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As Donald Trump enters office as the 45th President of the United States, what might this mean for U.S. involvement in the Middle East and North Africa, including military involvement, economic ties, and diplomatic endeavors? Join CMES faculty affiliates and community members in an informal moderated conversation about what we might expect in the first 100 days and beyond.
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Father River Sims and Philip O’Donnell:
Working with the Homeless
The way River Sims tells his horror stories, calmly, barely raising his voice, poised like the Anglican priest he is, makes them seem all the more ugly by contrast. “He’s third-generation homeless,” says Sims, speaking in tones members of Old San Francisco might use to speak of their lineage. “His mother shot him up with heroin for the first time when he was 8 years old.”
Father Christian River Sims has been working with San Francisco’s homeless, junkies and sex workers, primarily in the Polk, Haight and Civic Center areas, for the past 22 years. His ministry, which he calls Temenos Catholic Worker (temenos is Greek for that which is abandoned, cut off or separated), is really just Sims, working out of a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment crammed with the things that he needs for his work. Sims exchanges 2,000 needles a week, which he gets from the Prevention Point needle exchange program. He also distributes condoms, clothing socks aree a big draw with the rainy weather and as much advice as people ask him for, about drug rehab or shelters or where the free showers are or anything else a street survivor might want to know.
Everyone knows Sims. He knows all their stories. He never gives them money, so they don’t ask. “I must have spent $8,000 on pizza the first year I was out here, trying to gain their trust,” Sims laughs. He survives on donations, gets food from the Food Bank, lives on less than $800 per month himself. It’s his life, usually five or six nights a week, from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m.
Presenting with Father Sims is a young man he works with, Phillip O’Donnell, who is writing a book “Rise from the Mud� Breathe.” “My name is Phillip O’Donnell. I’m 22 years old and homeless here in San Francisco. Homeless with purpose. I have been trying to get an SRO, but the waiting lists are long and space is scarce. In the meantime, I sleep on the streets, Golden Gate Park, and when luck comes my way, a hostel or a generous person’s apartment. Although I am surviving, the lack of consistency makes it extremely difficult to move forward especially when the tendrils of my depression strike at my soul… Upon receiving housing, I plan to work for one of the organizations providing the services that are critical to my survival. I want to contribute to the effort to end homelessness as well as meet more people facing homelessness and learn their story in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the root causes of homelessness. Homelessness is, in part, a consequence of the flaws in the design of our civilization. If we can illuminate these flaws and how our civilizational design creates homelessness, we can make more effective efforts to help people get on their feet and keep others from facing this hardship. Also, I will continue working on publishing my first novel, Rise from the Mud, Breathe, and finish my college education.
As San Francisco contends with its growing population of people pushed out of housing and onto the streets, its mentally ill and people in need, Father River Sims can help orient and guide us as to how we can be most useful and take responsibility for our sisters and brothers on the streets.
Time will be allotted for announcements.
Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
Rally. Hear from seniors, people with disabilities and families who would be affected by repeal of the ACA and cuts to Medicaid.
Then Come to the Health Care Action Center
10:30 AM – 2:00 PM Lighthouse for the Blind, 1155 Market St., 10th Fl, San Francisco
or
Noon – 2:00 PM, Movement Strategy Center, 436 14th St., Oakland
Drop in to learn about ACA repeal and proposed Medicaid cuts, call member of Congress, share on social media, and make your voice heard.
Coordinated by Senior & Disability Action, Hand in Hand, SEIU Local 21, Independent Living Resource Center and Rapid Response Network.
Donald Trump is on a collision course with millions of people. He’s threatened to deport 2-3 million immigrants and to target Muslim immigrants for “extreme vetting.” Women’s reproductive health, democratic rights, and workers rights are all under threat. People are understandably afraid. But also, huge numbers of people are prepared to resist.
Trump’s agenda of hate and greed can be defeated by a strong enough movement centered on the social power of working people. Let’s not forget that previous generations have faced down and defeated war-mongers, hate-mongers, slave-owners, and billionaires, and they won.
But what strategy is required to take on Trump and his right-wing cabinet? Our movement can’t limit itself to playing defense – experience has shown that we must also put forward a bold left-wing alternative to corporate politics. Come to this meeting we’re hosting just days after he takes office so we can discuss the way forward.
SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE DEMANDS:
● No deportations! Full rights for all undocumented workers.
● Defend and extend reproductive rights.
● No cuts to healthcare, defend the expansion of Medicaid. We need Medicare for All.
● $15 an hour federal minimum wage.
● Black Lives Matter! End police brutality and the racist mass incarceration state.
● We need a Party of the 99%!
With victories from reining in civil asset forfeiture abuse to ensuring that all those who are eligible to vote in California are able to, it has been an amazing year for civil liberties in California. Of course, our work is never done.
Join the Alameda County Paul Robeson Chapter on Thursday, January 26 at 6 p.m.at Oakland City Hall to celebrate our impact and learn what we can do to continue the fight for justice. Learn more about upcoming events & volunteer opportunities
We are excited to feature guest speaker John Jones, III. Mr. Jones has been recognized by California’s 18th District Assembly Member Rob Bonta as the recipient of the 2016 Equity Champion Award for his work to empower underrepresented communities in the fight for social and economic justice. We will also be honoring Mr. Jones with the Grover Dye Activism Award – our chapter’s highest honor. We will hear from Steven Medeiros, ACLU of Northern California Program Coordinator, about potential civil liberties challenges under the Trump administration and ways you can plug in and get involved.Please take this opportunity to hear about our chapter’s advocacy and learn how to become a part of the ACLU Alameda County Paul Robeson Chapter.
Trump signed a memoranda to push through the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. Are you ready to stand up for clean air, water and soil? Now is the time! Join us 6:00 p.m, Thursday, January 26th at the Federal Building in San Francisco to stand strong in our opposition to the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. Rain or shine!
By allowing these pipelines, Trump has confirmed his misguided commitment to the fossil fuel industry and total disregard for the millions of people who have stood against these dangerous projects. We will not stand idly by while he pushes through policies that make his friends in the fossil fuel industry more wealthy while violating Indigenous Treaty rights, using eminent domain to steal people’s land, poisoning the water, air and soil, and disavowing the overwhelming majority of scientists working to mitigate a climate catastrophe.
Stand with us! We are strong together and there is no time to waste in letting our voices ring out across the land.
This action is co-sponsored by Idle No More SF Bay working with our allies: Stand, 350.org, Movement Rights, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network, Diablo Rising Tide, Rainforest Action Network, Chinese Progressive Association, Native American Health Alliance, Do No Harm Coalition and others.
Please bring candles, signs, wear your movement t-shirts, dress warmly. This is an alcohol and drug free action.
Come join us this Friday at 1pm for an edible landscaping party.Bring small containers, soil, herbs and greens to plant so we can line the redwood chip walkways with medicinal herbs and veggies.
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The Village in Oakland #feedthepeople
The people’s encampment on public land in Oakland providing those who have been displaced their basic needs and rights: housing, food, healing, and dignity.
—
Story
On the morning of Saturday, January 21, 2017, a network of Oakland community members took over a neglected public plot of land known as Grove Shafter Park in West Oakland. They intend to move in small homes, a hot shower, a healing clinic, and other services—declaring it a people’s encampment for those who need housing and basic needs and services. The group which includes folks living on Oakland streets, activists from #FeedthePeople and #Asians4BlackLives, and various individuals from the community, said that the move-in demonstrates their ability to provide what the City of Oakland cannot to its most vulnerable residents.
The group aims to demonstrate through their visionary encampment that housing is a human right. They also hope to demonstrate that, in the face of a city government that fails to meet the needs of its people, it is possible for the community to unite to serve those on the street in a dignified and humane manner. The group challenges the inaction of the City of Oakland, saying that the City has proven not been to be disloyal to its long term families displaced in this city-initiated housing crisis. The group also claims that the City has not implemented sufficient efforts to address homelessness, such as building permanent public housing, starting with for those who have been displaced by the housing crisis, particularly Black and Brown people.
The group began moving into the public land at MLK and 36th street in the middle of the night and set up the village of services. The center of the village, spokespeople said, will become a community space reserved for daily people’s assemblies, and will provide services to the residents. Volunteers have begun planning for, including a health & healing clinic, hot home cooked meals, a hot shower, raised gardens, a computer lab, adult education center, and a center for distributing donations to Oakland residents in need. The village is open to all who need services provided whether you live at the site or not. And no registration is needed.
The village is narcotics and alcohol free, and begins with prioritizing housing for Black and Brown folks, families, women, elders, and disabled folks. Eventually the encampment hopes to keep growing to be able to welcome more to be inclusive for anyone homeless residents in Oakland to move in, and to offer the appropriate services to meet their needs. Organizers also hope that their version of what a compassionate community looks like inspires others to reclaim public land in other parts of Oakland, t and The Bay Area, and the country, to build similar havens of safety, service and community.
The encampment is not meant to be a permanent solution, but addresses the immediate needs and harm reduction of some of the City of Oakland’s more than 3,050 homeless residents. Oakland’s homeless population makes up 49.2% of all of Alameda County’s houseless. Homeless numbers are growing, spokespeople said, as a direct outcome of the city’s housing affordability crisis. The housing market in Oakland has skyrocketed, and a vast majority of landlords no longer accept Section 8 vouchers. Many of Oakland’s homeless residents have vouchers for Section 8 housing, but cannot find a rental agency that will accept the public housing program. Currently there are only 386 beds available in Oakland shelters.
The City of Oakland’s “Compassionate Communities”effort that claims to be a pilot program has earmarked $190,000 of the City’s general budget funds for addressing homelessness. However, the program only allows trash pickup and porta-potties for a single sanctioned encampment for six months. New residents do not get registered for inclusion in the program and were told to leave when the camp footprint was recently halved by force in preparation for permanent closure of the encampment by March 31. The programs are not scalable, and only a select few benefit. An interim housing provision gives residents hotel vouchers that last no longer than 6 months, an unrealistic timeline for finding permanent housing, and the program includes no proposals for long-term subsidized housing. This is not a pilot program to address homelessness. This is an experiment in camp removal and suppression. After being criticized for the false claims of the program, the city responded that their phase two of the program is to create a permanent homeless encampment made up of tiny homes not tall enough for residents to stand up in.
“Housing is a right. Being without a home is not a crime. The politicians that created this crisis are the criminals. Yet folks without shelters have been ignored, harassed, shuffled around, degraded, and criminalized. The responses from city officials, CalTrans, and police has not only been ineffective, but degrading and even criminal,” said #FeedThePeople member Chiedza Kundidzora. “Institutions like CalTrans continually violate homeless communities’ constitutional rights with their protocol towards folks living under freeways. They seize and destroy people’s property without due process, and as a cruel and unusual punishment for circumstances that are treated as criminal.” she said.
The action responds to several recent incidents, including a January 1 fire at the Wood Street encampment, one of Oakland’s largest encampments. Some residents moving into the encampment were displaced by the fire on New Year’s Day. Others are choosing to relocate to the camp seeking the safety, services and dignity the village offers. 24 hour security, hot showers, sturdy shelters, privacy, and community support are also incentives for residents.
Friday’s action was also inspired by Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s call to #BeUngovernable and to “build and fight” to resist illegitimate government, most recently manifested by Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States. The action takes place a day after hundreds of thousands of people across the country took to the streets and declared their cities to be zones free from displacement, mass deportations, registries, attacks on poor people, and corporate giveaways of public goods. Instead they called for protection and expansion of healthcare, housing, food, and free public education for all.
“Today we stand in solidarity with the poor, houseless, and displaced people of Oakland, many of whom are Black and Brown. As #Asians4BlackLives, we realize that gentrification, inaccessible housing, and privatized public land are a part of the ongoing war on Black people, which also includes racist police violence. We support the leadership of the homeless folks moving into this camp, and stand together with them in the fight for dignity and the fight against displacement,” said Ellen Choy of #Asians4BlackLives.
Activists and residents not only hope to unite communities that face displacement, destruction, terror, poverty, and violence to stand together in the fight for housing for all, and promote self-determination in the face of an illegitimate government.
All those offering support to the community as individuals are welcome to join the daily assemblies at 5:30pm. Representatives of nonprofits, the City, and police are not invited.
ABOUT #FEED THE PEOPLE
#FeedthePeople, a collective of Oakland residents and activists, including some currently or formerly homeless, has been distributing food and supplies to homeless encampments in the East Bay for over a year. Every Wednesday, volunteers share hot home cooked meals, much needed supplies, hugs and support to people living on the street. They also provide advocacy and support to folks on the streets when they are harassed by police and politicians.
ABOUT #ASIANS4BLACKLIVES
#Asians4BlackLives, a diverse group of people of Asian descent based in the Bay Area, focuses on nonviolent direct action for Black liberation. The group originally came together over two years ago in response to a call from Black Lives Matter Bay Area and the larger Black Lives Matter movement, to show up in solidarity with Black people in their struggle for liberation. The group has been involved in direct actions to support campaigns ranging from #StopUrbanShield to #BlackTransLivesMatter to #NoDAPL and regularly supports calls from Black-led groups for solidarity statements and actions. a4bl.tumblr.com @Asians4BlkLives
In an alarmingly short period of time, Trump and the Republican Party are doing everything in their power to destroy the environment. On the forefront of this is the NODAPL movement.
Today Trump signed an executive order green lighting the pipeline, this is not only illegal it is a devastating blow to the water protectors who are fighting so hard to preserve our future.
An injury to one is an injury to all. Because of this we support everyone struggling for their voices to be heard and to have the dignity of a life free from violence and oppression at the hands of the police, the US government,and its citizens.
We we will be meeting at city hall on a day where people are going to be in it! We will then march to Bank of America and WellsFargo, as they are actively funding the pipeline.
THIS EVENT SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN CANCELLED.
Thank you dinner and party to celebrate our purchase of the building.
The Trump Agenda is now unmistakable. It wants to return the U.S. to an era when the rich could do whatever they want, with nothing for the people, no protections for oppressed sectors and no regard for the environment.
Despite the Democrats’ campaign rhetoric against Trump’s bigotry, once Trump won, they did not call for mass resistance to stop his extreme agenda.
It is time to stand together and get organized in our communities. There can be no collaboration with Trump and no false hopes in the Democratic Party to stop him. Join us for talks and discussion on how you can be involved in the real struggle to stop the Trump Agenda.
Plus: Video & photos from DC Counter-Inaugural protest!
Refreshments served. Wheelchair accessible.
The family of Angel Ramos is holding a vigil and a march and requests community support. Angel Ramos was murdered by Vallejo police on January 23rd, 2017.
If you cannot support in person, please consider donating to a fundraiser that will help with expenses for the funeral.
https://www.gofundme.com/
General Meeting Agenda – January 2017
Join the Oakland Justice Coalition for our first meeting of 2017. It’s our hope that this will be a generative meeting that will help provide the Steering Committee with guidance for the year ahead and help us further clarify the work we want to do together. Bring your ideas and bring your friends!
- WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS
- BRAINSTORMING ABOUT RESISTANCE WORK
- REPORT OUTS
- Housing Crisis: Aftermath of GhostShip
- New OUSD Superintendent and State of OUSD
- Sanctuary City Update
- 2018 ELECTIONS
- WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE
- ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OTHER BUSINESS
- Climate Action 100 Days
- Oakland Public Bank
The Power of Community
A Teach-in
on the Crisis of Affordable Housing
[the first in a series]
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
A teach-in is designed to educate about issues, develop organizing skills, and invent forms of political action (future topics will include the homeless crisis, police demilitarization, etc.) This will be a celebratory teach-in follow-up to Cheryl Davila’s election victory to initiate community defenses against gentrification.
Presenters
Damion McNeil – chair of Berkeley Housing Authority
Stephen Barton – formerly of the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board
Willie Cook – Affordable Housing developer
Christina Murphy – Dirrector of Drop-In Center, and a community organizer
They will speak on gentrification, how it destroys neighborhoods, and how Neighborhoods can defend themselves and fight back with neighborhood assemblies, autonomous (overlay) zoning, a seat at the development planning tables with a vote, and other means
sponsered by the Cheryl Davila Campaign Committee (www.cheryldavila.vote), The West Berkeley Teach-in Series, West Berkeley Neighbors (www.westberkeleyneighbors.blogspot.com), Friends of Adeline (www.friendsofadeline.org), BCA (BerkeleyCitizenAction.org), and others.
- Facebook event
- Go to the International Arrivals section at SFO, look for #NotInOurName signs
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At present, on the basis of a blatantly unconstitutional (and horrifically unethical) executive order by President Trump, travelers from Muslim countries are being turned back at airports throughout the United States. This includes even green card holders – permanent residents are being forced out of the US upon landing.
Trump’s ban will not do anything to combat the risk of terrorism. In fact, if anything, it will make the problem of terrorism worse, by further inflaming anti-American passion among extremists throughout the Middle East. This ban wouldn’t prevent another 9/11; it wouldn’t even have prevented the FIRST 9/11, as the hijackers on 9/11 were primarily from Saudi Arabia, travelers from which are NOT being banned.
THIS BAN IS RACISM, PURE AND SIMPLE. Unadulterated, unapologetic xenophobia, completely unnecessary, Unconstitutional, and Unamerican.
We will not allow for discrimination against people based solely on their religion or country of origin. This is racist. This is wrong. We will stand and protest!
Bring:
* Comfortable clothing (including a jacket– it’s chilly!) and comfortable shoes
* A FULLY CHARGED mobile phone with the Meetup app on it
* Cough drops/throat drops; we expect to be doing a lot of LOUD talking/shouting
* A SIGN with an appropriate (but not vulgar!) slogan: We suggest “#NotInOurName”, “#NeverAgain”, “END the #MuslimBan”, “STOP the #MuslimBan”, or “I STAND WITH MUSLIM TRAVELERS”.
DO NOT bring a bullhorn, amplifier, or expensive audio gear, electronic signs, or any bulky equipment! We want to be fast on our feet, and TSA/DHS/cops are confiscation-happy even on GOOD days. We don’t want to cause problems with them or get anyone’s stuff taken away. We’re just there to protest, as is our Constitutional right.
Brian Terrell participated in the first protests against killing by remote control in 2009, shortly after newly elected President Obama made assassination by Predator and Reaper drones the cornerstone of his military policy. Since his arrest at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada that spring, Brian has participated in nonviolent protests around the country and abroad as this deadly technology has been proliferating. At these protests he has been arrested many times, serving jail sentences in New York and Nevada and in 2013, he spent six months in federal prison for presenting a petition at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. As a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, he has traveled to Iraq and made several visits to Afghanistan and has met with drone victims there. He has spoken about drones at universities, high schools, churches and rallies in the United States, Europe and Asia and his writings on the subject have been widely published and translated into several languages. A peace activist for more than 40 years, Brian lives on a Catholic Worker farm in Maloy, Iowa, and is on the Nevada Desert Experience Council.
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Ctee
We will reconvene in a large group first, welcoming new members, and then break up into teams to strategize and plan our next moves to defeat the Trump agenda and re-elect progressive candidates in California and nation-wide. We’ll be in the same location as our first meeting (second floor of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Bonita Ave Entrance)