Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.

We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” —  to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Check out some of what we worked on in 2019.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.  We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.

Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition and other analytics, and pushing back against ICE.

On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

contact@oaklandprivacy.org

Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/

Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.  Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in various municipalities around the Bay.  To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

“The Alameda County Sheriffs have not taken responsibility for their grossly exaggerated use of force in the pre-dawn eviction of Black women and children in Oakland. They are still holding arrest charges over the heads of 2 mothers and 2 supporters.

Join us all to stand with the moms and demand transparency, accountability and that all pending charges be dropped immediately.”

Also, if you haven’t signed this petition (and for more background info), go to: https://www.change.org/p/alameda-county-sheriff-gregory-ahern-hold-the-sheriff-accountable-protect-moms-babies-from-tanks?signed=true
Petition � Hold Them Accountable – Protect Moms & Babies from Tanks, AR-15s, and Tactical Troops � Change.org

NO TANKS, AR15s or TACTICAL TROOPS TO EVICT MOMS & BABIES! For years, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) has been the source of questionable, if not criminal behavior.

Agenda.

Items of particular interest:

• Election of Char
• Use of Force Ad Hoc Cmte
• Draft Ordinance on Militarized Police Equipment
• Process for Drafting Policy

Many of you witnessed or saw images of the Moms4Housing visionary action for the right to housing and the Alameda County Sheriff Office’s warrior deployment of assault weapons, a tank and battering ram in response to peaceful protest in Oakland. The event demonstrated more clearly than ever the need to push back on police use of military equipment in our communities.

The Oakland Police Commission will be considering the proposed ordinance for civilian control over the acquisition and use of militarized equipment by OPD. A key point on the agenda is how this ordinance can impact agencies like the Alameda County sheriff that deploy in Oakland. The Moms will be making comments, and we invite you to come and also make a public comment.

When sheriff deputies deploy to evict someone, they do so as an officer of the court, and are not required to consult with OPD. Our proposed ordinance applies to military equipment deployed by outside agencies in Oakland that are called in through “mutual aid” agreements. We are proposing additional language to the ordinance to ensure OPD doesn’t cooperate with the sheriff’s unfettered use of military equipment and require OPD to notify the police commission and city council if they know of such deployments. (see attached)

The Police Commission likely won’t vote on a recommendation next Thursday, but we want them to know clearly how the community feels about ANY deployment of war-like gear and weaponry in Oakland.

Please be there, Thur. Feb. 13, at 6:30 pm, Oakland City Hall, City Council chambers. Sign up to make a comment at the beginning of the meeting in “Open Forum”, when the agenda comes up, or both. 

Bay Area Skeptics Talk
This critical thinking-focused organization meets Every Second Thursday of the month with a different topic and guest speaker for every conversational meeting. This month’s topic: Big Data: What it is, how its used, where it’s headed by Mike Olson
T

Weekly Friday Vigil with music, snacks, letter writing, conversation

Register here to work either in East Oakland or El Sobrante:

https://plantingjustice.org/work-with-us/individuals

Nothing could be more ignorant and hypocritical than criminalizing the human body in a city that is named after a preacher who preached in the nude.

In early 2013 a law was passed in San Francisco that is commonly called “the nudity ban”. According to this law you can go to jail for a year for merely taking off your clothes on a warm summer day. (That’s if you do it 3 times in a year. If it is your first or second time you get a $100 fine.)

Nothing could be more hypocritical than criminalizing God’s creation – the human body.

Criminalizing genitals is no different from criminalizing flowers – they are plant’s genitals. Imagine if flowers had to be covered. Imagine if plants got thrown in jail for blooming and showing their flowers.

And what about animals? Imagine having to put underwear on your dog and worrying that if your dog rips it off it will be thrown in jail.

How come we have less rights than dogs and flowers?

It’s time to legalize humans!

NUDE LOVE PARADE will start on Saturday, February 15th at 11 am in Jane Warner Plaza. We start marching at noon (hopefully). We will loop around a bunch and end up at Haight and Stanyan.

The parade is fully permitted by the SFPD, no one will get arrested nor cited.

Come join us! We want to see you naked.

Join a pilot screening presented by Minema, your pass to the most relevant media events in the city.

A Tribeca, Hot Docs, and POV documentary, The Feeling of Being Watched is a groundbreaking film on government surveillance. In the Chicago suburb where journalist Assia Boundaoui grew up, most residents in her Muslim immigrant neighborhood believe they are under surveillance. Assia investigates and uncovers FBI documents about “Operation Vulgar Betrayal,” one of the largest pre-9/11 counterterrorism probes conducted on domestic soil, right in Assia’s hometown.

Guided post-screening conversation to follow.

Find out more about the film: http://www.feelingofbeingwatched.com/
More on Minema: https://www.minema.space/

This event is supported by Stanford University.

FUKUSHIMA SPEAKS’ EXPLORES LIVES OF SURVIVORS

On Sunday, February 16, No Nukes Action will host the Bay Area premiere of “Fukushima Speaks,” a compelling feature-length documentary by award-winning director and independent journalist Toshikuni Doi.

“It is not enough for a journalist to report facts and news of what is happening, but rather it is the journalist’s duty to expose the ‘human’ underneath it all,” Doi stated. “If we fail to shed light on [universal themes]and just succeed in reporting on facts and news, to the audience, it will come across as just a matter that is happening somewhere far away, unrelated to them.”

Four years in the making, Doi has created a heart-wrenching look into the lives of Japanese residents whose lives were devastated by the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Haunting images and video footage of the aftermath are reinforced by 14 personal stories of despair, guilt, and outrage.

“I lost the cornerstone of my life,” Yoko Watanabe, a self-evacuee, said in her interview. “I was determined to bury myself in Katsurao village. That was taken away from me. The reason to live, volunteering, everything was taken away from me in a flash. Now I don’t know anymore what I live for. I wonder if I am really needed in this life, and I don’t know anymore.”

The suffering of Fukushima survivors continues to this day. While the mourning of lost life is obvious, the film also explores the dire realities that are often overlooked: the loss of livelihoods due to the contamination of land and ocean, the life-threatening risks caused by radiation exposure, the emotional turmoil of families being torn apart by the decision to stay or evacuate, and the discrimination that residents now face because they are from Fukushima.

Another self-evacuee, Hikaru Hoshi, expressed indignation: “They want to blame it on us and say it was our responsibility. Whether to leave or stay…. I do not allow them to shift the burden of the accident of enormous scale to individual choices/individual responsibilities…. We lived in an area that needed to be evacuated right away. That fact was concealed from us, and some of us left on our own, or like me, some did not have time to think it through but left anyway. I felt outraged that this country was putting us against each other. The root of the matter lies somewhere else.”

Doi pointed out the urgency of releasing this documentary in 2018: “Eight years since the accident, ‘Fukushima’ is being made into the thing of the past,” he said. “As more people focus on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the victims are silenced and their suffering is hidden away behind the news of ‘revitalization.’ However, the wounds of the victims whose lives have been destroyed by the accident are still raw.”

English subtitles for the documentary were translated and edited by event organizer Tsukuru Lauritzen with the help of fellow activists in Los Angeles.

“I contacted the director and heard that the English subtitles won’t be ready ’til 2020,” Lauritzen recalled. “I asked him if there is any way that I could take over the translation. Looking back on it, it was an insane idea, but I was compelled to take it on, because these 14 voices begged to be heard.”

About the Filmmaker

Toshikuni Doi, born in 1953, is a Japanese independent journalist. He has published numerous articles in many first-class journals and has made scores of documentary films for news programs. He also has many books published in Japan.

Since 1985, he has visited the occupied territories many times and almost lived there for months, extensively reporting from Palestinian villages and refugee camps. He also has covered Asia, notably atomic bomb victims in Korea who were in Hiroshima or Nagasaki in 1945, Korean women who were forced to become sex workers/slaves by the Japanese army, and street children in Thailand and Vietnam.

Since April 2003, he has visited Iraq under occupation four times, focusing on civilian victims of war, women’s rights and prisoners’ mistreatment, or torture.

This event is free but donations for the filmmaker are accepted

Sponsored by No Nukes Action
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/

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.  (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months,  once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).

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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (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

This Sunday in Oakland, join members of @DSACommunists and Black Rose Bay Area, who will discuss the historic, ongoing wildcat strike by graduate workers at UC Santa Cruz. #UCSCstrike

Revolutionary journalism and Prisoner Human Rights Movement

… freedom of the press … is an embodiment of freedom….Freedom is so much the essence of the human that even its opponents realize it … No human fights freedom; they fight at most the freedom of others. Every kind of freedom has therefore always existed, only at one time as a special privilege, at another time as a universal right. Karl Marx

A new book, Prison Truth, “The Story of the San Quentin News” by William J. Drummond (UC Press, 2020) tells of prisoners’ self-transformation through journalism, even under prison’s censorship. Does Prison Truth itself suffer from this self-censorship? Is there a deeper truth, a new humanism, within prisoners themselves?

The most visible manifestation of such a new humanism emerged in the torturous hell-hole of perpetual solitary confinement in Pelican Bay. Their successful mass hunger strikes (2011-13), based on their Agreement to End Hostilities, undermined gang-based identification of prisoners fomented by the prison authorities. The strikes brought an end to indeterminate solitary confinement and “changed the face of race relations” in prison according to strike representative, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (see reverse side). That struggle continues against the ongoing abuse of “confidential information” which creates discord and racial animosity between prisoners.

We’ll explore the contrast between the practice of revolutionary journalism shaped by freedom as human essence and freedom as a “special privilege” in press freedom under censorship.

Join us for a film screening of On the Frontlines of the Chilean Revolution, followed by a discussion with Vee Bravo and Rodstarz, Chilean activists and media makers documenting the nations social crisis. Featuring a special performance by Rodstarz of Rebel Díaz!

Doors open at 7:30 pm / Event starts at 8pm

Gather at 21st Street and Fair Oaks

This Presidents Day, we will gather outside Mark Zuckerberg’s house near Dolores Park to let him know that we won’t be quiet in the face of his company undermining our democracy.

We are not sure what billionaires brunch on, but let’s give him some food for thought and a piece of our minds. It will be fun. We will be loud. And we will bring plenty of democracy bagels for everybody who shows up with a sign or a noisemaker.

Why? Zuckerberg’s San Francisco Bay Area technology company — Facebook — refuses to take responsibility for lies, hate, and disinformation spread on its platform. This irresponsibility is alarming — especially in light of the 2020 elections.

Facebook sells ads to U.S. politicians but imposes zero restrictions on lies and false claims and is happy to profit from micro-targeted advertising that’s being used to misinform, manipulate and incite hatred among vulnerable voters.

Facebook should recognize it has created a monster and stop politicians from being able to “buy and lie” in their campaign advertising in 2020. But don’t expect Facebook to let go of so much lucrative attention and influence without a fight. We are ready to fight and to wake the Zuck up!

Facebook should: Refuse political ads that lie, refuse to sell political ad microtargeting, and deny service to anyone seeking to disrupt the 2020 election.

Please join us on President’s Day to “Wake the ZUCK up”. Don’t let disinformation on Facebook ZUCK UP our next election.
To join our Palo Alto protest, email andreabuffa2006 [at] gmail.com.

Brought to you by Global Exchange, Media Alliance, Indivisible SF Peninsula/CA-14, CodePink Golden Gate, Raging Grannies Action League, MediaJustice, and the crew at Don’t Let Facebook ZUCK UP Our Democracy.

Wake The Zuck Up: Manipulation for Profit Isn’t Free Speech

The world’s biggest social media platform collected over $20 million dollars from the Trump administration in just the last year.

Those 218,000 ads used sophisticated micro-targeting based on Facebook’s cavernous catalog of personal data, to aim messages where they would most likely to be believed, and hide them from audiences more likely to be able to rebut them. This isn’t open dialogue and debate.

This is manipulation for profit, not free speech.

We’re visiting the Zuckerberg house on President’s Day to say stop profiting from sabotaging democracy under a fig leaf of free speech. With bagels.

It’s a wake-up call.

Join Media Alliance, Global Exchange, Indivisible San Francisco, MediaJustice and many others at Chez Zuckerberg on the morning of President’s Day, February 17th for a short and spirited rally.

What do we want? Three things.

1. Hold political ads from candidates seeking our votes to the same standards Facebook imposes on community groups and not for profit organizations,

2. Limit targeting on political ads from candidates to geography and not preferences developed from intrusive tracking and profiling of our online activities.

3. Don’t provide a platform for hate speech designed to terrorize vulnerable communities and incite hatred.

These aren’t radical demands. Even Facebook’s own employees have called for them.

Read more at ProtestFacebook.org.

On the morning of President’s Day, February 17th at 10am, we won’t be quiet about Facebook zucking up the 2020 election and our entire political process.

As we told the press:  We’re not willing to cede a communications network that reaches billions of people to the unfettered practices of a corporation that cares more about its profits than about our democracy. Not without a fight.

(Supported by the collective power of the MediaJustice network).
Take Action

We literally cannot do it without you.

Our work is done on behalf of our members.

Become a member or renew. Low-income annual memberships are $35, standard memberships are $60, supporting memberships are $120, and anchor memberships are $300. Other amounts welcome. You can set up monthly recurring debits for $5, $10 or $25 monthly.
Become A Member

Follow Us

Share This

Contact Us

Media Alliance
Pacific Felt Factory 2830 20th Street # 102
San Francisco, California 94110
4157469475
tracy@media-alliance.org

Isn’t Bernie just another old, white man? Shouldn’t feminists instead support one of the smart, competent women on the primary ticket?

These are valid questions, but whether we’re talking about the environment, healthcare and reproductive rights, immigration, or strengthening unions, Bernie’s policies are fundamentally feminist ones. His program addresses not only issues of gender, but tackles all of the intersecting oppressions that exist under capitalism. No other candidate can make that claim.

Join East Bay DSA’s Socialist Night School on Tuesday, Feb. 18 for a panel a discussion featuring reproductive rights organizer and East Bay DSA Steering Committee member Allie Lahey, Kaiser RN Luci Riley, and OEA member and organizer Vilma Serrano for discussion of why “leaning in” is not an effective strategy for winning the 2020 election, and how a President Sanders can help improve the lives of all women. East Bay DSA organizer and SEIU 1021 member Ashley Payne moderates.

This event is the final installment in our four-part series on Bernie 2020, capitalism, and democratic socialism. We will discuss what is absent from some Marxists’ analyses of capitalism: social reproduction and the many ways labor — waged or unwaged — is divided along lines of gender, race, and class.

See the assigned readings here: https://www.eastbaydsa.org/night-school/

Can you join us in Sacramento on Wednesday, February 19th for a mass rally and banner drop to let Gavin Newsom know that we’re fed up?

Jp, the date has been set.

On February 19, Governor Newsom will deliver his second State of the State speech in Sacramento. He’ll tackle a lot of important issues – but with the climate crisis unfolding all around us, we need him to prioritize ending California’s oil problem.�

We must show up in force to make it clear that Californians are watching and that any plan that allows fossil fuel production in California to continue is unacceptable. The bigger the crowd, the stronger our message will be!

On his big day, Gavin is going to be looking at the press to gauge the reactions to his speech. When he sees a photo of us outside the Capitol with beautiful art and the full power of this movement on display  – he’ll knoow that we mean business and that inaction on our demands will have political consequences.

As the Governor of a major oil producing state, Governor Newsom has an opportunity to stand up to an oil industry that – for decades – has polluted Californian communities and destroyed our climate future. But he won’t act unless we demand it.

Join 350.org and the Last Chance Alliance outside of the Governor’s State of the State in Sacramento on February 19, as we rally to urge Newsom to phase out oil extraction in California.

At the event, we’ll hear from climate and environmental justice activists from around the region and rally outside the State of the State demanding climate justice.

Our demands to Newsom are simple:

1. Stop new fossil fuel projects by issuing no new permits.
2. Drop existing oil production by announcing a phase-out of existing production.
3. Roll out setback limits that create a 2,500-foot health-and-safety buffer zone between fossil-fuel infrastructure and homes, schools and other sensitive sites.