Calendar
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
YOU’RE INVITED!
WHAT: Rally to tell CONGRESS: Don’t take away our health care!
After years of trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the GOP has introduced a dangerous bill that would kick 24 million Americans off their health care coverage, defund Planned Parenthood, cut Medicaid, and make health care more expensive for many struggling financially.
Together, this Tuesday, we will make sure our members of Congress know that we don’t want them to touch our health care. We’ll also make it clear that Trump’s second Muslim Ban is as unacceptable as his first, and must go.
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!
Michael Brewster is back in court on Wednesday and his family is asking for our support.
On February 9th, Michael wasn’t feeling quite himself. He wasn’t posing a danger to anyone but he may have needed some assistance. His mom and sister-in-law, flagged the police over to ask them to call an ambulance for Michael because they thought he needed to go to the hospital.
Instead of helping Michael, they brutalized him. They punched him, struck him with their baton, several officers were on top of him despite saying multiple times that he couldn’t breathe. A sherriff even kicked him in the ribs after throwing him into the jail cell. Michael was lucky to have survived this attack. It may have been worse if his mother, Trina Peters and his family didn’t prevent further brutalization.
In their normal corrupt fashion, the police are charging Michael with 3 felony counts of assault and threat of assault.
The preliminary trial starts Wednesday morning. Please come if you can! We’ll be handing out heart-shaped pins to show our solidarity for Michael.
National Day of Action to Celebrate the Lives of Black Trans Women and Protect All Trans Women and Femmes
[Image artist: Ethan Parker]
Celebrate and say the names of transwomen while they are alive, not only after they’ve been murdered!
Gather with the Bay Area Queer Anti-Fascist Network (Queer as Fuck) at the Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround at 4:45pm and walk to Union Square and back, saying the names of trans women of color who are alive and thriving in the community.
Get Equal called for an action to be held today and their call is sponsored by TGI Justice Project, BYP 100, the Transgender Law Center, and others. See the full description at http://www.getequal.org/
Join us with signs of support!
#ProtectTransWomen
#StopTransMurders
#BlackLivesMatter
#SayHerName
Monthly APTP meeting, held on every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
The Anti Police-Terror Project is a project of the ONYX ORGANIZING COMMITTEE that in coalition with other organizations like Idriss Stelley Foundation, Community READY Corps and Workers World is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition.
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://
Do you think internet should be a public commons rather than a corporate monopoly?
Come on over to the Omni Commons to learn about the history of the internet, how it works, and how to build your own. Meet and mingle with civic hackers and organizers behind peoplesopen.net: an open, community-based network in the East Bay.
Agenda:
* 1:00pm – Why/what/how of the internet (< 30 minutes)
* 1:30pm – Snack, mingle, share and experiment
* 2:00pm – Hands-on workshop with a variety of learning stations
Donations for pizza and internet are enthusiastically accepted ; )
The Omni Commons’ ballroom is wheelchair-accessible via a lift in the Entrance Hall, where there is also located a wheelchair-accessible single-stall bathroom.
The Peoples Open Network enables anyone to share their Internet connection or extend signal from neighboring nodes. Learn more atpeoplesopen.net.
The Omni Commons is a 100% volunteer-run space for community organizing, collaboration, and creative production located in North Oakland. Learn more at omnicommons.org.
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