilaterally implement these takeaways effective January 1. UNITE HERE Local 2850 is declaring H’s Lordships the “Worst Boss of the Year.”
Join us for Christmas carols and cookies at our holiday action, where we will ask for worker justice this holiday season. Let’s tell management to stop being a Grinch!
Questions or need a ride? Contact Nicole Zapata at nzapata@unitehere.org or 925-639-7588.
Join black students from Cal at a rally THIS SATURDAY at noon at Telegraph & Bancroft #ferguson2cal #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/lZaPNgWatK
— CalProgressives (@CalProgressives) December 11, 2014
In solidarity with Ferguson and NYC, we will be hosting a #BlackLivesMatter rally and march starting 12:00 PM on Bancroft and Telegraph. Following our action we plan to travel together to the Millions March in Oakland at Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway.
Millions March Oakland: https://www.facebook.com/events/858052834217501/
Ferguson National Demands
De-Militarization of National Law Enforcement
Comprehensively review systemic abuses by police
Repurpose military funds to support restorative justice
Investigate Criminalization of communities of color
Support passage of End Racial Profiling Act
Obama administration enact national plan for racial justice
#Ferguson2Cal
http://fergusonaction.com/demands/
NJUSTICE ANYWHERE IS INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE. WE MUST DEMAND JUSTICE FOR MIKE BROWN! JUSTICE FOR ERIC GARNER! JUSTICE FOR ALL THOSE WE HAVE LOST AT THE HANDS OF THE RACIST KILLER COPS!
WE MUST COME TOGETHER IN UNITY AND SPEAK OUT AGAINST THE BRUTALITY AND MURDER OF BLACK AND BROWN BODIES! THERE IS POWER IN NUMBERS. SO WE ARE GOING TO GO ALL OUT ON SATURDAY DECEMBER 13th @ 2pm. MEET AT OSCAR GRANT PLAZA.
#BLACKLIVESMATTER.
WE MUST NOT ONLY SHOW OUR POWER, BUT SHOW THAT THERE IS STILL HOPE FOR HUMANITY, WE MUST SHOW THE WORLD THESE DEATHS ARE NOT IN VAIN.
THIS MUST HAPPEN IN EVERY MAJOR CITY, SO SPREAD THE WORD. FROM EAST TO WEST. INVITE AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE.
THIS IS NOT TOO AMBITIOUS. THIS IS POSSIBLE.
WE MARCH.
TOGETHER.
AS ONE.
BECAUSE #WECANTBREATHE
OUR CALL TO ACTION: DEMAND THAT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE PURSUE FEDERAL CHARGES AGAINST ALL KILLER COPS.
OAKLAND IS FERGUSON. FERGUSON IS OAKLAND.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO VIOLENT UNDERCOVER COPS!!
On Wednesday night, in the middle of a protest in Oakland, an undercover cop pulled out a gun and pointed it indiscriminately at protestors in the crowd. OPD was later quick to absolve themselves of blame and assert the aggressor was a CHP cop. ACAB.
Come express your rage at the racist police state in all its acronyms – rally, speakout, and march against CHP and all pigs.
RALLY AND MARCH TO THE BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY, DEC. 16, 5:00PM
GATHER AT BANCROFT + TELEGRAPH
Berkeley City Council Meeting 7:00PM @ Longfellow Middle School (1500 Derby St. in Berkeley)
We condemn the police riot last Saturday, December 6 on protesters and students fighting for justice for Michael Brown. We hold the Mayor, the Berkeley Police Department, and the City Council responsible for the brutal policy of attacking civil rights protesters. We demand dropping all of the charges against protesters and reject the Ferguson Grand Jury’s racist decision of “no indictment” against Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown. Jail and indict Darren Wilson and all killer cops now!
View the “Public Tribunal for Truth & Action: Justice for Michael Brown” that BAMN held Dec. 10 in St. Louis, MO with Michael Brown’s friends, family, and local Ferguson activists and organizers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLXtsxFx6QY
DEMANDS:
• Jail Darren Wilson NOW!
• Drop All Charges Against Civil Rights Protesters
• Stop the Racist Attacks Against Black and Latina/o and Other Minority Youth
• Jail the Killer Cops: A Badge is Not a License to Kill
• End the Policy of Cover-up and Blaming the Victim
• Abolish the Grand Jury System
• Create More Jobs and Educational Opportunities. Establish New School Desegregation Programs
• Down with the New Jim Crow! Down with the New Police State!
• Build the Independent, Integrated, and Youth-led New Civil Rights Movement
• No Justice in Ferguson. No Peace Anywhere!
I just received this message: #OUSD #WalkOut is scheduled for this Wednesday. #Oakland. pic.twitter.com/4rDq0FcEZz
— Pendarvis H. (@OGpenn) December 15, 2014
There are lots of important reasons to protest at the CPUC, not only ‘Smart’ meters, but also Diablo Canyon’s nuclear power plant, massive toxic dumping by PG&E (remember Hinkley, Hunters Point, and many more), AT&T’s push to get rid of landlines (an accessibility issue), gasline explosions due to neglect, etc etc etc.
These issues are about environmental health, community defense, disability justice, and labor. The people who are most immediately impacted by the decisions of the CPUC are the workers forced to implement them.
For example, this former PG&E meter reader was fired for refusing to be silent about the fact that ‘Smart’ meters are a fire hazard, and lays out the financial reality that these meters are actually more expensive than meter readers, who were the only people working for the utility who regularly checked for gas leaks like the one that preceded the San Bruno explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnxIoItNUek
One of the victims who died in a fire caused by ‘Smart’ meters was Larry Nikkel, of Vacaville, a member of Stationary Engineers Local 39: http://stopsmartmeters.org/2013/06/21/when-smart-meters-kill-the-story-of-larry-nikkel-details-emerge-of-vacaville-ca-smart-meter-fire-death/
Please mobilize your friends and comrades to come out on Thursday – Peevey’s last day – and bring your friends and your own grievances against this supposed watchdog agency that acts more like a lapdog of the corporate utilities. Tell Peevey: Good Riddance!
Details below.
PRESS CONFERENCE/ DEMONSTRATION AT CPUC IN SAN FRANCISCO OPPOSING “SMART” METER POLICIES AND GENERAL CORRUPTION
California Public Utilities Commission
Thursday, December 18 8:30 AM
Van Ness at McAllister, San Francisco
Give CPUC President Michael Peevey the send-off into retirement that he deserves after a dozen years of corruption and complicity with corporate utilities.
Protest the CPUC’s proposed decisions in the ‘smart’ meter opt out proceedings. Show strength in unity against their proposals that:
• Ignore serious public safety hazards including toxic injuries, fires, homelessness, violations of privacy, higher bills, loss of meter readers, and no promised energy savings.
• Continue to impose coercive extortion opt out fees
• Violate laws, and deny customer and disability rights
• Prohibit opt-outs for communities, apartment buildings, and businesses
• Reward utility companies with millions $$$ more for smart grid failings
Join us in demanding that the CPUC:
• Reject the proposed decisions
• Rescind and refund ‘opt out’ extortion fees
• Halt the ‘smart’ meter program
Bring any other past or present grievances against the CPUC (toxic dumping, nuclear plants, gas line explosions, accessibility, public power, etc.)
We will be raising our demands both outside before the meeting, as well as inside. Please come prepared to make some noise and be seen. Wear black if you can. Rain or shine.
For more information about the proposed decisions, go to these links:
The proposed decisions would (as summarized by the EMF Safety Network):
- Give 37 million dollars to the Investor Owned Utilities (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, and So Cal Gas) for providing the opt-out program.
- Adopt permanent fees for residential customers who “do not wish to have a wireless smart meter.”
- Continue the same interim fees of $75 initial fee plus $10/month, and $10 initial fee plus $5/month for low income.
- Local governments and multi-unit dwellings may not collectively opt out of smart meter installations.
- Charging an opt-out fee does not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- They will not address health and safety impacts in this decision.
- Assess fees on a per location basis, for example if you have two or more meters on your property, that will be one fee, per utility company.
- If you have two utilities, they can both charge you fees.
- President Peevey proposes putting a cap on the opt-out fees at 3 years.
- Neither proposal considers a no-fee option.
Ecological Options Network
EMF Analysis
EMF Safety Coalition
EMF Safety Network
No Nukes Action
Smart Meter Health Alert
Stop OC Smart Meters
Smart Meter Harm
Stop Smart Grid
Stop Smart Meters!
Stop Smart Meters Irvine
United Public Workers for Action
Wireless Radiation Alert Network
Too many times movements dies and voices aren’t heard because the weather isn’t as pretty. Well, it’s an ugly world we live in and we have to be willing to sometimes do things that are hard and face ugly things.
When the rain comes, people go in their houses, let us not forget about those who cannot go home because their lives have been stolen in this violent police state.
Come rain. sleet, hail or snow; #BlackLivesMatter and we must not let that be forgotten just because of some much needed rain. Bring your umbrellas out, network with one another, build up the community we want to save and march side by side in solidarity with one another & in solidarity with those around the world fighting for a better world.
Wear all Black because #BlackLivesMatter.
With the imminent threat of a sale, First They Came for the Homeless has moved from Staples to the downtown Post Office, with support from Berkeley Post Office Defenders. The new Occupation began in early November and continues on into December. Come hang out with them and show solidarity as we all take a stand against the privatization of our commons.
Check out the Christmas event this Saturday.
Check out the stories on the raids by the Postal Police.
We all know there will never be justice on stolen land… until we take a stand for justice. We encourage everyone to join Vanja Mawusi Abena’s yearly Boycott of BART. This individual 2 day solidarity action honors the victims of BART police. This is an individual action. This is not affiliated with any other protest or march plan by Oscar Grant’s family or other organizations. We encourage you to participate in the Grant Family’s annual vigil and other events held for Oscar Grant in his memory on January 1, 2015.
Please use other means of transportation beside Bart. to get to your NYE & NYD destinations. BIKE, RIDE SHARE, WALK.
For more info on trip planning for NYE & NYD visit : http://www.511.org/
“Here on Earth, tell me what’s a black life worth? A bottle of juice is no excuse, the truth hurts. And even when you take the shit, move counties get a lawyer you can shake the shit. Ask Rodney, LaTasha, and many more! It’s been goin’ on for years, there’s plenty more! When they ask me, when will the violence cease? When your troops stop shooting niggas down in the street” – Tupac Shakur
Rock In the New Year with Resistance to Police Murder!
No New Year Under this Old System!
We Can’t Breathe!
On New Year’s Eve, as the clock winds down on 2014, the powers that be will hope to be ringing in a new year that carries forward business as usual. That must not be allowed to go down because business as usual in Amerikkka includes wanton police murder of Black people. The refusal of grand juries in Ferguson and Staten Island to indict the cops who murdered Michael Brown and Eric Garner made this clear. So the powerful, beautiful and necessary outpourings that have disrupted this society’s normal routine must continue and escalate on New Year’s Eve and into the New Year.
We should live in a society where those who are entrusted with public safety would sooner risk their own lives than kill or injure an innocent person. But in this society, cops who brutalize and murder are given the benefit of the doubt and are almost never punished in any way for their crimes. This is illegitimate and unacceptable. It must be STOPPED, and it’s up to us to stop it! On New Year’s Eve, we must act in many different ways to do just that.
If you think that police murder must STOP, be out in the streets with that message on New Year’s Eve. Say in a loud, clear voice—NO NEW YEAR UNDER THIS OLD SYSTEM! And—WE CAN’T BREATHE! Bring your whistles and blow them loudly. Bring your signs and banners.
And if you think that torture, that violence against women and attacks on women’s rights, that attacks on immigrants and the pillaging of the environment of the planet, that U.S. wars for empire and attacks on people for who they love and how they love and more must be stopped; JOIN US in the streets on New Year’s Eve. Bring your signs and banners too. Figure out imaginative ways to say NO MORE to all these horrors.
100,000 Tweets for Oscar!
Social Media Campaign on Oscar López Rivera’s Birthday January 6th
La Respuesta Magazine & National Boricua Human Rights Network
On January 6, 2015 La Respuesta magazine and National Boricua Human Rights Network (NBHRN) call on you to act on behalf of the Puerto Rican people’s longest-held political prisoner. In honor of the man who has withstood thirty-three years in prison the campaign is called “Birth of a Patriot, Star of a Nation”.
The worldwide campaign calls for 100,000 messages to the twitter accounts of the President, White House, and Justice Department on January 6, 2015, Oscar’s birthday and the Day of the Epiphany/ Three Kings, the holiest day in his Puerto Rico homeland. We also call on participants to share “virtual gifts” in the form of photographs, videos, and writings on their social media pages in honor of Oscar’s birthday.
� Are you a poet? Artist? Photographer? Chef? Athlete? Dancer? Educator? Student? Health worker? Laborer? Mother? Father? Whatever you are or do, wherever you are, write a post, take a photo, record a video – dedicate a “virtual gift” to raising awareness and building support for Oscar López Rivera.
Post one of your poems, share a picture of your art or photography, cook and photograph a meal, run a few miles and write about it, record yourself dancing, take a selfie with a sign. Get creative and let the world know that you demand the release of Puerto Rican patriot Oscar López Rivera!
This January 6, 2015, on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, or any other platform you use, post using the hashtags #FreeOscarLopez and #Gift4Oscar (#RegaloPaOscar for Spanish-language messages). On Twitter, make sure to tag @BarackObama and @TheJusticeDept so that those with the power to release him hear our demands. We encourage you to begin planning your action to make sure we are all heard in unison on January 6.
Oscar, who was born on Three King’s Day, has become the Puerto Rican nation’s shining star, able to unite a people facing the divisive effects of a more than one-hundred year colonial occupation. Now, more than ever, the Puerto Rican people have come together in a way that presents U.S. President Barack Obama every reason to exercise his power of pardon and release Oscar. To learn more about Oscar and to read his original essays, visit: larespuestamedia.com/category/oscars-corner/
Let’s use social media for social change and send the clear message: RELEASE OSCAR NOW, 33 YEARS IS TOO MUCH!
For more information, contact alejandrom@boricuahumanrights.org
Sent by Haiti Action Committee
www.haitisolidarity.net and on FACEBOOK