Calendar
Rescheduled from the 4th Monday of the month, May 27th.
2313 San Pablo Ave, Oakland CA
The Occupy Oakland (OO) Finance Committee works inclusively to make our process transparent, our membership requirements clear, and to develop clear communication and financial reporting available to associated groups and to OO as a whole.
Our commitments to Occupy Oakland as a whole:
We commit to report back to the GA. We commit to regularly updating our page onoccupyoakland.org with monthly bank statements, meeting notes, summaries of check reimbursements and general OO Finance committee updates. We will not post or make public any sensitive or confidential information including the names of donors or check recipients.
Our membership structure:
Our work demands solid accountability. We are tasked with acting as the liaison between our supporting organization and OO associated groups seeking to be reimbursed for funds spent, check disbursements, sending thank you cards to donors, printing and making available OO general fund bank statements.
Because of the sensitivity of our tasks, our committee demands a high level of commitment and responsibility from our organizers.
To serve this end we have adopted a model utilizing different levels of commitment and expectations. There are three levels of involvement:
OO Finance Committee Observer: If you are interested in understanding the functioning of the OO Finance Committee, or have questions related to OO finances you are welcome to attend a finance committee meeting to observe and ask questions at the end of the meeting.
OO Finance Committee Supporter: You are welcome to attend meetings to observe and ask questions, give suggestions or make requests during appropriate times during the meeting. You can sign up to receive email updates that let you know how you can plug in.
OO Finance Committee Member: You lend regular support, take on tasks, and are a voting member in our meetings. To become a member, you must have attended at least three meetings and fulfill regular responsibilities.
OO Finance Committee Meeting Ground Rules
The following list of common ground rules from various equity, diversity, and social justice organizations and groups. The OO Finance Committee follows in strict adherence to these guidelines and any observer, supporter or member that cannot observe the following practices will be asked to leave.
1. Listen actively: respect others when they are talking.
2. Speak from your own experience instead of generalizing (“I” instead of “they,” “we,” and “you”).
3. Do not be afraid to respectfully challenge one another by asking questions, but refrain from personal attacks — focus on ideas.
4. Participate to the fullest of your ability, but make space for others participation — community growth depends on inclusion
5. Instead of invalidating somebody else’s story with your own spin on her or his experience, share your own story and experience.
6. The goal is not to agree, it is to gain a deeper understanding and improve our work.
7.Threats of physical force, intimidation, and/or any type of harassment will not be tolerated.
8. Be conscious of body language and nonverbal responses which can be as disrespectful as words.
(all ground rules are subject to the sensitivities and needs of the people participating in each meeting)
*Recent critical analysis of common ground rules have resulted in a collective reconsideration of their role. This is because, too often, ground rules that are put in place, whether by an educator/facilitator or by participants, privilege the already-privileged groups in a dialogical experience. When we consider who is protected by ground rules like “do not express anger,” it becomes apparent that, intentionally or not, they protect the participants representing privileged groups.
We also analyze how our ground rules that might ultimately support the status quo by providing safety and comfort for those who, for the sake of their own learning, most desperately need to be made to feel uncomfortable. We must constantly challenge ourselves to make sure that the discussions and dialogues taken place within OOFC meetings do not further oppress historically oppressed people.
A reading group focused on graeber’s Debt. The plan is to have this be a long discussion covering about a chapter a month so that it will be accessible for those with other commitments. We will have our first meeting on Wednesday may 22 at 7pm. We’re meeting at Research on Collective Art at 2331 international Blvd.
A Film by Darryl Cherney and Mary Laz Thomson.
Free Outdoors Event/Action.
Please gather at Union Square to hear some speakers and share our bag lunch exchange! Kids performance art! Political music!
We will march to Justin Herman Plaza where we will have more speakers including well known activists in the anit GMO movement.
Come Occupy the Farm Saturday night, and let’s camp out under the stars and stay through to Sunday! There will be free food, workshops, music, kids activities, celebration, and farming, of course!
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the weeks tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Our weekly open meeting for members and supporters to discuss the week’s tasks and projects. Come get plugged into ongoing housing defense work! We have abundant and varied work for all folks in any number of meaningful projects.
Rain location: SF Pizza, 1500 Broadway, Oakland
Join us! All Are Welcome!
You Are Not a Loan! Or Alone.
We held our second Debtor’s Assembly (watch a video from our first one in February), May 18th in San Francisco.
We are planning our next general get-together wherein our five current subgroups: Direct Action, Debtor’s Union, Outreach and Education, Alternative Institutions, and Research, will meet, organize, plan and report back. It will be held on June 1, 518 Valencia St, near the Mission St. BART in San Francisco 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
We will be discussing our next major actions.
Join us! You Are Not a Loan! Or Alone.
Strike Debt Bay Area, loosely affiliated with Strike Debt (check out their latest video) and Occupy, is dedicated to educating people about and organizing resistance to debt, and finding alternatives to our current system of debt slavery.
Bike the Math to Chevron’s shareholders at their Annual General Meeting in San Ramon. Let’s tell Chevron to stop fueling climate chaos and become a renewable energy company!
Light to medium 6 mile ride to Chevron Headquarters in San Ramon along Iron Horse Trail, arriving at approximately 9am
RSVP at 350BayArea.org or join Facebook Event page
Tasers, spit hoods, pepper spray, hog-tie and “the Wrap” : Is this what Berkeley means by the term “Mental Health Services” ? Numerous incidents in Berkeley show that the “compassionate care” we thought was beging given by mental health care professionals has deteriorated into the systematic use of brute force against those in crisis.
SPEAKERS VIDEO CLIPS WORKSHOP
Join us for a public examination of Berkeley’s Emergency Mental Health Services and whether Police should even be involved as responders.
Stockton Courthouse 222 Weber St. @ 2pm
BUS FROM Oscar Grant Plaza TO STOCKTON AT 12:00 NOON (get there early)
We held a vigil on the evening of May 5th, the one year anniversary of Alan Blueford’s death. See photos here.
We are figuring out how to get Miguel Masso, the officer who killed Alan Blueford, fired and prosecuted. In light of the recent upheavals in the Oakland Police Department, we are renewing our calls for the firing of Masso and justice for Alan. We held a press conference to this effect on Thursday, May 16th.
We are formulating how we should interact with Judge Thelton Henderson’s newly appointed Compliance Director for the Oakland police, Thomas Frazier.
We are discussing how we can aide other families who are victims of police violence.
We are making a difference! We can use all the help we can get! Come join us!
To keep the land arable, the earth able to breathe, and the people of San Francisco able to grow and eat local, nutrient-rich, organic food in the city, people will walk to a potential development site on June 1st to plant food, build a village, and hold space together.
We can out-grow the old power structures!
There will be a dialogue and discussion about the loss of urban gardens to development in San Francisco at the Free Farm at 1 pm (thefreefarm.org) This will be followed by a gathering of folks who will take direct action in Jefferson Square Park directly across Gough Street from the Free Farm. We will get ready to move, plant, and hold space at 2pm. Follow us on twitter @LiberateLand or #liberatetheland if you are late!
On the night of May 27, bulldozers and backhoes rolled into Gezi Park, a tiny island of trees and grass at the center of Taksim Square in Istanbul, Turkey, and started ripping it apart. This was part of a government project to “pedestrianize” the historic square—what that meant in this case, according to many blogs, was turning one of the last open green spaces in the city into a shopping mall. No community organizations or local people were asked what they thought about the plans for the park, devised by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which included rebuilding historical barracks that were demolished in the 1940s and adding sidewalks to make the square more friendly to pedestrians.
Four days later, after nonviolent protesters occupied the park and survived attacks by the police that included tear gas and water cannons, they’ve won at least a temporary victory thanks to a court decision. In fact, Istanbul’s mayor, Kadir Topbaş, just announced that there was never any plan to build a mall. It’s an amazing 11th-hour turnaround, but it didn’t happen without a battle.
Protesters began gathering in the park as early as Monday, May 27, and word spread through social media as more pro-park, anti-government Turks showed up to sit in front of the bulldozers. By Wednesday, the police were involved, and they responded to the nonviolent protests with aggressive tactics—what really got everyone’s attention was a photo from Reuters showing a young, apparently peaceful environmentalist in a red dress getting pepper-sprayed by a gas-masked cop. That image became a symbol of the “occupation” of Gezi Park, as well as the cops’ terrorization of the protesters.
We will join Liberate the Land at 950 Gough St in SF to march in Solidarity with those brutalized by Turkish Police for merely trying to save a park from being torn down.
This is a non-permitted march (yay) and there will be a constructive direct action that takes place after the march. Talk to folks there about the details, or just come along for the ride! We need livestreamers, video, signs in solidarity with Taksim protesters, and most of all, you.
Strike Debt Bay Area, loosely affiliated with Strike Debt (check out their latest video) and Occupy, is dedicated to educating people about and organizing resistance to debt, and finding alternatives to our current system of debt slavery.
Join us! You Are Not a Loan! Or Alone.
All are welcome! Come see how you can plug in to the debt resistance movement.
We will first meet all together and then divide up into working groups:
Study & Research (people interested in tackling specific research questions, reading books together, etc.). Currently there are a number of reading groups active.
Direct Action (people interested in organizing against Post Office closings, Wells Fargo and other debt possessing targets)
Debtors’ Union (tactical work for collective organizing against private and public debt)
Alternative Institutions (Alternative currencies, public banking, communal living, and more!)
Then we will come back together for general discussion.
Our web page.
Our Facebook page.
Follow StrikeDebt (NYC) on twitter.
Latest StrikeDebt Analysis: Death By For-Profit Health Care.
A Conversation: Take Our Economy Back From Wall Street
Matt Taibbi, Ellen Brown, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Gar Aperovitz.
This is actually a three day conference. More information here.