Calendar
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
We’ve began the “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, the San Francisco Labor Council and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.
Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors just endorsed Postal Banking. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
We are planning our next event, ‘Jam the Sale.’ Spread the workd and come help us out!
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Special Meeting with Andrew Chirwa.
“Bloody Thursday” July 5th commemorates the police murder of maritime workers in the 1934 Big Strike which provoked the San Francisco General Strike. All US West Coast ports are shutdown to honor the 6 labor martyrs killed during the strike.
In 2012, at the Marikana mine in South Africa, 34 striking miners were massacred by police. ILWU Local 10 sent a letter of protest to the ANC-led government. Andrew Chirwa, president of NUMSA, the largest union in that country will address workers about the massacre and miners strike, the longest in South African history, and the impending metalworkers stroke.
On July 1, both the South African metalworkers union and the ILWU longshore contracts expire. NUMSA is preparing for a “full-blown strike” much like the maritime workers did in 1934. Now is the time for international labor solidarity.
Organized by the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee.
What can we do about the growing Surveillance Industrial Complex? ”
“Surveillance is the business model of the Internet.” — Bruce Schneier
Technology and war have always been interrelated. Some historians see the intersection of science, technology and the US military during WW2 as the beginning of the modern Military-Industrial Complex. Yet mass communications technology has also been historically significant in transforming society, from the Gutenberg printing press, to Television’s connection to the 1960s political and social upheaval, to the rise of the Internet.
As the Bay Area tech industry becomes the de facto center of global technological innovation, its ties to the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies are becoming more and more apparent. Companies like Hewlitt-Packard, Google, Palantir, and Amazon all have close ties to the same military and intelligence establishment that Bay Area activists have been organizing against since the 1960’s. With our basic liberties, such as right to assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of Privacy and the right to a jury trial all under a concerted attack by the government, it should be of increasing concern that the companies we depend on for communicating and accessing information are also dependent on Defense establishment contracts and ties to appease their shareholders and continue their monopolies.
With the Internet becoming such a force for change and democratizing power, why is it under attack right now? The Internet as we know it, free and open, is being threatened by Federal government appointees. Many called Occupy “The Internet generation.” From the Arab spring to Occupy, the Internet and social media tools were key tools for communication. The Internet is a deterritorializing force that is upending the established modes of power and decision-making. This talk will delve into all these questions and more and what we can do to fight back and build the world we want to see.
Q&A and Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum
to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
We’ve began the “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, the San Francisco Labor Council and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.
Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors just endorsed Postal Banking. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
We are planning our next event, ‘Jam the Sale.’ Spread the workd and come help us out!
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
We’ll have read the Bank of England admitting that it’s own in inner workings are completely opposed to that of economics textbooks and a paper on Capital Controls. We encourage anyone to bring their own reading and video material that they think the group could benefit from. The more voices the merrier!
- For next class:
- http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/quarterlybulletin/2014/qb14q102.pdf
- http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/99/11/9911cn.pdf
- and the class after:
- http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2012/111412.pdf
Meeting of the City of Oakland’s “Privacy and Data Retention Ad Hoc Advisory Committee” – open to the public.
When:
2nd & 4th Thursdays
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where:
Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
14th & Broadway
Read the announcement from the City of Oakland City Administrator’s Weekly Report (April 25, 2014):
This committee was created by City Council action during the discussions earlier in the year about the Port Domain Awareness Center (DAC). The goal of the DAC is to improve readiness to prevent, respond to and recover from major emergencies in the Oakland region and ensure better multi-agency coordination across the larger San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the Privacy and Data Retention Policy is to ensure there are safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violations of individuals’ privacy rights and civil liberties. The meeting is open to the public. For questions about the Ad Hoc Committee, please contact Joe DeVries, Assistant to the City
We need to show up to these meetings and pressure the City to adopt a privacy policy that makes privacy a priority, not only “security” or administrative convenience.
Sponsored by Berkeley Copwatch.
Come and help organize the resistance against more police getting more weapons.
Tasers kill!
A teenage artist known in the graffiti world as “Reefa” died of heart failure after a Miami Beach Police officer shot the 18-year-old in the chest with his Taser, the medical examiner has concluded.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
*****>> NOTE OUR CHANGE OF
MEETING LOCATION FOR THIS WEEK <<*****
We’ve began the “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, the San Francisco Labor Council and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. Just recently AFCSME and UNITE HERE did too. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
for the last two weeks the sidewalk in front of Staples has been ‘occupied’ 24/7 by an intrepid band of San Francisco occupiers with solidarity and support from BPOD members, and they plan to continue there, distributing literature and convincing people not to shop at Staples, indefinitely. Go by and say ‘Hi!’ and help them out.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.
Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors just endorsed Postal Banking. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
We are planning our next event, ‘Jam the Sale.’ Spread the work and come help us out!
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Fossil Fuel Monopolies or Community Choice Energy?
Our Path to Renewables is Under Attack!
with Eric Brooks
Although carbon emissions are rising faster than efforts to curtail them, there are glimmers of hope. A growing number of networks including cities, states, regions and even markets are working together to implement climate plans. And costs of renewable energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, cogeneration (and efficiency programs) are falling so quickly that large-scale deployment is practical. The public is ready to rally on climate change. It is now up to policymakers and industry to answer the call.
But as usual, fossil fuel monopolies and their henchmen are stalling. Community Choice Energy, (allowing local jurisdictions to offer energy-efficiency programs, develop local renewable energy resources, and buy clean wholesale electricity to sell to local residents and businesses) is being held hostage by large corporate incumbent utilities fighting tooth and nail to hang onto their business. Their efforts include disinformation campaigns, pitting ratepayers against each other, confusing ballot initiatives, and false “studies” of the grid’s capacity to handle solar, leaving Clean Energy’s prospective clients in limbo.
Yet Clean (renewable) Energy is burgeoning. The recent Intersolar North America Exhibition at Moscone Ctr. hosted approximately 600 exhibitors and 18,000 attendees, with a world-class exhibition of solar and wind solutions from across the globe, demonstrating the switch.
Meanwhile, in California, AB 2145, (a bill currently under consideration in the state’s legislature) would effectively prevent Community Choice energy programs in the state as the
Big 3 corporate utilities (PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E) and SF’s own Mayor Ed Lee attempt to crush Community Choice. Come to OccupyForum to learn about the political pressure against AB2145 and the push to implement the real fight to save the planet.
Release the children now! Children don’t belong in prison!
No more deportations! Immediate family reunification!
Full social, medical and physiological attention to all children and youth now!
Immediate access to legal representation!
Strike Debt Bay Area (@strikedebtba)will meet at Oscar Grant Plaza in the amphitheater or on the front steps of City Hall, Saturday, July 19, from 3-5:30 p.m. If you have specific questions for a smaller group, or just want to know a few people before the meeting starts, email us at the address above.
Activism on such a big issue – all unjust debt! – can use as many people and talents as we can find. If you are excited by the idea of Strike Debt, and/or our many projects, come join us! Our project include organizing for public banking in Oakland, participating in Occupy San Francisco’s third anniversary convergence, creating Strike Debt radio segments, a number of which have been broadcast on KPFA, securing funding from the City of Vallejo for nonprofit check cashing and public finance study initiatives, saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office Jobs, working with the City of Richmond and other municipalities for eminent domain seizure of underwater mortgages from the banksters, and more.
From some of our past activities:
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
The People’s Climate Curriculum
with Laurie Baumgarten & Anne Donjacour
Are you interested in helping people understand why climate change is occurring and what can be done about it? If so, come to our workshop and learn how the People’s Climate Curriculum is the tool you have been waiting for. It is easy to use and helps each of us become learners and teachers of basic climate literacy.
Every mass movement for change begins with a change in consciousness. It involves a leap forward into a consciousness that says, “I am a subject, not an object. I can act, I can do, I can create.” Educational tools which promote the development of this proactive stance are crucial to the work of popular education.
Our People’s Climate Curriculum educates through a method of teaching developed by Paulo Freire called dialogic pedagogy. The teacher/animator mingles among the participants. Together, through reflection, they critically examine social reality. Unlike traditional educational models in which participants are treated as objects to be taught, this interactive model attempts to counteract passivity and promote action.
Climate change is part of everyone’s social reality. Being literate in climate language helps us become empowered and thus, more able to solve the present crisis. Join us to learn more about our popular education campaign and how to use the People’s Climate Curriculum.
Laurie Baumgarten has been an activist since she was a freshman at Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement. She was active in the anti-war movement, the women’s movement and The Abalone Alliance. She was also a classroom teacher for 35 years in the Berkeley Unified School District. Laurie joined the climate movement about 2 years ago and helped develop the People’s Climate Curriculum. She now works with The Sunflower Alliance.
Our own Anne Donjacour has been a member of OccupyForum and the OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group since the beginning. Her activism has branched out to other groups such as 350.org, the Unitarian Universalists, and many more. She is a professor at UCSF School of Medicine and is raising a passel of activist children!
Q&A and Announcements to follow.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
We’ve began the “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, the San Francisco Labor Council and has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. Just recently the American Federation of Teachers, AFCSME and UNITE HERE did too. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
For the last three+ weeks the sidewalk in front of Staples has been ‘occupied’ 24/7 by an intrepid band of San Francisco occupiers with solidarity and support from BPOD members, and they plan to continue there, distributing literature and convincing people not to shop at Staples, indefinitely. Go by and say ‘Hi!’ and help them out.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.
Encouraging articles are still coming out about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. The National Conference of Mayors just endorsed Postal Banking. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
We are planning our next event, ‘Jam the Sale.’ Spread the work and come help us out!
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Third planning meeting for a Bay Area action coinciding with demonstrations in New York City at the UN Climate Summit, September 20 and 21. Although this is the third meeting, anyone interested in working on this is welcome to attend.
Additional information about the People’s Climate March in New York can be found at peoplesclimatemarch.org.
Here are the articles on Piketty we will read for the next class
Summary of Piketty argument:
http://boingboing.net/2014/06/24/thomas-pikettys-capital-in-t.html
Critique of Piketty:
Mainstream:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/05/capital-eats-the-world/
Occupy (very short by Graeber):
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/30/savage-capitalism-back-radical-challenge
Plus a radio interview from Michael Hudson:
http://youtu.be/uv6kEd9C9CM
And another, optional, topical-historical take on Picketty and Capitalism:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24489-the-compelling-conclusion-about-capitalism-that-piketty-resists
Here is how to get to the OMNI from BART:
1) get off at the MacArthur station
2) head East towards Telegraph
3) go North up Telegraph for 4-5 blocks
4) veer left onto Shattuck
5) go 3 blocks up Shattuck to the big white and blue building on the left (4799)
6) ring the bell (top right of door)
7) Tell ’em you’re here for he Public School class
Hope to see you all there!
Meeting of the City of Oakland’s “Privacy and Data Retention Ad Hoc Advisory Committee” – open to the public.
When:
2nd & 4th Thursdays
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where:
Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
14th & Broadway
Read the announcement from the City of Oakland City Administrator’s Weekly Report (April 25, 2014):
This committee was created by City Council action during the discussions earlier in the year about the Port Domain Awareness Center (DAC). The goal of the DAC is to improve readiness to prevent, respond to and recover from major emergencies in the Oakland region and ensure better multi-agency coordination across the larger San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the Privacy and Data Retention Policy is to ensure there are safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violations of individuals’ privacy rights and civil liberties. The meeting is open to the public. For questions about the Ad Hoc Committee, please contact Joe DeVries, Assistant to the City
We need to show up to these meetings and pressure the City to adopt a privacy policy that makes privacy a priority, not only “security” or administrative convenience.
Come help stop Berkeley Police from getting tasers!
After each mishap or tragedy that occurs these days in Berkeley, we are told that it could have been averted “if only” the police had been issued tasers. The mayor of Berkeley made this claim after six Berkeley police killed a mentally ill transgender woman in her own home last year. BPD officers made the same claim again when a mentally ill man stabbed himself several times. This week, Chris Stines of the Berkeley Police Association (BPA) went to great pains to spread the notion that if a Berkeley police officer had had a taser this past week, he wouldn’t have been assaulted. It is regrettable that the BPA uses these incidents as nothing more than a way to win political points. The issue of how to protect officers as well as the human rights of the citizenry is far more complex than simply giving cops more hardware on their belts.
Of course, these kinds of statements can never be proven. No one can know whether a taser would have prevented the confrontation in which the officer was involved in a fistfight with a suspect who was believed to be mentally ill. The BPA continues to apply steady political pressure to our local politicians and insists that somehow, real safety resides in our ability to meet suspects with electric shocks. At Berkeley Copwatch, we disagree. We believe that it is the duty of the officers to place the well being of the community at the forefront of their efforts. We believe that mentally ill people have a right to treatment and should not be subjected to torture because of a condition which they do not control. It is time for the City of Berkeley to return to the humane approaches for which it was once famous and reject the militarization of care which has overtaken our approach to community health and safety.
Top ten reasons against tasers.
October 2014 Nationwide Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
Just in the past few weeks we have witnessed:
**1000’s of children being driven across the border by US devastation of their homelands and then finding themselves caught between Homeland Security rounds-ups and flag-waving racists
**The District Attorney in Santa Rosa California refusing to charge the cop who murdered 13-year old Andy Lopez
**2 videos that went viral showing cops brutally and unjustly beating Black women
All these and more outrages only serve to underscore more than ever the need for powerful outpourings of resistance in October as envisioned in the Call for a Month of Ressistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation (www.stopmassinceration.net) that was adopted at the meeting convened in New York in April 2014.
Let’s all come together, individuals and organizations and make real plans so this October, so our determination to end all this reverberates across the country and around the world!
October 2014 needs to be a full month of many diverse forms of resistance.
Already, prominent and respected voices are signing the Stop Mass Incarceration Network’s Call for the Month of Resistance.� Join� Ayelet Waldman, novelist, lawyer ; Alice Walker, author; Peter Coyote, actor, author, director; Cornel West,� author, educator, voice of conscience;� Carl Dix,� Revolutionary Communist Party; Noam Chomsky,� Professor (ret.), MIT*; Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson; Michelle Alexander, and 100’s of others who have pledged to be part of the Month of Resistance
Stop Mass Incarceration Network, San Francisco Bay Area 1.pdf
STOP URBAN SHIELD IN OAKLAND!
September 4-8, 2014, in Oakland, California, Urban Shield — a trade show and training exercise for SWAT teams and police agencies — will bring local, national and international law enforcement agencies together with defense industry contractors to provide training and introduce new weapons to police and security companies. Take a stand against the militarization of our community.
Decrease violence in our communities by ending the militarization of the police.
From schools, the border, prisons, to the streets, our communities have become sites of repression and violence at the hands of law enforcement. Ever increasing militarization of our communities has created a culture of surveillance and repression targeting poor communities of color. Community-led solutions addressing poverty and the violence of policing are the best ways to ensure genuine safety, health, and wellbeing for people most vulnerable to state violence.
- We demand the City of Oakland defund all activities related to Urban Shield
- We demand that all city agencies withdraw their participation in Urban Shield.
Our communities refuse to be testing grounds for tactics of global repression.
Local police departments collaborate with federal agencies to share information and tactics through vehicles such as fusion centers to surveil and control targeted communities. These same agencies are also exchanging policing and repression tactics with international security officers including but not limited to the Apartheid State of Israel. The import and export of technology and tactics includes purchasing weapons, training local police forces, and sharing strategies through activities such as Urban Shield. Our neighborhoods have become laboratories in which to test international and domestic warfare.
- We demand an end to all City collaborations with the Apartheid State of Israel.
- We call on the City of Oakland to issue a report on all collaborations between the Oakland Police Department and international law enforcement agencies.
- We call on the City of Oakland to reject all US wars and occupations here or abroad.
Community Self-determination
Our communities know what is required to address the social, economic and political problems we face. Bay Area residents should have decision-making power over how and where resources are allocated in order to build stronger and sustainable communities.
- We demand that Bay Area residents have decision-making power in the process to determine priorities for public safety and emergency preparedness.
- We demand that the City of Oakland invest in community-based programs proven to decrease violence and harm instead of in the increased militarization of its police force and emergency services.
We call on our communities to continue fighting back and resisting state violence and repression.
In the face of growing efforts to police our communities, we must forge alliances to challenge systems of repression and build power in our communities. Understanding prisons, borders, surveillance and policing as tools of global repression is critical to building and maintaining powerful movements for liberation. Gentrification in our streets is colonialism elsewhere. The War on Terror we are living through today is a new formulation of the War on Drugs, and the violence inflicted on our communities necessitates a unified stance against all forms of repression from the US to Brazil, to the Philippines and Palestine.
- We ask our allies and partners to adopt these principles and take a stand against the policing and repression of our communities.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogueon all sides of these critically important issues!
OccupyForum presents
Jiwon Chung and friends:
Theatre of the Oppressed
Internal Oppression
�
As we’ve previously experienced, Theater of the Oppressed is a collection of games, techniques and exercises for using theater as a vehicle for personal and social transformation. It uses the dynamized human body and the charged theatrical space as a laboratory for exploring power, transforming oppression, and finding solutions to the fundamental problems of conflict, inequality, injustice and human suffering. Last time we focused on oppression by external power; this time we’ll explore how internal oppression controls us.
Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed has spread across the Americas and more than 70 countries worldwide. Theatre of the Oppressed is taught in classrooms and in the streets, bringing together students, scholars, administrators, policy makers, and community activists in the pursuit of social justice and human rights. Its use is particularly timely today given the worldwide attention to the rights of the indigenous peoples represented by the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007.
Jiwon Chung is a professional actor, director, and a key theorist of Theater of the Oppressed. He is the Artistic Director of Kairos Theater Ensemble, Adjunct professor at Starr King School at the Graduate Theological Union, and past President of the national organization for Theater of the Oppressed. Author of numerous books, articles, and performances, he is considered a pioneer in the integration of somatics, theater of the oppressed, and socially engaged art. The focus of his work is in the application of theater as a tool for social and political change, using Theater of the Oppressed to challenge, resist, and transform systemic oppression and structural violence and to redress large scale historical atrocity and injustice. His approach to performance and social change is informed by his background as veteran, martial artist, and 3 decades of Vipassana meditation.
Announcements will follow.