Calendar

Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, 2018:
#METOO WORLD-WIDE AND ACROSS SOCIETIES,
FROM HOLLYWOOD TO PRISONS IN THE U.S.

Whether in Iran demonstrating against the compulsion to wear head scarves, or in Poland threatening the regime posed to pass the most draconian abortion law, or in the U.S. leading the largest opposition to Trump and Trumpism, women’s sustained actions strive to bring about a new world. Every aspect of women’s struggle is reflected and deepened in the experiences and ideas of women prisoners. Does Marx’s view that the man/woman relation is the most fundamental speak to today’s reality?

Speaker will be Urszula Wislanka, Marxist Humanist activist with California Coalition for Women Prisoners and Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Support Coalition.

April 22nd Meeting is CANCELLED: Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and plans for the future. Newcomers and old friends welcome — we need your participation and your voice.

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

Ms. Veronika Fimbres (She/Her) is an award winning LGBT living   legend and trans pioneer. Fimbres is the first trans officer in the San Francisco city and county history. Serving as Commissioner of Veterans Affairs for over fourteen years, Fimbres implemented policy changes including contract compliances as well as gender inclusive language and non-binary options on for demographic forms to the city, state, and nation at-large.

Fimbres staffed for Former Speaker of the California State Assembly Willie Lewis Brown Jr. during his Campaign. As Brown’s Lavender Co-Chair and Precinct Captain, Fimbres worked tirelessly to elect Matt Gonzalez , a Green Party candidate, for Mayor of San Francisco.   It was during that time, Fimbres became a Green Party member. Ms. Veronika Fimbres is currently running as a Write-In Green Party Gubernatorial Candidate for Governor of California.

This Green Sunday, Veronika will talks about why she is running, inclusion of queer, trans people of color in political campaigns, as well as hurdles she has experienced during her candidacy thus far. For more information please visitveronikafimbres.com or email her at veronika4governor@gmail.com.

SPONSOR: Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and are held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party of Alameda County follows at 6:45 pm; council meetings are always open to anyone who is interested. Please visit our website: https://acgreens. wordpress.com/

The Science and Environment Team will host the April 8 General Assembly. The Team has invited speakers from the Union of Concerned Scientists and other organizations to discuss timely issues and ways to take constructive action. Please join us to learn how you can support science and the environment in this challenging time. RSVP in the “tickets” link.

There will also be a training that evening in the Finnish Hall Cafe (same address, downstairs, enter from the parking lot to the right of the building) on ‘How to Stay in the Loop With IB’ by our own Daron Sharps. This session will be great if you’re a newer member. Training begins at 6:30pm. RSVP: https://www.indivisibleberkeley.org/event/pre-ga-training-staying-in-the-loop

Come to the April General Assembly at 7 to mix and mingle. The meeting will convene at 7:30.
Bring a friend!
Bring snacks to share!

Protect the Water – Join Idle No More SF Bay to say NO TAR SANDS IN OUR BAY!

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued a permit to the Phillips 66 Refinery for the Refinery Expansion Project. This is the first part of a project leading toward the refinery processing more Alberta tar sands and allowing an additional 93+ oil tankers a year filled with tar sands into the Bay (also called oil sands or dilbit).
Please sign this petition: https://www.stand.earth/action/phillips-66-wants-more-tar-sands-tankers-our-bay

Come early to ensure that you get a seat inside the chambers – sometimes the fossil industry tries to pack the room. There is also an overflow room where people who want to make public comments can go to the chambers when their names are called. Be prepared to stay until 1:00 – we don’t know where this items is on the agenda. Bring something to keep you occupied and snacks to eat (there is a cafe on site and you can go in and out). Make sure you get a copy of the talking points and Indigenous protocols from Idle No More members.

Details:
On Monday, 19 March 2018 the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) senior staff made several public statements about the permit it had granted to the Phillips 66 Rodeo refinery on 25 January 2018. This permit is the subject of an appeal filed by Communities for a Better Environment, San Francisco Baykeeper, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Stand.Earth, and the Sierra Club.

The Air District denied that the subject permit had increased the permitted capacity for hydrocracking at the Rodeo refinery. Instead, the Air District asserted, the refinery’s hydrocracking “Unit 240” was still limited to the same 65,000 barrels per day (b/d) limit it had set in 2007, and appearances to the contrary were due to a “transcription error.” Community members, reporters, and others have asked questions about these assertions.

This project is directly related to the Kinder Morgan pipeline in Canada which our First Nations relatives & allies are resisting. Over 10,000 People protested the proposed Kinder Morgan Pipeline on March 10th and protests and arrests are ongoing: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/10000-people-protested-this-proposed-kinder-morgan-pipeline

Oil tankers spill. This would be a disaster in our beautiful bay. Join your Indigenous water protectors and land defenders to protect and defend the Bay! Tar sands are impossible to completely clean up when accidents occur (https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09122015/unique-hazards-tar-sands-oil-spills-dilbit-diluted-bitumen-confirmed-national-academies-of-science-kalamazoo-river-enbridge).

Feel free to make your own signs – suggestions: No Tar Sands in SF Bay, Transparency in BAAQMD, Can’t Clean Up Tar Sands, Save the Bay, No Phillips 66 Expansion, No Phillips 66 Wharf Expansion, We Are Here To Protect The Bay, No Tar Sands Oil Tankers, Stand Up to Big Oil, Tar Sands: Keep It In The Ground

Greetings Brothers and Sisters,

The rank and file LWU Local 10 May Day Committee invites you to a meeting to organize the 2018 May Day march and rally.

ILWU Local 10 MAY DAY 2018 Organizing Committee Meeting This Monday 4/9 !

We are planning for a Tuesday May 1 march and rallies gathering at noon at the Oakland Matson Terminal  (near the end of the Adeline viaduct) and marching to Oscar Grant Plaza to join the 3pm Oakland Sin Fronteras rallies and march.

We look forward to seeing you Monday.

This will be a planning meeting for the next OccupyForum which will meet Monday, April 23rd 2018.

We’ll also discuss OccupyForum altogether and how to proceed from here! I sure hope you can make it

Friends of the Public Bank of Oakland and Strike Debt Bay Area are excited to announce the Student Debt Forum happening on Monday, April 9.

Student Debt Community Forum: Facebook.

How can a public bank help relieve the burden of student debt that so many of us are struggling with? Come hear the progressive candidate for CA lieutenant governor, Gayle McLaughlin, discuss this question. All are invited to attend this free event and take part in the conversation.

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.

California Sanctuary Campaign Media Advisory

Oakand, CA: An alliance of coalitions including ACILEP, Detention Watch Network, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Freedom for Immigrants (formerly CIVIC) and many more organizations representing immigrants, those seeking asylum and groups opposed to mass incarceration will deliver a Notice To Appear [Orden del Pueblo] at the May 5th Peoples’ Tribunal [Tribunal Popular] at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, CA.

Reverend Dr. Maria Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa of the Starr King Unitarian Universalist Church in Hayward will deliver the summons, saying, “We demand that all elected officials, especially local law enforcement officials, adhere to the letter and spirit of the law by affording everyone due process. We further demand an end to the collusion between ICE and the Alameda County Sheriff’s office and call on Sheriff Ahern to appear before the people and answer to these and other charges.”

At the same time as the Notice To Appear is being delivered to Sheriff Ahern, these demands will also be conveyed to Sheriff Livingston in Contra Costa County and David Jennings, ICE Field Director in San Francisco. Coalition members will  serve Attorney General Jefferson Sessions and ICE Director Thomas Homan in Washington, D.C. tomorrow.

Tribunals are taking place nationwide during April and May to bring attention to the purposeful cruelty being afflicted on these communities by ICE and other law enforcement agencies who promote family separation, exile from community, and mass incarceration. The Tribunals call on agency directors and elected officials to listen to testimony on the harm being done to them and accept the judgement of the people who have suffered directly under these conditions.

Oakland Privacy’s, the ACLU’s and the EFF’s surveillance equipment regulation ordinance comes to City Council for the (hopefully) final go-round to be made into City law.

==============

Subject: Surveillance And Community Safety Ordinance

From: Office Of The City Administrator

Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Adding Chapter 9.64 To The Oakland Municipal Code Establishing Rules For The City’s Acquisition And Use Of Surveillance Equipment

Taina Vargas-Edmond, Executive Director of Initiate Justice, and Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children/All of Us or None, will be in conversation with Tim Wise at this live taping of his national podcast.

Taina Vargas-Edmond, Executive Director of Initiate Justice and Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children/All of Us or None, two leaders in the forefront of policy and advocacy work on behalf of incarcerated Californians, the formally-incarcerated, and their families, will be in conversation with anti-racism author and educator Tim Wise. They’ll look at recent victories and efforts currently underway.

Tickets are sliding scale. 100% of proceeds go to Legal Services for Prisoners with Children/All of Us or None and Initiate Justice.

THIS WEDNESDAY: FREE Name and Gender Change workshop at EBCLC’s Adeline office, right next to Ashby Bart! And because of funding from Trans Lifeline – Microgrants, we can provide fee waivers to folks who need them!

Please share widely- this will be our last Name and Gender Change Workshop until this summer.

We have the power to make sure that everyone has a safe and stable home. Come to this CDP Community Conversation event to find out how to get involved and meet groups already working in our community. Join a discussion about how to take immediate action and create long-term solutions. Featured speakers include representatives from: Causa Justa Just Cause, The Village in Oakland #feedthepeople, Oakland Warehouse Coalition, Safer DIY Spaces, EveryOne Home, and our City Council representative, Rebecca Kaplan.

Venue is wheelchair accessible,
Located a short walk from Downtown Oakland 12th Street BART station.

Doors will open at 6p for food and mingling. 🍯🎊
The conversation will start promptly at 6:30p.

Hard Work Is Not Enough: Gender and Racial Inequality in an Urban Workspace

Institute for the Study of Societal Issues

KATRINELL DAVIS
Associate Professor of Sociology, Florida State University

with CATHERINE FISK
Barbara Nachtrieb Armstrong Professor of Law, UC Berkeley, asrespondent

Sponsored by Center for Research on Social Change, UC Berkeley

Co-sponsored by Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Center
for the Study of Law & Society, Division of Equity and Inclusion, and
Sociology Department, UC Berkeley

ABSTRACT

In this talk, I discuss African American women’s experiences as bus
operators in a San Francisco Bay Area transit firm from 1974-1989,
during the height of affirmative action hiring. Through a series of
interviews with these transit operators alongside correspondence between
management and union leaders, grievance and arbitration data, as well as
litigation against the firm, I trace the gradual demise of job security
within this SF Bay Area transit company that once led the nation in
offering its transit operators good wages and benefits. The findings
suggest that transit operating became increasingly stressful throughout
the period of study due to declining work conditions and the arbitrary
implementation of institutional strategies designed to discipline and
eliminate workers deemed undesirable.