Calendar
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
Families directly impacted by police murder and people of the community who attend Open Circle have decided to take the necessary steps to repeal the California Police Officers’ Bill of Rights.
As we know, trump believes the country needs more law enforcement, more community engagement, and more effective policing. We understand what this means for People of Color and have already begun to feel the consequences.
We must unitedly intensify our efforts to put an end to this corrupt system, bring justice for the lives already lost to police murders, and protect the individuals whose lives are at risk at this very moment.
Repealing the California Police Officers’ Bil of Rights has a crucial role in exposing the gross misconduct of police officers and those who protect them with the goal of holding them responsible for their crimes.
Join us in a thoughtful collaboration with families who’ve lost loved ones to police murder to offer community support for them and help them repeal the California Police Officers’ Bill of Rights.
Agenda:
3:45 – 4:15 Introductions and Family checkins
4:15 – 5:15 Collaborate on repealing the Police Bill of Rights
5:15 – 5:30 Announcements
5:30 – 5:45 Network
*This is a Potluck Event, please feel free to bring a dish, snack or (non-alcoholic) beverage to share. ♥
Location Information:
Armstrong Place,
5600 Third Street
(@ the corner of 3rd & Armstrong, across the street from MLK Park) SF CA 94124
From Oakland : BART to Embarcadero Center, transfer downstairs to MUNI and get on the T Light Trsin going south bound towards Bayview, get off on Caroll Street and walk back half a block on 3rd.
Emergency door on the armstrong side will be open so that attendees can come directly to the common room.
Escuela Comunitaria presents:
This dialogue in the Latino community will be an evening of telling our stories, and the first showing of the new film ‘Where the Guns Go’, a documentary on U.S. weapons and testimonies of victims of organized crime and the drug war in Mexico.
Organizado por Oakland Sin Fronteras, American Friends Service Committee, Frente Indigena de Organizaciones Binacionales, 67 Suenos, Encinal.
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 billion 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!
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
“VJ Burma”
Film Presentation and Short Talk
by Ethan Davidson
As our country seems to lurch closer and closer to extreme authoritarianism, it is useful to learn
about how other people have successfully resisted extreme authoritarian government. The Saffron Revolution in Burma, and its video journalists, is one such example. In 2007, five years before Occupy, the people of Burma spontaneously organized a large mass resistance in a nation ruled by a brutal military government. It was not the first such rebellion. Students, dissidents, rural ethnic minorities, and Buddhist monastics had resisted before. But they had always been put down by brute force, leaving most things unchanged. Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the democratically-elected leader, had been denied power and held under extended house arrest on and off for two decades.
In 2007, when a large mass resistance broke out, a dilemma had to be confronted. The media was totally state-controlled, and foreign journalists were not permitted in, so whatever happened was known only to those who had seen it. In response, a group of independent video journalists taped
the uprising and the response as it happened, at the risk of their lives, and others smuggled the footage into Thailand, and from there to the global media.
The uprising really caught fire when the Buddhist monks started participating. Burma is a
Buddhist nation, and its monks are highly respected. But in the past, those monastics who had resisted the government had been killed, while those who did not were given good food and beautiful, comfortable buildings. The generals who ruled Burma loved to be photographed giving food to monks, and these pictures were posted all over the state media.
Traditionally, Buddhist monks eat by going silently from house to house with begging bowls and eating anything that was put in them. While this custom had been modified, the symbolism of the begging bowl was still a potent one. All the monks had to do was to march in public with their begging bowls turned upside down, symbolizing their refusal to take food from a corrupt or harmful source. No words or banners were needed. The meaning was understood by all.
At its peak, demonstrations were estimated at up to fifty thousand people. Inevitably, another government crackdown followed, and the film ends on a grim note. Yet change followed rapidly. The generals lost much of their power, and Aung Sand Suu Ki was released. She ran for the nation’s highest office again, and won by a landslide.
The movie is comprised completely of videos taking by the Video Journalists, and includes footage of highly dangerous situations that one rarely has a chance to see.
Come and see how resistance can be successful, even in the most desperate situations.
Time will be allotted for announcements.
Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality.
Note: At our November meeting we changed our meeting date from the first Tuesday of the month to the first Monday, starting December 5th
Tthe suggested theme is “Congress: Tell Sessions to Resign Now!”—join members of MoveOn, the Working Families Party, Democracy for America, Public Citizen, and other allies as we deliver this message!
This noon time rally is our part in a National Day of Action. We will represent the Bay Area for Res…
#ResistTrumpTuesdays:
WHAT: Rally to tell CONGRESS: jEFF Sessions MUST Resign now!
Attorney General Jeff Sessions lied under oath about conversations with Russian officials during the campaign. His recusal is not enough. He cannot uphold the law if he can’t follow the law. Sessions must resign, and we need an independent investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia.
Together, we’ll make sure members of Congress see impassioned crowds on Tuesday and hear our calls to fire Sessions. We’ll also make it clear that Trump’s second Muslim Ban, just released today, is as bad as his first, and must go. Join the next #ResistTrumpTuesdays event near you.
Will you join the rally tomorrow to tell your member of Congress to “Tell Sessions to resign now” as a part of #ResistTrumpTuesdays?
YES, I’LL BE THERE!
A call has gone out. It asks us to begin organizing a general strike on March 8, in response to Donald Trump’s oppressive administration and the neoliberal attack that threatens our livelihood.
We are heeding the call. Given the short amount of time, we are not planning for a strike in the traditional sense. We are instead planning a 5 pm demonstration.
By organizing this, we hope to create the tools and infrastructure necessary to organize a women’s bloc for the national general strike called for May 1 in Oakland.
Join us at the Omni Commons to discuss, plan and work towards building our collective power.
— Planning Meetings will be held Tues and Thurs leading up to March 8.
The idea for the women’s strike actually didn’t originate in the United States, but it is a call in solidarity with women’s organizations from 30 different countries who put out a call for a strike on International Women’s Day, March 8. This is our effort at trying to explain why it was important that American feminists sign onto this call … in this country, part of our intention is to bring politics back to International Women’s Day by turning it into a political event, by highlighting the ways that women continue to suffer from misogyny and sexism in the United States and to give concrete descriptions of that.
But also, the strike is about highlighting the ways that “women’s work” or “women’s labor” is at times unseen. It can be undervalued, underpaid. The strike is about drawing attention to that by, in effect, extracting those many different manifestations of women’s labor on March 8 to highlight the extent to which women’s labor continues to play a central role in the political and, I would say, social economy of the United States…
International Women’s Day came out of a demonstration of working class and poor women in Petrograd in Russia in 1917 in opposition to World War I and to fight the redirection of resources out of war back into the lives of regular people. The slogan was, “Demonstration for Peace and Bread.”
We are a growing group that is interested in building collective power among women and their comrades. We reject Trump’s racist and sexist basis of power, and the entrenchment of these power asymmetries by capitalism. These forms of women’s domination, and oppression centered on gender more broadly, are not merely a women’s issue. So, unless otherwise noted, our meetings and events are open to all.
_ the plan _
We are starting this process by building towards an action on March 8th, women’s day, in Oakland. This modest goal will help us lay the groundwork for a women’s bloc on the May 1st general strike. The general strike has been called by SEIU, a labor organization that represents mostly service workers–a line of work that mostly employs women and people of color.
_ a word on “women” _
We recognize that the identity of women is fraught. Gender and sexuality are truly fluid historical constructions. These historical constructions form the basis of oppression along the lines of sexuality and become felt in everyday life. This means that oppressive regimes of sex and gender are not issues reserved only for women. Gender and the domination that follows it are a truly human issue, one which men too are not exempt. It is for this reason that we also stand in solidarity with the trans and queer movements, as they are also grappling with these facts of domination.
Join the Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the surveillance state, against Urban Shield, and to advocate for privacy and surveillance regulation ordinances to be passed around the Bay Area, including the Alameda and San Francisco County Boards of Supervisors, the BART Board of Directors, and by the Oakland and Berkeley City Councils.
We are also engaged in the fight against Predictive Policing and other “pre-crime” and “thought-crime” abominations, drones, improper use of police body cameras, ALPRs, requirements for “backdoors” to your cellphone and against other invasions of privacy by our benighted City, County, State and Federal Governments.
OPWG originally came together to fight against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OPWG was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network; its members helped draft the Privacy Policy that puts further restrictions on the now Port-restricted DAC, and made Oakland’s new Privacy Advisory Commission to the City Council happen. We were also the lead in having Alameda County pass the most comprehensive privacy and usage policy in the country for deployment of “Stingray” technology (cell phone interceptors). In conjunction with other groups we fight against Urban Shield and other killer-cop trainings.
We have presented our work at RightsCon in San Francisco and at Left Forum and HOPE in New York City.
If you would like to attend our meeting and would like a quick introduction to what we’re doing before we dive right into the thick of our agenda, send email to contact@oaklandprivacy.org and one of us will arange to meet you before the meeting.
Stop by and learn how you can help guard our right not to be spied on by the government. Look on the whiteboard inside near the entrance to the OMNI for our exact location within the OMNI.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
or send a request to contact@oaklandprivacy.org
For more information on the DAC check out
Want to get involved with SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. You’ll also hear about SURJ committees, as well as upcoming workshops and events. We’ll answer your questions, and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice.
Intro to SURJ Meetings are held the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
Presentations by John Crew and Pastor McBride.
Discussions of ALPR, CAIR and participation in the JTTF.
Partial Agenda:
1. “Stop Trumpintelpro” ordinance requiring OPD to follow higher state, county, local standards, not weaker federal/FBI guidelines, when participating in JTTF. Guest speakers from ALC, ACLU, CAIR. Would be nice to have a few public comments in favor, but the need is greater at Public Safety than PAC.
2. Surveillance equipment ordinance returns to address City Attorney comments on Sec 8 (enforcement, same as it ever was), Sec 9 (prohibition on NDA or conflicting provisions in MOUs – not a challenge by city attorney, wants clarification), Sec 10 (whistleblower) – the proposed amendments look good. The ordinance should hit PSC on April 11.
3. Misc. federal partnerships (ICE, DEA, FBI Safe Streets Task Force) and data sharing (ARIES, NCRIC) discussion – no action. We only have 1hr 45min, so we likely won’t reach this item. I’ll bring it back for the April meeting.
Join the ACLU of Northern CA and sf.citi for an informational panel with legal scholars and San Francisco’s tech sector to discuss the issues surrounding recent immigration restrictions and ways in which our communities can move forward together. The event will be held at the LinkedIn Corporation.
Enjoy drinks on us and discuss how tech can stand together to support immigrants. Featured will be Helena Price’s latest project Banned, a photo and video series of tech workers who have been affected by the immigration ban. The photos include employees from Facebook, Google, Pinterest and other companies.
Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the panel will begin at 6 p.m.
The words of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution were supposed to guarantee that slavery and involuntary servitude effectively were outlawed. The exception of punishment for a crime where the “party shall have been convicted” is the loophole. As detailed in Ava DuVernay’s “The 13th”, the injustice system in America has not changed all that much since the earliest days of slavery. The statistics DuVernay puts onscreen say it all: African-Americans make up 6.5% of the U.S. population but a whopping 40% of the prison population — in a country with the highest level of incarceration in the world; up more than tenfold since 1970 and existing mostly to put away black and Latino men.
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee.
We’re ramping up for SB562, universal health care for all Californians! Come to the meeting to learn about the bill and the campaign to get it passed and how you can get involved.
The Alameda County chapter of Health Care for All – California will hold an organizing meeting in Oakland. Everyone is cordially invited! We’ll be discussing the new bill, the campaign to pass the bill, and how you and we can work to get this bill passed. So bring your friends and neighbors, and your passion and your energy.
Idle No More SF Bay and Tribal Nations in the west are in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous grassroots leaders who are calling on our allies across the United States and around the world to peacefully March for Native American rights on March 10th. We ask that you rise in solidarity with the Indigenous peoples of the world whose rights protect Mother Earth for the future generations of all.
The march will begin at 5:00 p.m. at the Federal Building at 7th & Mission. There will be a short rally there before the march to the Civic Center. The rally at the Civic Center will include a traditional California Indigenous opening with Corrina Gould, speakers on the history of Native Americans and the Federal Government, Native American leaders, and others.
This event is co-sponsored by Idle No More SF Bay and the International Indian Treaty Council.
Our Demands:
#TakeTheMeeting // President Trump must meet with tribal leaders to hear why it’s critical that the US government respect tribal rights. This administration must work with us.
#ConsentNotConsultation // Tribal interests cannot continue to be marginalized in favor of the interests of corporations and other governments. Consultation is not enough– we must require consent.
#NativeNationsRise // The Standing Rock movement is bigger than one tribe. It has evolved into a powerful global phenomenon highlighting the necessity to respect Indigenous Nations and their right to protect their homelands, environment and future generations. We are asking our Native relatives from across Turtle Island to rise with us.
[This list of demands will grow, stay tuned]