Calendar
At the end of April, three of the world’s largest funders of fossil fuels will hold their Annual General Meetings: Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America. These three banks alone have loaned more than $789 billion to coal, oil, and gas companies since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.
With allies across the country – we are going to shut down, occupy, and disrupt business at the global headquarters of all three banks the day before their annual shareholder meetings. their most important meetings of the year. Citi’s HQ in New York, Bank of America’s HQ in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo’s HQ in San Francisco will each be subject to massive, disruptive and impossible-to-ignore protests.
Yes, it’s an early wake-up call, but we would love your support in downtown San Francisco as we disrupt the business as usual that is killing the planet.
WE NEED YOU to keep us winning, to secure our Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) for E12th which will be voted at Oakland City Council’s CED meeting.
We hear there may be turnout to throw curve balls at our project, so we’d love your voices of support. Our project is committed to the diversity that won this campaign as outlined in the ENA from the BIPOC neighbors who most risk displacement to those we want to hire to build this housing. We want council members of the CED to: pass the E12th ENA for 100% affordable housing, support deeply affordable housing that the Peoples Proposal delivers, and keep Public Land for Public Good.
HERE’S THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE FOR TURN OUT. Will you take action (at least email)?!
- Public comment in person at CED meeting 4/25 Tue 1:30pm. City Hall (1 Frank Ogawa Plaza). Fill out a speaker card with the City Clerk, for item #6 on E12th.
- Public comment by zoom or phone at CED meeting 4/25 Tue 1:30pm, for item #6 on E12th. Submit an Electronic Speaker Card to speak via zoom or phone by emailing CityClerk@OaklandCa.Gov to get on stack before the item comes up. Speaker card link: https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/fill-out-a-speaker-card
- Email City Council by tomorrow morning to support our E12th ENA at council@oaklandca.gov. Here’s a sample message:
- Subject: Support E12th Peoples Proposal ENA
- Dear Oakland City Council and members of CED,
- I’m a supporter of the E12th community’s campaign for public land for public good, and the Peoples Proposal for 100% affordable housing on our city’s public land on E12th St. Please vote yes on the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement to build the Peoples Proposal for deeply affordable housing. Thank you! (your name)
We appreciate you for taking action. Let’s keep winning!
– Mari Rose, Dunya & the E12th Revival crew
Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.
Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our March, April and May meetings we are reading Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber (Warwick, Amazon).
For our March meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.
For the April meeting we are reading chapters 6 through 9.
For our May meeting will are reading the remainder of the book.
Before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors—which lives on in full force to this day.
So says anthropologist David Graeber in a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Renaissance Italy to Imperial China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong.
We are still fighting these battles today.
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth, Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Beyond Money, Less is More, and Cannibal Capitalism.
Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.
Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.
SEIU Local 1000 represents the largest group of California state employees. That includes nearly 1700 members and represented workers in San Francisco county specifically. The statewide member lead bargaining team’s main economic proposal in collective bargaining to our boss the State is a 30% General Salary Increase and full coverage of health care premiums for all represented workers.
We are reaching the final moments of negotiating time as the contract expires on June 30th. We call on all labor allies San Francisco Labor Council affiliates to join us for this Wednesday June 29th, 1:00 pm San Francisco Civic Center Plaza march.
SEIU Local 1000 is not backing down and intends to fight. Recently, State Senator Scott Wiener declared himself an ally for state employees. SEIU Local 1000 needs him to show up now for our fight for higher wages, and better benefits and work life conditions.
Join us, June 29th from 1pm – 2pm and march with us for a better State, and for a better future.
For justice, for solidarity!
John Torok, VP-Chief Steward
SEIU Local 1000 DLC 743 (San Francisco)
Ken Lustenberger, Shop Steward
SEIU Local 1000 DLC 743 (San Francisco)
NOTE DIFFERENT TIME FOR AUGUST 30th EVENT!
NOTE DIFFERENT TIME FOR AUGUST 30th EVENT!
Join us Sunday September 10! Stop by or hang out the whole time.
Know Your Rights training 12-2pm.
Share a meal in community 2-4pm!
You are invited Sunday Sept 10!
Delicious lunch grilled and prepped by your copwatch community. A training hosted by copwatch, for first-timers and those wanting a refresher course on their rights.
All are welcome.
Let’s talk about what’s going on in Berkeley, and beyond. We’ve got updates to share, and we wanna hear what you’re seeing and what you’re working on!
RSVP!
(RSVP so we can make sure there’s enough grub to go around!)
When: Sept. 12
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Where: 555 Santa Clara St., Vallejo
Why: City Council Meeting to Demand:1.) Release badge bending report
2.) Pursue firing of Tonn
3.) Hire reform Police Chief
4.) Hire reform City Manager
5.) Plan for non-discriminatory & lawful recruiting.— Melissa Nold, Esq. (@savage_esquire) September 11, 2023
New Copwatcher Orientation
Wanna get involved in Berkeley Copwatch? Sign up for an orientation this month. Learn about how we do the work and find where you can plug in!
Wed. September 13, 7:00-8:00pm
Wed. September 21, 7:00-8:00pm
There will be more new copwatcher orientations in the future, please email us if you can’t make the sessions above:
berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Do you want to get involved in Berkeley Copwatch?
Learn more or contact us directly at berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Donate
If you’re in the Bay Area, you can secure a spot in our charter bus, which will be leaving from the Ashby BART station at 8:30 AM, taking you to and from the action!
The United Nations is calling on world leaders to take real steps to lead us off fossil fuels to protect people and the planet. On September 20th in New York, the UN Climate Ambition Summit will gather world leaders to commit to phasing out fossil fuels.
The “ticket to entry” will be tangible action to keep fossil fuels in the ground— in the form of policies, and not just empty declarations.
Before the summit, thousands will take to the streets in New York and around the country—including Sacramento—demanding that Biden take bold action to end fossil fuels. (Biden promised to end drilling on federal lands, yet he has approved more fossil fuel projects than Trump.)
The March to End Fossil Fuels is being organized by a coalition of local and national organizations led by the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Organizing Hub, Food & Water Watch, Fridays For Future USA & NYC, Earthworks, Greenfaith, Indigenous Environmental Network, New York Communities for Change, Oil Change International, and Oil & Gas Action Network.
In California, we’ll gather in Sacramento to demand that our leaders, Biden and Newsom, stop permitting fossil fuels and make a plan to phase out oil and gas. This family-friendly action will feature a giant puppet show, carnival games, performers and speakers who will share how you can get involved in ending the era of Fossil Fuels and building a better future together.
If you want to take on a volunteer role with outreach, making art, singing or drumming, performing or other support, sign up here.
Carpool signup sheet is here.
New Copwatcher Orientation
Wanna get involved in Berkeley Copwatch? Sign up for an orientation this month. Learn about how we do the work and find where you can plug in!
Wed. September 13, 7:00-8:00pm
Wed. September 21, 7:00-8:00pm
There will be more new copwatcher orientations in the future, please email us if you can’t make the sessions above:
berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Do you want to get involved in Berkeley Copwatch?
Learn more or contact us directly at berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Donate
In her journal Octavia E. Butler wrote “All good things must begin.” Abolitionist alternatives to police must begin somewhere, but alternatives can only be sustained when individuals like you come together to build them together.
Mental Health First (MH First) is a project of APTP and Oakland’s first and only non-police, non 9-1-1 crisis response line for mental health crises, including but not limited to psychiatric emergencies, substance use support and intimate partner violence safety planning. We are currently dispatching on a case-by-case basis, and have volunteers on the hotline Friday and Saturday from 2pm to 2am.
We have an MH First volunteer training coming up open to all community members who want to join our team.
Register to join our next virtual MH First training!
The Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. In addition to our MH First services, we support families surviving police terror in their fight for justice, documenting police abuses and connecting impacted families and community members with resources, legal referrals, and opportunities for healing.
Register to join this incredible crew!
Oakland! It’s very hot outside this week and our unhoused neighbors need support!
Please drop off water, ice and cold drinks to an encampment near you!! You can also donate to Love and Justice in the Streets at: Venmo: @ love-and-justice pic.twitter.com/8fDHCRjZzD
— Anti Police-Terror Project (@APTPaction) October 6, 2023
This 4-Week seminar led by Richard Wolff, will begin with an introduction and brief history of world socialism from its 18th-century beginnings to today. We will examine the different kinds of socialism (Soviet, social democracy, democratic socialism, Cuban socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and worker-coop socialism) and likewise examine the differences among socialism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Finally, we will examine critiques of socialism. Throughout, we will be sensitive to different interpretations of socialism and distinguish between socialism as a critical movement within capitalism (how it began) and socialism as an alternative system (how it evolved).
The dates for each of the four sessions are on Mondays: Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th. Online Zoom information will be sent through email upon registration.