Calendar
The campaign for single-payer healthcare is gaining momentum, but we still have a lot of work to do. Only by going door-to-door in every neighborhood in every district can we build a movement large enough to overwhelm the money that the private insurance companies will throw against it.
By talking to our neighbors about how joining the campaign for single-payer healthcare can benefit them and the people they know, we also strengthen our capacity to articulate the daily anxieties and traumas inflicted on all of us by capitalism into a socialist agenda to dismantle the perverse system of capitalism.
If you that sounds like the kind of structure you want to help build, come out to one of our district canvassing events. You can be an experienced canvasser or totally new to canvassing. Training, lunch, and materials will be provided.
Through art, photos, music, poetry and video, native artists help to educate the public about indigenous peoples’ efforts to recognize and protect their lands and rights. With work by many native artists, Dignidad Rebelde &#HonorNativeLand.
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.
- 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
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks
- 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
- 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 .
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.
Support Black Trans Liberation! SURJ Queer and Trans Committee House Party to Benefit TGIJP
Save the Date! The Queer and Trans Committee of SURJ Bay Area is throwing a party, and you’re invited!
Please join us in eating, drinking, and dancing to support TGI Justice Project. We’ll be celebrating and fundraising to support the critical work TGI Justice Project does to make our communities safer for transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex folks of color. We’ll also be discussing what white folks can do to be in solidarity with Black Trans Liberation — and how important it is for us as white people to move our resources and make reparations to support this work — so invite your friends!
Please RSVP here: http://
Can’t make it? Please donate here: http://www.tgijp.org/
More details to come! Please email queertrans@surjbayarea.org
Read more about TGI Justice Project’s work here: http://www.tgijp.org/
Are you interested in direct action but just don’t know how to go about it? Are you ready to know the ins and outs of participating in blockades and protests while also learning about how to handle police interactions? Do you want to learn how to be at actions in a way that is accountable to and working in solidarity with people of color- led groups?
Now is an important moment in the movement. The white supremacists are openly mobilizing in the Bay Area and the state has an active strategy of criminalizing dissent. This is a critical time to develop our skills and be in community with each other.
Join SURJ Bay Area in our Direct Action Training workshop dedicated to teaching you the framework and the hard skills needed to participate in direct actions for racial justice. This interactive workshop is designed to give you real-time experiences of being in an action and dealing with police and white supremacist interactions. It also aims to build an understanding of direct action from the perspective of white people centering Black and POC voices in the movement for racial justice.
Space is limited to 60 people per workshop and you must pre-register to attend.
Cost: The workshop has a suggested donation of $10 – $25 to cover event expenses, and support future organizing within SURJ Bay Area and our partner organizations. No one turned away for lack of funds – please contact mobilization@surjbayarea.o
Materials: Please take a moment if you have not already done so to familiarize yourself with the SURJ Mission, Vision and Values (http://
Accessibility: The venue is wheelchair accessible. Bathrooms are ADA compliant. Please refrain from wearing perfume or heavily scented products our of respect for people with chemical sensitivities. There will *not* be sign language interpretation during the workshop, however, HOH folks will be accommodated with prioritized seating during group discussions and participatory activities. Inform people from our SURJ team, and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.
COME OUT to Sproul Plaza this Sunday to hear from Jovanka Beckles and fellow progressive candidate Nurse Dotty Nygard who is running for Congress in CD 10!
On the same steps where CAL Berkeley students launched the Free Speech Movement in the 1960’s, Richmond Vice Mayor Jovanka Beckles and Congressional District 10 candidate Nurse Dotty Nygard will talk about the powerful momentum the progressive movement has built here in California. United across the state, progressive candidates are in positions to bring true change to the State and Country!
Folk musicians around the country are holding simultaneous themed fundraising concerts to support needed causes. The cause for this concert is Racial Justice, and the Ella Baker Center has been selected as the beneficiary. Lineup includes: Faye Carol, KTO Project, MoToR/dance, Austin Willacy, Cascada de Flores, Oakland Youth Chorus.
“Folk Fights Back Bay Area is proud to present a benefit for Racial Justice, to support the Ella Baker Center – featuring The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, the KTO Project, Evie Ladin’s MoToR/dance, Austin Willacy, Cascada de Flores and the Oakland Youth Chorus. FFB-BA takes pride in presenting a diversity of Folk Music from/for our Bay Area communities.
https://backroommusic.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
Folk Fights Back is a nationwide musician-led organization that seeks to raise awareness for critical issues in today’s political climate, and fund local organizations actively fighting for social and political change through simultaneous concerts in cities across the US. Founded by Rachel Baiman, Kaitlyn Raitz and Lily Henley in Nashville, concerts are volunteer-powered every few months. FFB Bay Area is spearheaded by Michael Rufo and Evie Ladin.”
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
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (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
We are excited to announce our Fall Film Series at the Ecology Center! In an effort to open up our space to the community, while providing an accessible format for fostering discussions around the various climate issues we cover, we will be hosting free monthly screenings of select films at our Ecology Center store.
Check out a new film, or one of your favorites, with other members of the community for a fun-filled and family-friendly evening. All screenings are free and open to the public (and include free popcorn!).
—
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 2:13
Kicking off the Ecology Center film series is Princess Mononoke, from legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli team. This A classic animated film that explores the relationship between human activity and the environment through heavy symbolism to highlight the need for sustainable practices and greater consideration of the environment in day-to-day life. Miyazaki crafts a captivating tale of man vs. nature, where the exploitation of natural resources leads to the manifestation of deadly beasts that threaten an all out war between a mining village and the creatures of the forest.
Themes: Sustainability
Preview Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/
Future Showings and Event Links:
In commemoration of the centennial of the Russian Revolution, Liberated Lens is hosting a viewing of the classic feature film October by Sergei Eisenstein. October was commissioned in 1927 for the tenth anniversary of the world-historic 1917 workers’ revolution and is based on the first-hand account of American journalist John Reed’s book, Ten Days That Shook the World.
Liberated Lens is committed to bringing to the conscious public the very best films available to stimulate your intellect, lift your spirits, and stiffen your backbone. As usual, there will be a discussion following the film.
$5 notaflof, but this event will also be a fundraiser for our collective. Dinner and drinks will be sold starting at 6:30pm, film starts at 7:30pm. Please buy dinner in advance if you can, so we can prepare: visit our Eventbrite page. If you can’t attend in person but would like to help with our fundraising effort, we also have a “donation” ticketing option. Thank you!
Join us at the Finnish Hall for our next General Assembly! Doors open at 7PM; we’ll start promptly at 7:30PM. We’ll have updates from our teams, an invited speaker, and community event announcements, followed by team breakouts and discussions.
This GA will include a focus on women’s issues and possibly gender issues as well, in part to commemorate the First Inaugural Women’s Convention in Detroit, which is being organized by the Women’s March planners. This week has also developed into #MeToo week, highlighting sexual harassment as a national issue.
Our guest speakers will be students from BHS Stop Harassing, a group of Berkeley High School students who are working to change the culture surrounding sexual harassment and violence at BHS and beyond. They want Berkeley High to be a model high school where all students feel safe and respected. They seek to spur district administrators and school decision-makers to immediately address shortcomings in the school environment that impede student success insofar as those factors create an unsafe learning environment.
The movement for Medicare for All in California continues! Join us in Sacramento on October 23rd and 24th to rally in support for SB 562 at the State Capitol during the Select Committee Hearing on Healthcare.
Instead of moving SB 562 forward, Speaker Rendon has blocked the democratic process by stalling the bill, and created a “Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage,” with absolutely no legislative authority. The first select committee hearings will be held on these 2 days in Sacramento with apparently little time scheduled for public comment.
We will hold rallies on the North Steps of the State Capitol building from 11am 12pm to urge legislators move SB 562 forward without delay. Join us and bring a friend or two!
On October 23rd, ninety-two of the world’s largest banks will meet in São Paolo, Brazil to discuss policies on the climate and Indigenous People’s rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). These banks include Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) financiers such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and many more. Mazaska Talks is calling on indigenous people and allies everywhere to join us for 3 days of mass global action that make it clear to the banks: Financing climate disaster and the abuse of Indigenous Peoples will result in a massive global divestment movement.
Join us in a prayer circle in front of Oakland city hall at 11:30 a.m. where we will gather together for a teach in, round dance, and a prayerful walk with opportunities for people to divest from banks. Please come with positive intentions and willingness to learn about the importance of divestment and a refresh about the Standing Rock movement.
Idle No More SF Bay, DOME (defenders of mother earth) Huichin, SF Defund DAPL and others including around the globe invites you to join us October 23rd for an afternoon teach in and prayer walk to #DivesttheGlobe
Are you still waiting on the right moment to divest yourself from these banks? This action will give you that opportunity to divest yourself as we will be having a “bank of shame” walk to Citibank, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase banks to do so. We are here to support you during this transition and will have members from credit unions and benifical banks from Oakland to teach us more about these community based banks.
On October 23rd, ninety-two of the world’s largest banks will meet in São Paolo, Brazil to vote on a policy that upholds indigenous people’s right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) to allow or disallow projects on their lands. These banks include Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) financiers such as Wells Fargo, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, and more. As Energy Transfer (the company behind DAPL) made clear in their lawsuit against Greenpeace and others,
DIVESTMENT WORKS.
There is a coalition working on divestment in Huichin (East Bay of San Francisco). Join us in a prayer circle outside of the plaza in front of Oakland city hall. Many active environmental/social justice members and organizations will gather together for a teach in, round dance, and a prayerful walk with opportunities for people to divest from banks listed above that day.
For more information please contact inmsfbay@gmail.com
Sing songs with Ocupella and hold signs, use a sign created by Tax the Rich or create your own on the GOP-Trump tax plan.
Join this open grassroots conversation about 2018 elections and the role of activists, if any, in this space. We need your input.
Hosted by Community READY Corps
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
How America’s colonial history
in Puerto Rico is reflected in its current political and economic crises,
and how shock doctrine policy threatens us all
In Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is still operating
50 Disaster Recovery Centers to help residents recovering from Hurricane Harvey. In Florida, FEMA is running 18 Disaster Recovery Centers to help residents there after Hurricane Irma. In Puerto Rico 83% of the people living there – all U.S. citizens – remain without power after being hit by Hurricane Maria. But Trump threatened Thursday to withdraw FEMA, the military and other federal officials from the struggling island. “We cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders in P.R. forever!” he tweeted. It had been 22 daays since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.
To characterize Trump’s response to the hurricanes in Puerto Rico vs. his response to the same in Texas as “racist” is a foregone conclusion. But to better understand the U.S./Puerto Rico relationship helps us to understand the “Shock Doctrine” politics that threaten us all. As we have seen in a rapidly growing number of circumstances, when colonialism, imperialism, racism, free market capitalism, (including debt crisis), and climate change converge, the population is left reeling and vulnerable to man-made disaster.
Indeed, at a news conference last week, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló warned that without significant help, “millions” could leave for the U.S. mainland.
“You’re not going to get hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans moving to the States you’re going to get millions,” Rosselló said. “You’re going to get millions, creating a devastating demographic shift for us here in Puerto Rico.” The draconian immigration policies introduced by the Trump regime are the icing on the cake.
OccupyForum will be led by our frequent contributor Professor George Wright, who will take us through Puerto Rican-American relations up to the present, and help us understand the warning signs for us all.
Time will be allotted for announcements. Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away
http://www.msnbc.com/nerding-out/watch/america-s-fraught-history-with-puerto-rico-494366787773
Dolores
Dolores Huerta bucks 1950s gender conventions by starting the country’s first farm worker’s union with fellow organizer Cesar Chavez. What starts out as a struggle for racial and labor justice, soon becomes a fight for gender equality within the same union she is eventually forced to leave. As she wrestles with raising 11 children, three marriages, and is nearly beaten to death by a San Francisco tactical police squad, Dolores emerges with a vision that connects her new found feminism with racial and class justice.
(95 Minutes)
The movement for Medicare for All in California continues! Join us in Sacramento on October 23rd and 24th to rally in support for SB 562 at the State Capitol during the Select Committee Hearing on Healthcare.
Instead of moving SB 562 forward, Speaker Rendon has blocked the democratic process by stalling the bill, and created a “Select Committee on Health Care Delivery Systems and Universal Coverage,” with absolutely no legislative authority. The first select committee hearings will be held on these 2 days in Sacramento with apparently little time scheduled for public comment.
We will hold rallies on the North Steps of the State Capitol building from 11am 12pm to urge legislators move SB 562 forward without delay. Join us and bring a friend or two!
You’re invited to an
EVICTION RESISTANCE PARTY
The evening of Tuesday, Oct. 24
through Wednesday morning,
as long as necessary.
The camping community HERE/THERE has been practicing consensus government and responsible urban camping at its present location for more than nine months. Multiple members of City Council have called us “a model community”. So why has “someone” in the city government told BART to get rid of us?
We were only given three days notice: they will seize our property and force us onto the street some time on Tuesday. This eviction order is illegal. Help us resist it by coming out to shout at the pigs and enjoying a potluck Eviction Resistance Party. Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning, as long as necessary. Also, you can contact Lateefah Simon, the BART board director for our district, through https://www.lateefahforbart.com/contact and Rebecca Saltzman, chair of the BART Board of Directors whose district represents many people in Berkeley and Oakland:
Rebecca Saltzman, Chair, BART Board, Director, District 7
Rebecca.Saltzman@bart.gov
@rebeccaforBART
510 464-6095
COPS GO HOME
Bring a camera. This is also a good time to donate food, water, and any kind of survival equipment.
If they do manage to evict us, we’re going straight to City Hall, where we’re going to raise a hell of a ruckus. In that event, we will need help with transport and temporary storage of property. So maybe bring a pickup or a van, just in case?