Calendar
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! |
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 million 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 is a digital filmmaking collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California. We share resources, skills and knowledge to help each other tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. We make films in a spirit of collaboration and solidarity, share a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, and organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops.
Join us for our weekly meeting and a workshop!
We usually meet in our editing suite (2nd floor in the ballroom, to the left of the stage) and then work on projects. It’s open to all!
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.
The Oscar Grant Committee was born from the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant, mudered by BART police on Jan 1, 2009. We organize working class resistance in support of families whose loved ones were murdered by police.
We meet on the first Tuesday of every month.
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
Thur Feb. 4 nationwide mobilizations re TPP –
Noon PROTEST outside Feinstein’s office, One Post St., SF near Montgomery St. BART Sta.
STOP the biggest corporate power grab ever! Whether or not the Trans-Pacific Partnership is signed by then, rain or shine, we’ll protest, because Congress will still have to pass enabling legislation so enough public outcry CAN still stop it! Pls click “going” or “interested now on our FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/461850570682429/
Organizations can leave a message at 510-595-5575 to co-sponsor this protest, which means they help publicize as able and may send a speaker.
co-sponsors thus far: MOVE to AMEND east bay, BFUU Social Justice Committee, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Task Force on the Americas, Bay Area Women’s Peace Action Circle, Occupy SF Action Council, Flush the TPP, Nicaragua Center for Community Action, TRANSCEND USA, Food & Water Watch, CODE PINK, BCA Steering Committee…
http://www.flushthetpp.org/san-francisco-tpp-is-betrayal-rally/
The demand for justice is happening and needs you!
We would like to invite anyone in the Bay Area to a special concert to rally CCHI 2016 supporters called “Free the Tree Concert and Rally for Ganja Legalization” on February 4, 2015 in downtown Santa Cruz, CA, beginning at 8 p.m.
This special event continues the effort to mobilize and inform the public about qualifying the CCHI 2016 for the Nov. 8, 2016 California ballot and is generously supported by Waverider Nursery Monterey Bay. The cost is $10.00 at the door. This event is not a benefit for CCHI 2016. Donations will be accepted at the CCHI 2016 information booth at the event.
Speakers Include:
Jake Retz candidate for Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors District 2.
Palmer Kain candidate for Sate Senate District 17.
Mickey Martin Cannabis Advocate and Author of medical Marijuana 101
For Information on the event and for vending opportunities, contact:
Marc Baylen
513-403-7234
m_baylen@yahoo.com
CCHI 2016 Contacts:
Michael Jolson
Initiative Proponent
(831) 252-4367
michaeljolson111@icloud.com
Buddy Duzy
CCHI 2016 State Coordinator
(805) 252-4367
bduzy@CCHI 2016.org
Press Contact:
Daryl Wise
StreetWise PR
dsw@streetwisepr.com
This Friday, February 5th, Janet Napolitano (UC President) has invited Black Student Union leadership from all of the UC campuses to have a discussion with her about campus climate. This meeting was called to downplay the severity of anti-Blackness on UC campuses and to silence Black leaders on campus. Janet and her staff have designed this meeting to crowd out any substantive discussion about anti-Blackness and how the University of California engages in a wide range of policies and practices that are unethical and anti-Black.
The students have asked the community to come out and make their presence felt… We need as many black people as poossible and support from the broader community to show the UC that they are supported and we are ready to hold them accountable. Please wear black!! This is about anti-black violence and hostility specifically on UC campuses
- Hear:
- Special guest Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report (Coming from NYC)
- For Bernie Sanders: Tom Gallagher, Chair SF Progressive Democrats of America; former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives; author, “The Primary Route: How the 99 Percent Take On the Military Industrial Complex”
- Peter Olney, Retired Organizing Director, ILWU; Labor organizer in Massachusetts and California for over 40 years. Activist, Labor for Bernie national network. (for Saturday only)
- For Peace & Freedom Party candidate: Marsha Feinland, Vice Chair, Peace & Freedom Party, four-time P&F candidate for U.S. Senate
- For Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein: Laura Wells, Green Party/Alameda County; former Green Party candidate for California governor
- For Party for Socialism and Liberation, Gloria La Riva, PSL candidate for president; Organizer ANSWER Coalition
- For Socialist Action, Jeff Mackler, former Socialist Action candidate for U.S. Senate/CA; National Secretary, Socialist Action; Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition
- Sponsor: Socialist Action Party Initial co-sponsors: Green Party of Alameda County; SF Green Party; SF Peace and Freedom Party; Bay Area Solidarity; SF Progressive Democrats of America
- For information, tables at $20, Contact: 510-268-9429 socialistaction@lmi.net
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
Honor Black History
In celebration of Black History Month and the struggles of Black students and
activists which created it, we are inviting two scholar/activists James Garrett, and
Ray Tompkins, to join former Black Panther Gerald Smith, to discuss these
historic struggles including the 5-month student strike at San Francisco State
University in 1968-69 which led to the first Black Studies Program in the country.
CELEBRATE BLACK HISTORY MONTH
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every
month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The
forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like.
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The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war
movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy,
ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
www.peaceandfreedom.org
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- staging Debtors’ Assemblies
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
- Working on ways to kickstart the drive for basic income
- and much more!
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.
We ask that all of our coalition members join us this monday on the steps of City Hall as we let the Mayor know that we will not be silenced by the bread crumbs he, the chief and the DOJ have thrown us.
We have a duty to fight for our freedom and we wont stop until we get justice.
OccupyForum presents…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
OccupyForum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue on all sides of these critically important issues!
The Stolen Election in Ukraine 2004,
and What Was Done About It :
Orange Revolution
(Documentary film and discussion)
Presidential elections, Ukraine, 2004. One candidate is backed by the post-Soviet regime. Eight weeks before the election the opposition candidate is seriously poisoned. He survives, but with a severely disfigured face.
In the final voting, blatant vote fraud hands the election to the regime. Instantly, Ukranians pour into the streets by the hundreds of thousands. Fed up with censored media, corruption, and rule by wealthy oligarchs, they take over the capital, Kyiv, to enforce their will. Through snow and freezing temperatures they stand their ground, blockading government buildings, demanding a new election.
Through the eyes and in the voices of the Ukranian people, Orange Revolution tells the story of a people united, not by one leader or one party, but by one idea: to defend their vote and the future of their country.
Discussion and Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!