Calendar

The Village (homeless intentional community) will be having an open pizza party. If you attend feel free to bring food and snacks or / and toppings for the pizzas to share. Folks and organizations that support will be coming through. Miguel who built the cob oven and the cob house on wheels will also be present. This is a good opportunity to touch base with volunteers and groups.

Dinner: 6:30 PM

Movie: 7:30 PM

Dara’a is an epicenter of the Putin-Trump led march toward global fascism. Dara’a is the southern Syrian region that initiated the 2011 Arab Spring inspired, democratic, peaceful revolution against the fascist (“national socialist”) Assad regime. Once again Russian bombs rain down and, with the help of Assad’s army and Iranian militia, usher in a total reign of terror on the civilian population. This human catastrophe created additional 300,000 refugees after over 400,000 Syrians have been killed. The cabal creates these refugees only to designate them as a less-than-human “infestation.”

Not since WWII have we faced such an abyss. How can one retain one’s humanity in these times?

From Yassin al-Haj Saleh’s Impossible Revolution:

My impression about this curious situation is that they simply do not see us; it is not about us at all. Syria is only an additional occasion for their old anti-imperialist tirades, never the living subject of the debate … We, rank-and-file Syrians, refugees, women, students, intellectuals, human rights activists, political prisoners … do not exist … But honestly I’ve failed to discern who is right and who is left in the West from a leftist Syrian point of view … Before helping Syrians or showing solidarity with Syrians, the mainstream Western left need to help themselves.

Documentary, 97 minutes, Rated NR

This depressing documentary, focusing mostly on matters in the state of Montana, shows the effect of untraceable corporate money on the American political system. It tries to be hopeful, but hope is hard to come by.

We document current events, make films together, steward an editing suite and share a film equipment library. We also host film screenings, often with local directors, and put on an annual short film festival for independent Bay Area filmmakers. Our goal is to make the digital filmmaking accessible – no overpriced college degree or certificate program required!

We are also a good group to reach out to if you’d like to screen a film at the Omni. We can be reached at liberatedlens@lists.riseup.net

We usually meet in the basement, unless otherwise noted.

7/29 #AbolishICESF 48 Hour Vigil: Create art, share music, hold workshops, & celebrate resilience as a community in solidarity w/ the national week of action to #AbolishICE & ALL prison structures & to honor our loved ones lost to these systems of violence #OccupyICE #OccupyICESF pic.twitter.com/kGasAEKuuP

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) July 27, 2018

onspire against the vicious housing market over drinks and/or food. Break bread, drink beer, and be merry with your neighbors. Meet some new friends. All ages friendly.

7/29 #AbolishICESF 48 Hour Vigil: Create art, share music, hold workshops, & celebrate resilience as a community in solidarity w/ the national week of action to #AbolishICE & ALL prison structures & to honor our loved ones lost to these systems of violence #OccupyICE #OccupyICESF pic.twitter.com/kGasAEKuuP

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) July 27, 2018

It’s Election Night 2018 and Bob swears she’ll never vote again. A lifetime of fading fortunes made this former Obama voter take a chance on the new guy promising change-Donald J. Trump. But it’s two years into his presidency and Bob’s still waiting to start winning. Tonight she’s telling everyone in her small-town bar that all politicians are liars, the system is rigged, and nothing’s ever gonna change.

Along comes a mysterious stranger with an intriguing offer. He’ll show her an America where working people come together to demand a brighter future, where socialism isn’t a dirty word. He’ll take her all the way … to 1912.

Bob soon finds herself traveling back to a time when the Socialist Party was winning millions of American votes; uncovering a hidden history and realizing that she may have more in common with those pesky progressives on the coasts. She begins to ask: what will it take to get people to stop voting against their interests? How do we overcome the divide-and-conquer tactics that keep us all down? When did our electoral choices get so limited? And isn’t it time to get off the swinging pendulum that’s left us at our current impasse?

It’s Election Night 2018 and Bob swears she’ll never vote again. A lifetime of fading fortunes made this former Obama voter take a chance on the new guy promising change-Donald J. Trump. But it’s two years into his presidency and Bob’s still waiting to start winning. Tonight she’s telling everyone in her small-town bar that all politicians are liars, the system is rigged, and nothing’s ever gonna change.

Along comes a mysterious stranger with an intriguing offer. He’ll show her an America where working people come together to demand a brighter future, where socialism isn’t a dirty word. He’ll take her all the way … to 1912.

Bob soon finds herself traveling back to a time when the Socialist Party was winning millions of American votes; uncovering a hidden history and realizing that she may have more in common with those pesky progressives on the coasts. She begins to ask: what will it take to get people to stop voting against their interests? How do we overcome the divide-and-conquer tactics that keep us all down? When did our electoral choices get so limited? And isn’t it time to get off the swinging pendulum that’s left us at our current impasse?

Wilson along with her sister, 26-year-old Lahtifa Wilson, were traveling home from a family function Sunday night on BART.

BART spokesman Jim Allison says 27-year-old John Lee Cowel attacked the sisters at random as they exited a train at the MacArthur station in Oakland.

Wilson died soon after police arrived, and her sister was taken to a hospital.

Family and friends say Wilson had a loving spirit and hoped to pursue a career in criminal justice.

Her brutal murder sent shock waves across the nation sparking a discussion on race relations and violence against women of color.

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/funeral-service-planned-for-18-year-old-nia-wilson/1329191045

In July, Contra Costa County Sheriff Livingston announced that he is ending the contract with ICE to hold immigration detainees at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond. This represents a major victory for advocates who have pushed for years to end the contract with ICE – but it will not be a real victory until those currently detained are released and reunited with their families, friends, and community, and those already transferred to other states are returned.

Join the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity for a vigil at WCDF, to call for detainees to be reunited with their families and for a complete end to cooperation between the Sheriff’s office and ICE.

UPDATE: Sign up to carpool here! https://www.groupcarpool.com/t/638ctx

Parking/Transit Alert: Parking is limited at WCDF. If you’re driving, please carpool if possible! Please try to only use the jail parking lot if you have accessibility issues, are visiting family there, or cannot afford the adjacent parking lot. Others, please pay $3 to park at the adjacent Point Pinole Regional Shoreline/Bay Trail parking lot at 5551 Giant Highway, and walk 0.4 miles (turn left) to West County Detention Facility next door. Another option: the 71 bus leaves from Richmond BART every hour and stops at WCDF.

Sweep Out the Fascists: A Festival of Resilience

Endorsed by:
SURJ Bay Area
SURJ S.F.
National Lawyer Guild S.F. Bay Area Chapter
Solidarity Against Fascism East Bay (SAFEBay)
John Brown Anti-Klan Committee
Bay Area Queer Antifascist Network
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Critical Resistance Oakland
International Socialist Organization
East Bay DSA
Socialist Feminist Caucus

Last August (2017), groups of white supremacists, aided by police and politicians, attempted to take over Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Park in order to build a base in the Bay. A crowd of thousands—including students, unionists, faith-based activists, teachers, and other everyday people—was there to confront them. We worked together to shut down the fascists and send them packing. Nationally, we sent a message that hate will not be welcome in the Bay. (Photo essay of 8/27 here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/kellyjohnsonrevelationaryphotography/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1371548832961154)

Once again, a group of white supremacists, Trump supporters, and fascists has announced a rally in downtown Berkeley for August 5, 2018. This event is part of a week-long nationwide “commemoration” of the hateful acts that took place nearly a year ago in Charlottesville, in which DeAndre Harris was beaten and Heather Heyer murdered. It is our duty to loudly and publicly reject their hate and to redouble our efforts in building a truly just and liberatory world.

We are calling on all members of our community to assemble together to stop white supremacist and state violence from growing. As history demonstrates, regular maintenance is required by people of heart and conscience to shut down white supremacy and fascism, which are foundational violences of this settler-colonial state. We’ve got to tend to the relationships and values that fuel, nourish, and inspire us to build a vision of collective liberation.

On August 5, we will gather to maintain a Bay Area free of fascism and white supremacy, sweeping out those that seek to deport, cage, harm, or extinguish members of our communities. Attacks on immigrants, Black and Indigenous people and other people of color, Muslims, the un-housed, queer and trans folks, disabled people, and/or women are becoming more prevalent as fascism reasserts itself in governments, state agencies, and increasingly organized groups across the globe. In the US, law enforcement, ICE and other deportation agents, and the jails and prisons work to remind people that this country was built on Indigenous land, on the backs of enslaved people, and that the prison industrial complex currently functions to maintain racial capitalism. We are reminded of this every time police kill another Black, Brown, and/or trans person in the streets. This country was founded on white supremacy and we must rise up with others around the world in an international movement to resist the fascism of both government and vigilantes. It’s time to take out the trash.

This is a community-wide call for each of us to perform critical community maintenance by removing fascists and white supremacists from our community. This will be a festival of resilience starting in Ohlone Park at 2pm going to MLK park for August 5, 2018. Featuring local artists, activists, musicians, comedians and everyday people. Our rally will send a clear message: “No hate in the Bay.”
#TrashtheFash #FashFreeBayArea

We document current events, make films together, steward an editing suite and share a film equipment library. We also host film screenings, often with local directors, and put on an annual short film festival for independent Bay Area filmmakers. Our goal is to make the digital filmmaking accessible – no overpriced college degree or certificate program required!

We are also a good group to reach out to if you’d like to screen a film at the Omni. We can be reached at liberatedlens@lists.riseup.net

We usually meet in the basement, unless otherwise noted.

Because since 2004 the Alameda County jail population has decreased by half, yet the sheriff’s budget has since increased by 105%.

Because in the past 5 years 33 people have died while in jail custody.

Because in June, two men died in the span of just three days, both while in custody in the Santa Rita Jail.

August 7th is the last board meeting before the County Supervisors go on recess — let’s show up to demand that our elected officials do their job and hold the Sheriff accountable by allowing for a strong independent audit.

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights | www.ellabakercenter.org | 510.428.3939

The Bay Area National Prison Strike Solidarity Committee, stands in solidarity with the people who have declared a Nationwide Prison Strike beginning on August 21st (This date commemorates the assassination of Black Panther Party, Field Marshall, and prison activist, George Jackson, by San Quentin prison guards) and extending to September 9th, 2018. The National Prison Strike is in response to the “riot” in the Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in South Carolina on April 15, 2018. . Seven prisoners lost their lives during an instigated melee that could have been avoided had the prison not been overcrowded from the greed wrought by mass incarceration and a lack of respect for human life that is embedded in this country’s penal ideology. We support these captives behind enemy lines, demand for humane living conditions, access to rehabilitation, sentencing reform and the end of modern day slavery.

The Bay Area National Prison Strike Solidarity Committee, is organizing a Mobilization and Call to Action, on August 25, 2018, at San Quentin State Prison, with the objective of raising awareness of the inhumane conditions, treatment and policies that afflict those held in these gulags throughout amerikkka. We are also mobilizing to let these sisters and brothers being held behind enemy lines know that we on the outside have their backs and that we support their Demands and the ongoing historic prison movement led and organized by those being held captive in amerikkka’s gulags.

Our Call to Action / Mobilization will rally at the West Oakland, Bart Station at 11:00 AM, from there we will Car Pool and Bus to San Quentin State Prison.

These are the National Demands of the men and women in federal, immigration, and state prisons:

1. Immediate improvements to the conditions of prisons and prison policies that recognize the humanity of imprisoned men and women.
2. An immediate end to prison slavery. All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their state or territory for their labor.
3. The Prison Litigation Reform Act must be rescinded, allowing imprisoned humans a proper channel to address grievances and violations of their rights.
4. The Truth in Sentencing Act and the Sentencing Reform Act must be rescinded so that imprisoned humans have a possibility of rehabilitation and parole. No human shall be sentenced to Death by Incarceration or serve any sentence without the possibility of parole.
5. An immediate end to the racial overcharging, over-sentencing, and parole denials of Black and brown humans. Black humans shall no longer be denied parole because the victim of the crime was white, which is a particular problem in southern states.
6. An immediate end to racist gang enhancement laws targeting Black and brown humans.
7. No imprisoned human shall be denied access to rehabilitation programs at their place of detention because of their label as a violent offender.
8. State prisons must be funded specifically to offer more rehabilitation services.
9. Pell grants must be reinstated in all US states and territories.
10. The voting rights of all confined citizens serving prison sentences, pretrial detainees, and so-called “ex-felons” must be counted. Representation is demanded. All voices count.

Endorsers:

ENDORSERS BAY AREA NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE SOLDIDARITY COMMITTEE

Black August Organizing Committee – Oakland
Poor Magazine – Oakland
IWOC (Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee) – Oakland
California Prison Focus – Oakland
Worker World Party – Oakland
Idriss Stelly Foundation – San Francisco
Democratic Socialist of America – San Francisco Justice Committee
National Brown Berets
MILLIONS4PRISONERS – San Jose
Aztlan Press – San Jose
The Mothers On The March Against Police Murders – San Francisco
Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP) – Oakland
Black & Brown for Justice, Peace and Equality – San Francisco
MLK Coalition For Jobs, Justice and Peace/ MLK Coalition of Greater LA
Puerto Rican Alliance – Los Angeles
Aztlan Realism Conecta – San Jose
ANSWER – San Franciso

SUPPORT THE NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE!

JOIN THE BAY AREA NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE!

ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!