Calendar
“As many of you know, I favor strong First Amendment protections for journalists and protesters and especially students. But I’m also very much against the President of the United States’ and his followers’ repeated attempts to get Congresswomen of color harmed or killed.
Legally, these two ideals appear to be in conflict. Would you like to see me try to square them? Would you like to hear a fully thought-through articulation of why free speech does not, or at least should not, include personal threats made against any person who dares to oppose Donald Trump? Would you like to hear an expert in First Amendment law tell me why I’m wrong?
If so, please join me and Ken White (aka @Popehat) at Berkeley Law on Monday, November 18th at 5:30 p.m. We will be having a spirited debate about what free speech does mean, should mean, and must mean in the age of Donald Trump. We’ll be playing some of our old hits like: Can a gun store suggest killing Congresswomen if it didn’t actually threaten them? And some new ones like, well, whatever dangerous, hateful thing Trump says in the next 10 days, probably.
We’re being hosted by Director Catherine Crump of the Samuelson Clinic for Law, Technology, and Public Policy. We will try very hard not to break any of the technology or public policy lying around.
Click here to RSVP. Especially if you agree with me! But, even if you don’t. I will defend forever your right to oppose me… just so long as you don’t think you can use the n-word without catching some hands.”
As of October 2, 2019, AB857, the law enabling local public bank charters in California, has been signed by Governor Newsom. We have made history! And we have more history to make! Follow our latest news page for new developments. We’re keeping an updated list of articles about the bill and other public banking news.
There has never been a better time to join the movement. We have lots of ways for you to plug in.
We have switched our meeting day back to Monday. We’ll meet on the third Monday of every month, but watch this space in case something changes.
We’ll go over all the current developments in the East Bay and California, and all next steps for working groups.
If you would like to come early and get an introduction to the concepts of public banking, or more locally to who we are and what we do, please email us and someone will come meet you at 5:30.
Working Group Meetings:
Some of our working groups meet between organizers’ meetings, and others just confer by phone and email. You can plug into any one of these:
- Outreach to Organizations
- Outreach to Individuals
- Digital Outreach
- Advocacy (working with politicians)
- Governance
- California Public Banking Alliance
- Fundraising
- Operations
Just send us a note and we’ll help you get connected to the work you want to do.
Join immigrants and their allies in fighting for a pathway to permanent residency for over a million longtime U.S. residents who are at risk of losing their legal status under the Trump administration’s attacks on programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure(DED).
The El Cerrito City Council will hear and vote on a proclamation titled “In Support of Protections from Deportation and a Path to Permanent Residency for Beneficiaries of DACA, TPS and DED” at its November 19 meeting in City Council chambers, 10890 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM. Read the entire draft proclamation at this pdf link. The City Council’s agenda isn’t available yet, but will appear at this link closer to the date of the meeting, and should include a final draft of the proclamation.
Local community organizations El Cerrito Progressives, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant,and NorCal TPS Coalition will hold a rally/vigil outside City Hall before the meeting, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Come hear local speakers tell their stories and explain how we can all work to keep families together and our communities intact. El Cerrito Mayor Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto is also slated to speak at the beginning of the rally. Come even if you live outside of El Cerrito! TPS Coalition has been working with several cities on the issue; you can read the Berkeley City Council’s 10/15/19 resolution,
We already know that we desperately need single payer for health care. But the recent failures of PG&E show how we need a single-payer system for our energy grid, too — to stop the reckless, dangerous behavior of private companies getting rich off what should be a public good, and to fight climate change. Only one of the Democratic candidates running for President has unequivocally called for bringing PG&E under public control. Bernie Sanders’s Green New Deal proposal isn’t just the boldest proposal to save the planet that any candidate has made yet. It also includes the United States moving to 100 percent public ownership of our power grid.
How can the growing democratic socialist movement win demands that stave off the worst of the climate crisis and move us towards a more sustainable future? Solving the ecological crisis requires a mass movement to take on hugely powerful industries. Yet the environmental movement’s base in the professional-managerial class and focus on consumption has little chance of attracting working-class support. The seminal essay by Matt Huber included in the class readings argues for a program that tackles the ecological crisis by organizing around working-class interests.
The readings for the upcoming Night School class can be found here: https://www.eastbaydsa.org/night-school/
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network. We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition and other analytics, and pushing back against ICE.
On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/ Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy
Check out our sister site DeportICE.
“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”
Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in various municipalities around the Bay. To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
APTP meets the third Wednesday of every month. Join us to find out how you can get involved.
This space is wheelchair accessible. Please contact us for any additional accessibility questions or concerns.
This important discussion between two major American whisteblowers will focus on the urgent need to end unaccountable government power.
Daniel Ellsberg is an American activist and former United States military analyst formerly employed by the RAND Corporation. He precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of the U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. In1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years. Due to governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, and the defense by Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson, all charges against Ellsberg were dismissed. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He is also known for voicing support for Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden. Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 Olof Palme Prize for his humanism and exceptional moral courage.
Jeffery Sterling is a former CIA agent convicted under the Espionage Act for talking to a New York Times reporter. He was released from prison after serving more than two years of his 42-month sentence. Sterling’s case drew nationwide attention because the Obama-era Department of Justice unsuccessfully tried to force the reporter, James Risen, to divulge the identity of his sources for “State of War,” his book that revealed just how the CIA had botched a covert operation against Iran’s nuclear program. Risen reported that instead of undermining the Iranians, the CIA had provided them with useful information on how to build a nuclear bomb. The case had a racial dimension, as Sterling was one of the few black undercover operatives at the CIA. After several years of what he believed was discriminatory treatment, he filed a complaint against the agency, followed by a lawsuit. The CIA fired Sterling in 2002. His lawsuit was blocked by the courts after the government argued successfully that proceeding with the suit would expose state secrets. As a whistleblower, Sterling subsequently met with Senate investigators about the mismanaging of a classified program he worked on at the agency.
Norman Solomon is the author of a dozen books including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, where he coordinates the ExposeFacts.org program for whistleblowers and press freedom. He is co-founder of RootsAction.org. Kevin Cartwright has since 1994 handled many important positions for Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM. He is a communications strategist who continues working with various social change organizations across the country to help improve their communications.
Give Us Something to be Thankful For
A Visit to Governor Newsom, to Expedite Healthy California for All Commission for Single-Payer Healthcare!
- -We are providing a charter bus – capacity 56, first come,, first served – that will pick up at the Larkin Street main libraryy in San Francisco and then at Ashby BART before heading to Sacramento. We ask for those able to carpool to please do so! We will also have box lunches once we arrive. So that we have a headcount to submit the lunch order in time, and to know who will be on the bus and who will need to carpool, the deadline to RSVP is November 8th. (You are welcome to complete the RSVP after the 8th, the more the merrier, but we cannot then guarantee a ride or a lunch.)
San Francisco Main Library
100 Larkin St.
10:30am
Ashby BART
3100 Adeline St.
11:00am
Governor’s Office
1315 — 10th St.
12:30pm
Meeting at Gov’s Office at 1pm // Rally on North Steps at 2pm
Bus capacity is 56; carpool caravan
encouraged! RSVP and info: tinyurl.com/HCN-Newsom
Come by our open Delegates Meetings! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
This meeting usually happens in the Ballroom, but the the location may change depending on the access needs of people attending and other events taking place in the building.
Sponsored by ACCE, Berkeley Tenants Union, EBHO, Community Land Trust, Gray Panthers.
Gray Panthers Berkeley East Bay is co-sponsor of this Housing Justice Week rally They will share how they fought an illegal Ellis Act conversion/eviction. Learn how Prop O funds and nonprofit community land trusts could be used to help create self-governing cooperative communities. Hot cider, snacks, and music.
What will it take to truly address the systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism, and war economy plaguing our country today? The answer is presented in the Poor People’s Campaign Moral Budget, which lays out the policies and investments to address the widespread and systemic injustices we face.
We invite you to come together with other supporters of the Poor People’s Campaign to learn more about these solutions through our Moral Budget Reading Group. This will be a space for us to develop our collective understanding of the policies we’re working towards and how they will affect the lives of the people in our communities.
We’ll be discussing the pages 31 through 50, “Investments in Domestic Tranquility.”
You can view the Moral Budget on your computer here: http://ppcbayarea.org/moral-budget. If you’d like to purchase a physical copy for $10, please email info@ppcbayarea.org and let us know.
We hope you’ll join us to be part of this reading group. Forward together, not one step back!
In this era of “reconciliation”, Indigenous land is still being taken at gunpoint. INVASION is a new film about the Unist’ot’en Camp, Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory, (Gidimt’en checkpoint) and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people.
The Unist’ot’en Camp has been a beacon of resistance for nearly 10 years. It is a healing space for Indigenous people and settlers alike, and an active example of decolonization. The violence, environmental destruction, and disregard for human rights following TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) / Coastal GasLink’s interim injunction has been devastating to bear, but this fight is far from over.
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INVASION is a new documentary on the Unist’ot’en struggle for sovereignty against industry giants. This film is a collaboration between Sub.Media founder Franklin López, AJ+ reporter Michael Tol, and documentary filmmaker Sam Vinal. Learn more at: http://www.unistoten.camp/invasion
Sun, Nov 10, 2019
Open Mic/Political Karaoke
What’s bugging you, politics-wise? Here’s your chance to talk about any and every thing from the PG&E Power Shutdown to Brexit, from Nancy Pelosi to Greta Thunberg, maybe even the riots in Chile. Sign up for 5 minute slots!
Sun, Nov 17, 2019
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter.
Representatives of the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression have been invited to discuss their position on this matter.
Awaiting better blurb..
Sun, Nov 24, 2019
Women and War
Women have a long association with violent intergroup conflict and war going back to early human times. This presentation will survey women in the highly genderized institutions of war and the military in various periods and types of societies. Although women have been impacted in multiple ways and played many roles, the focus of this talk is on women’s role as fighter/combatant and direct supporters of this activity. Also covered are women in some of the revolutionary wars and militaries in the past two centuries. The fighter/combatant perspective on women is usually omitted or “hidden” in accounts by both conventional and feminist analysts who stress women as victims, survivors, peacemakers and supporters of men who fight. Women as fighters not only redresses this imbalance but indicates a role whose impact is as significant as the other roles that are more widely promulgated.
Presented by Al Sargis, Founder/Director of the Friedrich Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis (FEIMWAMA).
Women have a long association with violent intergroup conflict and war going back to early human times. This presentation will survey women in the highly genderized institutions of war and the military in various periods and types of societies. Although women have been impacted in multiple ways and played many roles, the focus of this talk is on women’s role as fighter/combatant and direct supporters of this activity. Also covered are women in some of the revolutionary wars and militaries in the past two centuries. The fighter/combatant perspective on women is usually omitted or “hidden” in accounts by both conventional and feminist analysts who stress women as victims, survivors, peacemakers and supporters of men who fight. Women as fighters not only redresses this imbalance but indicates a role whose impact is as significant as the other roles that are more widely promulgated.
Presented by Al Sargis, Founder/Director of the Friedrich Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis (FEIMWAMA).
Please join us for our regular Sunday meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. We welcome newcomers, old friends, and regulars to hear updates on current campaigns and discuss future plans. We need your participation and your voice! Come early to share a potluck lunch.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 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 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months, once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).
On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! 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
Prior to 2017, Oakland City Hall only had $250,000 per year to spend on Homeless Services.
Since 2017, volunteers with HAWG Homeless Advocacy Working Group have spent countless hours successfully advocating for more than $56 million to be spent towards ending the outrageous homeless crisis. more than $30 million has already been spent on ineffective approaches that harm more than help curbside residents. and while the millions were wastefully spent, homelessness has doubled in Oakland in the past two years. The Mayor’s anti-homeless Encampment Management Team led by Assistant to the Administrator Joe De Vries is responsible for the mismanagement of funds and the city’s inhumane treatment of our unhoused brothers sister’s.
For the past two years, City Council has attempted to work with advocates and directed Joe and the Encampment Management Team to try a variety of effective and cost effective approaches. 99% of the time Joe and his time have ignored City Council and continue to use millions to harm, traumatize and kick down our people on the streets.
Enough is enough.
Join The Village in Oakland #feedthepeople, The East Oakland Collective @Love and Justice in the Streets on Tuesday November 26, 2019 5pm at City Council meeting to speak truth to power.
please sign up to speak even if you are not going to speak, so yo can give you time to another speaker who needs more time. if you decide to speak, here’s some points to help you when you speak:
– over the past two years, you have survived and/or witnessed the cruel and inhumane treatment of The City government to Oakland’s unhoused.
– In the past two years the Joe DeVries and his team have spent more than $30 million dollars towards “solving” homelessness. But during those two years homelessness doubled in Oakland, and dozens of unhoused residents who used the city’s programs are back on the streets. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONEY?
We Demand:
1. An immediate end to evictions of curbside communities, demolitions of homes and towing of vehicles people live in or store belongings in.
2. An immediate end to the destruction of curbside residents’ personal property and survival gear.
3. As the City Council directed the Mayor and her Administration two years ago, two parcels of public land in each district be identified and used for sanctuaries for curbside communities.
4. Immediately upgrade all curbside commuities with adequate portapotties, trash services, clean drinking water, solar power and upgrades to self-built homes.
5. Due to his anti-homeless tendencies, his absuse of power, his complete disregard of the humanity and right of curbside residents, his mismanaement of millions of dollars to go towards solutions to homelessness, an immediate dismisal of Assistant to the Administrator Joe De Vries. Due to his deep anti-homeless biases and arbitrary decisins that impact the lives and well being of Oakland’s unhoused, he cannot lead the approaches to solve this crisis.
6. The immediate implementation of City Councilwoman Nikki Fortunato Bas’ reccomendations to align all The City’s appraches to homelessness with a human rights lense.
7. No more fundraising for or building any more Tuff Sheds. These programs are a waste of money and not effective to meet the scale of the homeless state of emergency or the actual needs of curbside residents.
8. An end to market rate and above market rate development. The City must turn its attention to the neglected deeply affordable housing development goals in the next year.
Join Extinction Rebellion SF Bay as we perform XR’s version of the Evening Prayer from the opera Hansel and Gretel outside the Opera House. This event will take place between 1:30 PM and 2 PM, as the opera is presented inside by the SF Opera.
Wells Fargo is the season sponsor of the SF Opera. Wells Fargo is the largest financier of the fracking industry, and the second-largest financier of the fossil fuel industry in the world. This year the Royal Shakespeare Company in the UK is cutting its ties to their sponsor, BP, after school children threatened a boycott. A similar outcome in San Francisco would be one small step in combating climate chaos.
This is an open action. Anyone moved to participate is welcome to join us as we listen to the singers tell us about getting pushed into the oven of climate chaos.
Roles needed: lip syncers, gingerbread people, folks to hand out flyers and hold signs, and pretend opera-goers (to create buzz around the action).
Participants who want to take on one of the roles will need to report to the staging area for this event at 1 PM. If you would like to take on a role, please contact lwbdarkdeep@protonmail.com. All ages welcome!
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
Town Hall Meeting on Hong Kong (China)
Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep Jim McGovern (D-MA) are sponsoring the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019,” but many believe that the U.S. should not be interfering in the internal affairs of China. After a brief introduction by ICSS member Eugene E Ruyle, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Cal State Long Beach, and perhaps a few additional speakers, we will have an open discussion of the issue with all opinions welcome.