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Join us for one of several webinars and in-person trainings on critical civil liberties issues facing our state and the nation:

• Voting Rights: Tuesday, Jan. 16, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
• California has one of the lowest rates of voter registration and voter turn-out in the country. 2018 is a critical year for ballot measures, local elections like the DA races, and of course, changing who holds the keys to power. In this webinar, we’ll give you the resources you need to get all eligible California voters to the polls, starting now!
• Reproductive Justice & Sex Education: Tuesday, Jan. 23, 6 to 7 p.m.
• We’re in a critical moment. Sexual harassment and abuse is being both challenged and normalized. Discrimination against LGBTQ people is on the rise. Here in California, we have the power to make a change. Our schools are required to teach sex ed that addresses healthy relationships and consent and that challenges stereotypes about gender and sexual orientation. But many school districts need extra encouragement to provide the required instruction. They need to hear from you. In this webinar, you will learn how to be a parent advocate for sex education in your district.
• Criminal Justice Reform: Tuesday, Feb. 6, 6 to 7 p.m.
• Right now, a powerful coalition of conservative law enforcement is targeting California mayors and city councils with a cynical misinformation campaign. Their goal is to increase support for mass incarceration and roll back the clock on criminal justice reform. We need you to counter their lies with the truth. In this webinar, we’ll set you up with the skills you need to advocate for local initiatives that truly promote public safety and healthy communities.

ACLU Trainings for Change Makers

Start your year off right by learning how you can get involved in on-the-ground campaigns to make 2018 a visionary year!

Webinars (free)
� Voting Rights, Jan. 16
� Reproductive Justice, Jan. 23
� Criminal Justice Reform, Feb. 6

In-person trainings (free)
� San Francisco, Jan. 27
� Sacramento, Jan. 28
� San Jose, Feb. 3
� Fresno, Feb. 10

Join us for the SF pension board special vote on fossil fuel divestment

Last week, New York City changed everything. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city’s pension system would be divesting from fossil fuels — that’s the nation’s fourth largest pension system. Exactly two weeks after that announcement, next Wednesday January 24th, San Francisco’s $20 billion pension system will vote to do the same.

San Francisco’s late, great Mayor Ed Lee published an op-ed¹ just hours before his untimely passing calling on the pension system and the city to go fossil free. The implications of the second major US pension system moving to divest from fossil fuels within weeks of New York are huge.

As with all big and bold policy announcements, there is a backstory of a hard won grassroots struggle. Fossil Free SF has been pushing for this change for years. And in this last hour of the campaign we all need your help.

Help make this vote a big and beautiful people power moment. Please show up to the SF pension board special vote on fossil fuel divestment on January 24th to tell the board: our public funds need to be fossil free.

Fossil fuels are a poor investment and present significant risk to the stability of the pension system. Not only have fossil fuels underperformed the market over the last five years, but coal, oil and gas companies have sunk billions into burning fossil fuels that just can’t be burned.

Last year, San Francisco and Oakland announced they were suing five of the largest oil and gas companies² for the harm climate change will cause their cities. As many know personally, the Bay Area has borne the brunt of some of the most recent extreme climate impacts.

This is a major moment for the Bay Area, so please don’t let it pass you by. Show up to 1145 Market Street for the 1pm meeting on January 24th and let’s get ready to celebrate.

The Berkeley-East Bay Gray Panthers present The Housing Crisis: What We Must Do Now.

Speakers are Michael Kane, executive director of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants and Willie Phillips of the Berkeley NAACP Economic Development Committee, and Friends of Adeline Corridor. The Gray Panther Monthly Meeting.  All Welcome, Wheelchair Accessible.

Affordable housing is under threat! Michael Kane of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants will speak on issues and organizing strategies in the Bay Area. He has a broad, up to date, and amazing knowledge of housing issues and regulations. National Alliance of HUD Tenants works to preserve and improve housing and tenants rights and promotes resident control.

Willie Phillips is a lifelong Berkeley advocate for economic equity and affordable housing. He will speak on our city’s housing crisis and the challenges and opportunities of building and preserving affordable housing here. Willie is Chair of the Berkeley NAACP Economic Development Committee, a board member of Resources for Community Development, the City of Berkeley Revolving Loan Fund and a member of the Friends of Adeline Corridor in South Berkeley.

For information, contact Betsy@IC.org or 510-842-6224 or Eleanorewalden3@gmail.com

NOTE: THIS EVENT WAS MOVED TO WEDNESDAY FROM TUESDAY!! (https://m.facebook.com/events/358126127995640)

The the last two years the Oakland whole Foods store has demonstrated it’s position on race relations, by creating a environment where people of color have been targeted and profiled. Security guards have done everything from physically assault African American individuals resulting in permanent disabilities, to pepper spraying a photojournalist for helping a mentally i’ll man on whole foods property, to racially profiling a young African American teenager as he shopped on their premises. The community is tired of these assaults and demands immediate accountability. We will take a stand!

#SHUTWHOLEFOODSDOWN

Adam Turner was the victim of an unprovoked physical and verbal attack by the Whole Foods security guard. While assisting a man with mental disabilities, Adam was pepper sprayed and called a fucking nigger! A few months before the Adam Turner incident, another North American African male was beaten unconscious by a security guard at the same store. Numerous NA Africans have encountered racism and white supremacy. One AA male employee quit working because he claimed his fellow employees called the NAA customers niggers! It is clear Oakland Whole Foods is a toxic environment for NAA. We therefore call for a rally against this racist environment. We invite the community to stand and demonstrate effectively. We will not tolerate racism in our community.

When: Tuesday, January 23 at 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM PST
Where: Whole Foods Market (Oakland, CA)
230 Bay Pl, Oakland, California 94612

ALL PRESS WELCOME
#FREEDOMOFTHEPRESS
#SHUTDOWNWHOLEFOODS

What to do: Come support Anti-Racism efforts by demonstrating and showing community can impact and disrupt business operations. We will reach national attention to show we will not tolerate any form of racism in out community.

Whole Foods has been attacking folks of color and in the past two years—going as far as attacking and racially profiling two black men, and a young, black teenager in recent reports. Their gentrifying organization must be held accountable for the threat they have posed to our community and it’s time we demonstrate we can reach the top of their organizational structure to show resistance and intolerance to racial terror on any and all fronts.

We will we hold a demonstration in front of the store showing our our stance and position of intolerance for racism in our communities. Please bring any safe objects you have to make noise, signs and bright spirits as we show up for the folks who have become affected and targeted by this racist institution. It is imperative we address racism at the root on all fronts in our communities—especially in recent light of honoring King’s legacy and the path he has helped to pave with his work. We must continue to take action at every level reaching the streets, to circulating though data on social media by addressing and standing for issues we see as matters which affect the lives of many.

Hope to see you all there! Solidarity!

We’ve invite the following activists.

Angela Davis
Danny Glover
Cornell West
Bobby Seale
Elaine Brown
Congresswoman Barbara Lee

https://peppersprayedbywholefoodssecurity.link/

COMMEMORATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Hear our panel discuss “Socialism and the Black Liberation Struggle”,
Featuring:
– Monica Moorehead, 2016 Workers World Party Presidential Candidate, Managing Editor www.workers.org newspaper, editor “Marxism, Reparations and the Black Freedom Struggle”
– Pierre LaBossiere, Haiti Action Committee
– Jeremy Miller, Idriss Stelley Foundation (ISF), Last 3%

Hear about the fight for socialism and the struggle against white supremacy in the context of capitalism and imperialism. What about the contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois, the Black Panthers, Walter Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah among others?

Join in the discussion afterwards.
Refreshments will be served. The space is wheelchair accessible.

STOP DEPORTATION DEMONSTRATION
at ICE immigration holding center (deportations)

This Friday, Bay Area Jewish clergy from Bend the Arc are leading an action outside the ICE building to denounce the administration’s recent threats to conduct mass raids in San Francisco and other Northern California cities.

THIS IS AN URGENT CALL TO ACTION TO ALL CLERGY AND PEOPLE OF FAITH TO SEND A POWERFUL AND PROPHETIC MESSAGE:

NO MORE TERRORIZING OUR COMMUNITIES.
NO MORE CRIMINALIZING OUR NEIGHBORS.
NO MORE TEARING OUR FAMILIES APART.
WE ARE ALL CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF G-D.

Last week, 86 rabbis and Jewish advocates were arrested in a civil disobedience action while staging a civil disobedience action in D.C. in support of a Clean DREAM Act.

Today, Sen. Chuck Schumer caved in to Republic pressure and agreed fund the government on a short-term basis, in exchange for a promise from Sen. Mitch McConnell to work out a DACA fix at a later date.

While Congress passes one continuing resolution after another, 850 undocumented youth are losing their DACA protections each week. The youth have been declaring: we don’t need a solution next month, we need one right now.

All are welcome to join this action to proclaim unequivocally #LetMyPeopleStay.

Link to Facebook Event Here

Friday, January 26th, 5pm @ Powell Bart in San Francisco pic.twitter.com/TFHiwFVgNv

— Berkeley Antifa (@berkeleyantifa) January 22, 2018

The vast system of U.S. surveillance is in the hands of a President who is violating our constitutional and human rights. It’s vital that organizers protect their digital security so we can continue to work for social change.

The Ella Baker Center and The Center for Media Justice – home of the Media Action Grassroots Network – in partnership with Wellstone Action, would like to invite you to an evening of dialogue on 21st century policing, the impact on our community, and what we can do to protect ourselves and defend our rights.

Join us for a panel presentation about the current state of surveillance. Our panel will feature:

Malkia Cyril, Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Media Justice
Virginia Eubanks, author of Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor:*
Tunisia Owens, Policy Manager of The Ella Baker Center for Human RIghts
And more!

Immediately following the panel presentation we will have a mixer with light refreshments.

Stay tuned for more information as we get closer to the event.

Automating Inequality: How High Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor – https://virginia-eubanks.com/books/

In January, 5% of all Saturday brunch proceeds at Reem’s will be donated to the Arab Resource & Organizing Center!

Join AROC at Reem’s on Saturdays and support local Arab organizing!

AROC is a local grasssroots organization that builds power in the Arab and Muslim community through immigration services, organizing and mobilizing against racism, war, repression and Zionism.

@AROCBayArea
www.araborganizing.org

https://www.facebook.com/events/151943795433074/

On January 27th at 11:30 a.m., people of the Bay Area will unite to stand up for reproductive justice. This coalition will come together this year and in future years to drown out the voices of the Walk for Life, a mass march organized by sexist, right-wing, Christian fundamentalists.

They are building a movement to take away our right to have an abortion and to limit access to reproductive healthcare, contraception, and sex education. They oppose the basic rights of women and other oppressed people to bodily autonomy and self-determination.

We are residents of the Bay Area – women and trans folks, anti-sexist men, people of color, working class people, leftists, liberals, and others. We stand together to defend our right to have an abortion and to confront sexist hate on the streets of San Francisco.

It is time to speak out against sexism in our society and take action to keep each other safe. We represent a majority, like the millions who participated in the Women’s March and the #MeToo campaign. We hope to demonstrate that sexist bigots are unwelcome in the Bay Area, a place where women, the queer community, immigrants, and others have historically fought to defend their communities from those who would take away our agency. This year, we stand together in solidarity to confront the right-wing now, so that their movement cannot make further advances. This cannot wait until November 2018 or 2020.

Please join us at the Rally for Reproductive Justice in San Francisco on January 27! Confront the sexist bigots of the Walk for Life! Stand in solidarity with women and all oppressed people!

Endorsed by:
UC Student-Workers Union – UAW Local 2865
United Educators of San Francisco
International Socialist Organization
Workers’ Voice / La Voz de los Trabajadores
Democratic Socialists of America SF
Left Party / Partido de Izquierda

Refuse Fascism Bay Area

Socialist Action

Bay It Forward

CODEPINK San Francisco
ResistanceSF
South Beach District 6 Democratic Club of San Francisco
Democratic Socialists of America Lower Peninsula branch of Silicon Valley

What can we do to have a real voice in political issues?

                  Neighborhood assemblies:

Lessons from People’s Assemblies in Jackson, MS

and Cuba’s Municipal Assemblies

 with Steve Martinot, neighborhood activist and Berkeley Planning Commissioner

Why do important issues never seem to get resolved?

�      Affordable housing
�      An end to rent increases and rent-gouging displacement
�      Shelter if not housing for the homeless
�      Policing that serves people rather than impose social control
�      An end to industrial and infrastructure pollution

These issues become endless issues because we give them to people who are not effected by them – the elite we elect too speak for us, but are not us.

What would give us a voice in our own affairs?

�      Local assemblies in which to discuss among ourselves what to do.
�      Neighborhood assemblies in which to make our own autonomous decisions
�      Community Councils that would bring together the decisions of neighborhood assemblies

Where do we see this kind of system working? In Jackson, Mississippi, and in Cuba, in its system of Municipal Assemblies. Cuba’s local assemblies are legislative for neighborhoods and cities. Composed of people elected from neighborhoods, they are composed of delegates representing 100 to 200 people. These local assemblies make policy on real issues: city maintenance, land use, housing, labor disputes, and sports facilities.

Their meetings are open and permit dialogue between people and delegates. People are not limited to “comments,” as in Berkeley. The delegates live in the neighborhoods and environments about which they pass measures.

Please join us on January 27, West Berkeley Library, to learn about neighborhood assemblies, Cuba’s Municipal Assemblies, and the possibility for “direct democracy.”

Steve Martinot has been a union and community organizer, lecturer at the Center for Interdisciplinary Programs at SFSU, and written extensively on the structure of racism and white supremacy in the US, as well as on corporate economics and culture.

How do we approach the challenging conversations in our lives, whether it’s about confederate flags, Donald Trump, cultural appropriation, Palestine/Israel, or even just racism and racial justice in general?

This workshop is an opportunity to dive in much deeper with structured time to practice a range of difficult conversations around highly-charged racial issues. We will be sharing some basic skill-building tools in how to approach conversations, and then explore scenarios relevant to the lives of participants. This will include examination of some of the ways that internalized sexism can impact our courageous speaking capacities.

Small group work, role-plays, and Theater of the Oppressed techniques will support seeing tough communication blocks in a new light. We’ll try out what feels challenging, in a relatively low-stakes and supportive environment, allowing ourselves time to debrief, reflect, and learn from each other.

Tickets are sliding scale $15 – $25. No one turned away for lack of funds. Contact basebuilding@surjbayarea.org with ticket requests or questions.

Accessibility Information

The space is wheelchair accessible. We ask that you do your best to arrive at the event scent/fragrance free to keep the space as low-scent as possible to support people with chemical and scent sensitivities – please see https://eastbaymeditation.org/resources/fragrance-free-at-ebmc/ for helpful information.

From Mass Incarceration to Restorative Justice: How Contra Costa County is Developing the Blue Print for Criminal Justice Reform

Presented by the ACLU’s Berkeley/North East Bay Chapter

The Berkeley/North East Bay chapter of the ACLU is pleased to present a Criminal Justice Reform panel with newly appointed District Attorney Diana Becton and Public Defenders Ali Saidi and Jeff Landau. Topics will include the current state of criminal justice reform in Contra Costa County and D.A. Becton’s holistic approach for future reform including dismantling the school to prison pipeline for juvenile offenders and bail reform. This is a great opportunity for all who are interested in criminal justice reform to meet those who will be leading the way.

This event is also the Berkeley/North East Bay chapter’s Annual Meeting and Chapter Board Election.

For almost 100 years, the ACLU has worked to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. The ACLU protects your freedom through a nationwide network of staffed offices in every state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Berkeley/North East Bay Chapter is active in the North East Region of the San Francisco Bay (California, USA), including Albany, Berkeley, Crockett, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Hercules, Kensington, Pinole, Richmond, Rodeo, Montalvin Manor and San Pablo.

South Berkeley Medicare for All Social and Political Discussion