Sun, Nov 10, 2019
Open Mic/Political Karaoke

What’s bugging you, politics-wise? Here’s your chance to talk about any and every thing from the PG&E Power Shutdown to Brexit, from Nancy Pelosi to Greta Thunberg, maybe even the riots in Chile. Sign up for 5 minute slots!

Sun, Nov 17, 2019
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter.
Representatives of the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression have been invited to discuss their position on this matter.
Awaiting better blurb..

Sun, Nov 24, 2019
Women and War
Women have a long association with violent intergroup conflict and war going back to early human times.  This presentation will survey women in the highly genderized institutions of war and the military in various periods and types of societies.  Although women have been impacted in multiple ways and played many roles, the focus of this talk is on women’s role as fighter/combatant and direct supporters of this activity.  Also covered are women in some of the revolutionary wars and militaries in the past two centuries.  The fighter/combatant perspective on women is usually omitted or “hidden” in accounts by both conventional and feminist analysts who stress women as victims, survivors, peacemakers and supporters of men who fight.  Women as fighters not only redresses this imbalance but indicates a role whose impact is as significant as the other roles that are more widely promulgated.
Presented by Al Sargis, Founder/Director of the Friedrich Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis (FEIMWAMA).

Save the date for the next Plant Sale fundraiser! The official Ambassador Greeters, Lulu and Deuce, will be there to gladly accept your lovin’.

Free Oakland UP 

An alternative retail space focused on the economy, the environment and building community by offering FREE art and everyday items.

One free item per person per day. For a fair monetary donation you may choose more. More treasures!! 

Gallery:offering monthly solo or group exhibitions featuring experimental, interactive projects focused on alternative economies, cultivating socially activated art, sustainability and building community through art and active participation. 

Gift/Thrift Shop: Everything is FREE – one item per person per day OR for a monetary gift to help pay the rent you may choose more!

Artist Residencies: Offering free alternative art supplies and emphasizing sustainable art practices. Everyone of all ages and abilities is invited to apply for the AIR program

It’s time to put a stop to all the ways children are impacted by walls, criminalization, and state violence. Every child deserves a life of safety and freedom. Join us at a family-friendly event to learn more about the shared experience of youth across the world from Palestine to the US, and to share action steps and strategies for change. We will have artwork, performances, interfaith prayer and youth voices.

Ninth Circuit To Hear Argument on Oakland Coal Ban

On November 12, a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges will hear oral argument on the appeal by the City of Oakland, Sierra Club, and San Francisco Baykeeper, from Judge Vince Chhabria’s decision striking down Oakland’s ban on siting of a coal terminal on City-owned waterfront near the Bay Bridge toll plaza.

After a three-day trial last year, Judge Chhabria ruled that the City violated its contract with the developers who sought to build a coal export terminal when the City Council adopted an ordinance prohibiting the storage and handling of coal in Oakland and applied the ordinance to the planned Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal.

The hearing will be open to the public. All supporters of No Coal in Oakland are encouraged to attend. We will bring you further details regarding the hearing and NCIO’s plans for November 12 as the hearing date approaches.

The parties will learn the identities of the three judges who will hear the case about a week before the hearing.  The Ninth Circuit has 29 active judges and 18 judges on senior status, any of whom may be assigned to the panel.  The attorneys in the case will be keenly interested in who will be hearing the case and will seek to tailor their arguments to appeal to the known inclinations of the three judges on the panel.

“Some judges always focus on the standard of review. Others often seem to know the record better than the lawyers appearing before them. Others like to engage the advocates in hypotheticals while others care about the pragmatic outcome of a case,” explains appellate specialist MaryBeth LippSmith.

The Court’s notice of cases shows that the panel in Courtroom 2 will hear one habeas and three criminal cases during the same morning session. If the four other cases are heard first, the argument in the City of Oakland case will begin around 10:30 a.m.  The schedule can change without notice, however, so it is advisable to get to the courthouse before 9 a.m. in order to clear security and be seated in the courtroom at 9 a.m.

The Court has allotted 20 minutes of time to each side for the argument.  Assigned time limits are usually strictly observed so the entire morning’s calendar will be completed before noon.

After the argument, the Court will face no time limit to reach a decision, but most Ninth Circuit cases are decided within 3 months to a year.

The Browning Courthouse is likely to be very crowded on November 12.  At approximately the same time as the City of Oakland hearing, another three-judge panel will be hearing oral argument in the case brought by Sierra Club challenging Donald Trump’s attempt to redirect federal resources to build the wall on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Phones may not be used in the courtroom and must be silent.

For those who cannot attend in person on November 12, the hearing will also be livestreamed and then archived.

Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, Department of Africana Studies. She is a frequent commentator on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and Democracy Now! — and is widely published in the national media and academic journals.

Noura will be discussing her new book, Justice For Some: Law and the Question of Palestine, in conversation with Lara Kiswani from the Arab Resource & Organizing Center.

Tuesday, November 12th

Noura Erakat is a human rights attorney and an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University, Department of Africana Studies. She is a frequent commentator on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NPR, and Democracy Now! — and is widely published in the national media and academic journals.

Noura will be discussing her new book, Justice For Some: Law and the Question of Palestine,  in conversation with Lara Kiswani from the Arab Resource & Organizing Center. More info about Noura Erakat can be found HERE.

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We’re having another Wood Street community cookout on Wednesday 11/13 at 7 pm. I hope housed Oakland residents come out to learn more about how they can support their unhoused neighbors. Bring food if you can, if you can’t, no big deal. It’ll be fun. Meet at 24th and Wood.

— Zack Haber (@ZZZZZZZZZZZack) November 12, 2019

Venue is wheelchair accessible

Agenda Items of Note:

IV. Draft Ordinance on Military Police Equipment
The Coalition for Police Accountability will present a draft ordinance for review. OPD will
also present their response to the draft ordinance.

IX. Subpoenas Regarding OBOA Allegations of Racial Discrimination
The Commission will discuss and possibly take action on whether or not to serve
subpoenas relating to the Oakland Black Officers Association’s allegations of racial
discrimination.

X. Report on Policing of Oakland’s Unhoused Communities
The Commission will discuss the report which was prepared on behalf of the Coalition for
Police Accountability by students at the University of California, Berkeley. This is a new
item. (Attachment 10).

XI. Vote to Submit Request to City Council to Create Standing Policy and Legislation
Committee
The Commission will vote to authorize the submission of a request to the City Council for
approval of a Standing Policy and Legislation Committee.

The Oakland Police Commission will consider the proposed ordinance on militarized equipment. Please come to the first part of this meeting to show support for this ordinance and make a short public comment. BAY Peace organizers will also present video testimony of youth violated by police military equipment.

Oakland PD has submitted a response to the proposed ordinance falsely claiming that it currently requests listed equipment through the Police Commission, City Council and Council’s Public Safety Committee. OPD says that the ordinance would remove these three bodies from their part in governing Oakland and the OPD! In fact, the ordinance will give the City Council and Police Commission authority for reviewing police equipment, with community input, that they have never had.

Please join us on Thursday at 6:30pm and consider asking others to come out on Thursday as well. The militarized equipment ordinance is the first item on the agenda. You can speak during Open Forum at 6:30, and/or right after the ordinance is presented.

You can share this online Petition to Regulate Police Military Equipment in Oakland.

We want civilian control over OPD’s use of military equipment, including sound cannons known as LRADs (Long Range Acoustic Devices). A federal court ruled last year that NYPD’s indiscriminate use of LRADs at a Black Lives Matter protest, where it caused damage to people’s eardrums, was illegal. An LRAD was used in Oakland against Occupy in 2011, causing some protesters to fall over and vomit. Yet, OPD states that “LRAD is not a weapon LRAD is a communication device…” OPD says it has no use policy for the LRAD, and appears to suggest that it doesn’t need one.

We’ve created this interactive map of deployments of the tank-like BearCat in Oakland in 2018 and 2019.

The more we learn, the more clear it is that the militarized equipment ordinance is necessary. Please join us on Thursday.

American Friends Service Committee
California Healing Justice Program
Tel: 510-282-8983

• Information about recent dramatic radio network conflicts, resulting lawsuits, and proposed new bylaws
• The shut down and lock out of staff at New York affiliate WBAI
• The elimination of various independent programs at KPFA
• The truth about the Pacifica network’s financial state
• “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Whether you are a member or an occasional listener, Pacifica’s survival is essential to everyone’s free speech.
Please come and learn more if you value free independent media. Join us in protecting the fierce independence of KPFA’s local and Pacifica’s national programming, which speaks truth to power.

KPFA:

Is It the End of Our Local

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A substantial debate on single payer:

The pro side will be represented by a professor from the UC school of Public Health.

The con side will be represented by Sally Pipes from the Pacific Research Institute. She used to work for the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada.

Tamarack and Commune Magazine invite you to a video presentation by the Vitalist International:

BE WATER : WORLD

Lessons from the freedom movements in Hong Kong and Catalonia

Magic and Technology In the Revolution of Our Times

Umbrellas, laser pointers, and cardboard boxes, black blocks using encrypted platforms to vote live on escape routes and designers quitting their day jobs to make Pepe memes full time: The movement in Hong Kong is a signal fire showing us the future of resistance in an increasingly digital world.

From low tech solutions against the most advanced surveillance state on Earth to mesh networks and live mapping software, two participants in the movement will discuss the revolution in Hong Kong, from a user’s perspective.

Catalunya Fall 2019

After the Spanish Supreme Court convicted 9 Catalans of “Sedition” for their roles in the 2017 independence referendum, a wave of revolt crashed over the region. Drawing on lessons from the laboratory in Hong Kong, millions of people have built a movement that goes beyond its nationalist framework and questions the meaning of democracy in our time.

Beginning on August 10th, the Strike Debt Bay Area Economics Book Group began discussing Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. We tackled the introduction and first chapter, available through the ‘Look Inside’ feature on Amazon, for the August 10th meeting.

For our September 7th meeting, we will be discussing the rest of the first section, Chapters 2-6.

For our October 12th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 7-9, the first part of the second section.

For our November 16th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 10 – 13.

For our December 14th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 14 and through to the end.

All are welcome!

The Economics Book Group began with Doughnut Economics and continued with Take Back the Economy.  We read a few chapters every month.

“Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.”

“In Banking on the People, attorney Ellen Brown provides a much-needed roadmap for reforming monetary and credit systems and the central banks now strangling our common human future. More lucidly that any other expert I know, she shows how we can break the grip of predatory financialization now extracting value from real peoples’ productive activities all over the world. Her in-depth research and systemic overview of the global and local politics of money-creation and credit allocation include all the viable proposals of global experts and reformers. She reviews many of these reforms: from financial transaction taxes, to a universal basic income to provide purchasing power for the cornucopia of goods and services now produced, to expanding the public banks she so ably promotes via the Public Banking Institute, to returning the Fed and all banks to serving the public utility functions that economies require. This book is a must read for citizens in all societies who see the promising future as we seek to widen democracies and transform to a cleaner, greener, shared prosperity, based on the renewable abundance of free daily energy from our sun.” – Hazel Henderson, CEO of Ethical Markets Media and author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books.