Calendar

9896
Mar
26
Sat
Alameda Rent Control Ballot Initiative Signature Gathering @ FIREFIGHTERS' UNION HALL
Mar 26 @ 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm

BE THERE THIS SATURDAY — TEAM ASSIGNMENTS, TRAINING!

WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS! Thousands of qualified voter signatures are required to put our Charter Amendment on the NOVEMBER BALLOT!

BRING A FRIEND.

TIME IS SHORT! We have only four weeks to gather thousands of VALID SIGNATURES.

PETITIONS are being printed.

 

60711
Berkeley Copwatch: JOIN US FOR A SHIFT: MASS COPWATCHING
Mar 26 @ 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

JOIN US FOR A SHIFT: MASS COPWATCHING

· Friday March 11, 8 PM – 11 PM
· Thursday March 17, 5 PM – 7 PM
· Saturday March 26, 8 PM – 11 PM

Since October 2015, Berkeley Copwatch has been holding “mass copwatch” events that invite folks to join us for a shift. It’s been fun and very empowering to have a group of copwatchers patrolling our city and on the scene when police stop people.

This month we have three shifts scheduled. The Thursday shift will likely be a walking shift. Please join us; we will train you in the essentials of copwatching, how to document and how to stay safe!

Contact us at (510) 548-0425 or berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com to learn where we will be meeting.

60586
Mar
27
Sun
CodePink vs Killer Drones: SHUT DOWN CREECH @ East Bay to Nevada
Mar 27 all-day
60595
Sunflower Alliance General Assembly @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Mar 27 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Join us to learn about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice action in our region. We welcome your participation and your voice!

On Sunday, March 27, we’ll continue an exciting discussion on current and upcoming campaigns in Contra Costa County to counter fossil fuel industry expansion and develop local clean energy resources.  How can the Sunflower Alliance contribute to county-wide organizing?

 RSVP

60698
Open Circle ~ Families Fighting for Justice @ Omni Commons
Mar 27 @ 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

59100
Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza or basement of Omni basement if raining
Mar 27 @ 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

ooGAOO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over four years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally . Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

  1. Welcome & Introductions
  2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
  3. Announcements
  4. (Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

 

58624
Community Democracy Project Meeting @ Omni Commons Basement
Mar 27 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.

Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.

Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.

The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.

Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!

60727
Liberated Lens Weekly Meetup @ Omni Commons
Mar 27 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Liberated Lens 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, and organize free, at cost or donation-based workshops.

Join us for our weekly meeting and a workshop!

We usually meet in our editing suite (2nd floor in the ballroom, to the left of the stage) and then work on projects. It’s open to all!

60700
Mar
28
Mon
Militarization, Mental Health and the Berkeley Police, with Maria Moore @ 247 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley
Mar 28 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Militarization of Mental Health and the Berkeley Police
Case Study of the Death of Kayla Moore presented by Maria Moore (Sister to Kayla)

In February of 2013, BPD forcibly entered the home of Kayla Moore, an African American transgender woman with mental illness. In this all-too-familar story, a friend called police for help at 11:30pm when he thought Kayla was having a mental health crisis. Once police arrived, they attempted to forcibly take Kayla Moore into custody. Face down on a futon with five cops on top of her, Kayla died. Her case has amplified the calls for fundamental change in the way that we attend to the safety of our citizens who experience mental health crisis. Maria Moore will share her experience of what happened before and after Kayla’s passing and the lessons and reflections from her family’s struggle for justice and healing.

60731
Occupy Forum @ Global Exchange, 2nd Floor
Mar 28 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

OccupyForum // We had a last-minute cancellation, but we will meet, program will be a surprise (to us all!)

OccupyForum presents

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

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

Q&A and Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum
to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

60730
Berkeley Copwatch Meeting @ Grassroots House
Mar 28 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Meetings held Mondays at 7:00 PM
Excepting Monday March 7, when we will meet at 8:15 PM. Come one, come all!

VOLUNTEER NOW!!!
If you would like to go out on Copwatch shifts, work in our office, create art, become a Know Your Rights Trainer or help us out in other ways, WE NEED YOU! Send us an e-mail, subscribe to our email list, call our office or just come to our weekly meetings on Mondays, 2022 Blake Street, Berkeley or our weekly office hours on Wednesdays from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

 

60583
Mar
30
Wed
RightsCon Silicon Valley in San Francisco
Mar 30 @ 9:00 am – Apr 1 @ 5:00 pm
Homes Not Jails Meeting @ Omni Commons
Mar 30 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Homes Not Jails is a consensus-based collective of squatters and squat supporters who believe housing is a human right. Our goal is to open as much vacant housing as possible and to keep it open as long as possible. HNJ is a place to organize mutual aid among squatters and squat supporters and housing rights advocates in the bay. We actively fight to make our space inclusive and safe for everybody and combat oppression in all forms.

60728
Mar
31
Thu
Honoring Immigrant Workers: Cesar Chavez Day Action @ City Center Plaza
Mar 31 @ 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm

The janitorial industry has gone off the rails with economic exploitation, wage theft, harassment, and abuse.

25 years ago, janitors broke the silence to clean up the industruct. In 2016, we’re breaking the silence again to stop the sexual assault of immigrant women. We fight in the streets and at the bargaining table to stand up against economic exploitation.

On Cesar Chavez Day, immigrant women janitors are joining immigrant women farm workers to say !Ya Basta! and put a stop to the rampant exploitation and sexual assault of immigrant women workers.

Join us to honor the legacy of fighting for immigrant workers that  was led by the United Farm Workers and its leaders Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

60709
No Coal in Oakland Meeting @ West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project
Mar 31 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

We encourage all Oakland residents to attend the weekly No Coal in Oakland meeting.

Up until its February 16th meeting, the position of a majority of Oakland City Council members on permitting coal shipment from the city’s port may have been in doubt. Even now the proposal remains on the table. But at that meeting, council members took concrete steps toward banning coal exports once and for all. Thanks to the efforts of Mayor Libby Schaff, local clergy, State Senator Loni Hancock, and community activists, the Council has signaled its intention to enact an outright ban on coal exports. In fact, it passed a moratorium on the issuance of any permits for the terminal until the question has been resolved. Read details on the latest developmemts here.

(And for more background, see A Coaltastrophe Threatens Oakland on this website.)

60517
Film Screening: Dear Governor Brown: Why is Fracking Still Allowed? @ Center for Biological Diversity, 8th Fl
Mar 31 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Dear-Governor-Brown_alameda-300Why is fracking still allowed in our county? What can we do to ban it once and for all?

Join Alameda County Against Fracking for a free film screening of Dear Governor Brown, a game-changing new film about Californians living with extreme oil. Learn how you can play a crucial role in banning fracking and extreme oil extraction in Alameda county, and how a victory here will turn the tide on California’s toxic past, present, and future.

Film followed by discussion.

RSVP

 

60699
Voices of the Undocumented @ Revolution Books
Mar 31 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Val Rosenfeld and Flor Fortunati present their book: “Voices of the Undocumented”

Voices of the Undocumented brings to life the lives of people who have been forced to live in the shadows of this society because they have no legal status. These stories give a glimpse into the reality of the lives of the 11 million people who work and struggle to live in the U.S. who are subjected to deportation and exploitation. Nine immigrants tell their stories about their lives in Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala before coming here and about their lives once they arrive. Some tell of arduous journeys, walking through the desert to cross the border while hiding from the U.S. Border Patrol. Some came with visas and overstayed their time limits. Some left their children behind in their countries – children they have not seen for years. Their stories are based on interviews done by Val Rosenfeld, an English as a Second Language teacher and Flor Fortunati, a volunteer at the Day Worker Center of Mountain View, California.

From the heartbreaking story of Salvador (an illiterate Mexican farm worker who entered the U.S. illegally four times), to Ernesto (an educated Peruvian womanizer), to the amazing accomplishments of Rocío (a graduate of a prestigious university), Voices of the Undocumented relates poignant accounts of the undocumented workers’ lives.

60725
Apr
1
Fri
Court Support: First Hearing for the Land Action 4. @ Wiley Manual Courthouse, Dept 115
Apr 1 @ 9:00 am – 11:30 am

Support Anti-Gentrification Activists Facing Political Repression & Trumped-Up Charges!

The DA is aggressively prosecuting four Land Action organizers for their involvement in a recent adverse possession project. There are seven criminal charges, including three felony counts. Contrary to established precedent in Oakland in recent years, the DA has deliberately, and in violation of the law, pushed this civil dispute into criminal court. The case was brought to the DA’s attention because the property owner was personally connected to the DA’s office!

On Wednesday January 20, 2016 the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office issued arrest warrants for 4 organizers working with the non-profit Land Action. The organizers, now being called The Land Action 4, face 7 criminal charges-3 of which are felonies, up to 8.5 years imprisonment and $89,000 in fines . Among the allegations is that these organizers were involved in a “Conspiracy to Trespass,” a common charge used to target civil rights organizers.

Hundreds of abandoned/vacant properties have been occupied in the Bay Area in recent decades. Disputes over these properties generally remain in the civil realm. In the overwhelming majority of cases, the court rules in the title-holder’s favor and the occupiers are ordered to leave. Very rarely do they end with arrests, and never before have they resulted in felony charges. But this time, the DA has pushed what has historically been considered a civil matter into criminal court.

Please come pack the courthouse with us for our initial hearing! April 1st at 9m at the Wiley Manuel courthouse. There is plenty of 4-hour parking available, south of the 880 freeway on 4th, 3rd, and 2nd Streets, within walking distance of the Courthouse.

We ask for your support in the upcoming legal battle. Please come pack the courthouse with us for our initial hearing!

 

Also, please support our staff and volunteer activists by donating to cover the $3,500 in legal expenses currently accrued –https://www.gofundme.com/m3vz8wva

60664
Protest Big Pharma! Public Health, Not Corporate Wealth! @ Gilead Sciences’ Headquarters
Apr 1 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, together with the Oasis Clinic in Oakland, urges you to support this demonstration to protest the outrageous price-gouging of Big Pharma corporations, like Gilead Sciences!  Corporations such as Gilead hike-up the cost for essential, life-saving medications such as the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C disease (HCV), in order to reap huge profits.

Public transportation is available —
Take BART Richmond/Daly City line to Milbrae Station,
transfer to Caltrain Shuttle to 353 Lakeside, then walk to 333 Lakeside Dr.

One pill a day for 12 weeks does the trick to cure Hepatitis-C with a 95 percent success rate. But Gilead charges $1,000 per pill, or nearly $100,000 for a full course of treatment!! Gilead Sciences, the “owner” of Harvoni, which is the effective new cure for HCV, did not develop this cure: it bought another company!  Now its profit gouging threatens many thousands of lives! Obama Care does not protect against Big Pharma’s outrageous price gouging!

Nearly 5.2 million Americans are infected with HCV, according to the Center for Disease Control. And political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is among as many as 700,000 prisoners who are victims. Prisoners who are infected with Hep-C are among the least likely to receive the newly available cure for the disease, due to both the exaggerated price, and the refusal of prison authorities to provide proper health care for inmates! Prisons are killing them by medical neglect and mistreatment! And corporations are exploiting the rest of us, except in some countries, which enforce lower prices.

WE DEMAND: PUBLIC HEALTH, NOT CORPORATE WEALTH!

NO EXECUTION BY MEDICAL NEGLECT!  •  FREE TREATMENT FOR HCV-INFECTED PRISONERS AND OTHERS NOW!  �  JAIL DRUG PROFITEERS, FREE MUMIA!

Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

60703
Protest Bill Clinton’s Mass Incarceration! @ Haas Pavilion
Apr 1 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

“From the crime bill to welfare reform, policies Bill Clinton enacted—and Hillary Clinton supported—decimated black America.” – Michelle Alexander, The Nation, February 10th.

On April 1st former US President Bill Clinton is speaking at UC Berkeley during the Clinton Global Initiative University Conference. His presidency engineered the structural racism of mass incarceration. The Welfare Reform Act (1996) pulled the rug out from under African American communities. The “Tough On Crime” Bill (1994) destroyed families as it incarcerated masses of jobless black men and barred them from employment, housing and welfare. In short, his presidency slashed public welfare programmes and transferred the funding to a massive expansion of policing and prisons. A black child born today has a 1 in 3 chance of spending time in prison, a latino child 1 in 6, and a white child 1 in 17. This is on Bill Clinton.

We want to remind Clinton of the real destructive consequences of his policies. Mass incarceration and structural racism exist today. Apologies are not going to give the incarcerated their freedom back and restore destroyed families. The positive image that the Clintons’ sponsorship of education and research creates should not go unchallenged. They should not be allowed to forget and neither should we. In 1992 Clinton used the execution of the mentally impaired black man Ricky Ray Rector as a publicity stunt to prove that he was tough on crime: “I can be nicked a lot, but no one can say I’m soft on crime”, he said afterwards. All the philanthropy in the world should not be allowed to overshadow this legacy.

This protest is organized by activists from Socialist Alternative and other organizations, on and off campus. A full list of speakers will be published soon. Does your organization wish to support the protest? Please contact us at aoe012@berkeley.edu

We refuse to let the Clintons use our campus as tool for whitewashing their legacy. Join us at 5pm outside the Haas Pavilion April 1st to protest mass incarceration. We demand:
– End mass incarceration!
– End racist police violence!
– Defund the prison-industrial complex!

60713