Come learn about criminalization and supporting our unhoused neighbors. The Coalition on Homelessness is creating a new community program, Sweeps Watch.
We will be educating unhoused and housed people in tactics for responding to Sweeps of encampments in our neighborhoods. We hope to build a network of solidarity, where housed folks are supporting the self determination of folks in crisis, with no where to go. We are doing this by building a network of rapid community responders that will have the skills to respond to police activity in their community safely and affectively.
We will have a more complete agenda closer to the date.
Some of what we will be learning about includes:
Filing claims against the city
How to document police activity and how best to take down a statement from a witness
Your rights during a police interaction
Strategies for fighting criminalization in SF
Please direct any questions that you may have to our Human Rights Organizer:
Dayton Andrews- dandrews@cohsf.org
Confirmed Panelists To Date –
more to be added soon:
Gaby Lopez – NLGSF Immigration Committee/Oaklaw
Elicia Vafaie – Asian Law Caucus
Sandy Valencia – California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance
Luis Angel- Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Who we are:The NLG is a membership organization of radical lawyers, legal workers / legal activists, law students and jailhouse lawyers, originally founded 80 years ago as the first racially integrated national bar association. Its mission is “in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.” We are active on a wide range of issues. The Bay Area Demonstrations Committee started in 1984 in order to organize legal support for protests against the Democratic Convention, and has supported most Bay Area progressive demonstrations and actions ever since, from antiwar protests to Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and anti-fascist actions. Within our capacity, we willprovidelegal support for any local progressive group that opposes racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism and transphobia. The Bay Area NLG chapter does not have any legal staff and the Demonstrations Committee is a group of volunteers – we do not have our own staff.
What we have typically done so far:The Demo Committee has a volunteer pool of criminal defense lawyers, legal observers, and legal hotline workers, as well as lawyers and legal workers with specific expertise on various issues. We train and organize lawyers, legal workers, community activists, and students as legal observers, legal hotline workers, and criminal defense attorneys for demonstrators or persons targeted by the state for political activity. We provide KYR and legal self defense education, and legal briefings and advice as part of direct action trainings and pre- and post-action meetings with organizers. By request or on our own initiative, we provide legal observers at protests, raids and actions to monitor the police, document arrests and police misconduct, and help communicate with off-scene legal support about arrests. We also train activists as legal observers. We line up lawyers to be on call to deal with jail release and to provide defense of criminal charges, as much as we are able, often in conjunction with the public defender. We often operate a legal hotline during actions and until everyone is released from custody. We can also train activist groups to do their own hotline or help staff ours. Our consistent efforts to provide aggressive criminal defense to demonstrators have resulted in thousands of charges being dismissed and significantly decreased the prosecution rate for low level demonstration-related arrests locally. We try to track each arrestee’s case through the entire process, and to provide volunteer court support in collaboration with activists’ wishes. Over the years, we have followed up on major police misconduct issues through media and policy work and advocacy, complaints with civilian review bodies, and occasionally through impact litigation, and have brought about significant reforms in police demonstrations, crowd control and mass arrest policies in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.
Immigration Committee and crossover work:The Bay Area Chapter has a number of other committees including a very active Immigration Committee. Among other things, our Immigration Committee recently trained more than 200 people to do immigration focused KYR trainings, is coordinating many KYR requests, and is working with a number of other organizations as part of the NorCal Rapid Response Network to respond to ICE raids throughout the region.The Immigration Committee will be having its own similar meeting with stakeholders to inform its specific work.
On Sept 11, 2001, at the request of community groups, the Demonstrations and Immigration Committee members immediately formed a Post-9/11 Committee to respond to attacks on Muslims and immigrants and political repression. As the legal arm of a community coalition, we were asked to create multi-lingual KYR materials that were widely distributed in targeted communities, and a Post-9/11 Hotline for persons targeted by FBI, ICE or other government agents. The hotline was originally staffed 24/7 by activists as well as by NLG members, and would find callers lawyers for a free consultation and possible pro bono or low fee representation. We quickly obtained grants and were temporarily able to hire a staff person for the hotline and related work. Over the years since then, a number of other groups such as CAIR have hired legal staff and otherwise expanded their capacities such that there are other legal hotlines covering a large part of what the NLG post-9/11 hotline was originally set up for. However, no other local groupsprovidelawyers or legal support specifically for radical activists who are contacted or subpoenaed by FBI or other law enforcement agents. This is still an active phone number in our office but we have not been doing outreach for it and it is not currently answered live; the voicemail is checked. Nor do we have legal staff in our office. This is one example of the type of resource we would like feedback on, as to whether this type of resource is needed in the community. We would like toinviteyou to a meeting to discuss these types of questions and hear from you.
Dinner will be provided.
President Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act may be dead for now, but healthcare in America still faces a host of challenges from the local to the federal level. What is the current state of American healthcare? What needs to be done? How does it impact our communities?
Join the BDC for a panel discussion on these issues and more. Featured panelists include:
Marty Lynch, Executive Director of Lifelong Medical
Lisa Edwards, Grassroots Organizer and Political Coordinator for Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Delvecchio Finley, CEO of Alameda Health Systems
This will include potential impacts on California if the Graham Cassidy proposal is passed, local and state healthcare issues, and Universal Health Care.
The event is free and open to everyone.
Asm @TonyThurmond is hosting a Disaster Preparedness Town Hall today 6-8 @ South Berkeley Senior Center. Speakers from FEMA & many others. pic.twitter.com/OPzjNZm43f
— Kate Harrison (@KateHarrisonD4) September 21, 2017
Please join AFSC and the Stop Urban Shield Coalition to participate in public comment at the Alameda County Urban Shield Task Force decision meeting.
Five members of Alameda County’s Urban Shield Task Force, including AFSC, proposed the abolition of Urban Shield and other regional exercises funded from sources that require a “nexus to terrorism,” as part of recommendations that will be considered at a final meeting this Friday. They cited the “controversy, opposition, and fear” generated by the Homeland Security-funded annual event, which is centered on a massive SWAT team competition in dozens of terrorist scenarios.
In response to widespread community protest against Urban Shield, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors established a Task Force in January to review several questions about the program.
Citing Alameda County’s Emergency Operations Plan, which assesses earthquakes and six other disaster scenarios as more impactful than potential terrorist incidents, the five members called for preparedness to be led by community and non-law enforcement agencies and for a primary focus on prevention of and recovery from disasters.
The final Urban Shield Task Force meeting (agenda) will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, August 25, at 125 12th Street in Oakland(at Oak St., 4 blocks from Lake Merritt BART; 6 blocks from 12th St. BART). Public comment on most proposals will likely be taken between 10:30 and 12:30.
Written public comment may also be submitted before Friday to: carol.burton@acgov.org.
Read the full list of the group’s proposals.
Upcoming:
All Out to Rally Against Urban Shield
Friday, September 8, 4:00 – 7:00 pm
Alameda County Offices, Board of Supervisors
1221 Oak St, Oakland, California 94612
Senator Bernie Sanders will be speaking at the CNA Convention in San Francisco on Friday and it’s open to the public. His speech will highlight his new Medicare for All bill (S. 1804). Please join if you can!
Bernie Sanders Speech Highlighting Medicare for All
What: Sen. Bernie Sanders, public address
The program opens at 12:30 p.m. with a special performance the John Santos Quartet, with guests Destani Wolf and Rico Pabon. Powell St. BART Station.
Please join the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America as we host Christian Parenti for a discussion on capitalism and climate change titled “From the New Mold Belt to Storm Socialism: the Perils and Possibilities of the Climate Crisis.”
Christian Parenti is associate professor in economics at John Jay College, CUNY. He is a frequent columnist at Jacobin and The Nation. His latest book is Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.
His recent essay for Jacobin Magazine, titled “If We Fail,” lays out the stakes he foresees in the next couple decades, and offers some solutions. You can read it here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/if-we-fail
Suggested Donation $5-15 will help us cover the rental fee, no one turned away for lack of funds.
VENUE INFO:
Humanist Hall is wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair users enter from 411 28th Street. Front doors of building are 390 27th Street.
RSVP for #CARenterPower #PoderInquilinxCA 9/23-24 #Alameda: https://t.co/c9tQK4uc9j. @TenantsTogether @CalOrganize @HFA_RenterPower @OurCity pic.twitter.com/LKeG7LC20Q
— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) August 25, 2017
California Renter Power 2017 is a statewide assembly of renters and tenant’s rights organizers fighting for housing justice!
With historic fights for rent control and just cause coming from the people, we are in a movement moment. A bill to repeal Costa-Hawkins has been introduced, new local tenant protections have been passed. What many said was impossible is now possible!
This assembly is open to all tenants seeking resources to organize for housing justice in their communities and organizers looking to connect with state and local campaigns and deepen their work.
We believe the current system of for-profit exploitation of our communities by landlords, developers, and real-estate speculators, seen in rising rents, evictions, displacement, and homelessness, does not work for low-income people and therefore does not work for any Californians. Our collective work for housing justice is grounded in the principles of racial, economic, and gender justice. We believe an injury to one is an injury to all. We believe housing is a human right. We believe to make that a reality we must build the power of tenants and low-income people to shape their communities. This current movement is standing on the shoulders of previous tenant and housing movements in California and beyond, and we seek to learn from the past to build for the future.
Co-Sponsors: Tenants Together, Homes For All, Right to the City Alliance, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment
Join fellow community members to let fascists, the alt-right and all white supremacists know that they are not are not welcome in the Bay Area.
Stay through the march or meet up afterward for a festival of resistance to celebrating black, POC, Muslim, immigrant, queer, trans, dis-abled, and interfaith communities!
This march was organized so that we can take the streets on our own terms – counter-demonstrations are very important, but we live here, this is our community, and every day is a good day to be united against white supremacy.
This march takes place the day before upcoming far-right, racist events set to take place on (and off) UC Berkeley campus, but it isn’t taking place at the same time as any of those events nor is it a specific response.
This is for us to come together on a day of our choosing and show unity and solidarity in the struggles against all forms of oppression!
Endorsers:
Af3irm SF/Bay Area
Anti Police-Terror Project
Berkeley Teacher’s Federation
Catalyst Project
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Left of the Dial
National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Oakland Brown Berets
SURJ – Oakland/Bay Area
Interested in endorsing? Follow this link! https://docs.google.com/
So you’ve heard of Bobby Bowens, the Black Panther leader after which the Richmond Progressive Alliance office is named. But how much do you know about Bowens and the history of the Black Panther Party in Richmond?
Now is your chance to learn more: The Black Panther Party-inspired Project Lead pop-up event with Bill Jennings is coming. This event is in honor of the late Bobby Bowens who was a member of the Black Panther Party, a tireless activist in the Richmond community and also a member of the RPA. His family will be invited to attend.
This event will include historical photos and memorabilia of the Black Panther Party from the collection of Billy X Jennings, Black Panther Party historian and archivist of “It’s About Time.” There will be refreshments, music and in the spirit of the BPP, a care bag giveaway for homeless persons.
Bill Jennings has lectured about the Black Panther Party and shared his exhibits at museums, galleries and other venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Co-sponsored by Project Lead and Richmond Progressive Alliance Arts & Culture Action Team.
ATTENTION: DACAmented relatives in the Bay and Califaz!!!
PLZ SHARE WIDELY pic.twitter.com/px5yuwKHQs
— #DefendDACA (@JosieVF) September 12, 2017
RSVP for #CARenterPower #PoderInquilinxCA 9/23-24 #Alameda: https://t.co/c9tQK4uc9j. @TenantsTogether @CalOrganize @HFA_RenterPower @OurCity pic.twitter.com/LKeG7LC20Q
— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) August 25, 2017
California Renter Power 2017 is a statewide assembly of renters and tenant’s rights organizers fighting for housing justice!
With historic fights for rent control and just cause coming from the people, we are in a movement moment. A bill to repeal Costa-Hawkins has been introduced, new local tenant protections have been passed. What many said was impossible is now possible!
This assembly is open to all tenants seeking resources to organize for housing justice in their communities and organizers looking to connect with state and local campaigns and deepen their work.
We believe the current system of for-profit exploitation of our communities by landlords, developers, and real-estate speculators, seen in rising rents, evictions, displacement, and homelessness, does not work for low-income people and therefore does not work for any Californians. Our collective work for housing justice is grounded in the principles of racial, economic, and gender justice. We believe an injury to one is an injury to all. We believe housing is a human right. We believe to make that a reality we must build the power of tenants and low-income people to shape their communities. This current movement is standing on the shoulders of previous tenant and housing movements in California and beyond, and we seek to learn from the past to build for the future.
Co-Sponsors: Tenants Together, Homes For All, Right to the City Alliance, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment
Please join us for the regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance — but it’s three weeks after the last one because we skipped a week for Labor Day. We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and future plans — we need your participation and your voice. Newcomers encouraged!
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
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
We are excited to announce our Fall Film Series at the Ecology Center! In an effort to open up our space to the community, while providing an accessible format for fostering discussions around the various climate issues we cover, we will be hosting free monthly screenings of select films at our Ecology Center store.
Check out a new film, or one of your favorites, with other members of the community for a fun-filled and family-friendly evening. All screenings are free and open to the public (and include free popcorn!).
—
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 2:13
Kicking off the Ecology Center film series is Princess Mononoke, from legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli team. This A classic animated film that explores the relationship between human activity and the environment through heavy symbolism to highlight the need for sustainable practices and greater consideration of the environment in day-to-day life. Miyazaki crafts a captivating tale of man vs. nature, where the exploitation of natural resources leads to the manifestation of deadly beasts that threaten an all out war between a mining village and the creatures of the forest.
Themes: Sustainability
Preview Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/
Future Showings and Event Links:
Historically, Open Circle has stayed stationary in Oakland and SF.
We’re at a point where we want to bring Open Circle to areas that need further support. We’ve been to Stockton. At this meeting, we will be organizing the October Open Circle to the South Bay. Who’s with us?!
Join us for a community potluck and thoughtful discussion around police accountability on behalf of families directly impacted by police brutality.
Open Circle holds space for families directly impacted by police terrorism to gather with each other and members of the community. We love and support one another. This gathering also provides opportunity and some structure to help families collaborate with each other in their struggle for justice for their loved ones.
*This is a Potluck Event, please feel free to bring a dish, snack or (non-alcoholic) beverage to share. ♥
Location Information:
5600 Third Street
(@ the corner of 3rd & Armstrong, across the street from MLK Park) SF CA 94124
*Enter side of building on Armstrong*
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.
Join us at the Finnish Hall for our next General Assembly! Doors open at 7PM; we’ll start promptly at 7:30PM. We’ll have updates from our teams, an invited speaker, and community event announcements, followed by team breakouts and discussions.
Bring snacks to share! Bring friends!
Questions? Email info@indivisibleberkeley.org.
CA State Senator Nancy Skinner will providing an end-of-session legislative report-back! Details below. More speakers to be announced.
Please RSVP to let us know how many people to expect. No RSVP? No problem – we’ll also have a signup at the event.
California lawmakers recently wrapped up one of the most progressive legislative sessions on record—approving: the “sanctuary state” measure, SB 54; a package of bills addressing CA’s affordable housing crisis; legislation that steps in to embrace environmental and land-use policies, as a push back against the Trump administration, and other important policies.. Bring your questions and thoughts for what’s sure to be a lively and informative discussion regarding recent legislation, bills signed into law by the Governor… and what’s on the horizon.
Elected to the Senate in November of 2016, Nancy Skinner represents California’s 9th Senate District, where she has been a strong social justice advocate, energy and climate change trailblazer, and accomplished legislator. She completed three terms in the State Assembly before being elected to the Senate where she’s served as chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, and on numerous other Committees.
Senator Skinner began her public service in 1984 as the first and only student to be elected to the Berkeley City Council. On Council Skinner introduced the nation’s first Styrofoam ban and co-founded an international association of cities, ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability. After her term on the City Council, Skinner served as Executive Director of ICLEI’s US office and International Director of ICLEI’s Cities for Climate Protection program which engaged cities worldwide to take action to stop climate change.
Berkeley Rally Against White Supremacy
“Defend Our Campus, Reclaim Free Speech”
We are students, workers, and members of the UC Berkeley campus community, the City of Berkeley, and the larger Bay Area. We are immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, queer and trans people, liberals, leftists and others. We think it’s time to come together in a united front, celebrate our differences in solidarity, and speak out against the hateful currents in American politics while affirming our vision of a free, inclusive, and equitable society.
Since the 2016 election, white supremacists have been coming to Berkeley to intimidate, harass, and incite violence against us. This time, the UC Berkeley administration is set to spend hundreds of thousands of public education dollars and heavily militarize the campus to ensure that Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, and Stephen Bannon speak at our university from September 24-27. We believe these speakers and their supporters are dangerous to our community. They support deportations of our undocumented friends and family and are leading figures of the white supremacist movement. They uphold the structures of power that violently police the speech and democratic rights of workers and oppressed people around the world.
But we will not be silenced or intimidated. The massive demonstrations of August 19 in Boston and August 26-27 in the Bay Area proved that when we come together, we can protect our communities and politically defeat the bigots. In that spirit, we are meeting on Crescent Lawn—away from the police militarization and the hateful provocateurs on the other side of campus—to reject white supremacy, speak to each other about the world we want, and reclaim our campus, our city, and our democratic rights Join us, bring signs, bring friends!
On Monday, September 25, Republicans are holding a hearing in the Senate Finance Committee that’s designed to provide a fictional “process” as a fig leaf to win Republican (particularly McCain’s) votes [on the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson health care proposal]. To call out this sham process and put more pressure on Senators in these final days, we’re asking you to take action on Monday, September 25th.
Will you stand in solidarity with other Indivisible groups and partners across the country and join us at a sit-in at Senator Feinstein’s San Francisco district office? Our message is clear, use your influence to #KillTheBill.
TrumpCare is back and Indivisible’s national network (and partner)s will show up together to say that it would hurt our friends, our families, and our country—and we’ll remember this vote! If the Republicans have any hope of passing TrumpCare, they only have a few days left. We’re going to do everything we can to stop them; attend this event and show your constituent power.
PLEASE MEET AT 1 POST STREET. Bring signs, sit-in starts at noon; pizza party at 12:15. Please form your own carpools.
At the end of 2016, in an effort to support work in the basic income movement, the Economic Security Project was founded. The Project is a two-year, $10 million fund that provides grants to projects focused on basic income like academic research, state and local campaigns, and cultural projects around economic security. Grant recipients include the Roosevelt Institute, GiveDirectly, basic income advocate Scott Santens, and the Universal Income Project.
Join us on Monday, September 25 for a conversation with Economic Security Project Co-Chair Natalie Foster and Creative Consultant Cara Rose DeFabio. We’ll hear about their work supporting basic income projects, their recently launched speculative fiction contest, and about the upcoming CASH Conference in San Francisco.
The event will be hosted at Covo, a coworking space just off of 6th and Mission. Snacks and drinks will be available.
To attend, please RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/105730950120701/