Calendar
- We are pleased to announce the North American Premiere of our feature documentary National Bird at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and the West Coast Premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival in May.
- National Bird follows the journeys of three whistleblowers who are determined to break the silence around the secret U.S. drone war. Their stories take dramatic turns, leading one of the veterans to Afghanistan where she learns about one of the worst U.S. airstrikes to have impacted civilians. For the first time, the Afghan survivors, men and women, speak openly about what has happened to them.
- National Bird was made by a team of mostly women – in front of the camera and behind.
- We would love to share our film with you on the big screen and hope you can make it to one of our screenings. Each will be followed by a Q&A with protagonist Lisa and director Sonia Kennebeck.
- Sunday, May 1, at 8 PM
- The Victoria Theatre, San Francisco
- Monday, May 2, at 3 PM
- Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, San Francisco
- Tuesday, May 3, at 4 PM
- Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley
- For tickets, please visit the SFIFF website for more information.
- And please forward this email, follow, like and promote us on Facebook and Twitter!
- We hope to see you soon!
Almost 40 East Bay hotel and food service workers flooded City Hall last week to tell the City Council that we don’t need poverty-wage hotels in Oakland – we need good jobs that support workers, families and communities of color. The workers will be back at City Hall tomorrow night – stand with them!
This winter, employees at the Holiday Inn Express on Hegenberger complained that their bosses were breaking Oakland’s minimum wage law. The City of Oakland investigated and issued a report showing many violations, and ordered the owners to pay back wages and a $5,000 fine.
But the very next month, the City gave the Holiday Inn Express owners a permit to open a new Hampton Inn in Chinatown.
Local 2850 appealed that decision, and our appeal will be heard by the Planning Commission tomorrow night. Please come out and show the City that our community has low-wage workers’ backs. This is our chance to support development that supports our community, and stop a project from hotel owners with a history of mistreating low-wage workers.
Supporters of #Frisco5 plan to march to SF City Hall at 12:30pm to talk w/ Mayor Ed Lee. Unclear if mtg will happen. pic.twitter.com/HnC201Ng88
— Brian Flores (@BrianFloresKTVU) May 3, 2016
The police commission and the mayor are the only two governing bodies which have the power to fire the chief of police. Police Chief Greg Suhr will be at this meeting. One of the Frisco 5 was admitted to the hospital this morning. We must show up en masse at this meeting to let them see, hear and feel the people’s discontent!
The meeting is in room 400 on the 4th floor.
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Our ally Amazon Watch is proud to have supported Josh by accompanying him and his crew to the Amazon to see firsthand the effects of climate change and the fossil fuel industry.
Stay after the film for a Q&A with filmmaker Josh Fox, environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, and Leila Salazar-López of Amazon Watch. Gabriel Mayers, a musician featured in the film will also perform.
Join the Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the surveillance state, against Urban Shield, and to advocate for privacy and surveillance regulation ordinances to be passed around the Bay Area, especially by Alameda County and by the Oakland City Council. - We are also engaged in the fight against Predictive Policing and other “pre-crime” and “thought-crime” abominations, drones, improper use of police body cameras, requirements for “backdoors” to your cellphone and against other invasions of privacy by our benighted City, County, State and Federal Governments.
OPWG originally came together to fight against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OPWG was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network; its members helped draft the Privacy Policy that puts further restrictions on the now Port-restricted DAC, and made Oakland’s Advisory Privacy Committee to the City Council happen. We were also the lead in having Alameda County pass the most comprehensive privacy and usage policy in the country for deployment of “Stingray” technology (cell phone interceptors).
We have presented our work at the recent RightsCon in San Francisco and will be doing so at Left Forum in New York City.
Stop by and learn how you can help guard our right not to be spied on by the government & if you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
For more information on the DAC check out
Oakland: #reentry workshop 5/5, legal clinic 5/25 for folks who’ve served prison time. https://t.co/yneAIjybA1 @ROOTandREBOUND #smartjustice
— ACLU of Northern CA (@ACLU_NorCal) April 21, 2016
In California, the Certificate of Rehabilitation (COR) is a powerful but underutilized legal tool for people who served time in state prison for a past conviction to prove their successful rehabilitation after years of success back in society. CORs help restore some of the civil rights and opportunities that individuals with criminal records are stripped of, and applicants have the right under law to FREE legal representation by a public defender in the county where they reside (not the county where the conviction happened).
Stand with Verizon Strikers
RSVP here: https://actionnetwork.org/
This strike is a part of an upsurge in working class & oppressed peoples’ actions & movements: Shut down Trump, Stand against Islamophobia & immigrant bashing, Black Lives Matter, No to anti-trans laws, last year’s USW oil workers strike, the UAW Kohler strike, Wisconsin’s “Day Without Latinos,” the Chicago Teachers Union strike, the incredible Boston school bus drivers’ victory, the Fight-for-$15-&-a-union movement of low-wage workers, to name a few. A victory for the CWA and IBEW will be yet another boost that helps all workers that are fighting for justice in the workplace & society. Onward to victory! Our greatest weapon is Solidarity. This strike is about all of us!
Join the Alameda Jail Fight Coalition in a community forum to build grassroots community power against Alameda County’s $54 million Santa Rita jail construction project to prioritize mental health diversion and community-based solutions.
We will provide an overview of what’s currently happening with the fight, learn from organizers who defeated San Francisco’s new jail, and then we will split into three breakout groups to develop three main strategies:
– Base-building
– Media
– Legislative
Group discussions will be facilitated by community members of the Alameda Jail Fight Coalition and the meeting will be run democratically and non-hierarchically so every voice is heard. We encourage everyone who has a story to share or who is simply concerned with the mass injustices taking place in our community to attend.
Accessibility information: The First Unitarian Church is wheelchair accessible, with wheelchair gender-neutral restrooms. It’s located close to the 12th St. City Center BART station. Free childcare and dinner will be provided. This will be a fragrance-free event. Please refrain from wearing scents such as perfumes/colognes, scented lotions, clothing with strong detergent scents, etc.
If you have any questions or need Spanish interpretation, please contact our local advocate, Tash Nguyen: tash@ellabakercenter.org or 408-499-7912.
@marymad the time has been changed to three
— HungerForJusticeSF (@hngr4justicesf) May 6, 2016
As a showing of unity, let’s fittingly gather, connect and build as a community at the United Nations Plaza. As their health continues to decline, let’s gather in a peaceful loving show of support and solidarity for the FRISCO 5, those who have fallen in the struggle and victims of injustice. Meet new people and build new bridges. All power to the people! One love
Please join us pic.twitter.com/lNxrPQyepY
— jeralynn (@mommablueford) May 5, 2016
Please join us at Oakland First Friday to table and canvass! We’ll focus on collecting signature for our three Oakland ballot initiatives, as well as voter registration.
We haven’t been assigned a space yet, but the political groups are always located together at the south end of the event on Telegraph between Grand and 23rd. We’ll have a table with two chairs and signage.
Please share this event with your friends! There is so much foot traffic at Oakland First Fridays that we’ll need all the help we can get.
We’re working to get these three measures on the ballot:
From the Coalition for Police Accountability: Measure X turns the current Citizens’ Police Review Board into a Police Commission that has power to approve police policies and discipline officers who are found guilty of misconduct.
From the Oakland Tenants Union: Oakland’s “Renters Upgrade” would expand Oakland’s current “Just Cause for Eviction” law and provide greater ability for the city to enforce existing laws amidst a wave of unfair evictions and widespread harassment as demand for housing in Oakland grows.
From Oakland Livable Wage Assembly: A Minimum Wage/Fair Scheduling ordinance that will raise Oakland’s minimum wage to $14/hr in 2016 and $20/hr by 2020, as well as implement fair scheduling similar to San Francisco’s recent ordinance and mandate enforcement of both.
These three measures represent a people’s legislative agenda, enacted through direct democracy at the ballot box. The Oakland Justice Coalition invites anyone who is concerned about Oakland’s housing crisis, police repression of communities of color and rampant income inequality to join us in building a grassroots movement for social, racial, economic and environmental justice.
With Green for the Heart Chakra & Peace for what we Cultivate in the Space- Alan Blueford Center for Justice (First Friday). May 6th is the exact day Alan Blueford’s life was taken at 18 years old by an Oakland police officer. So we come together- hearts open, creativity flowing, band live- to transcend, so are you coming through?
#TatuVision #OneLove #ABC4J
Endorsed by the Frisco Five Hunger Strikers:
BOYCOTT FOR SF JUSTICE: IN HONOR OF THE FRISCO FIVE. JOIN HERE.
If they are hungry for justice, we should be too!
In honor of the Frisco Five Hunger Strikers, who are fighting against police killings and terror, we invite you to partake in a MASS BOYCOTT OF CORPORATE RESTAURANTS, especially in San Francisco. Until Mayor Ed Lee fires corrupt SFPD Chief Suhr, we promise to BOYCOTT ALL CORPORATE RESTAURANTS!
The restaurants include:
McDonalds
Popeyes
Wendy’s
Carl’s Jr.
Taco Bell
KFC
Subway
And the many other corporate restaurants.
Boycotting for a righteous cause is nothing new. Gandhi led the Swadeshi movement for Indian self-sufficiency. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott against segregation. For farmworkers’ rights, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers boycotted grapes and Safeway stores. Boycotting is a successful strategy that all of us can contribute to for the sake of justice, for those who have been unlawfully killed by the SFPD, like Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, Mario Woods, and Luis Gongora Pat, all killed in the last two years.
By boycotting ALL CORPORATE RESTAURANTS, we make an international statement against police terror and corruption. We also prove our economic clout. Since they do not care about our lives, we must hurt them in their pockets. In turn the corporations will put pressure on Mayor Lee, as he functions in a puppet role.
Instead of eating junk, we have an opportunity to build unity. Share a cooked meal with friends and family. Pack your lunch ahead of time so that you do not need to buy food while you are out. If you must dine, choose a local small business “mom and pop” restaurant. Get to know your neighbors.
By joining this group page, I VOW TO BOYCOTT ALL CORPORATE RESTAURANTS, ESPECIALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO until Mayor Ed Lee fires SFPD Chief Suhr.
On this group page, share your strategies and sacrifices about not eating at corporate restaurants and inspire others too.
Our numbers cannot be ignored. Our dollars will be sorely missed. Our amor is always proven.
JUSTICE FOR ALEX NIETO!
JUSTICE FOR AMILCAR PEREZ LOPEZ!
JUSTICE FOR MARIO WOODS!
JUSTICE FOR LUIS GONGORA PAT!
JUSTICE AND LOVE FOR ALL THOSE UNLAWFULLY KILLED BY THE POLICE!
The Communist Party USA (Oakland/Berkeley)
invites you to a discussion: Police Militarization
Suggested Readings:
Ana Conner &Tara Tabassi, ‘Ending Police Militarization, One City at a Time’
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/33001-ending-police-militarization-one-city-at-a-tim
Stephen Graham, Cities Under Seige, The New Military Urbanism
http://libcom.org/files/Graham,%20Stephen%20-%20Cities%20Under%20Siege.%20The%20New%20Military%20Urbanism_0.pdf This is a book length piece – worth reading introduction and skimming the rest
*****ATTENTION******
Hunger for Justice SF
Community meeting
Today at UCSF 2pm
400 Parnassus St
UN cafeteria on 2nd Flr#Frisco5 #Frisco500— LolaLolaLola (@Lola_Casanova) May 7, 2016
From the Peace and Freedom Party Platform: “The drive for greater profits by multi-national corporations which direct U.S. foreign policy is a major cause of war. We stand for peace between nations and the right of all peoples to self-determination. We support an ongoing socialist transformation everywhere.” We have confirmed speakers to address issues of war, imperialism, revolution, and socialism in Haiti (Pierre Labossiere), Puerto Rico (Ricardo Ortiz), and Venezuela (Laura Wells).
FREE! Please buy food & drink at the Pub. All ages welcome! FREE!
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like.
The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
Focus on Education & Environmental Justice
To join the RPA now, follow this link to the membership form. Print and complete the form and mail it in with a check for your dues, which start at $12/yr. Or, to avoid printing and snail-mailing, you can:
- send an email to info@richmondprogressivealliance.net with the information requested on the form &</span>
- go to the RPA web page & press the “Donate” button in the left column and make a payment for dues. Any additional contribution helps us keep dues more affordable for those with low income and is welcomed.
- organizing for public banking
- advocating for Postal banking
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- student debt resistance
- fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contract
- Presenting debt-related topics at forums and workshops
- Bring your own debt-related project!
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early and meet one or two of us before the formal meeting starts, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com .
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt 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.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
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 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. 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 four years! 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