Calendar
Celebrate Slingshot Collective’s 26th birthday
Slingshot is a quarterly, independent, radical, newspaper published in the East Bay since 1988 by the Slingshot Collective. We also publish the annual Slingshot Organizer radical calendar planner. We are an all volunteer, non-profit, tax exempt project of the Long Haul.
National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
to Meet in Oakland on Sale of Historic Post Offices
The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) will be meeting in Oakland on March 11, 2014, to hear testimony on the sale of historic post offices and its effect on communities, historic buildings and historic districts. The ACHP is an independent federal agency that promotes preservation and sustainable use of our nation’s historic resources and its members are appointed by President Obama.
The Council is required to develop and submit a plan to Congress by April 17, 2014 to make sure that the U.S. Postal Service follows the law in handling its historic buildings. The ACHP invited groups working on historic preservation to make presentations from 1:45-4:30 PM at the Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland. The meeting is OPEN to the public. The public can also submit their concerns in writing.
The ACHP invites written comments from interested organizations and the public regarding the USPS’s disposal of historic facilities for consideration as the ACHP prepares its report. Please provide any comments by April 1, 2014, by email to uspsreport@achp.gov or by fax: 202-606-5072. Comments can also be sent to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 803, Washington, DC 20004, ATTN: USPS Report
http://www.achp.gov/news_20140228_comments.html
The #KamalaHarrisJailKillerCop
Assuming they are not stuck inside the courthouse there will be a press conference at 10:00 AM just outside discussing new developments in the case.
The Harris8 did standing civil disobedience in the lobby of the State Building, demanding that State Attorney General Kamala Harris prosecute all killer cops, while a rally was going on outside. The rally included speakers from a number of families of victims of killer cops.
Background: How Two Elder Activists Found Themselves in Oakland’s Jail… And Lived to Fight the Next Day.
Background: “Here They Come!” Imperial Storm Troopers Arrive to Arrest Killer Cop Protesters.
Background: Nine Arrests in Civil Disobedience Action Protesting Killer Cops.
The San Francisco School Bus Drivers (UTU 1741) are inviting you to a picket of Veolia’s para-transit office. This protest is in support of the 4 Union leaders fired by Veolia in Boston. Veolia’s anti-Union record is as bad as its environmental and human rights record.
Steve Gillis, Vice President of Boston School Bus Drivers Union, was one of the fired Union leaders. He was a featured speaker at the anti-Veolia Conference in SF on 2/8. Veolia locked out 800 drivers and fired the leadership of the Union (USW 8751) when they engaged in a protected union activity protesting Unfair Labor Practices by Veolia.
Over a period of only 3 months after Veolia won a contract for school busing in Boston Veolia succeeded in violating every term and condition of the Union contract that they had signed. The Union had, in that short time, filed 18 unfair labor practice charges and over 175 individual & class action grievances.
The fired Union leaders were the Vice President, The Chair of the Grievance committee, the three-term past President and the Recording Secretary. This was an attempt to decapitate the Union.
USW 8751 has asked for solidarity pickets at Veolia’s offices & businesses. Such protests have already had an effect and the Boston School Bus Drivers emphasize that right now things are at a critical juncture in negotiations to get their jobs back and the actions are more important than ever.
We will have signs, but feel free to bring your own signs.
Support Tristan and loved ones as we mark five years since the shooting of Bay Area activist, Tristan Anderson. Tristan was severely injured when he was shot in the head with a (American made) tear gas grenade by Israeli Military Police during a protest in Occupied Palestine in 2009 in the village of Ni’ilin. Tristan became paralyzed on about half his body and lives with severe permanent injury to his brain.
We honor Tristan and rage at our own government for it’s direct role in the misery of Gaza, the tear gas over Taksim, the police killings of Alan Blueford, Oscar Grant, Kenneth Harding Jr…
The US Government sends huge shipments of tear gas to be used against our sister movements around the world… what side are WE are?
4:00 PM: Free Feast.
5:00 PM: Speakers.
6:00 PM: March.
7:00 PM: Solidarity & Healing.
Come speak out on a “privacy policy” that allows the City of Oakland to violate our 1st and 4th amendment rights with impunity.
Staff is taking a new and aggressive approach to public engagement around this draft framework. Distribution of this framework will happen via EngageOakland, a survey monkey, and broad dissemination via the Neighborhood Service Coordinators. This framework is being disseminated for a thirty day public comment period. During that time period there will be two public meetings scheduled for Wednesday, February 26th in City Council Chambers, and Thursday, March 13th at the Dimond Branch Library located at 3565 Fruitvale Avenue. Both meetings will occur between 6 to 8pm.
“During Phase 2, City/Port staff will develop a Privacy and Data Retention Policy that governs the collection, retention, storage, and dissemination of information processed by the DAC ensuring the protection of privacy rights by individuals, and will return said policy to the Council for approval no later than March 2014.”
This Thursday, March 13, come out see BORDC Legal Fellow Matthew Kellegrew and EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman discuss civil liberties after a screening of the groundbreaking documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply.
The film exposes how seemingly free online resources like Facebook or Google undermine our privacy, and how the NSA has co-opted Silicon Valley to abuse the rights of Americans. The film is an excellent resource for grassroots coalitions seeking materials to share at public education events.
This location is wheelchair accessible via the ramp on the Bonita Avenue side of the building.
Co-Sponsors:
Bill Of Rights Defense Committee
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
CODEPINK Women For Peace
Gather your words to destroy the surveillance state, poetry style, rhymes so good they shatter camera lenses.
We are a fellowship of people wanting to find aliveness, connection and survival in the face of social-political-economic overwhelm. We do this by recognizing and addressing our unspoken submission to historically entrenched, institutions and influences of the dominant culture. We observe cunning, baffling and powerful social ills perpetuated through inequities involving race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age and ability. We explore how these impact our thoughts feelings and personal habits. We hope that as each of us becomes free from acquisition driven, socially divisive, militarized forces, we can catalyze change and establish a new way of living with care for each other and the earth.
We work with a modified version of AA’s twelve steps and traditions using practices of: anonymity, vulnerability in truth telling, intuitive inquiry, restorative amends, group service, non-hierarchical decision making and conscious action.
The first Recovery from the Dominant Culture meetings were created and held in west Oakland, Ca through Seminary of the Street. This flyer is a draft proposal for a new meeting in Berkeley. We welcome participation in the process of developing meeting agreements. And most of all we invite you to our upcoming meetings beginning on Saturday March 15th at 10 am
Draft Version. Edited, Feb, 2014,
1. We admitted we were powerless over our thoughts, feelings, desires and actions shaped by the dominant culture and that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to rebuild our lives, seeking truth, love, and discernment through connection with intuitive wisdom, Great Spirit, God, Goddess and/or a Higher Power of our choice.
4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of how we treat ourselves and relate with others.
5. Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our thinking, feelings and actions based on dominant culture conditioning
6. Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove coping habits and addictions not in alignment with our integrity.
7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons, living beings and earth sources we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people, living beings and the earth wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when acting under the influence of dominant culture patterns we promptly admitted it and sought more conscious ways of interacting.
11. Sought through study, writing, art, prayer and/or meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, and to identify new ways of participating in life affirming culture, holding our well being in balance with the well being of others.
12. Having experienced transformative change with these Steps, we practice these principles in all our affairs, carry this message to those interested, and engage in actions that embody an alternative to the addictive processes of the dominant culture
What: Don’t Frack California
Where: The Capitol Lawn, Sacramento, CA
The Plan:
Our plan so far is to get as many voices as we can to Sacramento to make it loud and clear to Governor Brown and his administration that Californians want an end to fracking in our state. We’ll be hearing from voices from all over the state who are witnessing fracking in their own communities and organizing against it. Our goal, is to show the overwhelming number of Californians who will take the long trek to Sacramento to make it clear that climate leader’s don’t frack.
We’ll have more information on our program as we get closer to the event.
If you need a ride or a place to stay in Sacramento, check out our ride board.
How you can help:
We need folks to help organize and coordinate buses from all over the state. If you’re interested in becoming a bus captain email our Bus Coordinator, Tia at tlebherz@fwwatch.org
Fundraiser:
Sunday, February 23- Help 350 Bay Area Fill the Buses! –
Come to a No Fracking Way Dance & Video Party at Askenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, 7-10pm. We are raising money to sponsor 2 buses, one from the Central Valley and one from the Bay Area! For more information and to RSVP go here. Flyer attached.
Or Donate Now to help Fill the Buses!
Join us to discuss the way forward for the grassroots worker-led compaign for a living wage for all workers.
Featured Speakers:
- Trish Kahle, a Whole Foods Worker and writer on the politics of minimum wage laws.
- Pamela Davis, a former Walmart worker who was fired for joining a Unfair Labor Practices strike, and a leader of Our Walmart.
Presented by Alice Dodge Loaiza, of Marcha Patriótica – Capítulo California. This talk will be about the recent history of Colombia, the building of resistance to a right wing repressive government, backed by the US, and how the US is involved in creating a country where they can not only exploit the resources but can build a political-military base of support for interventions into other areas of Latin America and the Caribbean.
OccupyForum presents…
“We Are All Bayview Hunters Point!” —
Make Earth Day a Relevant Challenge to the 1%!
Guest speakers Marie Harrison/Greenaction
and members of the Huntersview Mothers and Fathers Committee
As climate warming and mega-pollution (caused by giant corporations under-regulated by corrupt government) raise sea levels and destroy our air, water, soil and food, we’ve begun to face the same threats as low income and communities of color like Bayview Hunters Point as they fight for their lives and justice. Together, we must challenge the 1%. Earth Day, the environmental awareness day co-opted by “green” business and government and turned into a chance to sell scented soaps, is ripe to be taken back by The People. Greenaction, together with Huntersview Mothers and Fathers Commitee, and allies including OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group and 350BayArea/SF is doing just that. Come to OccupyForum to hear an update on the struggle for environmental justice in the Bayview, and help plan for the upcoming People’s Environmental Justice Earth Day Walk Against Cancer and Pollution taking place on Saturday, April 26th, 11 a.m. at MLK Jr. Park in the Bayview.Donations welcome, no one turned away!
Come with us to Sacramento to make sure California turns the NSA off now!
SB 828 is the Fourth Amendment Protection Act. It comes from model legislation drafted by the OffNow coalition against unconstitutional data collection and spying. The bill will prevent an NSA facility from opening in CA, stop the NSA from directing curriculum in our state universities, prevent warrantless evidence from being introduced in court and criminalize corporate support for warrantless spying. It is a powerful opportunity to go on the offensive for a change and to tell the federal government that the people of California are not cool with the surveillance state!
If you’ve never been lobbying before, there’s nothing to it! We’ll meet in the Bay Area (Oakland and/or SF) carpool/vanpool it up to Sacramento, have a brief rally on the Capitol steps and do a community activist led training in how to effectively lobby complete with printed talking points to help you know what to say. We’ll hand out manifests with the different offices to visit, break into teams and get to work. The more the merrier! Anyone and everyone is welcome!
Because of the transpartisan nature of the OffNow coalition, we’ll try to be splitting into teams of two, one person from the “right” libertarian/liberty-minded “side” and one from the “left” progressive/liberal “side.” Together we can show CA legislators the NSA spying is a problem no matter where you stand politically.
Snacks will be provided! This will be a fun day of solidarity, community building and hitting the hard marble of the state Capitol!
For more information, email matthew@bordc.org
If you are *ACTUALLY* going to come and you would like a ride, please email me at matthew@bordc.org. If there’s more people than can comfortably fit in my car, I can rent us a van to take. Specifically one with an iPod jack because you KNOW we’ll be bringing the jams.
Despite overwhelming evidence of the defendants’ innocence in what is being called the “Trayvon 2” case, the judge in their pre-trial hearing here ruled on March 6 to continue the case to trial. However, he lowered the charges on the two well-known activists, Hannibal Shakur and Tanzeen Doha, from felonies to misdemeanors over the prosecutor’s objections…
The sole witness for the defense managed to single-handedly discredit the testimony of both the officers.
Read more about what happened at their first court appearance on March 6th.
Another court date, this time for the trial, is scheduled for March 19th.
VIGIL AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE
In front of Conlan Hall
A peaceful vigil against police violence, to collectively reaffirm why we love our college and why we never want the police violence of last week to occur again.
On Thursday, March 13 City College students calling for the resignation of Bob Agrella and the reversal of the new tuition policy were beaten and pepper-sprayed by the police. Yet the CCSF administration is now claiming that it was the students who were violent. What are the facts?
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For months Special Trustee Agrella has refused to meet with student representatives, leaving them no option but peaceful protest to make their voices heard. On Thursday, the Agrella administration continued to shut out students and provoked police violence through two unprecedented decisions:
1) It closed Conlan Hall, a school building open to the public in which many past demonstrations have been allowed, and
2) Rather than rely on campus police, it brought in dozens of San Francisco City Police who escalated the situation.
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In response, students attempted to open the doors to hold their planned peaceful sit-in. Allegations that students struck or assaulted officers in this process are completely unfounded: video footage clearly shows that all physical assaults were by police against students — not the other way around. Did students such as Otto Pippenger and Dimitrious Philliou deserve to be met with police batons, punches, and pepper-spray for simply trying to enter Conlan Hall to defend their right to an education?
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The next day, members of the SF Board of Supervisors and State Assembly denounced the police violence, and a Board commission approved a resolution calling for Agrella’s removal and the return of the democratically-elected Trustees.
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CCSF students remain committed to non-violent protest to demand the resignation of Agrella and the cancellation of the tuition payment policy. Join us this Thursday, March 20th at 2pm in front of Conlan Hall for a peaceful vigil against police violence, to collectively reaffirm why we love our school and why we never want the police violence of last week to occur again.
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— Save CCSF Student Committee
Please watch and share the following video which shows the facts about Thursday’s protest:
http://vimeo.com/89166943
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At The Green Arcade on Thursday March 20th, join George Caffentzis and Strike Debt Bay Area for a discussion about radical and practical responses to debt and capitalism.George Caffentzis is contributor to the newly released The Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual and author of the recent In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism. About In Letters of Blood and Fire: Work, Machines, and the Crisis of Capitalism: Karl Marx remarked that the only way to write about the origins of capitalism is in the letters of blood and fire used to drive workers from the common lands, forests, and waters in the sixteenth century. In this collection of essays, George Caffentzis argues that the same is true for the annals of twenty-first-century capitalism. Information technology, immaterial production, financialization, and globalization have been trumpeted as inaugurating a new phase of capitalism that puts it beyond its violent origins. Instead of being a period of major social and economic novelty, however, the course of recent decades has been a return to the fire and blood of struggles at the advent of capitalism. About The Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual: A handbook for debtors everywhere to understand how this system really works, while providing practical tools for fighting debt in its most exploitative forms. Inside, you’ll find detailed strategies, resources, and insider tips for dealing with some of the most common kinds of debt, including credit card debt, medical debt, student debt, and housing debt. The book also contains tactics for navigating the pitfalls of personal bankruptcy, and information to help protect yourself from credit reporting agencies, debt collectors, payday lenders, check cashing outlets, rent-to-own stores, and more. Strike Debt Bay Area “is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.” Over the last thirty years, average household debt has more than doubled, and we are forced to take on debt to meet our basic needs, which has wrecked lives and devastated communities. This reveals an economic system that enriches the few at the expense of the many. How does the debt system really work? What does a radical response to the debt system look like? What is the relationship between debt and climate? And, how do we develop practical tools, and a mass debt resistance movement? In this interactive discussion, George Caffentzis and Strike Debt Bay Area will help answer these questions, propose strategies, and much more. Also check out the Launch Party for the Debt Resisters’ Operations Manual in the East Bay on March 23rd. |
Rod Coronado is a long-time activist, affiliated with the animal liberation movement, Earth First! and other groups that the government has gone to great lengths to imprison and silence.le.
Wheelchair accessib