This Earth Day 2016, MARCH FOR THE EARTH in honor of Cesar Chavez because environmental rights are human rights! Gathering at 10am at 19th and Dolores, the parade departs promptly at 11 to walk to 24th and Mission. The festival is on 24th Street between Bryant and Treat. Please don’t miss the music, speakers and community! Bring signs and friends! Organizations please call John (415) 312-6924 or email marchfortheearth@gmail.com
Want to learn how to work toward abolishing the cops? Want to hear how we challenge the notion that policing keeps us safe? CR Oakland regularly offers this workshop that looks at the role and history of policing in the U.S., the way it has impacted various communities, and how people have resisted and challenged its inherent violence. This workshop also goes over how we can reduce our reliance on policing by highlighting the various ways that building up community strength and practices lead to true safety that does not depend on law enforcement.
The building is wheelchair accessible. Please email croakland@criticalresistance.org to RSVP.
Join us to celebrate EARTH DAY WEEKEND at the Gill Tract where we will come together to BUILD OUR POWER and continue the fight to DEFEND THE LAND.
As many of you know construction has started on the southernmost part of the Tract below Monroe St. UC Berkeley has sold out that parcel of public land to be turned into a luxury senior housing complex. But we won’t let the rest of the southside of Gill Tract be paved into a corporate chain grocery store. It’s a critical moment as permits may be issued any day now. Let’s seize this weekend of celebrating and protecting Mama Earth to resist further threats to this historic farmland and greenspace.
We’ll have a weekend full of engaging activities planned including speakers, music, food, and much more, SO COME OUT ALL DAY EACH DAY AND PLAN TO STAY THE NIGHT.
Saturday 4/23
*12 Noon: meet on the corner of San Pable Ave and Monroe St.
*Activities will include altar building so bring decorative fabric, remembrance pictures/images, flowers, battery-powered lights, special/sacred objects, etc.
*5pm Speakers: TBA
*6pm Dinner served
*7pm Music: Future Twins, group jam, more (tba)
*Camp out under the stars!
Sunday 4/14
*We will go support the fun activities at the northside Community Farm.
*6:00 Dinner
*Night time film screening of “This Changes Everything” (the Naomi Klein film) w/ popcorn
What’s Next in the Fight to Protect Public Spaces, the Rights of Homeless People, AND Free Speech
A press conference and celebration to discuss what’s next for the activists who occupied the grounds of the Main Berkeley Post Office for a year-and-a-half
Why: Though our occupation has been torn down, the fight to preserve public resources, free speech, and the rights of homeless people must continue
Though the Main Berkeley Post Office is not currently up for sale, the USPS continues to pursue a “shrink to survive” strategy by reducing and outsourcing services, chiseling away at union employment, and selling post offices around the country. Management of this huge enterprise is neglected with only three Governors on the Board that is chartered for eleven. The Postal Service continues to ignore the strong recommendations of its own Inspector General to correct anti-competitive practices in its real estate division and to pursue financial viability by offering banking services to its customers.
Allowing the USPS to wither in this way threatens the citizenry with the loss of universally accessible mail service, with a devastating injury to organized labor, with the elimination of public space on Main Streets throughout the country, and with the abdication of the Constitutional mission to provided a vehicle for the transmission of free speech.
During our 17-month occupation of the Main Berkeley Post Office, we expanded our mission to protest the criminalization of homeless people. Solving the widespread social problems that result in homelessness is not, nor can it be, the job of the police. We will continue to raise awareness of this strategic miscalculation by city officials and to demand that truly affordable housing be created for the homeless so they can spend more time putting their lives in order and less time shifting their belongings from pillar to post.
Our press conference will review the course of our 17-month occupation. We will thank everyone who played a role in sustaining our presence on the grounds of the post office. And we will discuss our strategies going forward:
– To organize community members to call out the USPS for not using the Main Berkeley Post Office to its full potential, and for not heeding their Inspector General’s recommendations to crack down on their real estate division and to institute postal banking.
– To invite candidates for election in November to use the Main Berkeley Post Office as a backdrop for supporting union labor, for Main Street Not Wall Street, and for attacking the predatory fringe finance industry.
– To retain and build on the way we’ve used public space for free expression. No matter how one might speculate as to the reasons why the Postal Police tolerated our occupation for so long, we demonstrated that public officials may not have absolute control over the use of spaces they administer, but that communities can override authorities without relying on permits, petitions, lawsuits, lobbyists, threats, or bribes. We can just use those spaces.
– To continue to nurture the community garden that we planted on neglected post office property over a year ago, and to which we are currently denied access by US Postal Police.
Berkeley Post Office Defenders: http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999?ref=br_tf
BPOD is affiliated with Strike Debt Bay Area: http://strike-debt-bay-area.tumblr.com/
For more on the privatization of the USPS:
Saving the United States Postal Service as a Public Enterprise: http://tinyurl.com/ltqq7ng
Privatization Is Social Cancer; Saving the US Postal Service: http://tinyurl.com/mbcbzrf
Celebrating 4 years at the Gill Tract! Food, live music, holistic medicine, and farmin’! We would love your help in making the magic happen sign up to volunteer at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4faba729a3fe3-earth
The BASTARD (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development) conference promotes multiple approaches to anarchism. Come and share yours. Come and participate in a commerce-free event with other anarchists to talk about the philosophy and theory of where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going.
Every year we have a loose theme, to allow people who want a framework on which to base a workshop. The BASTARD Conference is an annual event and gathering organized by the Berkeley Anarchist Study Group, which is an open long running (10+ years) anarchist study group that meets every week on Tuesday @ The Long Haul Infoshop (3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley CA. 94705).
http://sfbay-anarchists.org/
It’s time to celebrate our History of Struggle!
Leave it to Diva
Skank Bank
Funky Nixons
Hali Hammer
Yukon Hannibal
Bogues
Tee Lewis
Bay Area Harmonica Club
Us
Steven Lewis
Max Ventura
Chanel
All Nations Singers
DJ Soul
Food Not Bombs Field Kitchen all day
Tables
Good Community Good Times…Details TBA
Join us to learn about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice action in our region. We welcome your participation and your voice! Steve Ongerth will present on “just transition” — ensuring that fossil fuel workers get support, training, and good new jobs as we eliminate fossil fuel.
Potluck lunch before the meeting at 12:30 PM.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee & Troy Williams to Speak at Post Salon.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee will discuss overcoming barriers for the formerly incarcerated to vote and find jobs at next week’s Post Salon. Troy Williams, former San Quentin inmate, will respond.
The salon will also report on the housing moratorium, a local voter registration drive and the crisis of jobs and job training programs in Oakland, discussing the significance of what will be discussed at the Tuesday, April 26 Community and Economic Development Community Meeting.
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.
OO 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
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
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!
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!
Prince dance party at SFPD mission hunger strike at 8pm. #hunger4justicesf #FireChiefSuhr #BlackNBrownUnity#Justice4Luis
— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) April 24, 2016
No Coal in Oakland asks our allies from throughout the state to join us in a statewide Call-in to Call-out Governor Brown on Monday, April 25th!
We are fighting a plan to transport up to 9 million tons of coal from Utah to Oakland for export overseas. Last July at the Vatican, Governor Jerry Brown said to the Pope that 90% of coal must stay in the ground to avoid climate disaster. Brown said at the Paris climate conference, “We are really a crucial element in making the fundamental change from a carbon intensive economy to one that is on the side of nature, and therefore sustainable.”
But what is our professed climate leader really doing for California? The answer is – not nearly enough! We need to let Brown know that lofty proclamations are not enough while environmental destruction and local pollution continue unabated in his own state and hometown.
We are calling on Brown to:
1) – Publicly oppose the export of coal from the new bulk terminal being built in West Oakland. We are asking Gov. Brown to defend his fellow Oaklanders who already suffer the health consequences from the worst air quality in all of Alameda County.
2) – Affirm his support for Senator Loni Hancock’s two bills about coal and use the power of his office to promote and pass them.
For more information, please visit nocoalinoakland.org or contact nocoalinoakland[at]gmail.com
PLEASE JOIN US IN A STATE-WIDE CALL-IN to CALL OUT BROWN
Monday, April 25 between 9 am and 5 pm
Call: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-558-3160
Twitter: @JerryBrownGov
Email: https://govnews.ca.gov/gov39mail/mail.php
Let Gov. Brown know that he can no longer remain neutral on a moving train!
URGENT!!
We need 50 people to commit to collect 100 signatures over the next two weeks.
Our petition drive is reaching the final leg and we need to sprint to the finish. We can do this! Most of our volunteers get about 10 signatures an hour, on average. So, if 50 people can give us just under an hour a day for the next two weeks, we will easily make it!
Can you commit to 5 hours a week for two weeks?
Please look at the schedule, choose your times and locations, and email them to alamedarenterscoalition.com
Call or text us at 510 473-2332. Someone will get back to you as soon as possible.
Sing for an hour on Solano Avenue at the old Oaks Theater, Berkeley.
Last winter, workers at the Holiday Inn Express Oakland Airport told the City of Oakland that their boss was violating their rights under Measure FF, the new minimum wage law. The City investigated and issued a report identifying a number of alleged violations at the hotel – failing to pay the minimum wage for all hours, “rounding off” time-clock records to shave off time worked, requiring employees to give notice before using sick leave, taking away workers’ accrued vacation time, and other alleged violations.
Then, the following month, the City’s Planning and Building Department gave the owners of the Holiday Inn Express permission to develop a new hotel in downtown Oakland – a Hampton Inn on 11th Street in Chinatown.
“The City assessed a penalty of $5,000 against the Holiday Inn Express – then turned around and gave the hotel’s owners a permit to build a brand new hotel where they can make lots of money. So what reason would any boss have to respect our rights?” said downtown Oakland hotel housekeeper Irma Perez.
The Planning and Building Department wants to ignore the issues of job quality and the impacts of poverty-wage jobs in considering hotel development, but we’re not going to let them! Councilmembers Guillen and Kalb have introduced a City Council resolution calling on the Planning and Building Department to take job quality seriously. The resolution would also begin the process of bringing more public accountability to hotel development decisions.
The City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee will consider this resolution on Tuesday, April 26th, at 1:00pm. Please attend, and call on the members of the Committee to vote YES for the resolution, for GOOD JOBS IN HOTELS and NO POVERTY-WAGE HOTELS IN OAKLAND!
Please let us know if you can be there, and if you plan to speak.
In solidarity,
UNITE HERE Local 2850