Calendar

The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!

The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.

And we’re fighting against both!

Come help us plan our next steps.

The American Postal Workers Union is planning more actions against Staples; we need to support them. We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management!  Here’s the front of the postcard.

The Berkeley City Council is on a path to pass some sort of Zoning Overlay which may protect the Post Office against various commercial uses, or be totally ineffective. We need to stay on top of it.

And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Post Offices was supposed to come out before the end of March – anything could happen after it comes out. Come help us plan our response.

Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

AND CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE.

ATTENTION ALL FAMILIES WHO HAS BEEN A VICTIM OF POLICE TERRORISM join us as we march on State Capital Sacramento during Crime Victim Day April 8, 2014. Please organize your communities and unite with us as we speak out against State Attorney General Kamala Harris for turning a blind eye under the Color of Law. Let’s organized now to address the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, Police Terrorism, and failure to resolve gun violence in our communities. Those families harmed by Gun Violence that are still seeking justice and an investigation into the killing of your Love one, please join us. Lack of forensic labs or non efficient labs must be addressed. Please share this with your network. “We are only as strong as our UNITY”

 Families United March on State Capital Sacramento

The  State Capitol in Sacramento, California  for the United Families of California at the fifth annual Victims’ Rights March is a call to action for victims and their supporters to come together as they do every year on the steps of the California State Capitol to have their voices heard by their elected officials. This event is not considered a memorial, but rather a rally in which we encourage victims to visit their legislator’s offices and let them know how you feel about public safety issues. The California Coalitions and one of the leading organizers is the Oscar Grant Foundation,  and their Executive Director: Cephus ‘Uncle Bobby’ Johnson and will be joined by over 21 families of victims murdered by Police and most of the “Police Brutality” murders are in question and have current investigations.

For more information.

Article on rally and co-rally in Florida.

The Oakland-based Institute of Urban Homesteading is hosting an urban agriculture night at the New Parkway Theater. The main event is a screening of the urban agriculture documentary Growing Cities, and filmmaker Dan Susman will be on hand. Other festivities include a jam tasting and jam swap (participants should bring a jar for tasting and another to swap), and various door prizes. Doors open at 6 p.m.; the movie will start at 7. Tickets ($8, plus a service fee) are available here.

April 2014 – The 7th Annual Privacy Lecture

Bancroft Hotel

For more information and to register, visit the event website.

Presented by Professor Ross Anderson with responses by Carl Shapiro, James Aquilina, and Anupam Chander.

The Snowden revelations teach us that many of the world’s governments share intelligence behind the scenes. Thirty years ago, a non-aligned country like India could happily buy its military aircraft from Russia; nowadays, although it still buys some planes from Sukhoi, it shares intelligence with the NSA. A rational actor will join the biggest network, and the Russians’ network is much smaller.  This points us to a deeper truth: that information economics applies to the public sector,  just as it applies to private business. The forces that lead to pervasive monopolies in the information industries – network effects, technical lock-in and low marginal costs – are pervasive in the affairs of states too, once we look for them; they are just not yet recognized as such. There are many significant implications, from international relations through energy policy to privacy. Network effects make regulation hard; the USA failed to protect US attorney-client communications from Australian intelligence, just as Australia failed to protect its own citizens’ personal health information from the NSA. There are some upsides too; but to identify and exploit them, we need to start thinking in a more grown-up way about what it means to live in a networked world.

Event Schedule
Registration 3:00 – 3:30 PM
Presentation 3:30 – 5:30 PM
Reception 5:30 – 6:30 PM

STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!

Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.

Tickets via Brown Paper Tickets or at Pegasus Books (3 locations), Marcus Books, Mrs. Dalloway’s, Moe’s Books, Walden Pond, DIESEL a Bookstore. SF: Modern Times 

Hot news!  Matt Taibbi has left Rolling Stone and just joined Pierre Omidyar’s group of original, independent journalists to produce a second digital magazine. The first is The Intercept, with writing by Glen Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill and other fearless journalists.

From the award-winning investigative journalist and bestselling author of The Great Derangement and Griftopia comes another devastating portrait of American values in our polarized age, a galvanizing exploration of how our growing wealth gap is not just warping our economy, but transforming the meaning of rights, justice, and basic citizenship.

THE DIVIDE: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap is a probing investigation of one of the most pressing issues facing us today: the increasing wealth gap and how it is affecting our system of justice. “The Divide,” reveals our two most troubling trends – enormous wealth inequality on one hand and an increasingly punitive, intrusive state on the other, resulting in our basic rights now being determined by our wealth or poverty. The Divide is what allows massively destructive fraud by the hyperwealthy to go unpunished, while turning poverty itself into a crime.

Matt Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and the author of five previous books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Great Derangement and Griftopia.

Donald Goldmacher, Producer/Director of Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?,  is a longtime filmmaker, labor activist, and community psychiatrist with decades of experience.
His first film, “Do No Harm,” exposed the controversial marketing and research practices of the pharmaceutical industry. His recent feature documentary “Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House”, won over 20 festival awards and aired on HBO and television around the world.

KPFA Benefit

Meeting open to the public. Come and tell CAB members what you think about KPFA.

The Robin Hood Committee needs your help gathering signatures to place two initiatives on the November ballot. The initiatives will create $4.5 million for affordable housing and other city services in Berkeley by taxing the windfall profits of large landlords. Right now, Berkeley tenants are paying more than $100 million a year in excess rent, wealth that is taken out of our community. We can recapture a fraction of that by putting these measures to a vote of the people.

Join us this Sunday to pick up petitions and a partner for signature gathering.

Cant make it Sunday or want petitions earlier? Call us at 1-510-548-FAH-1. The Robin Hood Committee is supported by the Green Party of Alameda County, Councilmembers Worthington and Arreguin, Rent Board members Stephens, Harr, Soto-Vigil and Townley, the Berkeley Tenants Union and many others.
The Windfall Profits Tax on High Rents Initiative will raise the business license tax on residential rental units by 1.9%, but exempts small live-in and low-income landlords with less than 10 units. It also reduces the tax for units occupied by long-term tenants with moderate rents. In order not to discourage new construction, it allows a 20 year exemption from the increase starting with initial occupancy of the building. This is expected to raise $4.5 million annually for the City’s general fund to start with, rising as units occupied by long-term tenants turn over, as 20 year exemptions expire and as rents continue to rise. The tax cannot be passed on to tenants, since current tenants are protected by the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
The Affordable Housing Initiative will require the City Council to set aside at least $3 million annually for the Housing Trust Fund, which is used to develop affordable housing for low-income people either through new construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of existing housing by non-profit organizations. Once passed by the voters, Council will have 120 days to do a fiscal analysis and determine whether to accept the measure or to reduce or veto the allocation. The $3 million set-aside is expected to derive from the windfall profits tax revenue described above. Activists consider passage of the tax measure to be the best means of ensuring that the City can invest in affordable housing without reducing other needed services.
Background: Rents in Berkeley are rising to record highs, bringing windfall profits to most landlords while tenant incomes remain stagnant. Rents are going up because Berkeley is a very desirable place to live, not because landlords have so greatly improved the buildings they own. A strong Bay Area economy and public investments in the University, transit, parks and other public services all make Berkeley an attractive place to live. When public activities increase the value of private property it is only fair that the public recapture a small fraction of the value we the people create and use it for public benefit rather than allowing it all to be taken for private profit.
Before 1999 Berkeley had a strong rent control system that only allowed landlords to raise rents enough to provide a constitutionally required fair return on their investment but did not allow windfall profits at the expense of tenants. In 1999 the State legislature imposed �vacancy decontrol�, which now allows landlords to raise rents without limit whenever a new tenant moves in.
As a result, 85% of Berkeley’s older rentals have had vacancy increases. Tenants are now paying more than $100 million annually in additional rent, over and above what is needed to provide landlords with a fair return on their investment. Real, inflation-adjusted rents have gone up by more than 50% yet Berkeley’s landlords are taking out permits for building renovations equal in value to less than 3% of their massive annual rent increases. This transfer of wealth from Berkeley tenants to landlords, the majority of whom live outside of Berkeley, drains money from the community and increases demands for public services of all kinds, from social services to subsidized housing to public safety.

P.S. We only have until May 10 � we need you today!

STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!

Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.

Monday, April 14th the parents of Alejandro Nieto will file a Claim against the City and County of San Francisco for the egregious and wrongful death of their son (28 years old), shot dead by San Francisco Police officers on March 21st, 2014 on Bernal Hill Park.

After the filing, on the front steps of City Hall at 3:00 p.m, a representative of the Nieto Family will make a brief statement to the press. Please support the family’s claim for justice by joining us at City Hall.

The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!

The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.

And we’re fighting against both!

Come help us plan our next steps.

The American Postal Workers Union is planning more actions against Staples; we need to support them. There is a protest rally on Saturday, two days before this meeting, at the Berkeley Staples at 11:00 AM. We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management!  Here’s the front of the postcard.

The Berkeley City Council is on a path to pass some sort of Zoning Overlay which may protect the Post Office against various commercial uses, or be totally ineffective. We need to stay on top of it.

And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Post Offices was supposed to come out before the end of March – anything could happen after it comes out. Come help us plan our response.

Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.

THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

AND CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE.

The Fight to Wake up the City,

Stop Displacement,

and Take Back Control of Our Communities

There will be a screening of the workers’ cooperative documentary Shift Change

The film was premiered at Grand Lake last October. Here’s the site for the film if you are interested:

http://shiftchange.org/

Before the showing here will be a pizza and pastry pop-up at 6:00 PM!

After the film there will be a presentation by the filmmakers and a Q&A with members of local cooperatives, including Arizmendi.

Our next Politics of Debt class will be in one week, Wednesday April 16th.  Here is the node on the public school website: http://thepublicschool.org/node/37127

We’ll continue our reading of Michael Hudson and the Public Banking Workbook.  Bear in mind we didn’t get to discuss ch.1-3 of the Public Banking workbook, so read up on all that you can on the new chapters.

Here are the chapter readings from Hudson for the meeting: 11, 15 and 18.

HudsonCh11-15-18

and chapters from the Public Banking Workbook.

Ch1-3

PublicBankWorkbookCh4-7