Last week, over 600 people signed our petition to demand a public meeting about Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern’s secret plan to expand the Santa Rita Jail.  Next week, the Board of Supervisors will resume their regular meetings — and thanks to your pressure, the jail plan is on the agenda!

We want you to join us and our allies as we flood the room to demand more answers to our questions: Will there be new jail beds? Why a mental health unit in the jail, instead of more services in the community? What better alternatives to incarceration could this money be spent on?

We hope to see you next Tuesday, September 15th at 1221 Oak St #512, Oakland. The meeting begins at 10:45am and the jail is agenda item #66.

If you aren’t able to attend the entire meeting but want to be informed that the agenda item is approaching, email Tash.

Stand with us and our allies as we voice our opposition to the Alameda County Sheriff’s secret plans to expand the jail, and demand that the Board of Supervisors increase transparency and community involvement in their decisions over our public safety realignment funds.  The Board of Supervisors needs to know that we are united, that we are powerful, and that we demand that things change. Please come out and support #JobsNotJails.

The FLIR (Heat-Sensing, Helicopter-Mounted, OPD Camera) Privacy and Use Policy, Written in the spring by the Ad Hoc Privacy Committee for the Domain Awareness Center as its last official act, will be on the agenda of the Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee.

Subject: FLIR Privacy and Data Retention Policy From: Office of The City Administrator Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Establishing The City Of Oakland Forward Looking Infrared Thermal Imaging Camera System (FLIR) Privacy And Data Retention Policy Which Prescribes The Rules For The Use Of The FLIR; Establishes Oversight, Auditing And Reporting Requirements; And Imposes Penalties For Violations

Come and help put the kibosh on arbitrary and unwarranted use of technology by OPD.

Climate Courage Forum.

Celebrate the launch of our national community-driven report that documents the experiences and resilience of families impacted by incarceration. The event will feature a gallery of data from the report and a panel discussion with formerly incarcerated individuals and their families.

Free event, light food provided. RSVP on Facebook.

Sponsored by: Forward Together, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Essie Justice and Causa Justa :: Just Cause.

Come support the family of Pedie Perez, shot and killed by the Richmond Police, as they and the community put forth a resolution to hold an open hearing whenever there is extreme use of force by the Richmond Police.

The Anti-Police Terrorism Project is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee that in coalition with other organizations like the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Workers World and Healthy Hoodz is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.

We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.

Subcommittees / action teams include First Response, Media, Santa Rita Jail, Yvette Henderson/Emeryville and more.

We meet the 3rd Wednesday of every month at Eastside Arts Alliance at 7:30 pm.

Omni General Assembly

omni working group meeting

Come by our open Delegates Meetings every Thursday evening at 7pm! 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

Hosted by Richard Wolinsky

Over the past few centuries, as Western civilization has enjoyed an expanding geographic domain, Westerners have observed other cultures rarely, and then usually with scant interest in what they saw in us. What the Rest Think of the West, unprecedented in its scope, at last provides a rich historical look through the eyes of observant outsiders as they survey and scrutinize the politics, science, technology, religion, family practices, and gender roles of civilizations not their own. The book emphasizes the broader figurative meaning of looking west in the scope of history.

Focusing on four civilizations-Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian-Laura Nader has collected observations made over centuries by scholars, diplomats, missionaries, travelers, merchants, and students reflecting upon their own “Wests.” The accounts variously express critique, adoration, admiration, and fear, and are sometimes humorous, occasionally disturbing, at times controversial, and always enlightening. Nader provides informative introductions to each of the selections.

“There are things that only outsiders can see, and the true promise of anthropology has always been to use such insights to allow human beings to understand more of their shared humanity, to understand how we are the same through our differences.”
-David Graeber, author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years

“Intellectual exchange between the West and Asia has long been one-sided, handicapped further by lack of translations. This superbly introduced and edited anthology, which shows the diverse ways in which visitors from Asia perceived modern Western society and culture, fills a big gap in our self-understanding.” -Pankaj Mishra, author of From the Ruins of Empire: The Revolt against the West and the Remaking of Asia

Join us for a night with Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Barghouti will be presenting on academia’s role in the struggle for freedom and justice in Palestine.

This event is open to the public and is free of charge!

**Refreshments will be provided as well**

Sponsored by Cal Students for Justice in Palestine, UAW 2865-Berkeley, Friends of Sabeel North America, Jewish Voice for Peace- Bay Area, and Middle East Children’s Alliance.

Come to the Long Haul this Friday for the Slingshot all night meeting and help us make the new issue! 8pm-midnight. Comrades and cookies.

— Slingshot collective (@Slingshotnews) September 14, 2015

Rummage Sale | Bake Sale | Lunch / Dinner | Live Music

Please come and donate to Omni Commons to help us cover our ongoing expenses and keep this common space thriving for positive social change!

Schedule:

10am – Open Rummage Sale + Bake Sale
12pm – Open Meal Service
All day until 8pm – Live Music / Performances

We need you to bring your friends, your enemies, and your frenemies—as long as you come to support Omni Commons, and most important to HAVE FUN!

This documentary follows Hector Salgado’s journey back to Chile where he confronts his former captors as a filmmaker. Following the 1973 coup in Chile, Hector Salgado was imprisoned, tortured, and exiled from the time he was 16- 19.

At the age of 16, Hector Salgado was imprisoned and tortured by the Chilean Military government led by Augusto Pinochet. He was held for three years before being sent into exile to the US, the financial and military sponsor of Chile’s military. Special Circumstances follows Salgado’s quest to confront his persecutors after several decades have passed.

The film was co-directed by Marianne Teleki.

*Who*: You–at ANY level of skill (newbs encouraged to attend)!
*What*: Work Party (fun, learning, labor, love)! — Also see TASKS list below!!!
*When*: *Sat 9/5 @ 12 noon* (And Every Saturday, FOREVER)!
*How*: With our bare hands, feet, noses, etc — plus tools and stuff!
*Why*: Omni Commons needs some serious elbow grease to get ship-shape, for the safety, accessibility, and delight of all!

*TASKS*
* Doors (re-hanging and installing closers)
* Carpentry in the basement
* Plumbing, tile, and other water-related activities
* Drywall ’til you drop
* Felt the feet of our ballroom furniture
* Protect our building from confused critters like pigeons!
* General cleaning / tidying / arranging / creativity / expression / explosions / excitement / activity!!!!!!!
* much much much more!

Please join your fellow volunteers, especially the zany and rambunctious
Building and Maintenance Working Group (woooohooooooooooooooooooooo)!

Matt Gonzalez, former SF supervisor and current attorney for Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez (immigrant accused of murder in the Pier 14 shooting) will join Mujeres Unidas y Activas to talk about contemporary immigration issues. What is at stake for immigrants rights in our community? What do we need to know about sactuary cities policies? What should we do in order to retain them? How the right-wing media is using this case for political revenge.

Please join Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant at a rally in Oakland for her re-election campaign! Mark your calendar now!

NEW! Richmond City Councillor and former Green Mayor, Gayle McLaughlin to speak alongside Kshama at this event!

From the streets of Baltimore to the growing movement for a $15 minimum wage, consistent protests are erupting against the endemic inequality and racism generated by Wall Street and their social system. With growing anger at the corporate policies of both main political parties, millions are looking for an alternative.

Since her election in 2013, Councilmember Sawant has led the opposition to the corporate agenda in the Pacific Northwest. An unapologetic fighter for working people, she refuses all corporate donations and accepts only the average worker’s wage, giving the rest of her salary back to social movements. Despite being a city councilmember, she has risked arrest in order to stand with workers fighting for a living wage in Sea-Tac and environmentalists blockading coal trains. Her re-election will inspire more oppressed people to fight for our rights, and it will prove again that it is completely possible to elect candidates who reject corporate cash.

Kshama Sawant has inspired movements across the country. That is why corporations across the country are funding her opponents’ campaigns. We in the Bay Area absolutely need to support her historic re-election. She cannot get re-elected without our active support. Mark your calendar, invite your friends, and join us at this rally and fundraiser!

(If you cannot join us on September 19th, please donate at http://www.kshamasawant.org/ )

Sponsored by All of Us or None, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children.

“From Civil Rights to Prisoners’ Rights. The Fight for our Human Rights Continues.:

Afrikatown Garden Workday
Come anytime, we will be out gardening with our community and neighbors! Bring plants, seeds, tools, etc if you have it!!

Special City Council #oakmtg on coal scheduled for Sep. 21, 2015, at 4:00 PM. Sponsored by @DanKalb @Kaplan4Oakland and CM Reid. #oakland

— Coal Free Oakland (@CoalFreeOakland) July 16, 2015

Special Council Hearing Re: Public Health and Coal scheduled for Sept 21st, 4PM- 6PM #OakMTg

— Abel Guillen (@Abel_Guillen) August 13, 2015