The first West Oakland screening of Dogtown Redemption is this Saturday Producer/co-director Amir Soltani will discuss the film after the screening.  Find out more at DogtownRedemption.

Shot over seven years, DOGTOWN REDEMPTION is not only the intimate story of recyclers in West Oakland but a journey through a landscape of love and loss, devotion and addiction, prejudice and poverty.

A surprising number of Americans make their living off a vast river of trash. DOGTOWN REDEMPTION follows this river, and its inhabitants in a lively, bustling yet invisible corner of California. Every year, Californians buy about 22 billion carbonated and non-carbonated drinks in aluminum, glass, and plastic containers—a river of trash. Under California law beverage containers can be redeemed for a few cents per container. As a result of this legal innovation, trash can be turned into cash—a lifeline for a subculture of marginalized recyclers: the unemployed and underemployed, the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled, former criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes can reclaim the pride and joy that comes with having a job.

We follow the lives of three recyclers: Jason Witt, the titan of recycling; Landon Goodwin, a former minister, and addict who struggles with his own fall from grace; and Miss Hayok Kay, the ultimate outsider, formerly a Polkacide drummer from a prominent Korean-American family, now at the mercy of the elements and predators. Through them, we are introduced to the art, science, economics and politics of recycling: what it offers, how it touches the poor and why it matters to all of us.

We follow their lives through the prism of a single recycling center: Alliance Metals, located in West Oakland. With annual sales in the millions, Alliance is an anomaly in an otherwise depressed neighborhood that has witnessed the steady flight, erosion and collapse of American industry. Its owner, Jay Anast, purchases bottles and cans from shopping cart recyclers. His business operates as a financial hub and community center, turning Alliance not only into a center of economic activity but a Fellini set populated with the most improbable of characters—the pirates of trash. By virtually any measure, the denizens of the recycling center—the poorest of the poor—should be dead. But they defy Darwin. Poverty has turned them into the masters of improvisation and ingenuity.

In the view of the residents of Magnolia Row and other new developments in West Oakland, Jay’s time is up. His business is noisy, smelly, ugly and dirty—a giant garbage can. It attracts blight: scavengers, drug dealers, and criminals who depress, destroy and disrespect the promise of the American dream. The rattle of the shopping carts, missing garbage cans, litter on the streets, public defecation, theft, crime and trespassing are offered as evidence that the recyclers are not only stealing garbage but are a blight upon the neighborhood.

Dogged by addiction, mental health issues, homelessness and poverty, the recyclers’ grip on life remains tenuous. Recycling serves as the only constant in their life. Yet with commodity prices collapsing, the neighbors calling for a ban on shopping cart traffic, and the city launching a sting against Alliance Metals, their way of life is threatened from all sides. As the battle for the future of the recycling center heats up, a larger debate over the history, culture and future of West Oakland grows more intense.

The question of who owns our garbage makes these otherwise marginal characters important voices in a conflict over race, class and space in a modern American city. And that war is not only one waged on the streets, but also at City Hall—a battle over who defines the rules that equate poverty and recycling with blight, crime and theft.

DOGTOWN REDEMPTION humanizes and celebrates this other America; the America that many of us do not see. That a small recycling center has allowed so many to survive on a daily basis—for years, even decades—is a minor miracle. A reminder that even in trash there can be life, love and redemption.

Justice4Tyranny’s work is a visual exploration of the world’s social oppressions. He takes complex social ideas puts them into multifaceted layers of visual metaphors using symbolism and sattire. Among many themes, he highlights themes of heroinism, mass incarceration, subjugation of womyn, and gentrification. He is one of the premier emerging artists rising in the Bay Area and this work is a must see.

Artist Talk 7pm
Open reception with light refreshments following.

Tonight in #Oakland at 7pm, Building for National Prison Work Strike on Sept 9th. https://t.co/cAwaJJIJll pic.twitter.com/aG0BxOPO1A

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) June 18, 2016

SJC Presents the Film “Power of the Weak”

“The Power of the Weak” film, sponsored by BFUU’s SJC and the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity, is a documentary film by independent German filmmaker Tobias Kriele, which highlights being disabled does not have to mean weak. In this film, Jorgito, a young Cuban with severe cerebral palsy, shows how a society structured to support human development can make the disabled powerful.
Refreshments available.

June 18th, El Rio, Frisco500 bail fundraiser & benefit for the family of Jessica Nelson.. ✊🏾https://t.co/96OA2ToeH2 pic.twitter.com/gokhnDiDWT

— Equipto (@EQUIPTO) June 9, 2016

Come to the cryptoparty! We will have talks about electronic privacy, encryption technology, and why it matters. There will also be volunteers waiting to help you install encryption software on your computer and phone. Refreshments will also be present.

On June 20, activists from 35+ countries will be demanding FREEDOM FOR OSCAR. Join us in Oakland. Oscar is a community organizer, a Vietnam veteran and a political prisoner for 35 years. Join this international day of solidarity following the UN Decolonization Committee Hearings to demand Oscar’s immediate relase. Let us add our voices demanding that President Obama commute Oscar’s sentence!

@sanasaleem OPD is rotten to its core and Libby’s got to go. Press conference on Tuesday 6/21 at 10 am in front of OPD HQ #byelibby

— APTP First Response (@aptpresponse) June 21, 2016

OPD is rotten to its core and Libby’s got to go

On Tuesday, June 21st at 10:00 AM, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), in coalition with Oakland Rising ACTION, Black Lives Matter, Causa Justa, Just Cause, Black Power Network, Ella Baker Center, Asians 4 Black Lives and the Oakland Alliance will hold a press conference in front of the Oakland Police Department.

Oakland’s police department has entered its 13th year of federal oversight, and as investigative reporters, academic researchers and our own soon-to-be ex-mayor have revealed over the last month, it’s clear that nothing has changed since the Riders case.

“OPD is still a bastion of predatory loose cannons who have seen time and again that they will not face accountability for killing, abusing and exploiting our community members,” said Asantewaa Boykin of APTP.

The Oakland community condemns the Mayor’s underwriting of state violence that began when she spent her entire first day in office with OPD. Since that day, OPD has murdered 7 Black men with no consequences.

“Instead of stepping back to acknowledge her mistake, the mayor has doubled down on her support for state-sponsored executions through her words and financial prioritization of policing over the education and employment of our youth,” continued Boykin.

The police department currently squanders 60% of the City of Oakland’s budget. The City Administrator, Mayor and Board of Supervisors have shown and stated that they’re incapable of managing the “frat house” with guns and handcuffs that prowls our streets day and night.

The community demands immediate action and commits to working toward building an Oakland where all of us can live free of police terror.

Demands
1. Community-controlled policing – Establish a fully funded community-nominated and controlled civilian review board with the power to hire, fire and discipline all members of the OPD.
2. Defund OPD and invest in the community – Cut the policing budget in half and redirect those millions into community-run job centers, programming for youth, re-entry resources, mental health services, tenant protections and education and very low-income housing.
3. Address the child sexual exploitation scandal in a meaningful way – Launch a full investigation by an outside agency that will investigate criminal cases influenced by predatory officers and account for the trafficking investigations they have compromised. Additionally, OPD must Publicly state that coercion and enticement of a minor is never the fault of the child.
4. Resignation of Mayor Libby Schaaf

Speak up Oakland! Tell City Council how you feel.

Ya’ll know that “rent is too damn high”. Community has been working hard this year to put into place measures to protect renters by asking the city to enact a ‪#‎HousingMoratorium‬ (which ends July 5th!) and additional ordinances on the November Ballot. Plus, given the recent upheaval with the policy, the Mayor and City Council are looking to reallocate funding from the police budget to other things.

Key items are as follows:

1. Item 16 on the Agenda: The Renter’s Protection Ordinance will do the following:

– Require owners to file a petition for rent increases above 60% Consumer Price Index for Bay Area. Currently, if a tenant gets a drastic rent increase, they have to petition to the city for arbitration, which places the burden of time, money, stress on the renter. This item will ask the landlord to justify the rent increase.
– Modify New Construction Exemptions to apply to developments built after Jan. 2002
– Require relocation funding to tenants in Owner Occupancy Evictions.
– Limit City Council’s ability to modify ordinances
– Increase of the transparency of the Office of Rent Program, requiring regular reports to city council.
– Establish new composition of the Rent Board to have majority renters. (Currently 2 renters, 2 Landlords, 3 neutral members, 1 neutral alternate). Initiative asks for 4 tenant members, 3 other members. One per district). Kaplan’s alternate proposal asks for an increase to 6 alternates.
– Board independence from City Council, City Attorney and City Administration.

Learn more here: http://www.oaklandtenantsunion.org/protect-oakland-renters-…

2. Item 14 on the agenda. Affordable Housing preference policy for local neighborhoods (ie a percentage of affordable housing is reserved for those that live in that district), and a residency or Oakland worker requirement for participants in Oakland’s First Time Buyer Loan Program.

3. Item 13 on the agenda: City Budget adjustments.
– Money for training OPD
– Delaying (Schaaf) or Eliminating (Rebecca Kaplan) the next OPD Training Academy to hire new cops
– Set aside 1.5 Million to fund Police Commission (may soon be voted on to be placed on the ballot in November)

Article: http://m.eastbayexpress.com/…/town-business-delete-the-poli…

Join us for free weekly meditation happy hour on Wednesdays, co-hosted by the Art of Living Eastbay Berkeley/Oakland.

We will teach simple and easy guided meditation and breathing techniques to let go of stress and trauma, let your hair down, and celebrate!

We believe that love is the universal language. We also believe that love is the universal cure to heal what ails societies worldwide. These meditation happy hours are our love offering to the community and are the result of a beautiful new & evolving partnership w/The Art of Living facilitated by Neelam Patil…& the universe ♥

A film about the search for truth & justice for human rights crimes committed by the Salvadoran military during the Civil War in the 1980s. The film follows the efforts by the families of the four U.S. churchwomen raped and murdered in El Salvador in 1980 to bring two leading Salvadoran Generals into a U.S. courtroom. Several Salvadoran survivors of torture are also featured who confront the same Generals in the same Florida courtroom using the same legal concept: command responsibility. 90 min.
Peter Stern, one of the attorneys, will speak after the screening.

Sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild of San Francisco;
For more info about the film: http://www.gailpellettproductions.com/
RSVP: http://www.nlgsf.org/event/justice-and-generals-screening

#Oakland! Take it 2 the streets!- Justice 4 #FreddieGray 4pm at 14th and Broadway. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/JKU9B19VNg

— StopMassIncarceratio (@StopMassIncNet) June 23, 2016

Please come to the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club on Thursday, June 23rd, 7pm, at Humanist Hall for a discussion on forming independent police commissions in Oakland and Berkeley.

Excerpts:  Full article here

It’s not a surprise that Oakland finds itself in the middle of a new police scandal-we’re becoming a bit jaded to the police-chief-musical-chairs situation. But, even those of us who’ve been working on police accountability for years, are shocked and chagrined by what is being revealed about our costly department. We had thought they were on the road to reform, albeit, a rocky, circuitous road filled with breakdowns but it turns out-the changes were only superficial…

In the wake of almost daily revelations, the Anti-Police Terror Project has proposed that Oakland establish a version of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(South_Africa)] and this is a brilliant and quite necessary part of a change in how our community is policed. While APTP has yet to detail its proposal, nothing less than a full process of bearing witness by the entire Oakland community will begin to turn around the horrendous situation we find ourselves in…

Oaklanders have spent years, indeed generations, dealing with police brutality, corruption and neglect and it has left a deep residue which damages every aspect of self-government. Indeed distrust, fear and hatred of our most expensive department lies at the heart of distrust and disengagement with local democracy. Our residents need a safe space to tell their stories and finally be heard by those who injured them and by officials who have chosen not to believe them or to consider their concerns in their day-to-day governing of our city…

While police operate in Oakland as they do in the rest of California, with impunity and often disregard for the real safety of our citizens, we will continue to hide ugly corruption and ignore vicious behavior. In a democracy, we should should demand better. We know the next steps, do we have the will to see them through?

MEDIA ADVISORY
California Teachers Association June 23, 2016
Protest Violence Against Oaxaca Teachers
‪#‎Oaxaca‬

Contact: Lysa Sassman at 916-813-2319 or Toby Spencer at 530-867-0594

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local Educators Protest Slaughter of Teachers in Mexico
Outraged At June 21 Killings in Oaxaca, Protest

Educators, labor council members, Hispanic advocacy supporters will protest the June 21 killing of unarmed teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico

NATOMAS – Outraged by the killing of nine teachers, educators say they will protest at the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. Reports indicate nine teachers were executed, 23 disappeared, 21 were arrested, and more than 100 civilians, police and bystanders were injured June 21 in Nochixtlán, located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

“I’m an education advocate and have demonstrated, protested and spoken out,” said Lysa Sassman, Auburn Union Teacher’s Association and one of the event organizers. “Never once did I think I’d lose my life over it. These teachers are my colleagues; they just live in a different country.”

Sassman and Toby Spencer, San Juan Teachers Association, have taken to social media to publicize the event and to share what’s happening to teaching colleagues in Mexico. “This is not just about privatization,” Spencer said. “The ‘education reform’ movement is an effort to remove teachers from rural and indigenous areas. We must stand with teachers and against violence in the Americas.”

The Stop Urban Shield coalition and Berkeley Copwatch will be facilitating an interactive forum to understand what Urban Shield is, its tactics to repress our communities through increased militarization of emergency medical services, and its place within the global context of policing and imperialism. Join us and get plugged in to the fight!

Come through on Friday, June 24 to learn how to support the state-wide mobilization against Urban Shield on Sept. 9 in Pleasanton, CA! This is the second of three Town Halls that Stop Urban Shield is holding, and we encourage all social justice organizations and individuals in Berkeley and surrounding neighborhoods to attend.

Hosted by the Stop Urban Shield coalition and Berkeley Copwatch, we’ll be facilitating an interactive forum to understand what exactly Urban Shield is, its tactics to repress our communities through increased militarization of police and emergency medical services, and its place within the global context of policing and imperialism. As we always must, we’ll be highlighting the voices and deep insights of those who have lost loved ones to police violence and lifting up the ways our communities are building resilience against militarization.

In 2014, communities united to kick Urban Shield out of Oakland.

In 2015, we converged on the Sheriff’s office in downtown Oakland to let them know that Urban Shield is not welcome in Alameda County.

And In 2016, we’re taking it state-wide and putting Urban Shield on notice that we don’t want them in California or anywhere else for that matter.

ABOUT URBAN SHIELD:

Urban Shield is a weapons expo and war-like police training that brings together law enforcement agencies from across the country and world to learn how to better repress, criminalize, and militarize our communities.

Urban Shield is a key player in creating militarized emergency response systems that make police the first responders to everything from climate disasters to uprisings. But as we saw during Hurricane Katrina, when “public safety” relies on armed emergency management, communities of color — and particularly Black communities — become an “emergency” that need to be controlled and managed with a military response.

COME JOIN US at this Town Hall to learn how WE can shrink Urban Shield — and policing as a whole — out of existence.

Access: Entrance and bathrooms are wheel chair accessible.

http://stopurbanshield.org/

May 14, May 21, May 28, June 4, June 11, June 18, June 25, 1-5pm

Using news photographs, memorabilia, reconstructed objects, documentary fragments, and original documents, contemporary artist Kate Haug re-tells the story of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last monumental social protest prior to his assassination. The exhibition features images and objects culled from Haug’s extensive research in the archives of the Associated Press, the popular press, and eBay, which have not been seen together before, bringing to life the complex ambition of King’s vision.

King began organizing the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) in 1967 to unify America’s poor across class rather than racial lines, believing that economic parity was key to African American equality within the United States. The PPC culminated with a 3,000 person shanty town named Resurrection City, constructed on the National Mall in Washington DC. Resurrection City drew people from all over the country, was the nineteen sixties version of the 1932 Bonus March and a predecessor to “Occupy”. The exhibition time frame for this show mirrors many of the actual dates of the campaign, tracing the Resurrection City’s opening day to its final destruction.

The PPC echoes aspects of current social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Fight for Fifteen, and Our Walmart. In San Francisco, a city with one the highest rates of income inequality in the United States, King’s work asks pointed questions about the contemporary social contract and the democratic promise of America.

News Today: A History of the Poor People’s Campaign in Real Time runs from April 9, 2016 to June 25, 2016.

Gallery Talks:
Sat May 14, 2pm:
Justin Gomer Ph.D., Lecturer, American Studies, UC Berkeley
A discussion of the images in News Today as they relate to the shifting political landscape in the years after 1968.

Sat May 21, 2pm:
E.C. Feiss, Ph.D. Student, Art History, UC Berkeley
The Politics of Display

We need a massive demonstration so the Council clearly hears the voice of the people. Let them know we want NOTHING SHORT OF A BAN.

Meet UCR candidates for KPFA’s Local Station Board.

Kris Stewart, LaTasha Warmsley, Jeremy Miller, TM Scruggs, Marilla Arguelles, Tom Voorhees.

KPFA needs new people with new ideas and energy to bring more community news, public affairs,  cultural programming and new technology to the KPFA and the Pacifica network. United for Community Radio is seeking candidates to run on our free speech radio slate which represents individuals and organizations throughout KPFA’s signal range and beyond.  We particularly seek those with geographic, racial and cultural diversity to join in our campaign as candidates and campaigners.

2016 Platform

KPFA and Pacifica are irreplaceable, strategic and transformative resources for amplifying the voices of millions who are overlooked, marginalized or silenced by corporate media in the face of police militarization, racism and housing, health, water, economic educational and environmental depredation. We force a vital radio station and network by balancing often difficult news reports with programming that heals and facilitates human connections.

• Insure Relevant Programming
• Decreased pro-corporate perspective
• Join the global media revolution
• Support all staff
• Responsible financials
• Strengthen the Pacifica Network