Calendar

COLORSTRUCK! Written and performed by Donald E. Lacy Jr.,

Day One (Saturday, 10/1) Here

Sun. 10/2

10:30am -12:30 pm

How Capitalism Shreds Our Personal Lives

Harriet Fraad, Harriet Fraad  is a licensed mental health counselor and hypnotherapist in private practice in New York City. She has been an activist in the feminist movement and the journal Rethinking Marxism. For 40  years, she has been a radical committed to transforming US personal and political life.

1:30-3:30 pm

Crisis: It’s How Capitalism Works 

Richard Wolff, Marxist professor of economics, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the New School University, New York City. He is the author of numerous books and articles and host of the weekly radio show, Economic Update, and Co-founder of the projectDemocracy at Work

4:00-6:00 pm

Our Role In Transforming The World

Activists in Speak Out Now, will present a revolutionary socialist perspective on the challenges and choices we all confront today

Followed by time to discuss and socialize – refreshments provided

7:30-8:30

The Artist as Activist 

Emel Mathlouthi, Tunisian singer, songwriter, social commentator and participant in the Arab Spring – will take us through her musical and political journey. He song Kelmti Horra (my word is free) became well-known throughout Tunisia during the struggles against the rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

Join Haiti Action Committee to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a coup that continues to inform the present struggle of the Haitian people for democracy and justice.

SEPTEMBER 30th – 4:30 PM DEMONSTRATION meets at 14th & Broadway in Oakland

OCTOBER 2nd – 3PM EVENT at Eastside Arts, 2277 International Blvd, Oakland

Why is it important to remember September 30, 1991?

It is a battle of memory against forgetfulness, because we think that we cannot build the democracy we want for this country if we continue to erase what happened. It is impossible. – Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine

September 30, 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Haiti’s first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was the candidate of Haiti’s popular movement Lavalas in the 1990 presidential election; he won with 67% of the vote.

Aristide’s Feb. 7, 1991 inauguration marked a huge victory for Haiti’s poor majority after decades living under the Duvalier family dictatorship and military rule. The inauguration signaled the participation of the poor in a new social order. This radical change was represented by Aristide’s first act as President when he invited several hundred street children and homeless to join him for the inaugural breakfast at the National Palace.

A brave young democracy set out to reverse centuries of exclusion of Haiti’s poor majority in the country’s political, economic and social life against the backdrop of right wing death squads and a corrupt Haitian military tied to former dictators and Haiti’s wealthy elite. Just four days before the inauguration, an orphanage founded by Aristide – Lafanmi Selavi – was torched, killing four street children.

The new administration began to implement programs in adult literacy, health care, and land redistribution; lobbied for a minimum wage hike; proposed new roads and infrastructure to create jobs. Aristide renounced his $10,000 a month salary. He enforced taxes on the wealthy and dissolved the rural section chief infrastructure that empowered the Ton Ton Macoute. He denounced the treatment (akin to slavery) of Haitian sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic, and called for improved working conditions.

After the September 30th coup, Lavalas supporters turned out by the hundreds of thousands to defend the constitutional government. They were brutally suppressed, starting on the eve of Sept. 30th when National Police chief Lt. Col. Michel Francois led busloads of soldiers to the Champs de Mars where they machine gunned hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the National Palace.  Francois would later be convicted in absentia for the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery, a prominent businessman and supporter of Aristide who was dragged from a church in broad daylight and executed. Aristide’s Justice Minister Guy Malary was murdered one month later.

Between the years 1991-1994, during the military regime headed by General Raoul Cedras, four to seven thousand supporters and activists of Lavalaswould be killed; others savagely tortured; rape as a political weapon was widespread; thousands fled or were driven into hiding. Poor neighborhoods were particularly targeted, as was the Ti Legliz (little church) – an important sector of the grassroots movement. Anti-coup journalists and radio stations were attacked. Haitian elites and the coup regime, with the support of US intelligence agencies, backed the formation of a violent paramilitary organization known as FRAPH, which emerged in August 1993. FRAPH operated as a death squad, and was responsible for thousands of deaths and human rights violations. Its leaders like Louis-Jodel Chamblain, associate of Guy Philippe, still operate freely in Haiti.

No commemoration of September 30th would be complete without remembering Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a psychologist and leading spokesperson for Lavalas, who was kidnapped and disappeared in Port-au-Prince in 2007. Lovinsky founded the Fondasyon Trant Septanm organization dedicated to justice for the victims of the September 30th coup and the release of political prisoners. He remains forever present at the forefront of Haiti’s struggle for justice and democracy.

T H E  N E W  C O M M U N I S M
The science, the strategy, the leadership
for an actual revolution, and a radically new society

on the road to real emancipation

Discussion with Bruce Neuberger

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue

on all sides of these critically important issues!

What is this NEW Communism? What is new about it? Does communism provide an answer to the deep questions that people have about this society and its ability to deal with its problems — racism, class divisions, women’s oppression, ecological destruction, endless war? And if so, how could this new society (socialism on the road to communism) be brought into existence?

FOR ANYONE WHO CARES ABOUT THE STATE OF THE WORLD and the condition of humanity and agonizes over whether fundamental change is really possible, Bob Avakian’s new book, The New Communism, provides a sweeping and comprehensive orientation, foundation, and guide to making the most radical of revolutions: a communist revolution aimed at emancipating humanity — getting beyond all forms of oppression and exploitation on a world scale. Avakian scientifically analyzes the system of capitalism-imperialism and its unresolvable contradictions; confronts the challenges facing the movement for revolution; and forges a way forward to making an actual revolution in this country, as part of contributing to communist revolution internationally.

We are in a time of unspeakable and unnecessary suffering from one corner of the globe to the other: millions driven from their homes by unjust wars and environmental destruction, rampant violence and hatred against women, relentless murder and brutality against Black and Brown people by police in the U.S., vicious attacks on immigrants. It is a time of tremendous upheaval, with powerful resistance breaking out and people taking bold stands.

There is an urgent need for this new synthesis to be taken up, broadly, in this society and in the world as a whole: everywhere people are questioning why things are the way they are, and whether a different world is possible; everywhere people are talking about “revolution” but have no real understanding of what revolution means, no scientific approach to analyzing and dealing with what they are up against and what needs to be done. Everywhere people need a way out of their desperate conditions, but do not see the source of their suffering and the path forward out of the darkness.

— Bob Avakian

Avakian’s approach is one that has been thought through quite deeply and is based on a close examination of the previous attempts at a radical transformation of society from 1917 to 1976 (the Soviet and Chinese revolutions). We will begin a very initial discussion of a vast topic; a discussion in the spirit of open debate, in which different ideas and points of view can and should be aired.” — Bruce Neuberger

Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged;

no one turned away!

Omar Shakir is a brother who was arrested during a pre-dawn paramilitary OPD raid for an assault on a police officer that the cops KNOW Mr. Shakir did not commit. People are encourage to attend to show support and encourage the prosecutor to drop the charges.

Read more about this travesty.

SEIU Local 1000 employees are holding informational pickets in San Francisco and Oakland. We are looking for physical support and solidarity from our local labor and community groups at both of these events as we strive to uphold union labor in public service.

We are State employees represented by SEIU Local 1000, standing along with our brothers and sisters of IUOE Local 3, State division, who have turned down insulting offers from Cal HR on behalf of Governor Brown that disrespects and devalues the important work that we do for our great state of California.  We are toll collectors, janitors, legal secretaries, public utility regulators, bank auditors and planners providing valuable services to our communities and our fellow Californians.  We work to protect our beautiful coastline, marshes, and various other habitats for endangered and other species; we are teachers who provide education to the students of our schools for the blind and the deaf; we monitor traffic and dispatch emergency aid 24 hours around the clock; and we provide services and care to those with acute medical and psychiatric needs.

It is only right and just for us to expect fair compensation during our current contract bargaining as Governor Brown touts the strength of California’s great economic recovery from the recent recession.

Especially in light of the fact that State employees experienced forced furloughs that compromised our ability to provide for our families during that recession and in some cases continue to plague those of us who live and work in high cost regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area.  Don’t think for a second that State employees escaped evictions, displacement and homelessness.  For thousands of us who work for the State in the Bay Area, living here is not a lifestyle choice – we were born and raised here and this is our home – the only home many of us have known.

But for others, being displaced to areas such as Tracy, Manteca, Stockton, Merced, Elk Grove, Patterson, Jackson – was a vital choice for affordable housing for those families.  Those commutes add to the gas emissions Governor Brown wants to reduce but his poor salary structure and his disparaging proposed salary increase leaves us angry and resentful.

Thank you!

Reba Maestas
Jobsite Steward
Caltrans District 4

City Council is set to give final approval to a $1.2M settlement with the family of Demouria Hogg, a 30-year-old father of three shot to death last year by Oakland police, the first in a new spate of questionable OPD homicides.  The victim was unconscious in a car on a freeway offramp.  He could not be roused by sirens, loudly amplified commands, the firing of beanbag rounds, or even the breaking of windows in his car.  A pistol was on the passenger seat, but police could have finished clearing out the window over it, which they had partially broken, and grabbed the gun or kept him from reaching it.  They could have simply waited until he came to, with a negotiator ready in case a standoff developed.  Instead, those in charge decided to extract him.  They assigned a 28-year-old officer with 18 months’ experience to provide “lethal cover.”

When officers started breaking the driver’s side window to pull Mr. Hogg through it, he, predictably, twisted his entire body towards the passenger seat, i.e., away from the glass being shattered near his face.  This movement led to his being successfully tased by the cop providing non-lethal cover, but the near-rookie charged with making an instantaneous life-or-death decision fired too, killing him.

OPD called this a “standoff”;  immediately showed videos to the lawyer for the shooter, who told the press they showed Mr. Hogg going for the gun, but refused to release the videos publicly;  and put out the usual irrelevant smears about the victim’s character.  Eight months later — having waited until attention died down — D.A. Nancy O’Malley exonerated the shooter without even considering whether her commanding offcers did anything wrong.  After another three months the Citizens’ Police Review Board concluded no one was blameworthy.

Clearly someone told City Council that a jury could well disagree — it doesn’t take a million dollars to settle a meritless nuisance suit!

Please come and support our call for (a) accountability on the part of command staff, (b) requiring officials to decide whether charges should be filed as quickly as they would if one of us shot an officer and claimed self-defense, and (c) an end to selective release of information by OPD.

This is on the consent calendar so it should come up fairly early – unless it is pulled from consent, which is possible but not likely.

The time is right for rooftop solar!  At our Solar for All Convening learn about opportunities for renters and time-limited discounts for homeowners through the Bay Area SunShares bulk purchasing program. Hear about financing options and tax credits from local solar advocate Doug McKenzie of SunWork Renewable Energy Project, and GRID Alternatives’ low-to-no-cost solar for qualified low-income homeowners. Solar vendors and zero-emission vehicle dealers participating in SunShares will be on hand to discuss their products and answer questions.  Light refreshments served.

Co-presented by the Berkeley Climate Action Coalition and the City of Berkeley’s Office of Energy and Sustainable Development.

All residents of the nine Bay Area counties are encouraged to learn more about SunShares! SunShares is a limited time program; enrollment ends November 4th. Attending this event is not required to participate in SunShares.

RSVP: Registration Required
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bay-area-sunshares-solar-for-all-workshop-berkeley-tickets-27077410263

Bresha Meadows of Ohio was just 14 years old when she was incarcerated and charged with aggravated murder for defending herself and family against the unrelenting terror and abuse of her father. On October 6, Bresha has an important court hearing in which the prosecutor will determine if she will be prosecuted for a crime (possibly charged as an adult) instead of given the support & safety that she needs.

We take action in solidarity with Bresha and demand that she is returned home to her family and that all charges against her are dropped. For this year’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we are coming together in solidarity nationwide with Bresha and all survivors of domestic & sexual violence who are criminalized for surviving.

Join us in sending our love and support to Bresha, and learn more about the larger historical context that Bresha’s story is a part of. We will read and discuss No Selves to Defend, an anthology that situates Bresha’s case in a centuries-long history of women (particularly Black women and women of color) being criminalized for self defense.

https://noselves2defend.wordpress.com/

No Selves to Defend was created during the #FreeMarissaNow mobilization campaign for Marissa Alexander, and its themes and lessons continue to be relevant today.

This event is sponsored by Survived and Punished, and Asians for Black Lives.

Accessibility information: ALC office is located on 55 Columbus Ave in San Francisco. 12 minute walk from Montgomery BART station, limited street parking. Wheelchair accessible and low-fragrance but not fragrance free. Please refrain from wearing perfumes and scents.

Stop the Political Witch-Hunt Against Ms. Yvette Felarca
Protest and Speak Out at the Berkeley School Board Meeting
7pm Rally outside
7:30 pm Speak Out inside

 

Community members, parents, teachers and students plan to rally and speak at the  the Berkeley School Board Meeting  to defend Yvette Felarca, an anti-fascist middle school teacher in Berkeley under attack by the school district.

After Ms. Felarca helped prevent the neo-Nazi/KKK rally on the steps of the capitol in Sacramento last June where she and 8 other anti-fascists were stabbed by the Nazis, racist threats were made against the school if she was not fired. Instead of defending the entire school, including Yvette, the Berkeley Unified School District turned on her, docked 17 days of her pay, and on Wed. Sept. 21, abruptly suspended her. Yvette is now the target of a witch-hunt. She has been disciplined on unfounded accusations of “unsatisfactory performance” and “unprofessional conduct” and was given no reason for her suspension.

Our weekly PARTY to get this hackerspace together, to provide a venue for those things that otherwise cannot be worked out through day-to-day practice.

Potluck! – bring your own tasty dish!

Sudo room, located in the southwast corner of the ground floor, is a creative community and hackerspace. We offer tools and project space for a wide range of activities: electronics, sewing/crafting, 3D and 2D manufacturing, coding, and good old-fashioned co-learning!

Hours: The space is open whenever a member is present. Come visit! Best times to drop in are evenings between 7 and 9pm. See the calendar for recurring meetups and upcoming events: https://sudoroom.org/calendar

For over 4 years, we have been fighting to hold McDonalds accountable for driving wages and working standards down.  They pay poverty wages, often are perpetrators of wage theft and turn a blind eye to the needs of their workers.

Sexual harassment is widespread at fast-food companies like McDonald’s, which, too often, turn a blind eye to their workers’ complaints. Forty-percent of women working in the fast-food industry have been sexually harassed on the job – that’s 60% higher than other industries on average.

Women who speak out about the problem often face negative consequences from their employers, so many women try to confront the harassment on their own, or, even worse, feel that they have to put up with harassment to keep their jobs.

Workers and allies will be silent no more.

On Thursday we will be joining workers nationwide for a press conference about this serious issue.  We will be meeting at 11:30 and beginning the press conference at 12.

Press conference on the 6 Month Anniversary of Luis’s Murder by SFPD

WHAT: Family of Luis Demetrio Góngora Pat —a Mayan indigenous father, husband,brother, son, uncle—, refute the biased autopsy report released by the San Francisco Medical Examiner on the six month anniversary of his murder by SFPD officers. They also plan a march to celebrate his life.

WHERE: The Luis Góngora Pat Community Altar on Shotwell Street (east side), near 19th Street in the Mission District

IMPORTANT NOTE: Afterwards, we will join the Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition @ NOON at 850 Bryant Street in a clamor to D.A. Gascón to press charges against killer cops. More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/153890998400464/

ArtCar Fest celebrates their 20th year exhibiting around the San Francisco Bay Area! They will be displaying their elaborately decorated vehicles on 23rd between Valley and Telegraph.

You can view the entertainment line-up for Friday here. And check out what artisan and food vendors we’ll be featuring here.

As always, the First Friday street festival is free, but we appreciate your help to keep our community-art event affordable for vendors and accessible to our community.

Please donate to Oakland First Fridays today to help us thrive and don’t forget to bring cash ($5-$10) to the event.

All donations to Oakland First Friday are tax-deductible as we are fiscally sponsored by KONO.

Thanks for helping us thrive, and see you on Friday!

This year, the Arab Film Festival is going bigger and bolder than ever: we are honored to host the US premiere of Clash, the Egyptian entry to the 2017 Oscars. Tickets are on sale, and bound to sell out, so snatch yours right away. And we will be making a special announcement on Opening Night, you won’t want to miss it!

Described as “bravura filmmaking with a kick-in-the-gut message” by the Hollywood Reporter, Clash was widely praised after opening Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival just a few months ago. Mohamed Diab’s film is set entirely within a padded wagon, traveling through the streets of Cairo in 2013, as supporters of Morsi’s toppled government and pro-military supporters fight each other inside and out. It is a hard hitting, intense action movie that will leave you at the edge of your seat, while challenging you.

Synopsis: Cairo, summer of 2013 – two years after the Egyptian revolution. In the wake of the ouster of Islamist president Morsi, a police truck full of detained demonstrators of divergent political and religious backgrounds roams through violent protests. Can the detainees overcome their differences to stand a chance of survival?

Note: Clash is an intense movie, not for young children

Renewed Hope Housing is putting on a forum on affordable housing. October 8, 10 to noon, at the United Methodist Church. 2311 Buena Vista.

They have lined two speakers who have real knowlege of the problem and the power to do something about it- Victoria Johnson, Director for Housing and Community Development, and Debbie Potter, Community Development Director for the City of Alameda. The Alameda Renters’ Coalition will be there too!

THE 9TH ANNUAL LIFE IS LIVING FESTIVAL

LEGACY: A TRIBUTE TO THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY

The Coup will rock the Life Is Living festival.

October 8th. Oakland. Defremery Park.
It’s free. pic.twitter.com/96n5eOZpa6

— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) September 16, 2016

This year marks the 9th Annual Life Is Living Festival in Oakland. Over the past 10 years, we have transformed deFremery Park (Little Bobby Hutton Park) from vacant to vibrant. We are indebted to the local West Oakland heroes and sheroes of The Black Panther Party for inspiring us to use culture as a vehicle for social change. That said, we are honored to pay tribute to the enduring legacy of The Black Panther Party at this year’s Festival.

Through efforts such as The Free Breakfast Program, we re-dedicate ourselves to sustaining the Panther’s revolutionary commitment to community generated solutions. From babies to grandparents, Life Is Living believes in intergenerational dialogue that honors the wisdom of children and elders. Our partners have been engaged in a year long process to envision, strategize and create a Festival that is inclusive, dynamic and democratic.

We hope you will join us for what is to be a beautiful day as we honor the 50 year legacy of the Black Panther Party.