The Western Institute for Social Research invites you to a talk by author and activist, Reverend Richard Lawrence on Reflections of Battles with Racism.
Calendar
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Mar
2
Mon
Next Organizers’ Meeting!
If you would like to come early and get an introduction to the concepts of public banking, or more locally to who we are and what we do, please email us and someone will come meet you at 5:30.
Working Group Meetings:
Some of our working groups meet between organizers’ meetings, and others just confer by phone and email. You can plug into any one of these:
- Outreach to Organizations
- Outreach to Individuals
- Digital Outreach
- Advocacy (working with politicians)
- Governance
- California Public Banking Alliance
- Fundraising
- Operations
Just send us a note and we’ll help you get connected to the work you want to do.
On October 2, 2019, Governor Newsom signed the law enabling local public bank charters in California. We have made history! And we have more history to make! Follow our latest news page for new developments. We’re keeping an updated list of articles about the bill and other public banking news.
People want DIVESTMENT.
The cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Richmond (not to mention Seattle, Santa Fe, etc., etc.) have all voted for divesting from pipelines and fossil fuels, but none of them have carried through. Why not? Because there is literally no clean bank big enough to handle their deposits.
People want LOCAL REINVESTMENT.
Our cities are teeming with urban problems, almost all of them disproportionately affecting black and brown populations: homelessness, gentrification pushing out marginalized communities, desperate infrastructure needs, impoverished parks and recreation programs, struggling local businesses, lack of local jobs, and so much more. Yet we send between 7 and 15 cents out of every tax dollar out of our cities forever, and into the hands of Wall Street bank shareholders, who couldn’t care less about our streets and our schools. When those banks profit from our tax revenues, they send the money straight into their own pockets. It’s like paying sales tax on our own money to greedy corporations.
People want A PUBLIC BANK.
The Bank of North Dakota, one of two public banks currently existing in the United States, not only saves the state of North Dakota that 7 to 15 cents per dollar, but also makes money. In 2017, its return on investment was 17%! In 2008, North Dakota didn’t have a foreclosure crisis, because the Bank of North Dakota didn’t invest in risky mortgages. And if you live in North Dakota, or go to college there, the bank will buy back your student loan … and restructure it to give you a 4% interest rate.
The East Bay can have our trifecta:
- DIVESTMENT
- LOCAL REINVESTMENT
- THE PUBLIC BANK OF THE EAST BAY
We are very closely allied with the California Public Banking Alliance, where nine regional California activist groups are working together to facilitate statewide change and make public banks more feasible.
We support the Green New Deal, which includes the stated intent to rely on a network of public banks for funding.
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Mar 2 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Autonomous Organizing and State Repression
From Kurdistan to Philadelphia
From Kurdistan to Philadelphia
presented by the Bay Area Mesopotamia Solidarity Committee, the Freedom Archives and the Anthropology and Social Change Department at CIIS
The Kurdish freedom movement, currently active across many borders in the Middle East, has put forth the revolutionary project of democratic confederalism under the principles of localized governance, women’s liberation and ecological practices.
On a smaller scale, but within the context of the massive Black liberation movement, the MOVE Organization of Philadelphia put its revolutionary ideas into practice in the 70s and 80s.
Both initiatives have faced the iron fist of the state for daring to organize autonomously.
During the summer of 2015, the Turkish army and mercenaries bombed Kurdish cities, killing hundreds of people. These brutal attacks were a terrifying re-escalation of Turkey’s 40-year civil war, between the State and the a left-wing Kurdish movement. The Turkish state justified the carnage by calling the political organizing of Kurdish communities into question.
Many of us on occupied land here in the US cannot help but consider similarities and differences between these attacks and the City of Philadelphia’s attack on a mostly African-American neighborhood that killed 11 members of MOVE and destroyed 61 homes in 1985. Philadelphia politicians similarly attempted to reframe the narrative by questioning the legitimacy of MOVE, and their integrity as a political organization.
What do the attacks on the Kurdish movement and the MOVE Organization, their aftermath, the ongoing struggles of the survivors, and the ongoing lack of justice for the dead teach us about the nature of the state, autonomous organization and racial and ethnic stratification?
Please join us for a double feature with presentations from Özlem Y., a Kurdish activist, and Mike Africa Jr., from MOVE, as we attempt to answer these questions, and consider new ones.
Özlem Y., currently in exile in the US, was a firsthand witness to the Turkish atrocities in autonomous Kurdistan where she was part of the Kurdish municipal governance structure.
Mike Africa Jr., a member of MOVE, is a speaker, writer and artist. He was born in prison to Debbie and Mike Africa who were each serving a 30 year sentence as part of the MOVE 9.
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Because of the COVID pandemic we will be meeting virtually via Zoom on the first Monday of the month.
Meeting ID: 828 0976 4186
If you wish to get the password please subscribe to the Oscar Grant Committee mailing list by sending an email to:
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a
grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality.
In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.
We meet on the 1st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to
oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
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Mar
5
Thu
Mar 5 @ 8:00 am – 8:00 pm
Exhibit on display from March 1 through April 30, 2020
Reception in the Morrison Library on Thursday, March 5 at 5 pm
This exhibit showcases original silk screen political posters from the 1960s and 1970s on the 50th Anniversary of the Great Poster Workshop in Wurster Hall in May 1970, triggered by the killing of four students at Kent State University in Ohio. U.C. Berkeley, birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, paved the way for mass protests and prolonged student strikes across the country against the Vietnam War and the draft, for black liberation and ethnic studies, and a variety of other struggles for social justice. This legacy of protest continues to be felt in the social movements of today.
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Join community and labor activists to keep Alameda County’s community choice energy program free from nuclear power!
Alameda County’s own public electricity agency, East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) is considering accepting PG&E’s dangerous nuclear energy into its power mix. Currently there is no nuclear in EBCE’s mix as shown here on EBCE’s website.
The East Bay Clean Power Alliance is leading opposition to this proposal — the same community and labor organizations that led the fight to create EBCE and make sure its priorities are creating clean energy jobs, community wealth, affordability, less remote transmission, and fighting climate change with equity at the center.
Join the fight to keep nuclear energy out of EBCE!
1. SIGN THE PETITION TO KEEP EBCE NUCLEAR FREE
2. JOIN THE EAST BAY CLEAN POWER ALLIANCE PLANNING MEETING
3. TELL THE EBCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS: NO NUKE!
WHEN
Wednesday, March 18, 6 PM
WHERE
Hayward City Hall
777 B St., Hayward
BACKGROUND
If EBCE accepts nuclear energy from California’s last remaining nuclear power plant, Diablo Canyon, that will weaken efforts to close that plant immediately. We need to close Diablo Canyon now!
Diablo Canyon is an aging nuclear power plant built on several earthquake faults near the ocean — just like the Fukushima plant whose meltdown caused havoc in Japan. Radioactive waste from the plant sits in large pools on top of those faults and there’s no way to store it safely.
The cost of keeping Diablo Canyon open has skyrocketed to over $1 billion a year in losses. Guess who has to pay? We do! PG&E charges its customers for this cost on their bills — and charges community choice customers for Diablo Canyon costs as part of the exit fee they pay to PG&E.
EBCE and all other community choice programs could save tens of million of dollars in costs to customers if Diablo Canyon were to close before 2025, as the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility is urging in its motion to the CPUC.
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Come by our open Delegates Meetings every Thursday evening at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
This meeting usually happens in the Ballroom, but the the location may change depending on the access needs of people attending and other events taking place in the building.
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Mar
6
Fri
OAKLAND MOVIE SCREENING
Action2020 is hosting a showing of Defies Measurement, a documentary about the wide-spread damage caused by the privatization movement in public education.https://t.co/mqs6UJctS4
March 06, 2020 at 6pm – 8pm
Red Bay Coffee (3098 E 10th Street) pic.twitter.com/KSiSmnP59x— Action 2020 Oakland (@Action2020Oak) February 19, 2020
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67797
Mar
7
Sat
Mar 7 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Finish the Civil War! For Black Liberation Through Socialist Revolution!
Speaker with discussion period.
$2 donation. No one turned away for lack of funds.
Speaker with discussion period.
$2 donation. No one turned away for lack of funds.
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Mar 7 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
he Trump presidency has helped create a climate of disorientation and crisis here and around the world. The Democrats promise to fix the broken system, or they just assume that people who are sickened by Trump will put their hopes in a Democratic candidate — no matter who it is.
Can the elections bring about the changes we need, beyond getting rid of Trump? How can we begin to organize our own forces to deal with the problems of our time? Come to a presentation and discussion about these important questions.
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Mar
8
Sun
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to healing.
The Bahá’í community of Oakland is organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.
Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us. Refreshments will be served.
Doors open: 10:00 AM
Prayers: 10:30-11:30 AM
Refreshments and socializing: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
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Why don’t Marxists study the Soviet experience in order to learn what these pioneers of the communist movement did, and what we can learn from them?
For Marx, as for all materialists, practice was – is — primary. Theory must be tested through practice. To base theory on the basis of a false understanding of reality is as fatal to knowledge as it would be to base theory, as idealists do, on ideas alone, without regard to material reality.
The Stalin era was the heroic era of the worldwide communist movement. Indeed, the 20th century may be fairly described as the “Soviet century,” since all the important political and social events and upheavals took place with reference to the Soviet Union.
If, following Marx, we want to build an egalitarian, communist society, we must study the practice of those who came before us in this endeavor. That means studying the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution, especially the period when Joseph Stalin was in the leadership of the Bolshevik Party and the Soviet state.
Why don’t today’s Marxists do this? My talk will explore the reasons for this fatal neglect and urge a corrective. — Grover Furr, Montclair State University
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RALLY, MARCH, and CELEBRATION for International Working Women’s Day 2020!
Join grassroots women’s organizations and allies from throughout the Bay Area for a Rally, March & Celebration on Sunday, March 8th to commemorate the 112th International Working Women’s Day anniversary in honor of the first women strikers in 1908.
Join us as we Uphold the Legacy and Power of Women’s Resistance Here & Abroad! Together, we will be lifting up the internationalist struggles and stories of women, trans, and GNC communities around the world.
Let us take the streets and RISE Up to demand an end to gender based violence against women and TGNC communities, RESIST militarization and displacement, and UNITE for self determination. Join us as we collectively protest singing “Un Violador en tu Camino.”
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NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:
occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
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
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Mar 8 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Green Sunday
The M arch Green Sunday will be a wide-ranging discussion of the March primary results — both locally, as well as the ‘Super Tuesday’ showings here in California and across the country. We will be looking at these outcomes to tell us first about the state of national politics and how the Green Party might respond. There are clearly a wide range of possibilities depending on who the Presidential nominees might be, and ‘Super Tuesday’ should give us a strong indication of where this situation may be heading. In addition, we will assess the local and state races and measures, including several controversial tax proposals and the 3 contested County Supervisor seats — the first time that all 3 seats have had multiple candidates running for each position, for many, many decades; that is, for as long as any of us can recall.
Our discussion will be led by Don Macleay, a three time Green Party candidate for local office, for both Mayor, and for School Board, in Oakland. Don is also a father of two, a school volunteer, machinist, network tech, polyglot, and environmentalist. Beginning last year, he was one of the main founders of the group “Action 2020”, which has been working to overhaul the Oakland School Board, that currently supports charter schools and is corporate-friendly.
Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. Snacks are potluck. Vegetarian and vegan snacks are always welcome, but we appreciate whatever you can bring! The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows, at 6:45 pm. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.
PLANET PEOPLE PEACE
before profit!
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Slingshot turns 32 years old – 1988 – 2020
Meet authors from the last 32 years, learn how you can get involved in Slingshot for the next 32 years. Display of back issues.
Vegan chocolate cake, zany free raffle for door prizes, get copies of issue #131 of the paper, maybe snacks, maybe music
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Mar
9
Mon
Join us for a screening of RIGGED: The Voter Suppression Playbook, followed by a voting rights panel and Q&A with the film’s executive producer.
Narrated by Jeffrey Wright, RIGGED takes a rigorous look at voter suppression and sparks discussion on the actions needed to protect our democracy. Shot principally during the 2016 election, the film tracks a systematic, decade-long effort to suppress votes at scale and reverse the growing demographic tide of new, young, and non-white voters who helped elect President Barack Obama in 2008. It details a variety of voter suppression “plays,” or tactics, ranging from the purging of voting rolls and passing of new, restrictive voter ID laws to gerrymandering and voter intimidation. The film also includes interviews with Republican strategists detailing how the game was played as well as interviews with leading voting rights advocates, law professors, demographers and Democratic strategists.
Post-Screening panel discussion on voting rights to follow. Panelists include:
Bertrall Ross, Berkeley Law Professor
Brittany Stonesifer, Attorney, ACLU
Mac Heller, Executive Producer, Rigged
VENUE: UC Berkeley School of Law
225 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA
Room 100
Sponsored by the American Constitution Society, La Raza, Law Students of African Descent & the Native American Law Students Association.
DINNER PROVIDED.
Find out more and RSVP today: https://www.facebook.com/events/849706108831076/
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Mar 9 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
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