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Join us in a symbolic funeral procession to honor the Palestinian martyrs that have sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Palestine.
Within the past couple weeks the illegal, terrorist, and apartheid state of Israel and their military have killed over 170 Palestinian, and thousands have been injured as the Israeli government has bombed Gaza.
It is going to be a symbolic procession that are similar to the funeral processions that happen in the streets of Palestine for over 60+ years!
WE DEMAND THAT
The San Francisco Bay Area says no to Zionism!
Stop US Aid to the Apartheid State of Israel!
Free all our political prisoners!
Support the Palestinian people’s struggle for liberation!
Flags, kuffiehs, signs, banners, and voices are all welcome!
Soul, our dear friend and lifelong community activist has accumulated quite a large medical debt. Let’s have a night of feast, revolution, and getting down on the dance floor to show our love and support!
6PM: $5. suggested donation per plate (more most welcome!!, but no-one turned away…support comes in many forms, and the presence of good friends is the best!)
MENU:
Chili
Brown Rice
Veggie dawgs & grilled zucchini
Salads
Desserts:
Chocolate chip cookies by Stormy
Coconut cream pie bunt cake by Gail
7PM Film: “Berkeley Liberation Radio: Micro Power for the People” (1hr.)
8PM on: Dance Party: Dedicate & Request special songs for the playlist…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
The People’s Climate Curriculum
with Laurie Baumgarten & Anne Donjacour
Are you interested in helping people understand why climate change is occurring and what can be done about it? If so, come to our workshop and learn how the People’s Climate Curriculum is the tool you have been waiting for. It is easy to use and helps each of us become learners and teachers of basic climate literacy.
Every mass movement for change begins with a change in consciousness. It involves a leap forward into a consciousness that says, “I am a subject, not an object. I can act, I can do, I can create.” Educational tools which promote the development of this proactive stance are crucial to the work of popular education.
Our People’s Climate Curriculum educates through a method of teaching developed by Paulo Freire called dialogic pedagogy. The teacher/animator mingles among the participants. Together, through reflection, they critically examine social reality. Unlike traditional educational models in which participants are treated as objects to be taught, this interactive model attempts to counteract passivity and promote action.
Climate change is part of everyone’s social reality. Being literate in climate language helps us become empowered and thus, more able to solve the present crisis. Join us to learn more about our popular education campaign and how to use the People’s Climate Curriculum.
Laurie Baumgarten has been an activist since she was a freshman at Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement. She was active in the anti-war movement, the women’s movement and The Abalone Alliance. She was also a classroom teacher for 35 years in the Berkeley Unified School District. Laurie joined the climate movement about 2 years ago and helped develop the People’s Climate Curriculum. She now works with The Sunflower Alliance.
Our own Anne Donjacour has been a member of OccupyForum and the OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group since the beginning. Her activism has branched out to other groups such as 350.org, the Unitarian Universalists, and many more. She is a professor at UCSF School of Medicine and is raising a passel of activist children!
Q&A and Announcements to follow.
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.
We’ve began the “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 campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, the San Francisco Labor Council and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. Just recently the American Federation of Teachers, AFCSME and UNITE HERE did too. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
For the last three+ weeks the sidewalk in front of Staples has been ‘occupied’ 24/7 by an intrepid band of San Francisco occupiers with solidarity and support from BPOD members, and they plan to continue there, distributing literature and convincing people not to shop at Staples, indefinitely. Go by and say ‘Hi!’ and help them out.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.
Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors just endorsed Postal Banking. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
We are planning our next event, ‘Jam the Sale.’ Spread the work and come help us out!
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
The Community & Economic Development Committee of the City Council will take up a proposed ballot initiative which would conflict with and undermine the $12.25 min wage and paid sick leave ballot initiative that will appear on the ballot in November. This is a cynical attempt by the one percent and their Council lackeys to destroy what 33,000+ voters of Oakland have already said they support (by their signatures on the ballot petition).
Oakland Sustainable And Fair Compensation Act Of 2014 From: Council President Patricia Kernighan Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Submitting, On The Council’s Own Motion To The Electors At The November 4, 2014 Statewide General Election, The “Oakland Sustainable And Fair Compensation Act Of 2014”, A Proposed City Ordinance Establishing A City Minimum Wage And Requiring Paid Sick Leave; And Directing The City Clerk To Fix The Dates For Submission Of Arguments And Provide For Notice And Publication In Accordance With The Law
Third planning meeting for a Bay Area action coinciding with demonstrations in New York City at the UN Climate Summit, September 20 and 21. Although this is the third meeting, anyone interested in working on this is welcome to attend.
Additional information about the People’s Climate March in New York can be found at peoplesclimatemarch.org.
Here are the articles on Piketty we will read for the next class
Summary of Piketty argument:
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/24/thomas-pikettys-capital-in-t.html
Critique of Piketty:
Mainstream:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/05/capital-eats-the-world/
Occupy (very short by Graeber):
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/savage-capitalism-back-radical-challenge
Plus a radio interview from Michael Hudson:
http://youtu.be/uv6kEd9C9CM
And another, optional, topical-historical take on Picketty and Capitalism:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24489-the-compelling-conclusion-about-capitalism-that-piketty-resists
Here is how to get to the OMNI from BART:
1) get off at the MacArthur station
2) head East towards Telegraph
3) go North up Telegraph for 4-5 blocks
4) veer left onto Shattuck
5) go 3 blocks up Shattuck to the big white and blue building on the left (4799)
6) ring the bell (top right of door)
7) Tell ’em you’re here for he Public School class
Hope to see you all there!
Meeting of the City of Oakland’s “Privacy and Data Retention Ad Hoc Advisory Committee” – open to the public.
When:
2nd & 4th Thursdays
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where:
Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
14th & Broadway
Read the announcement from the City of Oakland City Administrator’s Weekly Report (April 25, 2014):
This committee was created by City Council action during the discussions earlier in the year about the Port Domain Awareness Center (DAC). The goal of the DAC is to improve readiness to prevent, respond to and recover from major emergencies in the Oakland region and ensure better multi-agency coordination across the larger San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the Privacy and Data Retention Policy is to ensure there are safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violations of individuals’ privacy rights and civil liberties. The meeting is open to the public. For questions about the Ad Hoc Committee, please contact Joe DeVries, Assistant to the City
We need to show up to these meetings and pressure the City to adopt a privacy policy that makes privacy a priority, not only “security” or administrative convenience.
Stop the War on Children from Gaza to the U.S./Mexican Border!
Say No to Racism and War! Stand with children and youth under attack. Solidarity with Palestine and the people of Central America. In support of the call for a national week of actions from 7/17 – 7/24. A united action initiated by the International Action Center – Bay Area and supported by the AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center, EBIYC – East Bay Immigrant Youth Coalition, Middle East Children’s Alliance, and American Friends Service Committee.
Come help stop Berkeley Police from getting tasers!
After each mishap or tragedy that occurs these days in Berkeley, we are told that it could have been averted “if only” the police had been issued tasers. The mayor of Berkeley made this claim after six Berkeley police killed a mentally ill transgender woman in her own home last year. BPD officers made the same claim again when a mentally ill man stabbed himself several times. This week, Chris Stines of the Berkeley Police Association (BPA) went to great pains to spread the notion that if a Berkeley police officer had had a taser this past week, he wouldn’t have been assaulted. It is regrettable that the BPA uses these incidents as nothing more than a way to win political points. The issue of how to protect officers as well as the human rights of the citizenry is far more complex than simply giving cops more hardware on their belts.
Of course, these kinds of statements can never be proven. No one can know whether a taser would have prevented the confrontation in which the officer was involved in a fistfight with a suspect who was believed to be mentally ill. The BPA continues to apply steady political pressure to our local politicians and insists that somehow, real safety resides in our ability to meet suspects with electric shocks. At Berkeley Copwatch, we disagree. We believe that it is the duty of the officers to place the well being of the community at the forefront of their efforts. We believe that mentally ill people have a right to treatment and should not be subjected to torture because of a condition which they do not control. It is time for the City of Berkeley to return to the humane approaches for which it was once famous and reject the militarization of care which has overtaken our approach to community health and safety.
Top ten reasons against tasers.
Join the family, friends and community as they demand justice for an innocent life stolen by law enforcement. Yanira Serrano Garcia was murdered on June 3, 2014 by San Mateo County Sheriff’s.
The family seeks accountability from law enforcement and the District Attorney’s office.
Please join us on Friday, July 25, 2014 at 5pm as we meet at the Half Moon Bay Fire Station located at 1191 Main St, Half Moon Bay CA for a rally and march.
The family has asked that you please wear white.
Learn more here: http://
A professor of literature and Black Studies, GAThomas recently traveled to Palestine in May 2014 as part of contingent of college and university professors working out of North America in support of Palestinian solidarity, liberation and freedom from occupation, apartheid and colonization. Replete with photographic images, this talk is a first-hand report-back from the Occupied West Bank facing more and more bombings, repression and kidnappings everyday with the support of what Malcolm X dubbed “dollarism.”
Wheelchair accessible. Refreshments provided.
More info: www.ANSWERsf.org.
Fracking Initiatives Benefit. Friday, July 25.
Dr. Sandra Steingraber, scientist, author, and mother, will discuss strategies for building the movement to stop fracking and protect our communities and climate
This event is a special fundraiser for the dedicated residents of 3 California counties who have collected signatures to put fracking ban measures on their county ballots in November. The oil industry has already shown it will fight these measures. We must show the Bay Area’s strong support for local communities standing up for their rights to clean air, water, energy and a safer climate for our children.
Tickets are $20 but donations beyond the ticket price are encouraged to help fight the power of Big Oil.
Buy tickets now (page on 350BayArea website)
Download flyer (PDF)
To appreciate the power and clarity of Ms. Steingraber’s voice, you could no better than reading the 2012 Huffington Post article summarizing her statement to the Democratic Conference of the New York Senate, in which she addresses both the dangers of fracking and the corruptibility of the legislative process. (New York state subsequently passed a 5-year moratorium on fracking. Challenges to local bans on fracking are now being heard by the state Court of Appeals.)
Visit Ms. Steingraber’s website at http://steingraber.com/
350 Bay Area and co-sponsors invite you to come hear Sandra Steingraber, author of Raising Elijah and Living Downstream, speak about the known and hidden dangers of fracking and how to build a movement to stop this dangerous practice. Sandra co-founded New Yorkers Against Fracking and has been a tireless activist working to prevent fracking in New York and throughout the world.
Ticket sales will benefit efforts to pass voter initiatives to ban fracking in November in San Benito and Santa Barbara Counties. These counties are already being assaulted by oil company propaganda.
Meet at the fountain in Latham Square, in the intersection where Telegraph and Broadway converge across from the Rotunda Building (Oakland City Center/12th St. BART), Oakland.
With Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society. This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that began spontaneously with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking, mostly women, retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department stores whose picket line was being broken by scabs escorted by police.
Within 24 hours, it involved over 100,000 workers and shut down nearly all commerce in the East Bay for 54 hours. In 1946 there were six general strikes across the U.S.; that year set the all-time record year for strikes and work stoppages. The Oakland “Work Holiday” was the last general strike to ever occur in the U.S.. until the November 2nd, 2011 General Strike called by Occupy Oakland, albeit only a one-day event. This walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
See also:
http://www.flyingpicket.org/node/15
http://www.laborfest.net/2014/2014schedule.htm
Join Us for a Birthday Party
for the Berkeley Post Office
It’s the 239th Birthday of the United States Post Office and the One Hundredth Birthday of the Berkeley Post Office! Please join us! These festivities will be one of many events throughout the country commemorating National Postal Heritage Day.
Celebration will include Music, Birthday Cake and a Group Photo!
Be sure to be there!
Brought to you by Save the Berkeley Post Office.
March for Palestine….Chelsea Manning Plaza aka Justin Herman Plaza, Market @Embarcadero in SF.
6,000 people this past Sunday; 20,000 this coming Saturday.
ANSWER COALITION.
On July 16th, Israeli Defense Forces deliberately targeted a group of children playing soccer on a Gaza beach, killing four from the same family and maiming the others—another war crime committed against the Palestinian people.
WE DEMAND THAT
Stop US Aid to the Apartheid State of Israel!
Free all Palestinian political prisoners!
End the collective punishment of Palestinians!
End colonial occupation of Palestine!
Stop the massacre in Gaza! End the blockade of Gaza!
Community Forum on the Albany Bulb: 1:00 PM
Music: 1:30 PM
Performance: 2:00 PM
The San Francisco Mime Troupe creates and produces socially relevant theater of the highest professional quality and performs it before the broadest possible audience.
We do plays that make sense out of the headlines by identifying the forces that shape our lives and dramatizing the operation of these giant forces in small, close-up stories that make our audiences feel the impact of political events on personal life.
To make this work accessible the Mime Troupe performs its shows in local parks at a price everyone can afford: FREE.
October 2014 Nationwide Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
Just in the past few weeks we have witnessed:
**1000’s of children being driven across the border by US devastation of their homelands and then finding themselves caught between Homeland Security rounds-ups and flag-waving racists
**The District Attorney in Santa Rosa California refusing to charge the cop who murdered 13-year old Andy Lopez
**2 videos that went viral showing cops brutally and unjustly beating Black women
All these and more outrages only serve to underscore more than ever the need for powerful outpourings of resistance in October as envisioned in the Call for a Month of Ressistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation (www.stopmassinceration.net) that was adopted at the meeting convened in New York in April 2014.
Let’s all come together, individuals and organizations and make real plans so this October, so our determination to end all this reverberates across the country and around the world!
October 2014 needs to be a full month of many diverse forms of resistance.
Already, prominent and respected voices are signing the Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Call for the Month of Resistance.� Join� Ayelet Waldman, novelist, lawyer ; Alice Walker, author; Peter Coyote, actor, author, director; Cornel West,� author, educator, voice of conscience;� Carl Dix,� Revolutionary Communist Party; Noam Chomsky,� Professor (ret.), MIT*; Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson; Michelle Alexander, and 100’s of others who have pledged to be part of the Month of Resistance
Stop Mass Incarceration Network, San Francisco Bay Area 1.pdf