Calendar

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

Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom

Activists in Berkeley calling for emergency protest today in response to reported ICE arrests. pic.twitter.com/QWwBAhYAhY

— Scott Morris (@OakMorr) March 16, 2018

REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/baypower (it’s FREE!)

2018 is going to be a big year. Let’s get ready to win big for our communities!

Join us to build power together in our second annual mass training on March 17th. Trainings will include how to build a sanctuary neighborhood, participate in direct action, win electoral campaigns, and get started in organizing. We have new trainings, a new campaign section, and caucus time including for youth, labor folks, and seniors and people with disabilities. Whether you’re a new or experienced activist, join us to skill up and find out how to plug in!

Childcare and lunch provided; please register at bit.ly/baypower. Space is ADA accessible; more accessibility details upon registration.

We will have silk-screening, so bring a shirt to print on!

Schedule:

10:00 – 11:15 Opening program
11:30 – 1:00 Skills trainings
1:00 – 1:30 Lunch provided
1:30 – 2:30 Campaigns and caucuses

Join your fellow Bay Area activists to build a strong community of resistance and justice – to build power for 2018!

The South Berkeley canvass team cordially invites you to a friendly neighborhood potluck. After The Big Canvass on March 10, get together with your comrades for some tasty treats and socialist cheer.

Join the campaign for effective police oversight this weekend!

WHAT:  Fan out across Berkeley to gather signatures to put police oversight on the local November ballot!

All out for a fun day!  We’ll supply the petitions and will orient you on how to get the most signatures possible. You just bring your walking shoes.

We’ll be going out to talk to Berkeley voters for the next eight weekends.  Please reply to this email, or call 510.517-8379, to let us know you can join us Saturday at noon.

Outreach Committee

P.S. You may find today’s Daily Cal article on racial disparities in Berkeley policing helpful as you think about how to talk about why we need real oversight for the BPD.

http://www.dailycal.org/2018/03/12/berkeley-police-stop-search-black-residents-often-police-review-commission-finds/

Berkeley Community United for Police Oversight
P.O. Box 9312, Berkeley, CA 94709

he Watsonville Canning Strike – Lessons for Us All

A presentation by Peter Shapiro, labor activist and author of the book “Song of the Stubborn One Thousand.” Followed by a discussion.

Thirty years ago, Watsonville, California was the “frozen food capital of the world.” In September 1985, 1000 mostly Mexican women workers at the town’s largest plant were forced out on strike when the owner tried to bust their union. Few, if any, of the women had any strike experience. Their local union was barely functioning. But they organized themselves, held out for 18 months, forced the plant owner into bankruptcy, and won a contract from the new owner after a five day wildcat strike.

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 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 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! 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

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

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

Worshiping Power: An Anarchist Vision of Early State Formation

Where do states come from, what causes them to arise, and how do they develop? The old dogmas that the State protects and uplifts humanity, or even that it is a necessary evil, have been thoroughly discredited. But many newer theories, that explain state formation within a single optic, or that suggest a single cause, or a linear, progressive evolution, also fall short.

This new book traces multiple pathways of state formation, describing patterns that arise within many different societies with different models of the family, religion, warfare, commerce, and economic production. Rather than being ancient history, state formation is a continuous process, given that perhaps the only feature universal to state formation is the resistance it provokes. As a result, states are continually falling apart, being overthrown, or struggling to maintain their power.

People who fight today against the problems of capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, anyone who seeks to regain control over their lives, becomes wrapped up in this process as they run up against state authority.

Articulating the ongoing history of state formation—from divine states centered around new sites of spiritual production to democratic states arising from corrupted revolutions—allows us to better understand the ways states today attempt to govern, limit, or repress our movements today.

Peter Gelderloos is an anarchist from Virginia who currently lives in Catalunya. He is the author of How Nonviolence Protects the State, Anarchy Works, The Failure of Nonviolence, “An Anarchist Solution to Climate Change,” “A World Without Police,” and other works.

RSVP through 350 Bay Area here or on Facebook here.

For the last several years, the Bay Area has been part of an international movement to stop the expansion of the tar sands. We’ve supported efforts led by Indigenous peoples across North America against Keystone XL, Line 3, Energy East, and Kinder Morgan. All of these projects would dramatically increase the amount of dirty oil extracted, transported, and burned around the world. These tar sands projects impact all of us — and now it’s time to fight against this expansion in our own backyard.

2017 was a year of drought and fires for the Bay Area and much of California. Already, we’re seeing the real impacts that climate change creates for our communities — from burned homes, losss of agricultural land, job loss, and mass displacement in an area where we’re already facing extremely high cost of living.

If we’re going to truly address this climate crisis, we must demand that our local decision makers reject all new oil, gas, and coal projects, and move rapidly to a just and equitable 100% renewable energy future.

Please join us on Monday to send a message to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and say NO to tar sands.

Presenters include:
• Four women from Empower
• Niki Adams of the English Collective of Prostitutes

Hosted by the US PROStitutes Collective

Empower Foundation is a sex workers’ collective in Thailand which for 30 years has been promoting rights and opportunities for sex workers, especially access to education, health and legal advocacy. Over the years 50,000 sex workers have passed through their doors including migrant women from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam.

The English Collective of Prostitutes is a UK based group, founded in 1975, which helps sex workers defend themselves against unjust charges and spearheads campaigns for decriminalization, safety and for resources so that sex workers can leave sex work if and when they want.

US PROStitutes Collective is a Bay Area based organization, founded in 1982, which won parity for sex workers in compensation claims and with others got policies establishing immunity from arrest for sex workers reporting violence.

This is a unique opportunity to hear directly from sex workers as well as from grassroots women in the Global South who are organizing for survival across different sectors of society.

Sponsored by Global Women’s Strike/Bay Area, GWS Omni Collective, In Defense of Prostitute Women‘s Safety Project, US PROStitutes Collective and Women of Color/GWS

www.uspros.net

We’ve all seen the video! How is it that BART police officer Joseph Mateu has not already been charged with the murder of Sahleem Tindle, after he shot the 28 year old in the back three times? OPD is responsible for the investigation of this murder, since it happened outside of BART property, across from West Oakland BART. Join us to demand that OPD do their job and charge Mateu for murder. Arrest him now!

Sahleem Tindle was murdered by BART Police Officer Joseph Mateu on January 3, 2018. He is now back on the job, after only a two week leave. The family demands: fire, arrest, charge and prosecute Joseph Mateu!

Potluck reception and discussion with Water and Land Protector Vanessa Dundon aka SiouxZ Desbah, and Water Protector Legal Collective, co-sponsored by AIM-West, Intertribal Friendship House, National Lawyers Guild- SF Bay Area Chapter, and Oakland Law Collaborative.

SiouxZ, Diné / Navajo, is a lead plaintiff in a civil rights class action lawsuit challenging the use of fire hoses, explosive grenades, and other violence against the indigenous-led #NoDAPL movement at Standing Rock. A mother of 4, she is also the founder of Missing Flowers: Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and Men; an organizer of Honor Life – Protect Bears Ears; and is participating in The Longest Walk 5.3. SiouxZ was shot in the eye while trying to help a journalist to safety during the police attack on water protectors at Backwater Bridge in 2016, and suffered a permanent vision loss. There will also be a legal update from WPLC.

SiouxZ will also be speaking on Thurs, March 21, as part of the opening roundtable for INVISIBLE NO MORE: A Symposium on Resisting Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color from 5:45-7:30pm at the Multicultural Community Center in Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union Building at UC Berkeley.

Saied Karamooz will share his motivation, vision, and plans as Oakland’s next mayor.   Saied believes that everyone is entitled to safe streets, quality education, decent jobs, and dignified homes.

“With the abundance of resources, innovation, and energy in Oakland, there is no reason why our city continues to be plagued by high crime levels, low graduation rates, high unemployment, and inadequate housing,” said Mr. Karamooz.

Press conference will be held on the steps of City Hall, Frank Ogawa Plaza, on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 at 11:30 am.

“There is no greater disservice to the people of Oakland than allowing status quo to obliterate the rich culture, heritage, and history of Oakland,” says Mr. Karamooz, referring to the false narrative and flawed ways of career politicians who are beholden to the dirty money of their deep pocket donors.

Mr. Karamooz believes that true public safety can only be achieved through solid education, quality jobs and dignified homes.   As such, he is proposing to divert a portion of OPD’s annual budget to education, jobs, and housing initiatives.   Secondly, he is horrified that fifteen years, four mayors, and over a hundred million dollars later, the city’s largest agency, Oakland Police Department (OPD), continues to operate with racially-biased practices as evidenced by the Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA) that placed OPD under federal court supervision in 2003.   Mr. Karamooz pledges to bring NSA to an end within 24 months by spearheading a methodical and collaborative initiative with active participation by community leaders and OPD beat officers.   Finally, as a genuine expression of his commitment to running a clean money campaign, he is refusing donations from corporations, non-Oaklanders, or in excess of $45.

To learn more about campaign’s principles, practices, and promises, visit EveryonesMayor.org.