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On October 22nd, Andy Lopez, a 13 year old boy was shot and killed by deputy Erik Gelhaus,(a supposed firearms expert that writes columns for many militia magazines) who says he mistook the toy gun that Andy was carrying for a real rifle. The deputy ended up shooting 8 rounds – 7 hitting and killing Andy. 2 months later, no justice has been served, initial findings from the Sheriff’s Department show that the deputy acted according to procedure in his use of deadly force, and on December 10th, Gelhaus returned to administrative work at the Sheriff’s Department.
Information source and livestream info.
Don’t Steal our Postal Services Rally
In front of the Staples store
2352 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
The Berkeley Post Office and post offices all over the US are under threat of being fraudulently sold!
In a new attack, US postal services have been snuck into 84 Staples stores all over the country – including Berkeley. Postal services are being provided by low-wage Staples employees, not living-wage Postal professionals.
Please join us to:
- Oppose privatization of the US Postal Services and all public resources. Privatization brings higher prices and worse quality.
- Oppose union busting – replacing union jobs with low paying jobs that offer poor or no benefits.
Non-union pay lowers everyone’s standard of living (USPS compensation $20-$30/hr + benefits. Staples $8 – $12/hr, few if any benefits)
Sponsored by Berkeley Post Office Defenders. Supported by Strike Debt Bay Area.
Rally Poster.
This will be the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Federal Reserve.
Monday evening from 6 – 9, OccupyForum will hold its meeting at the FED (101 Market) and have a panel of speakers.
There are some Scheduled events.
5:30 – anti-corporate caroling
6-6:30 – Illuminator will project a message onto the Fed, also the Petaluminator, possibly Light Brigade
Please bring flashlights and other ways to “shed light” on the FED
6:30 – 7:00 – Occupy Forum, topic the Federal Reserve and alternatives (see below)
And other ideas:
– Chalkupy: Ideas for a giant monopoly board are forming, also everyone can write messaging, answer the question “Why are you FED UP with the monetary system?” (or other messaging)
– Blankets: We’re asking everyone who can to drop by a Goodwill or Salvation Army or thrift store and get a blanket (they’re cheap! a few bucks)… The idea is to keep warm while we’re there and then leave them in the free pile for folks who need them.
– Caroling (with words to describe the FED provided)
The FEDERAL RESERVE BANK (commonly called the Fed) and Wall Street banks create just about all the money we use every day. Most people think that the Fed is an agency of the Federal Government. But it’s not. It’s 100% owned by the largest private banks in the US. The Fed uses its incredible power to decide how much new money to create and, more importantly, where to spend it, to benefit the Wall Street banks.
Since most of us think new money is generated by government, we would also expect that money to be directed toward things that benefit all of us such as highways and other infrastructure, education, health care and social security.
However, all money the government spends has to be borrowed at interest from the banks and the Fed. The banks and the Fed create this money, instead, by investing in areas that will provide them with maximum profits – usually wars, the coal and oil industries and real estate. This results in crashes like the current one which started in 2008, and depressions, and no consideration is given to the moral or environmental costs of these investments. Profits over people as usual.
The Fed operates largely in secret, and is not required to be accountable to anyone. There has never been a proper audit of the Federal Reserve Bank. The power to create money is arguably the most important single power in the US economy and yet the people have no control over it!
It’s time to shine a light on the workings of the Fed. We need to start discussing solutions like making the Fed accountable and handing over the power of money creation to the Federal Government! This could be the single most powerful way to create a more democratic economy that serves the interests of all of us – not just a few who profit immensely off of our labor.
Join us this Monday, Dec. 23 at 5pm on the Federal Reserve’s 100th Birthday when we will Illuminate the Fed!
Speakers will include Occupy activist Jane Smith, who will provide us with details on how the Fed works (or doesn’t work), and how we can take control of money creation away from big banks. The Illuminators will be there to project images and messages onto the FED building and there will be other events as well, listed below. Bring flashlights! Bring blankets! Bring ideas for chalking: “Why are you FED UP?”
Subject: Urgent Action: Protest against Korean Government Repression on Dec 27 Noon
SF Rally to Defend the Right to Strike! Free All Arrested Strikers!
Stop Mass Firings of South Korean Railway Workers!
Victory to the KCTU General Strike!
8,565 Korail workers have been suspended and their union offices raided because of their strike action against privatization which began on December 9, 2013. This is not the first attack by the Korean
government on the labor movement. Teachers’ unions have been threatened with being banned and workers have been sued personally for going on strike causing personal bankruptcy and suicides.
The Transport Workers Solidarity Committee TWSC has initiated the call for a solidarity rally and labor/community delegation to go to the Korean Consulate in San Francisco and submit a statement
opposing the suspension of Korea Rail Workers, the attack on their union and in support of their struggle against privatization. Similar schemes also threaten transit workers and public workers in the Bay Area including the ongoing attack on ATU 192 AC Transit workers and BART ATU 1555, SEIU 1021 and AFSCME 3993. This attack was directly connected to international companies like Veolia who are privatizing transit services in complicity whith state governments run by both Democrat and Republican Parties, are pushing to outlaw strikes and collective bargaining.
We urge all transportation workers, public workers, trade unionists and all workers to join us in the action in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters in Korea and against the action of the Korean Railroad corporation (KORAIL) supported by the Korean government. This rally is also endorsed by the United Public Workers For Action www.upwa.info
If you would like to endorse this action please contact Transport Workers Solidarity Committee www.transportworkers.org (415)282-1908
Celebrate the New Year by joining comrades in the street on NYE in Oakland, CA:
March to North County Jail
Bring friends, noisemakers, fireworks
Bring the noise to inmates in North County Jail. In solidarity with prisoners and prison rebels across the globe. In honor of fallen comrades. Against prison society. In the spirit of total liberation.
All rebels to the streets!
Come out and march on January 1st at 3pm starting at 24th street BART Plaza and ending at 16th street BART.
“On January 1st Mission residents and agitators want to ring in the New Year with a big “fuck you!” to the San Francisco Police Department. The elevated pig presence in the neighborhood is unavoidable and many have already felt its effects. In November, four Valencia Gardens residents were attacked and then arrested by SFPD officers. The expansion of police surveillance at the 16th street BART plaza has lead to increased harassment of young people of color, homeless folks, and sex workers.”
On January 3 a revised deal with Barclays bank will go before the bankruptcy judge in Detroit. This deal that slightly improves the original one, will still exempt Bank of America and United Bank of Switzerland from the bankruptcy process that threatens Detroit workers pensions and the assets of the people from art, to water and parks.
Demo at BofA near Fruitvale BART at noon to support Detroit. (They are demonstrating at the courthouse Friday am and then going inside to pack the courtroom.) NY is working on a demonstration near Wall Street for Jan. 3, as well.
Cancel Detroit’s Debt –Make the Banks Pay, They Owe Us
Hands Off Our Pensions
Save City Services and Assets
Make the Banks Fund a Jobs Program
Oppose Barclays Swap Deal Which Will Cost the City of Detroit Its Future
Facebook event, RSVP and more info.
Mothers in White will pleasd for justice for Andy at the January 7, Tuesday, meeting of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, at 1 p.m.
A bi-lingual flyer about the event includes a photo of Andy’s parents Sujey and Rodrigo over his coffin. Mrs. Lopez apparently plans to attend the event and may speak to the supervisors as a mother whose innocent son was killed by law enforcement.
“Every member of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is staring into a moral crisis!” reads the flyer. “What kind of ‘policy’ permits the brutal killing of a 13-year-old child who committed NO CRIME?” it asks. It poses the questions, “To what length would you go if your innocent child or grandchild was brutally murdered?”
The committee reported its intention to “create a dramatic visual impact” of at least 50 Mothers in White, as well as their allies, including men in white and the group Women in Black, which has appeared on street corners around the world to bear witness to those killed by violence.
People are invited to bring mirrors to hold up to the supervisors to examine themselves. Supervisor Mike McGuire apparently said that Andy’s death was a time to reflect in the mirror. This peaceful event intends such a reflection.
The color white was selected because it was Andy’s favorite color. White is not the absence of color, but the mixture of all colors, which is what this mass movement for justice seeks.
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2014/01/03/fcc/
Protest FCC Chair Wheeler
Thurs. Jan. 9th SF Bay Area
WIRELESS MICROWAVE RADIATION KILLS
Thomas E. Wheeler, recently appointed by President Obama as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will be speaking in Mountain View and Oakland, CA on Thursday, January 9. Join planned protests and speak out against increasing wireless health damage.
Fox in Charge of the Hen House: From 1992- 2004, Wheeler headed the wireless industry lobbying group, the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). During his stint at the CTIA, his own scientists told him that cell phones were causing brain tumors. He buried the data and fired the scientists.
Wheeler buried the truth. Now, we are burying the victims.
Mountain View Event
Wheeler will be speaking in Silicon Valley at the Computer History Museum – 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd. in Mountain View. Protest outside starts at 11am, event is from 12-1pm (it is a free Commonwealth Club event and is now open to the general public.) You must sign up in advance here.
Click “register” first. Where it asks for your membership number simply enter “non-member.”
WE NEED YOU TO COME WITH SIGNS AND YOUR VOICES! We would also like to see babies, toddlers, preschoolers, teens, etc at both events. A funeral procession will be held for the victims of wireless technology. Dress in Black! Media will be there and we need to get our message across.
Oakland Event
Wheeler will be speaking at the Preservation Park Niles Hall at 1233 Preservation Park Way in Oakland at 7 pm. We will hold a rally at the main entrance on 12th St. starting at 6pm. Tickets to this free event are sold out but the public is free to attend the rally- more information here.
Again, bring your signs, voices, children, grandchildren and friends. Media will be there also. A funeral procession will be held for the victims of wireless technology. Dress in Black!
What we want:
- adequate health warnings on wireless devices
- a complete ban on wireless radiation in K-12 schools
- a recall on ‘smart meters’
- repeal of the 1996 Telecom Act
- defense of our copper-based landline network
- research-based wireless health standards
- Chair Wheeler to step down from the FCC
- Most of all, we want people to be told the truth- WIRELESS KILLS.
Please join us and spread the word to as many as possible. We look forward to seeing you there! If you have any questions about these events, or you are a member of the news media please call 925-285-5437 or 360-201-3959
Thank you so very much & we hope to see you all next week,
Ellie Marks, California Brain Tumor Association
Josh Hart, Stop Smart Meters!
p.s. please spread the word through social media- we depend on grassroots efforts to make events like these a success!
Community Rally and March to City Hall.
Stop the Crude Oil Storage and Raily Transfer Facility.
Keep Pittsburg safe and healthy.
Say NO to Toxic Racism,
Say NO to any more “DUMPS” in Pittsburg,
Say NO to Hazardous Facilities
next to Housing & Schools
We need to be righteously angry.
Let folks know we are mad as hell and
we ain’t gonna tolerate this.
The Postal Service is still trying to sell the downtown Berkeley Post Office (and privatize the entire USPS). We’re still trying to save it. The Berkeley City Council will be considering a proposal in late January to help that effort, a Zoning Overlay Ordinance that will make the entire Historic District Area (including the Post Office) less attractive to private, commercial development.
To keep up the pressure on all concerned, and let them know that the people STILL do not want Post Offices sold, Berkeley Post Office Defenders invite you to twenty-four hours of activities beginning at 11:00 AM.
Activities will include
- petition signing and flyer distribution (11- 5)
- presentations, teach-ins (11:30 – 2:00)
- music (2:00 – 5:00), including the Funky Nixons, Phat Love and Fresh Juice Party!
- arts and crafts
- dinner and a movie (6:00 – 10:00)
- letter writing (11:00 – 2:00)
- an empathy circle
- a study group
- a free clothing box
- tents and signs
- light brigade spelling out slogans of resistance (around 7:00 PM)
Come join us! Bring your friends!
Berkeley Post Office Defenders.
Please join Share The Bulb for a weekend of actions against the pending eviction of more than 50 people from the Albany Bulb!
January 17th
—————
Residents and allies of the Albany Bulb will rally at Albany City Hall at 4PM, before marching up Solano Avenue. We will stage an overnight campout on Solano Avenue, illustrating the plight of the more than 50 residents of the Albany Bulb, who, if evicted, would be forced onto Albany’s streets.
January 18th
————–
Artists will flock to the Bulb for a day of participatory art, live demonstrations, workshops, and art tours. Join us for an Art Festival at the Bulb from 12-5PM!
*****
The campout is part a West Coast Day of Action to fight the criminalization of homelessness, sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP). Cities in the Bay Area and around the country have passed laws making it impossible for homeless people to live within the law. It has become a crime to sit or lie down, to sleep in public, panhandle or otherwise conduct their lives in public view.
The eviction would force Bulb residents back into the same social narrative of police harassment and criminalization of homelessness which originally drove many of them to the Bulb.
We have successfully prevented the eviction from going forward since October, and we’re ready to take the fight into the new year! Come join us, and find out how you can help preserve this unique Bay Area treasure.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
More information to come…
International Day of Action.
� Meet at Pelosi’s office at 7th and Market 4:30 pm to speak, hear, hand out flyers, etc.
� March down Market Street to Feinstein’s office at Montgomery and Market (McKessen Building)
� Call-and-response chanting, massive phone-call-ins from the street to Feinstein, Pelosi, etc.
and much more!
� Bring signs.
Meanwhile, call Feinstein and Pelosi to stop Fast tracking of the TPP.
Feinstein: (415) 393 – 0707
Pelosi: (415) 556 – 4862
Call NOW!
Stop the Domain Awareness Center before it gets built!!!
Come on Out to Oscar Grant Plaza and City Council Chambers – Together We Say:
DON’T SELL THE PEOPLE OF OAKLAND TO THE DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY!
Outside: Feast! Music! Rally! Late Night Films! More.
Read about the Domain Awareness Center.
Reference: The DAC FAQ
Twitter: @Oaklandprivacy.
Also, sign the on line petition to stop the DAC.
See Also: The Face of Quan. The Arms of Santana. The Body of OPD. Or, DAC Spelled Correctly is NSA.
Also, sign the on line petition to stop the DAC.
Participants will pass out fliers, wearing tape over their mouths to to point out the fact that when violence against sex workers is discussed by “experts” from a prostitution abolitionist perspective, sex worker voices and perspectives are not included.
If you want, wear red or bring red umbrella
The main goal of this protest is to ask that sex workers are included in the processes that affect us.
A seat at the table for sex worker rights advocates
Adult consensual sex workers should have a seat at the table when anti-trafficking efforts are proposed and implemented. Right now, they are being shut out. Anti-trafficking efforts impact the lives and safety of adult consensual sex workers. Because they are impacted, they should be part of the leadership in the efforts to end the trafficking of children and of non-consenting adults.
Here is the information for the exclusive abolitionist celebration that we are protesting:
2014 Modern Day Abolitionist Award Ceremony & Panel Presentation on Discouraging Demand
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
10:00 am to 12:00 pm
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street, San Francisco
Join the CODEPINK NSA program as we surveill and monitor the house of Senator Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday, February 11th at noon.
Bring your surveillance equipment, magnifying glasses, tracking devices and drones as we monitor for any suspicious activities!
The protest is being organized in solidarity with the Day We Fight Back day of action!
-Remove Janet Napolitano as UC President and replace her with a great educator.
-Defend public education! Stop the privatization of the UC’s!
-Full citizenship rights or undocumented immigrants! Pass the Federal DREAM Act.
-Double underrepresented minority enrollment at UC Berkeley and UCLA.
-Restore Affirmative Action – Overturn Prop 209.
-BP out of UC Berkeley! Stop the Privatization of Public Education.
TELL CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL KAMALA HARRIS:
PROSECUTE KILLER COPS IT’S YOUR JOB
RALLY AND SPEAKOUT 3PM THURSDAY 2/13 1515 CLAY STREET, OAKLAND (STATE BUILDING BEHIND OSCAR GRANT PLAZA)
Initiated by the Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition.
The Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition (JAB) submitted a letter to California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris at the State March Against Police Brutality on October 22, demanding that she do her job and prosecute Miguel Masso for the murder of Alan Blueford. Since then she has responded with a flat refusal to reopen the investigation. (See excerpts from the letter we sent below.) On October 22 and since we have reached out to other families with victims of police murders to join in a statewide campaign to demand that AG Harris do her job. Many families have joined on and will be sending letters about their loved ones to Harris, demanding prosecution of the killer cops. All the families are invited and welcome to join us at the rally and speakout at the State Building in Oakland.
EC. 13. Subject to the powers and duties of the Governor, the Attorney General shall be the chief law officer of the State. It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are uniformly and adequately enforced.
The Attorney General shall have direct supervision over every district attorney and sheriff and over such other law enforcement officers as may be designated by law, in all matters pertaining to the duties of their respective offices, and may require any of said officers to make reports concerning the investigation, detection, prosecution, and punishment of crime in their respective jurisdictions as to the Attorney General may seem advisable.
Whenever in the opinion of the Attorney General any law of the State is not being adequately enforced in any county, it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to prosecute any violations of law of which the superior court shall have jurisdiction, and in such cases the Attorney General shall have all the powers of a district attorney. When required by the public interest or directed by the Governor, the Attorney General shall assist any district attorney in the discharge of the duties of that office.
Raise the Minimum Wage to $12.25. It’s time we make Oakland the kind of city that families can afford to put food on the table, keep a roof over our heads, and keep the lights on! Let’s ensure that workers can meet our basic needs.
Join ACCE, EBASE, Raise the Wage East Bay, ROC the Bay, SEIU 1021, SEIU ULTCW, UFCW Local 5, and UNITE HERE 2850 to gather signatures for a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage and provide workers with paid sick days.
9:30 AM: Rally.
11:00 – 3:00 PM: Signature gathering.
The American Postal Workers Union is organizing a protest at the Berkeley Staples store against the installation of Post Office stations inside Staples stores, staffed by low-wage non-union, no-benefit Staples workers instead of unionized Postal Service employees.
Rich Shelley @ 443-980-5586
Berkeley Post Office Defenders, organized to defend against the sale of the downtown Berkeley Post Office and call attention to the evils of privatization in general, supports the APWU in its efforts to stop the privatization of the US Post Office and preserve living-wage union jobs.
Read about our own, first-in-the-nation, protest at Staples back in December, 2013.
Be there on Saturday if you can!