Calendar

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Keisha Blain, Ph.D.

Dr. Keisha N. Blain is an award-winning historian of the 20th century United Stated with broad interests and specializations in African American History, the modern African diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies. She completed a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University. She is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, the president of the African American Intellectual History Society, and a columnist for MSNBC. She is currently a 2020-2021 fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Blain is the author of Set the World on First: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle For Freedom (2018) & Until I am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America (2021).

Jeff Chang

Jeff Chang, Bay Area native and UC Berkeley alumnus, has written extensively on culture, politics, the arts, and music. Jeff serves as the Vice President of Narrative, Arts, and Culture at Race Forward. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, he is a graduate of ‘Iolani School, the University of California at Berkeley, and the

University of California at Los Angeles. Jeff co-founded CultureStr/ke — now known as the Center for Cultural Power — and ColorLines. He has written for a number of publications, including The Guardian, Slate, The Nation, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Believer, Foreign Policy, N+1, Mother Jones, Salon, and Buzzfeed.

Rosa Clemente

Rosa Alicia Clemente is an award-winning organizer, speaker, political commentator, producer, independent journalist, scholar-activist and former vice presidential candidate. A leading voice Of her generation, the Bronx-born Black Puerto Rican is frequently sought out for her insight and commentary on Afro-Latinx identity, Black and Latinx liberation movements, police violence, colonialism in Puerto Rico, hip-hop feminism, third-party politics and more. In 2008, Clemente made herstory when she became the first Afro-Latina to run for vice president of the United States on the Green Party ticket. She and her running mate, Cynthia McKinney, are to this date the only women of color ticket in U.S. presidential history. Since then, Clemente has continued to be a powerhouse. She is the creator of Know Thy Self Productions, under which she has organized multiple national tours; PR on the Map, an independent, unapologetic, Afro-Latinx-centered media collective founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria; and the Black Diasporic Organizing Project, a nonprofit dedicated to combating anti-Blackness within the wider Latinx community. Recently, she was also associate producer on the 2021 Oscar-winning biographical drama film Judas and the Black Messiah. She is currently completing her PhD at the W.E.B. DuBois Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Tim Wise

Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and educators in the United States. He has spent the past 25 years speaking to audiences in all 50 states, on over 1500 college and high school campuses, at hundreds of professional and academic conferences, and to community groups across the country.

Wise has also trained corporate, government, entertainment, media, law enforcement, military, and medical industry professionals on methods for dismantling racial inequity in their institutions, and has provided anti-racism training to educators and administrators nationwide and internationally, in Canada and Bermuda.

JOIN US! Wednesday, June 16 at 12pm
Rally @ 12pm, Car Caravan @ 1pm, come with your car already decorated or use our supplies to decorate during the Noise Demo!

SPEAK UP! TODAY at City Council at 6pm (Item #37)
Agenda/zoom link: https://t.co/83qEceVlmZ pic.twitter.com/eO612B5PYv

— Berkeley Copwatch (@Copwatch411) June 15, 2021

We are gathering every Wednesday at noon on the steps of City Hall to demand a community budget that prioritizes CARE Not Cops!

The City Manager is proposing a budget that INCREASES funding for the Berkeley Police from last year! This is despite the city’s supposed commitment to “reimagine public safety” and decrease funding to the police.

In advance of the final budget vote on June 29, we are gathering EVERY WEDNESDAY AT NOON on the steps of City Hall to make them hear us and demand a community budget that prioritizes CARE NOT COPS!

We cannot continue with business as usual. According to the City Audit, BPD stopped Black people at a significantly higher rate than their representation in the Berkeley population (34 percent compared to 8 percent). The data also shows that less than 1% of all calls for service were for violent crimes and that 55% of calls to Berkeley Police came in on their “non-emergency” line. BPD failed to even capture data on how many calls involved unhoused people or those with mental health issues.

We need to hold the City Council to their promise to reimagine public safety. We must divert our city funds to alternatives that: (1) are completely independent from the police, (2) are accountable to our most impacted community members, (3) don’t respond only during crises and then leave, and (4) are transparent to the public.

Join us and make noise on the steps of City Hall! Bring your pots, pans, noisemakers. We’ll have speakers and open mic. Tell Berkeley why this is important for everyone’s safety.

This event is wheelchair accessible.

For more info on the Care Not Cops campaign and our Five Demands for the Specialized Care Unit (SCU), go to: berkeleycopwatch.org/care-not-cops

Share the flyer! Share on social media: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter!

We meet virtually on zoom on the second Wednesday of every month from 6-7:30pm. These meetings are open to the public. The content of our meetings span from trainings, campaign updates, teach-ins, debates, roundtable discussions, etc. Click below to join the meeting or use this link: https://zoom.us/j/96555663590

2021 General Meeting Dates: February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, June 9, July 14, August 11, September 8, October 13, November 10, December 8

Email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to obtain Zoom meeting access info.

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 2020 and 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, mass aerial surveillance, 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, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

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.

Our Green New Deal Committee meets on the second Wednesday each month. We will discuss eco-socialist issues, upcoming events and actions, committee priorities, and campaigns. All are welcome! Please RSVP to receive the URL to the meeting or email green-new-deal@eastbaydsa.org.

For years, Amazon has used its technological power to supercharge the criminalization of immigrants by providing cloud services to ICE and its partners. Now, the tech giant is an integral part of a $4.3 billion dollar biometrics database that would track and identify millions of immigrants and US citizens in real time. If we dont stop it, the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) project would expand policing of immigrants and their families by connecting biometrics databases across federal agencies and granting access to police departments.

Join panelists from Mijente, Immigrant Defense Project, Just Future Law.

Register here

Oakland Jericho’s monthly online events focus on Political Prisoners, their cases, dedication to the community, and guidelines for writing to them. This month we will discuss and write to: Ed Poindexter and Keith LaMar (Bomani Shakur).

You must register for your free ticket on Oakland Jericho‘s Eventbrite page to receive the zoom link.
Please register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-jerichos-political-prisoner-writing-sessions-tickets-154792064231

You will receive an email from Eventbrite confirming your ticket and then you will receive an email from Oakland Jericho within 2 days with the Zoom link. You will also receive a reminder email 1 day prior to the event. All ticket sales end the day before the event (June 9th) at 10pm PST for processing.
We look forward to seeing you!
Free em All!

The plan by the International Olympics Committee IOC and Japanese government to go ahead with the Tokyo Olympics in the middle of a global Covid Pandemic is a threat to not only the people of Japan but the world. Despite the desperate pleas of doctors and many healthcare workers in Japan who are overloaded with covid patients, the government has said it doesn’t matter what they or the people of Japan think about the Olympics.

Over 80% of the people oppose having the Olympics in the midst of a full scale pandemic but the IOC and Japan government with the support of Secretary of State Blinken and the the Biden administration could care less. The profits for NBC and the media companies come first for the IOC and the Japanese government.

It is the people be damned for these politicians, governments and the IOC. Japanese medical doctors are even warning of a possible Tokyo Olympic Covid variant coming out of these events which
will bring tens of thousands of people from around the world to Japan for the Olympics.

The Suga Japanese government is also planning to restart more nuclear plants and also release over a million tons of radioactive water from Fukushima where the burned nuclear reactor plants continue to leak radioactive material more than ten years after the melt-downs.

Nuclear clean-up workers including workers from overseas and other workers continue to get contaminated with no proper health and safety education and tens of thousands of bags of radioactive waste continue to remain scattered throughout the prefecture with no place to go. The government is also seeking to spread the contaminated waste throughout Japan in road construction and other projects.

The denialism of the dangers of having the Olympics in Japan is directly connected to the denialism of the dangers of Fukushima, the denialism of the Comfort Women and the Japanese government’s denialism during the 2nd World War that they could not lose the war. This effort to deny the present reality is connected historically to the rulers of Japan and it has led to the cost of millions of lives.

No Nukes Action asks you to join us and speak out to demand the cancellation of the Olympics, the halt to re-opening Japan’s nuclear plants and defense of the Fukushima people. We oppose as well the militarization of Asia supported by the US and Biden along with Congressional leader Nancy Pelosi. Thiis includes the building of the new Haneko base in Okinawa.
The Okinawan residents continued to be terrorized by US military jets and helicopters and the US is even training with these aircraft in the center of Tokyo despite the great dangers to the people of Tokyo.

Physical distancing and masks for all participants at action

As both socialism and abolition grow in popularity and relevance, this event seeks to explore the connection between the two. Come join the EBDSA political education committee and racial solidarity committee for this event and discuss the connection between the fight for a world without police and prisons and a world without capitalism. It is suggested to do the readings beforehand, but not required.

The Abolitionist Road to Socialism

Full Abolition, the Highest Stage of Socialism

From Detroit to Minneapolis: Police Brutality is Key to Containing Revolutionary Possibilities

Trump’s Tech Opposition – Jacobin interview

The Shallowness of What Tech Calls Thinking

Tech Workers – Friends or Foes?

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82881422882?pwd=YTZoZVlNWXJHVUdHU2dnQ1RxTVk1QT09

Meeting ID: 828 8142 2882

Passcode: abolition

One tap mobile

+16699006833,,82881422882#,,,,*496662311# US (San Jose)

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We are excited to convene an outdoor general meeting and social this month — come and hear from our outgoing and incoming leadership, learn about our plans for the coming year, and meet and mingle with other members.

We’ll meet on Sunday, June 13 from 12:30-2:30 pm in Snow Park in Oakland, at the corner of Harrison Street and 19th Street.

Snacks and hand sanitizer will be provided. Friends, family, and kids are welcome!

RSVP and we’ll see you there!

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 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 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! 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

 United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (and what you can do about it)
***  With Nolan Higdon and Mickey Huff  ***

The role of news media in a free society is to investigate, inform, and provide a crucial check on political power. But does it?

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82620271999?pwd=S3ZwUklteGI5YjJsMEtMSnJXRzU3UT09

Meeting ID: 826 2027 1999
Passcode: 2020

It’s no secret that the goal of corporate-owned media is to increase the profits of the few, not to empower the many. As a result, people are increasingly immersed in an information system structured to reinforce their social biases and market to their buying preferences. Journalism’s essential role has been drastically compromised, and Donald Trump’s repeated claims of “fake news” and framing of the media as an “enemy of the people” have made a bad scenario worse. That said, these concerns about media misinformation did not just disappear upon the election of Joe Biden and we must be ever vigilant against propaganda campaigns from the corporate press and both major political parties.

Written in the spirit of resistance and hope, United States of Distraction offers a clear, concise appraisal of our current situation, and presents readers with action items for how to improve it.  http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100388060

Dr. Nolan Higdon is an author and university lecturer of history and media studies. Higdon’s areas of concentration include youth culture, news media history, and critical media literacy. His most recent publications include The Anatomy of Fake News from University of California Press (2020) and United States of Distraction with Mickey Huff from City Lights Books. He sits on the boards of the Action Coalition for Media Education and Northwest Alliance For Alternative Media And Education.

Mickey Huff is director of Project Censored and president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. He is currently professor of social science, history, and journalism at Diablo Valley College where he is co-chair of the history area and is chair of the journalism department. He is executive producer and host of the weekly syndicated public affairs program The Project Censored Show on Pacifica Radio. His most recent publications include United States of Distraction (City Lights Books) co-authored with Nolan Higdon, and Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2021 (Seven Stories Press) co-edited with Andy Lee Roth. www.projectcensored.org

“Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon emphasize what we can do today to restore the power of facts, truth, and fair, inclusive journalism as tools for people to keep political and corporate power subordinate to the engaged citizenry and the common good.” Ralph Nader

“The U.S. wouldn’t be able to hide its empire in plain sight were it not for the subservient ‘free’ press. United States of Distraction shows, in chilling detail, America’s major media dysfunction – how the gutting of the fourth estate paved the road for fascism annd what tools are critical to salvage our democracy. Abby Martin, The Empire Files

Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. *We will start promptly at 5:00 pm each month — however, this month will be the final notice about that! The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows, at 6:30 pm. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

Sunrise Movement leaders from across California are marching 266 miles from Paradise to San Francisco for the Civilian Climate Corps. We’re marching to demonstrate the urgency of the climate and economic crisis, and need for Congress and Biden to pass an ambitious CCC by the end of Summer 2021 as an immediate first-step solution. The Civilian Climate Corps is a vision of a federal jobs program (modeled after the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps) that will put our generation to work combatting the climate crisis with equity and equality, scaled to the size of the emergency. Join us Monday, June 14th to welcome the marchers and walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and into the city. We will hold rallies and paint street murals outside the residences of our elected officials while demanding an ambitious CCC that provides good jobs to address the climate emergency and start the Decade of the Green New Deal. RSVP to stay in touch with the latest information.

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.