Calendar
Dearest friends, family and fellow farmers,
We need your voices and bodies in Albany this Wednesday! Despite a successful referendum, citizen appeal, 2 current lawsuits, and 15 years of public comments against the commercial development of the Gill Tract Farm, Albany City Council will be voting on a development plan to place a large parking lot and chain grocery store (“Sprouts”) on the south side of the Gill Tract. The city council moved this vote up from the original date of March 17th, so please help us get the word out about the new date and time!
This a very important vote and the outcome will greatly impact the struggle for the Gill Tract. Please join us to voice your opposition to this development:
If you can’t come, please email or call UCB Vice-chancellor of Real Estate Rob Lalanne (415-908-1500) and Chancellor Nicholas Dirks (510-642-7464). Tell them we want preserve this land as a center for agroecological research and local, sustainable urban farming, and demand that they stop commercial development of public farmlands!
Massive Women’s Convergence on the Golden Gate Bridge
Activists from Bay Area CodePink, No Nukes Action Committee and Fukushima Response will form a united front on the Golden Gate Bridge in recognition of women’s global effort for a better world.
10:00 Rally, Music, Dance, S.F. side of Golden Gate Bridge.
11:00 March across the eastern walkway, starting on either side of the bridge, to meet in middle for convergence for peace, equality and environmental justice.
12:00 (SF side)
Honoring women activists, past & present.
All are encouraged to represent a woman peace & social justice activist from around the world, and to share her story through a mini-bio, a poem, a photo, song and or story.
The convergence themes will include:
1. Women United to End War & Violence:
In solidarity with the Afghan women working for peace & justice and an end to brutal occupation. Please wear sky blue scarves to symbolize the blue sky that we all share, and our inherent right to peace, justice and economic equality.
2. Nuke-Free World Now! On the 3rd anniversary of the Fukushima disaster, we stand in solidarity with the women of Japan who demand an end to all nuclear power and weapons and a commitment to a safe and nuclear free environment for all.
3. E.R.A. NOW. In the 21st Century it is an abomination that the Equal Rights Amendment has still not been ratified. This day will mark the send off of a year long campaign & march from San Francisco to Washington DC to culminate on March 8, 2015, when Helen de Boissiere, accompanied by supporters, will arrive in DC to chain herself to the White House fence, demanding passage of the E.R.A.
Sponsored by Bay Area CodePink, No Nukes Action Committee and Fukushima Response
Prosecuting Attorney Angela Corey is planning to push for consecutive sentencing in Marissa’s upcoming re-trial, pushing for a 60 year sentence for firing a warning shot, causing no injury, to protect herself from her abusive husband. We cannot allow this to happen! It’s time to drop the charges against Marissa Alexander and let her get back to the work of raising her children and living her life.
This Saturday, International Women’s Day, at 2pm we will gather in Oscar Grant Plaza for a march into West Oakland to bring awareness to Marissa’s case. We will have information to give to folks and will move at a pace that allows for both participation and important conversations with our neighbors. Families are encouraged to participate!
GG’s statement on homelessness at the Albany City Council:
http://www.youtube.com/user/orionorion99?feature=watch
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.
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…
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.
East Bay Hotel & Food Service Workers Take It to the Streets of Oakland!
East Bay hotel, restaurant and stadium workers are marching for our jobs, our rights and OUR POWER! We are fighting for a higher minimum wage and good jobs that pay us what we need to survive and thrive in the Bay Area in 2014!
Join hotel housekeepers, hot dog vendors from the Coliseum, and airport restaurant workers who are fighting for good contracts – along with fast food workers fighting for $15 an hour and a union, and the Lift Up Oakland! coalition to raise the minimum wage!
“I work at the Oakland Airport, and we’re in a hard fight to keep our families out of poverty, but we’re not fighting alone. We’ve been joining up with Walmart workers, fast food workers, and everyone else who is struggling to pay their rent in the Bay Area. Now we’re going out on the streets in downtown Oakland to show the whole city how strong we are when we’re together!” said Nancy Moncada, retail clerk at the Oakland Airport.
“I believe that it is really important for all of us to come together on March 27th, because when my co-workers from the Coliseum unite with hotel and airport workers we have real strength. We did this five years ago, and we won good contracts, now is the time to make this action even bigger,” said Johnny Stake, a longtime Oakland resident and Coliseum stand worker.
BRING YOUR KIDS AND JOIN THE CHILDREN’S BRIGADE!!!
Si se puede!!!
UNITE HERE Local 2850
www.facebook.com/unitehere2850
Gather at 2pm, then we will take to the streets at 3pm. Bring your body down. Bring a friend or a hundred. We will march to honor Alex Nieto and all the countless many black and brown young men murdered by those thugs in uniform. We will march for our friends and families getting kicked out of their homes. We will march to stand up and fight back against the takeover of our communities by the forces of capital and their human agents who have too much money for how little heart they possess.
Stand up and be counted.
A revisit to Macy’s to thank them for their support of the inhumane sit/lie ‘law’
which criminalizes our homeless sisters and brothers
– we have the signs, cardboard & sharpies, bring yourself / friends / family & sit for your human & civil right to sit down –
April 2-3, 2014
Wednesday, April 2 Schedule:
8:00 AM – American Federation of Teachers Hosts Breakfast
8:00 to 10:00 – First Picket Line Shift!
(Rhetoric, Film, Music, EECS, Latin American Studies)
10:00 to 12:00 – Second Picket Line Shift!
(Comp. Lit, Classics, Education, French, Philosophy)
12:00 to 1:30 – MASS RALLY ON SPROUL
1:30 – AFSCME HOSTS LUNCH
1:30 to 3:30 – Third Picket Line Shift!
(City planning, Public Health, Sociology, History, Geography, English)
3:30 to 5:30 – Fourth Picket Line Shift!
(Political Science, Social Welfare, Anthropology)
**PICKET LINES LOCATED AT BANCROFT AND TELEGRAPH**
Join Eviction Free San Francisco for a spirited lunchtime march and picket at Vanguard Properties to demand that Michael Harrison of Vanguard Properties rescind the Ellis Act eviction of Benito Santiago!
Meet at 24th street BART station and march to Vanguard Properties at 2501 Mission Street at 21st.
Co-founder of Vanguard Properties Michael Harrison is currently using the Ellis Act to attempt and evict long-term tenant and native San Franciscan Benito Santiago.
Benito Santiago is a senior and disabled Filipino resident of the Duboce Triangle. He was born and raised in San Francisco. Benito is a teacher for the San Francisco unified school district where he teaches dance to children. He received his first eviction notice the day before Thanksgiving, on November 24th 2013. Benito has been organizing with Eviction Free San Francisco to fight his eviction.
Michael Harrison is a “property flipper”: his shell company Pineapple Boy LLC bought Benito’s home in November 2013 and tried to evict Benito and the two other tenants immediately. Vanguard Properties is currently involved in a number of luxury property developments in the Mission District including the development at 19th and Valencia that in February 2014 set record sale prices for the neighborhood with a 2 bedroom rental apartment going for $10,500 /month.
Endorsed by Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco, Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Our Mission NO Eviction, San Francisco Senior and Disability Action, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), San Francisco Tenants Union, POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, Mission SRO Collaborative, Bill Sorro Housing Program (BiSHoP), Tenants Together, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Causa Justa Just Cause, Gray Panthers, New York City Anti- Eviction Network
April 2-3, 2014
Thursday, April 3 Schedule:
8:00 AM – American Federation of Teachers Hosts Breakfast
8:00 to 10:00 – First Picket Line Shift!
(Art History, Social Welfare, City planning, Public Health, Rhetoric)
10:00 to 12:00 – TEACH-IN on SPROUL
12:00 to 2:00 – Second Picket Line Shift!
(Education, Sociology, Economics, Student Learning Center)
2:00 to 4:00 – TRAVELLING PICKET LINE
(All departments come!)
4:00 to 6:00 – Third Picket Line Shift!
(Latin American Studies, Film, Music, Philosophy)
**PICKET LINES LOCATED AT BANCROFT AND TELEGRAPH**
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Emergency Picket Line needed TOMORROW Thursday April 3rd 6 AM Campell Hall UC Berkeley!
- Tomorrow there will be a militant picket line in solidarity with UC Santa Cruz UAW that were attacked and arrested. Police used tasers while forcefully opening the west entrance to campus. http://www.ksbw.com/news/planned-2day-strike-is-underway-at-uc-santa-cruz-this-morning/25282900
- Picket at the Campbell hall construction site on UC Berkeley where union workers won’t cross @ 6:00 am sharp. We need about 30 to 50 people so please forward to as many people as possible!
ATTENTION ALL FAMILIES WHO HAS BEEN A VICTIM OF POLICE TERRORISM join us as we march on State Capital Sacramento during Crime Victim Day April 8, 2014. Please organize your communities and unite with us as we speak out against State Attorney General Kamala Harris for turning a blind eye under the Color of Law. Let’s organized now to address the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, Police Terrorism, and failure to resolve gun violence in our communities. Those families harmed by Gun Violence that are still seeking justice and an investigation into the killing of your Love one, please join us. Lack of forensic labs or non efficient labs must be addressed. Please share this with your network. “We are only as strong as our UNITY”
There will be two Bay Area events:
Press Conference at NCRIC Fusion Center in San Francisco
11:00am – Thursday, April 10
Northern California Regional Intelligence Center
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Oakland Press Conference / Rally at City Hall
6:00pm – Thursday, April 10
Oakland City Hall, Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater
14th & Broadway
Oakland, CA
There will be two Bay Area events:
Press Conference at NCRIC Fusion Center in San Francisco
11:00am – Thursday, April 10
Northern California Regional Intelligence Center
450 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102
Oakland Press Conference / Rally at City Hall
6:00pm – Thursday, April 10
Oscar Grant Plaza Amphitheater
14th & Broadway
Oakland, CA
STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!
Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.
The Robin Hood Committee needs your help gathering signatures to place two initiatives on the November ballot. The initiatives will create $4.5 million for affordable housing and other city services in Berkeley by taxing the windfall profits of large landlords. Right now, Berkeley tenants are paying more than $100 million a year in excess rent, wealth that is taken out of our community. We can recapture a fraction of that by putting these measures to a vote of the people.
Join us this Sunday to pick up petitions and a partner for signature gathering.
Cant make it Sunday or want petitions earlier? Call us at 1-510-548-FAH-1. The Robin Hood Committee is supported by the Green Party of Alameda County, Councilmembers Worthington and Arreguin, Rent Board members Stephens, Harr, Soto-Vigil and Townley, the Berkeley Tenants Union and many others.
The Windfall Profits Tax on High Rents Initiative will raise the business license tax on residential rental units by 1.9%, but exempts small live-in and low-income landlords with less than 10 units. It also reduces the tax for units occupied by long-term tenants with moderate rents. In order not to discourage new construction, it allows a 20 year exemption from the increase starting with initial occupancy of the building. This is expected to raise $4.5 million annually for the City’s general fund to start with, rising as units occupied by long-term tenants turn over, as 20 year exemptions expire and as rents continue to rise. The tax cannot be passed on to tenants, since current tenants are protected by the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance.
The Affordable Housing Initiative will require the City Council to set aside at least $3 million annually for the Housing Trust Fund, which is used to develop affordable housing for low-income people either through new construction or acquisition and rehabilitation of existing housing by non-profit organizations. Once passed by the voters, Council will have 120 days to do a fiscal analysis and determine whether to accept the measure or to reduce or veto the allocation. The $3 million set-aside is expected to derive from the windfall profits tax revenue described above. Activists consider passage of the tax measure to be the best means of ensuring that the City can invest in affordable housing without reducing other needed services.
Background: Rents in Berkeley are rising to record highs, bringing windfall profits to most landlords while tenant incomes remain stagnant. Rents are going up because Berkeley is a very desirable place to live, not because landlords have so greatly improved the buildings they own. A strong Bay Area economy and public investments in the University, transit, parks and other public services all make Berkeley an attractive place to live. When public activities increase the value of private property it is only fair that the public recapture a small fraction of the value we the people create and use it for public benefit rather than allowing it all to be taken for private profit.
Before 1999 Berkeley had a strong rent control system that only allowed landlords to raise rents enough to provide a constitutionally required fair return on their investment but did not allow windfall profits at the expense of tenants. In 1999 the State legislature imposed �vacancy decontrol�, which now allows landlords to raise rents without limit whenever a new tenant moves in.
As a result, 85% of Berkeley’s older rentals have had vacancy increases. Tenants are now paying more than $100 million annually in additional rent, over and above what is needed to provide landlords with a fair return on their investment. Real, inflation-adjusted rents have gone up by more than 50% yet Berkeley’s landlords are taking out permits for building renovations equal in value to less than 3% of their massive annual rent increases. This transfer of wealth from Berkeley tenants to landlords, the majority of whom live outside of Berkeley, drains money from the community and increases demands for public services of all kinds, from social services to subsidized housing to public safety.
P.S. We only have until May 10 � we need you today!
Global Day Against Military Spending, Monday, April 14
Join the Bay Area New Priorities Campaign and folks from more than a dozen peace & justice organizations to distribute a GDAMS brochure to commuters at BART stations during morning and evening rush hours. Below is a list of BART stations and contact info.
Press conference
In front of the Federal Building, 13th & Clay, downtown Oakland, CA, 11:30 am
Speakers will include leaders from the faith community, a representative of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, County Supervisor Wilma Chan, and a representative of Mayors for Peace.
The press conference will be followed at noon by a “Living Graveyard” vigil to honor the lives lost in the Afghan and Iraq wars and draw attention to the social costs of military spending. The Living Graveyard is organized by Ecumenical Peace Institute and the East Bay Coalition to Support Self-Rule for Iraqis.
For additional contact information about BART actions: <smcneil@afsc.org>
San Francisco
Embarcadero BART Station, 7-8:45 am
Rozali Telbis <rtelbis@gmail.com>
Powell Street BART Station, 9-10 am
99% Coalition <janet.weil13@gmail.com>
Montgomery Street BART Station, 4-6 pm
Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom SF
Civic Center BART Station, 7-9 am
Physicians for Social Responsibility <rmgould1@yahoo.com>
16th Street/Mission BART Station, noon-1 pm
Kathy Lipscomb <kathylipscomb2@gmail.com>
24th Street/Mission BART Station
noon-1 pm SEIU 1021 Peace & Solidarity Committee <dadaray2002@yahoo.com>
4 pm Veterans for Peace
Glen Park BART Station, 7-9 am
AFSC/SF Friends Meeting <smcneil@afsc.org>
Wednesday April 16, 5:30-6:30 pm
Place : Montgomery Street BART Station
CODEPINK <janet.weil13@gmail.com>
Berkeley
Downtown Berkeley BART Station, 7:15-9:15 am
Grandmothers Against War <marpla2@hotmail.com>
Ashby BART Station, 7-9 am
Grandmothers Against War <marpla2@hotmail.com>
North Berkeley BART Station, 7-9 AM
Asian Americans for Peace & Justice <gmorizawa@yahoo.com>
NICCA <nicca@igc.org>
El Cerrito
El Cerrito Plaza BART station, 6:30-8:30 am
El Cerrito Democratic Club <amil@sonic.net> & East Bay Peace Action
El Cerrito del Norte BART Station, 6:30-8:30 am
East Bay Peace Action <amil@sonic.net>
Oakland
West Oakland BART Station, 7:30-9:30 Women for Genuine Security
<rev.deb.lee@gmail.com> <eriola808@gmail.com>
4-7 pm Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom EBay
<wilpf@wilpfeastbay.org>
12th Street BART Station, 7-9 am
Fellowship of Reconciliation <johnlp@forusa.org>
19th Street BART Station, 7-9 am
Fellowship of Reconciliation <johnlp@forusa.org>
MacArthur BART Station, 7-9 am, 4-6 pm
Western States Legal Foundation <wslf@earthlink.net>
Piedmont Ave Area, 7-9 am
Piedmont Peace Group
Rockridge BART Station, 7-9 am
Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club <jack.kurzweil@gmail.com>
Lake Merritt BART Station, 7-9 am
Oakland Educational Association (tbc)
Fruitvale BART Station, 7-9 am Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice <labor-for-peace-and-justice@igc.org>
4-6 pm School of the Americas Watch <robertnixon@mindspring>, Oakland Catholic Worker
San Leandro
San Leandro BART Station, 7-8:30 am, School of the Americas Watch <2dinixon@gmail.com>
Hayward
Hayward BART Station, 7-9 am
South Alameda County Peace & Justice Coalition <HAMEscott@comcast.net>
South Hayward
South Hayward BART Station, 7-9 am
Hayward Democratic Club <HAMEscott@comcast.net>
Pleasanton
Place: Dublin/Pleasanton BART Station, 7:30-9 am
Tri-Valley CARES <marylia@trivalleycares.org>
Richmond
Place: Richmond BART Station, 7-9 pm
Richmond Progressive Alliance
Concord
Concord BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Lafayette
Place : Lafayette BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
North Concord/Martinez
North Concord/Martinez BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Orinda
Orinda BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Pittsburg/Bay Point
Pittsburg/Bay Point BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Pleasant Hill
Place: Lafayette BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek BART Station, 6:30-8 am
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center <doctoroutdoors@comcast.net>
STOP STAPLES SCABS. STOP THE PRIVATIZATION OF THE POST OFFICE!
Join American Postal Worker Union members protesting against Post Office counters in Staples stores staffed by low wage Staples employees instead of living wage Postal Union members.