Calendar
New to Strike Debt?? Don’t walk cold turkey into a bunch of radicals talking about debt! Show up a half hour early—at 2:30 PM—for an informal pre-meeting intro session. If you’d like to attend this pre-together please email strike.debt.bay.area@
Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally to fight unjust debt.
– The latest on our coalition efforts to Save the Berkeley Post Office and fight the privatization of our commons.
– The latest on our efforts to help Richmond and NGO allies push for principal reduction for Richmond’s homeowners. Read two articles here and here, written by two Strike Debt Bay Area members on the Richmond principal reduction / eminent domain case.
In addition, we are exploring the use of a public bank to help Richmond, CA and other communities escape the thrall of Wall Street.
– Work on our radio segment on KPFA
– Other projects include efforts to fight against student debt in conjunction with peeps at UC Cal via a Strike Debt UC Berkeley chapter of Strike Debt, a book group with semi-weekly discussions, investigations into the legitimacy of mortgage ownership and therefore the right to foreclose, efforts to thwart payday loan usury and more.
“Just as bosses are dependent on workers, so are lenders dependent on borrowers. If workers walk out, the enterprise stops. If borrowers refuse to pay their debts, the lenders could be in real trouble. Each side depends on the other. The millions of underwater mortgage holders, of student debtors and credit card holders, need the bank loans – but so do the banks need those borrowers, and they especially need them to cooperate by paying their monthly charges. Otherwise, the capital that the banks list on their books begins to drain away.” ~Francis Fox Piven
Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
Check out the Berkeley Post Office Defenders website too.
We are having an assembly to plan direction actions from April 22nd to May 1st to raise awareness about the intersections of labor, immigration and environmental issues. You can propose actions or events. Examples include film screenings, sit-ins, tree-sits, guerrilla gardening, pickets, marches, blockades, strikes, etc. After the proposals are voted on we will have a discussion about strategies to unite workers and environmentalists against the bosses.
Following this will be a screening of he file “Rocking the Foundations,” about the Builders Labourers Federation of Australia.
The KPFA Community Advisory Board is sponsoring an information and proposal sharing event. We invite listeners, community members, volunteers, media activists, programmers, board members and staff from KPFA and the Pacifica Network to participate. We will be using a non-hierarchical group process to address the urgent need for expanded listener sponsored free speech radio.
Please come and contribute:
Bring material for our information sharing table
Write and post YOUR concerns. (Please bring a felt pen or marker).
Proposed topics include:
- Financial sustainability
- Quality programming
- Equality and inclusion
- KPFA community activism. and participation
- Pacifica Network
- KPFA and Pacifica Governance
Share in a small group on a self-selected topics,
Participate in our large group summary and plan for how we use the information
gathered ______________________________________________________________________________
The KPFA Community Advisory Board is charged with assessing and reporting the needs of the community served by KPFA to the governing board and management of KPFA.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
The American Postal Workers Union is planning more actions against Staples; we need to support them. We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard.
The Berkeley City Council is on a path to pass some sort of Zoning Overlay which may protect the Post Office against various commercial uses, or be totally ineffective. We need to stay on top of it.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Post Offices was supposed to come out before the end of March – anything could happen after it comes out. Come help us plan our response.
Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Save the Albany Bulb!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!!!
Save the Bulb Panel at OccupyForum you want to see the future
hike up the middle trail for 5min on
the right by the solitary tree is the future STATE PARK run by the East Bay Regional Parks deconstruction
they destroyed all the birds nests, ( I know because I use to play my guitar
and watch those great black and yellow gold finchs in the trees) animal
habitats , art ,bushes and trees what they left was barren ground
seeded with grass and signs saying Don’t walk on the grass. they want
to destroy the rest of the 30 acres of the most public and awed park
around.how many of you have taken your out of town friends to the
Bulb Ive met hundreds of delighted tourists over the last twenty
years…
go to google image and type in the bulb you will see thousands of photographs
make no mistake the state does not have to do any thing that albany
suggests when the East Bay Regional Park took over the flat lands all
the mudflats art were destroyed “we didn’t have the man power to keep up
the art” they whined
all art people birds trees bushes will be ploughed under and 4 inchs
of mulch spread with grass seeds for the future sierra club and albany
city planed park of pristine back to nature and in 15
years after the state park system goes broke since there not taxing
the the rich
they will sell it to themselves like the berkeley post
office and build condos plus dogs will be leashed or banned unless we
stop them.
which we have done since the 1st of october which was the eviction
date the Workers and students of the the bay area will be hurt greatly if
the capitalist 1% and appologists get their way hopefully you won’t
say “aw gee I should have done something I didn’t know” well u do
know now so join our ranks and fight the lies lies lies the masses are
the makers of history not the 1%
ALBANY BULB COMUNITY DEFENDED BY GG AGAINST CAPITALIST CITY COUNCIL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBzPM0jxxDc&feature=em-share_video_user
GO TO sharethebulb.org
Donations welcome, no one turned away!
Monday, April 7th from 6 – 9 pm at Global Exchange
2017 Mission Street near 16th Street BART
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
OccupyForum presents…
Save the Albany Bulb!
Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win!!!
Save the Bulb Panel at OccupyForum
If you want to see the future hike up the middle trail for 5min on the right by the solitary tree is the future STATE PARK run by the East Bay Regional Parks deconstruction
they destroyed all the birds nests, ( I know because I use to play my guitar
and watch those great black and yellow gold finchs in the trees) animal habitats , art ,bushes and trees what they left was barren ground
seeded with grass and signs saying Don’t walk on the grass. they want
to destroy the rest of the 30 acres of the most public and awed park
around.how many of you have taken your out of town friends to the
Bulb Ive met hundreds of delighted tourists over the last twenty
years…
go to google image and type in the bulb you will see thousands of photographs
make no mistake the state does not have to do any thing that albany suggests when the East Bay Regional Park took over the flat lands all
the mudflats art was destroyed “we didn’t have the man power to keep up
the art” they whined
all art people birds trees bushes will be ploughed under and 4 inchs
of mulch spread with grass seeds for the future sierra club and albany
city planed park of pristine back to nature and in 15
years after the state park system goes broke since there not taxing
the the rich
they will sell it to themselves like the berkeley post
office and build condos plus dogs will be leashed or banned unless we stop um.
which we have done since the 1st of october which was the eviction date. the Workers and students of the the bay area will be hurt greatly. if the capitalist 1% and appologists get their way hopefully you won’t say “aw gee I should have done something I didn’t know” well u do
know now ,so join our ranks and fight the lies lies lies the masses are the makers of history not the 1%
ALBANY BULB COMUNITY DEFENDED BY GG AGAINST CAPITALIST CITY COUNCIL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBzPM0jxxDc&feature=em-share_video_user
GO TO sharethebulb.org
Time will be allocated for Q&A and announcements.
Donations welcome, no one turned away!
ATTENTION ALL FAMILIES WHO HAS BEEN A VICTIM OF POLICE TERRORISM join us as we march on State Capital Sacramento during Crime Victim Day April 8, 2014. Please organize your communities and unite with us as we speak out against State Attorney General Kamala Harris for turning a blind eye under the Color of Law. Let’s organized now to address the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, Police Terrorism, and failure to resolve gun violence in our communities. Those families harmed by Gun Violence that are still seeking justice and an investigation into the killing of your Love one, please join us. Lack of forensic labs or non efficient labs must be addressed. Please share this with your network. “We are only as strong as our UNITY”
Families United March on State Capital Sacramento
The State Capitol in Sacramento, California for the United Families of California at the fifth annual Victims’ Rights March is a call to action for victims and their supporters to come together as they do every year on the steps of the California State Capitol to have their voices heard by their elected officials. This event is not considered a memorial, but rather a rally in which we encourage victims to visit their legislator’s offices and let them know how you feel about public safety issues. The California Coalitions and one of the leading organizers is the Oscar Grant Foundation, and their Executive Director: Cephus ‘Uncle Bobby’ Johnson and will be joined by over 21 families of victims murdered by Police and most of the “Police Brutality” murders are in question and have current investigations.
Article on rally and co-rally in Florida.
The Oakland-based Institute of Urban Homesteading is hosting an urban agriculture night at the New Parkway Theater. The main event is a screening of the urban agriculture documentary Growing Cities, and filmmaker Dan Susman will be on hand. Other festivities include a jam tasting and jam swap (participants should bring a jar for tasting and another to swap), and various door prizes. Doors open at 6 p.m.; the movie will start at 7. Tickets ($8, plus a service fee) are available here.
April 2014 – The 7th Annual Privacy Lecture
Bancroft HotelFor more information and to register, visit the event website.
Presented by Professor Ross Anderson with responses by Carl Shapiro, James Aquilina, and Anupam Chander.
The Snowden revelations teach us that many of the world’s governments share intelligence behind the scenes. Thirty years ago, a non-aligned country like India could happily buy its military aircraft from Russia; nowadays, although it still buys some planes from Sukhoi, it shares intelligence with the NSA. A rational actor will join the biggest network, and the Russians’ network is much smaller. This points us to a deeper truth: that information economics applies to the public sector, just as it applies to private business. The forces that lead to pervasive monopolies in the information industries – network effects, technical lock-in and low marginal costs – are pervasive in the affairs of states too, once we look for them; they are just not yet recognized as such. There are many significant implications, from international relations through energy policy to privacy. Network effects make regulation hard; the USA failed to protect US attorney-client communications from Australian intelligence, just as Australia failed to protect its own citizens’ personal health information from the NSA. There are some upsides too; but to identify and exploit them, we need to start thinking in a more grown-up way about what it means to live in a networked world.
Event Schedule
Registration 3:00 – 3:30 PM
Presentation 3:30 – 5:30 PM
Reception 5:30 – 6:30 PM
There will be two Bay Area events:
Press Conference at NCRIC Fusion Center in San Francisco
11:00am – Thursday, April 10
Northern California Regional Intelligence Center
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Oakland Press Conference / Rally at City Hall
6:00pm – Thursday, April 10
Oakland City Hall, Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater
14th & Broadway
Oakland, CA
There will be two Bay Area events:
Press Conference at NCRIC Fusion Center in San Francisco
11:00am – Thursday, April 10
Northern California Regional Intelligence Center
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Oakland Press Conference / Rally at City Hall
6:00pm – Thursday, April 10
Oscar Grant Plaza Amphitheater
14th & Broadway
Oakland, CA
STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!
Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.
Tickets via Brown Paper Tickets or at Pegasus Books (3 locations), Marcus Books, Mrs. Dalloway’s, Moe’s Books, Walden Pond, DIESEL a Bookstore. SF: Modern Times
Hot news! Matt Taibbi has left Rolling Stone and just joined Pierre Omidyar’s group of original, independent journalists to produce a second digital magazine. The first is The Intercept, with writing by Glen Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and other fearless journalists.
From the award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author of The Great Derangement and Griftopia comes another devastating portrait of American values in our polarized age, a galvanizing exploration of how our growing wealth gap is not just warping our economy, but transforming the meaning of rights, justice, and basic citizenship.
THE DIVIDE: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap is a probing investigation of one of the most pressing issues facing us today: the increasing wealth gap and how it is affecting our system of justice. “The Divide,” reveals our two most troubling trends – enormous wealth inequality on one hand and an increasingly punitive, intrusive state on the other, resulting in our basic rights now being determined by our wealth or poverty. The Divide is what allows massively destructive fraud by the hyperwealthy to go unpunished, while turning poverty itself into a crime.
Matt Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and the author of five previous books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Great Derangement and Griftopia.
Donald Goldmacher, Producer/Director of Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?, is a longtime filmmaker, labor activist, and community psychiatrist with decades of experience.
His first film, “Do No Harm,” exposed the controversial marketing and research practices of the pharmaceutical industry. His recent feature documentary “Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House”, won over 20 festival awards and aired on HBO and television around the world.
KPFA Benefit
Meeting open to the public. Come and tell CAB members what you think about KPFA.
The Robin Hood Committee needs your help gathering signatures to place two initiatives on the November ballot. The initiatives will create $4.5 million for affordable housing and other city services in Berkeley by taxing the windfall profits of large landlords. Right now, Berkeley tenants are paying more than $100 million a year in excess rent, wealth that is taken out of our community. We can recapture a fraction of that by putting these measures to a vote of the people.
Join us this Sunday to pick up petitions and a partner for signature gathering.
Cant make it Sunday or want petitions earlier? Call us at 1-510-548-FAH-1. The Robin Hood Committee is supported by the Green Party of Alameda County, Councilmembers Worthington and Arreguin, Rent Board members Stephens, Harr, Soto-Vigil and Townley, the Berkeley Tenants Union and many others.
The Windfall Profits Tax on High Rents Initiative will raise the business license tax on residential rental units by 1.9%, but exempts small live-in and low-income landlords with less than 10 units. It also reduces the tax for units occupied by long-term tenants with moderate rents. In order not to discourage new construction, it allows a 20 year exemption from the increase starting with initial occupancy of the building. This is expected to raise $4.5 million annually for the City’s general fund to start with, rising as units occupied by long-term tenants turn over, as 20 year exemptions expire and as rents continue to rise. The tax cannot be passed on to tenants, since current tenants are protected by the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
The Affordable Housing Initiative will require the City Council to set aside at least $3 million annually for the Housing Trust Fund, which is used to develop affordable housing for low-income people either through new construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of existing housing by non-profit organizations. Once passed by the voters, Council will have 120 days to do a fiscal analysis and determine whether to accept the measure or to reduce or veto the allocation. The $3 million set-aside is expected to derive from the windfall profits tax revenue described above. Activists consider passage of the tax measure to be the best means of ensuring that the City can invest in affordable housing without reducing other needed services.
Background: Rents in Berkeley are rising to record highs, bringing windfall profits to most landlords while tenant incomes remain stagnant. Rents are going up because Berkeley is a very desirable place to live, not because landlords have so greatly improved the buildings they own. A strong Bay Area economy and public investments in the University, transit, parks and other public services all make Berkeley an attractive place to live. When public activities increase the value of private property it is only fair that the public recapture a small fraction of the value we the people create and use it for public benefit rather than allowing it all to be taken for private profit.
Before 1999 Berkeley had a strong rent control system that only allowed landlords to raise rents enough to provide a constitutionally required fair return on their investment but did not allow windfall profits at the expense of tenants. In 1999 the State legislature imposed �vacancy decontrol�, which now allows landlords to raise rents without limit whenever a new tenant moves in.
As a result, 85% of Berkeley’s older rentals have had vacancy increases. Tenants are now paying more than $100 million annually in additional rent, over and above what is needed to provide landlords with a fair return on their investment. Real, inflation-adjusted rents have gone up by more than 50% yet Berkeley’s landlords are taking out permits for building renovations equal in value to less than 3% of their massive annual rent increases. This transfer of wealth from Berkeley tenants to landlords, the majority of whom live outside of Berkeley, drains money from the community and increases demands for public services of all kinds, from social services to subsidized housing to public safety.
P.S. We only have until May 10 � we need you today!
Global Day Against Military Spending, Monday, April 14
Join the Bay Area New Priorities Campaign and folks from more than a dozen peace & justice organizations to distribute a GDAMS brochure to commuters at BART stations during morning and evening rush hours. Below is a list of BART stations and contact info.
Press conference
In front of the Federal Building, 13th & Clay, downtown Oakland, CA, 11:30 am
Speakers will include leaders from the faith community, a representative of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, County Supervisor Wilma Chan, and a representative of Mayors for Peace.
The press conference will be followed at noon by a “Living Graveyard” vigil to honor the lives lost in the Afghan and Iraq wars and draw attention to the social costs of military spending. The Living Graveyard is organized by Ecumenical Peace Institute and the East Bay Coalition to Support Self-Rule for Iraqis.
For additional contact information about BART actions: <smcneil@afsc.org>
San Francisco
Embarcadero BART Station, 7-8:45 am
Rozali Telbis <rtelbis@gmail.com>
Powell Street BART Station, 9-10 am
99% Coalition <janet.weil13@gmail.com>
Montgomery Street BART Station, 4-6 pm
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom SF
Civic Center BART Station, 7-9 am
Physicians for Social Responsibility <rmgould1@yahoo.com>
16th Street/Mission BART Station, noon-1 pm
Kathy Lipscomb <kathylipscomb2@gmail.com>
24th Street/Mission BART Station
noon-1 pm SEIU 1021 Peace & Solidarity Committee <dadaray2002@yahoo.com>
4 pm Veterans for Peace
Glen Park BART Station, 7-9 am
AFSC/SF Friends Meeting <smcneil@afsc.org>
Wednesday April 16, 5:30-6:30 pm
Place : Montgomery Street BART Station
CODEPINK <janet.weil13@gmail.com>
Berkeley
Downtown Berkeley BART Station, 7:15-9:15 am
Grandmothers Against War <marpla2@hotmail.com>
Ashby BART Station, 7-9 am
Grandmothers Against War <marpla2@hotmail.com>
North Berkeley BART Station, 7-9 AM
Asian Americans for Peace & Justice <gmorizawa@yahoo.com>
NICCA <nicca@igc.org>
El Cerrito
El Cerrito Plaza BART station, 6:30-8:30 am
El Cerrito Democratic Club <amil@sonic.net> & East Bay Peace Action
El Cerrito del Norte BART Station, 6:30-8:30 am
East Bay Peace Action <amil@sonic.net>
Oakland
West Oakland BART Station, 7:30-9:30 Women for Genuine Security
<rev.deb.lee@gmail.com> <eriola808@gmail.com>
4-7 pm Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom EBay
<wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org>
12th Street BART Station, 7-9 am
Fellowship of Reconciliation <johnlp@forusa.org>
19th Street BART Station, 7-9 am
Fellowship of Reconciliation <johnlp@forusa.org>
MacArthur BART Station, 7-9 am, 4-6 pm
Western States Legal Foundation <wslf@earthlink.net>
Piedmont Ave Area, 7-9 am
Piedmont Peace Group
Rockridge BART Station, 7-9 am
Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club <jack.kurzweil@gmail.com>
Lake Merritt BART Station, 7-9 am
Oakland Educational Association (tbc)
Fruitvale BART Station, 7-9 am Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice <labor-for-peace-and-justice@igc.org>
4-6 pm School of the Americas Watch <robertnixon@mindspring>, Oakland Catholic Worker
San Leandro
San Leandro BART Station, 7-8:30 am, School of the Americas Watch <2dinixon@gmail.com>
Hayward
Hayward BART Station, 7-9 am
South Alameda County Peace & Justice Coalition <HAMEscott@comcast.net>
South Hayward
South Hayward BART Station, 7-9 am
Hayward Democratic Club <HAMEscott@comcast.net>
Pleasanton
Place: Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station, 7:30-9 am
Tri-Valley CARES <marylia@trivalleycares.org>
Richmond
Place: Richmond BART Station, 7-9 pm
Richmond Progressive Alliance
Concord
Concord BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Lafayette
Place : Lafayette BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
North Concord/Martinez
North Concord/Martinez BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Orinda
Orinda BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Pittsburg/Bay Point
Pittsburg/Bay Point BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Pleasant Hill
Place: Lafayette BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!
Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.
This is a blantant attack on the Bulb Comunity.Three days before her arrest she was a guest Speaker at the occupysf.org Monday nite forum
she is one of the main people and spokes person for the bulb residents She has lived there over 6 years scrool down for my leter to the to the court for O R.
WE need you to be at dept 112 2pm april 14 mon for this brave fighter ,for her arraingmnet we want her and her friend released on o. r. you can send letters of recomendation for her O R to her Lawyers email via ohohorion99@gmail.com Thanks for making the world amore peaceful and joyful Palace orion 510 541 3835
youtube.com/orionorion99
heres my letter to court
“I have knowed Kc for over 6 years she is a very nice person .I lived in bay area 40 years 30 in albany and now I live at the Water gate in Emery ville .I’m a professiional Jazz Musician and teach Drums at Acme Music oakland .
Residents and Bulb Lovers (people who love the bulb ) all Love her warmness and friendlilness just last week I met a man at the builb looking for his missing son and Asked if He had talked to KC He said “yes she was very kind and help ful”
The first time I met her she invited me into her home to have coffee I ended up talking to her for over an hour. the next time I saw her she had organized people to put out a fire .She has tremendous leadership abilities.She cooks and helps every body unsefishley ,both dog owners and residents at the bulb.
She should not be made to pay abail of 32,000 she should be realeased on her own recognisence .”