Calendar
“Please come speak out against the toxic destruction of the East Bay Hills at Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting, where they will decide whether to accept the FEMA grant for the project.”
check out these websites for more information about the project:
http://www.saveeastbayhills.org/
http://milliontrees.me/
http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/
(especially: http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wildfire.html and http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wpad.html for the decade long history of this project)
http://hillsconservationnetwork.org/
http://treespiritproject.com/sfbayclearcut/
(sign up to participate in the July 18 nude photo shoot in the threatened forest)
Via email alert:
There’s been a lot of activity recently on the FEMA vegetation management front. For those who don’t know, despite 12,000+ comments opposing the plan to clearcut the Berkeley/Oakland hills FEMA released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that called for the destruction of up to 400,000 healthy trees and the application of unprecedented amounts of toxic herbicides over a 10 year period. As a result of this unfortunate decision HCN filed suit agains FEMA in Federal court in March, also naming the City of Oakland, East Bay Regional Park District, and UC Berkeley.
Last Tuesday we had a press conference at City Hall. That night the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee recommended the Oakland City Council accept $4 million of FEMA money and commit the City to spend an additional $1.5 million in taxpayer matching funds and a CEQA EIR. All this to implement a plan that will actually increase the risk of fire in the hills. Imagine, a City that’s broke spending $1.5 million to cut down hundreds of thousands of trees for no good reason.
Together we have a lot of work to do to raise awareness to stop the clear-cut and poisoning of the hills.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Tell the city of Oakland that you don’t want them to take the FEMA money to kill trees for 2 generations and douse the hills with TOXIC herbicides for at least a decade.
Tuesday June 2nd at 6 pm, the Oakland City Council is going to vote on whether to accept $4,000,000 in federal FEMA funds to deforest and poison the Oakland hills and to increase local taxpayer contribution to the effort to more than $880,000.
The City of Oakland appears intent on clearcutting 100+ acres of forests and spreading thousands of gallons of toxic herbicides in wildlife corridors, recreation areas, dog parks, and residential neighborhoods. Please contact council members and urge them to vote No.
If at all possible, please plan on attending Tuesday’s meeting and speaking. This is your last opportunity to influence the City of Oakland!
Do you think the ACCJC treats California’s Community colleges unfairly? The next ACCJC meeting will be on Friday, June 5th in Oakland. You can bet that AFT 2121 and CFT leaders from across the state will be there to tell them what we think! Want to help? Invite your friends and come out to join us!
ACCJC, TREAT OUR COLLEGES FAIRLY!
Rally and press conference
Friday, June 5th at 1pm
Hilton Oakland Airport Hotel
1 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland
RSVP and invite on Facebook
ACCJC will host meetings at this hotel on June 3, 4, 5. Legislation is being sent now to the Assembly that will reform ACCJC accreditation practices. This event is to raise awareness and put pressure on key legislators to consider passing this legislation for a fair accreditation process for all community colleges. The ACCJC treats California’s Community colleges unfairly and this harms thousands of students. California’s State Superior Court ruled that the ACCJC broke the law when it tried to close City College of San Francisco and the Department of Education criticized the ACCJC for its treatment of our California community colleges. The California Federation of Teachers, the City College faculty union and other supporters from across California have been fighting for fair accreditation reforms. We are holding a protest and press conference outside of the ACCJC’s next meeting. Please join us!
http://www.aft2121.org/2015/05/the-the-accjc-to-treat-our-colleges-fairly-rally-on-june-5th-in-oakland/
RSVP and invite people to the event on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/events/839111249505673/
www.facebook.com/saveccsf
info@saveccsf.org
www.saveccsf.org
The Oakland First Fridays street festival is here once again June 5th from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. This month’s event will feature one-of-a-kind arts and crafts vendors, delectable eats, and unique entertainment to bring the diverse Oakland community together in a way only First Fridays can.
Five blocks of Telegraph Avenue, from West Grand to 27th Street, will be closed to through traffic making room for 30 food vendors, musical acts, and community groups and over 75 artists, makers, crafters and performers of all sorts. The music stages will have performances through the entire evening from Pistachio, Andre Thierry & Zydeco Magic and Baby & The Luvies among others. Event goers are encouraged to visit food trucks and entrepreneurs Antonik’s BBQ, Mama Africa, Hooked Crustaceans, Charlie Frank’s Pies, Bok Ssam, Girl Friday Zeppole, Kainbigan, The Stroopie Gourmet, Fist of Flour Pizza Co., Tacolicious, Sunrise Deli, Opies, Torpedo Sushi, and more offering up their hand crafted meals.
Open mic & cyphers happen EVERY 1st Friday & EVERY 2nd Saturday of the month at The Alan Blueford Center for Justice 2434 Telegraph Ave Oakland, CA 94612.
Show starts at 7pm-ish, give or take an hour or so 😉 depending on the time of the year–we probably start later in the summer & earlier in the winter.
All ages are welcome.
________________________________________
Prisoners of Consciousness Committee: http://chairmanfredjr.blogspot.com/
Ras Ceylon: https://www.reverbnation.com/rasceylon
Ras Ceylon: https://rasceylon.bandcamp.com/
The Alan Blueford Center for Justice on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE?…
The Alan Blueford Center for Justice on Twitter: @abc4justice
The festival is free, including the keynotes, interviews and panels on various downtown stages during the day. But we expect many of those indoor sessions to be full. How to make sure you get in? Stand in line for a couple of hours? Who wants to spend valuable festival time doing that when you could be exploring exhibitors, visiting the 50,000-book Lacuna installation, or having lunch?
Solution: Tickets! By two means:
(1) Best is to get single tickets in advance. Reserve single tickets. There is a button next to each session on the schedule, and you can reserve your place via Eventbrite for a small processing fee for each session.
(2) Get tickets on the day of the festival. A quantity will be held in a Box Office at the event site, first come first served, for free.
Or.. a standby line outside each venue will allow people without tickets access to any seat five minutes before the start of the session.
- Balloons Aloft! Uphold Berkeley’s need for affordable housing!
- Balloons Aloft! Come to downtown Berkeley to see balloons aloft at 194 feet, marking the height and dimensions
- of this LA developer’s monstrous 18-story luxury condo high rise for 2211 Harold Way:
- Demolish the Shattuck Cinemas and Habitot Museum and terminate their 50 employees for an 18-story luxury condo high rise across the street from the Berkeley Public Library?! Turn Downtown into a construction site for three years, intensifying traffic congestion and harming businesses? Make a mockery of Berkeley’s need for affordable housing? Block the view of the Golden Gate from UCB’s Campanile? Is this what we voted for?
You are not a loan! Are you in debt? Are you outraged by the debt system? Join the growing resistance! Attend the 4th Strike Debt Bay Area’s Debtors’ Assembly.
Come to the Assembly to learn about tools for escaping the closing walls of debt, to share resources and skills, and to magnify our assembled energy. As we share our experiences we can begin to take back from the financiers what they have taken from us….. our freedom and our future.
Organized by Strike Debt Bay Area. Facebook, Website, Twitter
More information: strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com
Strike Debt Bay Area is affiliated with strikedebt.org, rollingjubilee.org, and debtcollective.org
Calling for a peaceful vigil, no fine print, at #LakeMerritt pergola/columns tonight, 8 pm #OIS #Oakland
— Pamela Drake (@Bethpikegirl) June 6, 2015
@TruthCastersTV @violentfanon Calling for a peaceful vigil, no fine print, at #LakeMerritt pergola/columns tonight, 8 pm #OIS #Oakland
— Russell Bates (@crustyrustyMAD) June 6, 2015
No other information available about the event itself.
This morning OPD shot and killed a man who they found sleeping or unconscious in a car on the 580 Westbound offramp at Lake Merritt.
ART PARTY & MEETING
Preparations for Conference of Mayors – Let’s make our presence visible with creative ART!
12Noon – 2:00pm ART
2:00pm – 4:00pm MEETING
4:00pm – 6:00pm ART
All Are Welcome!
OccupyForum presents…
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
David Hartsough
Waging Peace: A Discussion on Civil Disobedience for Occupy
and other Activists
“Any power structure relies upon the People’s obedience to the orders of the ruler(s). If the People do not obey, rulers have no power.’’— Gene Sharp
David Hartsough knows how to get in the way. He has used his body to block navy ships headed for Vietnam and trains loaded with munitions on their way to El Salvador and Nicaragua. He has crossed borders to meet “the enemy” in East Berlin, Castro’s Cuba, and present-day Iran. He has marched with mothers confronting a violent regime in Guatemala and stood with refugees threatened by death squads in the Philippines.
Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. His is the story of one man’s effort to live as though we were all brothers and sisters. He inspires, encourages and empowers us to help create a world that is peaceful and just. Hartsough will lead a discussion on what it takes to put your body on the line. Where do you find the courage? How do you deal with fear? How do you deal with arrest and jail? How do your comrades help and hinder? How do you create campaigns? How does a group bent on massive change actually get the job done?
David Hartsough is executive director of Peaceworkers, based in San Francisco, and is cofounder of the Nonviolent Peaceforce. He is a Quaker and member of the San Francisco Friends Meeting. Hartsough has worked actively and internationally for nonviolent social change and peaceful resolution of conflicts since he met Dr. Marin Luther King Jr.in 1956. He is a longtime friend of OccupyForum.
Announcements will follow. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
You’re Invited!
#StopFastTrack Rally at Rep. Pelosi’s Office
What: Now is the time to speak out against Fast Track. With important votes coming up in the next few weeks, we need to turn up the pressure on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to publicly go on the record against Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Join CREDO; Democracy for America; MoveOn.org Civic Action; Daily Kos; Fight for the Future; 350.org; SumOfUs; Other 98%; Public Citizen; Friends of the Earth; Citizens Trade Campaign; Corporate Accountability International; the Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter; 350 Bay Area and other progressive allies to rally against Fast Track for the TPP. Can you make it?
O_O Who is watching you? O_O
For a new installation at the Oakland Museum, The Center for Investigative Reporting is teaming up with local artists to host a community-focused look at surveillance in the Town. We’ve literally been driving around Oakland in an old Ford Falcon van to both educate and interview residents about the different types of technologies police use in the name of public safety, and what those technologies mean for our day-to-day lives.
Now, the Off/Page Project – a collab between Youth Speaks and CIR – wants your voice in the mix. We’re hosting an Eyes on Oakland writing workshop at Sole Space that will take a look at some of these surveillance practices that are used right here in Oakland.
Join us as we weave personal experiences, news reports and data points to create poems that explore local viewpoints on surveillance and how you can help shape the conversation. We’ll show you new ways to think like a journalist with your art, and give you the tools to dig deeper into what’s happening in your own community. Selected pieces created during the workshop will be featured in the Who Is Oakland? exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California, which is currently on display until July 12
What exactly does an Off/Page writing workshop look like? Check out our short film, Broken City Poets, to see us in action: https://
We are encouraging folks 16-22 to attend. There are 15 spots available, please RSVP here: http://bit.ly/1J5z7D3
Questions? Ideas? Email Niema Jordan, the Off/Page Project program manager: njordan@cironline.org
Revolutions come in waves and cycles. We are again riding the crest of a revolutionary epic, much like 1848 or 1917, from the Arab Spring to movements against austerity in Greece to the Occupy Movement. In Wages of Rebellion, Chris Hedges – who has chronicled the malaise and sickness of a society in terminal moral decline in his books, Empire of Illusion and Death of the Liberal Class- investigates what social and psychological factors cause revolution, rebellion, and resistance. Drawing on an ambitious overview of prominent philosophers, historians and literary figures, he shows not only the harbingers of a coming crisis but also the nascent seeds of rebellion. Hedges’ message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States and around the world are inevitable in the face of mounting environmental destruction and grotesque wealth polarization.
Focusing on the stories of rebels from around the world and throughout history, Hedges investigates just what it takes to be a rebel in modern times. For Hedges, resistance is carried out not simply for its success, but as a moral imperative that affirms life.
A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with fifteen years at The New York Times. Among his bestselling books are: Empire of Illusion, Death of the Liberal Class; War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; and Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (written with Joe Sacco). He currently writes a weekly column for Truthdig.
Hosted by Richard Wolinsky, the veteran producer and host of Book Waves, an interview show broadcast on KPFA Radio.
Tickets: 800-838-3006 or Pegasus (3 sites), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloway’s Books SF: Modern Times, Online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1447124
Fight for a city budget that puts communities and workers first.
We are a group of labor, housing, racial and social justice advocates that believes the Oakland City Council should pass a budget that reflects the needs of our communities. We fight alongside working people throughout the East Bay.
8:00 AM: Telegraph & MacArthur Blvd. Join tenats to demand the city reinvest in Healthy Housing.
11:00 AM: Oakland City Hall. Justice for low-wage workers! Join fast food workers and community members calling on the City to enforce the Minimum Wage.
3:30 PM: Oakland City Hall. Reinvest in Public Services. Join residents as they call on the City to reinvest resources to fix our roads and address illegal dumping in the flatlands.
4:30 PM: Oakland City Hall steps. Press Event to call for a Budget that Reinvests in Oakland.
7:00 PM: 14th & Broadway, Oscar Grant Plaza. Take back our streets! The new curfew can’t stop us from holding space in the streets.
What do we DEMAND???
Reinvesting in Tenants & Housing: Enforcing the Tenant Protection Ordinance & adequately staffing city housing inspectors
Reinvesting in Workers: Enforcing Minimum Wage & Paid Sick Days & making sure there are resources for the city’s most vulnerable workers including fast food and day laborers
Reinvesting in Equity: Supporting the creation of a Department of Race & Equity
Reinvesting in Public Services: Ensuring that flatland communities get the services they need by working toward a fair contract that gives our city workers the pay, rights & respect they deserve
Reinvesting in responsible development: Public land for the public good & ensuring that communities benefit from the rise in development taking place in our city
Background on ReFund Oakland:
The ReFund & ReBuild Oakland Community-Labor Coalition representing over 15 labor, community and faith groups has been focused on building a broad based agenda to ensure big banks, large corporations and our elected officials reinvest in working families, communities of color and neighborhoods impacted by inequity, displacement and underrepresentation.
In 2013 ReFund groups came together and, alongside a 1 day strike organized by city unions, helped to push a budget that prioritized public services and an agenda that reinvested in working class families and communities of color across the city.
The program includes a short film “Until All Are Free”, updates and letter-writing
Originating as a day of solidarity for eco-prisoners, June 11 remains anchored in a project of ecological defense and struggle against a society based on exploitation and confinement.
Join us on the annual day of solidarity with long-term eco- and anarchist prisoners, including Marius Mason and Eric McDavid. They were subject to the longest federal prison terms (22 yrs and 20 yrs respectively) of those indicted in the so-called “Green Scare”, targeting radical activists.
In calling for the day, we aim to deepen ongoing support for comrades facing long sentences. We are committed to building a model of solidarity that is both long-term and rooted in our work.
Transitions…
On January 8th of this year, Eric McDavid was released from prison after nine years of incarceration.
Last year Marius Mason publicly shared his new name and use of male pronouns that better reflect his transition to a masculine gender identity.
Join us to discuss ways to support our comrades.
Join us for a discussion of V.I. Lenin’s key writing on the process of overthrowing capitalism, State and Revolution! Todd Chretien, editor of the new annotated edition from Haymarket Books, will present.
Lenin was hiding from the police during the 1917 Russian Revolution while he finished State and Revolution. Lenin’s most widely read—and most misunderstood—book describes the “monstrous oppression of the working people by the state” and how capitalism transforms whole areas of the globe into “military convict prisons for workers.” State and Revolution defends Marx and Engels’s argument that workers must dismantle, or “smash,” capitalist states through revolution from below, and replace them with radically democratic states.
This new edition features an introduction and hundreds of explanatory annotations by Todd Chretien that place Lenin’s work in its historical context. Chretien will kick off a discussion of the key insights from the book and their applicability to struggles against state violence and for liberation today.