Calendar
Support the struggle for the self-determination and independence of the Puerto Rican people
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Join us
in calling for the release of
OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA
Friday, May 29, 2015
Market & Powell St., SF
5:00 P.M. until 7:00 P.M.
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The San Francisco Support Committee for the unconditional release of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, calls all political, civic, religious, labor unions and the community in general to join us to demand his freedom.
Oscar López Rivera has spent thirty four years of his life imprisoned due to his unbending commitment for the independence and self-determination of our Puerto Rican nation.
Petitions from all over the globe supporting his unconditional release have been sent to the President of the United States from Nobel Prize Laureates such as Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa, and Carlos Esquivel from Argentina to name a few.
The current Governor of Puerto Rico, Alejandro Garcia Padilla, as well as countless Puerto Rican artists and celebrities, and U.S. Congressional representatives, such as Luis Gutiérrez, José Serrano and Nydia Velázquez, have also made their voices heard in support of his immediate and unconditional release.
Add your voice!
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Jack Heyman, Chairman Transport Workers Solidarity Committee*
Steve Zeltzer, United Public Workers for Action*
Howard Keylor, ILWU Local 10* (Retired Member)
ANSWER Coalition
Freedom Socialist Party
Radical Women
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Optik Allusions is a radical film & video collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California.
We make media that challenge the dominant culture. We tell stories that otherwise might remain untold. We express our alternative views of the world, have fun doing it, and welcome everyone to do so, regardless of prior experience. We learn by doing. We share resources, skills and knowledge to support each other’s creative endeavours. We make films in a spirit of collaboration, inclusivity and solidarity, supply a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops, and host film screenings. We also steward a room dedicated to media post-production at the Omni Commons. If you like to make videos and/or want to become a member, come to our tuesday meetings at 7 pm! We’re open and happy to welcome new members.
To contact us, write to:
optikallusions@lists.riseup.net
To know more about us, join our announce mailing list:
optikallusions.announce@lists.riseup.net
To become involved, come to our meetings on Tuesdays, 7pm at the Omni Commons!
Sometimes, the meetings turn into creative workshops!
To follow what has been going on, read our meeting notes.
Our YouTube Channel is still a WIP, but here are some of our video productions to this day:
The Omni Commons in 30 seconds
Oakland stands in solidarity with Ferguson
No Beauty with an Absence of Color
We are also working on a documentary about gentrification in West Oakland, as well as collaborating with the Oscar Grant Committee to document the work they do. We are organizing a film festival at the end of May 2015. See here for info on submissions!
Optik Allusions is so pleased to announce their very first Short Film Festival! Come discover our out-of-the-ordinary line up of intersectional short films from all over Oakland and all over the world!
The event will also be a fundraiser for our video collective to keep thriving: Optik Allusions provides equipment for video production and post production, organizes workshops… We share skills and resources to make films expressing points of view that are usually silenced, and tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. The fundraiser will also help pay our rent to a room dedicated to media post production.
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Optik_Allusions
Most of all, this event will be a way to connect with the greater community: YOU!
Please come hungry, because Sarah Bierman will be cooking her famous fried chicken plate with corn, and japaeno cabbage slaw. And her equally famous vegan gumbo!
Suggested Admission: $5 to $15
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Past curfew, but not enough people here to march. People are discussing plans for next #FTP march, Friday at 8PM. #Oakland #BreakTheCurfew
— Not Frantz Fanon (@violentfanon) May 26, 2015
Numbers too few to take #BreakTheCurfew to streets of #Oakland tonight, but bring ALL Y'ALL friends next Friday 5/29, #FTP @OGP 8 pm!!!
— Sophie M (@sofking1) May 26, 2015
There is no curfew for the First Amendment. We will continue to protest peacefully, and to say that #BlackLivesMatter. They cannot stop us.
— Mike Chase (@MikeChaseACLU) May 25, 2015
Fight back with organizers from the No New SF Jail Coalition!
Come out on Saturday May 30 to take action, get a copy of the just-released No New Jail in SF: The People’s Report (from Critical Resistance Oakland), and join us to elevate the broad range of practical alternatives to more cages.
There will be a panel discussion with organizers and community experts discussing the the proposed jail project and the clear opportunities SF has to build a future *free* of cages. June is a big month for the fight and we need you with us. Everyone who attends can take meaningful action and help set up next steps to make this fight stronger and fiercer!
While city officials are moving forward with plans to build a new jail, they are neglecting to consider the impacts on our community: it is destructive to criminalize people with mental health challenges, and Black, Brown, and poor San Franciscans. Mental health & substance abuse treatment, housing, jobs, healthcare, lives with dignity – that’s what public safety looks like.
We can stop this jail!
MORE INFO HERE: www.nonewsfjail.wordpress.
TAKE ACTION TODAY: https://
Invite someone from the coalition to speak to your organization or community group.
Join our email list for updates on actions and opportunities to engage.
More than just a discussion on what’s wrong, the speakers will also talk about how regular people are getting organized in their neighborhoods and fighting back.
James Tracy, author of Dispatches Against Displacement
Linda Grant, Community organizer at Qilombo
Rachel Jackson, Harm reduction & anti-police brutuality activist
One Day • Seven Hours • 90 Writers • 40 Events
Schedule here.
Readings and conversations with Ben Fong-Torres, Edwidge Danticat, Tracy K. Smith, Matthew Zapruder, Jenny Offill, Novella Carpenter, and others
Panels with Paul Beatty, Astra Taylor, Vikram Chandra, Elaine Brown, Leo Hollis, Anthony Marra, and many more
Rick Prelinger with Lost Landscapes of Oakland
Children’s Area by Fairyland, MOCHA, and Oakland Public Library
Music by HipHop4Change, Oakland Youth Chorus, and Oakland School for Arts
For over 50 years Leslie Feinberg, revolutionary activist, transgender warrior in the LGBTQI community fought for justice. Leslie, who identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist, died on November 15. She succumbed to complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections, including Lyme disease, after decades of illness.
Feinberg’s 1993 first novel, Stone Butch Blues, won the Lambda Literary Award and the 1994 American Library Association Gay & Lesbian Book Award. Feinberg authored Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue and Transgender Warriors: Making History; the novel Drag King Dreams; and Rainbow Solidarity in Defense of Cuba.
Feinberg was a member of the Workers World Party and a managing editor of Workers World newspaper. Most recently, Feinberg was working with her life partner of 22 years, Minnie Bruce Pratt, on publishing a 20th anniversary edition of Stone Butch Blues. The online edition will be dedicated to CeCe McDonald and contain a slideshow called “This Is What Solidarity Looks Like” documenting the Free Cece campaign.
This event is convened by Workers World Party, LAGAI-Queer Insurrection, and SF Gray Panthers. If you would like to support or help organize this event contact Judy Greenspan at judygreenspan1952@gmail.co
Wheelchair accessible, refreshments will be available
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.
Re-Animinate, Break Bread and Celebrate.
Potluck!
Dancing!
Open Mic!
Community Circle!
Imagination Station!
Open Circle, first and foremost, is an opportunity to build community with one another. Secondly, it is a space to reflect and collaborate on strategies and actions to bring an end to these egregious crimes.
Please join us for the Potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with speakers who have lost their loved ones to police violence, followed by reflection and dialogue around the current state and thoughts or approaches on how to effect change. Then report backs and announcements for upcoming events.
We will end with working groups to organize and plan next steps in the struggle.
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Presented by Mother Jones
From Baltimore to Ferguson to the streets of Oakland, unjust shootings by cops have put law enforcement under the microscope. How is the media covering a changing police force? This panel will explore how reporting and activism can help hold cops accountable to those they are charged to protect.
JAEAH LEE is a reporter at Mother Jones. Her recent work includes investigations into police shootings and officer accountability, and a multimedia package on the cost of gun violence. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Guardian, and Wired, among others. She was a 2013–2014 Middlebury fellow in environmental journalism and her work has been named a finalist in the Data Journalism Awards. In a former life, she researched and wrote about China at the Council on Foreign Relations.
LATEEFAH SIMON became executive director of the Center for Young Women’s Development starting at age 19. In 2004, she joined Kamala Harris to create a re-entry program in San Francisco’s City Hall and then served as the executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Currently the director of the Rosenberg Foundation’s California Future Initiative, Lateefah is a MacArthur fellow award winner and is a nominee for the San Francisco Chronicle‘s “Visionary of the Year.”
ALI WINSTON covers law enforcement, criminal justice, and surveillance for the Center for Investigative Reporting. His writing has won awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, the New York City Community Media Alliance, CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the San Francisco Peninsula Press Club. Originally from New York City, he is a graduate of the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley.
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-Mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-Mcdonald backed out of the deal in early December.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th. There was another hearing in March 26th. Federal Judge William Alsup decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the Postal Service says it is not currently selling the building. But we’re not fooled. The Postal Service could “find” a buyer at any moment. Fortunately, the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the lawsuit could be refiled.
Check out our response to the Judge’s order.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
2011: Understanding the Role of Cyberspace and Social Change
In 2011 demonstrations, direct action, revolt, and revolution swept the world. This wave of revolt, the largest since 1989 and 1969, was in part a product of ongoing technological changes and how people used them to bring about social change. Beginning in Tunisia and ending in Hong Kong the wave of revolt was born in a digital sea.
How cyberspace and digital technology facilitated the upheaval of 2011 is an element that is well-known and becoming better understood all the time. Mobile technology, social media, and the growth of the Internet have made it possible for a handful of activists to achieve unprecedented exposure and impact. Through examining how the 2011 movements used computer and communication technology to plan, organize, and mobilize for action we can achieve even greater successes.
Join Occupy Forum, facilitated by Ryan Smith, for a talk and discussion of how cyberspace made 2011 possible and what we can learn from that year. Working together we can better use the developments of the Digital Revolution to bring about social justice for everyone.
Q&A and Announcements to follow.
Donations to OccupyForum gladly accepted; no one turned away!
DON’T FRACK / NUKE OUR MOTHER EARTHJoin the coming together of two great clean energy movements!
David Braun of CALIFORNIANS AGAINST FRACKING, Linda Seeley
and Harvey Wasserman
of the movement to SHUT DIABLO CANYON, (California’s last two reactors), will join together to facilitate a union of these two great campaigns.
This unique, pathbreaking collaboration will allow us to join forces and free our state of its addiction to technologies that destroy our water supply and threaten us all.
Now these two great movements come together. On June 2nd, the Occupy Forum will host an activist gathering of frack and nuke activists to jointly plot strategy for getting to a green-powered California and Earth.
HARVEY WASSERMAN helped coin the phrase “No Nukes” in 1973 and was arrested at Diablo in 1984. He writes and speaks worldwide on a safe “Solartopian” future.
This coming-together is a unique and powerful event. Be a part of it!!!!
Donations welcome. Announcements will follow. Wheelchair accessible.
http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/14/indian-point-transformer-fire/
Faith Against Fracking 15 minute film here:
https://vimeo.com/125489886 Password: faithagainstfracking
Community Rights Ordinances www.movementrights.org/aboutus.html
Note: This is the topic that caused activists to shut down the City Council meeting last month.
Sign the petition against the sale!
Subject: DDA For 12th Street Remainder Parcel From: Economic & Workforce Development Department
Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Authorizing: (1) The City Administrator, Without Returning To The City Council, To Negotiate And Execute A Disposition And Development Agreement And Related Documents Between The City Of Oakland, And A Development Entity Comprised Of Urbancore Development, LLC, And UDR, Inc., (Or Its Related Entities Or Affiliates) For Sale Of The 12th Street Remainder Parcel Located At E12th Street And 2nd Avenue For No Less Than $5.1 Million And Development As A Residential Mixed-Use Project, All Of The Foregoing Documents To Be In A Form And Content Substantially In Conformance With The Term Sheet Attached As Exhibit A; (2) Set -Aside Of No More Than $500,000 From Land Sales Proceeds For Remediation Of Property, And (3) Appropriation Of $200,000 From Land Sales Proceeds To Fund An Asset Portfolio Management Plan
The Domain Awareness Center Privacy policy is up for a vote, along with related measures to be discussed. For background see The Oakland Privacy Working Group blog post “All Out for the Oakland City Council Meeting” and other posts on that site.
Note: This item is late on the agenda as it stands. Agenda items can be moved around. There is no real way to know approximately what time it will come up, as there are other controversial items on the agenda.
OPWG has a few talking points specific to this item:
- The policy is an important demonstration of how citizenry, staff and the Council can work together. Pass it as presented, with no additional exceptions, especially any allowing OPD to spy on residents w/o reasonable suspicion under ANY circumstances.
- A policy is ineffective without a means of enforcement.
- “Injunctive relief,” as proposed, is a good enforcement mechanism, neither overly burdensome nor toothless.
- Without enforcement the work of nine citizens who donated their time and expertise for an entire year of meetings and analysis will have been thrown out the window.
- A City-wide privacy committee, which will be coming before you in the future, is a must. The risks to privacy are only going to get bigger as technology becomes more sophisticated. As such their first task should be drafting a Surveillance Equipment Acquisition Ordinance, as recommended by the Ad Hoc DAC Privacy Committee.
Note: This item is last on the City Council Agenda. There is no good estimate of what time it will come before the Council.
This item has raised many questions, among them being why the FBI needs an office inside OPD when they have offices in downtown Oakland already; whether they are really installing a mini-DAC and not telling anyone, whether Oakland would be implicitly or explicitly cooperating in FBI investigations of marijuana operations, spying on Muslims and undocumented immigrants, harassing and tracking protesters and activists, and why such sophisticated and expensive computer equipment is needed for such a simple thing as a “Shared Work Space.”
Subject: FBI-OPD Joint Workspace From: Oakland Police Department
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The City Administrator Or Designee To Enter Into A Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) With The Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) Violent Criminal Threat Section (VCTS), To Facilitate The Joint Purchase And Installation Of A Computer Network Infrastructure, Computers And Furniture At The Police Administration Building (PAB) To Create A Shared Work Space For The Safe Streets Taskforce, And Waiving The Advertising And Bidding Requirements For The City’s Expenditure Of $63,000.00 Toward The Purchase Of Said Items
“Please come speak out against the toxic destruction of the East Bay Hills at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, where they will decide whether to accept the FEMA grant for the project.”
check out these websites for more information about the project:
http://www.saveeastbayhills.org/
http://milliontrees.me/
http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/
(especially: http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wildfire.html and http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wpad.html for the decade long history of this project)
http://hillsconservationnetwork.org/
http://treespiritproject.com/sfbayclearcut/
(sign up to participate in the July 18 nude photo shoot in the threatened forest)
Via email alert:
There’s been a lot of activity recently on the FEMA vegetation management front. For those who don’t know, despite 12,000+ comments opposing the plan to clearcut the Berkeley/Oakland hills FEMA released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that called for the destruction of up to 400,000 healthy trees and the application of unprecedented amounts of toxic herbicides over a 10 year period. As a result of this unfortunate decision HCN filed suit agains FEMA in Federal court in March, also naming the City of Oakland, East Bay Regional Park District, and UC Berkeley.
Last Tuesday we had a press conference at City Hall. That night the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee recommended the Oakland City Council accept $4 million of FEMA money and commit the City to spend an additional $1.5 million in taxpayer matching funds and a CEQA EIR. All this to implement a plan that will actually increase the risk of fire in the hills. Imagine, a City that’s broke spending $1.5 million to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees for no good reason.
Together we have a lot of work to do to raise awareness to stop the clear-cut and poisoning of the hills.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Tell the city of Oakland that you don’t want them to take the FEMA money to kill trees for 2 generations and douse the hills with TOXIC herbicides for at least a decade.
Tuesday June 2nd at 6 pm, the Oakland City Council is going to vote on whether to accept $4,000,000 in federal FEMA funds to deforest and poison the Oakland hills and to increase local taxpayer contribution to the effort to more than $880,000.
The City of Oakland appears intent on clearcutting 100+ acres of forests and spreading thousands of gallons of toxic herbicides in wildlife corridors, recreation areas, dog parks, and residential neighborhoods. Please contact council members and urge them to vote No.
If at all possible, please plan on attending Tuesday’s meeting and speaking. This is your last opportunity to influence the City of Oakland!
OptikAllusions is a digital filmmaking collective dedicated to social change, based in Oakland, California. We share resources, skills and knowledge to help each other tell stories that might otherwise remain untold. We make films in a spirit of collaboration and solidarity, share a lending library of film equipment for creative projects, organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops.
If you’d like to make videos or want to become a member, join us for our weekly meeting and a workshop!
We usually, meet briefly and then work on projects. It’s open to all!
https://omnicommons.org/wiki/Optik_Allusions