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
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
Kick-off meeting to create Slingshot issue #126. Slingshot is an independent radical newspaper published in Berkeley since 1988.
* Brainstorm articles for next issue
* Orientation on how you can submit articles, art, photographs
* Help us discuss our audience and themes for the next issue
* Discuss fundraising and distribution
* Your chance to comment on Slingshot
Everyone is welcome.
Issue #126 is due out on January 26, 2018
Deadline for Issue #126 is January 13, 2018
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
Join us
4:45 Short march (4 blocks -click to see map) to Board Meeting
5:00 Rally at La Escuelita, 1050 2nd Avenue
#NO CUTS TO KIDS!
OUSD only legally needs to cut $1.2 million, not $9 million. This is down from $15 mil. due to our protests!
No Cuts To Schools or Essential Staff! No Layoffs of Non-Administrator workers!
CA already underfunds education. We are 46th in student spending out of 50 states even though we are the 6th largest economy in world. Make the banks and corporations pay their fair share in taxes.
Don’t make kids pay for adult mistake
Email format: firstname.lastname @ ousd.org
Call: (510) 879-8199 / Jody London x31, Aimee Eng x32, Jumoke Hinton-Hodge x33, Nina Senn x34, Roseann Torres x35, Shanthi Gonzales x36, James Harris x37
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
contact@oaklandprivacy.org
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/ Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy
Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. This month Oakland Privacy will be preparing for the passage of transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County, To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
This is a free event, however we are asking folks to register if they are attending so we can make sure we have enough materials and snacks for everyone. You can register here: https://bpt.me/3189568
————
With the current manifestations of violence and hatred under the Trump administration and recent natural disasters as close as the North Bay, we are more concerned than ever about police violence and the racist, Islamophobic and militarized trainings that promote and enable police and emergency response with racism and weaponized violence.
Join us for a community discussion on policing in San Francisco. Co-hosted by SURJ SF and the Stop Urban Shield Coalition, we will be facilitating an interactive forum and discussion about the militarization of police in our city and the bay area training program Urban Shield.
Urban Shield is a controversial SWAT training and weapons exposition held every year in the Bay Area. SF police, fire and emergency responders attend annually. We will explore the tactics trained at Urban Shield and share alternative options for building health and wellbeing in our city. We will discuss the impacts of Urban Shield on our city, highlight the voices and deep insights of those who have lost loved ones to police violence and uplift the ways our communities are coming together to build resilience and safety. San Francisco is the fiscal sponsor of Urban Shield and has the power to end Urban Shield and invest in true community preparedness.
All are welcome! Come join us and learn how to be involved as we push San Francisco to pull out of Urban Shield! Food will be provided.
Access: Entrance and bathrooms are wheelchair accessible. Gender neutral bathroom and breast feeding space available. We will have low scent designated seating and ask that you come low or scent free. Please contact us with any other access needs or questions.
On the agenda: body worn cameras – BPD presentation, use of force
http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Police_Review_Commission_Homepage.aspx
We cannot let this happen without signaling our dissent.
On Thursday morning, December 14, wealthy investors, real estate agents, developers, and others will pay $100/plate to hear a panel of developers discuss the future of Oakland with no input from the community: https://
We know that wealth, power, and privilege are barriers to the kind of creativity we need in these times, and that nothing life-giving can come from an event designed as a profit opportunity for some at the expense of many. The plans seeded at this event will result in more displacement, gentrification, and cultural whitewashing of our city.
Unless we act. Unless we speak out. Unless we bring the deepest, truest vision we can muster and stake our lives on that, pledging our solidarity with people who have been or are now being displaced, listening to each other (and especially to those whose voices have historically been silenced), and taking care of each other.
Bring your visions for how we can do that, or just your desire to support the visions of Oaklanders, and join us outside the Marriott for an alternative “networking” event.
A FREE breakfast will be served outside because, in the future we envision, everyone will have enough to eat regardless of their ability to pay. (If you can, please bring a breakfast item to share; whether or not you can bring something, please come and be fed—physically, mentally, and spiritually.)
It is said that without a vision, the people will perish. We say: With a vision, the people of Oakland will live.
CALL FOR A DAY OF ACTION AGAINST THE NIGHTMARE BUDGET
—-FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15TH—-
ALL DAY: Call, email, visit your republican legislators. Melt their communication channels.
—-
EVENING: Assemble at Harvey Milk Plaza at 5:30pm. Bring candles, dress warmly, and wear comfortable shoes ♥
—-
Trump and the GOP’s tax bill is the latest and most brutal attack on working people and the middle class. Bernie Sanders rightly characterized it as an act of ‘class war’. The plan will cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, while simultaneously raising the rate on the lowest marginal income-tax bracket from 10% to 12%. In effect, the wealthiest in our society are being given a handout out of the pockets of tens of millions of working people.
Republicans claim that this tax cut will free up businesses to invest in creating new jobs. This is the same old trickle-down economics that has been pushed since the Reagan era. But corporate profits are at record highs, and big business pays some of the lowest effective tax rates in the world. Contrary to the reasoning of Trump and his billionaire friends, the capitalists are sitting on their money and keeping wages stagnant. People can’t afford to pay for basic things they need like housing and health care, child care, or education. The bill shamelessly attacks women’s reproductive rights, attempting to define personhood at conception. We cannot stand for this. Trump and the GOP are willing to let families become homeless, fall into mountainous debt, and let the sick die, all so they can line their pockets and make the biggest heist in modern history.
Wealthy donors, like the Mercers & the Koch Brothers have hired the GOP to mock, beat, belittle, and attack you right now. With that, far too many Democrats in congress have responded as if thousands of lives aren’t at stake. Let’s be clear: lives are at stake. If this passes, untold numbers of people may die. And for what? So the rich can get richer. Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and economic advisor to Barack Obama, estimated on Monday that 10,000* people per year would die as a direct result of this legislation if it becomes law. Progressive organizations have placed this estimation far higher**.
Their tax bill does not even pretend to offer anything to the vast majority of Americans. Got a private jet? There’s an exemption for that. But if you’re a grad student making under $30,000 per year, your tax rates will go up 400%. This is what living under capitalism means for us -a 24/7 struggle to pay bills and rent while Wall Street and the 1%, buy our politicians and consolidate their power, condemning the vast majority to poverty. This is not a mistake but a feature of the capitalist system.
So we need to ask ourselves, is this the best we can do? We say no: there’s no reason why we cannot provide for everyone’s basics needs. We have the resources. We live in the richest country in the world. These basic and attainable needs are denied to millions of people because we live in an economic system that values profits over people’s lives? That’s why we’re calling for a national day of action against this tax bill; it’s part of a broader fight for a world where our elected representatives are accountable to the people they serve, not their corporate billionaire backers, and where the immense wealth of this country is democratically used to pay for the things we need and ensure a dignified quality of life for all.
The Republicans think that with their majorities in the House and Senate their naked power grab is all but assured. They assume our democratic institutions are weak, and that Americans will not fight back.
Let’s prove them wrong.
We Demand:
Stop the Tax Scam– Tax the Rich!
Fully Fund:
Housing: Build High-Quality Public Housing for Low-Income Residents
Education: Cancel Student Debt and Provide Free College Education for All
Healthcare: Single-Payer Healthcare
Childcare: Free High-Quality Childcare-Centers in Every Neighborhood
Green Jobs Program: Public Funding for Green-Energy Infrastructure and Job Training
Women’s Health: Free Comprehensive Women’s Reproductive Services
**https://thinkprogress.org/
We got word that there will be a March Against Sanctuary Cities, and Against Jose Ines Garcia Zarate after he was acquitted of all murder charges against him.
There group is planning on showing up at 1pm that day, so let’s show up before them and host our own Rally and March in Solidarity with Immigrants!
We need get together on that day and show them what the Bay Area stands up for. We stand in solidarity with Immigrants, Sanctuary Cities, and Refugees from all over the world who want a better life. We have to stand in solidarity with the immigrants, refugees, and police victims. So I ask that you join us at our counter protest to show solidarity.
Please reach out on the FB event if you’d like to endorse or help organize:
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.
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 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.
Please join us for our regular bi-weekly Sunflower Alliance meeting. We’ll discuss current campaigns and strategies for the future. We need your participation and your voice! Newcomers and old friends welcome. Please join us for a potluck lunch half an hour before the meeting.
potluck lunch: 12:30 PM
meeting: 1 – 3 PM
(1/2 mile walk from Richmond BART)
Please come out to join the first in our series of spokescouncils to help plan the #96Hours of #NonCompliance to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy.
Note that in contemplating what is happening in the world right now, and the critical importance of solidarity with indigenous peoples and peoples engages in liberation struggles around the world – the third day of #96Hours will be Indigenous/International Solidarity Day!
Here is our revised Call and please don’t forget to join our Facebook spokescouncil event series by clicking “interested” on the series, then “going” on the dates you are able to attend.
Help plan 96 Hours by attending the spokescouncils
WE.WILL.NOT.COMPLY.
96 Hours of Non-Compliance Over King Day Weekend
It’s that time again, Bay Area! For the fourth year in a row, for #96hours over the King Day Weekend, the Anti Police-Terror Project calls our comrades into the streets to stand in solidarity and say no to white supremacy, say no to state sponsored terror, say no to development over people, say no to misogyny, say no to homophobia and transphobia, say no to the targeting of immigrants, say no to the targeting of Muslims. We call on you to join us and show the Trump-Schaff Regimes that WE WILL NOT COMPLY with their corporate agenda.
We call upon groups large and small, well-established or brand new, to plan your own action(s) within a common framework:
Our #96hours culminates with a mass mobilization, and we ask everyone to come together for the Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March through the streets of Oakland.
Furthermore, we call upon both individuals and groups in our community (whether you’re planning an action or not) to come together in a series of spokescouncil meetings in order to coordinate and support the many actions that will be planned:
Even before Trump took office and the KKK took off their hoods, we saw open displays of white supremacy and state-sponsored violence in the Bay Area. We saw police agents murder our Black and Brown community members in broad daylight with no repercussions. We saw local city governments embolden law enforcement departments with unlimited overtime, paid leave after murdering residents, militarized equipment, and a blank check to use dangerous and “non”-lethal devices to crack down on our culture and political dissent.
Even before the Oakland Police Department received national news coverage for the rape of a young teen sex worker by tens of law enforcement agents across the Bay Area, we saw the open sexual harassment and exploitation of our Black and Brown community members in broad daylight with no repercussions.
Even before the GOP-controlled U.S. Congress began its warpath to destroy healthcare and public education and exacerbate poverty, we saw our local city governments do NOTHING to aid long-time residents at risk FOR YEARS as the housing crisis continues to grow worse and worse.
That’s why we are telling all agents of our oppression, from 45 to Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf that WE WILL NOT COMPLY with their corporate agenda.
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
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
AWG, Homeless Advocacy Working Group, is hosting an evening to bring together & flush out neighborhood based, autonomous, and compassionate community responses to The Town’s homeless EMERGENCY.
If you are an organization, individual or faith based group that advocates, serves or lobbys to support/prevent/decriminalize/address homelessness: lets come together across Oakland to solve this homeless state of emergency. Lets connect the dots between the housing crisis, the job crisis and the homeless crisis. Its gonna take the people of The Town to solve this humanitarian crisis.
Please invite folks you know who are engaged in the work already or who are passionate about preventing and ending homelessness.
Please invite folks who have been homeless, who are currently homeless, who are at risk if becoming homeless. Their voices, experiences and needs are central to this discussion.
#HousingIsAHumanRight #HomesForAll #HomelessnessIsNotACrime
It is the mission of the Homeless Advocacy Working Group to assist human beings sleeping in the street, in vehicles, in the open, and in unsafe shelters. HAWG insists unconditionally, that “Housing is a Human Right” and demands that all persons have a right to exist and be housed irrespective of race, shelter, economic or other marginalized status, and must be treated with courtesy, dignity and respect.
HAWG was created after members and supporters of The Village in Oakland/#FeedThePeople stormed city hall while the village was bulldozed by the city administration for $75,000 in Feb 2017. Since then, HAWG has tirelessly and successfully advocated for budgets, policies and practices that ensure housing is a human right and that homeless folks are no longer treated criminals or problems, but rather Oakland’s most vulnerable population in need of support, services and pathways to permanent housing.
HAWG meets every 2nd and 4th Monday at city hall from 4-6pm. Meetings are open to any and all who seek to provide dignified and humane solutions to the homeless state of emergency.
Time is ticking for our senator, Dianne Feinstein, to make a critical choice. Will Feinstein use her office to bring the Dream Act to a vote this week, rising up for undocumented young people to be safe in their communities and homes?
Or will she vote for a Republican budget that cuts off immigrants from safety, family, and dignity on our watch?
California will not let Republicans or Democrats stand idly by while our immigrant communities are under attack. Join Bay Resistance and our partner groups on Wednesday to demand that Dianne Feinstein walk the talk.
76% of Americans, and even a majority of Republicans, support legal status for undocumented Dreamer young people. We need our representatives to bring the Dream Act to a vote immediately through the spending bill – and the deadline for the bill is this Friday.
Our representatives can either vote on the Dream Act or shut down the government to further the Trump agenda: #NoDreamNoDeal.
It is no longer acceptable for Democrats to do the least amount possible towards justice for immigrant communities. Can you join Bay Resistance and our partner groups on Wednesday at 10am in San Francisco to show Feinstein that she can – and should – fight hard for the Dream Act?
California will not stand idly while our immigrant communities are under attack. The community demands Democrats to back their words by action and rise up for undocumented youth!
Rather than resist Trump’s anti-immigrant attacks, congressional and senate democrats have abandoned the immigrant community by not doing what is right and shutting down the government if no DREAM Act bill is included in the spending bill.
By not pushing for a DREAM Act under the house spending bill, Democrats are deliberately doing the least amount possible to remove DACA youth from harm’s way along with the immigrant community at large.
Other actions
Fresno
https://www.facebook.com/
LA
https://www.facebook.com/
Join us in planning the 4th annual 96 hours of action to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy. Bring your ideas and your friends as we continue the planning.
APTP meets monthly on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. This meeting is being re-purposed as part of a series of spokescouncils to plan the 96 hours.
The Anti Police-Terror Project began as a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee. We are a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. Founding coalition members include the Black Power Network, Community Ready Corps, Workers World, and the Idriss Stelley Foundation.
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
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
Come by our open Orientations every First and Third Thursday of the month at 6pm! We’ll introduce you to the variety of ways you can get involved at the Omni, whether through joining a working group or a collective—or starting one of your one. Write our Communications Working Group with questions: comms@omnicommons.org
Please join us for a meeting on Saturday, January 6, 10 am, at the ACCE Office, 2501 International Boulevard, to plan our strategy to begin turning Oakland around in 2018.
Oakland needs new leadership, and that will not come from the group that has dominated Oakland politics for decades. Now is the right time for new leadership. 2018 can begin a new era for Oakland, or it will end with more of the same.
Many key positions will be open, including the Mayor, City Council members for Districts 2, 4, 6, and School Board members for the same districts. Our elected officials do not deserve a free ride in 2018. Who is ready to step up?
Oakland’s Future is at Stake
By Carroll Fife and Dan Siegel
Everyone agrees – Oakland is poppin’. The Town is the place to be. Telegraph, Old Oakland, Grand Avenue- Downtown is no longer the ghost town of 15 years ago, there are crowds of young people drinking, eating and cruising Broadway every night. Piedmont and College Avenues are also bustling. Farmer’s markets have popped up everywhere, competing with Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.
Not only restaurants and bars, but the real estate developers and landlords are really making it big. Can you purchase a home for less than a million? Let us know. Can you rent a decent studio for less than a grand? There’s a line waiting outside.
But there are also 2500 of our former neighbors living in their cars or in tents and tarps under freeway overpasses. The streets are filthy and deteriorating, especially in the flatlands of the city.
Affordable housing is Oakland’s biggest problem and Mayor Libby Schaaf and the City Council majority fall all over each other to encourage the speculators and developers working to turn Oakland into Walnut Creek West. They give lip service to the image of Oakland’s diversity but are oblivious to the trends that have reduced the City’s African-American population from about 43 to 28 percent in the past 15 years. While some Bay Area cities are working to create affordable housing, discourage real estate speculators, and protect tenants from rent increases and unjust evictions, our elected representatives appear to have other priorities.
Our school district is about to be declared bankrupt, thanks to a succession of locally and State appointed superintendents who have wasted tens of millions on administrative salaries and get-rich-quick schemes that have predictably failed to boost student achievement. The elected school board lacks even the slightest leadership ability and any idea about how to carry out its responsibilities to improve Oakland’s schools.
Much of the current budget mess can be laid at the feet of former Superintendent Antwan Wilson, whose greatest contribution to Oakland was increasing per capita income by hiring his cronies as $200,000 per year administrators. Wilson resigned in January as the financial crisis began to unfold, but the Board must share the blame. Several board members – Jody London, James Harris, and Jumoke Hinton-Hodge – adamantly suppressed criticism of Wilson’s processes for fear that it would drive him away. The Board has elevated being nice to its highest priority, but nice did not change the system for our children. It IS possible to analyze, critique and supervise without being disrespectful.
Mayor Schaaf promised during her 2014 campaign to help improve student performance by helping to create pre-school programs for all three- and four-year olds. She is 3 years into a 4 year term and we are still waiting. Her upcoming childcare ballot initiative will, once again, utilize a regressive tax to put Oakland voters on the hook for education reforms. We’ve seen the bait and switch with the recent Sugar Tax initiative and cannot risk further enrichment of City coffers to mismanage tax payer dollars.
Meanwhile, back at the Oakland Police Department, they continue to grossly overspend the OPD budget by the millions. The Department remains under federal court oversight for the 15th year. This continues because the City’s political and administrative leadership is incapable of running a police department minimally respectful of people’s rights, particarly those of African American residents. Our latest chief – the umpteenth since the Allen settlement agreement was signed in 2003 – is the first female chief of the city, but honors her predecessors by copying their dishonesty and lack of accountability. Chief Anne Kirkpatrick explained that her false statements about OPD’s cooperation with the federal immigration service in violation of Oakland’s sanctuary policy were not her fault. And no-one has explained why several high-ranking police administrators identified for covering up officers’ sexual exploitation of the teenager Jasmine Absulin, commonly known as Celeste Guap, continue in leadership positions, with some being promoted.
Oakland needs new leadership, and that will not come from the group that has dominated Oakland politics for decades. Now is the right time for new leadership. 2018 can begin a new era for Oakland, or it will end with more of the same.
Many key positions will be open, including the Mayor, City Council members for Districts 2, 4, 6, and School Board members for the same districts. Our elected officials do not deserve a free ride in 2018. Who is ready to step up?