Calendar
If OPD violates your rights, abuses you, or worse, murders your loved one, you should not have to go file a complaint against OPD to OPD.
Please join the Coalition for Police Accountability on May 19th in support of agenda item 11 to demand that all walk-in complaints against OPD be moved from the Internal Affairs Dept of OPD and into the hands of the Citizens Police Review Board (CPRB).
The vote at tomorrow’s city council meeting is a very important step towards the ultimate goal of a real functioning CPRB that is fully funded & appropriately empowered to hold officers who commit crimes accountable.
Citizens do not have the same conflict of interest that police do when investigating themselves. It is time for the people of Oakland to be in control of the police, we can no longer allow them to act with complete impunity & zero accountability when the violate, beat, abuse, or murder people of color in our communities.
Please fill out a speaker card even if you do not intend to speak, you may cede you time to another speaker, here is the link, it’s agenda item 11 for the May 19th city council meeting: http://
A comrade who was arrested in December is facing newly-filed charges. This person’s charges were not previously filed at a mass arraignment. Instead of going through this in solidarity with others, they were confronted through a letter from the DA, months later, alone. This is a reminder and a warning: though charges may not have been filed at a first arraignment, the DA may choose to press them within a year of arrest.
Let’s show support for the long haul, beyond the moment of the protest, beyond the mass arraignment. Share, invite, show we stand together even in moments when we’re treated as individual targets. Come do court support at 9 am in Department 107.
At a time when California faces one of the worst droughts on record, Nestle is bottling water out of California’s springs, aquifers and national forests to sell for profit. Nestle is unwilling to stop this practice – and even pumped water using a permit that expired 25 years ago.
We must ramp up the pressure on Nestle – the poster child for corporate water abuse in California. Nestle has two bottling plants in California – one in Sacramento, and one in Los Angeles. Please join us on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. as we rally outside both bottling plants in Los Angeles and Sacramento.
LOCATION CHANGE: PREVIOUSLY THIS LISTING HAD THE IMPACT HUB AS THE LOCATION. NOW AT THE OMNI!
Join Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub, and other invasions of privacy by our benighted City Government, and to support privacy ordinances now being considered by the Oakland City Council emerging from the effort to fight the DAC.
These pieces of legislation will be considered on May 26th by the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, and then later at a full City Council meeting. More information here. (That note says May 12th, but things got postponed on the 12th until the 26th)
Stop by and learn how you can help guard Oakland’s right not to be spied on by the government & if you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
For more information on the DAC check out
The San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Art Festival is a biennial cultural event that has been happening in the Bay Area since 1999. We started out as a film festival, but have expanded to become a vibrant venue for performances, workshops, visual arts, community building, political organizing, skill sharing and have collaborated with various organizations to expand into a multi-dimensional project. The Sex Worker Festival recognizes and honors prostitutes, dancers, porn performers and other sex workers from diverse communities, who have been dynamic and integral members of arts communities since time immemorial. Our next festival will be May of 2015 and will be expanding to straddle San Francisco and the East Bay for the first time.
We have been showing films at the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco, and for the first time ever, would like to find a venue in Oakland where we can screen films and host in-depth discussions facilitated by various community members. We are a very low budget operation with a 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, that is hoping to find a venue that is financially sustainable for us, accessible by BART for our various communities, that shares a vision of social change with us and can generate participation amongst it’s own constituency. We feel your venue is really perfect and fits neatly into all of these requirements, and look forward to a conversation about this potentially dynamic collaboration.
Although we are asking for paid admission, all of our events are no one turned away for lack of funds, and we feel very strongly that this is a vital tenet of our vision.
Here are links to examples of some of the diverse content and events we have featured over the years which were targeted to organizations and communities.
Thanks for your support,
Carol Leigh and Erica Berman
415-751-1659
Current Festival (in progress)
2015 (in progress)
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/
2013 Festival:
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/sexworkerfest2013.html
Some other program-discussion events of past years:
Sex Work, Trafficking and Labor Migration: Views from Inside The Sex Industry
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/SexWorkMigration.html
Intersections: Krip Sex! Krip Sex Work! An evening of film and discussion on interconnections, sex work and the Krip community
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/swfest2009/sins.html
Our program archives are here:
http://www.sexworkerfest.com/archives/
The Anti-Police Terrorism Project is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee that in coalition with other organizations like the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Workers World and Healthy Hoodz is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.
We meet the 3rd Wednesday of every month.
APTP is launching its campaign Invisible Victims of State Terror: Women of Color on 5/21.
We have chosen this date for our launch in solidarity with the national call by The Black Youth Project to uplift the Black women who are murdered by law enforcement agencies across the country.
The Invisible Victims campaign was born in February in response to the murder of #yuvettehenderson by the Emeryville Police Department on February 3, 2015.
On 5/21, we will gather in the Home Depot parking lot (where the events leading to Yuvette’s murder began) for a brief rally and program.
Immediately following, we will distribute thousands of flyers detailing the stories of Black women who have been stolen by state violence.
The average life expectancy for Black trans women is 35 years. An estimated 25.1 percent of Black American women live in poverty – a higher rate than any other ethnic group.
Black women and girls, trans* and cis, are routinely harassed by police and abused by the state. While we’ve witnessed entire cities rise up to resist the murders of Black men, the murders of Black women continue to go largely ignored.
Silencing the pain of our sisters only perpetuates this violence. #BlackSpring is here: it’s time to remember and lift up the most marginalized victims of state brutality.
Join BYP100’s Bay Area Chapter this Thursday for a National Day of Action to demand #JusticeForRekia and ALL Black women and girls. Together, we’ll paint the town Black with their names, faces and stories.
*Black folks meet-up, 6PM @ Alan Blueford Center* (2434 Telegraph Ave)
#JusticeForRekia #SayHerName #BlackSpring #SayTheirNames #BlackLivesMatter
WHAT: Mass vigil at sunset against mass surveillance – happening in 50 cities across the U.S
BRING: A cell phone, laptop, tablet, and candles with the protestsign.org already pre-loaded. Make a big sunset sign and write “Sunset the Patriot Act”.
WHY WE NEED YOU:
This is the week when we have a chance to sunset the PATRIOT Act!
The PATRIOT Act could end this week if Congress fails to reauthorize it by this Friday ahead of its June 1st expiration. So, on Thursday May 21st, people are organizing a mass vigil in 50 cities across the U.S. to demand their Senators let the Patriot Act expire.
And we’ve set it up so its super easy to get involved:
Gather as the sun is setting
Load protestsign.org on your phone, tablet or laptop
Take a picture of your group with signs outside of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office.
Post your pictures to the Sunset Vigil Facebook page and on Twitter with the hash tags #sunsetpatriotact #sunsetvigil and your @SenFeinstein.
You can also sign the online letter at http://sunsetthepatriotact.com/
This protest is being organized by your friends at Demand Progress, Restore the Fourth, Credo, MoveOn.org, Free Press, and Fight for the Future.
The City of Berkeley’s Fair Campaign Practices Commission will consider whether to recommend that the Berkeley City Council establish a public financing system – one of the best tools we have at our disposal to fix our broken electoral process.
As public officials are being bought and sold by billionaires and wealthy special interests, the need for comprehensive campaign finance reform is more urgent now than ever.
Sign up to attend and testify in support of public financing!
Public financing allows candidates to rely on small dollar donations and aims to accomplish two primary goals: 1) Candidates should be able to campaign without the cloud of corruption that comes from over-dependence on money from outside interests and 2) Grassroots candidates with strong community ties should be able to run competitive campaigns.
In solidarity with the global movement to take back our food, that is… REAL FOOD FROM REAL SEED as Mother Nature and human evolution intended…
Please save the date and take part in the groundswell of PEOPLE RISING in defense of unadulterated SEEDS, PROTECTION OF BIODIVERSITY, RESPONSIBLE STEWARDSHIP OF THE SOIL, ETHICAL PRACTICES, TOXIN FREE FOOD SYSTEM AND THE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE WE ALL WANT.
Millions of years of natural evolution and diversity of seeds are being wiped out in a generation if we don’t leverage our collective outrage to DIVEST from systematic poisoning of HUMANITY and PROTECT our children’s future.
Join us as we MARCH AGAINST MONSANTO!
11:30 – Meet Up & Welcome at Frank Ogawa / Oscar Grant Plaza
12:00 – March begins
1:00 – Reassemble at Lake Merritt Pergola Area for RALLY!
http://www.labelgmos.org/realfoodforall
Occupy the Farm organizer Vanessa Raditz will be speaking tomorrow at the rally following Oakland’s March Against Monsanto! Come on out and join the Occupy the Farm contingent! We will have a banner so you can find us at Frank Ogawa Plaza before the march takes off.
Global Unity for a Sustainable Future.
Come dressed as your favorite pollinator (Bees, Butterflies, Etc)
Monthly rally to end Solitary Confinement.
Privacy Workshop
It’s easy to succumb to privacy nihilism. That’s the idea that digital security and privacy are simply impossible. But that’s simply wrong. Better security and more privacy are possible. It is true that trying to protect yourself from 100% of the threats you face 100% of the time is a recipe for failure. But perfection is not the goal of digital security. Each person is faced with different threats—potential events that could undermine your efforts to defend your data. By determining what you need to protect and whom you need to protect it from, you can figure out how to counter the threats to your data.
The first step to good security is doing a threat modeling assessment. Using EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense materials, EFF Activist Nadia Kayyali will talk about some of the threats to your privacy and security, walk you through modeling your own threats, and give a basic overview of some of the most commonly used tools.
EFF is a proud co-sponsor of The Dissidents, the Displaced, and the Outliers, a transbay visual art exhibition about housing security and digital privacy at Random Parts in Oakland and Incline Gallery in San Francisco. This digital security workshop is part of a series of events. For more information, check out the exhibition page.
Talking Richmond, Talking Politics!
Our focus this month: Talking Housing
The RPA Housing Action Team reports. Learn about the work the HAT’s doing on affordable housing, in lieu fees, city planning & neighborhoods.
And much more…
Participate and guide RPA Standing Committees and possible new Action Teams.
The Membership Committee wants your input
Health Action Team (HAT: DMC/Health related),
Education Action Team (EAT);
Police/Community Action Team (P-CAT: Pedie Perez/Justice/Community Safety) ,
Global Campus.
And we’ll revisit RPA’s mission statement: What’s our aim?
Facebook event.BYP100: Bay Area , in collaboration with The BlackOut Collective , #BlackLivesMatter Bay Area, Anti Police-Terror Project, The Alan Blueford Center For Justice, and Onyx Organizing Committee are putting out a call to action on the behalf of all Black women and girls everywhere!
On the night of Thursday, May 21st, while marching and chanting, and standing up for the lives of all Black women everywhere, Oakland Police Department informed us that there was a new ordinance in place: not only were we told that we are not longer allowed to march at night, but we were not allowed to march in the streets. Who’s streets?! Our streets! They chose the national day of action for the rights of Black women against police violence to enforce aggressive policing of our right to peacefully convene and protest.
They want for us to go into the shadows. They want for us to be silent, to bow down, to forget the lives of so many Black women who have been stolen from us by police. They want us to give up, to ignore the trauma caused by the ways our Black women bodies have been violated, policed, harassed, exploited, demoralized, dehumanized, beaten, abused, raped, and murdered…but they are sadly mistaken. We will not back down; we will fight harder! We will wage war until our lives are valued. #BlackLivesMatter Black women’s lives matter. They always have and they always will. #sayhername #blackspring
We are sending out a call to action for all Black people and allies to come together TONIGHT at Oscar Grant Plaza/OGP. We will hold space as a declaration that the rights of Black women and girls WILL BE upheld.
We ask that you join us TONIGHT!
Please wear ALL BLACK.
Bring a white candle.
Bring a scarf.
Tell all of your family friends and comrades.
Please be advised that this is a peaceful protest but diversity of tactics is respected and honored.
See you in the streets!
San Francisco is hosting the 83rd Annual Conference of Mayors June 19th, 2015 – June 22nd.. Around 250 Mayors will be in attendance. This is an opportunity to raise issues locally and nationally that are of concern to us.
- Black Lives Matter
- Gentrification
- Homelessness
- Privatization
- Homophobia and Transphobia
- Immigration
- The Environment
- Corporate Greed
- Wars not People
All are welcome to help plan for actions.
Sunday, May 24, 2015 is the 25th anniversary of the attack on “Earth First!” activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney by car bomb in Oakland in 1990 as Redwood Summer dawned. We will commemorate this in several ways.
At 7 pm doors to Historic Fellowship Hall will open for a Judi Bari Day evening event sponsored by the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) Social Justice Committee.
NOTE: Earlier in the day of Sunday, May 24, people will gather to mark the moment of the bombing itself where the bomb blew up Judi’s car with Darryl and Judi in it. The location is across from the intersection of E. 33rd and Park Blvd, in front of Oakland High. Gather at 11:30 am sharp. Bring signs, songs, drums for a speak out and commemoration.
Following the film, the audience can join in the discussion for a Q & A session.
Volunteers appreciated!
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee, www.bfuu.org/events