Calendar
Sara Fonseca spends roughly 23 hours a day confined to a small concrete prison cell. The inmate, who is in her early thirties and goes by the nickname “Mariposa,” has been behind bars for nearly thirteen years, and since 2012 has been locked in a so-called “Security Housing Unit” — a highly restrictive setup commonly described as solitary confinement. That means she has extremely limited communication with anyone inside the prison — the California Institution for Women, located in Corona, forty miles east of Los Angeles — and virtually no contact with the outside world.
But this week, audiences across the Bay Area will get a chance to hear Mariposa’s story — in her own words. Mariposa and the Saint, a play Mariposa co-wrote with longtime friend Julia Steele Allen, gives viewers an intimate look at the impact of incarceration from the direct perspective of an inmate housed in what advocates describe as one of the cruelest features of the prison system. The 45-minute play, which Allen will perform at La Peña Cultural Center (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) on May 10, is the culmination of two years of letters between Mariposa and Allen.
This will mainly be a letter writing event. There will be a brief case overview of political prisoners that have signed onto the June 11th event, and attendees will provide direct support for long-term anarchist prisoners by selecting a pen-pal and mailing them words of solidarity. There might be drinks and refreshments.
Occupy Forum devoted to planning and expanding the coalition event of
“Listen Up Mayors…coming up June 19-22
at Union Square, SF and other locations nearby TBD.
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter
Stop “Fracking” Mother Earth
Stop Crude By Rail
People Before Profits
Homelessness is not a Crime
Medicare for All
Strike Against Student Debt
Tax the Rich
and Jobs Not Jails
These essential demands have been opposed by most Big City US Mayors.
So….Listen Up Mayors.. We are the 99%
In the SF Bay Area,
Gentrification and Home Foreclosures
only serve the 1%
WE MUST RESIST TOGETHER
also see http://www.ussocialforum.net/ussfgoals
Join California Coalition for Women Prisoners for a performance of Mariposa & the Saint and a conversation about the shocking conditions in California’s women’s prisons and what can be done to change them.
In 2012, Mariposa was sentenced to fifteen months in solitary confinement. In 2015, she is still in a special confinement unit. Through letters with longtime friend Julia Steele Allen, who met her through a CCWP prison visiting team, Mariposa brings her experience to the stage.
Written by Sara (Mariposa) Fonseca & Julia Steele Allen
Directed by Noelle Ghoussaini
A Benefit for the California Coalition for Women Prisoners.
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, play begins promptly at 7:30 pm
“It is not enough for me to stand before you tonight and condemn riots. It would be morally irresponsible for me to do that without, at the same time, condemning the contingent, intolerable conditions that exist in our society… And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
It turned out to be Baltimore. The police murder of Black, brown and poor people has not stopped despite the Black Lives Matter movement–if anything, instead it has accelerated. An escalation of resistance was due, and now it has begun. Oakland has its own contribution to make to the struggle. Join us in discussing the way forward.
After a period of public comment, the Oakland Public Safety Committee will again take up recommendations from the ad hoc Committee on the Domain Awareness Center Privacy Policy.
— a strong privacy policy in place for the DAC.
— creation of a privacy policy for the City of Oakland
— a surveillance equipment acquisition ordinance, demanding open and transparent processes before acquiring such devices.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group asks you to come and stand and speak in support of these proposals, which will make Oakland a model for privacy across the nation.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. We meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month.
Our work together encompasses:
- (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent and care workers;
- (2) current campaigns to improve wages for low-wage workers; and
- (3) efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better. Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
Join us for tabling, flyering, and door-knocking Wednesday May 13 @ 5 p.m. and Saturday May 16 @ noon. Both @ Ashby BART station. #15Now
— 15 Now Berkeley (@15NowBerkeley) May 11, 2015
Join us on May 13th, as the Boycott Sprouts campaign brings the ruckus to Sprouts in Daly City! Let’s make sure they get the message that we don’t want them building a big box Supermarket on OUR public farmland in Albany, CA.
Meet up to coordinate rides and logistics at 5:45 at 3090 King Street in Berkeley, please be on time so we can depart at 6:00 pm!
Commemorate the 30th anniversary of the horrific police bombing of the MOVE Organization in Philadelphia, by coming out to see the new film, ‘Let the Fire Burn.’ The film tells the story of the police attack on the group’s office which burned an entire neighborhood. The bombing was the culmination of an ongoing campaign against the radical Black ecological group.
This event is part of a build up to the ‘No More Locked Doors’ Conference at Qilombo in Oakland on Saturday, May 16th.
“Faith Against Fracking” is an inspirational documentary exploring the intersection of various California communities and expressing our collective responsibility to move the planet off of toxic fossil fuels and onto a truly clean energy economy. Clergy from various faith traditions call on Governor Brown, as a person of faith himself, to ban deleterious extraction practices. Throughout the film, the faith leaders expound on a number of different spiritual themes that hold true across faith traditions, including protecting creation and honoring the Golden Rule.
Download flyer (PDF)
Iceland bailed out its citizens and jailed the bankers. Now they are thinking of a new system for their monetary policy. Join us for a discussion about Iceland, this proposal, and their recovery from their financial collapse.
Reading:
The Politics of Debt Reading Group is affiliated with the Bay Area Public School and Strike Debt Bay Area.
Phil Tagami, developer of the new Global Logistics Center at the former Oakland Army Base in West Oakland, promised in 2013 that “CCIG is publicly on record as having no interest or involvement in the pursuit of coal-related operations at the former Oakland Army Base.”
Now, in 2015, Tagami is poised to allow four Utah Counties to use public money to invest $53 million to turn the new Oakland port project into a massive coal export terminal. If allowed to move forward, millions of tons of dirty, toxic, climate-killing coal will roll through West Oakland on mile long trains, creating toxic pollution in a community already overburdened by heavy industry.
Tagami hopes to close the deal with Utah by June – so NOW is the time to act! Join us to demand that Tagami keep his promise and say NO to coal in Oakland!
This action is being organized by Diablo Rising Tide (DiRT) in collaboration with many allies.
On May 14, just six days before the current contract expires, postal workers across the country will hold events organized around the theme, “I Stand with Postal Workers.” Join us!
With the union’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the U.S. Postal Service set to expire in less than a month, APWU negotiators and union members are turning up the heat. Postal workers are demanding Good Postal Service! Good Jobs! Good Contract! As negotiations draw to a close, postal workers need a strong demonstration of support.
CSU East Bay Department of Communication and the Graduate Communication Society Presents:
#BlackLivesMatter: Civil Rights Social Justice in the 21st Century
Featuring: Dr. Andreana Clay, Families Seeking Justice panel, three student panels, and a hosted reception.
The Graduate Communication Society at CSU East Bay hosts a graduate student conference surrounding themes related to social justice issues in a 21st Century context. Featuring keynote speaker Dr. Andreana Clay, Associate Professor at San Francisco State University, Her book, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth Activism and Post-Civil Rights Politics (NYU Press, 2012) explores how youth of color organize and identify as activists in the post civil rights era. Her articles on hip-hop culture, queer sexuality, youth activism, and hip-hop feminism have appeared in several anthologies and academic journals, including Home Girls Make Some Noise!: A Hip-Hop Feminist Anthology, the American Behavioral Scientist, and Meridians: A Journal of Race, Feminism, and Transnationalism. Read her blog, QueerBlackFeminist, at queerblackfeminist.blogspot.com.
Also presenting is the panel Families Seekig Justice with 2015 Gene Young Award Recipient and Oscar Grant’s uncle, Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson; mother of Alan Blueford, Jeralynn Blueford; mother of James Rivera, Dionne Smith Downs; and Angela Naggie, mother of O’Shaine Evans. Families Seeking Justice panel will be moderated by Cat Brooks, co-chair of the Onyx Organizing Committee.
There will be three student panels discussing research on topics related to the following broad themes:
Online activism
Identity and race in the 21st Century
Feminism and gender activism in the hashtag era
Schedule
Noon-12:30 — Check-in
12:30-3:30pm — Student panels
4-5pm — Families Seeking Justice
5-6pm — Keynote speaker Dr. Adreana Clay
6-7pm — Reception
Check back for more info at the conference web site: http://commgscon.blogspot.com
Bay Area comics perform STAND UP! Comedy: Featuring Natasha Muse, with Veronica Porras, Lalique D’Bruzzi and Emily Van Dyke. Natasha Muse is a performer and writer of comedy in the Bay Area. She is also a skeptic, an agnostic, and at least the second funniest trans-sexual you know––guaranteed. Come to the emerging and energizing OMNI COMMONS and laugh with us while you support autonomous education for indigenous Zapatista children.
No More Locked Doors- a conference on political prisoners and revolutionary prisoner support- May16 Oakland pic.twitter.com/RDmWWQbcYQ
— Alyssa (@alyssa011968) April 11, 2015
Join us for tabling, flyering, and door-knocking Wednesday May 13 @ 5 p.m. and Saturday May 16 @ noon. Both @ Ashby BART station. #15Now
— 15 Now Berkeley (@15NowBerkeley) May 11, 2015
No to the War on Yemen!
No to Foreign Intervention!
Yes to self determination of the Yemeni people!
Stop the Saudi bombing!
#HandsOffYemen
UN Plaza
Saturday, May 16th
12pm
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- our next Debtors’ Assembly
- saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- and much more!
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.