Calendar
Organizing meeting of City College of San Francisco students, faculty and classified staff to fight against the downsizing of public education.
Unfortunately we have lots to talk about with the latest outrage of our administration closing Civic Center Campus.
On December 9th, Judge Curtis Karnow heard oral closing arguments in the matter of the People of California vs. the ACCJC. He will issue a tentative ruling any day now. The attorneys will then have 15 days to submit written objections. Sometime after that Judge Karnow will issue his final ruling. (Perhaps February?)
AFT 2121 is calling for a rapid response the first work day after his tentative ruling. The Coalition will be organizing a rapid response after the final ruling. Please check these websites for updates.
http://www.aft2121.org/
www.saveccsf.org
We are reading up on Syriza (the Greek leftist party that could win the Jan 25th election)
and the (current) Greek debt crisis for the next meeting.
Here are some recent articles.. They are all pretty short. People should pick and choose
the ones that seem interesting to them, at least four of them.
If we can find an in-depth analysis of the current Greek fiscal/monetary situation, the reading list may get updated/augmented.
The last is an in-depth analysis of austerity in Europe. However, it is by the Heritage
foundation. It might be interesting to read this to see what the “other side” thinks, so you may wish to peruse it.
Ellen Brown:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/07/greece-takes-on-the-vampire-squid/
Some articles she cites:
Greek Left Review
Leftist Leader Urges Eurozone to End Austerity in Greece
Jacobin:
RT:
http://rt.com/op-edge/185052-greece-crisis-eu-default/
Economist:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/01/economist-explains-1
Foreign Policy:
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/08/why-greeces-economy-needs-syriza-to-win-election/
Real News:
Bill Black on US News Coverage of the “Triumph of Austerity” in Greece
Austerity: A Decisive Factor in Greek Elections: Part I, Part II
New Republic:
Paul Krugman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/opinion/paul-krugman-greece-economy-mad-as-hellas.html?_r=0
Guardian:
Greek politics and economics in numbers.
Salon:
Occupy May Be About to Win Its First National Election
Heritage foundation on austerity in Europe
- organizing for public banking in Oakland and elsewhere.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- working with the City of Richmond and other municipalities for eminent domain seizure of underwater mortgages from the banksters
- ongoing study group
- student debt resistance
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- and much more!
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
THE POSTAL SERVICE WANTED TO SELL THE POST OFFICE TO HUDSON-MCDONALD DEVELOPMENT GROUP. HUDSON-MCDONALD BACKED OUT OF THE DEAL IN EARLY DECEMBER. THE CITY OF BERKELEY SUED THE POST OFFICE TO STOP THE SALE. A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER WAS IN PLACE UNTIL DECEMBER 17th, BUT WAS LIFTED BY THE JUDGE WHEN HUDSON WITHDREW.
Get an overview of the sale announcement here. Here’s a good more general overview piece.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th.
The next hearing is March 19th.THE FEDERAL JUDGE WILL DECIDE WHETHER THE LAWSUIT WILL CONTINUE OR BE DISMISSED – HE’LL DECIDE SOMETIME AFTER MARCH 19th.
THE POSTAL POLICE HAD BEEN RAIDING THE OCCUPATION INTERMITTENTLY IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING. BUT THE OCCUPIERS ARE NOT LEAVING! Read about one of the eviction attempts here. There haven’t been any raids since a few days before Christmas, but they might start up again at any time.
Check out the new Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE. and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
SHUT DOWN DIABLO CANYON
JOIN US in the accelerating campaign to shut California’s last nukes: the two reactors at Diablo Canyon, near San Luis Obispo. Citizen activism has closed the reactors at Humboldt, Rancho Seco and San Onofre, and stopped proposed projects at Bakersfield, Bodega and elsewhere. We believe we can force this deadly, dangerous and disastrous plant shut if you will join with us.
PG&E’s Diablo is two 1200+ megawatt monsters surrounded by earthquake faults, in a tsunami zone, out of compliance with clean water and fire safety regulations, lacking a credible evacuation plan and now completely priced out of the market by clean, cheap, safe and job-producing renewable energy.
Pacific Gas & Electric has recently killed 8 people in a San Bruno neighborhood it burned to the ground due to negligence and greed. A replay at Diablo would irradiate much of California, and create a lethal cloud that would blow across the entire United States. It would bankrupt California and much of the nation, with virtually no responsibility to be shouldered by PG&E.
Long-time No Nukes activist Harvey Wasserman will speak and facilitate an on-going strategy session aimed at winning this shut-down as quickly as possible. We will have a strategy in formation and a resolution in hand to push forward the process of finally making California free of all nuke reactors. The time to flip the “off-switch” is NOW! This will be a meeting to further that necessary cause.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. We meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month at the SEIU Local 1000 union hall, 1433 Webster Street, 2nd Floor in downtown Oakland. These assembly meetings occur from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm.
Our work together encompasses:
- (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent and care workers;
- (2) current campaigns to improve wages for low-wage workers; and
- (3) efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better. Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
Inaugural Assembly: Tuesday January 27, 6:30 pm
This is a meeting for privacy minded people in San Francisco. January 28th is International Data Privacy Day, a fitting time to host the first in what we hope will be an ongoing series of Privacy Lab Meetups in the Bay Area.
At this meeting our speaker will be Cooper Quintin from the EFF, who will present “A State of the Union for Privacy and Consumer Protection and Wishlist for 2015”. His presentation will be preceded by 30 minutes of socializing as people arrive, and then followed by about an hour for general questions, interactions, discussion and networking. Additionally the event will be held at Mozilla’s San Francisco office, where developers of the Firefox browser can more easily join.
Our aim is to include and bring together privacy professionals and others interested in privacy at for-profits, non-profits, and NGOs in an effort to contribute to the state of the ecosystem for privacy. By attending you’ll be able to hear about what other people and organizations are working on and how to get involved.
We hope to see you attend and become part of the growing community of privacy advocates in San Francisco.
The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) will convene a public meeting on January 28, 2015, starting a 6:00 p.m. at the 450 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, CA, 94804.
Next Wednesday, January 28, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) will hold a public meeting, to present the third and final investigation report and safety recommendations from the August 6, 2012, crude unit fire that occurred at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond, CA. That fire endangered 19 workers and sent more than 15,000 residents to the hospital for medical attention.
The Draft report is here [big PDF file]:
The first of eight meetings is January 28th.
This seminar will study the corporate structure, its historical development, and its modes of political control.
A careful & close analysis of the Haitian Revolution (the world’s first nation of Africans to overthrow slavery)! How does it connect to today?
**************************
HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE
STUDY GROUP
We invite you to be apart of our monthly study group. We use films, texts, and speakers to explore Haiti’s history, current political situation, and make connections to parallel struggles throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Come to this month’s meeting!
The (Ongoing) Haitian Revolution
January 1st marked the 211th anniversary of Haiti’s independence. Join us as we analyze how Haiti gained its independence and discuss the connections to today.
Future Topics include:
The return to dictatorship; mass incarceration and political prisoners; sweatshops and privatization; the ongoing pillaging of Haiti’s resources; labor activism; COINTELPRO tactics in Haiti and the U.S.; racism; parallel struggles in Latin America; and many more!
What would you like to learn about? Send your suggestions!Got an idea for a study group topic? Let us know! Email us at action.haiti@gmail.com, Tweet us, or visit our Facebook page!
Sent by Haiti Action Committee
www.haitisolidarity.net and on FACEBOOK
OccupyForum presents
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Shutting Down the Fossil Fuel Industry
via Its Supply Chains
Climate Change, Direct Action & Community Solidarity
Empire Logistics will facilitate an interactive workshop for Occupy SF Forum where participants will brainstorm to find ways to create solidarity along fossil fuel supply chains
and will model ways for worker resistance, community solidarity, and direct action to flow from the point of extraction to the point of consumption, including the communities
which the energy commodities pass through. Our strength lies in everyone acting in unison with the common goal of stopping the earth’s destruction. We will facilitate a discussion
about how we can transition away from an oil economy and transform our mode of existence into an ecologically sustainable one.
On March 14, 2015, Empire Logistics will join Railroad Workers United, as well as over 30 environmental and community groups, and labor unions and other workers’ associations, for the first “The Future of Railroads: Safety, Workers, Community, and Environment” Conference in Richmond, California (the second conference will be on March 21 in Olympia, Washington). The purpose is for railroad workers to teach others in the fossil fuel industry about safety issues from the inside, and those supply chain workers will learn about community concerns over the extreme dangers from the greatly increased transportation of fossil fuels; both groups will strategize about how to transition away from fossil fuels and to create an environmentally healthy world.
This Monday’s workshop is an opportunity for Occupy SF Forum to learn about these issues by discussing them directly. Empire Logistics will provide all necessary maps and flowcharts of fossil fuel supply chains, and guide this interactive exercise.
See Labor Notes for a description of the Richmond conference on March 14, 2015:
http://labornotes.org/blogs/2015/01/rail-workers-and-environmentalists-teach-each-other
or visit the website: http://www.railroadconference.org/
Gifford Hartman is a participant in the Empire Logistics mapping project, as well as a co-founder of the Global Supply Chains Study Group. He is an adult education teacher, labor trainer, historian, and the Bay Area contact for the Future of Railroads Conference.
According to the Contra Costa Times, “Recommendations from the meeting ((The #BlackLivesMatter City Council forum held on January 24th)) will be considered ((at the February 3rd City Council meeting)) .”
The purpose of the San Francisco 99% Coalition is to work in coalition and offer support to groups which promote nonviolent advocacy for more equitable social, economic and environmental public policies. See their website at http://sf99percent.org/ . Leave an email message at sf99percent [at] gmail.com to be called about specific meeting information. See the SF99% Facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/mcasbg3
The first of eight meetings is January 28th.
This seminar will study the corporate structure, its historical development, and its modes of political control.
We are having an orientation for our hands-on study group. The focus of the project is both analytical and activist. As a group, we will develop an understanding of the relationship between gentrification and police violence thru readings, workshops and discussions. At the same time, we will be developing and implementing strategies in our neighborhoods that seek to discourage other people that are new to Oakland from calling the cops. It will last about 3 months and we would love to host it all at the Omni if that works for y’all!
This open circle will continue the dialogue and planning around support, goals, and long-term strategy in addressing the issues of disproportionate degrees of police brutality and killings of black people and people of color, systemic racism, state violence, militarization of police, and more that have been brought to the forefront once again due to the recent surge of such atrocities.
Let’s kick this meeting off with a potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with report backs and announcements of upcoming actions followed by breakout group discussions and the formation of new projects.
There will be breakout groups to allow time for networking and collaboration on projects and affinity groups.
The facilitation team welcomes suggestions, guidance, and participation. Please get in touch by commenting on this page if you want to offer any of these.
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
Link to our previous meeting:
https://www.facebook.com/
Until the end of February (22nd) 2015 GA will meet at the Omni Collective basement, mostly at its regular time, 4PM Sunday. But on February 8th we will meet at 5 PM so folks can also attend the Open Circle meeting at the Omni Ballroom at 3 PM.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly generally meets Sundays, at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway, often on the steps of City Hall. “If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Ave, Oakland Directions
We have met on a continuous basis for more than three years! 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.
The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives voluntarily come to the GA and report on past and future actions. 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
- Discussion Topic (Optional)
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)
Occupy Oakland Kitchen Committee: (kitchen@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
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
THE POSTAL SERVICE WANTED TO SELL THE POST OFFICE TO HUDSON-MCDONALD DEVELOPMENT GROUP. HUDSON-MCDONALD BACKED OUT OF THE DEAL IN EARLY DECEMBER. THE CITY OF BERKELEY SUED THE POST OFFICE TO STOP THE SALE. A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER WAS IN PLACE UNTIL DECEMBER 17th, BUT WAS LIFTED BY THE JUDGE WHEN HUDSON WITHDREW. `
Get an overview of the sale announcement here. Here’s a good more general overview piece.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th.
The next hearing is March 19th.THE FEDERAL JUDGE WILL DECIDE WHETHER THE LAWSUIT WILL CONTINUE OR BE DISMISSED – HE’LL DECIDE SOMETIME AFTER MARCH 19th.
THE POSTAL POLICE HAD BEEN RAIDING THE OCCUPATION INTERMITTENTLY IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING. BUT THE OCCUPIERS ARE NOT LEAVING! Read about one of the eviction attempts here. There haven’t been any raids since a few days before Christmas, but they might start up again at any time.
Check out the new Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE. and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
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.