Join the Center for Biological Diversity to kick off our #Earth2TrumpRoadshow of Resistance — a cross-country tour headed for Inauguration Day in Washington D.C., building a network of resistance along the way. We’d love to have your there! This a movement-building event — the kind of pump-you-up gathering you’ve been hungry for.

Take a moment and RSVP for this FREE event on this page and right here:http://ow.ly/FYIh30786it

The kick-off will include powerful speakers, badass music, and a night to share with others in the growing movement of resistance to Trump’s agenda.

To help us kick off this roadshow in style we’ll feature the work of spoken-word artist/musician AshEL Eldridge, and the musical stylings of folk rocker Casey Neill as well as Afrobrazilian band Namorados da Lua.

Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the show fires off at 6:00. Be sure to arrive early to sign-in and get a great seat. This is a FREE event.

Speakers include Julio Madrigal from Planting Justice, Valerie Love from the Center for the Biological Diversity, Sandhya Jha from the Oakland Peace Center, and Eva Lin from the Alliance for Climate Education.

ACCESSIBILITY: ASL and Spanish Language interpretation available upon request. Venue is accessible by a ramp. Main floor bathrooms are wheelchair accessible. Seating available at event. Contact Ash at alauth@biologicaldiversity.org if you need this information or to request language interpretation ASAP.

Rad Local Cosponsors: 350 Bay Area; 350 East Bay; 350 San Francisco; 350 Silicon Valley; 350 South East Bay; Alameda Progessives; Alliance for Climate Education; Alliance for Democracy; Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments; Alliance of South Asians Taking Action; Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice; California Student Sustainabilityy Coalition; Center for Environmental Health; Center for Political Education; Communication Workers of America – District 9; Earthworks; Environmental Health Network; Families Against Fossil Fuels; Food and Water Watch; Food Empowerment Project; Global Exchange; Great Old Broads for Wilderness; Greenpeace; Local Clean Energy Alliance; Network of Spiritual Progressives; Oakland Peace Center; OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group; Planned Parenthood Mar Monte; Planting Justice; Rainforest Action Network; Rooted In Resilience; San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Physicians for Social Responsibility; Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter; Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter; Sunflower Alliance; Sustainable Economies Law Center; System Change not Climate Change — Bay Area Chapter; The Oakland Institute; Transition Sonoma Valley; United Native Americans; Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Earth Democracy Group; World Beyond War.

The roadshow is rallying and empowering defenders of civil rights and the environment across the country to resist Trump’s dangerous plans. Stopping in 16 cities on its way to Washington, D.C., it will bring thousands of people to protest at the presidential inauguration.

At each show, you can:
• Sign the national Pledge of Resistance to Trump’s dangerous agenda.
• Write a personalized #Earth2Trump message that will be carried to D.C. in a massive globe and delivered to Trump.
• Create a huge, viral social media #Earth2Trump messaging campaign.
• Connect with people in your community resisting oppression and find out how to join the million people who will protest in Washington, D.C. on Inauguration Day.

Join us to send a powerful, unwavering #Earth2Trump message that oppression and environmental destruction will not be tolerated.

Please RSVP (http://ow.ly/FYIh30786it) to let us know you’ll be at this FREE event in Oakland and share this page with your family, friends and social networks. We’ll see you on January, 2.

Community Assembly Call Out in Response to Oakland Fire and Housing Crisis

The Post Salon Community Assembly, community organizations and individuals throughout the city will come together after the first of the year to build a unified response to the displacement that is occurring in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire, homelessness, eviction of non-profits from downtown Oakland and the crisis of affordable housing that the city is facing.

The assembly will take place in City Hall chambers at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 4. Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan has agreed to host the meeting for the community.

Organizations and individuals are being contacted to participate in and co-sponsor this community forum.  For information call (510) 287-8200.

The Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission will be conducting a public hearing on the draft Surveillance Technology Ordinance. Here is the draft which has been recently modified and approved to form for submission.

Oakland-Ordinance-12-16-16

Please share this information widely to encourage public comment as the Commission prepares to submit this draft to the Oakland City Council.

Comments can be submitted ahead of time  directly to jdevries@oaklandnet.com. For more information about the Commission, visit the website: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/OAK057463

Schedule:

5:10pm: Presentation on Surveillance Equipment Ordinance by Nuala O’Connor, President and CEO
of Center for Democracy and Technology; Question and Answer session.
5:20pm: Presentation on Surveillance Equipment Ordinance by Professor Catherine Crump, Co-
Director Berkeley Center for Law & Technology; Question and Answer session.
5:30pm: Discuss and take possible action on a Surveillance Equipment Ordinance.

All Out for Oscar! 

Oscar has been imprisoned for almost 36 years for the charge of seditious conspiracy. The only legal remedy left is a presidential pardon
or commutation.
All sectors of Puerto Rican society, Nobel laureates, Latin American leaders, Former President Carter and Senator Bernie Sanders
have all called for his release. Let’s celebrate Oscar’s 74th birthday on January 6 by joining the hundred thousand who petitioned the White House and demand: FREE OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA NOW!
You can also CONTACT The White House on JAN 6 and 13
For more info, go to: http://boricuahumanrights.org/

11 Years Ago, in the city of Oakland…

A collective of art gallery owners now known as Art Murmur, created a free once-a-month art gallery walk. The event became so successful, that galleries became overwhelmed with the amount of attendees who began overflowing into city streets.

To protect pedestrians and provide greater accessibility to the non-gallery community, participating collective Rock Paper Scissors (RPS), filed for a monthly permit to block the streets from auto-traffic under an event dubbed “The 23rd St. Fair.”  This event turned into what is now Oakland First Fridays: the most renowned art, music, food and cultural community event in the Bay Area.

Oakland First Fridays’ 11th Anniversary Event Dedicated in Tribute to the Ghostship Collective

Our hearts go out to Oakland’s creative community and those who have been heavily impacted by the Oakland Fire. The collective loss of life, shelter, and livelihood is an unimaginable tragedy.

In light of this very challenging time, we would like to pay tribute to Oakland’s Creative Community, by dedicating our 11th Anniversary Event to celebrating the life and art of the vibrant creatives, survivors and victims of the Ghostship tragedy.

On Luis’s 9th month commemoration, SAT. JANUARY 7th 10am-1pm, we will celebrate the Mexican tradition of sharing Rosca de Reyes by breaking bread and drinking hot chocolate, and expressing generosity towards our homeless encampment neighbors by bringing a few basic material gifts for them (e.g. socks.)

For our Coalition, this is also the critical start to the next three months of organizing leading up to the 1 year anniversary of Luis’s killing. Let’s get there together with his family in San Francisco and Yucatán! We’ll announce the first court date in the civil case on Jan 7th too.

For this event we are teaming up with individuals and associations who already work on anti-police brutality, indigenous rights, immigrant rights and unhoused/homeless outreach to collaborate with us.

If you would like to help out, please write to justice4luis@gmail.com

Starline is hosting a benefit gig for the Immediate Oakland Fire Relief Fund, featuring Rituals of Mine, Wax Idols, Anticon artist JEL, Kool A.D. with Cult Days, and more.

More info: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/rituals-of-mine-ghost-ship-benefit/Content?oid=5072561

This action, sponsored by Families Against Fossil Fuels, will call for “No Fossil Fascism for Our Kids.” Families will also march to the office of Phil Tagami, the developer who is now suing Oakland for blocking a coal export terminal. Event will include activities for children, drumming, and dancing.

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!

The Trump Presidency and the Crisis of United States Imperialism

Almost daily since the 2016 election, the Obama administration and the Democratic Party Establishment has intensified its anti-Russia propaganda ­– while President-elect Trump claims that he plans to normalize relations with Russia.

To explain the significance of that policy divergence,

Professor George Wright will, first, outline the current geo-political situation in relationship to the United States and Russia; second, contrast Trump’s proposed foreign policy to Obama and Clinton’s approach, with emphasis on Russia policy; third, analyze the (transparent) intra-ruling class struggle for control of United States foreign policy currently in play exhibited by the differences over how to relate to Russia; and, fourth, speculate on the political implications of that intra-ruling class struggle as it relates to the crisis of United States Imperialism.

George Wright’s professional experience includes teaching Political Science at California State University, Chico between 1969 and 2003. He also taught History at Skyline Community College between 2004 and 2013. His major research interests include: United States Politics, International Political Economy, and the Politics of International Sport. He has a Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at the University of Leeds (UK).

Time will be allotted for announcements.

Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

Press Conference and Rally

Standing Up, Fighting Back: Moving Forward Against Trump and Militarism in the New Year

From the disturbing images of police repressing indigenous resistance in Standing Rock to the often unreported near-daily SWAT raids in Black and Brown neighborhoods in our cities, we know that police militarization is a violent strategy of containment, control, and warfare. But we also know that all over the world, people are fighting back. The Stop Urban Shield coalition sees its work as a tangible and winnable step toward diminishing the destructive impacts of police militarization that serves to destabilize our communities. In 2016 the organizations that make us Stop Urban Shield have been proud to come together with others to educate ourselves about the shady path of resources and power involved in police militarization, to strategize to disrupt that toxic flow, and to take bold and inspiring actions against warfare in our neighborhoods and cities.

In 2016 many hours of outreach and building with community member and organizations culminated in a powerful direct action and civil disobedience against the Urban Shield weapons expo in Pleasanton in September. This mobilization disrupted both the expo and some of the war games crucial to an increase in police militarization. Building on the momentum of that action, we were also able compel elected officials in Alameda County to finally call critical questions about Urban Shield and the unaccountable and untransparent power exercised by the Sheriff’s office in controlling this program. All of this work was held together by different volunteer members of our coalition thinking together to research, analyze, understand, and critique Urban Shield. We are proud to this year to have issued our report Urban Shield: Abandoning Hope Not Build Hope as a strong educational foundation to our work.

Moving into 2017, people are all too aware that the destruction being proposed by the incoming Trump regime will require a redoubling of our efforts to come together, to defend our communities, and to fight back. Trump’s campaign has been a platform of fear-mongering and hate – calling for increased policing, mass deportations, surveillance, registries, detention and deportation of immigrant and Muslim communities, and has even labelled social movements like Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations. The communities that will be highly targeted and affected under a Trump administration are the same ones targeted by policing and militarization programs like Urban Shield.

Stopping Urban Shield in Alameda County is a key local step to resisting the threats posed by Trump. Alameda County must stop sponsoring the racist, xenophobic, and lethal strategies, tactics, and technologies being spread by Urban Shield. Ending Urban Shield is more important than ever.

Just days after the Start of 2017 we invite you to take action to stop Urban Shield.

On January 10, 2017, due to community pressure, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will conduct a long overdue information session on Urban Shield. We know that the Sheriff will use every trick in his book to rationalize and defend this violent program. We need as many of our people there to raise our voices and share the true impacts of Urban Shield and police militarization, and to compel the Board to take the only rational and humane step possible: Stop Urban Shield.

JOIN US!

We got word late yesterday, that Alameda County is racing forward with a terrible plan next Tuesday to spend over $61 million taxpayer dollars to build a new “mental health unit” at Santa Rita Jail. We need you to say NO to jail expansion and YES to community-based mental health care.

The Alameda Jail Fight Coalition has been organizing to stop the jail expansion for over a year, and we need you next Tuesday! Join us, January 10th to stop the Alameda Board of Supervisors from selecting a contractor to build the massive expansion project. We will continue the fight no matter what, but this may be one of the last opportunities to stop this ineffective and wasteful plan.

We critically need your support, to pressure the Supervisors to prioritize alternatives to meet Alameda’s urgent mental health-related needs. Bring your voice next Tuesday.

In addition to the jail expansion, Supervisors will also vote on funding for the militarized policing program and weapons expo called Urban Shield, as well as and the implementation a county employment program that would provide jobs for people impacted by incarceration. Taking one step forward with a jobs program and two steps back by funding policing and caging, is not a formula for progress. Throw down with us next Tuesday!

A speak out against the restarting of more than 40 of Japan’s nuclear power plants. The government has told the residents of Fukushima that it is safe but independent surveys show that it is still highly contaminated. Over 175 children have already been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and this is expanding. While the government is subsidizing Tokyo Electric Power Company which has had to be nationalized the Abe government is telling families and children that they have to return to Fukushima or their subsidy will be cut. The are economically pressuring the refugees to return to a dangerous contaminated area in order to pretend that they have “decontaminated” Fukushima. Even former prime ministers Koizumi and Kan are against restarting the nuclear power plants but the government is pushing ahead.

Railroad workers who area with rank and file rail unions Doro-Mito (National Railway Motive Power Union of Mito) and Doro-Chiba (National Railway Motive Power Union of Chiba) are also protesting the plans to re-open the rail lines even with the contamination and there have been strikes and protests against this policy.

They also have passed a “secrecy law” that is being used to intimidate and silence reporters and citizens from speaking out and investigating the growing and continuing Fukushima disaster. The cost is monumental yet they are taking action that will lead to another Fukushima with Japan being located on the “ring of fire” where massive earthquakes are certain to hit again.
The Abe government also told the International Olympic Committee and the people of the world that the Fukushima “problem” had been solved. This flagrant and blatant falsification has been exposed again and again following the declaration from the Abe government including the continuing massive costs of supposedly “cleaning up” the catastrophe.

The Abe government is also preparing a “conspiracy bill” that will be used to silence all those who even opposed nuclear power. The people of the United States need to stand with the people of Japan in their efforts to keep the plants shut down and the protection of families and children in Fukushima.

Speak Out and Rally initiated by
No Nukes Action Committee
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/

“Meaningful change can only happen with organizing that puts ordinary people at the center of their own struggle: there are no shortcuts to lasting social change.”
A scholar and longtime organizer in the student, environmental and labor movements, McAlevey makes a compelling case that the gains of the two most successful social movements–labor and civil rights–gained their power from mass organizing, a strategy today’s progressives have mostly abandoned in favor of shallow mobilization or advocacy.  In order to win, progressive movements need strong unions built from bottom-up organizing strategies that place the power for change in the hands of workers and ordinary people at the community level.Join us at the UC Berkeley Labor Center for a conversation with Jane McAlevey to talk about her new book, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age.

This event is free and open to the public.  Space is limited; please register in advance.  Books will be available for purchase at the event and are also available online from Oxford University Press.

Jane F. McAlevey is a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School.  She is also the author of Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement

Come out to support the family of Sean Moore, who survived shooting by SFPD on January 6, 2017. Police need to use mental health professionals and their deescalation training instead of guns. The town hall is used to placate community members concerned about police violence and to promote the myth that additional weapons such as tasers would prevent future abuses of power. In fact, tasers kill.

Announcement of Town Hall from Ingleside Police Station

http://inglesidepolicestation.blogspot.com/2017/01/jan-6-2017.html
Town Hall Meeting

A town hall meeting will be held on Thursday, January 12, 2017 at
5:30 PM to provide the community with an update on the investigation of the officer involved shooting that occurred on the 500 block of Capitol Avenue on Friday, January 6th.