Water is essential for life.  We are 65% water and are not likely to survive more than three days without it. Water is not just for drinking, but for other essential processes like growing food and for sanitation.  Fresh water is in limited supply. Despite its preciousness, however, water is being violated by pollution and waste, and commercialization all over the globe. Corporations are privatizing and exploiting water supplies where people can least afford it. Climate change is turning more and more of the earth’s surface to desert, and when the rains do come, they come more often as violent storms. California’s most recent drought has brought our regional water issues to the front pages, including the question of why Northern California reservoirs are empty and SoCal reservoirs are full. How can we cope with and reverse this global and local water crisis?

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla is the Executive Director for Restore the Delta, which works in the areas of public education and outreach so that all Californians recognize the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta as part of California’s natural heritage, deserving of restoration. Prior to joining the campaign, Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla served as the Business Development Manager for the Planning and Conservation League in Sacramento. Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla has also worked in education, business and communications.  Over the last seven years, Ms. Barrigan-Parrilla has worked to give Delta residents a voice in the myriad of government processes leading to the proposed peripheral tunnels project, or Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

Adam Scow is the California Director of Food & Water Watch, a national organization dedicated to protecting our right to safe food and clean water. He is responsible for developing strategy for local, state, and campaigns. Adam is a co-founder of Californians against Fracking and has won several campaigns to defeat attempts to privatize our water. He has served on the planning committee for the annual California Water Policy Conference.

Check out the Blue-Gold action plan!
http://www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com/actionplan/index.html

National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
to Meet in Oakland on Sale of Historic Post Offices

The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) will be meeting in Oakland on March 11, 2014, to hear testimony on the sale of historic post offices and its effect on communities, historic buildings and historic districts. The ACHP is an independent federal agency that promotes preservation and sustainable use of our nation’s historic resources and its members are appointed by President Obama.

The Council is required to develop and submit a plan to Congress by April 17, 2014 to make sure that the U.S. Postal Service follows the law in handling its historic buildings. The ACHP invited groups working on historic preservation to make presentations from 1:45-4:30 PM at the Dellums Federal Building, 1301 Clay Street, Oakland. The meeting is OPEN to the public. The public can also submit their concerns in writing.

The ACHP invites written comments from interested organizations and the public regarding the USPS’s disposal of historic facilities for consideration as the ACHP prepares its report. Please provide any comments by April 1, 2014, by email to uspsreport@achp.gov or by fax: 202-606-5072. Comments can also be sent to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 803, Washington, DC 20004, ATTN: USPS Report

http://www.achp.gov/news_20140228_comments.html

The #KamalaHarrisJailKillerCops8 request solidarity this Thursday, 3/13, at 9:00 am at Wiley Manuel Courthouse, Dept 107. After originally being told that the prosecutor would not be filing charges for the civil disobedience action at the State Building in Oakland on 2/13, they may have to appear on the charges after all.

Assuming they are not stuck inside the courthouse there will be a press conference at 10:00 AM just outside discussing new developments in the case.

The Harris8 did standing civil disobedience in the lobby of the State Building, demanding that State Attorney General Kamala Harris prosecute all killer cops, while a rally was going on outside. The rally included speakers from a number of families of victims of killer cops.

Facebook notice.

Background:  How Two Elder Activists Found Themselves in Oakland’s Jail… And Lived to Fight the Next Day.

Background:  “Here They Come!” Imperial Storm Troopers Arrive to Arrest Killer Cop Protesters.

Background: Nine Arrests in Civil Disobedience Action Protesting Killer Cops.

The San Francisco School Bus Drivers (UTU 1741) are inviting you to a picket of Veolia’s para-transit office. This protest is in support of the 4 Union leaders fired by Veolia in Boston. Veolia’s anti-Union record is as bad as its environmental and human rights record.

Steve Gillis, Vice President of Boston School Bus Drivers Union, was one of the fired Union leaders. He was a featured speaker at the anti-Veolia Conference in SF on 2/8. Veolia locked out 800 drivers and fired the leadership of the Union (USW 8751) when they engaged in a protected union activity protesting Unfair Labor Practices by Veolia.

Over a period of only 3 months after Veolia won a contract for school busing in Boston Veolia succeeded in violating every term and condition of the Union contract that they had signed. The Union had, in that short time, filed 18 unfair labor practice charges and over 175 individual & class action grievances.

The fired Union leaders were the Vice President, The Chair of the Grievance committee, the three-term past President and the Recording Secretary. This was an attempt to decapitate the Union.

USW 8751 has asked for solidarity pickets at Veolia’s offices & businesses. Such protests have already had an effect and the Boston School Bus Drivers emphasize that right now things are at a critical juncture in negotiations to get their jobs back and the actions are more important than ever.

We will have signs, but feel free to bring your own signs.

Facebook event & RSVP.

Support Tristan and loved ones as we mark five years since the shooting of Bay Area activist, Tristan Anderson. Tristan was severely injured when he was shot in the head with a (American made) tear gas grenade by Israeli Military Police during a protest in Occupied Palestine in 2009 in the village of Ni’ilin. Tristan became paralyzed on about half his body and lives with severe permanent injury to his brain.

We honor Tristan and rage at our own government for it’s direct role in the misery of Gaza, the tear gas over Taksim, the police killings of Alan Blueford, Oscar Grant, Kenneth Harding Jr…

Facebook page & RSVP.

The US Government sends huge shipments of tear gas to be used against our sister movements around the world… what side are WE are?

4:00 PM: Free Feast.

5:00 PM: Speakers.

6:00 PM: March.

7:00 PM: Solidarity & Healing.

Come speak out on a “privacy policy” that allows the City of Oakland to violate our 1st and 4th amendment rights with impunity.

Staff is taking a new and aggressive approach to public engagement around this draft framework. Distribution of this framework will happen via EngageOakland, a survey monkey, and broad dissemination via the Neighborhood Service Coordinators. This framework is being disseminated for a thirty day public comment period. During that time period there will be two public meetings scheduled for Wednesday, February 26th in City Council Chambers, and Thursday, March 13th at the Dimond Branch Library located at 3565 Fruitvale Avenue. Both meetings will occur between 6 to 8pm.

“During Phase 2, City/Port staff will develop a Privacy and Data Retention Policy that governs the collection, retention, storage, and dissemination of information processed by the DAC ensuring the protection of privacy rights by individuals, and will return said policy to the Council for approval no later than March 2014.”

This Thursday, March 13, come out see BORDC Legal Fellow Matthew Kellegrew and EFF Activism Director Rainey Reitman discuss civil liberties after a screening of the groundbreaking documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply.

The film exposes how seemingly free online resources like Facebook or Google undermine our privacy, and how the NSA has co-opted Silicon Valley to abuse the rights of Americans. The film is an excellent resource for grassroots coalitions seeking materials to share at public education events.

This location is wheelchair accessible via the ramp on the Bonita Avenue side of the building.

Co-Sponsors:
Bill Of Rights Defense Committee
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
CODEPINK Women For Peace

Gather your words to destroy the surveillance state, poetry style, rhymes so good they shatter camera lenses.

We are a fellowship of people wanting to find aliveness, connection and survival in the face of social-political-economic overwhelm. We do this by recognizing and addressing our unspoken submission to historically entrenched, institutions and influences of the dominant culture. We observe cunning, baffling and powerful social ills perpetuated through inequities involving race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age and ability. We explore how these impact our thoughts feelings and personal habits. We hope that as each of us becomes free from acquisition driven, socially divisive, militarized forces, we can catalyze change and establish a new way of living with care for each other and the earth.

We work with a modified version of AA’s twelve steps and traditions using practices of: anonymity, vulnerability in truth telling, intuitive inquiry, restorative amends, group service, non-hierarchical decision making and conscious action.

The first Recovery from the Dominant Culture meetings were created and held in west Oakland, Ca through Seminary of the Street. This flyer is a draft proposal for a new meeting in Berkeley. We welcome participation in the process of developing meeting agreements. And most of all we invite you to our upcoming meetings beginning on Saturday March 15^th at 10 am

                                                              Draft Version. Edited, Feb, 2014,

1. We admitted we were powerless over our thoughts, feelings, desires and actions shaped by the dominant culture and that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to rebuild our lives, seeking truth, love, and discernment through connection with intuitive wisdom, Great Spirit, God, Goddess and/or a Higher Power of our choice.

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of how we treat ourselves and relate with others.

5. Admitted to our Higher Power, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our thinking, feelings and actions based on dominant culture conditioning

6. Were entirely ready to have our Higher Power remove coping habits and addictions not in alignment with our integrity.

7. Humbly asked our Higher Power to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons, living beings and earth sources we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people, living beings and the earth wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when acting under the influence of dominant culture patterns we promptly admitted it and sought more conscious ways of interacting.

11. Sought through study, writing, art, prayer and/or meditation to improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power, and to identify new ways of participating in life affirming culture, holding our well being in balance with the well being of others.

12. Having experienced transformative change with these Steps, we practice these principles in all our affairs, carry this message to those interested, and engage in actions that embody an alternative to the addictive processes of the dominant culture

What: Don’t Frack California

Where: The Capitol Lawn, Sacramento, CA

The Plan:

Our plan so far is to get as many voices as we can to Sacramento to make it loud and clear to Governor Brown and his administration that Californians want an end to fracking in our state. We’ll be hearing from voices from all over the state who are witnessing fracking in their own communities and organizing against it. Our goal, is to show the overwhelming number of Californians who will take the long trek to Sacramento to make it clear that climate leader’s don’t frack.

We’ll have more information on our program as we get closer to the event.

If you need a ride or a place to stay in Sacramento, check out our ride board.

How you can help:

We need folks to help organize and coordinate buses from all over the state. If you’re interested in becoming a bus captain email our Bus Coordinator, Tia at tlebherz@fwwatch.org

Fundraiser:

Sunday, February 23- Help 350 Bay Area Fill the Buses! –

Come to a No Fracking Way Dance & Video Party at Askenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave. in Berkeley, 7-10pm. We are raising money to sponsor 2 buses, one from the Central Valley and one from the Bay Area! For more information and to RSVP go here. Flyer attached.

Or Donate Now to help Fill the Buses!

Join us to discuss the way forward for the grassroots worker-led compaign for a living wage for all workers.

Featured Speakers:

• Trish Kahle, a Whole Foods Worker and writer on the politics of minimum wage laws.
• Pamela Davis, a former Walmart worker who was fired for joining a Unfair Labor Practices strike, and a leader of Our Walmart.

Presented by Alice Dodge Loaiza, of Marcha Patriótica – Capítulo California. This talk will be about the recent history of Colombia, the building of resistance to a right wing repressive government, backed by the US, and how the US is involved in creating a country where they can not only exploit the resources but can build a political-military base of support for interventions into other areas of Latin America and the Caribbean.

help hold Neon lights (light Brigade) 18 inch by 24 inch letters spelling out sharethebulb.org at the i 80 help build a working class base for the bulb
pot luck party live music come one come all enjoy the honks from our working class brothers and sisters and families coming back from there weekend.

The threat is real! Sanctions, war build up, warships with guided missiles to the Black Sea, F-15 fighter jets on Russia’s border are dangerous provocations. Washington has recognized and committed more than $10 billion to an illegal right-wing government that seized power from elected officials. Come out In response to an Urgent call for anti-war actions during the Week of March 10 to March 17

Actions large and small are urgently needed — informational picket lines, visits to congressional offices, protests at media centers against war propaganda, vigils, and challenges to government officials. Let’s make our voices heard.

Facebook event & RSVP.

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.

The American Postal Workers Union is planning more actions against Staples; we need to support them. We are starting a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management!

The City Council is on a path to pass some sort of Zoning Overlay which may protect the Post Office against various commercial uses, or be totally ineffective. We need to stay on top of it.

And we need to be prepared, despite the zoning effort, if the Post Office announces a sale!

Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked and we need to be on the leading edge of that.  We will be holding a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.  Come help us plan it!

THINGS ARE HAPPENING!

AND CHECK OUT OUR SPIFFY NEW WEBSITE.

Come with us to Sacramento to make sure California turns the NSA off now!

SB 828 is the Fourth Amendment Protection Act. It comes from model legislation drafted by the OffNow coalition against unconstitutional data collection and spying. The bill will prevent an NSA facility from opening in CA, stop the NSA from directing curriculum in our state universities, prevent warrantless evidence from being introduced in court and criminalize corporate support for warrantless spying. It is a powerful opportunity to go on the offensive for a change and to tell the federal government that the people of California are not cool with the surveillance state!

Learn more about SB 828 here

If you’ve never been lobbying before, there’s nothing to it! We’ll meet in the Bay Area (Oakland and/or SF) carpool/vanpool it up to Sacramento, have a brief rally on the Capitol steps and do a community activist led training in how to effectively lobby complete with printed talking points to help you know what to say. We’ll hand out manifests with the different offices to visit, break into teams and get to work. The more the merrier! Anyone and everyone is welcome!

Because of the transpartisan nature of the OffNow coalition, we’ll try to be splitting into teams of two, one person from the “right” libertarian/liberty-minded “side” and one from the “left” progressive/liberal “side.” Together we can show CA legislators the NSA spying is a problem no matter where you stand politically.

Snacks will be provided! This will be a fun day of solidarity, community building and hitting the hard marble of the state Capitol!

For more information, email matthew@bordc.org

If you are *ACTUALLY* going to come and you would like a ride, please email me at matthew@bordc.org. If there’s more people than can comfortably fit in my car, I can rent us a van to take. Specifically one with an iPod jack because you KNOW we’ll be bringing the jams.

Facebook event.

Minimum Wage Before Council

Richmond Needs a Raise!  Raise the Minimum Wage!

Join the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, the Richmond Progressive Alliance, SEIU 1021, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, CCISCO, Somos Richmond, BMOER and the rest of our community ;who are uniting to lift up our City by raising the minimum wage.

The proposal is to raise the minimum wage to $11, $12.30, or $15 an hour and includes a cost of living adjustment annually!  Businesses with 10 or fewer employees would be exempted.

It’s time we make Richmond the kind of town where families can afford to put food on the table, keep a roof over our heads, and not have to choose between a paycheck and health!  When workers have more money in their pockets, they spend it in our community, building local businesses, creating jobs, and generating tax revenue for schools and public safety. EVERYONE BENEFITS!

We will be reading chapters 6 & 7 from Michael Hudson The Bubble and Beyond.

Here they are.

HudsonCh6-7

Despite overwhelming evidence of the defendants’ innocence in what is being called the “Trayvon 2” case, the judge in their pre-trial hearing here ruled on March 6 to continue the case to trial. However, he lowered the charges on the two well-known activists, Hannibal Shakur and Tanzeen Doha, from felonies to misdemeanors over the prosecutor’s objections…

The sole witness for the defense managed to single-handedly discredit the testimony of both the officers.

Read more about what happened at their first court appearance on March 6th.

Another court date, this time for the trial, is scheduled for March 19th.