Calendar
#ShutItDown #JusticeForMarioWoods #SanFranciscoWalkoutForMario pic.twitter.com/1AIKvvplu9
— Michael McBride (@pastormykmac) December 11, 2015
There will be a meeting, followed by a party!
The meeting focus will be on the effort to get Rent Control and Just Cause for Eviction on the ballot for a public vote. Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin and others from the coalition working on the issue will give an update on how the measure is shaping up thus far, and RPA members will have the opportunity to ask questions and give input.
Here’s a statement the coalition issued earlier this month:
“We remain committed to rent control in Richmond to protect residents from unfair rent hikes and no cause evictions. We expect the City Council to put rent control/just cause on the ballot in the coming weeks. Now that the real estate lobby has forced the issue to the ballot, the voters will have the opportunity to adopt these basic protections for our residents. The industry will regret their gamesmanship here. We expect voters to have little patience for huge rent hikes, unfair evictions, and profiteering through displacement.”
As noted by Randy Shaw in The New Rent Control Wars, “The biggest challenge for rent control campaigns is the organized political opposition of the real estate industry.” In September, San Francisco Supervisors unanimously voted to strengthen their city’s protections against tenant evictions.. Meanwhile, in Richmond, the California Apartment Association managed to block the implementation of Richmond’s Rent Control with Just Cause Ordinance. At least, as Councilmember Eduardo Martinez was quoted in an East Bay Express article earlier this month, “It gives us more time to create a better ordinance that we can put on the ballot.” Please plan to be at the meeting December 12th to learn about the progress being made and think about how you can help make the ballot measure succeed.
Come and help us draw awareness to and fight unjust debt!
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitive ticketing and fining schemes
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- staging Debtors’ Assemblies
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
- saving the Berkeley Post Office, fighting Post Office privatization and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- and much more!
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.
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle to save the Berkeley Post Office, other Post Offices in the area, and the Postal Service from privatization. Support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
Since Federal Judge William Alsup’s ruling in April, 2015 after the Postal Service told the judge it is not currently selling the building, the Postal Service has remained silent and no further attempts at a sale have been attempted. But we’re not fooled. They could “find” a buyer at any moment (although the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the City of Berkeley’s lawsuit could be refiled).
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
In recent developments, Berkeley has Declared War on Its Homeless, and an ordinance criminalizing the homeless came before the City Council on June 30th (see here and here) but was tabled. Then the City Council majority brought a version back and it passed on a first reading 6-3 on November 17th, 2015. The 2nd reading will have been December 1st.
November 1st was the one year anniversary of First They Came for the Homeless’ occupation of the downtown Post Office’s grounds. FTCftH put together a sit/lie protest in San Francisco on Black Friday.
BPOD is supporting FTCftH in its efforts to protest the criminalization of the homeless and to support the provision of services for those without an indoors place to live.
Check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
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.
Why an “allies” meeting?
ACCE is grassroots multi-racial membership driven organization comprised of low-income residents in the flatlands of Oakland. Due to the size and scope of the displacement crisis right now, the purpose of the allies meeting is to create of space for allies of more privileged statuses that ACCE does not traditionally organize to support our anti-displacement work under the direction of ACCE’s Anti-Displacement Chapter which is comprised of low-income residents most deeply impacted by displacement right now. If you feel you identify as an ally, come to this meeting!
We hope you can make it. Together, we will win.
Agenda:
1. Re-cap of meetings w/Monitor, Dan Kalb and Rebecca Kaplan
2. Strategic analysis for 2016: Council votes vs signature collection
3. Budget/infrastructure/501 c 4/fundraising: what must we do to succeed?
4. Voting procedures moving forward: how we will make decisions in 2016.
5. Political analysis (mapping): please read the attached poll that was conducted. Pay close attention to the differences from district to district on key issues.
We will be doing an interactive mapping session that identifies our supporters, our opponents and those that are somewhere in between. We will identify groups that we need to outreach to and start to develop our outreach strategy for 2016.
6. Kick off fundraising event: January 23 7:00 PM Eastside Cultural Alliance
Poetry for the People- curated by Cat Brooks.
Mobilization – outreach-publicity: all hands needed on deck!!!
7. Announcements: Feel free to bring some holiday treats to share!!!
Our weekly meeting to get this hackerspace together, to provide a venue for those things that otherwise cannot be worked out through day-to-day practice.
Potluck! (optional) – bring your own tasty dish!
Monthly APTP meeting, held on every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
The Anti Police-Terror Project is a project of the ONYX ORGANIZING COMMITTEE that in coalition with other organizations like The Alan Blueford Center For Justice, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Community Ready Corps and Workers World 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.
This is being organized in Davis as part of a nation-wide day of action:
“On December 19th , let’s join a billion others around the globe in issuing a mandate:
WE DEMAND A 1% TAX ON ALL STOCK TRADE TRANSACTIONS!
Money in the capitalist casino needs to slooooowwww dooowwwn before it runs us off a cliff.
One week following the Paris COP21 climate talks, one billion of us will flood the streets. We will no longer accept such a mockery of an effort to respect the earth! If you’re in office, stop pretending we can adequately address climate change at a conference funded by fossil fuel companies!
Let’s meet at the North end of Central Park (past the carousel) at noon, then demand some real change from the bottom up. Make a sign. Put on your boots. Bring drums or other instruments to march with. Practice your dance moves. Get indignant!
Bring your love, leave your hate.
This action is in solidarity with a global call for a Billion People March by the Adbusters Media Foundation (the same folks that inspired Occupy Wall Street). More information on the call can be found at BillionPeopleMarch.org.”
Justice 4 Mario WoodsCoalition Meeting: Next Steps
On Wednesday, December 2nd, Mario Woods was gunned down by a firing squad of San Francisco Police officers in the Bayview, allegedly for brandishing a kitchen knife and “threatening” police at the scene. Videos showed Woods confusedly stumbling around after police shot bean bags filled with lead pellets and pepper spray at him; then being assassinated by police as he attempted to limp away. Citizens of the Bayview and throughout the city held a vigil that night, followed by testimony at a Town Hall Meeting called by Police Chief Suhr. A meeting at the San Francisco Police Commission characterized by the rage of the community was held December 9th with at least 200 protesters packing into City Hall filing public comment, including Archbishop Franzo King who said, “If the chief continues to defend the right to kill and slaughter people on the street under his command, then he becomes a co-conspirator to murder.” On December 18th, hundreds of youth, families, community and religious leaders throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area held a massive rally on the steps of 850 Bryant Street. Following the rally, the group marched to the offices of District Attorney George Gascón.
Officers be charged with the murder of Mario Woods
http://abc7news.com/news/protesters-sound-off-at-police-commission-meeting-over-sfpd-shooting/1116833/
http://sfist.com/2015/12/10/police_commission_meeting_about_mar.php
Join us to fight for a livable wage for all Bay Area workers! We collaborate in principled reflection and action on what the Bay Area livable wage would be and where we are at on the right to a livable wage.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds Community and Power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.
Our work together encompasses:
(1) The concerns of precarious, care and contingent workers,
(2) Campaigns to improve wages for low wage workers, and
(3) Efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
Oakland Livable Wage Assembly meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:00 PM at the SEIU Local 1000 Union Hall, 436 14th Street #200, Oakland, CA
Please love and support one another ~ We have a duty to fight ~ We have a duty to win!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/
Rally today for #TamirRice at 14th and Broadway #Oakland 1pm-7pm The cops who killed #Tamir were let off. #BlackLivesMatter #MarioWoods #SF
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 28, 2015
#Oakland: Today #Dec28 #tamirrice Rally @ 14th & Broadway 1pm-7pm https://t.co/cNhRhncIgU
— SHOWERPROMOTION (@SHOWERPROMO) December 28, 2015
Come out Monday night for Mario Woods Coalition planning meeting 6 pm
Now that there are videos of these killings, it makes it a lot harder for police and authorities to deny what’s happening to the public. And the People won’t allow it. This is a great time to join in and put a stop to police violence against people of color, and the racist system that lets it keep happening.
Bay Area rises up in solidarity with Tamir Rice’s family one year after Cleveland police officers killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice. Please join Black Lives Matter Bay Area, Black Lives Matter and the Last 3 Percent Coalition as we gather in solidarity with the family of Tamir Rice and Black Lives Matter Cleveland, and to uplift all of the families of those we have lost to police violence.
This is a black led ceremony that is centered in Black love, Black healing and Black rage. We invite allies to join us under the direction of our elders.
We support the family’s demands:
1. The immediate termination of Officer Loehmann and Officer Garmback.
2. A Federal Department of Justice investigation of Timothy McGinthy, and his removal as Cuyahoga County prosecutor.
3. A Federal Department of Justice investigation of the shooting and murder of Tamir Rice.
ARC General Meeting, Sat, Jan 2City Council will be holding their January 5th meeting in Kofman Auditorium to accommodate what is sure to be a huge crowd to discuss their ordinances to address the rent crisis. Renters need to make a strong showing, and we also need to be well informed on what will be presented and how we can make the strongest case for rent control. Therefore, this will be the primary focus of Alameda Renters Coalition’s General Meeting, this Saturday, Jan 2nd, 2:30pm at 2027 Clement St. Below is the agenda for this meeting. If you’ve never been to a meeting before, this is definitely not one to miss. If you have, try to bring friends. We need all hands on deck! Also, please bring sign making supplies, markers, poster board, card stock, sticks, etc. See you this Saturday, and again on Tuesday! 1) Drive for attendance at Jan 5 City Council Meeting |
Save the date! On January 3 we’ll hear a report from Paris by Pennie Opal Plant, who attended COP21 as a representative of the Indigenous Environmental Network.
Sunflower Alliance general meetings offer a great opportunity to learn more about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice efforts in our region.
Your voice matters, your participation makes a difference. We welcome newcomers.
Planning Meeting: Interfaith Action for MLK Weekend
For the second year in a row, the Bay area will mark Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday with a 96-hour period of direct action demanding thorough transformation of the social structures that contribute to the war on Black lives.
If you would like to help plan a faith-based action for that weekend, please come to this planning meeting. We are open to planning a single interfaith action, multiple actions representing multiple faith traditions, or an action that consists of waves of people, with each wave representing one faith tradition.
O C C U P Y F O R U M O F F – S I T E M E E T I N G
Enter on Rhode Island, turn to left up the stairs, conference room is to the right.
Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition Meeting:
National Emergency
Everywhere across this nation, people gather in shock, despair, rage as another black person is murdered by police without accountability. This is a national emergency.
For the third Monday, OccupyForum will be taking place at the Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition Meeting. Because so many of us showed up (17 out of 70 members so far) for the Bayview and for Mario, and against police executions of blacks in the streets of our country, we are becoming significantly involved. We have been at many actions, including the Town Hall Meeting with Police Chief Suhr, the Police Commission Protest at City Hall, the Rally at 850 Bryant and march to the District Attorney’s office, the Press Conference at City Hall, the Kwanzaa Protest, the Tamir Rice protest in downtown SF, and the Rally at the African American Community Police Board Meeting (which was cancelled and barricaded because they heard we were coming and they were afraid to face our questions about why cops executed Mario Woods, and their accountability). We join in the outrage, and in the planning process of how we will address this national emergency.
The Coalition’s demands are:
- Fire Chief Suhr
- Indict, Convict and Jail the cops who murdered Mario Woods
- An independent investigation into the murder.
Please join us and become part of the Coalition. We need all hands on deck. Please bring friends, groups, family.
BACKGROUND:
On Wednesday, December 2nd, Mario Woods was gunned down by a firing squad of San Francisco Police officers in the Bayview, allegedly for brandishing a kitchen knife and “threatening” police at the scene. Videos showed Woods confusedly stumbling around after police shot bean bags filled with lead pellets and pepper spray at him; then being assassinated by police as he attempted to limp away. Citizens of the Bayview and throughout the city held a vigil that night, followed by testimony at a Town Hall Meeting called by Police Chief Suhr. A meeting at the San Francisco Police Commission characterized by the rage of the community was held December 9th with at least 200 protesters packing into City Hall filing public comment, including Archbishop Franzo King who said, “If the chief continues to defend the right to kill and slaughter people on the street under his command, then he becomes a co-conspirator to murder.” On December 18th, hundreds of youth, families, community and religious leaders throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area held a massive rally on the steps of 850 Bryant Street. Following the rally, the group marched to the offices of District Attorney George Gascón.
In a Times.com article, John Burris, attorney for the Woods family states, “our view is that this was a person who was shot multiple times at a time when he did not put officers’ lives in imminent danger.” Attorney Burris goes on to mention that the San Francisco Police Department broadly exhibits a “continuing pattern and practice of misconduct.” Other witnesses claim police shot Mario Woods (+20) times. The national trend of police abuse is all the more troubling in the City of San Francisco as the African American makes up 3% of the population, but continues to be disproportionately impacted by police murders and abuse.
The Justice for Mario Woods Coalition formed to unify citizens who are outraged and sickened by the shooting which is one in a long series of racist police brutality and violence against members of the black community. The Justice for Mario Woods Coalition is made up of concerned residents of San Francisco, advocates, leaders and community organizers who want to stop the trend of violence experienced by the black community in San Francisco at the hands of the police. The coalition demands are:
- The immediate removal of Police Chief Gregory Suhr
• Officers be charged with the murder of Mario Woods
An independent investigation of the execution
Video of the shooting of Mario Woods (GRAPHIC CONTENT) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grcd1JlbXN8
http://time.com/4151979/mario-woods-shooting-san-francisco/
http://abc7news.com/news/protesters-sound-off-at-police-commission-meeting-over-sfpd-shooting/1116833/
http://abc7news.com/news/funeral-held-for-man-killed-by-san-francisco-police-/1127341/
http://abc7news.com/news/protest-held-against-sf-police-shooting-of-mario-woods/1128529/
http://sfist.com/2015/12/10/police_commission_meeting_about_mar.php