Calendar

9896
May
12
Sun
Sunflower Alliance Meeting @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
May 12 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance.  We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and future plans and identify upcoming actions we can take to fight fossil fuels and work for a just and sustainable world.  Old friends and newcomers are equally welcome.  We need your participation and your voice!

 

66460
Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
May 12 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

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

64398
May
13
Mon
Bay Area Landless Peoples Alliance @ Omni Commons
May 13 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Meeting of homeless activists and homed supporters from around the Bay Area.

Resist!

66465
Oakland Tenants Union monthly meeting @ Madison Park Apartments, community room
May 13 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

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.

59289
May
14
Tue
Still Fighting for Justice: Saleem Tindle @ West Oakland BART
May 14 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Image may contain: 1 person

66458
May
18
Sat
Strike Debt Bay Area: Debt Resistance – You Are Not A Loan @ Omni Commons
May 18 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Come get connected with SDBA’s projects – we have exciting work to do in 2019!
  • Our medical debt erasure campaign with RIP Medical Debt is doing well (but needs more signal-boosting). We joined another Alameda County campaign, and together we’re more than halfway to our minimum goal. Our donation page is here. The online version of our flyer, with live links, is here. Our FAQ is here. We can also link you to a printable version of the flyer if you have places to hand them out.
  • Continuing our discussion group on new economic thinking.  
  • Organizing for public banking in the East Bay! Public Banking East Bay (which overlaps significantly with our group) is also an active member of the California Public Banking Alliance. The Green New Deal envisions financing through public banks! AB857, which will pave the way for local and regional California public banks, is in committee hearings next week in Sacramento.
  • Supporting student debt resistance, working with our sister organization, The Debt Collective. At the end of last year, the Debt Collective won a huge victory against Betsy DeVos and the Trump Department of “Education.”
  • Supporting the progress of bail reform law, better than the 2018 California law (including the new end of cash bail policy in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Charlotte’s county), while also fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
  • Helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization (an Oakland institution) and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
  • Advocating for postal banking, now a national conversation because of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s bill to restore it to U.S. law
  • Fighting the current proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, while promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
  • Organizing for Tiny Homes, better sanctioned encampments than Oakland is now currently creating, and other ways to help homeless people get housing and support
  • Promoting the concept of universal basic income
  • 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

 Also check out our website, our twitter feed, our radio segments and our Facebook page.
Strike Debt Bay Area is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and Strike Debt, itself an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.

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.

66403
May
19
Sun
Extinction Rebellion: East Bay general meeting @ South Berkeley Senior Center
May 19 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
We have taken your suggestions, reflections and feedback in order to craft an agenda for creating, together, a rebellious summer of nonviolent direct action.

As many of you know, the UN just recently released a report showing that one million or more species are at risk of extinction due to a number of factors, not the least of which is climate change. We are in the midst of an emergency that requires us to rebel against business-as-usual.

Are you ready?

We need rebels of all kinds!

Bring your energy, your amazing talents, your commitment to justice and, perhaps most of all, your joy! We’ve got great work to do as we rebel for life!

In solidarity,
The XRSFBay Team

To help us best prepare and know how many people are going to be there:

Please reply to our event on Facebook!

66591
Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
May 19 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

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

64398
May
20
Mon
Earth Strike Bay Area Meeting @ Longhaul
May 20 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Twitter: @EarthStrikeSFBA

Facebook: @EarthStrikeBA

We, the people of the world, are striking to save our planet. Leading climate scientists have warned that we only have until 2030 to prevent global temperature increases from exceeding 1.5ºC. At that time, many effects of Climate Change will be irreversible, and the consequences will be dire. If the global average temperature increases reach 2°C, the results will be catastrophic; famine, droughts, floods, wildfires, the spread of infectious diseases and mass extinction– all on an unprecedented global scale. It would mean the collapse of the human race. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2017 Carbon Majors Report, 71% of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions come from just 100 companies worldwide. Big business does not serve the interests of the environment or a sustainable future, and by extension, the interests of humanity and life itself. A drastic change in course is imperative to avert catastrophe. To address this potentially catastrophic event, our protests will raise awareness for the global general strike, beginning September 27, 2019. Until all the world’s corporations and governments are held accountable to the needs of the common person, we refuse to participate in a system that only serves to line their pockets. Under the provisions of our protests, there will be no banking, no offices full of employees, no schools full of children, until our demands are met. We refuse to function in a society and political system that is complacent in the environmental demise of our planet.

Earth Strike is not made up of political elites. We are not funded by Super PACs. We are not servants to corporate masters. We are not interested in being re-elected. We do not kowtow to institutions of power. We are people, common people, who understand the alarming situation we are facing, and we demand something be done. We have no vested interests, save one: the survival of all life on the planet. Earth Strike is a global movement with Chapters all over the world, building momentum and solidarity across country and state lines, through concerned communities, and spanning every person with the conscience to recognize the noble goal of the preservation of our home. Based in the idea of solidarity, Earth Strike is a coalition of horizontally-organized, popular, workers movement to save the very existence of life on earth. As an inhabitant of this earth, we urge you to join us, to mitigate and prepare for the effects of Climate Change. Spread our demands, organize with your community, and take a stand for the future, our future.

The Earth shall go on Strike!

Our Demands

  • Enact energy systems of community-led renewable energies
    • Wind-down and end all fossil fuel extraction, and become totally carbon neutral by 2035
    • End all pipeline projects
    • Guarantee the sovereignty of indigenous lands with regards to government and government sponsored projects involving their land
    • Democratically determine and allocate community led renewable energy initiatives
    • Fund and expand carbon neutral and fare-free public transit
  • Prepare for Climate Change and protect those most harmed
    • Aid communities displaced by climate catastrophes with a focus on rebuilding sustainable infrastructure, including providing state-level aid to United States territories for natural disasters
    • Increase funding for FEMA by at least 50%
    • Offer a grant program to people who lose their means of survival due to energy transition
    • Improve FEMA to better serve the needs of communities
      • End the FEMA 50% rule and all regulations that base community aid on market values of property.
      • Train FEMA and other disaster response personnel to work with low income and homeless, people of color, and other marginalized communities
      • End the use of military/police forces in disaster relief programs
      • Provide transportation and lodging in evacuation situations for everyone, prioritizing at-risk communities.
    • Protect workers by repealing the Taft-Hartley Act
    • Include climate change and environmental safety in collective bargaining and union negotiations with employers
    • Retrofit buildings for energy efficiency and disaster resilience
    • Build climate-adaptive infrastructure
  • Improve sustainability of agricultural processes
    • End all subsidies to the meat industry
    • Regulate large-scale agriculture to reduce methane emissions, limit hazardous runoff, and preserve biodiversity.
    • End factory farming and create significantly stricter regulations in regard to quality of life for livestock
    • Further research and development on addressing dairy and other animal agriculture related environmental concerns.
    • Cattle must be fed diet of at least 50% grass grazing and the rest will be supplemented with grain and forages with less than 10% corn
    • Enact non-retaliation policies to limit large company’s control over individual farmers’ agricultural practices
    • End seed patents on genetically modified crops
    • Incentivize planting native/food gardens on residential properties
    • In conjunction with the above, ban lawn grass.
    • Incentivize local production/consumption of food
  • Sustainably manage resources
    • Mindfully manage potable water resources, and the inclusion of rainwater into irrigation and waste systems
    • Limit logging to only what can be replanted in the span of 1 year and enforce that replanting occurs
    • Deprivatize and municipalize all water supplies
66594
Bay Area Landless Peoples Alliance @ Omni Commons
May 20 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Meeting of homeless activists and homed supporters from around the Bay Area.

Resist!

66465
Terry Amons Rally & Speak Out at Pittsburg City Council @ Pittsburg City Council
May 20 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Monday, May 20, 2019
6:30 pm SHARP Rally
7:00pm Speakout
During Public Comment Period
at the City Council Meeting

Pittsburg City Council
65 Civic Ave
Pittsburg, CA 94565
(One block North on Railroad Ave Exit off HWY 4)
(Railroad Drive Stop at End of Line BART Extension Trolley)

Contact Info: 510-674-8181 or 925-565-8393 or email: oscargrantcomittee.ogc@gmail.com

Demand Number One: FIRE KILLER COP DILLON TINDALL
The people of Pittsburg are NOT safe with trigger happy cop Dillon Tindall on the police force. He has shown bad judgement in killing Terry Amons without just cause. At the very least, he must be fired to prevent further tragedy.

Demand Number Two: PASS THE RICHMOND ORDINANCE
District Attorneys work closely every day with the police and rely on them to get convictions. More often than not they turn a blind eye to police misconduct. We need laws and policies that hold trigger happy cops accountable. The Richmond City Council, responding to public pressure, passed. an ordinance to have an INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION of all police killings, to avoid this conflict of interest. Pittsburg and other cities must pass similar laws as a first step to justice.

 


Terry Amons, Jr., a 43 year old Black man, was. shot and killed by Pittsburgh police late Friday night on January 12, 2018, while eating dinner inside his car outside of Nations Burgers in Pittsburgh, as was his habit before going to work on his night shift job as a delivery driver for Presidential Propane Company. The police claim that Terry was reaching for a gun, but body cam video, which clearly shows Amons attempting to comply with shouted contradictory orders from two cops with guns drawn and aimed at him. At no time did Amons make any move toward the holstered pistol that was in plain sight in the central storage area between the front seats.

The video shows Amons complying with orders to place his hands on the steering wheel, then attempting to comply with frantic commands to “get out of the car” before being senselessly gunned down while attempting to comply.

We hold the Pittsburgh PD responsible for murdering an innocent Black man. Terry’s mother, Sandra, said: “They executed my son. The Pittsburgh Police Department (PPD) illegally, without a warrant, searched Terry’s home after they killed him.”. The PPD did not provide Terry’s family with the names of the officers involved. The Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights is the legal justification for withholding this information. Only months later did the Oscar Grant, Committee learn the names of the Police Officers involved: Dillon Tindall, who fired, the shots, and Jesus Arellano. According to the East Bay Times, the body cam video, shows Terry being shot by Tindall after. shouting “Do not reach for that fucking gun.” As Terry falls out of the car he continues fo say, “I wasn’t reaching for nothing, swear to God.” Then the officers handcuffed him. Terry died at John Muir Medical Center in Martinez.

The police claim they were responding to a drug dealing complaint that provoked the initial contact. No drugs were found on Amons or in his car.

The family is considering filing a lawsuit.‘ Family and friends of Terry Amons have launched an on-going struggle for. . Justice4Terry, along with the OGC, SURJ (Stand Up for Racial Justice), and others. So far, three monthly protest actions have been held with up to 60 energetic people involved. Monthly meetings to plan ongoing events are open to the public.

Join the struggle, for more info contact: 510-674-8181 or 925-565-8392
Or email: oscargrantcommittee.ogc@gmail.com

Click on Image to download PDF flyer


The Oscar Grant Committee . Justice4Terry Amons Committee

You can help! Join the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression
Born from the struggle for justice for Oscar Grant, murdered by BART police on Jan 1, 2009. We organize working class resistance in support of families whose loved ones were murdered by police.
JOIN US, our meetings are normally on the First Monday of every month at 7:00 PM at the Niebyl-Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Avenue in North Oakland
Confirm time at: www.oscargrantcommittee.org . oscargrantcommittee.ogc@gmail.com

66580
May
21
Tue
Anti-Chevron Day: Confronting Corporate Bullies @ Chevron Refinery, Gate 19
May 21 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Join Amazon Watch, Diablo Rising Tide, Greenpeace USA, Idle No More SF Bay, and  Sunflower Alliance in Richmond at Chevron’s gates to protest its  brutal violations of environmental and human rights at home and all over the world.

Speakers include:
Amazon Watch
Idle No More SF Bay
Stand.Earth
Andres Soto
and more
(if details aren’t up yet, check back in a few hours)
66514
Public Bank of the East Bay @ East Bay For Everyone
May 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Come join us make public banking happen!

Local public banking bill moves ahead

May update: AB 857 has cleared all Assembly committees and will be coming up for an Assembly floor vote in late May.

Local public banking is coming to California! State Assembly Bill 857, which will enable cities and counties to more easily establish their own banks, passed two crucial votes this week: on Monday, the Assembly Banking and Finance committee voted to pass it, and on Wednesday, the Assembly Local Government committee did the same. Next, our bill is headed to the Appropriations committee before going to the full Assembly; then, of course, the debate will move to the Senate.

The text of the bill, plus analysis and details on the committee votes, can be found here.

Support for AB 857 is building; Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Oakland, and Berkeley – as well Santa Cruz Countty and Santa Clara County – have all passed resolutions supporting itt. Our grassroots movement to divest from Wall Street and keep our money local is growing ever more powerful. Onward!

Info Time for public banking �

Have questions about public banking? Want to find out more about what we’re doing to make our own East Bay bank a reality? Come to Info Time! Volunteers will be available to talk with you from 5:30 to 6pm on Monday, April 29, at 2044 Franklin Street, Oakland. Drop on by for a chat—and bring a friend!

Tell your assemblymember: Yes on 857!

On Monday, April 8, California Public Banking Alliance (CPBA) volunteers from all over the state will converge on the Capitol to press for lawmakers’ promises of support for AB 857.

But lobbying can’t do the whole job. Now is the time for all of us California supporters of public banking to call our assemblymembers and tell them to vote YES on this crucial legislation!

Calling your elected officials is quick and easy. You can talk to the staffer who answers the phone or leave a voicemail. Say something like this:
“My name is _________, and I live in District [number]. I’m calling to ask Assemblymember _______ to vote YES on AB 857, the public banking bill. I strongly support establishing a public bank in my community.”

Below are phone numbers for all assemblymembers whose districts include part of Alameda County. Wherever you live in the state, if you’re not sure who represents you, check this finder.
     District 15�Buffy Wicks                  (916) 319-2015
District 16�Rebecca Bauer-Kahan  (916) 3119-2016
District 18�Rob Bonta                    (916) 319-2018
District 20�Bill Quirk                      (916) 319-2020
District 25�Kansen Chu                 (916) 319-2025

And remember, everyone you know in California can call their legislator. Please ask them to call, too. It could make a real difference!

Help make our East Bay bank happen

We’re planning on doing a lot more tabling at markets and street fairs through the spring and summer, and we could really use some help. Tabling is a great way to get out of that cyber-bubble and talk to actual fellow citizens about creating the vibrant local economy we all want to see. You don’t need a finance background – just a couple free hours and an ability to explain the basics.

You can also help by suggesting places for us to table. We need to connect with folks all over Alameda County so we can point to broad grassroots support for our bank as we push the Board of Supervisors to make it happen.

If you’re interested in tabling or have an idea for a venue, please don’t wait to shoot us an email at contact@publicbankeastbay.org. Thank you!

66288
Acquiring an Armored Vehicle – Oakland City Council @ Oakland City Hall
May 21 @ 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm

Agenda

Item 12 (Acquisition of Bearcat armored vehicle)

The Josh Pawlik killing in March 2018 is a key event conditioning responses to this request to approve the acquisition of a second Bearcat. In that event, OPD deployed its existing Bearcat, as well as officers armed with AR-15 assault rifles. Compliance Director Robert Warshaw and the Executive Force Review Board pointed out that “officers did not use the armored vehicle as cover. They utilized it as a shooting platform.” (see attached, p. 2) The killing was wholly preventable. Yet OPD’s review of the event made no reference to the Bearcat deployment rules included in Chief Kirkpatrick’s supplemental report – which had been re-distributed to OPD commanders only 11 days before the killing of Mr. Pawlik.

  • The Department has no use policy for the Bearcat or other armored vehicles, only “rules for deployment,” and even those apply only to the Tactical Operations Team, not other officers who use the Bearcat.
  • The deployment rules state that neither the Bearcat nor Armored Suburban will “be deployed for incidents that do not involve actual, threatened, or suspected violence, related to loss of life or serious bodily injury, or crowd control situations unless articulable facts dictate the need to deploy the equipment.” Yet the report says that “The Bearcat is frequently deployed to planned events to deter attacks or respond to attacks if they do occur.” This interpretation of “articulable facts [that] dictate the need to deploy” the Bearcat renders the rules for deployment wholly meaningless.
  • The reasons given for deployment and rationale for obtaining a second Bearcat also broaden the permitted uses outlined in the rules for deployment. These include blocking in vehicles to prevent drivers pursued by police from fleeing.
  • Studies indicate that police departments in the United States that acquire military-grade equipment are more likely to use violence and are no more successful in reducing crime than those that acquire less such equipment.

Questions raised or that remain unanswered by the supplemental report:

  • How many deployments of the Bearcat in each of recent years were to events other than critical incidents of “actual, threatened or suspected violence”?
  • What impact does frequent deployment of the Bearcat have on relations between OPD and community members? The supplemental report says OPD receives positive comments when it is deployed to special events, but this clearly does not reflect community members who feel intimidated and scared of OPD or do not voice their concerns directly to OPD.
  • By what date will Chief Kirkpatrick commit to the incorporation of deployment rules for the Bearcat and Armored Surburban into policy for both a) tactical teams and b) other officers?
  • How are deployments of the Bearcat documented and evaluted? Who is responsible for such documentation and evaluation?
  • If the Bearcat is deployed or used in a manner that violates the rules for deployment, what process does the Department to discipline those responsible for this violation?
  • Did the OPD consider application of the state COPS grant for other expenditures, such as other cities have done – such as overtime or juvenile justice programs? If not, why not? If so, why did OPD conclude that the Bearcat was a higher priority for this application?

In light of the fatal misuse of OPD’s Bearcat in the killing of Josh Pawlik, the Council should not approve the acquisition of a second Bearcat, at the very least, until OPD has incorporated a use policy for the Bearcat, applicable to all members of OPD, that is considered and approved by the Police Commission.

Moreover, the Council and Police Commission should direct OPD to apply for other uses of the state COPS grant, more consistent with the community’s needs.

Other points: A Public Records Act request was file for records of OPD’s deployments of the Bearcat and other armored vehicles since the beginning of 2016, including reasons for deployment, demographics of those contacted during the deployments, and any harms documented. Their response was extended and is now due on June 1.

State legislation last year (AB 3131) would have required, for police departments’ acquisition from any source of all military-grade equipment, including Bearcats: use policies, reporting on use, and approval by city councils. The Senate and Assembly approved the bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Brown. Similar state legislation is expected to be re-introduced next year.

66593
May
23
Thu
Toward a Regional Climate Emergency Mobilization @ New Berkeley City Hall, 6th Floor
May 23 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Now that the cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and San Francisco have committed to emergency climate mobilization, regional action is the necessary next step.

City council members in Berkeley and Richmond are leading an effort to organize a regional meeting next fall, to start planning specific Bay Area-wide strategies for a just transition to a green economy. The goals of this campaign are to:

  • Pass Climate Emergency Declarations and Fossil Fuel Free Resolutions with explicit commitments to an emergency climate mobilization and just transition across municipalities and regulatory bodies of 9 Bay Area counties
  • Commit elected officials, municipal departments and regulatory bodies to radical and expedited action toward a just transition including climate mobilization departments, staff, resources, programs, regulatory legislation, incentives and constituent/community engagement and participation.
  • Mobilize sectors and constituents toward creating the mandate and critical mass needed for a radical just transition and political influence required on local and State government, regulatory bodies and corporations
  • Create regional coordination bodies with clear mandate and priorities toward climate mobilization and a just transition
  • Foster the creation of broad and powerful regional coalitions to see the mobilization through, advocating for policies and holding mobilized governments accountable
  • Offer a vision of an alternative that is regenerative, based on a safe climate, equitable, healthier and more just – use this terrifying threat as an opportunity to build unity and create justice – a true “Green New Deal” that is based in public good, driven by and accountable to community and mobilized by government rather than based in profit and privatization of natural resources.

A real climate emergency mobilization will require the participation of public officials, unions and other social and economic justice organizations, climate and environmental justice organizations, frontline communities — and more. There’s lots of work to do.

Come to the next meeting to get involved.

 

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May
24
Fri
Friday’s for the Future #FridaysForFuture @ Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheatre
May 24 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

By Young Adults from St. Paul’s Episcopal School

About #FridaysForFuture

#FridaysForFuture is a movement that began in August 2018, after 15 years old Greta Thunberg sat in front of the Swedish parliament every schoolday for three weeks, to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. She posted what she was doing on Instagram and Twitter and it soon went viral.

On the 8th of September, Greta decided to continue striking every Friday until the Swedish policies provided a safe pathway well under 2-degree C, i.e. in line with the Paris agreement.

The hashtags #FridaysForFuture and #Climatestrike spread and many students and adults began to protest outside of their parliaments and local city halls all over the world. This has also inspired the Belgium Thursday school strikes.

Global Facebook Event Page

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May
25
Sat
Families Belong Together | Peaceful Action Protest
May 25 @ 11:30 am – 4:30 pm

The U.S. government lost track of some 1,475 immigrant children, perhaps more, who were placed in sponsor homes.

At least 389 migrant children have been separated from their families since a federal judge ruled to stop the practice in June 2018.

Families are still being separated at an alarming rate. Babies and young children continue to be exposed to inhumane conditions.

WE MUST CONTINUE TO BRING AWARENESS OF THIS ISSUE TO OUR COMMUNITIES AND TO MAKE A STAND AGAINST THIS PRACTICE.

Please join us for a PEACEFUL PROTEST on SATURDAY, MAY 25TH, 2019 at the corner of YGNACIO VALLEY ROAD & N. CIVIC DRIVE in WALNUT CREEK, CA.

REMEMBER: Bring your signage and snacks. Water will be provided.

There will also be a limited number of poster boards and markers available to make your own signage.

OUR “STATIONS”:

– South Side corner of Ygnacio Valley Road and N. Civic Drive

– Iron Horse Trail Bridge above Ygnacio Valley Road (please plan to use effectively large signage in this area)

THE “MESSAGE”:

Human rights is a non-partisan issue. You are welcome to bring your own signage, but please, refrain from hate-fueled messages, derogatory phrases, and foul language. Please find a balance between bringing positivity and awareness to our table.

THE “RULES”:

– Be Civil
– Be Safe
– Be Present

Feel free to share with your friends, families, and communities at large!

https://act.indivisible.org/event/attend-local-actions/140685

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Earth Strike: Now or Never Rally @ Oscar Grant Plaza
May 25 @ 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Governments worldwide, especially the US, are failing to act on climate change.  Hundreds of millions if not billions will face the wrath of natural disasters that an be prevented through cooperative action.  They won’t listen – we need to force them.

Rally the world for a general strike!

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May
26
Sun
TANC General Assembly @ Omni Commons
May 26 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

TANC General Assembly!

Our general assemblies are open and free for anyone to join. We’ll be discussing ongoing projects: tenant organizing, houseless organizing, public housing organizing and more. Rent is too high, and we’ve got to organize and fight against marketized housing. Come through and let’s get organized against the housing market!

– – – – – – – – – – – –

We are a group of Bay Area tenants who are fed up with rising rents, evictions, and harassment at the hands of landlords. We are fed up with our neighbors having no option but to live unsheltered and at constant risk of police harassment. We want to stop landlords, developers, and cops from looting our communities.

A council is a group of tenants who work together to wield collective power against a shared landlord in order to improve their conditions. While, in general, councils may organize for more affordable, habitable, and safer housing, the issues that a council decides to organize around is ultimately dictated by its members. Councils can be powerful because they can directly apply their collective pressure on their landlord without the permission of city hall or other third parties.

TANC will help organize councils and bring them together as a network. While councils interface directly with their landlord, they can find support from other councils who rent from different landlords. We will assist in getting the word out to tenants and researching landlords. Neighbors will get to know each other during dinners, BBQs, and other events that TANC will support. We will compile complaints that are common across councils and aid in seeking their resolution. Councils will discuss and demand timely repairs, and support tenants threatened with eviction. Ultimately, the point is to reconfigure power dynamics of landlords and tenants in the Bay Area.

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Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
May 26 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

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

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