Calendar
On the night of May 27, bulldozers and backhoes rolled into Gezi Park, a tiny island of trees and grass at the center of Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, and started ripping it apart. This was part of a government project to “pedestrianize” the historic square—what that meant in this case, according to many blogs, was turning one of the last open green spaces in the city into a shopping mall. No community organizations or local people were asked what they thought about the plans for the park, devised by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which included rebuilding historical barracks that were demolished in the 1940s and adding sidewalks to make the square more friendly to pedestrians.
Four days later, after nonviolent protesters occupied the park and survived attacks by the police that included tear gas and water cannons, they’ve won at least a temporary victory thanks to a court decision. In fact, Istanbul’s mayor, Kadir Topbaş, just announced that there was never any plan to build a mall. It’s an amazing 11th-hour turnaround, but it didn’t happen without a battle.
Protesters began gathering in the park as early as Monday, May 27, and word spread through social media as more pro-park, anti-government Turks showed up to sit in front of the bulldozers. By Wednesday, the police were involved, and they responded to the nonviolent protests with aggressive tactics—what really got everyone’s attention was a photo from Reuters showing a young, apparently peaceful environmentalist in a red dress getting pepper-sprayed by a gas-masked cop. That image became a symbol of the “occupation” of Gezi Park, as well as the cops’ terrorization of the protesters.
We will join Liberate the Land at 950 Gough St in SF to march in Solidarity with those brutalized by Turkish Police for merely trying to save a park from being torn down.
This is a non-permitted march (yay) and there will be a constructive direct action that takes place after the march. Talk to folks there about the details, or just come along for the ride! We need livestreamers, video, signs in solidarity with Taksim protesters, and most of all, you.
Strike Debt Bay Area, loosely affiliated with Strike Debt (check out their latest video) and Occupy, is dedicated to educating people about and organizing resistance to debt, and finding alternatives to our current system of debt slavery.
Join us! You Are Not a Loan! Or Alone.
All are welcome! Come see how you can plug in to the debt resistance movement.
We will first meet all together and then divide up into working groups:
Study & Research (people interested in tackling specific research questions, reading books together, etc.). Currently there are a number of reading groups active.
Direct Action (people interested in organizing against Post Office closings, Wells Fargo and other debt possessing targets)
Debtors’ Union (tactical work for collective organizing against private and public debt)
Alternative Institutions (Alternative currencies, public banking, communal living, and more!)
Then we will come back together for general discussion.
Our web page.
Our Facebook page.
Follow StrikeDebt (NYC) on twitter.
Latest StrikeDebt Analysis: Death By For-Profit Health Care.
A Conversation: Take Our Economy Back From Wall Street
Matt Taibbi, Ellen Brown, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Gar Aperovitz.
This is actually a three day conference. More information here.
How often do you get a chance to join with other creative minds discussing how best to redesign the banking systems of nations, in ways that would create new prosperity for millions and help to rebuild local economies?
Join pioneering policy makers, civic leaders, banking entrepreneurs, innovators and ordinary citizens interested in learning about one of the most critical undertakings of our time: creating a truly prosperous, democratic and sustainable new economy.
On Sunday night, June 2nd from 7 – 9:30pm, Matt Taibbi will speak on “Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squds, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America.” He will join Ellen Brown, Author of Web of Debt and her book (newly available on 6/2/13) The Buck Starts Here, and Birgitta Jónsdóttir, member of Iceland’s Parliament, in a discussion of how we can move from a two-tiered justice system (one favoring the financial elites and one for the rest of us) to a more just and democratic system where we can reclaim our economic sovereignty from Wall Street banks and the US Congress.
OAKLAND (UN)FAIR CARNIVAL AND MARCH
We are graduate students, undergrads, faculty, workers, lecturers, and others concerned about DEFENDING QUALITY AND ACCESSIBLE PUBLIC EDUCATION and BUILDING SAFE AND SUPPORTIVE WORKPLACES at the UC.
Thursday June 6
(un)Fair Carnival and Musical March::
12pm: Start at Oscar Grant Plaza. We’ll be stopping by the hotel where high-level administrators are attending a conference with panels on how to suppress protests and public events like ours.
People’s Public Forum::
If you want to join us just for the People’s Public Forum:
1pm: Converge at Snow Park before we head to the Kaiser Center (300 Lakeside Dr.) at 1:30 for a People’s Public Forum. We are hopeful that the administration will let us speak inside the Oakland Room #1015 as per their original plan, but we are prepared to hold a press conference with speakers outside of the building if they refuse. Come one, come all.
President Obama is coming to Palo Alto for a fundraiser, and hundreds of people are gathering to meet him with a powerful message: stop the Keystone XL pipeline!
Over the last couple months, thousands of organizers across the country have met President Obama at events across the country to tell him we expect him to stop the pipeline. Just 6 weeks ago, over 1000 folks gathered in San Francisco, and over 150 in Atherton to tell the President no pipeline! It’s the South Bay’s turn again to show the President we want him to stand up for the climate and stop Keystone XL.
We know that this decision is about siding with Big Oil or the people. We may not be able to make it into an expensive fundraiser, we will make sure that we are heard. There will be signs and banners there already; all you absolutely need is to be ready to make some noise.
Come join us on Thursday for what is sure to be a fun time.
Join us for a solidarity rally to support the protests in Turkey, which initially began at Gezi Parki. The demonstrations at Gezi Parki were directed to halt the destruction of Taksim’s last green area. For the past week, a cross section of the population has been demonstrating throughout Turkey against police brutality and increasingly anti-democratic government practices. At least two protestors have been killed as a result of police brutality. We need your support!
The Interfaith Tent for Justice and our allies ask you to join us this First Friday (and subsequent First Fridays) in downtown Oakland to bear witness as we read the names of those killed by police in our communities.
We will stand in respectful silence from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM at 7th and Broadway (outside OPD) as the names are read.
We stand for an end to all community violence.
Come to #GeziGardens on Sat. 6/8 for a BBQ, meeting, bands, workshops, speakers, gardening, and FUN! Starts at noon, goes all day!
Join us as we share prayer and peaceful protest through the City of Manteca from the point where Ernest was murdered in the 200 block of Flores Ave to the Manteca PD – We will then be having a bbq and event after at location to be announced – bring yourself, we will have signs but you can share your own loved ones poster if you want – so come on out and Join us and remind them WE WILL NEVER FORGET AND WE WANT JUSTICE!!
Justice For Ernest Duenez Facebook page
The Whole Damn System is Guilty
On June 10th the trial of racist vigilante George Zimmerman is set to begin. It will take the renewed actions of thousands from all walks of alife to have a hot at justice in this case.
March and rally, protest and walkout. Post the slogan and put up signs declaring:
The Whole Damn System is Guilty!
“Occupy Love”-The Movie, Oakland Premiere
The New Parkway, 474 24th st., Oakland
$10 Tickets: http://huboaklandoccupylove.eventbrite.com/
HUB Oakland and Fierce Love Films present the community screening of Occupy Love–which explores the growing realization that the dominant system of power is failing to provide us with health, happiness or meaning. The film connects the dots in this era of rapidly evolving social change, featuring captivating insider scenes from the Egyptian Revolution, the Indignado uprising in Spain, Occupy Wall Street in New York, Indigenous activists at the Alberta Tar Sands, the climate justice movement, and beyond.
Woven throughout the action oriented backbone of the film is a deep exploration of public love, and compelling stories of an emerging new paradigm. It features some of the world’s key visionaries on alternative systems of economics, sustainability, and empathy, including Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben, Jeremy Rifkin, bell hooks and Charles Eisenstein.
Our civil liberties developed painstakingly by generations of historically great thinkers are vanishing at an alarming rate. The United States is more than losing its standing on the global stage as a democracy; it is relinquishing its stature as a country that abides by the rule of law.
Our panel of speakers sound the alarm and formulate ways for all of us to work together and make a difference.
Birgitta Jónsdóttir English
(Member of Parliament, Iceland – Pirate Party) Poetician, Director of the International Modern Media Institute, co-producer of the aerial weapons team, WikiLeaks “Collateral Murder” video, Bradley Manning supporter, and plaintiff-litigant in the NDAA case Hedges v. Obama.
Daniel Ellsberg was a high-level military planner who leaked the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study of the Vietnam War becoming America’s most well-known whistleblower. He is a founding board member of the Bradley Manning Support Network and the Freedom of the Press Foundation and plaintiff-litigant in the NDAA case Hedges v. Obama.
Norman Solomon
Activist and Author
Nadia Kayyali
Legal Fellow with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and Executive Vice President for the National Lawyers Guild
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: NOT A PENNY MORE FOR OPD!!
BBQ at 4:30 PM.
Rally at 5:30 PM.
Bring your family and plan to stay for the City Council Budget Hearing at 6:30 PM.
Wear your JAB shirt!
Dear Friends and Allies of the Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition:
Please join us at City Council 14th and Broadway on June 13th at 5:30 PM. The City Budget decision is fast approaching. The City of Oakland is holing several hearings about city funds and June 13th is the next one. The big question is what will the city council spend our money on: police or social services. The city workers in several unions (SEIU Local 1021, IFPTE Local 21, and IBEW local 1245) are fighting for more money for their contracts, and less for the department that takes up the lion’s share of the budget: namely the police. Just as many unions such as SEIU 1021 have endorsed the Justice for Alan Blueford Campaign, so too does the Justice for Alan Blueford Campaign stand in solidarity with city workers in their fight. Our fights are connected since we face the same enemy.
Why should money go to a police department that still has not fired and charged Alan’s killer, Miguel Masso?
– For more info about the police budget, OPD racism and the basics of Alan’s case:
Tell the City Council to stop Police Terrorism
Sign up to speak to the council show up by 6:30 or sign up ahead of time here:
Online speaker signup
Money for city workers not racist police murder!
Fire, charge and convict Officer Miguel Masso for the murder of Alan Blueford!
Justice 4 Alan Blueford website
Jail Diane Feinstein instead
START DATE: Friday June 14
TIME: 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location Details: Rally & Chalk art 5pm at Dianne Feinstein’s Office, One Post St. near Montgomery BART station on Market St., San Francisco March at 4pm from Gezi Gardens, Laguna and Fell St. (formerly Hayes Valley Farm)
Protest RALLY AND CHALK ART TO SUPPORT NSA WHISTLEBLOWER EDWARD SNOWDEN AT DIANNE FEINSTEIN’S OFFICE AT ONE POST ST. NEAR MONTGOMERY BART STATION. BRING CHALK!!! 5PM RALLY AT FEINSTEIN’S OFFICE ONE POST ST. 4PM MARCH TO FEINSTEIN’S OFFICE FROM GEZI GARDENS, LAGUNA AND FELL ST. (FORMERLY HAYES VALLEY FARM, CURRENTLY OCCUPIED BY ACTIVISTS TO PREVENT DEVELOPMENT)
The government is watching you, yet we refuse to live in fear. Stand in solidarity with whistleblowers and those that speak truth to power! Edward Snowden, 29 year old whistleblower, exposed the illegal NSA/FBI surveillance system called PRISM which gives the government and private security firms direct access to the servers of Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Youtube, MSN, etc. as well as direct access to Verizon phone logs. Edward Snowden, like Bradley Manning and Daniel Ellsberg before him have done a great service to humanity by uncovering to the public the extent at which the government will go to spy on its citizens and deprive of our rights. Dianne Feinstein has called Snowden a traitor, yet she is the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence where she would have been briefed on these government programs that threaten our freedom and violate our fourth amendment rights. Rally at Feinstein’s office at 5pm, march to Feinstein’s office from Gezi Gardens at 4pm.
Come hear why we demand “U.S. hands off Syria, Iran, & Venezuela”. Join us afterwards to celebrate the opening of new
Workers World’s new Oakland office, with food and music by Redd Welsh.
Recent U.S. threats against these and other countries show that this time of capitalist economic crisis brings with it the danger of new imperialist wars and interventions. In late May the U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution backing up Israel if it launches an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
On Friday, June 21st ACCE’s Riders for Transit Justice Bus Riders Union will be kicking off a monthly Movie Night & Fundraiser! We’re inviting friends & supporters to watch “Bread & Roses” the film inspired by the pivotal and groundbreaking “Justice for Janitors” Campaign! We’ll also be joined by a special guest, the one and only Jono Shaffer, a long-time labor organizer who served as the basis for the film’s main character!
We’ll be showing the film followed by a question & answer session with Jono! This will be our kickoff of regular movie nights where leaders from Riders for Transit Justice will host viewings of movement movies along with discussions about the topics presented in the movies.
We’re asking for donations to support ACCE, with a suggested donation of $20 (no one turned away for lack of funds!). We hope everyone can come and join us! Additionally, ACCE members will be cooking delicious and healthy food that will be available for sale.
Movies, delicious food, and a way to support ACCE – what could be better?!
Join us on Friday, June 21st at 5:30pm at the ACCE Oakland office for the movie.
RSVP by email.
Please tell us:
Your name:
How many people you are bringing:
Your phone #:
Saturday, June 22nd from 7:00 PM to morning!
Bring a sleeping bag.
Oscar Grant Plaza 14th Street & Broadway, OaklandFeast! Films! Music! More!
“This movement won’t end here. We’ve started something much bigger than the park. …After tis, I don’t think people will go back to being afraid of this government or any government.”
-Seyitt Cikmen, 19
Port of Oakland: Don’t Let OAK Fast Food Restaurants Break the Law!
Fast food workers at the Oakland Airport have spent the past year fighting for justice on the job – but their bosses are fighting back. The National Labor Relations Board just charged the OAK Subway and Jamba Juice with breaking labor laws and firing workers who spoke out. AND the Port of Oakland found that these same employers violated the living wage and fired workers who complained about it. But so far, the employers haven’t faced real consequences.
On the one-year anniversary of the campaign for fair food at the Oakland Airport, stand with the workers as they call on the Port to enforce the law and protect workers’ rights in OUR airport!
What’s going on?
One year ago, non-union fast food workers at the Oakland Airport launched a campaign to win good jobs and safe, healthy working conditions. They demanded a fair process to decide whether to join a union, without intimidation from their bosses.
Now, the National Labor Relations Board just charged the Oakland Airport’s Subway and Jamba Juice with a host of labor law violations – including firing, disciplining and cutting hours for workers who support the union.
Meanwhile, a Port of Oakland investigation found that Subway and Jamba Juice violated the Port’s Living Wage laws and fired workers in retaliation for filing complaints. The Port ordered Subway and Jamba Juice to pay back wages and reinstate the fired whistle-blowers.
But months later Subway and Jamba Juice still have not complied with those orders. The Port has the power to impose additional fines and penalties on the restaurants, take them to court to enforce the orders, or terminate the underlying Port contracts, but it hasn’t done any of these things. A year after they were illegally fired for standing up for their rights, airport cashiers Hakima Arhab and Diamond Ford are still fighting to get their jobs back.
The Oakland Airport belongs to the people. It should provide good, secure jobs that strengthen our community – and workers shouldn’t be punished for saying so!
Come tell the Port of Oakland: take action NOW to make Subway and Jamba Juice respect their workers’ rights – and bring Hakima and Diamond back to work!