Calendar

• NEW: Relieving millions in local Medical Debt through pennies-on-the-dollar buyback programs.
• NEW: A book group and seminar focused on Economic Inequality and Economic Theory for the modern age.
• Presenting debt and inequality related topics at forums, workshops and in radio productions.
• Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
• Money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
• Tiny Homes and other solutions for the homeless.
• Student debt resistance. Check out the Debt Collective, our sister organization
• Helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
• Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks
• Promoting the concept of Basic Income
• Advocating for Postal banking
• Organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now there’s a spinoff group
• Bring your own debt-related project!

If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 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 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months,  once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! 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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (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

Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority.

Oakland teachers are gearing up for a likely strike to win the schools their students deserve! But they need your support to win—and you can help through the Bread for Ed campaign.

Bread for Ed will provide meals at solidarity schools, food trucks at picket lines, and more. There are 37,000 students and around 3,000 members of the Oakland Educators Association in this fight to defend the public school in Oakland. The vast majority of these students depend on free or reduced lunches, so this project is a critical show of solidarity with the Oakland community.

Come to a Bread for Ed organizing meeting to learn more and get involved with this effort to keep Oakland kids fed! You can also donate to the Bread for Ed food fund at: https://donorbox.org/breadfored

The meeting space is on the second floor but accessible by elevator.

Please be on time, so we can start the meeting early. We’ll be discussing and planning our next direct action for the month of February, and sharing community updates.

Doughnut Economics Reading Group:
Creating a world with neither human suffering nor planetary peril

Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21^st century economist

By Kate Raworth Chelsea Green Publishing (2017)

The capitalist economic system defines every aspect of our lives: the schooling and medical care we get, where we live, and how we sustain ourselves. The system works for a lucky few and exploits everyone else. And it’s a real threat to the survival of our species (and many others) on this planet.

We know the system needs to change—but we can’t change what we don’t understand. We have to know what we’re talking about.

Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics lays out traditional economic theory—still taught as gospel at all the major temples of capitalism—with clarity, authority, lots of graphics, and quite a bit of humor. She exposes the flawed models and persistent myths that keep the system in place. Even more importantly, she presents seven big, basic ideas with which to begin creating the world we want to see. We can indeed build an economy in the “doughnut”—meeting the needs of all while maintaining the biospheres that support us.

All of us need to read this book. We’ve all grown up in this deeply unfair and absurd system; seeing it clearly and getting free of it require a group effort.

So we at Strike Debt Bay Area are sponsoring a group discussion of Doughnut Economics. We’re doing one meeting a month on the 2nd Saturday; we’ll usually do about one chapter per meeting. Please join us!

4th meeting:

4:30 – 6:00pm, Saturday, February 9th.
Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland

We’ll be discussing the 4th chapter.

5th meeting:

4:30 – 6:00pm, Saturday, March 16th.
Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland

We’ll be discussing the 5th chapter.

6th meeting:

4:30 – 6:00pm, Saturday, April 13th.
Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland

We’ll be discussing the 6th chapter.

7th meeting:

4:30 – 6:00pm, Saturday, May 11th.
Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland

We’ll be discussing the 7th chapter and the concluding chapters, and discussion possible futures for the group.

Bring the book (available at your favorite online bookseller and in select local bookstores) and/or your thoughts on the topic (The first and possibly subsequent chapters are available online – http://tinyurl.com/ycysqtde ‘Look Inside’).

The book is an easy read (but full of ideas!) so it’s easy to catch up.

Author website: https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/

The Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC) focuses on fighting the four pillars of evil: poverty, systemic racism, the war economy and environmental devastation, and on shifting the moral narrative. PPC supporters in the Bay Area have come together to form the Bay Area PPC Steering Committee and hope you can join this effort and share this information with others who may be interested.

In the PPC, people directly impacted by the 4 pillars of evil are central in our work.

We look forward to your participation as we move forward to build the PPC campaign here in the Bay Area and help grow this exciting new movement.

Let us break bread together! Bring a snack to share if you can!

Please let us know if you will need childcare by February 7th.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 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 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months,  once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! 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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (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

John Lindsay-Poland will be addressing the Indivisible Berkeley General Assembly on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Task Force Recommendations for reconstituting Urban shield.

Doors open at 7. We start promptly at 7:30.

Questions? Email info@indivisibleberkeley.org.

Next Organizers’ Meeting: Come Get Involved in the Effort to Create a Regional Public Bank!

Working Group Meetings:

Some of our working groups meet between organizers’ meetings, and others just confer by phone and email. You can plug into any one of these:

• Outreach to Organizations
• Outreach to Individuals
• Digital Outreach
• Advocacy (working with politicians)
• Governance
• California Public Banking Alliance
• Operations

Just send us a note and we’ll help you get connected to the work you want to do.

The Advocacy Working Group meets with public officials, government staff and other stakeholders to learn what they can teach us about integrating a public bank into existing systems, and to convince them to support our bank. Drop us a note (contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org) if you want to participate.  Read a report on a recent Sacramento lobbying and public testimony outing.

The Outreach Working Group needs organizers, and people to staff tables and talk to folks about public banking. Send us a note at contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org if you can help.

The ad hoc Governance Working Group is working on updating our governance plan in light of new information. Drop us a note at contact@friendsofpublicbankofoakland.org if you want to be part of this effort.

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.

Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.

We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.

Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), opposing Urban Shield (now gone!) and pushing back against ICE with local legislation.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

contact@oaklandprivacy.org

Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/   Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy

Check out our sister site DeportICE.

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.  Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County.  To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

Coal outta Richmond!

Mile-long coal trains of 100 open railcars run through Richmond’s residential neighborhoods and are unloaded at the Levin-Richmond Terminal, only a few blocks from homes, schools, and workplaces.

As we transition to a fossil-free future, the coal industry is maintaining its profits by increasing exports. Coal-burning power plants in China, Korea and Japan make West Coast ports such as Richmond prime targets for coal exports. These power plants have been cited as being a main reason for the increase in the carbon that is accelerating our climate emergency. Climate doesn’t care where the coal is burned.

Between the mines in Utah and the port, each rail car can lose up to 500 pounds of coal in the form of dust, according to information provided by the railroads. Once the coal reaches the waterfront terminal, the coal stacked in huge open-air piles that the wind and rain can carry into the air and Bay waters.

Join the movement to end the shipment of toxic and climate-destroying coal and petroleum coke from Richmond!

A critical part of this campaign is reaching out to coal-dust–impacted Richmond residents. No Coal in Richmond is now canvassing to spread awareness and collect signatures on a letter to the Richmond City Council demanding immediate action on this public health and climate hazard. Could you schedule a few hours with us?

Door-to-door Canvassing, Sunday 2/24

When: 1:30–5 pm

Where: Meet at the Bobby Bowens Progressive Center, 2540 Macdonald Ave.

RSVP: action@sunflower-alliance.org

No Coal in Richmond is a group of concerned residents seeking to stop the export of coal from the Levin-Richmond Terminal, including: Sierra Club, Communities for a Better Environment, Sunflower Alliance, Richmond Progressive Alliance and No Coal in Oakland.

Please be on time, so we can start the meeting early. We’ll be discussing and planning our next direct action for the month of February, and sharing community updates.

Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance.  We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and future plans and identify upcoming actions we can take to fight fossil fuels and work for a just and sustainable world.  Old friends and newcomers are equally welcome.  We need your participation and your voice! Come early to hang out and share a potluck lunch.

12:30 potluck lunch

Meeting 1-3

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 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 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months,  once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! 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

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (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