Calendar
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
Workers & the Fight Against Coal
August Climate Workers Monthly Meetup
Join us for Climate Workers’ monthly membership meetup, at which we’ll be strategizing about labor’s role in the fight against coal in Oakland.
Climate Workers believes that we must defeat coal in Oakland and that workers and our unions have a critical role to play in the fight.
At this month’s Climate Workers member meet up, we’ll get an update on the fight against coal, learn how other communities have fought extractive industry (and won!), and lead a power map / brainstorm about what workers bring to the fight against coal in Oakland.
Last year, union members (including many of YOU as Climate Workers members!) were essential in beating back Oakland developer Phil Tagami’s attempt to build a coal export terminal in Oakland, CA. Hundreds of union members signed petitions, attended rallies, and spoke out at city council. And your sentiments were echoed by a historic statement against coal by the Alameda Labor Council. Together, we banned coal in Oakland!!
Now Phil Tagami is suing the City of Oakland, seeking to overturn the ban and to bring 10 million tons of coal through our city annually – escalating climate change and poisoning the lungs of working class communities of color in the path of the coal trains. Meanwhile, the jobs Tagami promised our communities are nowhere to be found. Instead, he’s forcing the city into a costly lawsuit at a time when we need our public tax dollars to fund vital community services.
Join us Tuesday for this important conversation and help inform Climate Workers’ work on this important campaign. We’ll have some light food and drinks. You do NOT need to be a Climate Workers member to attend, however we’ll start the evening with a brief orientation to Climate Workers and an opportunity to join, followed by the discussion.
Become a Climate Workers MEMBER
Build a worker-led movement for climate justice. Join today!
Monthly APTP meeting, held on every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
– Strategize on addressing proposed changes to the BART police use of force policy.
– Find out ways you can use your talents and resources to support APTP and get involved with the work, including how to join various committees such as the Black Leadership Committee, First Responders, Action, Policy, Media, and Security committees.
– Find out more about the #DefundOPD campaign.
The Anti Police-Terror Project is a project of the ONYX ORGANIZING COMMITTEE that in coalition with other organizations, like Idriss Stelley Foundation, Community READY Corps and Workers World Party – Bay Area, 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.
For the July meeting:
There will be report backs on some of our recent actions including the Defund OPD campaign around the city budget process, including our shutdown of the Council budget meeting. You’ll also hear about our action to protest the promotion of rapist OPD Cops at their “secret” promotions ceremony.
We’d also love to have you get involved with APTP on a regular basis, by joining one of our committees. We will have committee breakouts as part of Wednesday’s meeting, so you can learn about what the different committees do. We know you all have lots of ideas and talent, so please contribute to further APTP’s on-going work.
Some of the committees include:
– Black Leadership
– First Responders
– Action
– Comms/Media
– Policy
– Security
– Fundraising
See you all on Wednesday!
Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
From the Oakland Post:
Adamika Village and other grass-roots organizations are hosting a town hall meeting to announce “strategic and consistent planning and implementation to stop the violence in Oakland.”
“It is imperative that the community get involved in changing Oakland’s climate of violence. We can no longer rely on anyone but ourselves to make this happen,” says Pastor Anthony Woods, Adamika CEO. “This town hall is the beginning of regular monthly meetings to assure implementation occurs. Please don’t stay home and think somebody else is going to change Oakland. We need your help,” he said.
On the agenda will be a discussion of Adamika Village’s “No Yellow Tape Day” rally at City Hall on Nov. 17 and support for efforts to find Pearl Pinson, Margarita Brown, Aniah Russell, Olivia Betancourt and Larissa Oliver, all young women still missing in the Bay Area.
The #stopkillingourkids” movement started in August 2016 with a “Mother’s Cry” rally at Arroyo Park, where mothers and fathers were provided a forum to express their grief and be heard.
Oakland! This is the caravan of the summer, mobilizing the East Bay to the South Bay for #A19 #Millions4Prisoners march and rally. Come listen, learn, network, share, reach out, march, BUILD!!!
DRIVERS and RIDERS:
This will be a full day so SIGN UP EARLY!! Use the google form at the link to let us know your needs for transportation or comment on this event!!!
Schedule:
March with California Prison Focus & RISE UP FOR JUSTICE
9:00 am – Meet at West Oakland Station, depart 9:30am
11:00 am – Gather at Raymond Bernal Jr. Park
11:30 am – March to Santa Clara County Main Jail
12:30 pm – Rally at James P. McEntee Plaza (70 W. Hedding St.)
~2:00 pm – Drive back to Oakland
M4P A19 is about standing up with and for prisoners and fighting back against:
* Private entities exploiting labor
* Companies overcharging prisoners for goods and services
* Private entities contracted by states and federal government to build and operate prisons, including immigration detention centers
* Racial disparities in America’s prison population and sentencing
* Disproportionate and unaccountable killings by police in black and brown communities
* Felony disenfranchisement laws
* Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) setting detention quotas
* Producing the world’s largest prison population
* State-sponsored murder via the death penalty
* Unjust bail bond system
SOLIDARITY – – FOR A WORLD WITHOUT PRISONS
Aug19 SAN JOSE MILLIONS FOR PRISONERS MARCH https://t.co/Y9OG5mbQiC in solidarity w/March in DC #Abolishthe13th @CAprisonfocus #humanrights pic.twitter.com/fTyT0m7DQH
— CA Hunger Strike (@CAHungerStrike) August 14, 2017
ART & SOUL will be using Oscar Grant Plaza this weekend so we will meet at 19th & Telegraph.
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!
Kick-off meeting to create Slingshot issue #125.
* Brainstorm articles for next issue
* Orientation on how you can submit articles, art, photographs
* Help us discuss our audience and themes for the next issue
* Discuss fundraising and distribution
* Your chance to comment on Slingshot
Everyone is welcome.
Issue #125 is due out on October 6, 2017
Deadline for Issue #125 is September 23, 2017
Moving ahead with the feasibility study
The next Oakland City Council meeting is set for Tuesday, September 18th. On the agenda is authorizing the feasibility study on establishing the Public Bank of Oakland. But authorization is only half the battle; it is contingent on finding an additional $25,000 from outside the city coffers to supplement the budgeted $75,000.
If you live outside Oakland, you can help establish PBO so it can bring beneficial banking to the whole bay area. Whether you live in Berkeley, San Leandro, Alameda, Newark or another town, let your local councilmembers know that you support PBO. Tell them to put money into funding this study.
Of course, you can also support PBO by donating or pledging financial support on our website.
How public banking can help address climate change
We’re excited to announce the next forum on public banking! Visiting from Berlin, Wolfram Morales of the Sparkassen public banks will discuss the role of public banking in financing renewable energy projects. Joining him on the panel will be Nicholas Chaset, CEO of the brand-new East Bay Community Energy agency, and renewable energy activists. Hosted by councilmembers Dan Kalb and Rebecca Kaplan, the forum is set for Monday, September 25th, from 7 to 9pm, at the Oakland City Hall.
FPBO at the Laurel street fair
Our outreach efforts got a major boost at last weekend’s Laurel street fair. We spoke with hundreds of fair-goers who hadn’t yet heard of public banking and collected 300+ signatures for our petition to the Oakland City Council.
Coming up in Oakland
We’ll continue to build public support for PBO at two more August events. On the 19th look for our table at the Latinx Cultural Festival at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park.
And on Saturday the 26th, we’ll be at the Freedom Farmers’ Market at 5316 Telegraph Avenue. This market’s mission is to bring traditional legacy foods from Black farmers and other socially disadvantaged farmers into Oakland. We hope to meet you there!
Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. You’ll also hear about SURJ’s new pathways for entering the work, including Study and Action groups as well as committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We’ll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice.
Getting Into the Lobby:
The doors for the Sierra Club building lock right at 7pm, so please do your best to arrive prior to 7pm. We will have someone stationed at the Webster entrance to the building until 7:15 for late arrivals. If you arrive after 7pm, please use the Webster entrance.
Please join us at the Anti-Racist rally to be held in opposition to the White Supremacists that are organizing a racist rally at Chrissy Fields in San Francisco.
There is a call to assemble in the morning, followed by a march to Chrissy Field at 10:00am.
PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE TO MAKE SURE WE HAVEN’T CHANGED THE MEETING POINT.
Racism is evil. It must be eradicated from the face of the earth. We will not let facist, racist, morally bankrupt degenerates invade our beautiful city and spew hate. The time for passive tolerance is over. It’s time to stand our ground. Its time to stand up. Its time to come out of comfort zones and speak with one united voice — and send a message that hate has no safe space in San Francisco!
We are not advocating violence or physical conflicts. We are advocating participants — young, old, brave, bold; show up in force, create signs and disrupt the agenda of the unwelcome hate groups. One voice. One people. One love. United we will stand.
There will be a Special Membership Meeting to vote on the RPA’s endorsement for the vacant Richmond City Council seat. RPA Steering Committee members have been interviewing candidates, and the Steering Committee will bring their recommendations to the membership on 8/26 for a vote. Membership (and dues renewal) available at the door.
**** IMPORTANT ACTION UPDATE, READ CAREFULLY ****
Today, we scared off the white supremacists and fascists from gathering at Crissy Field, only to announce they would relocate to the Alamo Square Park tomorrow at 2PM.
San Franciscans will not tolerate hate in our city, that’s why we are STILL organizing to end white supremacy tomorrow and rallying at 11AM at the corner of Steiner and Hayes.
Our goal is to shut down white supremacy and show the real power of San Francisco. We will also be vigilant of any attacks on the Black institutions of the Western Addition—particularly its churches—and stop them from marching on events in Civic Center, the Castro and the Mission.
Tomorrow, stay careful, stay courageous and organize with us to end white supremacy.
Sign for Bay Resistance on their website AND text RESIST to 41411 for important action alerts.
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
- Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
- Presenting debt-related topics at forums and workshops
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks
- Tiny Homes and other solutions for the homeless.
- money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
- Student debt resistance. Check out the Debt Collective, our sister organization
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- Promoting the concept of Basic Income
- Advocating for Postal banking
- Organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now there’s a spinoff group
- Bring your own debt-related project!
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com .
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
**Wear a White T-Shirt in Solidarity with Immigrant Rights and a Bandanna for Safety**
Sunday @ 10am
MLK Park in Downtown Berkeley pic.twitter.com/ANOlsgZaep— Indybay (@Indybay) August 21, 2017
Gather at Ohlone Park.
March to Old City Hall.
Bay Area United Against White Supremacy.
Our powerful SURJ contingent will gather to refuse violence and intimidation by white supremacists and nazis who intend to rally in Berkeley on August 27. Our strength is in our numbers.
Meet at Ohlone Park (Hearst and Martin Luther King Blvd.) and march with us to Berkeley City Hall (Center and Martin Luther King Blvd.) where we will maintain a presence and send a clear message: No racism, no hate in Berkeley. We stand strong for Black lives and racial justice, and shoulder to shoulder against Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, trans/homophobia, and the scapegoating of immigrants.
#Berkeley – Sunday, August 27, 11am pic.twitter.com/ohdQQNCR6h
— tree (@treekisser) August 20, 2017
Event flier for Aug. 27th march/rally to Resist Racist Violence & Hate in Berkeley pic.twitter.com/Jh8nPPFTP6
— SURJ Bay Area (@surjbayarea) August 20, 2017