Calendar
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it may be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition. More info at the meeting as available!
Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Ryan Rising & Ivy Anderson
Story Telling and Discussion:
Land Access, Food Autonomy,
Permaculture and Direct Action
Come hear stories of direct actions and community organizing over the last few years that have focused on reclaiming access to land to create permaculture and common spaces in the Bay Area.
Also, hear a report back from the Zapatista Escuelita: The Little School of Freedom according to the Zapatistas – the indigenous communities in resistance in Chiapas, Mexico, who reclaimed much of their land base in 1994 and have been self-organizing and living autonomously from the Mexican government ever since. Both here in the Bay, and in the jungles of Southern Mexico, it is access to land and what people bring forth from it through the work of their hands that empowers people to live successfully.
“Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.” -Malcolm X
Our dialogue will explore how people are organizing for access to land around the world, and focusing on the Bay Area and the lessons the Zapatistas and others have to share that inform our work here. We will talk about land reclamation, creating permaculture through direct action, & local food autonomy.
Ryan Rising is a permaculture designer, community organizer, and direct action advocate living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ryan recently returned from the first grade of the Zapatista Little School in Chiapas, Mexico.
Ivy Anderson runs the Mendell Roots Community garden on Third and Palou and teaches gardening and healthy eating to Bayview youth. Ivy is committed to creating access to free organic food and open green space in the Bayview.
Q&A and Announcements will follow.
Crude-by-Rail in Oakland? Say NO on Tuesday, June 10
A resolution opposing transportation of hazardous fuels through Oakland will soon be considered by the Oakland City Council. The first step is a meeting of the Public Works Committee.
Tuesday, June 10, 11:30 AM
Oakland City Hall, first floor
If passed, this will go to the full council shortly thereafter. If you are available Tuesday, please attend to express support for this important step in the campaign against crude-by-rail, fossil fuels and climate change.
Councilmembers are recommending that the City Council adopt a resolution “to oppose transportation of hazardous fossil fuels material, including crude oil, coal, and petroleum coke, along California waterways, through densely populated areas, through the City of Oakland.” Please come to show support!
People who want to speak need to fill out a speaker card in person before each item starts or on line athttp://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityClerk/s/SpeakerCard/SpeakerCard/OAK032373
What is going on in Syria? Is there a “revolution” or is this western “regime change”? What can we make of the June 3 Presidential Election in Syria? Rick Sterling is a founding member of Syria Solidarity Movement. He was in Syria with International Peace Pilgrimage in April 2014 and visited Damascus, Latakia and Homs. Rick will discuss the roots of the conflict, impressions from observations and first hand discussions with a wide variety of Syrian and Palestinian residents in Syria.
http://www.syriasolidaritymovement.org
Co-sponsored by Syria Solidarity Movement, and the BFUU Social Justice Committee.
Wheelchair accessible.
The West Oakland Specific Plan is a massive development project that will lead to gentrification and displacement across West Oakland. The Plan itself, while saying much about attracting business and investment by playing up West Oakland’s ‘uniqueness’ and ‘diversity,’ actually contains NO guarantees for protecting and providing for people who already live here.
JOIN THE MARCH: Leaving from Defremery Park at 4pm, through West Oakland to spread the word, arriving at City Hall for the 6pm Planning Commission meeting!
NO TO DISPLACEMENT!
NO TO GENTRIFICATION!
DEFEND WEST OAKLAND!
Original event notice on IndyBay.
We’re going to finish Richard Heinberg’s The End of Growth with a twist: everyone will read the last chapter (Ch.7) to get a picture of his prophesies and prescriptions while Spencer, Greg, and I will focus on a chapter each and give a short report-back. This way we can finish the book in just one more meeting.
Meeting of the City of Oakland’s “Privacy and Data Retention Ad Hoc Advisory Committee” – open to the public.
When:
2nd & 4th Thursdays
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Where:
Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
14th & Broadway
Read the announcement from the City of Oakland City Administrator’s Weekly Report (April 25, 2014):
This committee was created by City Council action during the discussions earlier in the year about the Port Domain Awareness Center (DAC). The goal of the DAC is to improve readiness to prevent, respond to and recover from major emergencies in the Oakland region and ensure better multi-agency coordination across the larger San Francisco Bay Area. The goal of the Privacy and Data Retention Policy is to ensure there are safeguards to protect against potential misuse of the data or violations of individuals’ privacy rights and civil liberties. The meeting is open to the public. For questions about the Ad Hoc Committee, please contact Joe DeVries, Assistant to the City
We need to show up to these meetings and pressure the City to adopt a privacy policy that makes privacy a priority, not only “security” or administrative convenience.
Working Our Way Out of the Crisis: Climate Justice & the Working Class”
part of MG’s free public series: Race, Class and Ecology
On June 12th, Movement Generation will launch our Race, Class & Ecology series, beginning with a conversation between workers, union organizers, and climate justice leaders on moving from “Jobs OR the environment” to “Jobs FOR the environment.”
Refinery Corridor Healing Walk 3: Benicia – Rodeo. Sat. June 14
Join us for the third of four healing walks along the refinery corridor in Northeast San Francisco Bay.
We will begin at the 9th Street Park in Benicia (Valero Refinery) and walk in prayer and conversation to Lone Tree Park in Rodeo (Phillips 66 Refinery).
To RSVP, and for full details, schedule, bicycle contingent, and transportation options, please visit the Connect the Dots website.
Native American elders and community members will lead the walk, stopping to pray at certain places, including the water. We will walk from the 9th Street Park in Benicia to the Lone Tree Point in Rodeo, and will be walking over the Carquinez Bridge. The walk is approximately 14 miles with support vehicles so that walkers can rest whenever they would like. There are also several places where walkers can join the walk along the route (Details below).
Around the last mile, walkers will be encouraged to begin imagining their own communities beyond fossil fuels and what they would ideally be like. Walkers will be invited to share those ideas with their own drawings on muslin at the end of the walk. The muslin squares will be sewn in to a quilt and shared at the last walk on July 12 (Rodeo (Phillips 66) to Richmond (Chevron). Art from previous walks will be exhibited. Joining us? Please make sure to check back for more details no later than June 11.
To RSVP, and for full details, schedule, bicycle contingent, and transportation options, please visit the Connect the Dots website.
San Franciscans Deserves a Raise
The current movement to increase the minimum wage has gained momentum across the country and the time in San Francisco is now! Workers demand a dignified wage! An increase in the minimum wage would help thousands of workers keep up with rising rents, tuition and healthcare. Please join community, labor and students as San Francisco leads the fight in raising standards for all workers.
Lunch provided.
La Plaza 16 Coalición demands a moratorium on market-rate housing development at 16th/Mission until the needs for deeply affordable housing are met.
Brass Liberation Orchestra @ Noon
Other performances from 1-4PM
Join us before or after you celebrate at SF JUNETEENTH 2014!
This event will be a super fun, interactive and visual way to show that the Plaza belongs to the people and should not be sold to the highest bidder. Music, a bike repair station, tenants rights info, art making, food, and more! There will also be information about the proposed monster development and how to connect to some of the opposition to this project. The community around the 16th/Mission Plaza needs affordable housing, not ten-story towers of luxury housing!
Bring yourselves, your creativity, ideas, arts, skills, and activities.
After the extensive successful organizing of the hunger strike in the summer of 2013, the California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation has used many tactics to suppress prisoner organizing. Many organizers have been moved, refused food and written-up as retaliation for their leadership and participation.
Most recently CDCR has issued proposed regulations to censor “obscene materials,” which includes “publications that indicate an association with groups that are oppositional to authority and society.”
We invite you to a discussion about the implications of these new proposed regulations on inside-outside organizing, correspondence and the fight to abolish solitary confinement.
COME ONE ! COME ALL !
The Gill Tract Community Farm is having a meeting for ALL volunteers and community members. Enter through the gate at Jackson St. & Ohlone Ave.
On the Agenda:
- how do we ensure sufficient staffing on a regular basis to keep the farm operating smoothly throughout the summer(year)
- people’s input on which crops to plant for the next season (around mid August)
- how different groups can work co-operatively and collectively on the farm.
We hope to see you there!
YES!
The Zoning Overlay and Green Downtown Initiative will be on the ballot November 4th
YES!
Berkeley voters will decide the character of our Downtown for the next few decades. Let’s help voters make the right choice!
Come out and join us on Sunday, June 15th, 2014 at
Berkeley’s Juneteenth Festival
along the South Berkeley Adeline-Alcatraz corridor
from 11:00 to 1:30, or from 1:30 to 4:00
We’ll talk with people, hand out flyers and sign up volunteers to help pass the initiative
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The Initiative will protect our public buildings – including the Downtown Post Office – from commercial development, reserving our Historic Civic Center for public and civic uses.
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The Initiative will require the inclusion of affordable and family-sized housing in the large new developments downtown.
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The Initiative will require that 50% of construction workers be from Berkeley or nearby cities, and be paid a fair “Prevailing Wage.”
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The Initiative will require the inclusion of new buildings to be built to high Green standards, and to include bike parking, car share and other features that help Berkeley meet its climate action goals.
Come join us from 11:00 to 1:30, or 1:30 to 4:00
Meet on the north end of the Bar-B-Q “island” on Adeline Ave. near Harmon Street. Wear a sun hat, and carry water.
To sign up, please email Sally Nelson at sallynels7@gmail.com
Want to learn more about the Initiative to Protect the Civic Center Historic District and Promote Green Downtown Development? Please visit our web page.
Legal scholar Michelle Alexander’s seminal work, “The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” outlines how the gains of the civil rights movement have been systematically turned back by the exponential rise in incarcerations of brown and black men.
“Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.”
The Bay Area Public School is proud to co-present this class with Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church, whose congregation will be reading Alexander’s book over a six-week period. All are welcome to join us for this engaged conversation on the meaning of “The New Jim Crow” for those of us working for social justice in Oakland and beyond.
Building the Nationwide Movement
Waging Nonviolent Struggle
to get Big Money out of American Politics
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America is in crisis, and our democracy on the auction block. We’re here to do something about it.
99Rise is a network of activists and organizers dedicated to building a mass movement
to reclaim our democracy from the domination of big money.
We believe that only by getting big money out of politics by winning a democracy that responds to the real needs of “the 99%” will we open the door to finally realizing thhe progressive promise of the American Dream. We thus seek a Constitutional Amendment and supplemental federal legislation that would guarantee the principle of political equality, as well as ensure that neither private wealth nor corporate privilege could be used to exercise undue influence over elections and policymaking. To this end, we are committed to deploying the most powerful tool of social and political change: strategic nonviolent resistance.
Come hear about our work and the March for Democracy currently happening now,
http://www.marchfordemocracy.org/
We hope to see you on Monday!
Jade Batstone is a 99Rise volunteer organizer and co-founder of the Next 26. Next 26 engages the next generation of key influencers from a range of emerging San Francisco industries and nonprofit groups. This network will empower individuals to collaborate in new ways, build innovative solutions to real problems facing our communities, and promote a culture of diversity and inclusivity.
Jessica Nuti is passionate about social, economic and environmental justice movements. She is currently a 99Rise volunteer organizer. And works full-time at Global Exchange in their Development department. She also holds organizer and training positions in organizations that support skill sharing for transgender and women’s rights, environmental justice, and getting money out of politics. She has a strong passion for non-violent direct action, and participating in training efforts to ensure safe and effective direct actions.
Q&A and Announcements will follow.
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
And we’re fighting against both!
Come help us plan our next steps.
We’ve started a “Don’t Shop at Staples” campaign with some awesome… what else? … postcards to send to Staples management! Here’s the front of the postcard. The campaign has been adopted by Postal Unions, has been endorsed by the AFL-CIO, and has gone national!
All four Postal Unions have joined together to support maintaining full service, public Post Offices in every community, with expansion to include postal banking, and to oppose subcontracting and privatization of services. The California Federation of Teachers passed a resolution in support of opposition to Staples. We are trying to get the Alameda Labor Council to pass a similar resolution.
And we need to be prepared if the Post Office announces a sale! The Advisory Commission on Historical Preservation came out with its report, recommending that sales of Historic Post offices be halted until the USPS conforms with historical preservation law. Here is our response. Also the Office of Inspector General’s report on the sale of Historic Post Offices came out recently – anything could happen now since Congress’ “request” that no historic Post Offices be sold until it had come out has been honored and no further Congressional request or mandate has come down. Come help us plan our response.
We have joined with other activists in Berkeley to put a ballot initiative on the ballot to rezone the Berkeley Post Office and other areas in the Historic District to prevent privatization, and also to insure a better Downtown Berkeley. We succeeded in getting the necessary signatures; it will be voted on in November, but Tom Bates and the City Council have nefarious plans to undermine our coalition.
Encouraging articles have come out recently about using Post Offices as banking facilities for the unbanked. We held a forum on postal and public banking on March 29th on the Post Office steps.
THINGS ARE HAPPENING!
Demonstrate support for City Council resolution opposing shipping fossil fuel through Oakland
The resolution passed in committee and is on the consent calendar, which means it should be approved without discussion at the council meeting. Come out to show your support for this step, and wear red for visual impact/photos!
San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Meeting
(btw. Mission and South Van Ness #12, 14, 22 buses, or 16th St BART)
San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Meeting. The Living Wage Coalition is building a grassroots movement of low-wage workers and their allies to win economic justice. Anyone who works full time should be able to survive on what they earn and support themselves and their children. Come to be a part of discussing next steps in pursuing an economic justice agenda.
More information at http://www.livingwage-sf.org/