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Richmond was once an industrial powerhouse, building automobiles and battleships.  It’s still home to a sprawling oil refinery owned by global fossil fuel colossus, Chevron.  But it’s also well on its way to becoming a cutting-edge laboratory for progressive policy experimentation.

Join us to hear some of the prominent Richmond environmental justice leaders working on the climate challenges facing Richmond: planning for a just transition, tackling the impacts of sea-level rise, and dealing with the financial impact of closing the Chevron refinery.  We’ll also take a look at the plan to improve the air we breathe and the health of our communities.  Bring your questions, and prepare to be inspired!

Speakers: 

Marisol Cantú, grassroots organizer, strategist, teacher, and researcher
Jamin Pursell, community activist

PLEASE REGISTER HERE.

Join actions all over the country targeting banks that fund the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We have one of the top funders right here in the Bay Area: Wells Fargo, headquartered in San Francisco, has poured $86.7 million into this destructive project.

For starters, the pipeline is planned to carry fracked gas across Appalachia, from extraction fields of northern West Virginia, blasting through the Blue Ridge mountains and Virginia before reaching its end in North Carolina.

Construction on the MVP mainline has already severely harmed clean water sources across Appalachia. Its route over steep slopes increases the risk of water damage and explosions.

And the climate impact: It’s been estimated that the full life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (excluding construction emissions) generated by the MVP mainline alone would be almost 90 million metric tons annually. This is equivalent to the emissions from 23 average U.S. coal plants or over 19 million passenger vehicles driven every year

See 5 Key Reasons to Stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline, by the Natural Resources Defense Council

Join the fight against this environmental justice and climate catastrophe.

Info/RSVP

Bay Area: Pack the court for the Bay Bridge 78!

The #BayBridge78 are back in court on the heels of San Francisco’s historic ceasefire resolution, joining the millions demanding an end to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Join us to tell San Francisco DA @BrookeJenkins_SF to DROP THE CHARGES!

Despite the Ninth Circuit Court ruling against Berkeley’s gas ban for  new buildings, cities and states are finding legal pathways to decarbonize buildings.

Hear — from the people who are making this happen — about the many policy approaches, including building codes and building performance standards, that are still available to states and localities to protect their residents from the impacts of fossil-fuel use.

This panel discussion will include:

* Jonny Kocher and Denise Grab from Rocky Mountain Institute, which is a longtime leader in designing effective climate policy
* Cliff Majersik from the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT), which designed the successful strategy in Vancouver, WA
* Daniel Carpenter-Gold from the Public Health Law Center

This is crucial: In many cities in North America, 60 to 80% of climate pollution now comes from residential, commercial, and industrial buildings.

Register here

Bay Area: Pack the court for the Bay Bridge 78!

The #BayBridge78 are back in court on the heels of San Francisco’s historic ceasefire resolution, joining the millions demanding an end to the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Join us to tell San Francisco DA @BrookeJenkins_SF to DROP THE CHARGES!

Speaker: Dr. Ranjeet Brar, a member of the CPGB-ML which is being prosecuted for Palestine solidarity activism.

DESCRIPTION:

As part of the campaign of persecution of prominent anti-Zionist campaigners in Britain. November 25, Dr. Ranjeet Brar and three members of the UK CPGB-ML were arrested at the national Palestine solidarity demo for manning a table selling a book critical of the history of Zionism that was published nine years ago and has since been distributed widely.  They were told that the book might constitute an ‘incitement to racial hatred’ for which they were held in isolation for 24 hours before being released on bail.

While imprisoned, their families were subjected to 3:00 AM raids, during which police seized phones, laptops, and party literature. When they were set free the following day, it was on the condition that they should not sell or distribute leaflets or pamphlets, deviate from the main routes of any march, or “carry swastikas” (!) The cases are pending until February.

Then, on the 13th of January, while proceedings were being brought against Israel in the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide and British bombers attacked Yemen, another huge London demonstration in solidarity with Palestine was targeted � this time not in a hunt for ‘antisemites’ but forr ‘terrorist sympathizers’.

Some fifty officers descended on CPGB ML supporters, surrounding them and confiscating their literature (the leaflet that they seized had been distributed at every Palestine demonstration since October).  Three supporters were arrested.  The justification for the arrests was that the leaflet “supported Hamas, a banned organization” in breach of the 2000 UK Terrorism Act.

Three comrades were arrested, taken to Hammersmith police station, and held for 28 hours, during which time their homes were raided by large squads of anti-terror police. The legislation used to justify our comrades’ arrest (an extension of the ‘anti-terror’ law that was first enacted at the time of the Irish liberation war in the 1970s) gives the UK government wide ranging and draconian powers to act against its citizens � if they are alloweed to establish the precedent of using it freely against the pro-Palestine anti-Zionist protesters.

Our speaker, Ranjeet Brar, is a pro-Palestine, anti-Zionist activist, journalist, author, and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (ML), which is being prosecuted for Palestine solidarity activism. Dr. Brar is a Vascular Surgeon at the University of Sheffield Royal College of Surgeons of England, United Kingdom

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1

Help defeat San Francisco’s Proposition E.

Now that the campaign has launched, we need you to volunteer. I want to extend a warm invite to join us for a Day of Action on Sunday, February 4 at 11 a.m. where we will reach voters to encourage them to vote NOPE (No On Prop E). Lunch will be provided. Grab signs and hand-outs to spread the word!

We are also hosting weekly text banks to reach perspective voters and explain why we oppose Prop E. Text banks will be held on the following days and will last for approximately 2 hours. We are particularly looking for volunteers who speak Spanish or Cantonese.

• Tuesday, January 30 at 5:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, February 6 at 12 p.m.

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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 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 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

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 six years, since October 2011! 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

oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.

We meet on the 1^st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to

oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

> RSVP to policy@ellabakercenter.org for the Zoom link

So, please join us in February for a virtual community gathering where we will be responding to letters we receive from people inside prisons and jails in California and across the country. We will be sending in legal resources, parole preparation packets, reentry help, and answers to people’s questions. There will be an “Intro” room for new folks, a problem-solving room, and a “Special Issue” room too! You can also plug into our Calls to Action before/after Mail Night this month. Virtual Prison Mail Night happens on the second Thursday of each month.

Please join Families for Ceasefire at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater on Saturday February 10th for a children’s rally from 11:30am – 1:30pm, in advance of the Gaza Solidarity Ride and in response to Mosab Abu Toha’s call for children of the world to take to the streets and demand a ceasefire. We will have children’s activities and encourage everyone to bring signs, snacks and noisemakers!

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.

For our February meeting we will be reading the first half (Chapters 1 -6) of How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World by Deb Chachra.  (MIT Press) For our March meeting we will finish reading the book.

“A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us.

Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is the physical manifestation of our social contract—of our ability to work collectively for the public good—and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans.

A soaring bridge is an obvious infrastructural feat, but so are the mostly hidden reservoirs, transformers, sewers, cables, and pipes that deliver water, energy, and information to wherever we need it. When these systems work well, they hide in plain sight. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them—but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs.

Across the U.S. and elsewhere, these systems are suffering from systemic neglect and the effects of climate change, becoming unavoidably visible when they break down. Communities that are already marginalized often bear the brunt of these failures. But Chachra maps out a path for transforming and rebuilding our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them—and fix them, together—before it’s too late.”

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth,  Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Beyond Money, Less is More,  Cannibal Capitalism,  Debt, the First 5000 Years , Poverty, By America, End Times, Jackson Rising Redux and The Feminist Subversion of the Economy.