Calendar
DIRECT ACTION TRAINING: The Ruckus Society will be hosting a training Monday eve (1/12) immediately following the spokescouncil meeting (~8:30pm-10pm), at the First Presbyterian Church at 27th and Broadway. This training is for any and all participants in MLK weekend actions!
Tomorrow @ @ucdavislaw I'm talking about the things NSA does in the name of surveillance that make us *less* secure. pic.twitter.com/RMCM2bbVfj
— Jennifer Granick (@granick) January 13, 2015
President Obama is on the brink of making his final decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Last Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court validated the pipeline’s risky route through the state, moving the pipeline decision onto the President’s desk. That makes the coming weeks a critical period — this campaign has been sustained by action in the streets and now we need to show that we still stand strong against this climate disaster.
Tomorrow the climate movement is mobilizing coast-to-coast to tell the President to reject Keystone XL now, and there’s a big action planned in San Francisco
Join fellow activists and organizers from CREDO and Rainforest Action Network to tell President Obama to reject Keystone XL — now. We’ll have a short, powerful rally to let President Obama know that progressives in the Bay Area are demanding an immediate rejection of Keystone XL.
Congress is doing Big Oil’s bidding, the Nebraska Supreme Court has passed the buck, and so it’s up to President Obama to take the next step by rejecting the pipeline once and for all.
Original event notice and to sign-up/RSVP.
: : : : : : Reclaiming King’s Legacy : : : : : :
“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is a state-sponsored war on Black lives in the United States and people across the country are demanding that it comes to an end. As long as it remains business as usual to gun down Black women, men and children in the streets of this country, there will be no business as usual anywhere or for anyone. Shut. It. Down.
Oakland’s Anti Police-Terrorism Project is calling a bay area wide spokescouncil to plan and coordinate actions for the upcoming Martin Luther King Day weekend (1/16-1/19). Let’s carry forward and amplify the struggle, together!
PLEASE SAVE THE FOLLOWING DATES for upcoming meetings in your calendar. Before your first meeting, please make sure to attend an orientation!
> Monday Jan 5th, 7pm orientation and kickoff meeting, CNA Offices
> Thursday Jan 8th, 6pm orientation, 7pm meeting, OMNI Commons
> Saturday Jan 10th, 10am orientation, 11am meeting, OMNI Commons
> Monday Jan 12th, 6pm orientation, 7pm meeting, (First Presbyterian Church)
> Wednesday Jan 14th, 6pm orientation, 7pm meeting, OMNI Commons
> Saturday Jan 17th, 11am meeting, OMNI Commons,
What is a spokescouncil?
A spokescouncil is a collective framework for direct action mobilizations, where large masses of people organize themselves into smaller teams called “affinity groups”. Affinity groups plan their actions independently with the intention of advancing the larger goal of the spokescouncil. Affinity groups are represented by at least one person (“a spoke”) at the meetings, where they are able to share resources and coordinate their actions with other groups.
Why a spokescouncil?
We propose the spokescouncil as a solution to many of the shortcomings of unstructured mass assemblies. We intend to provide a highly structured organizing space with clear tactical and messaging guidelines, that empowers participants to organize independently and in parallel. We intend to inspire a multitude of diverse actions and awaken the massive potential we have as a community engaging in direct action.
* The Anti Police-Terrorism Project is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee in coalition with individuals and organizations like The Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Healthy Hoodz, Community Ready Corps, Idriss Stelly Foundation and more
** for questions or more information about the spokescouncil please contact aptpspokescouncil@gmail.co
On the agenda is the use of a residential street as a staging area for the cops during the protests against killer cops beginning December 6, as well as discussion about policies regarding the use of teargas and mutual aid.
Agenda and related documents here: http://www.cityofberkeley.info/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=12962
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS TRAINING: the MLK spokescouncil’s legal working group will be hosting a training Wednesday eve (1/14) immediately following the spokescouncil meeting (~8:15pm-10pm)
BAY AREA CIVIL LIBERTIES COALITION GENERAL MEETING
The Bay Area Civil Liberties Coalition works actively to empower individual efforts and support collective initiatives within the San Francisco Bay Area to support human rights, defeat illegal spying and surveillance and end abuse and militarization by local, regional, statewide and national government agencies and criminal justice/homeland security programs.
Individuals and organizations that support this work are encouraged to join us. Voting memberships for new organizations are subject to approval by the founding organizations. BACLC also engages in project-based collaborative work with a wide variety of organizations.
The Anti-Police Terrorism Project is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee that in coalition with other organizations like the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Workers World and Healthy Hoodz is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.
We meet the 3rd Thursday of every month at Eastside Arts Alliance at 7:30 pm.
Come organize to challenge:
- SLPD profiling/harassment of POC
- SLPD shootings and killings of POC
- militarization, including the BearCat and military-grade weapons
- Increased surveillance
- SLPD School Resource Officers creating “dossiers” on “at risk” elementary school students
- more
Every Thursday in January is the Black Lives Matter Film Series.
This week: “War Witch” (2010) civil war in Africa narrative
Mass convergence at the Montgomery BART platform, demanding:
- Drop the Charges and the Ransom on the Black Friday 14
- Disband the BART Police Department
- Institute a low income discount ticket program
Be on time and bring a spoon!“This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.”
— Martin Luther King
There is a state-sponsored war on Black lives in the United States and people across the country are demanding that it comes to an end. As long as it remains business as usual to gun down Black women, men and children in the streets of this country, there will be no business as usual anywhere or for anyone.
BAY AREA LAWYER DIE-IN FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
The Bay Area legal community (attorneys, legal staff, law students, professors, and allies) are invited to participate in a “Die-In” calling for an end to the use of excessive force, police brutality, and racial profiling in communities of color. This direct action is in response to recent grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in the killing of unarmed civilians, Mr. Eric Garner, Mr. Michael Brown, and Mr. John Crawford. Their deaths and the subsequent grand jury decisions represent a fundamental failure of our justice system. This action is in solidarity with national protests to affirm that Black Lives Matter.
As representatives of the legal community, we are sworn to uphold the law and provide leadership in our communities. During this moment of crisis, we refuse to be silent witnesses to racial inequality and injustice perpetuated by the legal system we are a part of. We can and must do better. This action is a symbol of our commitment to demand and bring about change that is long overdue.
We call on the Bay Area legal community and all allies to join us.
This will be a peaceful demonstration.
Cesar was originally arrested Nov 2, 2011 and falsely convicted of a vandalism charge August 13, 2012 after the jury deliberated the evidence for only 15 minutes, without even looking at photographic evidence collected by Aguirre’s defense attorneys.
Since then Cesar has been appealing his case. There is a possibility that Cesar will be remanded into custody for another 2 months. It is crucial that we show our support for Cesar and stand against this wrongful conviction.
Check out his support page for more info:
https://www.facebook.com/
From Cesar:
“If anyone would like to be in attendance at the court this Friday it would be welcomed and much appreciated. My lawyer advised that it’d be helpful to have a show of support during my appearance. We only ask that all be respectful and orderly while the court is in session.
Thank you all for the continuing love and support.”
“You may well ask: ‘Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?’ You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.”
Join us for a night of performances to benefit the kickoff the direct action campaign to Defend Knowland Park – Huchiun Territory of the Ohlone Tribe.
We will have performances by:
RedStar (Indigenous Hip Hop)
https://www.youtube.com/
Jabari Shaw (Political Hip Hop)
https://www.youtube.com/
Grupo Puyakan (Colombian Cumbia)
https://www.youtube.com/
Rosanonymous (Folk Punk)
https://www.youtube.com/
We would like to raise a couple thousand dollars for gear and bail funds…
Knowland Park (Ohlone Territory called Huchiun) is a 500-acre wildland open space in the Oakland hills, deeded to the City by the State in the 1970′s under the condition that it would always remain a public park.
Now the Oakland Zoo is trying to expand onto the park, fencing in a large portion of the area and cutting down dozens of trees, some of which are old growth Oaks. The park is home to many threatened and rare species of plants and animals such as the Alameda Whipsnake, The Great Horned Owl, and the Mountain Lion.
Defend Knowland Park! seeks to take direct action and put our bodies on the line to prevent the Zoo from privatizing this peice of Ohlone land.
Visit us at www.DefendKnowlandPark.org
NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH!
KEEP KNOWLAND PARK WILD AND FREE!
ALL OUT! Wear Black! Rally at 16th BART Station. (PartyPatrol)
On Saturday Jan 17 the Berkeley City Council will be holding a special meeting to discuss “Improving Police/Community Relations.” This meeting will be held at the Ed Roberts Campus, a community facility for disabled people.
We demand an end to the war on black lives! Berkeley Police regularly profile black people with disabilities! Black disabled people have died in Berkeley Police custody!
About the organizers:
We are a group of mostly white, mostly fat, mostly disabled, mostly queer activists. We are responding to a call from the Anti Police-Terror Project (https://www.facebook.com/
Everyone is welcome.
We will be occupying space outside the front and back doors from 9 AM – 11 AM, longer for folks who want to stay. We will be supporting those who are actually speaking during the public comment parts of the meeting, so it is not our goal to shut down this meeting, but to be a steady presence. We will be silent, and our appearance and tone will be militant and disciplined.
9 AM.
Ed Roberts Campus – 3075 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA 94703
Wear black.
Bring signs that say:
• Black lives matter
• Black disabled lives matter
• Black trans lives matter
• Black deaf lives matter
• Berkeley police regularly profile black people with disabilities
• End the war on black people
• ADA applies to police too
• Police accountability now
• Adopt the Ferguson demands
If you can’t be there, but want to help by making signs, please contact us.
If you are part of another group planning actions during this meeting, feel free to contact us so we can coordinate.