Calendar
Call to Action: The Economic Development Without Displacement Coalition (EDWD) invites you to stand against displacement and the destruction of a historic public space in West Oakland. Do Not Displace our Public Space!
Who (is being displaced): Black and Brown Elders of West Oakland
What: Call to Action to stop the closure and demolition of St. Andrew’s Plaza (a public micro-park in West Oakland) @ the City of Oakland’s “Community Kick-OUT Meeting”
Why: The City of Oakland is planning to displace neighbors at St. Andrew’s Plaza with their plan to demolish, fence off, and reconstruct the park beginning in January 2016. This effort will launch with a Community Kick-Out Meeting The meeting will be hosted by Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, with the city’s design team, to share key dates on this initiative moving forward.
About St. Andrew’s Plaza: St. Andrew’s Plaza is a mini park located on San Pablo Corridor, across the street from St. Mary’s Center in West Oakland,. The Plaza is a public gathering space for marginalized seniors, and has long been a social space for community members and houseless folks to come together, and often to receive food. The neighborhood borders Emeryville and is considered an ‘up and coming’ area given its proximity to North Oakland and South Emeryville. With the West Oakland Specific Plan and the San Pablo Corridor Coalition
About the Local Resistance: The City has in the past tried to alienate people’s rights to the park and increase policing by raiding the park, fencing of the space, and relocating the bus stop to outside of the Plaza (also see this article on St. Andrews Plaza on fireworks bay area). Last year neighbors in the area mobilized to tear down the fence surrounding St. Andrews Plaza and assert people’s rights to this space.
Part 3 of Movement Generation “Race, Class, & Ecology Series” which aims to answer the question “How do we respond to this global crisis of migration with justice, ecological understanding and deep love for the people?” Migration must be recognized for what is is: a natural response of all living things to escape hostile conditions and capitalist economies create these harsh conditions through exploitation, pollution and war.
Join this exciting conversation between migrant rights organizers, climate justice activists, and audience members.
Co-sponsored by: Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC), Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), CultureStrike, Mujeras Unidas y Activas (MUA)
SUNRISE PICKET!
“As a housekeeper, I work very hard so that Homewood guests can have clean rooms and a good experience at the hotel, but the pressure of having to clean so many checkouts in one day gives me so much stress that I don’t have any energy for my kids when I come home at the end of the day. That’s why I am fighting for the same workload protections, fair raises and affordable health insurance for my family, that other union hotel housekeepers in Oakland have.” – Consuelo Andrade, Homewood Suites Room Attendant
Housekeeping staff at the Homewood Suites are paid at Oakland’s minimum wage. The health insurance offered to employees is unaffordable for the majority of Homewood workers, so that some have to depend on public benefits. And many housekeepers complain of chronic body pain from cleaning too many rooms under time pressure. Homewood Suites workers are standing up for living wages, safe workloads, and affordable health care!
Join them on the picket line – and experience a gorgeous sunrise and good coffee while you fight for justice!
In solidarity,
UNITE HERE Local 2850
UNITE HERE Local 2850, 1440 Broadway, Suite 208, Oakland, CA 94612 | www.unitehere2850.org
Our next meeting will be on Thursday at SEIU local 1020 at 6 pm. Enter at 350 Rhode Island . Enter on Kansas Street side between 16 th and 17th street side.
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
Saturday January 30, 2016 is the grand opening of Mayor Lee’s Super Bowl City. He has spent all of his energy pushing out the homeless, disabling bus lines and creating traffic jams so that his precious Super Bowl City can inconvenience the city of San Francisco for two weeks.
This is energy he could have spent apologizing to Mario Woods’ family, seeking justice and acting like he actually cares about the black and brown community in San Francisco.
We have promised him no peace until we get justice.
We will bring it to his precious Super Bowl City at it’s Grand Opening this Saturday.
We will meet at Union Square and march to the main entrance on Market at Main.
Please wear black and bring a sign .
Please help spread the word and remember as you spread it through social media to use these hashtags:
#justice4mariowoods
#mariowoods
#firechiefsuhr
#nojusticenosuperbowl
#blacklivesmatter
Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition
Twitter: @Justice4MWNow
Instagram: @Justice4MarioWoodsNow
–COME SUPPORT OUR TENANT PICKET! —
Bring music and noisemakers!
–ALSO–
Please call and/or email Happy Homes and ask them to relocate the Morales family NOW!!
-info.hhpartners@gmail.com
-510.655.3253 (Bing Udinsky, owner)
-510.204.9922, and/or 510.599.2015 (office lines)
Don’t worry–they won’t answer the phone, so just leave a voicemail
–HAPPY HOMES AND 475 ALCATRAZ—-
The living conditions at 475 Alcatraz Avenue in Oakland—a property owned & managed by Happy Homes Partners, also known as Bing & Jerald Udinsky—are both dangerous and appalling. Multiple units have MOLD, WATER LEAKS, EXPOSED WALLS AND CONCRETE FLOORS, CARBON MONOXIDE/GAS LEAKS, and more. Happy Homes has consistently ignored tenant requests to repair units and clean common areas, knowingly exposing their tenants to unsafe conditions.
Despite this state of ill-repair, Happy Homes has continued to HIKE RENTS annually, as well as EVICT existing tenants and replace them with higher-income individuals who are willing to pay exorbitantly high rents—until the problems in their units start, after which they are essentially “forced out” of the unit by the bad conditions. Happy Homes then comes in and performs purely cosmetic interior repairs, and re-rents the apartment at new (even higher) “market rates.” The next tenant comes in, and the cycle starts all over again. This is Happy Homes’ business model!
–MORALES FAMILY STORY–
The Morales family, tenants of 475 Alcatraz since 2011, have faced particularly deplorable conditions; there is peeling paint, WATER LEAKS & MOLD throughout their apartment, they currently have NO WORKING HEATER, and they are UNABLE TO USE THEIR BEDROOMS because the flooring & wall was stripped down due to water flooding, so they sleep in their living room. They recently discovered that their oven was leaking massive amounts of CARBON MONOXIDE. They have been THREATENED WITH EVICTION for standing up for fair housing!
Two months ago, Happy Homes agreed to pay the Morales family a small sum for their suffering over the last 4 years if they move out of their apartment by February 15th. The Morales family plans to use the settlement money to relocate to a safe, clean apartment; however, Happy Homes’ insurance company says it may take up to another 6 weeks to pay the settlement. In the meantime, the Morales family are TRAPPED IN SUB-STANDARD & HAZARDOUS HOUSING, FACING if they don’t leave on February 15th, despite the fact that they have not received their compensation!!
As concerned members of the community, we must demand that Happy Homes IMMEDIATELY take the following actions:
• Completely repair ALL the units at 475 Alcatraz, and authentically repair the underlying structural problems
• Stop all evictions, and until the building is repaired, put a moratorium on the annual increases allowed by the city
• Provide the promised payment to the Morales family and return their deposit so that they are able to relocate!

–FOR QUESTIONS & MORE INFO CALL: CAMPAIGN FOR RENTERS RIGHTS (510.457.1846–Leave a VM)–
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.
Mayor Ed Lee told the homeless they “have to leave” for the Super Bowl.
Our response: “Hey Mayor Ed Lee, No Penalties for Poverty”
We, the people of San Francisco, demand that Super Bowl City and Ed Lee pay and invest $5 million right now in housing – we could house 500 people immediately with that money.
We also demand the use of publicly-owned assets, such as the empty Pier 29 or 80, or the land under the Freeway at 101/Cesar Chavez, and create monitored programs that support secure sleep, hygienic toileting, and access to transition/healing services.
Come out in your red & gold Niners colors to #TackleHomelessness. Join the Coalition on Homelessness as we protest the mayor’s unjust plan and demand immediate housing for our city’s unhoused residents.
Meet up is at 4:30 in front of Sinbads on Embacadero next to the Ferry Building. We are going to set up a tent city, with plenty of visuals next to the superbowl city. Bring signs and banners and cardboard cut-outs of houses. And bring tents if you don’t mind them getting confiscated.
In the meantime invite EVERYONE you know. Let’s show Mayor Lee how San Francisco stands up for our neighbors.
Homeless Statistics:
– There’s 1 shelter bed for every 6 homeless
– There’s an 8,000 person long wait for housing
– 3,300 Children make up SF’s homeless
– 61% have disabilities
– 11,000 citations were given to homeless for resting in SF last year
Superbowl-Related Statistics:
– 25% of the costs for Superbowl ads would be enough to end homelessness in SF (Each 30-second Superbowl ad costs 5 million.)
– The $5 million cost to SF to host the Superbowl would house 500 homeless people.
– SFPD is responsible for clearing out homeless people for the Super Bowl by giving them citations which are already up 30% from last year.
Citations are on the increase for sleeping on the streets of San Francisco even though there are not currently viable alternatives for the thousands of unhoused residents in that situation. The Department of Justice released a memo in mid and late 2015 stating that it is ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ for cities to criminalize sleeping on the street when no viable alternatives are available. Currently, we have 1 shelter bed for every 6 people on the street.
We are uniting together to demand the end of criminalization of homelessness and increased investment in real housing solutions to “Tackle Homelessness”.
On Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 Oakland Resident and mother of two, Yuvette Henderson was killed by Emeryville Police Department in West Oakland. She was 38 years old when her life was stolen. Yuvette leaves behind a 15 year old son and an 11 year old daughter.
Please join us as we memorialize Yuvette’s murder. We will first gather at Home Depot at 7pm for a short rally, then move to a silent, candlelit march to the corner across the street from where she was killed, where we will stop to listen to close friends and family members speak and commemorate her life.
#Justice4YuvetteHenderson
#SayHerName
Please bring candles and signs for Justice for Yuvette Henderson
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/