Calendar
In case you hadn’t heard—weird weather is here to stay. California, after years of drought, is now lighting up with flash flood warnings. This is just one aspect of climate change that’s been spurred on by human activity.
How do we know that the climate is changing dramatically, and that this isn’t just part of the planet’s natural cycles? Join us for a conversation with a local scientist who studies this exact question.
Professor Lynn Ingram studies the history of climate and environmental change in California using sediment cores from lakes and estuaries, including San Francisco Bay. Dr. Ingram is a Fellow of the California Academy of Science, and is a Senior Fulbright recipient and Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley.
Filmed before a live audience each episode of Ars Technica Live is a speculative, informal conversation between Ars Technica hosts and an invited guest. The audience, drawn from Ars Technica’s readers, is also invited to join the conversation and ask questions. These aren’t soundbyte setups; they are deepcuts from the frontiers of research and creativity.
Contact: Annalee Newitz (annalee@arstechnica.com)
Ingram has been a Professor in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Geography at UC Berkeley since 1995. She is the author of more than sixty published scientific articles on past climate change in California and the other locations around the Pacific Ocean, and she is the author of a book about the climate history and water resources in California (UC Press, 2013): The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us About Tomorrow.
Annalee Newitz is the tech culture editor at Ars Technica. Previously she was the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo and io9. She is the author of Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction (Doubleday). Her first novel, Autonomous, comes out in 2017 from Tor Books.
New Muslim Ban begins 3/16. Protest New Ban & all attacks on immigrant, indigenous, Black & Brown communities. Thurs 4pm at SF Federal Bldg. pic.twitter.com/lU565LvTQi
— AROC (@AROCBayArea) March 14, 2017
http://
Join us to see the award winning film “Selma” at our watch party — and help build the community of resistance that will carry us forward in the next four years.
This movie is not recommended for young children; however we will have food and activities outside the theater for kids and families. All ages are welcome and encouraged.
The Nanci For Berkeley campaign showed that the power of the people is real in Berkeley and in the world. In just a few short months, we helped to change to political and social conversation in Berkeley politics. We also helped to unseat an incumbent whose policies did not reflect our neighborhood values, and use the ranked choice voting strategy to help elect Cheryl Davila, a progressive activist who is currently the only council voice saying no to militarization of the Berkeley police.
PEACE Out Loud is a neighborhood Social Permaculture project dedicated to being in community. We know that our liberation must be collective if it is to happen at all. We host classes, camps, workshops and events for joy and freedom.
Here’s why you should come:
More than forty years after the Selma march, the voting rights Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists fought for and won back then are under attack from Republican governors across the country — and Trump is indicating that he wants to make things worse.
At this critical moment, the progressive left has much to learn from the movements that paved the way for this one. That’s why this March, DFA members are gathering to build community and energize for the resistance by screening Ava DuVernay’s 2015 film “SELMA.” Here’s the 2-minute trailer for Selma — check it out and then sign up to join us!
https://www.youtube.com/
This event is hosted by the Nanci For Berkeley campaign and PEACE Out Loud. There is no cost for the event, but we do ask folks to make donations to help cover the cost of the venue, and we will be accepting donations for Democracy For America and local nonprofits.
The Predator-in-Chief wasted no time in attacking women’s reproductive rights in restricting funding for international women’s organizations and the nomination of known anti-abortion judge William Gorsuch to the supreme court. The republican health care proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare represents a dangerous escalation in the right wing war on women. Not only would Trumpcare do away with gender equity rules for insurance plans, it would require the exclusion of abortion care for any plan sold to individuals receiving a government subsidy, and it would defund Planned Parenthood.
The Trump administration threatens to drive back decades of progress on women’s rights. At the same time, a new generation of women activists has signaled its willingness to fight for full equality in movements against sexual violence on college campuses. We urgently need to build a new women’s movement that will fight to extend women’s reproductive rights, counter Trump’s emboldening of sexists, and unite with the movements for immigrant rights, for LBGTQ rights, for Black Lives Matter and others to decisively defeat Trump and the billionaire class.
After Women’s Day, the next date to prepare massive collective resistance is May Day, known and celebrated around the world as International Worker’s Day. Since May Day 2006, when strike action for immigrant rights succeeded in pushing back attacks from the Bush administration, this day has also been linked to the struggle against racism and for immigrant rights.
This May Day can be turned into a first major rally of resistance by women, immigrants, by students walking out and unions mobilizing against “right to work” (for less) legislation. Join us to build for such action from below and put pressure on labor, women, environmental and immigrant rights leaders to come together and coordinate these efforts.
Trump’s despicable attitude towards women are a reflection of the vicious sexism that capitalist society constantly reinforces through stereotypes and systemic gender inequality. To truly end sexism, we need to take on the entire system that relies on inequality, both economic and social, to create huge profits for the few at the top.
As socialists, we fight for a society based on gender, racial and economic justice. For Socialist Alternative, the struggle against Trump and the billionaire class is part of a larger struggle to end the capitalist system as a whole.
Join us Thursday March 16 to discuss a new women’s movement as part of a larger Anti-Trump movement, and the need for a socialist transformation of society.
Speakers during the event will include:
A Bay Area Nurse to talk about single payer
Darby Thomas, San Francisco DSA
Erin Brightwell, Socialist Alternative
This SURJ workshop will put gentrification and displacement in a historical context so we understand the racialized political and economic drivers. We will use this historical analysis to discuss the ways we can challenge gentrification today.
The analysis that we are presenting is based on the work of Causa Justa :: Just Cause.
Our workshop has space for 66 people. To reserve your spot in advance, please purchase tickets at http://
ACCESS NEEDS: This event is wheelchair accessible. If you have specific access needs, please email surjbasebuilding@gmail.com
SCENT FREE: We ask that guests do their best to be as scent free as possible. Please refer to this resource from the EastBay Meditation Center for more information on what that means. There will be a scent free section of seating offered. http://
SPREAD THE WORD, INVITE YOUR FRIENDS!
*Though intended for a white allied audience – people of color are also welcome.*
A conversation with Asad Haider, co-editor of Viewpoint Magazine
Doors at 6:30pm, event starts at 7pm
Followed by reception with food and drink
Asad has written extensively on socialist history, theory, and strategy and has contributed to the ongoing discussion of how to build multi-racial solidarity. This kind of solidarity, he argues, will be crucial not only to successfully resisting the attacks of the Trump administration, but also to actually winning reforms like single-payer healthcare that can increase our confidence and capacity to fight for a socialist society.
In his latest Jacobin article, “Where Are the People of Color?” Asad describes how white guilt on the left ignores and sidelines socialists of color. He points out that a “meaningful common interest does not somehow exist by default” but instead must be “constituted by the composition of these multitudes into a group,” which is “a process of political practice.”
Join us for a conversation about how capitalism and white supremacy are inextricably linked, and what the growing socialist left can learn from past socialists and communists about building solidarity. Followed by reception!
Militant resistance has a long history both domestically and abroad.
Every day, people are fighting back against the Trump Administration, corporations and the forces of hate. From the immigration ban to the Dakota Access Pipeline to the normalization of white supremacy, we are seeing new waves of resistance no longer taking any shit from the authoritarian state. We see militant action appearing more and more frequently challenging these powers that be,and challenging orderly liberal political solutions.
Domestically, forces from the martyrs at Haymarket and the 1877 Great Railroad Strike (the only actual “general strike” in American history) to the march on Blair Mountain and the Flint sit down strikes to the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement and the anti-nuclear movement of the 1960s and 1970s have shaped American dissent to capital and industry. Globally, people’s movements have ejected U.S. Empire from places like Cuba and Vietnam and led global insurrections against neo-liberalism from Chiapas, Mexico.
Now we can use history as a guide for more radical action and resistance.
Join us for a provocative and exciting discussion with Dr. Robert Buzzanco, Professor of History at the University of Houston, about militant and effective resistance to U.S. Capital and Empire.
This event is another in a series of Diablo Rising Tide events discussing militancy and escalation in social movements.
Robert Buzzanco is a Professor of History at the University of Houston. He is author of ‘Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era’ and ‘Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life.’ He teaches courses in War, Globalization and Terrorism, Social Movements, US Foreign Policy, and Twentieth Century History. You can read more of his work at https://
Join SURJ Bay Area and the Anti Police-Terror Project for a First Responders Training.
APTP builds the capacity of community members to respond to police terror and violence. The purpose of this training is to share knowledge and skills with regards to conducting independent people’s investigations into cases of police terror.
The topics covered will be:
– An introduction to APTP
– How to conduct people’s investigations of police murder
– Know your rights and security considerations when conducting an investigation
– First aid
– An overview of different aspects of family support
The material being presented is created by the Anti Police-Terror Project. Email mobilization@surjbayarea.o
MORE ABOUT APTP: The Anti Police-Terror Project is a group of concerned and committed institutions, organizations, and individuals dedicated to ending state-sanctioned murder and violence perpetuated against Black, Brown and Poor people. They are a Black led, multi-racial, multi-generational coalition. Visit their website here: http://
CHILDCARE: We will be providing childcare on location that is arranged in advance. Please email madeleinemtaylor3@gmail.co
ACCESS NEEDS: This event is wheelchair accessible. If you have specific access needs, please email mobilization@surjbayarea.o
SCENT FREE: We ask that guests do their best to be as scent free as possible. Please refer to this resource from the EastBay Meditation Center for more information on what that means: https://
Join faith leaders and activists as we urge our elected officials to honor sanctuary for all people, regardless of immigration status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or religion.
Speakers Include:
-Dolores Huerta, Co-founder of United Farm Workers
-Rev. John Fife, Co-founder of the Sanctuary movement
-Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and
immigration activist
-Rev. Dr. David Vásquez-Levy, President of Pacific School of Religion
This rally will conclude a Borders and Identity conference, hosted by Pacific School of Religion and Center for LGBTQ and Gender Studies in Religion – CLGS. More information about Borders and Identity at psr.edu/earl-17
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
- organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now we have to keep the momentum going! We organized the forum for Public Banking in Oakland on February 9th.
- Tiny Homes for the homeless.
- Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
- money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- student debt resistance
- Promoting the concept of Basic Income
- advocating for Postal banking
- Presenting debt-related topics at forums and workshops
- Bring your own debt-related project!
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com .
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
Dear Friends,
Please join us on Sunday, March 19th from 3-5pm to make art for the homeless! We will design and cut out shadow scenes to be projected on to tents at the homeless camp located at the Here/There sign on the Berkeley/Oakland border.
A wonderful opportunity to meet members of the camp and do something fun to support them!
All ages welcome. Please spread the word!
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (In prior years we have agreed to meet at 4:00 PM during summer hours, that is, once Daylight Savings Time goes back into effect).
On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
Liberated Lens Film Collective presents a dark night of comedy shorts by Thalia Drori Ramirez and Cineastas de Granada.
An evening of comedy shorts by filmmaker Thalia Drori Ramirez, including a premiere of her latest film, Squirrel, which features Mary Vivian Pearce (Pink Flamingos, Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble) as the school principal. Drori Ramirez will also present a comedy by the students of Cineastas de Granada, a video production program she founded for teen girls in Granada, Nicaragua. A discussion with the filmmaker will follow the screening.
Squirrel Trailer:
https://vimeo.com/
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
About the Filmmaker:
Dark and surreal comedies, Thalia Drori Ramirez’s films are uncensored female fantasies, focusing on revenge, fear and horror. Like the group hug that turns into an opportunity to cop a feel, her work embraces mainstream Hollywood’s comforting and sensuous form, while it simultaneously takes advantage of the innocence of that form by telling non-traditional stories and by using unorthodox
content. Within the context of film as the coquettish seductress, her work reveals the female inner world.
Cineastas de Granada:
In 2005, Thalia Drori Ramirez founded Cineastas de Granada, a video production program for teenage girls in Granada, Nicaragua. The free-of-charge classes offer young women an opportunity to learn film writing, directing, camera and editing, to gain access to the world of media, and to put their stories out into the world.
Why Congress Should Start an Impeachment Investigation Now of President Donald Trump”
Panel Discussion with:
Jovanka Beckles, Member of Richmond City Council
John Bonifaz, Co-Founder and President, Free Speech For People
Ben Clements, Chair of the Board, Free Speech For People
Eva Paterson, Civil Rights Attorney and Activist
Norman Solomon, Co-Founder and Coordinator, RootsAction
Moderated by: Kris Welch of KPFA Radio
Welcoming remarks by:
Rev. Michael McBride, The Center for Faith and Justice
This event is free and open to the public
To learn more visit www.impeachdonaldtrumpnow.org
How does a city like Oakland deal with real crime issues, but also avoid repeating the past excesses of police surveillance? Our guest for Episode 12 of Ars Technica Live is Bruce Stoffmacher, a civilian employee and legislative analyst with the Oakland Police Department.
Stoffmacher will be discussing how the city balances privacy interests with the needs of law enforcement. Prior to working for OPD, he was a policy analyst in the mayor’s office.
Filmed before a live audience at Eli’s Mile High Club (3629 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Oakland, CA), each episode of Ars Technica Live is a speculative, informal conversation between Ars Technica hosts and an invited guest. The audience is also invited to join the conversation and ask questions. These aren’t soundbyte setups; they are deepcuts from the frontiers of research and creativity.
Doors are at 7pm, and the live taping is from 7:30 to 8:20pm (be sure to get there early if you want a seat). Then you can stick around for informal discussion at the bar.
Bruce Stoffmacher currently works as the Legislation Manager for the Oakland Police Department, where he works with the City’s Office of the City Attorney, Controller’s Bureau and City Administration to pass legislation in support of contracts, MOUs, budget priorities, and policies related to connected to public safety strategies. He writes City Council reports, legislation and grants, and supports diverse communication and partnership efforts. He also works on several data and technology projects.
David Kravets senior editor for Ars Technica. Founder of TYDN fake news site. Technologist. Political scientist. Humorist. Dad of two boys. Peace.
Cyrus [suh-ROOS] Farivar is the Senior Business Editor at Ars Technica, and is also an author and radio producer. His book, The Internet of Elsewhere—about the history and effects of the Internet on different countries around the world, including Senegal, Iran, Estonia and South Korea—was published by Rutgers University Press in April 2011.
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 to be done?”
Michael Goldstein
He is author of the visionary book, Return of the Light: A Political Fable in Which the American People Retake Their Country, which offers a roadmap for uniting
our separate campaigns to stop the worst abuses of the ruling class into a single movement. The aim of that movement: making government our own means
for pooling our collective resources in the interests of peace, social justice, environmental sustainability, and a society hospitable to the needs of the human spirit.
Join us as Michael presents his analysis of the need for, and means for bringing about, the nonviolent overthrow of the government of corporate wealth, and for what promises to be a lively discussion after.
Michael Goldstein writes a blog in the Huffington Post. Last spring he spearheaded BeyondBernie.us, which circulated an open letter urging Bernie Sanders to actually help build the movement he spoke of so eloquently, not just an electoral operation. The letter called on the candidate to enable his supporters to have direct dialog with each other about how to create an ongoing movement and what its goals, strategy, and organizational forms should be. The group launched a website to assist in that process.
Michael practices law, representing indigents appealing criminal convictions, including death sentences, and he also works as a mediator.
Don Hazen, Executive Editor of Alternet, wrote that Michael’s book “Catalogues the failures of consumer capitalism and the future solutions, at the same time and place a very encouraging read, in a time of little optimism,,” and social critic Michael Parenti described it as “clearly written, hopeful and useful for those interestedin building a real democracy.”
Time will be allotted for announcements.
Continue the momentum of the Women’s March in January and the Women’s Strike March 8th, planning towards a May 1st General Strike!
All welcome!
Come on Wednesday to support Jack and Nestor, who were arrested at an Anti Trump demo on Election Day. Lets pack the court!