Calendar
Please join us for July’s monthly potluck and free movie at the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center.
In light of the global Plastic Free July movement, we are going to watch Tapped (1 hr, 15 min) and additional clips about the plastic pollution crisis.
Tapped looks into the effects of plastic bottled water on issues such as pollution, human health and climate change. Plastic bottles ideally can be recycled but many of them end up in landfills or the ocean where they pose a threat to marine life. Also presented is an overwhelming amount of evidence that will change the way anyone thinks about bottled versus municipal water.
Since China’s ban on most plastic import, our plastic waste has been flooding Southeast Asian countries that lack the capacity to manage such amount. And yet more plastics are being manufactured as the industries want to educate us that recycling, instead of avoiding waste at its source, is the key solution to single-use petrochemical products although our recycling management is inadequate to catch up with the rate the plastic waste is being produced.
Join us and explore how our reliance on single-use disposable products leave us swimming in plastic pollution. Bring some food to share…and…your own re-usable foodware if you can.
Since November of 2018, there have been weekly protests, sometimes involving hundreds of thousands of people, from students to housewives to workers to retirees, angry at the high cost of living and the government’s policies.
Come and hear a presentation by Camille Chauchat, a French school teacher and an activist with the Fraction L’Etincelle in the NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party) and participant in the Yellow Vest Movement in Lyons, France.
EastSide Arts Alliance, the Global Uchinanchu Alliance (GUA) and the Okinawa Kenjinkai Study Group (OKSG) present:
Final Fridays Films of Solidarity & Resistance
“Our Island’s Treasure”
film screening, Q and A with the filmmaker, and yuntaku/talk story
Have you heard about what’s been going on in Henoko, Okinawa? What is #RiseForHenoko? Maybe you’ve heard about how local residents have been protesting the building of a new U.S. military base in Oura Bay? The ongoing landfill work to create this base is destroying thousand-year-old coral reef structures, and threatens the aquatic life in the bay, including the Dugong, a manatee-like marine mammal that is close to extinction.
Maybe you’ve heard about the February 2019 Okinawan prefectural referendum, where 71.7% of Okinawans voted in opposition to the new base? Despite the democratic opposition of the indigenous Okinawans, the Japanese government continues to push forward with the land reclamation process.
A lack of U.S. media attention has meant that most people in the United States don’t know about the social and environmental crisis in Okinawa that worsens every day. Teenaged filmmaker Kaiya Yonamine created a documentary this year to shed light on what’s going on. She explains on her website, https://www.riseforhenoko.com:
My name is Kaiya, and I am a 17-year old Okinawan-American high school student from Portland, Oregon. I recently went back to Henoko this spring because I was frustrated with the silence of the media around this crisis.
I wanted to make a documentary to show the world what’s happening. My documentary, “Our Island’s Treasure,” focuses on the current destruction of the beautiful Okinawan ocean in Henoko and the fight by native Uchinanchu people to protect it. Please help spread awareness.
FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
The Teachers’ Protest – 2019 (78 min.) Directed by Jon Seal (UK)
1942. Occupied Norway. Teachers must join the Nazi Teachers’ League and teach Nazi ideas in their classrooms. 8,000 of them write protest letters. They are threatened with salary withdrawal and the sack. Still they refuse. In a desperate attempt to break them, the Nazi government arrests 1000 male teachers and sends them to prison camps, 300 miles above the Arctic Circle. The education system is in chaos and now the battle begins.
The Teachers’ Protest is an opportunity to learn about one of the most remarkable stories of passive resistance in World War Two – a story unknown outside of Norway. The documentary brings these events to an international audience through the memories of those involved in the protest. The drawings of Herlov Åmland, made in the terrible conditions of the Arctic prison camp, are brought to life through animation and become the dramatic heart. The Teachers’ Protest tells us how ordinary people stood up to horrific oppression in an extra ordinary way. Sadly, it is as relevant today as ever.
This feature length documentary uses interviews, archive footage, and the fascinating animation of original drawings to tell the teachers’ story to an international audience for the first time.
For those hungering for a plan, a scheme, a scenario, an idea that could draw together the centrifugal factional interests of the left [see Doonesbury for 7/21/19: https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2019/07/21] to form a concentrated, transformative movement, make time this Saturday morning to come on a free weekly walking tour that serves up a candidate plan for the task.
The Commons SF proposes, in the course of a tour of San Francisco social movement history, that treating planet Earth as a commonwealth can very well operate as a unifying principle for environmentalists, Labor advocates, socialist dreamers, poverty-busters, gender and race identity politics activists, and other niche lefties.
The walk builds upon the hypothesis that all oppressed and marginalized people seek “security in geography” (safety and stability in location) to argue for consensus that the privatization of of the economic value of “location, location, location” disrupts class solidarity, environmental integrity (and responsibility), and the conceptualization of universal equality of humanity. Further, and positively, specific public policy is proposed.
Advisory: this walk is heavy on details, eschewing vague generalities, and is therefore provocative and unnerving for those owning real estate.
Note: this walk will be offered to Libertarians, anti-Big government rhetoricians, Free Market haranguers, Republicans, and others next week. Treating land as a common wealth is a unifying principle for all people.
For more info: http://www.TheCommonsSF.org
You’re invited to the Reel Stories June Film Festival!
July 27th location is the California Theater, 2113 Kittredge, Berkeley, CA.
Reel Stories teaches young women and non-binary youth ages 12-18 how to create a film in only 10 days. Institute and Beginner 1 filmmakers are debuting their films June 29th. Join us for the Reel Stories Film Festival and support the next generation of filmmakers!
Reel Stories believes that when women and non-binary people are better represented behind the scenes in the media, they will be better reflected on the screen. Reel Stories is a non-profit Oakland-based organization that empowers young women and non-binary people with the skills to create their own media, to view current media critically and thoughtfully, and to aspire to leadership in their field.
More info and tickets here.
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk
With Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society.
This year is the 73rd anniversary of the Oakland General Strike. This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that spontaneously began with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking, mostly women retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department stores, where picket lines were broken by police-escorted scabs.
Within 24 hours, it involved over 100,000 workers and shut down nearly all commerce in the East Bay for 54 hours. In 1946 there were six general strikes across the U.S.; that year set the all-time record year for strikes and work stoppages. The Oakland “Work Holiday” was the last general strike to ever occur in the U.S. This walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
Anarchist gathering 2019! Featuring speakers, poets, workshops, a fashion show, bands, and more!
Workshop- “What We Can Learn From Other Movements”: Images and stories of the Black Panther Party in South Berkeley by Billy X Jennings from 4pm-5pm
An exploration of the situation in Cuba today, speakers to include Tony Ryan, founder of the Turquino Project, and Steve Wasserman, publisher and executive director of Heyday Books. Tony Ryan will moderate.
Join 350 Bay Area for an interactive, informative, and just plain fun afternoon celebrating its community of esteemed members, volunteers and donors.
Activities include:
- Picking up your FREE T-SHIRT (must RSVP for this) – These shirts help us find each other at events and send the message that we are united in our concern and determination. They are great conversation starters about the urgent climate situation we find ourselves in.
- Chalk art contest.
- Making activist art to use at events.
- Chatting with fellow climate activists about how we go forward.
- Chilling under our EZ up and/or in hammocks.
- Snacking on chips and dip – Bring a chip or dip if you like (vegan or vegetarian items only). But picnic planners will provide a lot, so feel free to just bring yourself and friends.
Anarchist gathering 2019! Featuring speakers, poets, workshops, a fashion show, bands, and more!
Workshop- “What We Can Learn From Other Movements”: Images and stories of the Black Panther Party in South Berkeley by Billy X Jennings from 4pm-5pm
“We cannot heal what we will not face”
On May 21, 1998, President Suharto of Indonesia resigned after 32 years in power. The events leading up to that day are complicated. There was an economic crisis. There was a student movement. There was a contested election. And there were riots, killings, and mass rapes of Chinese Indonesian women. To this day, nobody has been held accountable. A whole generation has grown up in ignorance of these events. Chinese Whispers seeks to challenge that ignorance.
Screening and discussion with the lead artist, Rani Pramesti, facilitated by National Organization of Asians and Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV).
This event is supported by Oakland Asian Cultural Center, National Organization of Asians and Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence (NAPIESV), Banteay Srei, Center for Asian American Media, APEX Express, Design Action Collective.
“We would like to respectfully acknowledge that this event takes place on the lands of the Ohlone People.”
Let’s get organized together! Join us for TANC’s July public assembly! We’ll discuss how the struggle went in July (like our poster distribution on July 16, which you should also come to!), plan more actions for the future, and take down the landlord class together. All are welcome. (except landlords)
~~~
The tides of gentrification threaten to wash away what remains of Oakland. The rent is too goddamn high and the Town is drowning. In the spectacle of this commodified landscape, the class resentment simmering underneath ‘economic development’ has become a powder keg. We’ve seen how France responds to a small rise in the cost of living. How Haiti responds to the destructive force of inflation. The Bay Area housing crisis weighs on us like a thousand gas taxes. If not our homes, at least the streets remain ours!
After being on the defensive for so long, it’s time to take the offensive. This means demanding real concessions from landlords and shifts in the housing market. And if these aren’t given over, we will organize them ourselves. For lower rents and tenant control of housing! Toward the abolition of rents and housing for all!
Because of festival parking and sun we are going to meet at the Omni Sunday, July 28th.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)
On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
From the California Banking Alliance.
On July 29, the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the only public bank in the United States will celebrate it’s 100 year anniversary. The BND is owned by the people of North Dakota. Founded in 1919, the BND public bank is more profitable than Wall Street banks. The BND escaped the economic crash of 2008 unscathed because it does not get involved in risky or predatory banking practices. It invests in the people of the state and strengthens local communities.
Join us on Monday, July 29 on the Bank of North Dakota’s 100th year centennial, for a day of social media amplification and help us bring awareness to California’s epic fight for our financial independence from Wall Street!
Check out our sample tweets and graphics for the Public Banking Day of Action here.
The Public Banking Act Heads to its Final Committee!
The public banking revolution is growing across the country– it is now on the verge of becoming a reality here in California.
AB 857 is headed into our final committee, Senate Appropriations, in mid-August. AB 857 will then return to the Assembly floor for a second vote due to added amendments, before its last stop on the Senate floor at the end of August.
We’re in the final home stretch before the bill gets signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, but we need your help now to get to the finish line and free California from Wall Street’s stranglehold.
With the establishment of public banks, cities and counties will be able to divest their tax revenues from Wall Street megabanks who use public dollars to finance private prisons, fossil fuels, predatory lending, and weapons industries. Our cities can then leverage our deposit base to invest in equitable, community-driven projects like affordable housing, renewable energy, infrastructure, and small businesses.
California is on our way to making history as the first state in the nation to enable local public banks to recapture the billions paid to private, out-of-state banks and reinvest in our local communities.
Priority Call – Appropriations Committee Chair: Senator Anthony Portantino (San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys): (916) 651-4025.
Take 3 minutes today to call your Representatives:
- Find your CA State Senator and Assemblymember:findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov
- Find their Capitol phone number: Senate Democrats Call List / Assembly Democrats Call List
- Call your Senator and Assemblymember. Tell the staffer your full name, zip code, and:
- “As a constituent, I’m urging the [Senator or Assemblymember] to support AB 857 the Public Banking Act.”
- For more information, view our AB 857 Fact Sheet, FAQs and Endorsements. Visit our AB 857 Resources page.
OCCUPELLA will be singing at the TAX THE RICH RALLY EVERY MONDAY from 5-6 on upper Solano Ave. in front of the (closed) Oaks Theater. Songbooks are provided.
(We’ll also be LEADING SONGS ON JULY 13 at NOON in Civic Center Park (across from Berkeley High and old City Hall). The City of Berkeley will officially recognize the human rights abuses at the border.)
A child friendly, pot lucking, moving speakers, and shutting down ICE event.
The Contra Costa Immigrant Rights Alliance would like to invite you to be part of the Second annual TRUTH Act Forum. Last year we packed the Board of Supervisors Chambers with over 200 people. We demanded Sheriff Livingston provide answers regarding his collaboration with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For more than two hours, community raised concerns, asked questions, and demanded transparency from the county. Despite all of that, no answers were provided to the public, but community kept pushing for transparency and justice. We learned that in 2017 63 residents were transferred to ICE under his department, with no further information or data provided on the 63 people turned over to ICE.
Additionally, Sheriff Livingston continues to oversee the jails, where the same terrible conditions are happening. For the past year there have been 5 deaths and counting at the jails under Sheriff Livingston’s watch. Contra Costa continues to have an issue of lack of accountability. Thus, our urgency to make this year’s TRUTH forum an issue about lack of accountability and transparency. No more deaths at the jail, No more pol-ice collaboration!