Calendar

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Feb
23
Fri
A Mother’s Day for Justice @ First AME Church of Oakland
Feb 23 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The Oscar Grant Foundation Hosts …. A Mother’s Day for Justice .

Join mothers from California and beyond who have lost their children to police and communal violence

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Free Film Event Derechos – A Know Your Rights Film for Immigrant @ EastSide Arts Alliance
Feb 23 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

East Side Arts Alliance and the SF National Lawyers Guild present…

FREE FILM EVENT

Refreshments served
Accessible venue
Community discussion

The six-month old Trump Era has ushered in an upsurge in I.C.E. enforcement actions against immigrants across the U.S.A. and many people are not aware of their basic rights when interacting with law enforcement. As a result they can face difficulties in defending their cases, or can sometimes give up their rights without even knowing it.

The San Francisco chapter of The National Lawyers Guild has produced three short films, which are based upon actual recent incidents, hope to educate vulnerable immigrants about how to respond to I.C.E. agents when approached at home, at work, or on the street.

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Feb
24
Sat
Abolition of Policing Workshop
Feb 24 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

This Critical Resistance workshop explores the role and history of policing in the U.S., the way it has impacted different communities, and how people have resisted and challenged its inherent violence. This workshop also goes over how we can reduce our reliance on policing by highlighting the various ways that building up community strength and practices lead to true safety that does not depend on law enforcement.

We are asking for a $5 – 20 donation, however no one will be turned away for lack of funds.100% of donations will go to support Critical Resistance.

Building Accessibility: There are two entrances to Sierra Club Office building on Webster and 21st both of which are accessible for mobility devices. The building has an elevator, and the kitchen space, conference room, and restrooms can also all accommodate mobility devices.

Scents: The Sierra Club’s space endeavors to offer a scent free environment; however as the Club is currently transitioning towards the use of only scent free products, we cannot guarantee an entirely scent free space. We ask everyone to please arrive at meetings fragrance free to support access for folks who experience multiple chemical sensitivities and allergies. This means using only body products and laundry detergent that say “fragrance free” or “unscented” on the label and do not have scented ingredients.

Restrooms: Restrooms are currently labeled in a gender-binary way. The Sierra Club is working on changing this and has an office policy that all restrooms are available to anyone, regardless of lived or perceived gender identity. We ask that folks choose the restroom that is right for them, and that no one question a person’s chosen restroom.

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Taking the repeal of the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act to the ballot! @ Oakland ACCE
Feb 24 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

We’re taking the repeal of the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act to the ballot!!!

Strong Rent Control and Just Cause Eviction laws 
are the way to keep people in their homes now, while we work to get more (truly) affordable housing built.  In order to have strong Rent Control laws, we need to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a state law which ties the hands of local government. Costa-Hawkins prevents\ cities and counties from applying rent control to apartments built after 1995 or to single-family rental units.  It also allows landlords to raise the rent as much as they want when a unit becomes vacant.

Our signature goal is 585,000 by the end of April, and well over 25% have been collected so far.  We can do this, but we need all hands on deck
!!!

  • Come out for a community kick-off event & signature gathering, followed by lunch.
  • Endorse the Affordable Housing Act & get your petitions for your organization to help repeal Costa Hawkins & allow the expansion of strong rent control.

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Waffles & Zapatismo @ Omni Commons, basement
Feb 24 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

  CHIAPAS SUPPORT COMMITTEE

Home of the Compañero Manuel blog on the Zapatistas & Mexico

The next Waffles & Zapatismo class, with an open membership meeting after class from 12 Noon to 1pm. This first class of a series begins with the origins of the EZLN: the formation of the FLN, its entry into the Lacandón Jungle, its interaction with the indigenous communities and the formation of the EZLN. There is discussion after the presentation and from 12-1 there will be an open members meeting and an opportunity for folks to become activist members of the Chiapas Support Committee.

Zapatista News & Analysis
!. 3 Dead in Oxchuc, Chiapas violence – Armed with high-powered weapons, supporters of the mayor-in-exile attacked supporters of an Indigenous movement that wants to oust the political bosses and govern by tradition in an indigenous Chiapas municipality.

En español: http://www.proceso.com.mx/520205/miles-de-pobladores-exigen-justicia-para-indigenas-caidos-en-ataque-armado-en-oxchuc

2.  EZLN: 24 years of dignity and ethical congruence – López y Rivas reminds us that when the EZLN rose up in arms on January 1, 1994, it spoke of a genocidal war. Now, he says, that war has worsened until making Mexico the 2nd deadliest country in the world, after only Syria. During all these years, the EZLN has been the incorruptible critical conscience vis a vis the State and society.

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2018/01/12/opinion/017a2pol

3. The word of Marichuy – María de Jesús never speaks in her own name, but rather in the name of the peoples that elected her. “She doesn’t use the word I, but rather we.”

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2018/01/23/opinion/017a2pol

4. The strategy of the 1% and ours – The preferred tactic of the 1% is electoral fraud. The 1% has has the power of money, legal and illegal weapons and the communications media.

En español: http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2018/02/02/opinion/019a1pol
______________________________

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas

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Bree Newsome Panel Discussion: Black and Empowered. @ Tolman Hall, UC Berkeley
Feb 24 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

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Support Youth Suing Government on Climate Change @ South Berkeley Library
Feb 24 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Come to a meet-up to support the twenty-one youth who are suing the US government for failing to protect their future from climate change. Their strong voices and the hopefulness of the YouthvGov case are an inspiration to youth and adults alike as they work to secure the right to science-based action to ensure a stable climate and healthy atmosphere for all present and future generations.
In this meetup, staff from Our Children’s Trust will provide an overview and update on the case. We’ll introduce ourselves and talk about how we can build on a Bay Area YouthvGov support network for local climate activists, teachers, and youth advocates. We’ll share ways of utilizing the YouthvGov case as a learning opportunity to engage and empower local youth. We’ll also brainstorm ways of supporting the twenty-one youth and Our Children’s Trust as the case proceeds to trial.
There will be time for announcements and we will share upcoming learning opportunities and actions. Refreshments will be provided.
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Strike Debt Bay Area: Debt Resistance is NOT Futile! @ Omni Commons
Feb 24 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

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.

Come get connected with SDBA’s projects!
  • 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 .

 Also check out our website, our twitter feed, our radio segments and our Facebook page. Take a look at our Public Banking website, Friends of the Public Bank of Oakland.
Strike Debt Bay Area is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and Strike Debt, itself an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.

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.

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Film Screening & Panel Discussion: You A Nomad @ Omni Commons
Feb 24 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

In a single generation, Oakland’s black population has dwindled from 44% to an estimated 26%.
At this event we’ll watch YOU A NOMAD, a 20-minute documentary deconstructing the systemic roots of gentrification.
Then we’ll discuss possible SOLUTIONS. Confirmed panelists:
– Khafre Jay of HipHop4change
– Wanda Stewart, Food Justice Activist
… and more to come.
Don’t miss this event — LIKE and SHARE!!!

Doors open at 4:30 pm

Presented by Liberated Lens Film Screenings at Omni Commons

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Feb
25
Sun
No Eviction Without Representation @ MLK Room, Unitarian Universalist Center
Feb 25 @ 9:30 am – 11:30 am

“No Eviction Without Representation”

Dean Preston is an attorney and founder/executive director of the tenant rights organization “Tenants Together”.  He’s one of the authors and organizers of the SF petition drive to create an SF ballot measure for: “No Eviction Without Representation”.

Jen Snyder is a leader of Democratic Socialists of America-SF and is the field director of the “No Eviction Without Representation” campaign.

On January 26, 2018, the San Francisco “No Eviction Without Representation” campaign submitted 21,946 petition signatures (which is more than double the number needed) to the SF Department of Elections, to qualify a tenant protection initiative for the June 5, 2018 San Francisco ballot.  Passage of this ballot measure would make SF the first city in California, and the second in the nation, to provide a right to counsel to tenants facing eviction. On February 25, hear directly from the organizers of “No Eviction Without Representation” about the causes of the housing crisis in SF and what San Franciscans can do this year to reduce the impact of that crisis in our city.

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Sunflower Alliance @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Feb 25 @ 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm

Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and plans for the future.

Newcomers and old friends welcome — we need your participation and your voice. Come early to share a potluck lunch.

 

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DSA General Membership Meeting @ Omni Commons Ballroom
Feb 25 @ 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm

General Membership Meeting

The February general meeting is going to be a big one!

For one, we’ll be voting on whether or not to join the campaign to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act, which severely restricts local governments in California from implementing rent control. See the text of the resolution.

We’ll also be voting on a major set of revisions to our Chapter’s bylaws! You can see the proposed revisions as well as a reader guide with some explanation for those proposed revisions.

And if you’d like to propose an amendment to those proposed bylaws, you can submit your own.

Democracy requires many hands, so please RSVP and volunteer. See you on February 25!

RSVP (and volunteer and get more information about venue accessibility and accommodations)

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Indvisible East Bay @ Sports Basement
Feb 25 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
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Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
Feb 25 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

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.

ooGAOO 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

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“The Great Debaters” Oakland Greens Free Dinner & Movie Discussion Series @ It's Your Move
Feb 25 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
In celebration of Black History Month The Oakland Green Party presents Denzel Washington staring in “The Great Debaters” — a two-hour film based on the true story of the debate team at Willey College Texas that took on the Harvard College elite in 1935. This screening will be the Oakland Green’s second in a series on the “Last Sundays” of every month
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m., dinner will be served at 7 p.m., and the movie will start promptly at 7:30 p.m. The movie will provide a forum for discussions of debate value in a democracy and of how many stories are not told about triumph under backdrops of racial violence. The discussion is meant to be a community building event held in a relaxed fun space and organized by Green Party members to discuss solutions to local issues that hurt us and many others.
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Feb
26
Mon
Defend Auntie Frances! – Trial Support. @ Hayward Hall of Justice
Feb 26 @ 9:00 am – 11:30 am

 

Come out to Hayward to support Aunti Frances as she begins her EVICTION TRIAL against this unjust loophole eviction! M Let Aunti Frances know that she is not alone in her fight to stay in Oakland.

TRIAL WILL GO ALL DAY BUT FEEL FREE TO COME JUST FOR A FEW HOURS at any point in the day to show your support.

WEAR BLUE to show Aunti Frances your support.

On 2/21 Aunti Frances went to her first settlement hearing, and the Morphys (her landlords) failed to give her a fair or just settlement offer. Now the eviction jury trial is starting, and we as her community need to bring all the love, support and people power out to the court house to remind them that you can’t evict community power!

NOTE: this is a court proceeding, not a demonstration. Come prepared to sit in silence for extended periods of time. Please abide by all court rules and do not attempt to interact with the jury, witnesses, or any party to the case.

CARPOOL
This event is at the Hayward Hall of Justice, which is 1.2 miles from Hayward Bart. Comment on the Facebook event page if you need a ride, or if you can offer a ride. Include: where from & how many people.

PROCEEDINGS
In instances where there is a dispute surrounding factual allegations, citizens have the right to a trial by jury in an eviction. Once this right is asserted, a landlord must prevail in order to legally evict a tenant. If the tenant wins the trial, they stay in their home. If the tenant loses, the landlord may order the Sheriff’s office to carry out an eviction.

ACCESS INFO
There are bathrooms including ADA accessible bathrooms in the court house however you must go through security to enter the building. There will not be ASL interpretation at this event. It is requested that you come fragrance free, however there will likely be chemical fragrances within the court.

BACKGROUND
https://defendauntifrances.org/
Aunti Frances is a beloved Black disabled activist, elder, Black Panther and community leader who has lived in North Oakland/South Berkeley her entire life. She now faces a no-fault eviction by a notorious loophole in Oakland renter protections.

Our mission is to convince Aunti Frances’ landlords, Natalia Morphy and Morphy’s parents, to end the eviction proceedings and instead support Aunti Frances in staying in her community. We need as much community support as possible to insist that the Morphys drop this eviction. We aren’t going anywhere, because you can’t evict community power!
________________________________________________________________

CONTACT US
For any questions, please contact info@defendauntifrances.org
________________________________________________________________

Thank you for your support of Aunti Frances, this campaign, and all communities organizing against gentrification!
#DefendAuntiFrances

https://defendauntifrances.org/

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Tax the Rich Weekly Rally @ In front of old Oaks Theater
Feb 26 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Join us this–and every Monday for an hour of singing in front of the old Oaks Theater at the top of Solano Avenue, Berkeley. Demonstrators have kept this rally going for over six years with their “Tax the Rich” and other timely signs and good spirits. We provide music; songbooks available. Come for a song, come for an hour.

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Occupy Forum: Authoritarian Tactics: U.S. Immigration Policy and Race @ Local 2 UNITE HERE
Feb 26 @ 6:45 pm – 9:00 pm

OccupyForum presents

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
OccupyForum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!

Authoritarian Tactics: U.S. Immigration Policy and Race
with Professor George Wright

Designation of “the Other”, and scapegoating people for the deep problems in the state are classic authoritarian tactics. Currently, the Trump Regime plans to publish a weekly list of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants; ICE claims that those targeted in a raid have criminal records. But people who have had arrests or convictions have endured profiling in a justice system with shocking racial and class disparities.

George Wright will analyze U.S. immigration policy and race, and trace the history of scapegoating, incarceration, and deportations of “the Other” in the United States. He will include other instances of this tactic in dictatorships, and ways the citizenry fought, and won, the eventual legal freedom of their brothers and sisters.

George Wright taught Political Science at California State University, Chico between 1969 and 2003.  He also taught History at Skyline Community College between 2004 and 2013.   His major research includes United States Politics, International Political Economy, and the Politics of International Sport.   He has a Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at the University of Leeds (UK).

Time will be allotted for announcements.

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Feb
27
Tue
RACE & INEQUALITY IN AMERICA. THE KERNER COMMISSION AT 50 @ Haas Institute, MLK Pauley Ballroom, UC Berkeley
Feb 27 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

Visit their website for more information.

Register here

In the mid-1960s, a series of violent police encounters with Black Americans sparked uprisings in more than 100 American cities. Shaken by the civil unrest across the nation in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders to investigate the immediate causes of the rebellions, as well as the underlying conditions of racial segregation and discrimination that gave rise to them. Headed by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, with Mayor John V. Lindsay of New York as vice chairman, the Commission issued its landmark report, which became commonly known as the “Kerner Report,” on February 29, 1968.

The Kerner Report, unanimously signed by the bipartisan and politically mainstream commission, was wide-ranging and dramatic, and concluded that white society had denied opportunity to Black Americans living in poor urban neighborhoods. The report offered both dire warnings along with a bold plan of federal action. Its most famous line, cited again by the US Supreme Court as recently as 2015, was: “Our Nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” In its other most memorable passage, the commission said: “What white Americans have never fully understood—but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.”

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Stop Urban Shield – Alameda County Board of Supervisors @ Alameda County Administration Bldg
Feb 27 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will be considering Sheriff Ahern’s request to accept funding from the Department of Homeland Security for Urban Shield, 2018.

On Tuesday, February 27th, the Stop Urban Shield Coalition will be rallying to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting where we anticipate a presentation and vote on Urban Shield. The coalition continues  to demand investments in life affirming resources that will support us in emergencies, while Sheriff Ahern continues to press for the militarized policing program and weapons expo known as Urban Shield.

TIME:   10 am to 1 pm – people are needed the entire time, try to come at 10 am but if not come when you can during those hours.  Signs will be available to hold.

Please go to the Facebook page and mark yourself as going  Use it to invite others you think might be able to turn out

CAN’T COME ON 2/27?  CALL YOUR ALAMEDA COUNTY SUPERVISOR.  Call-in days are targeted for Thursday, 2/22 and Monday, 2/23 but you can call anytime that is convenient for you.

Contact your Supervisor and tell them to vote NO on Urban Shield. Find your district here: http://acgov.org/ms/addresslookup/

District 1: Supervisor Haggerty //
shawn.wilson@acgov.org (510) 272-6691

District 2: Supervisor Valle //
christopher.miley@acgov.org (510) 272-6692

District 3: Supervisor Chan //
jeanette.dong@acgov.org (510)272-6693

District 4: Supervisor Miley //
anna.gee@acgov.org (510)272-6694

District 5: Supervisor Carson //
amy.shrago@acgov.org (510)272-6695  (Berkeley)

FACEBOOK PAGE

https://www.facebook.com/events/1581712215246344/

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