Calendar
Five years ago, the Bay Area achieved one of the most successful BDS victories against apartheid Israel in US history! In 2014 we stopped the Israeli-owned ZIM shipping line from docking at the Port of Oakland for 3 consecutive months, and it hasn’t returned since!
Join us to celebrate the historic and decisive Block the Boat victory as a major contribution to all movements for social and economic justice!
Music, food, drinks and speakers from the Block the Boat coalition.
Green Party U.S. Senate candidate
Lisa Savage is a hard-hitting teacher-organizer-grandmother who’s been spearheading the “Conversion” campaign at Maine’s Bath Iron Works to convert it to supply green energy and transportation, rather than billion-dollar destroyer warships that drain our budget, worsen climate change, and don’t make us safer. She’s running in a high-profile Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) contest to challenge vulnerable Trump ally Senator Susan Collins in Maine.
Lisa’s race will also showcase RCV as the real solution to the “spoiler” hysteria used across the nation to shut down Green voices. By lifting up the real solution to “spoiler” panic, Lisa’s race will strengthen the RCV momentum that’s well underway across the nation.
Please join us at a reception on Thursday evening to meet Lisa and to support her US Senate campaign which Jill Stein recently called, “the most hopeful race on the 2020 horizon”. If you’re not able to attend on Thursday, you can still support Lisa at: LisaForMaine.org
Friday Hot Meal Prep & Distribution to the Unhoused
![Hot-Meals[v2]](https://d3flpus5evl89n.cloudfront.net/57b27a60df82fe3320746317/5ce70998df82fe295114f8b4/scaled_1024.jpg)
With gracious donations and coordination from nonprofit Peninsula Food Runners, The East Oakland Collective has embarked on distributing 400 lbs of gourmet food from Silicon Valley to those in need in Oakland.
For more info and schedule, visit our volunteer webpage.
V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian political thriller film directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowskis based on the 1988 DC/Vertigo Comics limited series of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Set in an alternate future where a Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist totalitarian regime has subjugated the United Kingdom, the film centers on V (portrayed by Hugo Weaving), an anarchist and masked freedom fighter who attempts to ignite a revolution through elaborate terrorist acts, while Natalie Portman plays Evey, a young, working-class woman caught up in V’s mission and Stephen Rea portrays a detective leading a desperate quest to stop V.
V for Vendetta has been seen by many political groups as an allegory of oppression by government; libertarians and anarchists have used it to promote their beliefs.
David Lloyd stated: “The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I’m happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way.”
After movie discussion led by Sake One of KPFA’s “Oooh, They Mad” program!
This topic was suggested by ICSS member Karen Steward who will provide an introduction to this fascinating book.
freeoaklandup
Free Oakland UP is open Thursday to Sunday, 12-4.
Come in for your #free #treasures! One free treasure per person per day and for a fair monetary donation to help pay the rent you may choose more! More treasures!!
Plus! There are 2 tables where you can take all you want and may take as much Christmas stuff as you want! Sooooo much stuff!
OAKLAND!
Please join us for Oscar Grant Day today at Fruitvale Station. In 2009 on this day Oscar was murdered. I’ll be speaking this afternoon and want to see you there.
The gathering is from 12pm – 4pm. Meet Oscar’s family, activists, & organizers, and stand in solidarity.
— Shaun King (@shaunking) January 1, 2020
National Day of Action U.S. Troops Out of Iraq!
Answer Coalition
On Saturday, January 4 the ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK and others are calling on people from around the United States to organize local demonstrations to demand: NO MORE U.S. TROOPS TO IRAQ OR THE MIDDLE EAST! U.S. OUT OF IRAQ NOW! and NO WAR/NO SANCTIONS ON IRAN!
In response to the massive protests in Iraq following the latest U.S. aerial assault that killed scores of Iraqis, Donald Trump has ordered 750 more U.S. troops to the Middle East and potentially 3,000 more. This is in addition to the 5,200 U.S. troops already stationed in Iraq. Every U.S. president over the last 28 years has ordered the bombing of Iraq. The decision by Donald Trump and the Pentagon to launch new air assaults against Iraqis in the past week ignited nationwide resistance by Iraqis who want to reclaim their full sovereignty and do not want Iraq to be used in a U.S. war on Iran.
More than a million Iraqis have died during the past 28 years as a consequence of U.S. occupation, bombings and sanctions. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have either been killed or suffered life-changing wounds. The U.S. government has spent more than $3 trillion in the ongoing occupation and bombing of this oil rich country. Instead of taking the United States out of this endless war, Trump is building up U.S. forces in the region and threatening a war with Iran.
Initiators for this call include the ANSWER Coalition, CODEPINK, Popular Resistance, World Beyond War and many other anti-war and peace organizations. If you want to add your name as an endorser click here.
Demonstrations will also take place on Saturday, January 4 in the following cities.
The White House – Washington D.C.
12 noon at the White House
Albuquerque, NM
2pm at Kirtland Airforce Base, San Mateo and Gibson Blvd
Initiated by ANSWER Albuquerque
Chicago, IL
12 noon at Trump Tower
Initiated by ANSWER Chicago
Los Angeles, CA
1 pm at Pershing Square
Initiated by ANSWER LA
New York City, NY
11 am at Times Square
Initiated by ANSWER New York
San Francisco, CA
12 noon at Powell and Market
Initiated by ANSWER San Francisco
Arlington, MA
12noon at Broadway Plaza, Mass. Ave. and Medford St
Initiated by Arlington United for Justice with Peace (AUJP)
Seattle, WA
2pm at Westlake Park
Initiated by ANSWER Seattle
Atlanta, GA
3 pm at Little Five Points
Initiated by ANSWER Atlanta
Talk on BDS.
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
Discussion Topic: Is this the year we will overthrow the hated dictatorship of the bourgeoisie?
“If there is going to be class warfare in this country, it’s about time the working class won that war.”
So says Bernie Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist who has a real shot at becoming president of the United States. The Democratic Socialists of America has thrown its weight behind Bernie’s campaign, which has inspired millions of working-class people to get involved in politics and to fight for a better world.
This special edition of East Bay DSA’s Socialist Night School will tackle some fundamental questions about democratic socialism and the Bernie movement. What is class warfare, and how is it related to capitalism? What do we mean by “capitalism” and “democratic socialism,” anyway? And how does the campaign for Bernie advance the cause of democratic socialism?
Join us on Tuesday, January 7 to discuss these questions, in the first of a special four-part series on Bernie Sanders, capitalism, and democratic socialism.
See the readings here: https://www.eastbaydsa.org/night-school/
Accessibility:
The venue and restrooms are wheelchair-accessible. Please message us if you have other accessibility needs such as childcare.
Due to the New Year’s Holiday the January 2nd meeting of the PAC has been cancelled. A Special Meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday January 8th from 5-7pm at City Hall in Hearing Room 1.
Agenda items of possible interest:
4. Chief Privacy Officer report – Privacy Principles status update and implementation
5. Chair/Vice Chair report – 2020 planning, PAC annual report, report tracking, agenda management
6. Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – OPD – Live Stream Camera Impact Report and proposed Use Policy – review and take possible action
7. Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – OPD – UAS (Drone) Impact Report and proposed Use Policy – review and take possible action
The precarity of Black girls’ lives in school have been made visible by Dr. Monique Morris. Through her writing, advocacy, and now film, PUSHOUT, we now have the language to describe and understand what we see happening to Black girls in schools. Morris’ work has inspired debate and legislation with the recent sponsoring of the Ending Punitive, Unfair, School-based Harm that is Overt and Unresponsive to Trauma (P.U.S.H.O.U.T) Act,” by representatives Ayanna Pressley (D- MA), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.). The law identifies the many students made vulnerable by race, gender, and disability positionality and outlines resources and policy recommendations to secure educational spaces for children.
Join Mills College, School of Education for its culminating Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action event: a screening of PUSHOUT and townhall panel discussion moderated by Dr. Margo Okazawa-Rey. Dr. Monique Morris will provide opening remarks. In collaboration with the Mills College Black History Month programming and Ethnic Studies Department, we are proud to host this screening of PUSHOUT.
UPDATE: While this event is currently marked as “Sold Out” please join our Waitlist. As seats open up due to cancellations, individuals on our Waitlist will be contacted to secure their free ticket.
Reclaim the Commons – Enough is Enough – January 9
By now, many of us want to throw Facebook over the side of a bridge. Privacy violations, government orders, hate speech, disinformation, censorship …. the list goes on.
But here’s the reality. FB is a communications platform that reaches billions of people, a public town square and a powerful influencer. It isn’t easy to build up that kind of scale again and it won’t be quick.
Zuckerberg got lucky. It’s the people that make social media and we make it every day. It needs to work for us, not against us.
The world’s biggest social media platform has basically done nothing to head off massive disinformation campaigns, blatant lies and hateful extremism. It has put profits ahead of social good, the health of democracy, and the personal safety of many.
We’ve let them. But that can stop. We’re teaming up with a coalition of like-minded organizations and individuals to force Facebook to clean up its act.
On January 9th, we’re paying a visit to 1 Hacker Way to say the jig is up.
Even the company’s own employees know what needs to happen. Facebook just isn’t listening.
Which means we need to say it a little louder.
We will no longer tolerate the company’s paralysis in the face of the harm they are causing. They can take action and the public will make them.
We hope you’ll join Media Alliance, Global Exchange, Credo Action, Code Pink, MediaJustice, Courage Campaign and many others on January 9th.
We have a bus from SF to Menlo Park and back. Tickets are $15 R/T. Reserve a seat here.
If you are a meta type, here is the Facebook event for the Facebook protest.
If you can’t come, you can support the January 9 action online by participating in #BlackOutFaceBook. Replace your profile picture and cover photo with a black box to mourn our lost public commons and start the countdown to reclaiming it.
As we told the press: We’re not willing to cede a communications network that reaches billions of people to the unfettered practices of a corporation that cares more about its profits than about our democracy. Not without a fight.
Happy Holidays and lets fix Facebook once and for all. (supported by the collective power of the MediaJustice network)
Take Action
Some agenda items of possible interest:
X. Use of Force Working Group
The Use of Force Working Group will present its revised draft report and a draft of the
Oakland Police Department Use of Force Policy, Department General Order (DGO) K-03.
The Commission will vote to approve the report and the revised DGO. This is item is
continued from 12.12.19. (Attachment 10).
XI. Presentation by National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (NICJR) of Proposed Pilot
Juvenile Diversion Program
David Muhammad of NICJR will deliver a presentation on the Neighborhood Opportunity
and Accountability Board (NOAB) which will be a community based, restorative, youth
diversion initiative in Oakland. This is a new item. (Attachment 11).