Calendar
CSU East Bay Department of Communication and the Graduate Communication Society Presents:
#BlackLivesMatter: Civil Rights Social Justice in the 21st Century
Featuring: Dr. Andreana Clay, Families Seeking Justice panel, three student panels, and a hosted reception.
The Graduate Communication Society at CSU East Bay hosts a graduate student conference surrounding themes related to social justice issues in a 21st Century context. Featuring keynote speaker Dr. Andreana Clay, Associate Professor at San Francisco State University, Her book, The Hip-Hop Generation Fights Back: Youth Activism and Post-Civil Rights Politics (NYU Press, 2012) explores how youth of color organize and identify as activists in the post civil rights era. Her articles on hip-hop culture, queer sexuality, youth activism, and hip-hop feminism have appeared in several anthologies and academic journals, including Home Girls Make Some Noise!: A Hip-Hop Feminist Anthology, the American Behavioral Scientist, and Meridians: A Journal of Race, Feminism, and Transnationalism. Read her blog, QueerBlackFeminist, at queerblackfeminist.blogspot.com.
Also presenting is the panel Families Seekig Justice with 2015 Gene Young Award Recipient and Oscar Grant’s uncle, Cephus “Uncle Bobby” Johnson; mother of Alan Blueford, Jeralynn Blueford; mother of James Rivera, Dionne Smith Downs; and Angela Naggie, mother of O’Shaine Evans. Families Seeking Justice panel will be moderated by Cat Brooks, co-chair of the Onyx Organizing Committee.
There will be three student panels discussing research on topics related to the following broad themes:
Online activism
Identity and race in the 21st Century
Feminism and gender activism in the hashtag era
Schedule
Noon-12:30 — Check-in
12:30-3:30pm — Student panels
4-5pm — Families Seeking Justice
5-6pm — Keynote speaker Dr. Adreana Clay
6-7pm — Reception
Check back for more info at the conference web site: http://commgscon.blogspot.com
Bay Area comics perform STAND UP! Comedy: Featuring Natasha Muse, with Veronica Porras, Lalique D’Bruzzi and Emily Van Dyke. Natasha Muse is a performer and writer of comedy in the Bay Area. She is also a skeptic, an agnostic, and at least the second funniest trans-sexual you know––guaranteed. Come to the emerging and energizing OMNI COMMONS and laugh with us while you support autonomous education for indigenous Zapatista children.
No More Locked Doors- a conference on political prisoners and revolutionary prisoner support- May16 Oakland pic.twitter.com/RDmWWQbcYQ
— Alyssa (@alyssa011968) April 11, 2015
Join us for tabling, flyering, and door-knocking Wednesday May 13 @ 5 p.m. and Saturday May 16 @ noon. Both @ Ashby BART station. #15Now
— 15 Now Berkeley (@15NowBerkeley) May 11, 2015
No to the War on Yemen!
No to Foreign Intervention!
Yes to self determination of the Yemeni people!
Stop the Saudi bombing!
#HandsOffYemen
UN Plaza
Saturday, May 16th
12pm
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- our next Debtors’ Assembly
- saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- and much more!
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.
PF Publishing invites you to celebrate T. Thorn Coyle’s first novel, dedicated to Alan Blueford, and to all victims of police violence.
Like Water:
a story of love and sudden violence.
a story of a ghost and a city.
a story for our times.
Welcome to the streets of Oakland, CA.
Meet Alex and Jonah.
Best friends since childhood: one poet, one professor, one black, one white. One dead–killed by police with a Taser to the heart–and one bereft, trying to figure out how to go on living…and how to find justice.
“One day he was laughing on a bright summer sidewalk. What seemed liked seconds later, he was gone.”
Come out Saturday, 5/16 at Legionnaire for our 2nd Left Bass Dance Party! Last month, the club was packed by 10pm, the party went OFF, and we raised over $1,800 for BlackOUT Collective. Let’s do it in May for APTP!
LEFT BASS is an Oakland Dance Party for all us activists, organizers, artists, and just plain MOVEMENT FOLKS to shake a tail feather together and continue to support local organizing.
Get down with “Feminist/Panther/Hip-Hop Heroine” Coco Peila, featured DJs Camilo (Queer Qumbia) and Xander (Mondial Afrique) and resident DJs Baagi and T. Rockwell.
This month’s party will benefit the Anti Police-Terror Project (https://www.facebook.com/
Idle No More SF Bay and citizens from front-line refinery communities invite you to attend the second of four walks. The Walk will begin near the Martinez Shoreline Park at the end of Ferry Street in Martinez, and will end at the 9th Street Park in the City of Benicia.
8:00 a.m. Water Ceremony & Registration
9:30 a.m. Walk Begins
This walk is approximately 9.5 miles from beginning to end. There will be vehicles available for people who wish to take breaks during the walk. Medics will also be available. Water will be provided but you should plan to bring your own water in reusable containers.
There are several places along the walk where folks can join the walk – please see the details of the route. For more information and a map of the route, please visit the Healing Walk web site.
Malcolm X and Black Liberation
In honor of the 90th birthday of Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), we have invited Gerald Smith, of the Oscar Grant Committee, to speak on the life and death of Malcolm X and his continuing relevance for the Black Liberation struggle.
From Oakland to Baltimore, police harassment and murder of poor Black, Brown and Native American women, men and transgenders is an epidemic. What will it take to bring justice for Freddie Gray, Oscar Grant, Mya Hall, Alex Nieto, Michael Brown and all those killed? How do we end the structural racism and brutality that warps the lives of the poor? Join a candid discussion that ranges from calling for civilian review boards over the police to replacing the whole rotten U.S. system.
A home-cooked brunch is served at 12:15 pm for an $8 donation. Everyone welcome.
Open Circle, first and foremost, is an opportunity to build community with one another. Secondly, it is a space to reflect and collaborate on strategies and actions to bring an end to these egregious crimes.
Please join us for the Potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with speakers who have lost their loved ones to police violence. Then updates / announcements of upcoming actions followed by reflection and dialogue around the current state and thoughts or approaches on how to effect change.
We will end with working groups to organize and plan next steps in the struggle.
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
We will be reading the introduction and first chapter of To Our Friends, the newly released book from the Invisible Committee. Bring food and refreshments. Some will be provided. Hard copies of the first chapter will be available, but those with copies are encouraged to bring them.
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office and the Postal Service from privatization, support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-Mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-Mcdonald backed out of the deal in early December.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th. There was another hearing in March 26th. Federal Judge William Alsup decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the Postal Service says it is not currently selling the building. But we’re not fooled. The Postal Service could “find” a buyer at any moment. Fortunately, the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the lawsuit could be refiled.
Check out our response to the Judge’s order.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
Action Council Forum to coordinate actions
June 19-22, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee is hosting the 83rd Annual Conference of Mayors.
Around 200 Mayors, their families and corporate sponsors will be in attendance.
This is an opportunity to raise issues LOCALLY and NATIONALLY, that are of concern to us, The People, that the mayors have resisted and refused to act upon, or acted on against the interest of The People.
For instance:
“Black Lives Matter” ~ Police Militarization and Excessive Use of Force ~ Racism ~ Gentrification of our Communities ~ Homelessness ~ Privatization of our Commons ~ Homophobia and Trans-phobia ~ Immigration ~ the Environment ~ Corporate Greed ~ the People’s taxes being spent on wars enriching the 1% and not serving the needs of the people and more.
Let’s get ready NOW and send a message to the Mayors of this nation that they need to� Listen Up!
All are welcome
!
Announcements will follow. Donations gladly accepted; no one turned away!
Info: bob71947@aol.com
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West Berkeley Forum
Sponsored by the
Berkeley Neighborhoods Council
Following up on our very successful April 8, 2015, Forum at the Berkeley Media Center, the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council invites you to a community forum to discuss responses to the city’s construction and development plans.
The purpose of the meeting will be to foster discussion among members of the community and to affirm the necessity of the community having a voice in these developments
a form of “modification-power”
“We’re not against development. But it should be development in which people have a say, a voice in the process, more than a mere minute in a hearing. It should not be imposed from above, nor destroy a community’s style of life.”
A West Berkeley community member
NO CONSTRUCTION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
Some of the the impacts these plans will have on our community:
• The loss of commercial establishments,
• The loss of low-rent housing,
• The loss of community style of life,
• Traffic jams, and big parking problems.
The following speakers will discuss the City’s overall development plans, and the impact these plans will have on our neighborhoods.
• Carol Johnson – Berkeley City Planning Dept.
• Patrick Sheahan – former Planning Commissioner and West Berkeley resident
• Kate Stepanski – Oceanview volunteer and grassroots organizer
• Ed Herzog – West Berkeley resident and community organizer
Berkeley Neighborhoods Council http://www.berkeleyneighborhoodscouncil.org
Also see
If OPD violates your rights, abuses you, or worse, murders your loved one, you should not have to go file a complaint against OPD to OPD.
Please join the Coalition for Police Accountability on May 19th in support of agenda item 11 to demand that all walk-in complaints against OPD be moved from the Internal Affairs Dept of OPD and into the hands of the Citizens Police Review Board (CPRB).
The vote at tomorrow’s city council meeting is a very important step towards the ultimate goal of a real functioning CPRB that is fully funded & appropriately empowered to hold officers who commit crimes accountable.
Citizens do not have the same conflict of interest that police do when investigating themselves. It is time for the people of Oakland to be in control of the police, we can no longer allow them to act with complete impunity & zero accountability when the violate, beat, abuse, or murder people of color in our communities.
Please fill out a speaker card even if you do not intend to speak, you may cede you time to another speaker, here is the link, it’s agenda item 11 for the May 19th city council meeting: http://
A comrade who was arrested in December is facing newly-filed charges. This person’s charges were not previously filed at a mass arraignment. Instead of going through this in solidarity with others, they were confronted through a letter from the DA, months later, alone. This is a reminder and a warning: though charges may not have been filed at a first arraignment, the DA may choose to press them within a year of arrest.
Let’s show support for the long haul, beyond the moment of the protest, beyond the mass arraignment. Share, invite, show we stand together even in moments when we’re treated as individual targets. Come do court support at 9 am in Department 107.
At a time when California faces one of the worst droughts on record, Nestle is bottling water out of California’s springs, aquifers and national forests to sell for profit. Nestle is unwilling to stop this practice – and even pumped water using a permit that expired 25 years ago.
We must ramp up the pressure on Nestle – the poster child for corporate water abuse in California. Nestle has two bottling plants in California – one in Sacramento, and one in Los Angeles. Please join us on Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. as we rally outside both bottling plants in Los Angeles and Sacramento.