Calendar
Using hidden cameras and never-before-seen footage, EARTHLINGS chronicles the day-to-day practices of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit.
The community coalition — The Oakland Post Sunday Salon, Oakland Tenants Union, Oakland Alliance, Block By Block Organizing Network, John George Democratic Club, Wellstone Democratic Club — that sponsored the request to declare a “Housing State of Emergency” with Moratoriums on Rent Increases (above CPI), and on No-Cause Evictions, named a volunteer Action Committee at the Mar 13 meeting. The Committee met last week and developed a suggested list of actions (attached) that City Council could consider implementing during the moratorium period.
The “Moratorium Resolution” will be heard and acted on by City Council at the Council’s April 5 meeting.
The Agenda number of the Resolution is not known at this time as the April agenda has not been released (appx 7:30pm may be safe to plan for) .
Please feel free to spread the word, call or email councilmembers, plan to attend, and build a huge attendance at the April 5 meeting.
A rally in City Hall Plaza is being planned to take place before the Council meeting.
Also sign up online to speak when the item number is released.
For Speaker Card: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373
council@oaklandnet.com. (goes to all council members)
District 2, the Eastlake area Councilmember Abel Guillén
(510) 238-7002, aguillen@oaklandnet.com
District 3, Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney
(510) 238-7032, lmcelhaney@oaklandnet.com
District 1, Councilmember Dan Kalb
(510) 238-7001, dkalb@oaklandnet.com
District 5, Councilmember Noel Gallo
510-238-7005, ngallo@oaklandnet.com
District 6, Councilmember Desley Brooks
(510) 238-7006, dbrooks@oaklandnet.com
District 7, Councilmember Larry Reid
(510) 238-7007, lreid@oaklandnet.com
District 4, Councilmember Annie Campbell Washington
(510) 238-7042, acampbell-washington@Oaklandnet.com
Councilmember At-large Rebecca Kaplan
(510) 238-7008, rkaplan@oaklandnet.com
City Administrator Sabrina Landreth
(510) 238-3301, cityadministrator@oaklandnet.com
Mayor Libby Schaaf
(510) 238-3141, officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com
TURN UP FOR APTP’s DIRECT ACTION against Emeryville PD’s use of AR-15s in our communities! Why does a police department require the use of military-style assault weapons when serving its community? We believe that the police should not be at war with the people. TURN UP for this DIRECT ACTION that will begin at the Home Depot in Emeryville at 6:30pm and we will go from there…WE COMIN!
#Justice4YuvetteHenderson
Background:
—First, an offering: We affirm the existence, beauty, brilliance, and right of black, brown, and indigenous folk to self determine and thrive on this earth, in this moment in history, and for all generations. Àse —
Our purpose: Under an oppressive racial regime of white supremacy, thelives of Black folk are consistently devalued, criminalized, and abused by police in the United States due to reaffirmed impunity and increasingly, the proliferation and expediency of a militarized police force.
For Yuvette Henderson, this expediency meant her murder.
In the early afternoon of Tuesday, February 3, 2015, Yuvette Henderson, a 38-year-old mother of four children and one grandchild, was shot and killed by the Emeryville Police Department on the Oakland-Emeryville border of California. Michelle Shepherd and Warren Williams shot Yuvette with three weapons, including an AR-15 rifle—a military-style assault weapon. As the human rights violations in Ferguson exposed to the country last summer, police departments across the nation are abusing their access to military equipment and targeting communities of color.
This misuse of power is as present here in the S.F. Bay Area as it is elsewhere, made painfully clear with the killing of Yuvette. Repeated abuse of state power and increased state terror pose a serious threat to the human and civil rights of all people, including the residents of Emeryville and its surrounding area.
The city of Emeryville spans a mere two-square miles and has a population of 10,000 inhabitants. The presence of military-style assault weapons in a city this small only serves to deepen the divide between surrounding communities and law enforcement.
Enough is enough! State terrorism must end. Emeryville Mayor Ruth Atkin and the city council must ban the use of all military-style assault weapons from the Emeryville PD and ensure that all such weapons removed from the Emeryville PD.
TODAY, 6:30pm, #Oakland: Liberated Lens Local Filmmaker Series presents: FIRST FRIDAY https://t.co/AkPloe2DSR pic.twitter.com/bQv8zUOmAb
— Indybay (@Indybay) April 5, 2016
Laurel Book Store welcomes Sarah Schulman, author The Cosmopolitans, and Lucy Jane Bledsoe, author of the forthcoming A Thin Bright Line, who will discuss queer life in midcentury Greenwich Village through the eyes and stories of their new novels’ characters.
The Cosmopolitans is a novel set in Greenwich Village in 1958. Earl, a black, gay actor, and Bette, a white secretary, have lived next door to each other for thirty years, building a relationship of trust and caring. Then Hortense, a wealthy young actress from Bette’s past appears to “make it” in New York, and all their shared assumptions are shattered.
Sarah Schulman is a novelist, nonfiction writer, playwright, screenwriter journalist and AIDS historian. The Cosmopolitans is her 17th book.
At the height of the Cold war, a heartbroken woman agrees to suppress her homosexual desires in order to take a top secret government job. When she subsequently falls in love, she’s forced to make impossible choices. Based on a true story, A Thin Bright Line is a novel of Cold War intrigue, the birth of climate change research, and the foment of 20th century queer culture.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe’s new novel A Thin Bright Line, based on the life of her aunt and namesake, will be published in January of 2017. She’s the author of five other novels and several kids’ books.
We believe that love is the universal language. We also believe that love is the universal cure to heal what ails societies worldwide. These meditation happy hours are our love offering to the community and are the result of a beautiful new & evolving partnership w/The Art of Living facilitated by Neelam Patil…& the universe ♥
Benicia’s City Council is about to make a decision that could put our communities at risk. Valero Energy Corporation wants to build an oil-by-rail terminal at their Benicia refinery — meaning more dangerous oil trains coming through the Bay Area.
If approved, this terminal would allow trains carrying over 2.5 million gallons of toxic, explosive crude oil to travel through the area every day. We don’t need more fossil fuel infrastructure that puts communities and our climate at risk. Greenlighting fossil fuel infrastructure is the last thing our cities should be doing.
On February 11th, the Benicia Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny Valero’s dangerous plan, but Valero has appealed that decision to the City Council and is trying to rush through a reversal. The Benicia City Council will hear public comment on Valero’s appeal on April 4th. We know Valero is putting lots of pressure on the City Council to approve their project — that’s why we need to make sure City decision makers know that residents from across the region are watching.
- Carpools: We’re setting up carpools from the East Bay & Davis. Sign up to be a driver or passenger here.
We need to protect our communities and our climate. We need to stop this project once and for all.
City Council Agenda (sole) item:
Open the public hearing and solicit public comment. After public testimony at this meeting:
1. Add an additional hearing date of April 18, 2016
At the following meeting(s), Staff recommends the City Council continue to take public
comment, consider all appropriate documents and testimony, and then consider the
following actions:
1. Consider and reject the applicant’s request for continuance.
2. Deny the appeal and uphold the Planning Commission’s unanimous decision to deny
certification for the EIR and to deny the Use Permit; or
3. Decline to certify the EIR and provide specific comments on the deficiencies of the EIR
and direction on what needs to be improved in the EIR and remand back to Staff with
direction to return to Council with the EIR and Use Permit; or
2
4. Uphold the appeal and
i. Adopt the draft Resolution certifying the Final Environmental Impact Report, adopting
CEQA findings for the Project and adopt the Statement of Overriding Considerations and
the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program and
ii. Uphold the appeal and adopt the draft Resolution approving the Use Permit for the
Valero Crude by Rail Project, with the findings and conditions listed in the resolution.
FIRE CHIEF SUHR!
CHARGE THE OFFICERS WITH MURDER!
INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION!
Justice 4 Mario Woods. Justice 4 Amilcar Perez Lopen. Justice for Alex Nieto.
Join us at a townhall meeting to make our voices heard.
Refreshments will be available.
The new book, China on Strike, is based on dozens of interviews with workers in Pearl River Delta factories, an industrial region of region of 60 million people that has become the “workshop of the world,” as China has become the fastest growing major economy in the world over the last three decades. Pearl River Delta factories supply the world’s most profitable corporations, like Apple, Nike, Hewlett Packard, and many others. These interviews document the processes of internal migration in China, changing employment relations, worker culture, and other issues related to China’s explosive growth. China on Strike is the first English-language book to provide an intimate and revealing window into the lives of workers as they organize against low pay and brutal working conditions, launching the world’ largest strike wave in the 21st century. Two of these contributors will be in attendance and will speak and answer questions via interpreter Alex T. Tom.
“As these vivid case-studies illustrate, the real sleeping dragon—China’s enormous factory proletariat—is wide awake and fighting back on all fronts. Indeed, here is first-hand evidence that Chairman Xi Jinping may soon confront the largest labor rebellion in history.”
—Mike Davis, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Riverside, and author of Planet of Slums
Fang Gang has worked in factories since he graduated from university, conducting interviews with other workers about their collective struggles in the Pearl River Delta and compiling them into articles that are published and distributed. An example is his 2013 piece “Strikes over the relocation of factories.” Currently, Fan Gang assists with workers taking collective action in the Pearl River Delta.
Mi Tu has been engaged in doing translations of literature on workers’ struggles in other countries, as well as researching the conditions of workers in China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs), since her university days. Since graduating, Mi has worked in factories, interviewed workers engaged in struggles in the Pearl River Delta, and compiled and circulated these oral histories. Mi currently assists workers taking collective action against occupational diseases.
Alex T. Tom (interpreter) is the Executive Director of San Francisco’s Chinese Progressive Association.
Admission is free.
 AROC Presents: Palestine Before 1948
Sherene Seikaly on her new book, Men of Capital: Scarcity and Economy in Mandate Palestine.
Men of Capital examines British-ruled Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s through a focus on economy. In a departure from the expected histories of Palestine, this book illuminates dynamic class constructions that aimed to shape a pan-Arab utopia in terms of free trade, profit accumulation, and private property. And in so doing, it positions Palestine and Palestinians in the larger world of Arab thought and social life, moving attention away from the limiting debates of Zionist-Palestinian conflict. |
Starting in April, Berkeley Copwatch is kicking off our ongoing *weekly* copwatching shifts! We’ll be out in the streets most Fridays and Saturdays witnessing and documenting police activity and doing outreach. Please join us!
No experience required — any experience welcome. We’ll train you in the essentials for documenting police activity and staying safe in the process.
If you are able to bring a car and be a shift driver, that would be GREAT! Please let us know in the “discussion” section or by sending Berkeley Copwatch a message.
APRIL COPWATCH DATES AND TIMES
(Check this page for updates)
Friday 4/1 – 8pm
Saturday 4/2 – 8pm
Friday 4/8 – 8pm
Sat 4/9 – 8pm
Friday 4/15 – 8pm
Saturday 4/16 – 8pm
Friday 4/22 – 8pm
Saturday 4/23 – 8pm
Friday 4/29 – 8pm
Saturday 4/30 – 8pm
ABOUT OUR MASS COPWATCH SHIFTS
Since October 2015, Berkeley Copwatch has been holding “mass copwatch” events. It’s been fun and very empowering to have up to five cars full of copwatchers patrolling our city and on the scene when police stop people.
Sometimes you’ve just got to take it to the streets, and this is one of those times. Sunflower Alliance is sponsoring a canvassing day to put rent control and just cause for eviction on the Richmond ballot in November. Bring a friend, or partner up with another canvasser when you get here. And if walking isn’t your thing, you can man (or woman) a table outside FoodsCo, Walgreens or Target. We’ll provide juice, coffee, and snacks at the Bobby Bowens Center to get you jump-started or tide you over. Come for one hour or the full four—or more. Bring a hat, sunscreen, and water bottle. Added bonus: An overwhelming majority of Richmond voters support this ordinance, so it’s an easy sell. If you care about stabilizing low-income communities and slowing rampant gentrification, this is your opportunity to make a difference.
Please join us on Saturday, April 9th for “Fair Chance to Advance,” a community resource fair!
Free services include: Proposition 47 lawyer consultation, DMV vouchers, job training, EBT and Medi-Cal Support, veteran services, immigration consultation, and housing assistance services. There will be a bouncy house and childcare services for kids.
– Do you have a felony that is keeping you from securing housing, employment or public assistance?
– Do you have questions about your immigration status?
– Would you like information about the new DMV amnesty program?
If you or someone you know answered yes to any of these questions, please join us and spread the word about this incredible community resource fair.
Fair Chance to Advance events were created to reach community members who may qualify for Proposition 47 crime reclassification. Indivduals with felony convictions often experience difficulty secure housing, employment and public assistance. Proposition 47 allows individuals with certain types of non-serious, non-violent felony convictions to re-classify their conviction as a misdemeanor, helping to increase an individuals’s ability to get their life back on track.
Of course, this is an event for any and ALL community members in need of legal assistance, housing assistance, support with access to jobs, assistance filling out healthcare documentation, and more, not only for those seeking conviction reclassification.
This event is sponsored by Oakland Community Organizations, the Ella Baker Center, Imani Community Church, the East Bay Community Law Center, the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office and other assistance providers.
With support from Oakland Vice Mayor Annie Campbell Washington and Supervisor Nate Miley.
Join EFF on Saturday, April 9 for a first-of-its-kind crowdsourcing campaign to hold California law enforcement agencies accountable for their use of surveillance technologies. Please pre-register here.
Volunteers like you will help us track down the privacy and useage policies of law enforcement agencies across California and add them to our database. We’ll show you how to do it, and you can be anywhere with an Internet connection to participate.
Last year, the California legislature passed two key transparency bills. S.B. 34 requires anyone uses automated license plate recognition (ALPR) systems, as well as end users of license plate reader data, to develop privacy and usage policies and post them on their websites. S.B. 741 creates identical requirements for law enforcement agencies that use cell-site simulators (i.e. IMSI catchers, Stringrays, and Dirt Boxes).
ALPR refers to systems of high-speed cameras that capture photos of license plates, convert the plates into machine readable text, and store them in databases that can be searched. Police can also set up “hot lists” so that they get pinged every time a camera spots a particular vehicle. In aggregate, this data can reveal all kinds of personal information, such as where you sleep at night, where you take your kids to school, where you worship, and what doctors you visit.
Cell-site simulators are devices that masquerade as a legitimate cell phone tower, tricking phones nearby into connecting to the device in order to log the IMSI numbers of mobile phones in the area or capture the content of communications.
We are asking supporters to join us in combing through the websites of more than 130 California local government and law enforcement agencies to collect these policies. We also want to identify which agencies are not yet complying with these laws, which went into effect on January 1.
The event will kick off at 12 pm PT on Saturday, April 9, and last until 4 pm PT. You can join in at anytime and take on as many agencies as you can. You can join us virtually online or come join us in person at EFF’s offices in San Francisco.
Due to the sensitive nature of the project, we are asking that participants pre-register for the event.
When heavily militarized police in Ferguson, Missouri, confronted African American protesters angry at the police murder of Mike Brown in 2014, Palestinians watching events unfold from Gaza began sending tweets about how to cope with the teargas filling the streets.
Such an act of solidarity was more than a mere expression of support from people who, though half a world away, know firsthand about state repression. Police in cities across the U.S. – including police in Ferguson and Baltimore – have turned to Israel for training in how to deploy tactics honed in suppressing the Palestinian struggle for justice. The U.S. directly supports Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians – to the tune of some $3 billion per year.
Many of the issues facing the Black community in the U.S. – police violence, job discrimination, poverty, and environmental racism – are the same problems that Palestinians face.
A new generation of activists is forging ties of solidarity between the struggles of Palestinians and African Americans – struggles for equal rights, for dignity, for freedom. This tour hopes to make a modest contribution to this project – by unearthing the inspiring history of Black/Palestinian solidarity and by making these lessons relevant for present-day efforts seeking to transform the future.
Featuring
Aaron Dixon is one of the co-founders of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party, chronicled in his 2012 book http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/My-People-Are-Rising. Dixon has since founded Central House, a nonprofit that provides transitional housing for youth, and was one of the co founders of the Cannon House, a senior assisted-living facility. Aaron ran for US Senate on the Green Party ticket in 2006.
Boots Riley is the lead vocalist for The Coup, a hip hop group from Oakland. He is a lifelong revolutionary, and he played an important role in Occupy Oakland and other Bay Area political struggles. Boots recently released a book about the lyrics and backstories of his music: Tell Homeland Security – We Are The Bomb.
Khury Petersen-Smith co-authored, with Stanford alum Kristian Davis Bailey, the influential 2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine, covered by Ebony and other outlets. Khury is a member of the International Socialist Organization and is active in Palestine solidarity and anti-racist organizing. He has written about the politics of Black liberation for Jacobin Magazine and the International Socialist Review.
Wael Elasady* is a Palestinian-Syrian activist living in Portland. He is a co-founder of Students United For Palestinian Equal Rights at Portland State University and a member of the International Socialist Organization. He was co-host of One Land, Many Voices a community radio show bringing the question of Palestine to the Portland area.
Majd Quran* is a member of Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine. She grew up in Ramallah, a city in the West Bank of Palestine. Majd worked with Area C students in the Jordan Valley as part of her school’s Right to Education club. She also worked with internally displaced refugees and victims of home demolitions
————————–
Oakland
Saturday April 9th – 5:30 PM, Oakland Peace Center, Shelton Hall, 111 Fairmont Ave. Sliding scale: $5 – $20 / no one turned away for lack of funds *Wael and Aaron will be speaking on Sat. April 9th *Boots will not be speaking on Sat. April 9th
Stanford University
Tuesday April 12th at 7 PM, Black Community Services Center. *Majd will be speaking on Tue. April 12th. Cosponsors for Stanford event: NAACP, Black Student Union, Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Student Union, MEChA, Asian American Student Association, Students for Alternatives to Militarism, Stanford Asian American Activism Committee, Student and Labor Alliance, National Lawyers Guild
UC Berkeley
Wednesday April 13th at 7:30 PM, Valley Life Sciences Building room 2040
Presented by
Haymarket Books
Cosponsors
International Socialist Organization
Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Middle East Children’s Alliance
When heavily militarized police in Ferguson, Missouri, confronted African American protesters angry at the police murder of Mike Brown in 2014, Palestinians watching events unfold from Gaza began sending tweets about how to cope with the teargas filling the streets.
Such an act of solidarity was more than a mere expression of support from people who, though half a world away, know firsthand about state repression. Police in cities across the U.S. – including police in Ferguson and Baltimore – have turned to Israel for training in how to deploy tactics honed in suppressing the Palestinian struggle for justice. The U.S. directly supports Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians – to the tune of some $3 billion per year.
Many of the issues facing the Black community in the U.S. – police violence, job discrimination, poverty, and environmental racism – are the same problems that Palestinians face.
A new generation of activists is forging ties of solidarity between the struggles of Palestinians and African Americans – struggles for equal rights, for dignity, for freedom. This tour hopes to make a modest contribution to this project – by unearthing the inspiring history of Black/Palestinian solidarity and by making these lessons relevant for present-day efforts seeking to transform the future.
Featuring
Boots Riley is the lead vocalist for The Coup, a hip hop group from Oakland. He is a lifelong revolutionary, and he played an important role in Occupy Oakland and other Bay Area political struggles. Boots recently released a book about the lyrics and backstories of his music: Tell Homeland Security – We Are The Bomb.
Khury Petersen-Smith co-authored, with Stanford alum Kristian Davis Bailey, the influential 2015 Black Solidarity Statement with Palestine, covered by Ebony and other outlets. Khury is a member of the International Socialist Organization and is active in Palestine solidarity and anti-racist organizing. He has written about the politics of Black liberation for Jacobin Magazine and the International Socialist Review.
Wael Elasady is a Palestinian-Syrian activist living in Portland. He is a co-founder of Students United For Palestinian Equal Rights at Portland State University and a member of the International Socialist Organization. He was co-host of One Land, Many Voices a community radio show bringing the question of Palestine to the Portland area.
————————–
Oakland
Saturday April 9th – 5:30 PM, Oakland Peace Center, Shelton Hall, 111 Fairmont Ave. Sliding scale: $5 – $20 / no one turned away for lack of funds * Wael will be speaking o Sat. April 9th
Stanford University
Tuesday April 12th at 7 PM, Black Community Services Center
UC Berkeley
Wednesday April 13th at 7:30 PM, Valley Life Sciences Building room 2040
Presented by Haymarket Books http://
Cosponsors International Socialist Organization http://
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to survivors and victims of violence and police terror in Oakland.
The Baha’i community of Oakland is organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.
Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us.
Thank you to everyone who came out to our hugely successful canvassing kickoff last Saturday! We had nearly fifty people and gathered hundreds of signatures. Come out this Sunday for our next canvass to collect signatures for our three ballot initiatives.
We will be gathering signatures for our three endorsed ballot measures for 2016: the Protect Oakland Tenants Initiative, sponsored by Oakland Tenants Union and the Citywide Development Network, the charter amendment to create a police commission sponsored by the Coalition for Police Accountability, and the measure to establish a $20 minimum wage by 2020 and enforce fair scheduling regulations from the Oakland Livable Wage Assembly.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
OccupyForum presents
“From The Heart of the World:
The Elder Brothers’ Warning”
A documentary about a South American Indian tribe and their plea for ecological sanity in a time when the earth is being ravaged by so-called civilized people.
Seeing themselves as guardians of life on earth, the Kogi have a spiritual understanding of the bond between humankind and the natural world. This bond, they insist, must be honored. The Kogi are governed by priests called “mamas.” As children, the mamas were educated in the dark and this early sensory deprivation has made them finely attuned to the mysteries and pleasures of their mountain environment. The Elder Brothers, as they call themselves, are convinced that we, the Younger Brothers, have wounded the earth through industrial exploitation, mining, and clearing of forests. They have seen signs of an ecological crisis in changing bird migrations and the lack of snow in the highest regions of the Sierra Nevada. The Kogis warn that unless we change our ways, the world will end:
“If we act well, the world can go on.”
There have been many articulate calls for citizens of this planet to live in harmony with the natural world. But this video stands out as an especially cogent and moving plea for ecological wisdom.
Time will be allotted for announcements.
The Battle Cry of the People
Enough is Enough
Enough of Racist Police
Enough of the Killing of our People
Enough Discrimination
Enough of the Injustices against Black and Brown Communities
Enough of the Powers at Be Ignoring the People’s Cry
Enough of Rogue Cops within SFPD
We the People say Enough is Enough
This is our Battle Cry!
Fire Chief Suhr
Come and Join Justice 4 Mario Woods Coalition
Alex Nieto Coalition
Amilcar Perez Coalition
Jeff Adachi…SF Public Defender
Lead Counsel of ACLU
SF BOS (some)
and You the Community
Press Conference
SF City Hall Front Steps
11AM
We Can’t Stop
We Won’t Stop
Until Justice Reigns Down on Our Community
Please share with friends and family