Calendar

“I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night”
Join LaborFest on The 100th Anniversary Concert on Death of Joe Hill with David Rovics

In 1915 in Salt Lake City, Utah, IWW union organizer and labor troubadour Joe Hill was murdered by a firing squad. The effort to silence him failed and he has become one of the most famous labor organizers and musicians in the world.

It is a sick irony that Utah this year has reinstituted the firing squad for executions! Over 2 million mostly Black and Latino workers are in prison today in the United States and in California, more money is spent on the prison industry than on education.

Joe’s struggle for union and labor rights is as relevant today as it was in 1915. Millions of workers would like to have unions but are intimidated and bullied by companies like Walmart and Macdonald’s to fire workers who speak up. Walmart this year closed five stores including one in Pico Rivera, California for supposed “plumbing problems” which were really threats of union organizing.
Although this Walmart’s act is illegal, the corporations who run America and the world flagrantly ignore the laws and protections workers are supposed to have in this country.

Over 10,000 workers are fired every year in this country for union organizing and these are only the workers that have pursued NLRB lawsuits. Joe Hill saw the struggle of workers and union rights as the most important struggle in his life, and he paid for it with his life.

LaborFest will honor the 100th anniversary of his death with a concert with labor troubadour David Rovics. Throughout the year, Rovics has been traveling in Europe in a series of concerts to commemorate the life and struggles of Joe Hill. Rovics has performed throughout the world. His hard hitting songs for workers and human rights are powerful and moving. Also performing at  the commemoration will be Carol Denney and Marcus Duskin.
http://joehill100.com
Parking space available at the union hall parking lot. The entrance is at the corner of King St. and 2nd, right next to the AT&T Ball Park.

Join us to stop oil trains in San Leandro and beyond!

On July 6, 2013, an oil train exploded in Lac Megantic, Quebec, killing 47 people. Two years later, and big oil is pushing harder than ever to move more and more oil trains through North America, while oil trains keep exploding, and carbon emissions keep rising.

This May, the US Department of Transportation is set to release new rail safety regulations. While an oil train erupted in flames in Galena, IL, lobbyists for big oil met with Federal regulators pressuring them to weaken these proposed rules. We know that these rules will not protect the 25 million Americans who live in the oil train blast zone, because there is NO safe way to transport extreme tar sands and Bakken crude.

This year, from July 6-12, 2015, citizens will organize more than 100 events across the US and Canada to demand an immediate ban on oil trains.

A proposed project in San Luis Obispo County will bring oil trains of 80 cars or more through San Leandro every day.  This project can be stopped if elected officials reject the applicant’s proposal.  On July 6, 2015, we will distribute information and  along the BART corridor that parallels the Capital Corridor Amtrak route.  BART tracks lie in the Blast Zone for miles through the urban heart of Alameda County and beyond.  

No more exploding trains. No more tar sands. Join our event on July 6, 2015

The Grease Diner will be hosting an in-progress screening and fundraiser for Benjamin Welmond’s Renew Vietnam, a film about Project Renew – an organization removing bombs, mines and other dangerous explosives from the Quang Tri province of Vietnam. The event will take place on July 17th from 6 – 9pm at the Grease Diner in Oakland. In addition to an in-progress screening of the unfinished 20 minute film, there will be a Q & A with director Benjamin Welmond, and the founder of Project Renew, Chuck Searcy. Bill Creighton (head of SF’s Veterans for Peace chapter) will be talking about the legacies, and current fight for institutional support to victims of Agent Orange. As this event is a fundraiser, the Grease Diner will be offering live-screenprinting of Renew Vietnam t-shirts and tote bags, which can be purchased during the event. Proceeds will go towards funding of the film, which is still in post-production. Welmond has been using indiegogo to raise the essential funds for the film, which are needed for a composer, translator and animator. The screening will be an opportunity to get involved and learn about Project Renew.

During the Vietnam War, the Quang Tri province became one of the most heavily bombed places in history, and it is estimated that 800,000 tons of bombs did not detonate as designed. The United States government also sprayed Agent Orange to kill the crops, which utilizes a deadly chemical with severe biological repercussions. These bombs have left a powerful legacy on the area, injuring and killing thousands of unsuspecting civilians. In 2001, The NGO Project Renew was established by Chuck Searcy, a Vietnam Veteran, an active member of Veterans for peace, in order to find ways to make Quang Tri a safer place. Project Renew trains local Quang Tri citizens to work around the clock to disarm leftover explosives, lend support to victims, and educate local populations on how to be alert and aware. In December of 2014, Benjamin Welmond went to the Quang Tri province to film a short documentary about Project Renew, in order to raise awareness of their efforts, and spark discussions on the powerful impact of war.

You can RSVP to the event and invite friends through this facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/events/379579128905685/) . Sliding scale donations (recommended donation of $5 and up) will be taken at the door. The Grease Diner is located at 6604 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, CA. The Grease Diner is an art gallery, gift shop, and screen printing studio with a DIY feel and radical attitude. Owners, Jon Jon and Laurie are excited to be working with Benjamin Welmond to help him raise the additional funds needed to finish the film while providing a space for folks in the bay area to learn about Project Renew and the aftermath of the Vietnam war. As well as addressing the US’s impact on Vietnam, the film also brings up important questions dealing with the US’s foreign military policy. All are welcome to come to the event, and the Q & A sessions will be an important time to address questions about what the effect of war is.

To donate and see the trailer for the film, please go here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/renew-vietnam-the-documentary#/story

To learn more about the film please see: http://www.renew-thedoc.com

FilmWorks United International Working Class Film & Video Festival
Wisconsin Rising
(60 min) (2014) by Sam Mayfield

This film documents the days, weeks and months when Wisconsinites fought back against power, authority and injustice. They were fighting back against newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker’s action stripping collective bargaining rights from public employees. This fight took place in the same period as the Arab spring, and workers in both struggles saw their common fight.
Discussion to follow.

An Injury To One Is An Injury To All
The Lessons of May Day 2015 and ILWU Local 10

On May 1, 2015 ILWU Local 10 called for a stop work meeting to protest the police terror and murders of African Americans, Latinos and other working people. Two thousand marched to demand justice and human rights. ILWU made history as the only union in the United States to not only to challenge the epidemic of police murders, but also to take action on the job.
This educational forum will look at why the ILWU Local 10 took this action and how their members have been affected by the increasing militarization of the police and repression in working class communities.
There will also be a screening of a new documentary about the ILWU Local 10’s initiated action.
Henry Schmidt room is on the second floor of the smaller building at the location.

Palestinian physician, activist, and politician, Mustafa Barghouti serves as General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative. He was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by previous prize winner Mairead Maguire, and is also an advocate of nonviolent resistance against occupation. He has been a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council since 2006, is also a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Central Council, and has served as the President of the International People’s Health Council.

After returning from Gaza in September 2014 following Israel’s brutal 51-day assault, Dr. Barghouti said, “This inhumanity can’t continue. There’s only one way out – to establish boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in order to dismantle this occupation and this apartheid.”

July 9th is the 10th anniversary of Palestinian civil society’s call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions; and the 11th anniversary of the International Court of Justice ruling against the Wall. Dr. Barghouti will speak about both of these — as well as his trip to Gaza, settlement expansion, strategies for tomorrow (concerning Israel’s even-more-right-wing-than-before government), and other facts on the ground. Don’t miss it!

Benefiting Middle East Children’s Alliance projects for Palestinian children

American Sign Language interpreted, wheelchair accessible.

Cosponsored by: KPFA, Palestinian American Coalition, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Arab Cultural & Community Center, Jewish Voice for Peace/Bay Area, and more!

Join the discussion as Lamont Lilly, of Workers World Party Durham Branch talks about the fight against police terror and capitalism’s need to have a police state. Lilly was recently in Baltimore People’s Power Assembly during the rebellion there in response to the police murder of #Freddie Grey. He has been active in the struggle to free Liberty and Justice for Carlos Riley Jr. Lilly is an activist and an author, writing frequently for Workers.org newspaper, a contributing editor for Triangle Free Press, and also published in Truth-out.org. You can find him on Twitter @LamontLilly .

Dear Healthcare Activist,

I hope you can help us campaign for expanded Medicare this Saturday at the San Francisco’s Mime Troupe performance at Berkeley’s Live Oak Park.

We will be asking people to sign a card for HR 676, (Medicare For All) from noon to 2pm, and for those who do sign we will invite them to the July 30 rally in Oakland.

We will collect cards from noon to 2pm, and then enjoy the Mime Troupe’s show “Freedomland” which asks the question: is a young black soldier safer in Afghanistan than in his own neighborhood?

Berkeley Repertory Theatre is proud to present Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter, a special presentation created, written, and performed by playwright, actor, and educator Anna Deavere Smith. Directed by Obie Award-winner Leah C. Gardiner, this limited engagement opens Saturday, July 11 and runs through Sunday, August 2, 2015 in the Roda Theatre. Individual tickets start at $50 and are currently on sale to the general public. Tickets can be purchased by phone at (510) 647-2949 or online at berkeleyrep.org.

Smith garnered a National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2012 and a MacArthur Award for her incisive and astounding theatrical investigations – from racial tension (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992) to the deficiencies in our health care system in Let Me Down Easy. Now she turns her attention to the school-to-prison pipeline, which, by pushing children out of the classroom into the criminal justice system, has created a lost generation of youth from poor communities. In act one, Smith performs striking portraits culled from interviews she conducted with nearly 150 individuals in Northern California and elsewhere in the nation affected by the pipeline’s devastating policies – capturing the dynamics of a rapidly shifting social issue through her trademark performance technique. She will be joined by Bay Area favorite, jazz musician Marcus Shelby.

In act two, Smith invites the audience to engage in dynamic conversations and be active agents to help dissolve the school-to-prison pipeline and inequities in the education system.  With the compelling and inspiring Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter, Smith believes that we all have the imagination, the wit, and the heart to make a difference.

“I’m pleased to present Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education, The California Chapter at Berkeley Rep,” says Smith. “This is my coming home project. By that I mean that I come from teachers who in my generation gave their lives to changing the lives of young Baltimoreans through belief in the potential of public education. I feel that the Bay Area is the perfect place for conversations about the school-to-prison pipeline to start and possibly for solutions to emerge. I’ve had a long history with Berkeley Rep and the Bay Area where I have presented my work since the early 1980s.”

Smith continues, “There’s a lot of research being conducted and has been done about the relationship of early suspensions and how that perpetuates a cycle of incarceration. Though the focus of fixing racial inequity is currently focused on problems with urban policemen, as President  Obama cautioned us, in the midst of riots in Baltimore, the problem is broader and deeper than that. I believe that we have a chance to reimagine and recreate a new war on poverty. Education is a crucial part of that. Through this special presentation I hope that we can build a model for art to be in direct connection to advocacy. We can bring people forward to ask not just what they think, but what they can do. I hope this process will help us understand more about our children, our teachers, our judges, and our criminal justice system.”

To cultivate participation in the dialogue by as many voices as possible, Berkeley Rep is offering a wide array of ticket discounts including:

·        1,000 free community tickets are available by application to nonprofit, and government organizations serving populations impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline and indviduals for whom cost would be a barrier; details available at http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/1415/9293.asp#tabbed-

“Mogi and I are in need of some help. I need to move at the end of July and I won’t have enough to cover a deposit and last months rent for a new home. So, I’m throwing a Rent Party & Art Show.”

More details and RSVP

Open mic & cypher THIS SATURDAY July 11th at The Alan Blueford Center for Justice @abc4justice #Oakland https://t.co/4vsVadK4DV

— Mollie Costello (@missmollie33) July 9, 2015

Martin Luther King meets Alfred North Whitehead:
the praxis of Realist social philosophy

If you could prune half of capitalist demagoguery, leaving the other half for 2050’s young socialists to whittle at, would you take the job? Land rent communist David Giesen speaks this morning about the plausibility of engaging 40% of the US population in a conversation about disengaging land values from private ownership. With a modest dollop of historical review (1776-yesterday) of land speculation in America, a sliced banana’s worth of “their own scripture’s injunction” theological talking points for the faith community, and a heaping helping of predictable results economic logic challenge for Republicans and Tea Party folk, Giesen will serve up a credible conversational dessert that Marxists can offer the other 99% of the population. And if 40% bite, a big hunk of capitalism is going down, baby!

If you want to hear the latest from one of the groups and some of the organizers of perhaps the biggest fight against gentrification in SF right now, please join us this Monday when Andy Blue of Plaza 16 Coalition tells of their work to slay the Monster in The Mission. He’ll be joined by activist and videographer Peter Menchini who’ll show a few of his videos on recent anti-gentrification actions such as Mission Takes City Hall.

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!

OccupyForum presents

         A Turning Point
In The Fight For SF?

However, City Hall and the developers haven’t gone unchallenged. Organizations have formed to fight evictions, disrupt auctions of foreclosed-on homes, and to speak out at public hearings, planning commission meetings and in marches and demonstrations against massively inappropriate development. And while the mayor and a majority of supervisors seem intent on ethnically (and economically) cleansing the city, some of the efforts of groups such as The Plaza 16 Coalition, seem to be having at least some effects on the blind develop-everything-at-all-costs mentality of housing investors and the planning commission.

The Plaza 16 Coalition formed in 2013 to fight the largest ever market rate (luxury) housing development ever proposed for The Mission District.  The group, which now has over 100 member organizations, advocates for affordable housing and to oppose the Maximus Investments plan for BART Plaza at Mission and 16th Streets for two ten-story towers of luxury apartments. The coalition has disrupted public meetings held by the developers to pitch their project and has demanded they turn the property over to the community which would be so negatively effected by its construction.

Since our Occupy Forum is held in the Global Exchange board room (thanks for your generosity GX!) this is an issue of direct interest to participants and fans of the Forum. Such a project would certainly increase both commercial and residential rents for blocks and so may put Occupy Forum at risk of losing its home.

Andy Blue is one of the organizers of Plaza 16 and he will update us on what’s happening in the fight against the luxury development and will tell us about the people and groups getting involved and what their vision for The Mission is. More info at: plaza16.org

Peter Menchini is a longtime SF activist and videographer who will show some of his footage from some Plaza 16 events and other recent affordable housing actions including the big, noisy Mission Takes City Hall.

A Victory in the Fight to Save our Historic Post Offices
With members of the Committee to Save the Berkeley Post Office

The U.S. Postal Service, now headed by those favoring privatization, is closing and selling off many post offices listed on the National Register of Historic Places, reducing postal services and cutting public sector union jobs.  Many of these historic post offices have murals and art created during the New Deal. The City of Berkeley, however, prevailed in federal court saving the historic post office building and setting a precedent for others.  The case promises to save union jobs by requiring the USPS to follow the law. Come hear the story of how a spirited group of Berkeley residents set a national precedent.

Citizens to Save the Berkeley Post Office fought for their historic building and art for three years.  They made the nation aware of the issue with articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle.
For information: harveysmithberkeley@yahoo.com
or call 510-684-0414

A large number of items regarding police practices are on the agenda, descriptions of which can be found here, including

1) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Legislation Requiring The Use Of Psychological Testing And Screening For Officer New Hires

2) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Policies And Procedures Which Require OPD To Train Officers More Effectively In The Use Of Force

3) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Legislation To Eradicate The Persistent Widespread Custom Or Practice Of Concealing Or Suppressing Investigations Into Police Officer Misconduct;

4) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Officer Reporting And Disclosure Requirements For Both Responding And On­Scene Officers In All Use Of Force Cases

5) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Legislation Prohibiting Any Law Enforcement Officer To Ask For, Or Take, Someone’s Camera, Phone, And/Or Other Device That Takes Photos Or Records Video Without First Securing A Warrant Issued By A Judge;

6) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Legislation To Send Law Enforcement Video, Dash Cams, Etc., To The Cloud In Real Time, To Avoid Any Tampering Of Evidence;

7) Receive A Report And Recommendations Regarding Adopting Legislation To Stop Criminalizing The Victim;

8) Receive A Report And Recommendations Encouraging The Public To Initiate A “Do Shoot” Campaign Urging Anyone Who Sees Someone Being Pulled Over By The Police Or Being Arrested To Shoot Video Of The Incident With Their Cell Phone Camera As A Means Of Self Defense

Stand with our sisters and brothers in Greece on this day of international solidarity in saying NO to austerity, NO to pension cuts, and NO to privatization. OXI means OXI! NO MEANS NO! CANCEL THE ILLEGAL DEBT. MAKE THE BANKS PAY.

The group ‘Europe says OXI’ has called for everyone all over the world to take to the streets on Wednesday, the day the Greek government will implement legislation that the Greek people voted resoundingly NO to last week.

#ThisIsACoup

Facebook RSVP

Just a few of the cities so far holding solidarity demonstrations:
Athens, Greece
London, United Kingdom
Leeds, United Kingdom
Bristol, United Kingdom
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Duns, Scotland
Berlin, Germany
Paris, France
Graz, Austria
Sofia, Bulgaria
Belgrade, Serbia
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Chicago, USA
Detroit, USA
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Prague, Czech Republic
Barcelona, Spain
Naples, Italy
Brantford, Ontario, Canada
Lisbon, Portugal
Manchester, United Kingdom
Padua, Italy
Vienna, Austria
and BUFFALO NY USA

Endorsed by Workers World Party, Marcha Patriotica Colombia, International Action Center