Calendar
Agenda
1. 5:00pm: Call to Order, determination of quorum
2. 5:05pm: Review and approval of February meeting minutes
3. 5:10pm: Open Forum
4. 5:15pm: Introduction of new commissioners
5. 5:20pm: Presentation by UC Berkeley School of Information – CRIMS Privacy Assessment. Possible Action – Accept report; make recommendations to the City Council.
6. 5:45pm: Review and take possible action on Sanctuary City Contracting Ordinance
7. 5:55pm: Review and take possible action on Cell Site Simulator Annual Report
8. 6:10pm: Community Inquiry into Landlord Tax Audit/Business Revenue Data Requests (presentation by Strauss, Keenan). Possible Action – make recommendations to the City Council.
Transition Berkeley presents:
“Tomorrow” Film & Discussion
6:30 pm refreshments, 7 pm event
Please join us for a showing of the French documentary “Tomorrow “(Demain), a globetrotting documentary focused on solutions to our environmental crisis, by actress Melanie Laurent and eco-activist Cyril Dion.
“Tomorrow” provides a comprehensive look at ways in which activists, organizers and ordinary citizens are trying to make the world a better, more sustainable place.
Tomorrow shows communities taking power back from governments and corporations a form of grassroots activism which may be the best way to undo the top-down policies that have set us on the fast track to destruction.
How can we incorporate these ideas and make positive change happen here in Berkeley?
Event is hosted by Transition Berkeley and the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists.
Please join us for a showing of the French documentary Tomorrow (Demain), by actress Melanie Laurent and eco-activist Cyril Dion, a globetrotting documentary focused on solutions to our environmental crisis.
Tomorrow provides a comprehensive look at ways in which activists, organizers and ordinary citizens are trying to make the world a better, more sustainable place. It takes an optimistic view of the future and visits every corner of the earth to meet with men and women who are taking concrete, positive action for the planet.
Tomorrow shows communities taking power back from governments and corporations — a form of grassroots activism which may be the best way to undo the top-down policies that have set us on the fast track to destruction.
Come at 6:30 for meet and greet and bring vegetarian snacks or drinks to share if you can. Film begins at 7:00. Discussion will follow the film.
Sponsored by Transition Berkeley and BFUU Social Justice Committee.
Wheelchair accessible.
Sacramento police murdered Stephon Clark in his grandmother’s backyard on March 18. The killer cops shot him in the back 8 times. Protesters have taken the streets of the state capital nearly every day since.
Police kill more people in the United States than in any comparable country. Disproportionate numbers of those killed are Black, Latinx and Native American people. Kayla Moore, Shaleem Tindle, Jesus Adolfo Delgado-Duarte, Mario Woods, Yuvette Henderson, Alan Blueford, Oscar Grant. These are the names of just a few of the black and brown people who have been killed by the police in and around the Bay Area.
Join the International Socialist Organization for a discussion of police brutality, and what it will take to put an end to police terror and racist gun violence.
A Public Forum with
Christine Hong, Michael Klare, and Andrew Lichterman
A forum on the dangers of war in Korea, options for a peaceful solution, and prospects for a movement leading to that outcome.
Christine Hong is Associate Professor of Literature and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz and is the author of the forthcoming book, The Price of Inclusion: Race, Militarism, and the Pax Americana in Cold War Asia and the Pacific.
Michael T. Klare is the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies and the defense correspondent of The Nation. He is the author of The Race for What’s Left (2012), Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet (2008), Blood and Oil (2004), and Resource Wars (2001).
Andrew Lichterman is a policy analyst and lawyer with the Oakland, California, based Western States Legal Foundation.He has represented peace and environmental activists and engaged in environmental litigation relating to nuclear weapons.His current work focuses on US nuclear weapons programs, global disarmament efforts, and the global economy.
This forum, convened by the East Bay Area chapter of Historians for Peace and Democracy, is co-sponsored by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club and the Peace Caucus of East Bay Democratic Socialists of America. These views do not necessarily reflect the official views of EBDSA or its Local Council.
For further information, contact:
Barbara Epstein (bepstein@ucsc.edu) or Tony Platt (amplatt27@gmail.com).
The housing crisis in the Bay Area and beyond is a wholly preventable disaster, created and maintained by the notion that housing is a commodity and not a human right.
Join DSA in the campaign for the Affordable Housing Act — a proposed ballot initiative that that will give our cities and counties the power to adopt rent control necessary to address the state’s housing affordability crisis by repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.
Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act upholds landlord interests, and — in tandem with the housing crisis — has deeply exacerbated social disparities, displaced longtime communities, driven homelessness, and dealt a blow to working class power by making housing ever more insecure and inaccessible.
This canvass will be the first of many! Come learn more about repealing Costa-Hawkins, and then we’ll hit the streets to talk with our neighbors about housing justice and gather signatures for the Affordable Housing Act!
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us!
The Peace and Freedom Platform states: “We call for open borders. Full rights for all immigrant workers. No human is illegal. Stop ICE raids. Stop jailing and deporting immigrants.” We have four speakers to discuss immigration issues: Bree Bernwanger, Staff Attorney, Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights; Yvette Felarca, Middle School Teacher, By Any Means Necessary (BAMN); Eugene Ruyle, former PFP Congressional Candidate, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, CSULB; Antonio Trossero, political refugee arrested by the Peronist government in 1976, exiled to the United States after spending five years in jail during the military dictatorship.
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk as long as you like. Speaker’s affiliations are listed for identification only. The opinions expressed do not reflect the official views of the Peace and Freedom Party.
The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org
Please come to our Inequality Seminar on Sunday, 4/29 at 11:00 AM at the OMNI!
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.
- Presenting debt and inequality related topics at forums, workshops and in radio productions.
Our next seminar/workshop will be on April 29th. Check it out and make sure to come! - Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
- money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
- Tiny Homes and other solutions for the homeless.
- Student debt resistance. Check out the Debt Collective, our sister organization
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks
- Promoting the concept of Basic Income
- Advocating for Postal banking
- Organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now there’s a spinoff group
- Bring your own debt-related project!
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 – Principles of Solidarity
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.
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.
Many Muslims and allies have been asking about the role bystanders can play in protecting targets of hate crimes since the election. The tragedy in Portland, where two heroes were killed while protecting two women who were being attacked, really brought that question to the forefront again.
The bystander effect is a psychological phenomenon that often prevents people from intervening on behalf of victims of harassment, assault, or other criminal activity. Through training in non-violent intervention methods and role playing in practice scenarios, trainees learn the methods and techniques to circumvent the powerful social pressure to stay silent.
This is a great opportunity to learn vital skills for intervening in harassment situations at this important time, as well as a chance to build relationships across faith communities.
The training is capped at 50 people. RSVP
Questions? Please contact Emily Galpern at emilygalpern@gmail.com
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://
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/
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/
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://
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.
