Calendar
Osha is a long time stalwart civil rights attorney, advocate for the disenfranchised, artist and renaissance activist. Thursday he will be a MECA on 1101 8th Street, Berkeley, signing his latest book, Doodling On The Titanic: The Making Of Art In A World On The Brink. Faceplant
Every Thursday in January is Black Lives Film Night
This week: “Watermellon Man” (1971) narrative of a white guy who wakes up as a black man
Please come to court in San Francisco to support our 2 comrades who were arrested by the during #BARTFriday.
BART police and SF Sheriffs retaliated against these two brave individuals while they were in custody. Particularly severe pain and trauma was caused to one of our arrestees, whose cane was stolen by BART PD, and despite repeated requests for mobility assistance, she was denied any help and police mocked her as they forced her to move about the BART station and jail without assistance.
Check the Facebook event for last minute postponements, etc!
Carl Dix, co-founder of the
Stop Mass Incarceration Network
will be speaking on:
POLICE MURDER BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE ALL THE DAMN TIME!
Why does this happen?
Why are they almost never punished for their crimes?
And what will it take to end this?
During the last few months, powerful, beautiful and determined protests have been dragging some of the reality of what it means to be Black or Latino in Amerikkka out into the open for all to see. People in Ferguson first stood up to say NO MORE to police murder. Many, many people, all across the country and of different nationalities joined in determined and defiant resistance to STOP BUSINESS AS USUAL in a system where the USUAL BUSINESS is MURDER by POLICE.
The actions of the people have done more than all the commissions, all the “conversations about race,” all the “programs that (supposedly) ‘work,’” all the et cetera et cetera blah blah blah bullshit of the past two decades. And they have compelled tens of millions to confront one huge, taproot part of the ugliness that is America: America’s ghoulish, horrific practice of using people who are supposed to be “serving and protecting” to not just pen in, lock down, abuse, humiliate, and brutally attack its Black and Latino youth, as these heartless monsters do every hour of every day, but to outright murder these youth under “color of authority.” The people have, in these past months, taken a big step toward stopping this. Obama, once again, has it exactly wrong: righteous rebellion is precisely what changes things.
Carl Dix grew up in an African-American working class community of Baltimore, Maryland. While attending college, he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. In 1970, he was one of six GI’s who refused orders to go to Vietnam. This was the largest mass refusal of orders to Vietnam during that war. Dix served two years in Leavenworth Military Penitentiary. It was during his incarceration that he became a revolutionary. After his release from Leavenworth, Dix returned to Baltimore, Maryland, and worked and organized at the Bethlehem Steel plant. In 1985, Carl spearheaded the publication of the Draw The Line Statement that condemned the bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia, killing 11 people, 5 of them children. In 1996, he co-foundedthe October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. In 2011, Carl, together with Dr. Cornel West, co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and initiated a campaign of civil disobedience to STOP “Stop and Frisk.” This campaign took the effort to end that racist and illegitimate policy to a higher level. In 2014, Carl and Cornel called for making October 2014 a Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.
@BellaEiko discusses why #BlackLivesMatter based upon her Oakland activism, KDVS Davis 90.3 FM, 5:30pm today, 1/23, http://t.co/5NTBGNjnXw
— KDVS (@KDVS903fm) January 24, 2015
Bay Area tweeps: Check out this event on Friday>>#BlackPanthers, #Oakland 1968, Henry Raulston Photographs pic.twitter.com/U2ek7j7U6T
— Sonny Lê (@sonnylebythebay) January 22, 2015
“Groundswell Rising”– a new film about fracking
Learn more about how fracking is poisoning our water and air, causing cancer and asthma, and how ordinary people are successfully fighting to stop the oil and gas industry from fracking in their communities. This provocative and hopeful film documents a people’s movement, a groundswell rising, challenging a system that promotes profit over health.
The film will be followed by a discussion with the director Renard Cohen and a representative of Bay Area 350 who will talk about the movement to ban fracking in California.
New York has banned fracking. We can too!
The planting was a few weeks ago. The gardening work continues. Join us!
More information on the Berkeley Post Office Defense against the sale and privatization here.
Pictures and videos of the soil preparation and planting here.
You are invited to join a citywide discussion about the relationship between Black & Brown communities and Law Enforcement.
On Saturday January 24, the Oakland City Council will convene a special meeting to hear from community groups and individuals about concerns raised in recent protest activities and to discuss what the City can do to improve police/community relations.
If you would like to speak at the meeting, you can fill out a speaker’s card in advance or on the day of the meeting.
#Oakland City Council #BlackLivesMatter forum flyer AND draft agenda. #oakmtg pic.twitter.com/v1Zlrsb7WZ
— TDL (@tdlove5) January 20, 2015
Sponsored by Radical Women and SFSU Rebel Voices.
The Walk for Life is a pro-life event that opposes reproductive rights, taking place two days after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Stand with us as we defend the right to a safe and legal abortion!
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A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice is an anthology of stories, analysis, and reflections from global movements fighting the tar sands and oil extraction using a wide variety of strategies and approaches. It features writing by Indigenous organizers from across the continent, analysts, and campaigners, as well as 350.org staff and board members, including a forward by Naomi Klein and Bill Mckibben.
What: The multimedia book launch will include a discussion on solidarity, extraction, and Indigenous sovereignty and climate change, with panel of frontline activists fighting tar sands in the Bay Area, as well as international perspectives. Presenters will include Winona La Duke of Honor the Earth (via Skype), Vivian Huang of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Pennie Opal Plant of Idle No More, an organizer from Pittsburg fighting Wespac oil-by-rail, and Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign (via video).
Click here to RSVP for the event on Facebook.
Event Co-sponsors include Idle No More SF Bay, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Movement Generation, Center for Story Based Strategy, and the Ruckus Society. If you can’t make it on Sunday, we’ll also be holding a more intimate discussion in San Francisco on Thursday evening — more info here.
As the largest industrial project on earth, the Alberta tar sands essentially constitute a strip mine spanning an area the size of Florida. Tar sands development comes with an enormous environmental and human cost. But tar sands opponents — fighting a powerful international industry — are likened to terrorists, government environmental scientists are muzzled, and public hearings are concealed and rushed.
Yet, despite the formidable political and economic power behind the tar sands, many opponents are actively building international networks of resistance, challenging pipeline plans while resisting threats to Indigenous sovereignty and democratic participation.
This struggle is one of the most epic of our times. I hope this book can offer us both a bit of hope and some solid lessons on resistance.
You can read more about the book here.
Our 4th open circle to connect and organize toward the end of police militarization, state violence and systemic racism.
- RSVP and invite folks to the Facebook event
This open circle will continue the dialogue and planning around support, goals, and long-term strategy in addressing the long-standing issues of the extremely disproportionate degrees of police brutality and killings of black people and people of color, systematic racism, state violence, militarization of police, and more that have been brought to the forefront once again due to the recent surge of such atrocities.
Let’s kick this meeting off with a potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:30 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
- Open circle will begin with report backs and announcements of upcoming actions followed by group discussion.
- The announcements segment will be shorter than last time to allow more time for group discussion.
- There will be breakout groups to allow time for networking and collaboration on projects and affinity groups.
- The facilitation team welcomes suggestions, guidance, and especially participation. Please get in touch by commenting on this page if you want to offer any of these.
We Need a Revolution and a Revolution is Possible!
Come hear Carl Dix & Sunsara Taylor speak on why. They will take questions.
Sunsara Taylor is a writer for Revolution Newspaper, an initiator of Stop Patriarchy, and sits on the Advisory Board of World Can’t Wait. She has written on the rise of theocracy, wars and repression in the U.S., police murder and mass incarceration, and more. She has led in building resistance to these crimes as part of building the movement for revolution to put an end to all this. She takes as her foundation the new synthesis on revolution and communism developed by Bob Avakian.
In 2013 and 2014, Taylor led two Abortion Rights Freedom Rides, nationwide political and moral counteroffensives against the attacks on abortion. Declaring that “Forced Motherhood is Female Enslavement” these Rides situated the battle over abortion in the fight for women’s liberation, traveled to 17 states, and mobilized mass independent political resistance to defeat the war on women. You can find her impressive verbal battles with Bill O’Reilly and various political commentary by searching “Sunsara Taylor” on youtube. Carl Dix is a long time revolutionary leader and a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). The foundation of his work is the new synthesis of communism developed by Bob Avakian, the leader of the RCP.
In 1970, Carl was part of the Fort Lewis 6, the largest mass refusal of US soldiers to go to Vietnam. In 1985, Carl spearheaded the publication of the Draw The Line Statement that condemned the bombing of the MOVE house in Philadelphia, killing 11 people, 5 of them children. In 1996, he co-founded the October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation. In 2011, Carl, together with Dr. Cornel West, co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and initiated a campaign of civil disobedience to STOP “Stop and Frisk.” This campaign took the effort to end that racist and illegitimate policy to a higher level. In 2014, Carl and Cornel called for making October a Month of Resistance to Mass Incarceration, Police Terror, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.
Free Movie: Fruitvale Station
with author and environmentalist
Mark Hertsgaard
Surviving Climate Chaos: Reframing the Climate Question
Mark Hertsgaard has spoken and written about global warming for more than 20 years. At the birth of his daughter, he was struck by how much more rapidly the earth’s warm-up has come upon us, and by the evidence of these changes. In his most recent book: HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth, Hertsgaard travels the globe to cover climate change effects and policy. He writes: “This book is both a father’s cry and a blueprint on how all of us as parents, communities, companies and countries can navigate this unavoidable new era.”
Herstgaard will address how these changing conditions especially affect peoples living around the equator and in low-lying countries as the oceans rise. What does this mean for them? What will it mean for us? How can we begin to prepare for these inevitable mass migrations?
Like the 400,000 people who traveled to the streets of NY to marshal action on the climate chaos upon us, we must not remain silent. We must become part of the movement and contribute, using our best capabilities. We need thousands of ordinary heroes to step forward and create a new future.
Mark Hertsgaard is the author of six books and a long-time contributor to leading media outlets around the world, including The Nation, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Businessweek, NPR and the BBC. Food &Water Watch, 350 Bay Area, Roots Rhyzing, The Sunflower Alliance and Rising Tide will offer audience members brief descriptions of their climate work, and be available to welcome people who’d like to get involved.
Refreshments available, wheelchair accessible
RSVP: uus4peace@gmail.com or call 415-595-7306
Over the next 50 years, climate change will transform our world in ways we have only begun to imagine. Herstgaard will address how these changing conditions especially affect peoples living around the equator and in low-lying countries as the oceans rise. What does this mean for them? What will it mean for us? How can we begin to prepare for these inevitable mass migrations?
Mark Hertsgaard has spoken and written about global warming for more than 20 years. An environmental correspondent for NPR, The Nation, the New Yorker and other media organizations, Hertsgaard travels the globe to cover climate change effects and policy.
Refreshments available, wheelchair accessible.
Sponsored by the Unitarian Universalists for Peace & Justice,the Green and UU-UNO committees of the UU Society,and OccupyForum SF
As communities around the nation have taken to the streets in the ongoing movement against police brutality the question of the police and their role in society has taken on new importance. With the police killing a Black person every 28 hours a movement is emerging that challenges the idea of who they protect and who they serve. The very origins of their institution is saturated in racism and violence. From their beginning as a force to quell strikes, urban riots, and the threat of slave insurrection they have always existed primarily as an enforcer for the 1% and the protector of their property.
Join the International Socialist Organization for a discussion about the origins and function of the police and their relationship to racism, class and capitalism.
