Calendar
CARE NOT COPS Noise Demo
Wednesday June 2, at 12 noon
Steps of City Hall (2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley)We are gathering every Wednesday at noon on the steps of City Hall to demand a community budget that prioritizes CARE NOT COPS.https://t.co/AAIVMEHg2S
— Berkeley Copwatch (@Copwatch411) May 30, 2021
In the 1960s, Daniel Ellsberg traveled to Vietnam to study conditions on the ground, as the war escalated during the Johnson presidency. While there, he slowly but surely came to the conclusion that the war was not only immoral but also unwinnable. And, upon his return Stateside, he told this to anyone whose ears he could catch, be they Defense Secretary Robert McNamara or Ambassador Averell Harriman, as Sasha Abramsky detailed in a recent Nation profile of Ellsberg as he approaches his 90th birthday. When these senior figures didn’t listen, when the war continued and the list of lives lost grew longer by the hour, he made the momentous decision to go public with his insider knowledge that that war was based on a web of lies. The Pentagon Papers published in 1971 by The New York Times changed the course of history.
Fifty years after leaking the Pentagon Papers, he shows no signs of slowing down. Join a conversation with the OG whistleblower and Katrina vanden Heuvel about trying to open eyes kept deliberately shut by those who would prefer to avoid having to deal with the crises of our times.
Tickets are $10. All proceeds directly support The Nation’s journalism. We hope you will join us! There will be ample time devoted to audience questions and conversation. All ticket-holders will also be sent a link to the recording 24 hours after the event concludes. If you have any questions, please email us at events@thenation.com.
Night Out for Safety and Liberation
Learn what we are up to and how to get involved with our campaigns as well as upcoming events. During this meeting we will be featuring a special presentation discussing our upcoming annual Night Out for Safety and Liberation event. Night Out for Safety and Liberation is the night when people across the country come together to reimagine what #SafetyIs: dignity, opportunity and freedom for our communities. As the country begins to re-open, we are planning in-person, socially distanced events where our communities can unite and heal each other from the harm too many of us experience at the hands of law enforcement. Learn more about this and how you can directly participate in the planning and day of the event!
General EBC member meetings are usually held the first Wednesday of the month*
Register
Join us on June 3rd for our first virtual regional summit, We Take Care Of Us: A Deep Dive Into The Movement to Decriminalize Mental Health & Skin Color. We’ll spend an inspiring afternoon learning about how to build replicable and sustainable alternatives to police and prisons for mental health — and how we as a community can take care of each other in moments of crisis.
May is #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth, and we know that alternatives to the police for mental health crises are more critical than ever. Up to 50% of the people killed by law enforcement are in the middle of a mental health crisis. Those who are killed are disproportionately Black and Brown. A mental health crisis should not be a death sentence, but it too often is, particularly for people with Black and Brown skin.
We’ll learn from families directly impacted and fighting for justice, elected officials ready to implement new approaches, and healers and organizers who are already doing the work of birthing new, life-affirming, community alternatives into existence from the ashes of today’s barbarous systems of state violence.
Come hear from local leaders and participate in workshops on topics such as:
- Mental Health First: learn about APTP’s cutting-edge community response program in Oakland and Sacramento, and how you can build a similar program in your community without waiting for the state.
- MACRO: how organizers can work with cities to find solutions.
- What is CAHOOTS? Learn about the Oregon model that everyone’s talking about!
- First responders: a case study in how community can prevent police murder and keep each other safe.
- The movement to defund the sheriff and decriminalize mental health in Alameda County
- How police became the answer to every social ill and what we must do to end that practice
- And more!
Come spend the day with the people who are powering the movement to decriminalize mental health and create a world without cops and cages in Northern California and beyond. Learn about current efforts to provide compassion and care to those in crisis, not a badge and a gun. We don’t need police because #WeTakeCareOfUs.
ASL, Spanish interpretation and closed captioning will be provided.
Co-sponsored by the Anti Police-Terror Project, Justice Teams Network and KPFA.
The NLG – San Francisco Bay Area will be hosting a Digital Security Training for young people to cover these areas of online safety:
- How young people are being watched by the government
- (surveillance)
- How the government uses this information
- How to keep yourselves and others safe while at protests, while texting and while using social media
- What apps you can use to stay safer
If you are interested in joining or have inquiries, please contact: savannah@nlgsf.org
The Oakland budget is currently being negotiated in City Hall and we have until June 30th to make sure elected officials support defunding the police and refunding of services, housing, education, arts, mental health services, and other programs that enhance Black lives and Oakland’s working class communities.
No experience is necessary! Making calls is easy, and there will be zoom training before you start. This is a great event for anyone whether you’re new to political campaigns or a seasoned organizer! Phone banking is also a great activity you can do from the safety of your home, during COVID!
RSVP here to join the virtual phone bank at 6 pm. You will need a camera and microphone on your computer, as well as a phone or headset to make the calls. Instructions will be provided once you join!
ZIM is Here! Mobilize at 6:00am – at The Port of Oakland #BLOCKTHEBOAT (from Adrienne Fong) https://t.co/O9kVJirgCz pic.twitter.com/I05HkbRy2d
— OccupySF.net (@BathtubBulletin) June 4, 2021
Our mobilization is working! We're current picketing 6 different gate entrances with over 600 people, and workers are not crossing the pickets. The message is clear: profiteering from Israeli apartheid is not welcome in the Bay Area #BlocktheBoat #BDS #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/cUxFDNarJs
— AROC #BlocktheBoat (@AROCBayArea) June 4, 2021
Proceedings have begun in Marin County Superior Court against San Quentin State Prison and the California Department of Corrections (CDCR) for what one judge has called “the worst epidemiological disaster in California correctional history.”
More than 300 individuals have filed ‘habeas corpus’ petitions, alleging the prison violated 8th Amendment protections against “cruel and unusual punishment” when a transfer of incarcerated people which failed to test for COVID, to San Quentin resulted in a massive COVID-19 outbreak.
In May of 2020, CDCR decided to move 121 incarcerated people from the California Institution for Men (CIM), in Chico, to San Quentin. At the time, CIM had the highest COVID-19 infection rate of any prison in California. Prior to the transfer, San Quentin did not have a single confirmed case.
In the ensuing weeks, approximately 75 percent of prisoners and staff were infected with the virus.
We will have a panel to discuss this massive injustice.
Confirmed speakers:
Danica Rodarmel, SF Public Defender’s Office
Professor Hadar Aviram, UC Hastings Law School
Adamu Chan, Former Incarcerated Person
Member of the Legal team, invited
#BlockTheBoat ACTION #2: Everyone mobilize this afternoon to Middle Harbor Shoreline Park @ Port of #Oakland 4pm or earlier. Israeli owned ZIM Cargo Vessel "Volans" will attempt to offload/onload cargo. No War Criminal Apartheid Zionist economic interest allowed in our town! #BDS pic.twitter.com/327BYQXOWc
— Free Palestine (@domainawareness) June 4, 2021
Join us as community leaders discuss how labor and community can work in partnership together. Let’s build people power.
Wednesday, May 5th, 5:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Register: bit.ly/EBCmeeting
We are hosting another Mutual Aid day on Sunday in Hayward! All are welcome, supplies are on a first come, first serve basis. Come through for a hot plate of food, essentials, and community.
If you are interested in volunteering please fill this out: https://t.co/SBiqsNpyOR pic.twitter.com/MmD7goWg7q
— Ella Baker Center (@ellabakercenter) June 3, 2021
Come celebrate the unveiling of Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area’s new mural, “The world is on fire,” with music performances, art activities, storytelling and some surprises!
The mural is larger than life and has to be seen in person to fully appreciate the love and detail that our Art Working Group painters put into this over many months during COVID lockdown in 2020. Now that we can finally be out on the streets again, come celebrate and find community in the power of creativity to help us #TellTheTruth and turn the tide on the climate and ecological emergency.
Our first date got rained out, but we are going to reschedule for early June. We will be screen printing posters on-site for you to take home, and have painting stations for children and adults alike.
This event is outdoors and COVID-safe, so please follow community health guidelines, wear a mask, and bring hand sanitizer.
Contact leanarosetti@gmail.com for more info about Extinction Rebellion SF Bay Area’s Art Working Group.
Email clarionalleymuralproject@gmail.com for info about the Clarion Alley Mural Project.
Please join us at our
HCA – Contra Costa County Chapter Zoom Meeting Supporters in Alameda County are welcome to join us
If you are interested in joining us, please email Yi Shepard.
Links to the draft agenda and April meeting notes
Message from Chapter Co-Chairs
Dear HCA-CCC and HCA-Alameda members/supporters,
As you probably know, despite robust support among California citizens and many legislators, AB1400, the single payer bill introduced by Ash Kalra, has been tabled for this session so that financing issues could be further discussed. In the meantime, The Healthy California for All Commission, set up by Governor Newsom in 2019, has reconvened. Their first meeting was May 21, 2021. Discussion was focused on the effects on costs, coverage and equity of a unified financing system. There are three committee members who are very knowledgeable and supportive of changing to a single payer system and they spoke clearly and strongly about the merits of such a transition. Further support was vocalized by a number of articulate community members during the public comment session. You can view the meeting at www.chhs.ca.gov/healthycaforall. The next commission meeting will be June 25, 2021. The agenda will include design options and a Community engagement update.
AB1400 HCN (Healthy California Now) a statewide network of pro-single payer organizations which includes HCA, PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) and CARA is appealing to Governor Newsom�s leadership and campaign promise for single-payer, while addressing the urgency and devastation of the COVID pandemic, and seizing upon the unique opportunities within the new presidential administration. The need has never been more clear and more achievable for a comprehensive and guaranteed healthcare system that puts an end to increasing costs, limited provider choices, soaring drug prices, surprise bills, and health plans that charge more and cover less.
Janet Thomas and Susan Buckland, Co-Chairs HCA-CCC
Dan Hodges, Chair HCA-Alameda
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
Want to know your rights & stand up for others in your community? Want to document the police & organize for change? Every 1st & 3rd Monday from 6:30-7p we're hosting New Member Mondays. Hop on zoom so we can answer yr questions & get you plugged in
Zoom: https://t.co/Henl2S4Pc9 pic.twitter.com/UHiSti3Slv— Berkeley Copwatch (@Copwatch411) May 7, 2021
Because of the COVID pandemic we will be meeting virtually via Zoom on the first Monday of the month.
Meeting ID: 828 0976 4186
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.
In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.
We meet on the 1st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to
oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
The Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee hearing is tomorrow at 1:30 pm; public comment will be at the beginning. We hope for a unanimous vote of support, which could mean the ordinance goes on the full City Council’s consent calendar, as early as next week. This may be the principal time for telling City Council why we have worked for this measure.
We have two asks of you to put this over the finish line:
1. Join us tomorrow Tuesday at 11:30 am for a brief Facebook Live event with Vice-Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and community sponsors of the military equipment ordinance. We will voice the broad community support for this ordinance
2. Show up on zoom on Tuesday at 1:30 pm to make a public comment in support of the military equipment ordinance. This is our chance to make ourselves heard. If the ordinance passes unanimously in Public Safety with no harmful amendments, it could go onto the full City Council’s consent calendar. See talking points on the ordinance here. The zoom link is here. A graphic for social media is attached also.
Berkeley passed a similar ordinance in April, and California is considering another, but neither is as encompassing as the Oakland ordinance, which explicitly applies to mutual aid deployments from other city’s police in Oakland, has a private a right of action, and stronger reporting requirements. Let’s make this ordinance a reality.
American Friends Service Committee
California Healing Justice Program
Tel: 510-282-8983
With Juneteenth quickly approaching, we dive into WEB DuBois’ classic book Black Reconstruction in America, specifically looking at the chapter “The General Strike”.
Join us as we discuss this important part of American history and how we can apply these lessons today.
Readings:
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