Calendar
RALLY
The President will be delivering his State of the Union Address on Jan. 12th in the evening. Join with other senior and disability organizations, labor unions, and environmental activists to let the President know that California opposes the TPP (and let Congresswoman Pelosi hear us too!). Events like this will be happening around the country on this day –prior to the President’s speech. Stand up and be counted.
If you can’t attend the rally on the Jan. 12th – please be sure to make these calls: (you don’t need to wait until Jan. 12th to call)
STOP THE TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP)
It’s a Bad Deal for Seniors, People with Disabilities, and Medicare!
Call Senator Feinstein and Your Congressperson Today
Capitol Switchboard: 877-762-8762
The United States has concluded negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, and on November 5, 2015, President Obama released the text of the agreement. This started a 90-day period for public review before Congress can take an up or down vote. The agreement contains various provisions that could affect drug prices for all Americans, including seniors. These provisions would block patent reform and jeopardize the government’s ability to negotiate lower prices for drugs in public programs like Medicare. Here are some key talking points that you can use when talking with your elected officials and others about the dangers of the TPP:
Fewer jobs, lower wages
Voting for the TPP means fewer jobs and lower wages for American workers. This is because it fails to address currency manipulation; has incredibly weak rules of origin on autos and auto parts; and fails to level the playing field in terms of state-owned enterprises and labor and environmental standards.
All the rhetoric being used to pitch the TPP has been heard before. NAFTA and CAFTA were supposed to end undocumented immigration. The Colombia Free Trade Agreement was supposed to solve the long-standing issues of violent repression of labor unionists. And the Korea FTA was going to create 70,000 jobs. Not one of these promises has been fulfilled.
Higher Prescription Drug Prices
The Alliance for Retired Americans, Doctors Without Borders, AARP and Oxfam America agree: TPP contains extreme patent protections for name-brand pharmaceuticals that threaten to restrict access to cheaper lifesaving medicines in all TPP countries, including in the United States.
TPP contains a lengthy patent exclusivity period for certain types of drugs – including biologics, special drugs used to treat cancer and arthritis. This will make it more difficult for other companies to manufacture the cheaper generic versions of drugs – leading to higher costs for everyone.
TPP jeopardizes the government’s ability to list and price prescription drugs in public programs, like Medicare, which millions of seniors and disabled people rely on. More specifically, foreign corporations or subsidiaries will be able to challenge Medicare if drug pricing in these programs affects their profits. .
Finally, TPP could tie the hands of future Congresses to negotiate drug prices under Medicare or enact a Medicare drug rebate program, which would save Medicare $121 billion over 10 years.
Americans pay the highest prescription drug prices in the industrialized world, and last year drug prices went up by 13 percent. That’s more than eight times the rate of inflation in a single year! We think Congress should be working on ways to reduce drug costs, rather than making this problem worse. This is not the time to support an agreement that could further increase drug costs to consumers and the government while lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry.
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Spokescouncil Meetings are scheduled to take place:
January 5th @ 7pm at the OMNI
January 9th @ 7 pm @ the OMNI
January 12th @ 7pm @ the OMNI
January 14th @ 7pm @ the OMNI
The MLK weekend will once again culminate in a King Day march that embodies the true spirit of King’s resistance to capitalism, imperialism and racism.
Over the last year, in the Bay Area alone, there have been dozens of police murders. In San Francisco, we have most recently seen the brutal execution of Mario Woods, in addition to police beating a disabled man in front of the Twitter building and racist text messages exchanged between SFPD on-duty officers.
In Oakland, we have seen 8 Black men murdered by police since only June of 2015. In fact, a recent graphic by Mapping Police Violence shows that in 2015, Oakland ranks third in police killings per million people in 60 of America’s largest cities.
Police are the shock troops of gentrification. Mayors give them a mandate: make this city appealing to developers by any means necessary. City Councils fund police and constantly seek to expand their numbers and their powers. As a result, people of color are being pushed out of cities at unprecedented rates, by an out of control rental market, increased police occupation and terrorism against communities of color, as well as crackdowns on those who dare protest these unjust policies.
A year ago, people across the country began taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers; storming shopping centers, blocking streets and highways, interrupting cultural events and public transit. And the people SHUT IT DOWN. We SHUT IT DOWN because there is a state-sponsored war on Black, Brown, and other marginalized peoples in the United States. WE SHUT DOWN BUSINESS-AS-USUAL because business-as-usual is an out-of-control epidemic of police terror.
Last year, in partnership with comrades and allies, APTP launched 96 Hours of Direct Action in the Bay Area, and answered a national call to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy which we did through a march that brought over 7,000 people into the streets of Oakland. We believe it is important for our movement to draw on King’s legacy to ground ourselves, to reinforce our conviction and confidence in the tactics and strategy of disruptive direct action.
A year later, while we are starting to have an impact, we also see that we have a long long way to go. So this Martin Luther King Day weekend, Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project* is calling on you to help us SHUT IT DOWN – again. Together, we will unleash the vast creativity and organizing capacity of our communities to produce a spectrum of disruptive and creative activity. In the spirit of MLK, we want these to actions to meaningfully interrupt business as usual whether that be with direct action, teach-ins, concerts or prayer vigils and to do so with action logic that links our resistance to fighting racism, economic injustice, and imperialism. We want you to plan these actions independently, but together we will coordinate collective support for these actions through a spokescouncil so that they have maximal support and impact.
Please visit the facebook event page: Updates, meeting agendas, calendar, and other info will be posted.
https://www.facebook.com/events/632827553487864/
Invite your friends!
Check out the web site for more about APTP’s vision: http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/new-events/
WE DEMAND:
- The resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf
- The immediate termination of Chief Sean Whent
- The immediate termination of Chief Greg Suhr
- The immediate termination of the officers involved in the murders of Richard Perkins, Mario Woods, Yuvette Henderson, Amilcar Lopez, Alex Nieto, Demoriah Hogg and Richard Linyard
- The immediate reallocation of city budgets: reduce police budgets and reallocate those funds to provide for affordable housing that allows Black, Brown and other people of color to remain in San Francisco and Oakland.
This year, we shut it down in the names of:
Yuvette Henderson
Nate Wilks
Richard Perkins
Richard Linyard
Demoriah Hogg
Yonas Alehegne
Amilcar Lopez
Mario Woods
Alex Nieto
#mlkshutitdown
#96hours
#reclaimMLK
Reminder this is a call out for affinity groups to organize autonomous solidarity actions in line withAPTP’s Principles.
Questions, ideas, comments, or to get involved
Email aptpspokescouncil@gmail.com
The Sustainable Berkeley Coalition is working for open, transparent governance that supports our diverse community with appropriate development, housing and protected environment. Meetings are planned for the second Wednesdays of the month at 7:30 pm
Our Berkeley Progressive Alliance will join other civic groups and communities
to help create a united voice and vision to elect 2016 Berkeley leadership.
We need a city council and mayor that will represent the true vision of our city’s people.
We need affordable housing and community-oriented development projects,
green developers, innovations to help the homeless and the underemployed,
better opportunities for small and local businesses, an environmentally sustainable
vision for traffic and local transportation, and better prioritization of infrastructure
and city services maintenance.
Individuals, neighborhood groups, social justice and environmental justice organizations are invited and welcome. We learn from each other and are stronger together.
Join the Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against Stingrays being acquired by law enforcement agencies, against Urban Shield, for various privacy and surveillance regulation ordinances to be passed around the Bay Area, especially by Alameda County and the Oakland City Council. We are also engaged in the fight against Predictive Policing and other “pre-crime” and “thought-crime” abominations, and against other invasions of privacy by our benighted City, County, State and Federal Governments.
OPWG originally came together to fight against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OPWG was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network, and its members helped draft the Privacy Policy that puts further restrictions on the now Port-restricted DAC.
We were also the lead in having Alameda County pass the most comprehensive privacy and usage policy in the country for deployment of “Stingray” technology (cell phone interceptors).
Stop by and learn how you can help guard Oakland’s right not to be spied on by the government & if you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
For more information on the DAC check out
The CPA is creating a charter amendment ballot initiative to create an accountable, civilian-controlled, police commission.
The ONLY agenda item will be a discussion of whether or not we should file a petition with the City Clerk’s Office to declare our intention to collect signatures to independently place our item on the Nov 2016 ballot.
We will discuss the pros and cons, including logistic challenges but also organizing opportunities.
In the interim, we will try to assemble as much information about what signature initiatives involve, what the needed capacity looks like. Toward that end, we have committed to having a final draft that we would need to submit to the City Clerk ready for your review by January 8th.
Do you know about mental health resources in Alameda County? Learn more on Jan 13! RSVP https://t.co/dhxKdzr8Lb . pic.twitter.com/R4WGMsu2ua
— Keith Carson (@Keith_Carson) January 11, 2016
The Occupy The Farm documentary will be screened on the Sprouts grocery building @ 30th & Broadway today 6pm; protests outside store all day
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) January 13, 2016
Go to grand opening of Sprouts grocery 30th & Broadway, #Oakland today & tell shoppers to boycott until company stops paving Gill Tract farm
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) January 13, 2016
“Equality demands dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.”
“When you have mass unemployment in the Negro community it’s called a social problem. When you have mass unemployment in the white community it’s called a depression”
“We refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt”
— Martin Luther King, Jr–
Last year, during MLK weekend, The Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) answered a national call by initiating #96Hours of Direct Action that culminated in an historic march from Fruitvale Station to Coliseum City on Martin Luther King Day. Over 7,000 people took to the streets and reclaimed the radical spirit of King and celebrated his legacy of resistance! Since then, APTP has steadfastly been organizing to build a replicable and sustainable model for eradicating police-terror in communities of color.
In the months following that powerful weekend, the police and the state have taken more lives than ever before and our communities are facing accelerated displacement due to rapid gentrification that is supported and encouraged by our new Mayor and City Council members.
Based on a vote taken at the last spokescouncil – this year’s 96 Hours of Direct Action will have increased specificity. Please see below for the weekend’s parameters:
1/15: Actions focused on gentrification will take place on both sides of the bridge
1/16: Actions focused on the many areas of state terror happening in Oakland (police terror, gentrification, educational inequity etc.,)
1/17: Actions focused on the many areas of state terror happening in San Francisco (corrupt police department, gentrification, police murders)
This is a family-friendly event and a celebration of King’s legacy, Black Lives and the struggle for social justice.
Last year we marched through areas in Oakland that are currently in development or are proposing development and we made clear demands to stem the tide of gentrification, end the displacement of Black and Brown residents, replace high-rise plans with affordable housing, and implement local-hiring practices all while demanding an immediate end to police terror in our communities.
Join us as we plan yet another historic day. We are meeting the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 7:30 At EastSide Arts Alliance. When we get closer to the date, we will initiate the spokescouncil again so affinity groups can come together – or form – and plan for the #96hours.
APTP is coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending the state sanctioned murder of Black, Brown & Poor people by police departments across the country.
#reclaimMLK
#96hours
Bay Area SPOKESCOUNCIL – 96 HOURS OF ACTION FOR MLK CONFERENCE CALL
12-23, 26 and 29, 2015 at 7:00pm PT / 10:00pm ET
@OccupyOakland This event has been cancelled.
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) January 14, 2016
Gil Tract Farm Slated For Development Against the Will of the Community: Local Berkeley and Albany Elementary School Children Speak out
Elementary School-aged students from Berkeley and Albany will speak out about the further development of the Gil Tract, located on the corner of San Pablo Ave and Marin Ave. in Albany. They will assemble to discuss their feelings about the development of this land which is one of the last viable pieces of farm land left in the East Bay.
Our next meeting will be on Thursday at SEIU local 1020 at 6 pm. Enter at 350 Rhode Island . Enter on Kansas Street side between 16 th and 17th street side.
Because of great public demand, we will provide an encore showing of “Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial” this coming Thursday, January 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission district! If you attended the premiere, then you know how powerful of a film this is, both for its art and its honest evaluation of the Alex Nieto case. Now you can bring more friends or come for the first time. Read the reviews and know that you are in store for an unprecedented experience. Note, however, at the premiere, we were totally packed, so please get your tickets online to avoid the crowds and a sold-out sign.
Join the Facebook event page and blast this great news out to the world!
We combat injustice with community creativity, solidarity, y amor.
A Barrio Bushido and Maya Media Production
Click on the link to purchase tickets: https://apps.vendini.com/
Click on the link to view the trailer for “Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial”: https://www.youtube.com/
Click the link to read all “Lowrider Lawyers” reviews and watch the trailer:
https://
Tim Redmond’s article in 48 Hills: Evidence in Nieto case casts doubt on police story:
http://www.48hills.org/
Click here to read a review of the film and event, “Lowrider Lawyers” Put the City on Trial”:
http://www.48hills.org/
Click here to read an article about the “Lowrider Lawyers” film premiere:
http://missionlocal.org/
“Lowrider Lawyers” Live Grand Premiere Show!
https://www.youtube.com/
“Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial” trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/
Click on the link to read a critical article about “Lowrider Lawyers”:
Click here to listen to the “Hard Knock Radio” Lowrider Lawyers Interview that goes from 30:50 to 59:50: https://kpfa.org/player/
Click here to listen to the “La Onda Bajita” Lowrider Lawyers Interview:https://kpfa.org/player/
Click on the link to find out more about Alex Nieto: http://
In Lowrider Lawyers: Putting a City on Trial, the barrio community rises with creativity and amor for Alex Nieto, scholarship student security guard and beloved son, who was unlawfully killed by 48 bullets fired from the San Francisco Police Department on March 21, 2014 on top of Bernal Heights Mountain.
When the Homies discover that Alex, who had never even been arrested in his entire life, has been unjustly executed, they request that the heavy hitters handle the case. Caravanning with other fine rides, the Lowrider Lawyers lowride in a wine-colored 1966 Chevy Impala Convertible to the colonial courthouse, where indigenous danzantes drum out and stomp over evil spirits, and summon the truth into the justice system. A jury of peers, cholo homeboys and homegirls, listen intently to the evidence presented.
Using legal articulation, the Lowrider Lawyers begin with a clear, concise opening statement. They then move to critically examining the witness who actually saw the killing and contradicts the police narrative, a dog owner whose wolf-like dog attacked Alex, and the person, who without reasonable cause, called the police on Alex. The courthouse is then magically transformed into the barrio, where the last Lowrider Lawyer interrogates the police officer who killed Alex Nieto. Balmy Alley’s gentrification mural becomes the vibrant backdrop, and the Homies painted on the walls serve as the jury. Substantive answers from witnesses and the police are based on the actual San Francisco District Attorney’s Report, deposition testimony, and other true accounts.
Real footage of “Amor for Alex” marches and lowrider shows concludes this powerful, unprecedented type of film. Written and directed by Benjamin Bac Sierra and filmed and edited by Peter Menchini. Starring Homies from San Fran and around the Bay, San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ District Nine Candidate Edwin Lindo, national entertainer and singer Favi Estrella, and Stanford Law School graduate and international development consultant Adriana Camarena. Soundtrack by “Dr. Loco” (Jose Cuellar) and Favi Estrella.
Watch the Lowrider Lawyers trailer online at: https://www.youtube.com/
Box office opens at 6:00 p.m. doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Con Safos.
A film by Abigail E. Disney and Gini Reticker
The untold story of the everyday women who brought a warring nation to its senses, armed only with the courage of their convictions is an uplifting and inspiring as well as enraging story of a group of Muslim and Christian women, rich and poor, urban and rural, who bring peace to their beloved but war-torn Liberia. This unsung achievement is gripping suspenseful and ultimately incredibly satisfying. Touching and even funny this film will stay with you for years. In the words of Archbishop Tutu it “captures the power each of us innately has within our souls to make the world a far better, safer, more peaceful place.” A wonderful way for our congregation to bring in the New Year.
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Cmte as part of our Conscientious Projector series.
Wheelchair accessible.
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Spokescouncil Meetings are scheduled to take place:
January 5th @ 7pm at the OMNI
January 9th @ 7 pm @ the OMNI
January 12th @ 7pm @ the OMNI
January 14th @ 7pm @ the OMNI
The MLK weekend will once again culminate in a King Day march that embodies the true spirit of King’s resistance to capitalism, imperialism and racism.
Over the last year, in the Bay Area alone, there have been dozens of police murders. In San Francisco, we have most recently seen the brutal execution of Mario Woods, in addition to police beating a disabled man in front of the Twitter building and racist text messages exchanged between SFPD on-duty officers.
In Oakland, we have seen 8 Black men murdered by police since only June of 2015. In fact, a recent graphic by Mapping Police Violence shows that in 2015, Oakland ranks third in police killings per million people in 60 of America’s largest cities.
Police are the shock troops of gentrification. Mayors give them a mandate: make this city appealing to developers by any means necessary. City Councils fund police and constantly seek to expand their numbers and their powers. As a result, people of color are being pushed out of cities at unprecedented rates, by an out of control rental market, increased police occupation and terrorism against communities of color, as well as crackdowns on those who dare protest these unjust policies.
A year ago, people across the country began taking to the streets in unprecedented numbers; storming shopping centers, blocking streets and highways, interrupting cultural events and public transit. And the people SHUT IT DOWN. We SHUT IT DOWN because there is a state-sponsored war on Black, Brown, and other marginalized peoples in the United States. WE SHUT DOWN BUSINESS-AS-USUAL because business-as-usual is an out-of-control epidemic of police terror.
Last year, in partnership with comrades and allies, APTP launched 96 Hours of Direct Action in the Bay Area, and answered a national call to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy which we did through a march that brought over 7,000 people into the streets of Oakland. We believe it is important for our movement to draw on King’s legacy to ground ourselves, to reinforce our conviction and confidence in the tactics and strategy of disruptive direct action.
A year later, while we are starting to have an impact, we also see that we have a long long way to go. So this Martin Luther King Day weekend, Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project* is calling on you to help us SHUT IT DOWN – again. Together, we will unleash the vast creativity and organizing capacity of our communities to produce a spectrum of disruptive and creative activity. In the spirit of MLK, we want these to actions to meaningfully interrupt business as usual whether that be with direct action, teach-ins, concerts or prayer vigils and to do so with action logic that links our resistance to fighting racism, economic injustice, and imperialism. We want you to plan these actions independently, but together we will coordinate collective support for these actions through a spokescouncil so that they have maximal support and impact.
Please visit the facebook event page: Updates, meeting agendas, calendar, and other info will be posted.
https://www.facebook.com/events/632827553487864/
Invite your friends!
Check out the web site for more about APTP’s vision: http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/new-events/
WE DEMAND:
- The resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf
- The immediate termination of Chief Sean Whent
- The immediate termination of Chief Greg Suhr
- The immediate termination of the officers involved in the murders of Richard Perkins, Mario Woods, Yuvette Henderson, Amilcar Lopez, Alex Nieto, Demoriah Hogg and Richard Linyard
- The immediate reallocation of city budgets: reduce police budgets and reallocate those funds to provide for affordable housing that allows Black, Brown and other people of color to remain in San Francisco and Oakland.
This year, we shut it down in the names of:
Yuvette Henderson
Nate Wilks
Richard Perkins
Richard Linyard
Demoriah Hogg
Yonas Alehegne
Amilcar Lopez
Mario Woods
Alex Nieto
#mlkshutitdown
#96hours
#reclaimMLK
Reminder this is a call out for affinity groups to organize autonomous solidarity actions in line withAPTP’s Principles.
Questions, ideas, comments, or to get involved
Email aptpspokescouncil@gmail.com
Come protest the new Sprouts “Farmers Market,” a racist, sexist, corporate, big box grocery store chain that has just moved into Oakland. Sprouts is NOT a farmers’ market, but in fact imports food from around the world and doesn’t treat their workers well. Stand against the gentrification of Oakland, in solidarity with Occupy the Farm and the Gill Tract Community Farm, and in support of local food economies and the real farmers markets and local markets owned and operated by the people of Oakland.
The newly emerging “Interfaith Committee in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter–Bay Area” is hosting a vigil and candle-lit funeral procession on the Friday afternoon preceding Martin Luther King Day weekend.
This solemn action will call on Oakland city officials and residents alike to see, connect with, and mourn the Black and Brown lives lost to police violence as well as the losses born by communities of color in Oakland as a result of over-policing, displacement, and gentrification. It will also put City Hall on notice that they can expect continued pressure from Oakland’s faith community to prioritize Black and Brown lives by reallocating money toward affordable housing and alternatives to over-policing.
If you can, please bring a small candle in a clear cup or glass to carry in the procession.
We will walk approximately 3/4 mile together.
*** This action is a response to the callout for 96 Hours of Direct Action to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy.
Meet in the Dimond district Safeway parking lot. Organized by SURJ
PUBLIC PANEL DISCUSSION DANGERS OF TASERS
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
PARTICIPANTS INCLUDE
Jeremy Miller, anti-Taser activist, Idriss Stelley Foundation
(moderator)
Aram James, activist and former Palo Alto Public Defender,
and expert on nation-wide dangers of Tasers
La Mesha Stelley, Idriss Stelley Foundation
Marion Jackson, founder Officers for Justice,
retired Inspector, San Francisco Police Department
Jennifer Friedenbach Executive Director,
Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco
Steve Zeltzer, United Public Workers For Action
Sponsored by
Idriss Stelley Foundation
TODAY: 10:45 meet @ Walgreen's, 51st&Tel to join us for Fast food worker action! #96Hours #RECLAIMMLK
— Bay Solidarity (@BaySolidarity) January 16, 2016