Calendar

We need all hands on deck for this coming Tuesday, to demand the termination of Vallejo PD’s badge benders and to protest borrowing $30M for a police station upgrade we already voted against. #PoliceBrutality #Vallejo #PoliceReform pic.twitter.com/42B0ZzsyH6

— Melissa Nold, Esq. (@savage_esquire) March 6, 2022

Biden won’t cancel student debt – until we force him that he must.

That’s why we’re preparing for our national student debt strike on May 1. A debt strike is the act of refusing to pay back one’s debts for political, economic, and moral reasons.

A debt strike is one of the strongest forms of debtors’ collective power, but ** it is not for everyone.** Going on debt strike comes with serious risks and potential long-term consequences, which do not fall equally on all.

Join this call to learn more if a debt strike makes sense for you, and what your options are.

RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/student-debt-strike-101/

This 5-part course is designed for anyone interested in studying technology and data as the new frontier in organizing against the systems of enforcement and criminalization that harm our communities.

Three years since beginning our monumental #NoTechForICE campaign, we’re launching this course to share resources we’ve developed and to create a digital space for deepening our collective understanding of the ever-expanding state of surveillance––and how to organize against it.

By signing up for this course, you will hear from organizers, professors, and movement leaders who contribute towards this powerful movement for a surveillance-free future. Lessons will cover: data colonialism, race and policing, immigration enforcement, border militarization, global migration, organizing tools, and more.

Alongside key speakers, you will engage with selected readings, reflection questions, and meet other people thinking through these issues of 21st century technologies in their own communities. Join us every two weeks for one hour as we learn together and continue to build a path that centers communities targeted by the detention and deportation machinery, policing, and military operations.

We know that left unchecked, we will be facing down a new world order designed and controlled by big tech and enabled by the government.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US!

Session Dates

Live sessions will take place biweekly on Wednesdays for one hour at 3pm PST/5PM CST/6pm EST. Lesson materials and content for each lesson will be unlocked prior to the live session.

Session 1: February 23rd
Session 2: March 9th
Session 3: March 23rd
Session 4: April 6th
Session 5: April 20th

Email bayareadebtorsunion@gmail.com for Zoom link.

Twice monthly meetings, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.

Please email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to get up-to-date location information or obtain Zoom meeting access info.

Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.

We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, tracking equipment, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” —  to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Check out some of what we worked on in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.  We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.

Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition and other analytics, mass aerial surveillance, ubiquitous license plate readers, and pushing back against ICE.

On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

contact@oaklandprivacy.org

Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/

Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.  Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in various municipalities around the Bay.  To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

MARRIOTT – STOP YOUR BUSINESS OPERATIONS IN RUSSIA! DEMONSTRATE AT THE MARRIOTT HOTEL IN DOWNTOWN OAKLAND SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 1 PM

Hundreds of international corporations have suspended their business operations in Russia. Coca Cola stopped business with this statement: “Our hearts are with the people who are enduring unconscionable effects from these tragic events in Ukraine.” Starbucks said on Tuesday it is suspending all business activity in Russia, including shipment of its products and closing cafes. But there are many corporations that continue to do business in Russia. The Marriott Hotel chain is one of them. Why hasn’t Marriott Hotel pulled out?

Join us for a demonstration and vigil outside the Oakland Marriott City Center Hotel at 1001 Broadway, two blocks south of the downtown Oakland BART station, on Sunday the 13th.

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

For Zoom link, RSVP to action@sunflower-alliance.org

Join local activists with the Veterans for Peace Climate Crisis & Militarism Project and Code Pink for a discussion of how US militarism—the single largest institutional source of greenhouse gases on the planet—fuels the climate crisis, and the growing movement to expose and fight this dangerous threat.

Vince DiJanich, a longtime activist in Veterans for Peace and the Climate Reality Project, will present the Veterans for Peace “Climate Crisis and Militarism” slide show that the horrific climate impacts of US military operations. He will describe the work of this project to raise awareness of this huge, little-discussed factor in climate destruction.

Cynthia Papermaster, longtime activist with Bay Area Code Pink, will describe their work to fight militarism and climate change.

The Veterans for Peace Climate Crisis & Militarism Project calls for  “reducing the unsustainable annual military budget; closing military bases around the world; de-militarizing US foreign policy; and redirecting funds towards mitigating the climate crisis.”

The project’s areas of focus include:

• Promoting full reporting of and reduction of US military emissions;
• Supporting peace, opposing US militarism, and working to reduce and redirect the US military budget for human needs;
• Standing for climate justice and against racism;
• Educating and mobilizing fellow veterans, journalists, politicians, workers, environmental activists and the general public about the role of the military in aggravating the climate crisis.

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.

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

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a broken promise. On Oct. 6, 2021, the Biden administration announced a limited waiver intended to finally fulfill the promise of loan cancellation for millions of public servants. So far over 100,000 have gotten their debt cancelled because of the PSLF waiver, but many others are encountering problems.

The Debt Collective is co-hosting a webinar with the Student Borrower Protection Center that will focus on how to troubleshoot those problems.

6 p.m. ET Monday, March 21: Troubleshooting the PSLF Waiver

We will cover some of the unwritten rules about how to fill out the form that might trip up or delay the process, how to tell if a message you have gotten is false or misleading, and what steps to take if you think there is a problem. Our goal is to make sure that everyone gets the cancellation they were promised.

RSVP here.

This 5-part course is designed for anyone interested in studying technology and data as the new frontier in organizing against the systems of enforcement and criminalization that harm our communities.

Three years since beginning our monumental #NoTechForICE campaign, we’re launching this course to share resources we’ve developed and to create a digital space for deepening our collective understanding of the ever-expanding state of surveillance––and how to organize against it.

By signing up for this course, you will hear from organizers, professors, and movement leaders who contribute towards this powerful movement for a surveillance-free future. Lessons will cover: data colonialism, race and policing, immigration enforcement, border militarization, global migration, organizing tools, and more.

Alongside key speakers, you will engage with selected readings, reflection questions, and meet other people thinking through these issues of 21st century technologies in their own communities. Join us every two weeks for one hour as we learn together and continue to build a path that centers communities targeted by the detention and deportation machinery, policing, and military operations.

We know that left unchecked, we will be facing down a new world order designed and controlled by big tech and enabled by the government.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US!

Session Dates

Live sessions will take place biweekly on Wednesdays for one hour at 3pm PST/5PM CST/6pm EST. Lesson materials and content for each lesson will be unlocked prior to the live session.

Session 1: February 23rd
Session 2: March 9th
Session 3: March 23rd
Session 4: April 6th
Session 5: April 20th

Email bayareadebtorsunion@gmail.com for Zoom link.

Twice monthly meetings, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays.

SAN FRANCISCO YOUTH MARCH for CLIMATE & RACIAL JUSTICE

From BlackRock to ICE, no more profits from our pain!

On Friday, March 25th, a Global Day of Action, we invite all youth and allies to join us in a
non-violent march calling out those who are profiting from climate destruction and white supremacy.

As the IPCC warns us of the urgency of climate action, as California fire season becomes year round, as more and more of us suffer from asthma, as human rights are violated at the border and in the prison system, and as wars are fought around the world over access to oil and gas, young people are rising up.

We know these issues are connected. Many people crossing the border into the US are in some way fleeing climate breakdown, or the effects of the extractive economy. When companies like Blackrock finance forest destruction, people flee while the whole earth suffers. When Indigenous rights are violated, our ecology is destabilized and our world becomes more dangerous. When we depend on fossil fuels, militarization increases and people on the front lines suffer the most. When fighting climate change we must find solutions to rebuild the entire system in order to get rid of the climate crisis.

We say People Not Profit. We say No One Is Disposable.We say climate refugees and immigrants deserve a pathway to citizenship and that the inhumane and illegal “Remain In Mexico” policy must end. We say BlackRock must stop investing in fossil fuels, deforestation, and destruction. We say CalSTRS and the California Teachers Association must no longer stand by while their pension funds pay for this chaos. We say climate justice is migrant justice is indigenous sovereignty is economic justice is divestment from destruction.

We are standing up for our lives, for our neighbors, for our future, for our planet. On March 25th, please join us, and bring everyone you go to school with, work with, or follow on social media. We need all of us.