Calendar
The charges are as follows:
Felarca: felony assault with great bodily injury, misdemeanor riot and misdemeanor inciting riot
Williams: felony assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor riot
Paz: misdemeanor assault, misdemeanor riot
This is a gross miscarriage of justice. The prosecutor’s case at the evidentiary hearing relied heavily on unauthenticated video and a single witness, the CHP officer, Ayres. His testimony made crystal clear the selective nature and bias of his “investigation” into the protest on June 26, 2016. He was loathe to even characterize the Traditionalist Workers Party as a Nazi or fascist organization. The prosecutor admitted that his “victims” and his witnesses were less than ideal from his point of view, and that his evidence against me for felony charge was lousy. Yet Judge Bulware Eurie refused to drop the charges, sanctioning the Sacramento District Attorney witchhunt in an effort to scapegoat and make examples out of us. We cannot let them succeed.
The defense team plans on bringing another motion to dismiss to stop this case from going to trial. As my attorneys wrote, “If the prosecution of Felarca, Paz, and Williams proceeds, then Donald Trump will have already achieved one of his central aims: the substitution of authoritarianism for constitutional due process rights and democratic norms. A policy of naked state discrimination and persecution of racial minorities and left-wing political activists would be a fact and reality.'”
Thank you everyone for the support you’ve given us thus far. Coming to Sacramento, raising your voices at pickets, your unions and organizations, it has meant the world to us. We are committed to standing up and fighting this out, because we know that we’re fighting not only for ourselves, but for generations to come. Now that this judge has ruled to maintain the charges, in the course of the next several weeks, it’s urgent that we redouble our education and outreach efforts for the defense campaign. Here are some useful media links on the case. A list of labor support and other organizations is below, too. If I missed any, my apologies, and let me know as soon as possible so I can modify the list. Please continue to reach out to organizations or unions that you work with. I’ve attached a sample resolution you can bring to your organization. All support is welcome.
In Solidarity,
Yvette Felarca
Sacramento 3 Defendant
BAMN National Organizer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Court Support Needed for the Next Hearing (Arraignment): Wed. Feb. 13 at 8:30 am at the Sacramento Courthouse, 651 i-St. Dept. 63.
2. Useful webpage on the case with with links to defense motions and exhibits: bamn.com/defendyvettefelarca
3. Media Coverage of the Case:
A. The Guardian Jan. 25, 2019: How a California officer protected neo-Nazis and targeted their victims
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/25/california-police-neo-nazis-antifa-protest?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
B. Sacramento News and Review article on evidentiary preliminary hearing Jan. 4, 2019:
https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/exhibits-lies-videotape/content?oid=27528610
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C. The Guardian: exclusive interview after Felarca’s July 19, 2017 arrest:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/25/yvette-felarca-trump-protest-charges-activism
D. NY Daily News:
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/middle-school-teacher-arrested-punching-neo-nazi-article-1.3418200
E. Huffington Post:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yvette-felarca-neo-nazi-fascism_us_59949dece4b0d0d2cc83d266
F. The Young Turks Youtube Story: Police Teaming Up with Neo-Nazi’s Now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoZuKMbjDBE&feature=youtu.be
G. Video: Vice Deezus and Mero Stand With Middle School Teacher Yvette Felarca
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/ywwwqy/desus-and-mero-defend-a-teacher-who-was-arrested-for-punching-a-neo-nazi
H. Uneditted TV interviews on June 26, 2016 after the anti-fascist protest in Sacramento:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2dd1YoDULg
I. KTVU Interview defending shut down of alt-right Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopolous at UC Berkeley, Feb. 3, 2017:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPrRLyFTzSU&t=2s
We will be joined by Cooperation Jackson Co-Founder and Executive Director, Kali Akuno. The program will feature a presentation about the innovative work of Cooperation Jackson, and will focus in particular on their two primary initiatives for 2019: Revitalizing a former Grocery Plaza and exhibiting their first digitally fabricated homes on their Ewing Street Eco-Village Pilot Project.
For those who don’t know, Cooperation Jackson is an emerging network of worker cooperatives and supporting solidarity economy institutions and practices based in Jackson, Mississippi. For more information on Cooperation Jackson visit www.CooperationJackson.org.
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), opposing Urban Shield (now gone!) and pushing back against ICE with local legislation.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/ Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy
Check out our sister site DeportICE.
“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”
Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County. To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a huge upsurge in activism within the technology community. From the walkouts at Google to labor organizing at Amazon, tech workers are starting to see a connection between their work and social issues. Engineer, activist, and entrepreneur Leigh Honeywell has been at the forefront of tech activism for many years. We’ll be talking to her about the new tech activism, and the politics of a life lived online.
Honeywell founded two hackerspaces (HackLabTO in Toronto, and the Seattle Attic Community Workshop in Seattle), created the widely-circulated Never Again pledge, and now heads her own company, Tall Poppy, where she helps companies protect their employees from online harassment. The thread that runs throughout her work is using technology to create more privacy and safety for people online. She’ll discuss the growing resistance to the practices of corporations that profile users, or sell their data, and the rise of services that protect people from digital harassment.
Honeywell was previously a Technology Fellow at the ACLU’s Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology, and also worked at Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Symantec. Leigh has a Bachelors of Science from the University of Toronto where she majored in Computer Science and Equity Studies.
She’ll be in conversation with Ars Technica contributors Annalee Newitz and Cyrus Farivar.
Ars Technica Live takes place on the second Wednesday of every month at Eli’s Mile High Club in Oakland (3629 MLK Way—they have the best tater tots you’ve ever eaten).
Doors open at 7pm, and the live filming is from 7:30pm to 8:20-ish (be sure to get there early if you want a seat). Stick around afterward for informal discussion, beer, and snacks. Can’t make it out to Oakland? Never fear! Episodes will be posted to Ars Technica two weeks after the live events.
Coal outta Richmond!
Mile-long coal trains of 100 open railcars run through Richmond’s residential neighborhoods and are unloaded at the Levin-Richmond Terminal, only a few blocks from homes, schools, and workplaces.
As we transition to a fossil-free future, the coal industry is maintaining its profits by increasing exports. Coal-burning power plants in China, Korea and Japan make West Coast ports such as Richmond prime targets for coal exports. These power plants have been cited as being a main reason for the increase in the carbon that is accelerating our climate emergency. Climate doesn’t care where the coal is burned.
Between the mines in Utah and the port, each rail car can lose up to 500 pounds of coal in the form of dust, according to information provided by the railroads. Once the coal reaches the waterfront terminal, the coal stacked in huge open-air piles that the wind and rain can carry into the air and Bay waters.
Join the movement to end the shipment of toxic and climate-destroying coal and petroleum coke from Richmond!
A critical part of this campaign is reaching out to coal-dust–impacted Richmond residents. No Coal in Richmond is now canvassing to spread awareness and collect signatures on a letter to the Richmond City Council demanding immediate action on this public health and climate hazard. Could you schedule a few hours with us?
Door-to-door Canvassing, Sunday 2/24
When: 1:30–5 pm
Where: Meet at the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center, 2540 Macdonald Ave.
RSVP: action@sunflower-alliance.org
No Coal in Richmond is a group of concerned residents seeking to stop the export of coal from the Levin-Richmond Terminal, including: Sierra Club, Communities for a Better Environment, Sunflower Alliance, Richmond Progressive Alliance and No Coal in Oakland.
When Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and The Progressive Labor Party (PL) splintered in June 1969, a majority of the delegates supported the program of its Worker-Student Alliance caucus. These candid accounts by WSA activists bring to life their struggles to end the Vietnam War and achieve social justice-and evaluate both WSA’s successes and its failure to achieve its promise.
The contributors in this book were mostly members of WSA, whose formation was initiated by the Maoist Progressive Labor Party. Here they recount and evaluate their participation in the struggles of the 1960s and early 1970s, from trips to revolutionary Cuba defying the US travel ban to student strikes, labor and community alliances, and campaigns against the war and racism across the country, from Columbia and Harvard, Texas and Iowa, to San Francisco State and UC Berkeley.
With editor John Levin.
- ALAMEDA COUNTY Board of Supervisors Public Protection Committee meeting
- ENTIRE AGENDA HERE
- -FIRE DRONES- Several years back, Alameda County residents , because of privacy concerns, opposed a plan by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department to use “small unmanned aerial systems” AKA drones to fight crime. Ultimately the drones were purchased and a policy for its use was crafted by residents and law enforcement. Now, the Alameda County Fire Department wants its own policy to use drones to fight fires. The early stages of a policy comes before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Public Protection Committee on Thursday morning. Over the past year, Alameda County Fire has used the Sheriff’s drones to access blazes on several occasions in the county. Alameda County Sheriff’s drones were also used recently to aid in recent Northern California wildfires. The Fire Department hopes to have a policy is placed by October of this year.
Can’t Build Our Way Out
We invite our allies, the media, government staff, and funders to hear from local community groups working to house low-income people and people of color—who have experienced consecutive waves of housing crises—and built lasting solutions in the process. We will host a moderated panel to amplify the voices and accomplishments of Serve the People San Jose, The Village, and others. Panelists will discuss the importance and potential of public land, community land trusts, and permanently affordable housing structures. The event is free, but please register here, so we can provide coffee and light refreshments.
Coffee and light refreshments will be served.
If you have any questions, please contact Leslie at leslie@urbanhabitat.org.
This Valentine’s Day, we’re turning up the pressure on Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase in San Francisco. Will you join us? Click here to RSVP.
- What: Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase: Break up with private prisons or we’ll break up with you (Rally and petition delivery)
Sixty percent of the immigrants the Trump administration locked up are being held in private prisons built by companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase finance billions of dollars of their debt. All these banks need to do is stop providing loans to these companies and the private prisons they run would not be able to function.
Now is the time to use our power as customers and consumers to force these banks to act. Join us to make our demands clear to Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase on Valentine’s Day.
If Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase don’t take action to help end the criminalization and detainment of Black and Brown communities, we will by pledging and encouraging others to break up with them and switch to banks that actually respect our communities.
Click the link below to RSVP for the action in San Francisco this Thursday.
https://www.facebook.com/events/395765747898393/
On Valentine’s Day, join Mujeres Unidas y Activas, La Colectiva de Mujeres, MomsRising, Bay Resistance, Candide Group, Hand in Hand, the national FamiliesBelongTogether Coalition and others to ask WellsFargo and JPMorgan Chase To Break Up with Private Prisons and Immigration Detention Centers!
While professing respect for human rights, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase continue to fund GEO Group and CoreCivic; the biggest operators of private prisons and immigrant detention centers. Let’s tell Jamie Dimon (Chase) and Timothy Sloan (Wells) that we’re not afraid to align our money with our values. If Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase don’t take action, we will — by pledging to, and/or encouraging others to, break up with Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase and switch to banks that actually respect our communities instead!
Can’t come on the 14th at noon, but want to take action- join a bank branch action near you on the 14, 15, or 15th by signing up here: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/show-love-this-valentines-day
A lot of people have not heard in depth details of what people who are in the circumstance of not having a house to live in, go through. Join us at the Berkeley Animal Rights Center for a personal presentation from Robin Housley about that subject exactly with a surprise guest.
This surprise guest, due to a life threatening illness, lost their job while getting medical treatment and subsequently lost their place of residence. They were living without a house for nearly three years on the streets, primarily in San Francisco and the East Bay Area, before being able to get back into permanent housing. They will speak about their experience and where it has lead them.
Robin Housley has recently lived without a house spending around 2 years on the streets of Berkeley and is still active in being friends with individuals he met on his journey. He will be speaking about some of his activism, experiences and transformations throughout living without a house that forced a light in parts of him and society at large.
This is a DINNER SHARE event! Please bring a completely vegan dinner dish or side dish or drink to this event. Thank you all so much and we hope to see you there.
Please be on time, so we can start the meeting early. We’ll be discussing and planning our next direct action for the month of February, and sharing community updates.
The director sets out to tell the story of the rise and fall of the The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense by weaving together rare archival footage, interviews with ex-Panthers and others, and music.
Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F56O3kZ9qr0
https://www.revolutionbooks.org/
The Oakland Police Commission is holding it’s first special public hearing. The commissioners decided to focus on homelessness. #OakMtg pic.twitter.com/QA2pZ2HhQC
— Darwin BondGraham (@DarwinBondGraha) February 2, 2019
In San Francisco we celebrate Valentine’s Week – the week of love and friendship – with an annual Nude Valentine Parade. Why nude? Because it’s much more interesting and fun that way, and because nudity and love go well together. But more importantly, this is a way to reduce the harm that prudishness does to our society.
The parade starts in the Castro District – once famous as the nation’s center of gay love – and ends in the Haight-Ashbury District – where the Summer of Love took place in the year 1967.
We will gather at Jane Warner Plaza (corner of Castro and Market Streets) at noon on Feb 16 (the Saturday following Valentine’s Day). We will walk from the plaza to Haight Street, via a mostly level route (uphill portions are not very steep). The parade ends at Haight and Stanyan Streets.
The parade itself takes about an hour, but we have the option to stay until 4pm on the sidewalks along Haight Street. Friendly visitors to the Haight-Ashbury are usually eager to chat and have their pictures taken with public nudists.
The parade is free for anyone to join, to follow, or to watch. Anyone can participate –visitors and locals, all genders, all ages. Any degree of nudity is legal at this event, and many participants will only be wearing shoes.
In the spirit of grief, love, and compassion, we will gather to honor Earth and to affirm our commitment to rebel nonviolently against government inaction on climate change. The gathering is the first step in a series of XR events this spring as we build up to International Rebellion Week in April. Please join us and join the rebellion!
This event will include a climate ribbon ceremony, a silent march, art & music and amazing speakers including:
– Joanna Macy, author of Active Hope
– Pennie Opal Plant of Idle No More
– Rhiannon Hewitt, who performed at the Pathway to Paris
– Ryan Rising of Permaculture Action Network
Please help us fill the amphitheater by spreading the word to your friends, colleagues and family members on social media. Also, please ask them to sign up on our Action Network page for updates on future actions.
Help us turn up the noise on Twitter by using the hashtag #XRBayArea and click “attending” on this Facebook event.
BRING:
A CANDLE: Please bring A CANDLE, one for each person coming. It may be windy, so we suggest a candle in a glass, or a taper candle with an improvised shield – we trust your ingenuity.
GENERAL: This is an outdoor event, so layers, an umbrella and comfortable shoes, water and your own snacks. We gather rain and shine.
KIDS: This is a kid friendly event, though there will not be specific programming for children.
ART: We have created some inspiring art for this event. We encourage everyone to create your own additional signs, banners, puppets, etc – we love your style!
WHO WE ARE:
We are the Extinction Rebellion, an international nonviolent direct action movement that represents nothing less than radical love at work. We aim to drive radical change, through nonviolent resistance, in order to avert climate breakdown and minimize the risk of human extinction and ecological collapse. In a matter of a few months, XR has sprouted up in more than 200 locations around the world and it continues to grow.
We rebel because our governments’ continued submission to fossil fuel interests is setting us on the path to climate change catastrophe and extinction. We rebel because we understand that racial healing and climate justice are inextricably linked. The communities most harmed by climate change — indigenous nations, poor communities, front line communities of color — are the ones least responsible for producing it. We rebel because the systems that have transformed our climate are fundamentally unjust. We rebel because we are in dire need of broad-based, grassroots resistance and collaboration for resilience amid deep social divisions and runaway climate change. We rebel because our kinship with all life on Earth requires us to do so.
For more information, message XR Coordination through the FB page.
On January 22nd Mike Pence made a phone call to opposition politician Juan Guaidó, essentially offering him the presidency of Venezuela. The next day, Guaidó swore an oath in which he appointed himself “Interim President of Venezuela.” Minutes later, Donald Trump officially recognized that self-appointment, in effect instigating a coup against the elected Bolivarian government of Nicholas Maduro. Since then, the mainstream corporate media has been supporting the coup, flooding the air waves and Internet with stories about chaos, poverty, corruption, and violence in Venezuela, exclusively covering anti-government marches, and showing clips of world leaders calling for the overthrow of the Venezuelan government.
Yet in a poll conducted a little more than a week before, 81% of Venezuelans had never even heard of the 35-year-old Guaido! Not mentioned in these news reports are the extremely popular education, health care, and housing programs provided by the Venezuelan government, that the U.S. government has imposed draconian economic sanctions on Venezuela, and that the U.S. has openly spent tens of millions of dollars supporting violent opposition groups. Also not mentioned is that despite all of this, Maduro won re-election in May and thousands have been marching throughout Venezuela in support of the government since the attempted coup; almost every day.
Donald Trump has threatened to use “all options, including military” against Venezuela, a country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves that John Bolton has openly said best belong in the hands of American oil companies. The attack on Venezuela foreshadows forthcoming attacks on Cuba, Iran, and Nicaragua, as well as attacks on anyone here in the U.S. who dares to oppose this drive for domination and destruction of yet another country.
Come to a presentation and discussion to find out what’s really happening in Venezuela.
Speakers: Alicia Jrapko, Task Force on the Americas; Mehmet Bayram, Independent Journalist, Allan Miller, Economist, Activist & Writer.
Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and future plans and identify upcoming actions we can take to fight fossil fuels and work for a just and sustainable world. Old friends and newcomers are equally welcome. We need your participation and your voice! Come early to hang out and share a potluck lunch.
12:30 potluck lunch
Meeting 1-3
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months, once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).
On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five 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
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (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
Liberated Lens will host a free film series commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the first Africans brought to present day America. The series will feature an event every third Sunday of the month starting February, for Black History Month, and ending in August, which marks the quadricentennial.
For the first event of the series we will show “Nightjohn” and have a discussion with Natalie Baszile, author of a novel, “Queen Sugar”.
NIGHTJOHN:
Sarny, a 12-year-old slave girl in the South, faces a relatively hopeless life. Her chief duties at the plantation of Clel Waller are serving at table, spitting tobacco juice on roses to prevent bugs, and secretly conveying intimate messages between Waller’s wife, Callie, and Dr. Chamberlaine. Then Nightjohn, a former runaway slave arrives. In exchange for a pinch of tobacco, Nightjohn secretly begins to teach Sarny to read and write, a crime punishable by death. “Words,” he says, “are freedom.
“Queen Sugar”
Queen Sugar is a novel written by Natalie Baszile, her first published novel. It is a mother-daughter story of reinvention. It tells the story about a woman, who unexpectedly inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana. The novel was adapted as a drama television series on Oprah’s network, directed by Ava DuVernay (“Selma”, “13th”)
