Calendar
Report Back From the Rojava Revolution
Paul Simons, writing under the pen name, El Errante, is the author of a series of recent dispatches from the liberated territories of Kurdistan in Syria. Currently on a tour across the Bay Area, Simons has just returned from a region besieged by war yet is also in the middle of one of the most far reaching social experiments of the 21st Century: the ‘Rojava Revolution.’ The liberated territories of Kurdistan are a thriving example of stateless democracy and of a people who are overturning traditional institutions such as patriarchy and social hierarchies.
Simons discusses not only the day to day life of the people living within the evolving revolution, but also the various grassroots organizations and militias that they have created while waging an exhausting fight against both ISIS and the Turkish State. Weaving together ideals of anti-authoritarianism, feminism, ecology, and a rejection of Statism, Paul Simons’ report on the the Rojava Revolution is not to be missed by anyone working for sweeping social transformation in the current age.
Seating is limited, so plan to come early. We start promptly.
FREE – but hat will be passed for donations to NPML
About Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
A weekly discussion series inspired by our respect for the work of Karl Marx and our belief that his work will remain as important for the class struggles of the future as they have been for the past.
For our full schedule, go to icssmarx.org
Join us on the Gill Tract with music by RedStar and a walk, ceremony, and prayer on sacred land, lead by the Indigenous Land Access Committee.
The Indigenous Land Access Committee (ILAC) invites you to join Ohlone, other indigenous people and our friends gathering to honor the ancestors and walk on the sacred land now known as the Gill Tract.
Join us for Ceremony and Prayer
In Recognition of the Power
of Native Lifeways
to Heal Mother Earth
and Stop the Climate Crisis
Music by RedStar
More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/1693590484213343/
Please come out and support our comrade, Janye Waller, an outspoken young black revolutionary fighting a case of state repression in Oakland. Janye was arrested in November 2015, in an obvious case of racial profiling, the cops saying he ‘fit the description’ for a crime he had nothing to do with (which the witness immediately confirmed). While he was in custody, detectives questioned him about his involvement in the protests last year that followed the non-indictment of the murderers of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
After thousands took to the streets, Janye is the only person currently facing charges, and the charges are serious. He has been singled out, and we can’t let them divide and conquer us like that! COMMUNITY SUPPORT is what’s going to make the difference in this case! If it was you or someone you knew that was facing time off your life, you would hope people will come out to fight with you… Not because they know you personally, but because they know what is right and what is WRONG! We cannot let this corrupt system win. It’s going to take a village!!
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
OccupyForum presents
“What They Never Learned in Their History Books” —
A film on Ray Fadden and his Mohawk People
Our own Steve Jacobson will show a film he made of a man named Ray Fadden, a great teacher of the Mohawk People. Fadden taught his people “What they Never Learned in Their History Books ” about Native Americans. For forty years, he entertained and educated many people who visited his Native American Museum in Upstate New York called Six Nations Indian Museum. He was a great storyteller and was highly revered by the Mohawk People.
There are a number of other films we can watch and discuss in addition, if time permits (audience choice).
Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
This Tuesday the BOS will vote on the resolution introduced by Supervisors Avalos and Campos to make Mario Woods’ birthday a day of memoriam in his name. They have also introduced a resolution to apologize to Mario Woods’ . This would be an apology from the city of San Francisco . Mayor Lee said he opposes these resolutions. We need to show up as a community and show our support for these resolutions . Room 250
The long-delayed review of the BPD’s reaction to the December 6, 2014 protest asserting that Black Lives Matter will finally be be held by the Berkeley City Council this Tuesday evening.
Item 11 a&b.
“The Education of Kevin Powell”
A Boy’s Journey into Manhood
Hosted by Davey D
“This dynamic memoir takes us through a personal journey of pain, growth, triumph, defeat, and finally reclamations of his gifts and importance in U.S. letters. Using his journalist’s keen eye, he also recalls key events and people over the past 40 years in American culture, music, and politics; the birth of Hip Hop, poetry slams, the life and death of Tupac Shakur, Los Angeles’ rebellion after the acquital of police in Rodney
King’s beating, the rise of Barack Obama, and more… ”
– Luis Rodriguez, Los Angeles Poet Laureate
Kevin Powell is the author or editor of eleven previous books. He has written for The Huffington Post, Esquire, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post and others. He is president and co-founder of BK Nation, an American organization focused on civil rights, human rights, education, ending violence against women and girls, health and wellness, and equal opportunities for all people.
Davey D is the Host of Hard Knock Radio (airing on KPFA 94.1fm weekdays at 4pm) and Adjunct Professor, Afrostudies Dept, S.F.State University.
advance tickets: $12 : brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006 or Books, Inc, Marcus Books, Pegasus (3 sites), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s S.F. – Modern Times. $15 door, KPFA benefit www.kpfa.org/events
In October 2015, Rasmea’s legal team delivered oral arguments in anappeal of her unjust conviction for Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization. The decision is expected any day now, and we have to be prepared!
Participate on Twitter and Facebook on Wednesday, January 27th, using sample tweets, hashtags, articles, memes, and other resources that we will be sending to everyone on Monday. Rasmea has dedicated her life to the cause of a #FreePalestine and to Arab communities across the world, including the past 12 years in Chicago, so we must continue to organize to win #Justice4Rasmea.
In addition, although we are confident that we will win the appeal and have the conviction overturned, there is a chance—as we reported right before the end of 2015—that the appellate court will uphold the conviction, ruling in favor of the government. If that happens, it is very likely that Rasmea will be ordered to turn herself in to federal prison authorities, as we petition to keep her out on bail.
We have developed an Emergency Response Plan for this contingency!
If this worst-case scenario decision comes down BEFORE 12 NOON, and Rasmea is ordered to prison, we are calling for protests the VERY SAME DAY at 5 PM at federal buildings across the country.
If the decision comes down AFTER 12 NOON, we are calling for protests the NEXT DAY at 5 PM. Allies and supporters across the world will also be participating in the emergency response by protesting at U.S. consulates and embassies everywhere.
Please forward widely and look out for our follow up announcement early next week. Tell all your family, friends, and colleagues to be ready to join us on social media Wednesday, January 27th, to demand #Justice4Rasmea!
Rasmea Defense Committee January 22nd, 2016
Call to Action: The Economic Development Without Displacement Coalition (EDWD) invites you to stand against displacement and the destruction of a historic public space in West Oakland. Do Not Displace our Public Space!
Who (is being displaced): Black and Brown Elders of West Oakland
What: Call to Action to stop the closure and demolition of St. Andrew’s Plaza (a public micro-park in West Oakland) @ the City of Oakland’s “Community Kick-OUT Meeting”
Why: The City of Oakland is planning to displace neighbors at St. Andrew’s Plaza with their plan to demolish, fence off, and reconstruct the park beginning in January 2016. This effort will launch with a Community Kick-Out Meeting The meeting will be hosted by Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, with the city’s design team, to share key dates on this initiative moving forward.
About St. Andrew’s Plaza: St. Andrew’s Plaza is a mini park located on San Pablo Corridor, across the street from St. Mary’s Center in West Oakland,. The Plaza is a public gathering space for marginalized seniors, and has long been a social space for community members and houseless folks to come together, and often to receive food. The neighborhood borders Emeryville and is considered an ‘up and coming’ area given its proximity to North Oakland and South Emeryville. With the West Oakland Specific Plan and the San Pablo Corridor Coalition
About the Local Resistance: The City has in the past tried to alienate people’s rights to the park and increase policing by raiding the park, fencing of the space, and relocating the bus stop to outside of the Plaza (also see this article on St. Andrews Plaza on fireworks bay area). Last year neighbors in the area mobilized to tear down the fence surrounding St. Andrews Plaza and assert people’s rights to this space.
Part 3 of Movement Generation “Race, Class, & Ecology Series” which aims to answer the question “How do we respond to this global crisis of migration with justice, ecological understanding and deep love for the people?” Migration must be recognized for what is is: a natural response of all living things to escape hostile conditions and capitalist economies create these harsh conditions through exploitation, pollution and war.
Join this exciting conversation between migrant rights organizers, climate justice activists, and audience members.
Co-sponsored by: Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), CultureStrike, Mujeras Unidas y Activas (MUA)
Next Thursday 1/28/16 at 7 pm, Join AROC for a panel discussion on the Egyptian Revolution. #Jan25 #Egypt pic.twitter.com/pfm0xb4x0U
— AROC (@AROCBayArea) January 22, 2016
Please come support Nailah, a comrade who was part of last year’s uprisings and is having charges filed against her in the last days before her statute of limitations is up
The Social Justice Symposium (SJS) is a student-organized event that serves as space for the community to meet and discuss social justice work in the Bay Area. Workshop space is limited to 400 people. Please register before January 30th.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Strike Debt Bay Area will be presenting a workshop on Human Interest Lending / Community Check Cashing at two different times, once from 10:30 AM to Noon, and again from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM.
The complete schedule is still being developed. Check the Social Justice Forum 2016 website for updates. Here is the basic schedule:
Event Timeline:
· 8:30am – 9am – registration and breakfast
· 9 am – 9:30am – introductions
· 9:30am – 10:30am – keynote speaker
· 10:30am – 12pm – workshop 1
· 12pm – 1pm – lunch & resource fair
· 1pm – 2:30pm – workshop 2
· 2:30pm – 4pm – workshop 3
· 4pm – 5pm – musical performance/closing
How does a mentally ill person drown themselves in a few feet of water on a crowded Memorial Day beach in full view of numerous emergency responders – and no one does a thing?
They all watch, transfixed, as the sand in the man’s hourglass runs out. Succumbing to hypothermia, he loses consciousness within the hour. His body is left to drift back to shore, untouched, for twenty-two minutes.
SHALLOW WATERS is a documentary film that deconstructs the events of that hour in an attempt to understand what happened and why. What were they all waiting for?
The events on Alameda’s Crown Beach scorched the island community. Now for one day only, filmmaker Jaime Longhi brings his documentary to Alameda for a community conversation between filmmaker, friends and family of the victim, and all those seeking to understand what happens in moments that seem inexplicable.
Join us for this very special one-time showing. The film screening will be followed by a Q+A with director Jaime Longhi and Alameda residents.
“I saw several films during the festival here and Shallow Waters was by far the most moving documentary among them – I think what makes the film so compelling is that it brings up so many issues: our ethical responsibility to each other; the many ways in which our bureaucracies can fail us; our mistrust of the community services that are supposed to be protecting us. If there is one thing I noticed about how people responded to this film, one question that stood out for everybody, it’s this. We all — every single one of us — walked out of that documentary pondering the most important question of all that is posed by that incident: what would I have done? That includes me.” -Michael McLeod, Professor at Rollins College / Global Peace Film Festival (Orlando, FL)
Media Alliance is pleased to present a unique screening of “Shallow Waters”, followed by a Q&A session with the director of the film (who is flying in for the event) from the East Coast.
The Q&A will be filmed for future release in a DVD.
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| DISCUSS HAITI’S ONGOING REVOLUTION! HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE STUDY GROUP TOPIC: The Ongoing Haitian Revolution January 1st marked the 211th anniversary of Haiti’s independence. Join us as we analyze how Haiti gained its independence and discuss the connections to today.
We invite you to be apart of our monthly study group. We use films, texts, and speakers to explore Haiti’s history, current political situation, and make connections to parallel struggles throughout the U.S. and around the world. Come to this month’s meeting! |
Join us to tell CDCr that their “security/welfare checks” are torturing the men in Pelican Bay SHU and need to stop NOW!!
Learn more here about the checks and how you can further support by sharing information and making phone calls:
Since August 2, 2015, men in Pelican Bay SHU have been awakened every 20-30 minutes, 48 times a day, due to so-called “security/welfare checks” by guards. The architecture of the Pelican Bay SHU (PB SHU) amplifies the loud noise of the ‘checks’ -metal pod doors opening and slamming closed, chains and locks rattling, guards’ boots stomping, metal rods banging against the cell doors, and the beeping of the electronic monitoring system at each cell door. Sometimes guards also shine their flashlights into people’s eyes. The people suffering these so-called “security/welfare checks” are locked in concrete solitary cells, so the noise and intrusion every 30 minutes is (additional) unavoidable torment .
As of the February 1st, it will be 181 days that these men have been tortured by sleep deprivation!! Six months.
California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation (CDCr) claims the 30-minute checks are to prevent suicide. But we know that interrupted sleep is causing serious mental and physical health problems. John R. Martinez, in solitary for 15 years and in Pelican Bay SHU for over a decade, wrote in late August: “…there is a reasonable probability that life-threatening injuries and/or even death is inevitable, as medical symptoms are only worsening but not being treated.” People locked up in PB SHU report health problems including:
severe stress
weight loss
dizziness
faintness
nausea
headaches
eye problems
stomach and bowel problems
depression
fast heart rates
John’s mother, Dolores Canales, co-founder of California Families Against Solitary Confinement and the Family Unity Network, said: “I visited my son in the Pelican Bay SHU on 12 September and he is going crazy from not being able to sleep. I’ve never seen him like this. He couldn’t think, and he fell asleep while I was talking with him from across the glass partition.” John was in that state in September after 5 and a half weeks of sleep deprivation. It has now been 5 months since the checks started on August 2, 2015.
Prisoners cannot concentrate, exercise, read, do legal work – the things that help them survive – and they can’t sleep! This is extremely cruel and dangerous.
If you can’t attend the Rally in person, please make phone calls (and call more than once!) to:
CDCR Secretary’s Office: 916-323-6001,
CDCR Director of Adult Divisions, Kelly Harrington (he): 916-445-7688
Senator Loni Hancock, Chair of Senate Public Safety Committee: 916-651-4009
Assembly Member Bill Quirk, Chair of Assembly Public Safety Committee: 916-319-2020
Governor Jerry Brown: 916-445-2481
Suggested script for calls: Begin with your name and the city and state where you live. Please tell all of them: “Stop the so-called ‘welfare’ checks in the SHU at Pelican Bay State Prison. Sleep deprivation is torture.”
You can also email CA elected officials- to STOP the ‘checks’- with this link from Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) :http://tinyurl.com/ztjcos3
Please spread the word! More people need to know about this sleep deprivation! And we want a strong showing outside CDCr. Share the articles, the American Public Health Association (APHA) letter opposing the checks, and our video. [Links below]
Any questions, don’t hesitate to send us a Facebook message or email us at phssreachingout@gmail.com
SF Bay View article
http://sfbayview.com/2015/
American Public Health Association (APHA) letter opposing the checks
http://wp.me/P1BB1k-27L
You Tube Video “Sleep Deprivation”
https://www.youtube.com/
The Guardian, Sept, 25, 2015
http://
Scientific American, Oct. 2015 “Sleep On It: Your nightly rest turns out to affect your mind and health more than anyone suspected”
https://
Why Interrupted Sleep Is Worse Than Short Sleep
http://time.com/4094734/
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Cecile Pineda
Apology to a Whale
Pineda calls on us to recognize that our view of nature as a resource for convenience and profit is killing the planet. She calls on us to build our lives and our laws around the need to revere and protect the living earth and all its creatures. If the first step towards a cure is a proper diagnosis, Pineda moves us much closer to finding the cure for a culture that is killing the planet.
Cecile returns to OccupyForum this Monday evening to read from her book Apology to a Whale and lead a discussion about what humans have done to the planet, and how we can address it in our time.
This is going down tonight w/ the homie @alpha1906 …His book on campus racism is a must read.. pic.twitter.com/kg2HPVnpOe
— Davey D (@mrdaveyd) February 3, 2016