Calendar

9896
Jun
2
Sun
International Sex Worker Day @ Oscar Grant Plaza
Jun 2 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

66611
Author Event: Bill Fletcher discusses ‘The Man Who Fell From The Sky’
Jun 2 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Noted social justice activist Bill Fletcher has written his first novel, The Man Who Fell From The Sky. In it, Fletcher looks at the issues of race, ethnicity, power, history and politics through the eyes of a young reporter in Cape Cod investigating a murder in 1970. In the course of the novel, he weaves together portraits of Cape Verde, Portuguese, African American and white communities. (Books will be available for purchase.)

Please register at the Eventbrite page so we can get a good headcount: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bill-fletcher-book-talk-tickets-62069395232?fbclid=IwAR0-MHqTF9K9B_sbv8L5XemusaK-3NJ2-b078GR9kwvy2-sMEg9zmXpYO_k

66630
Migrants At The Border: What’s Really Happening? What Can We Do? @ RSVP for location (see text)
Jun 2 @ 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm

How can we show up in solidarity with migrants at the southern border who have fled gang violence and government brutality to endure traveling on foot for months, family separation, and further persecution?

Please join us on June 2 to hear how you can volunteer with Al Otro Lado, (AOL), a wonderful organization known as the “most loving place in Tijuana.” Al Otro Lado, is mostly volunteer-run and provides asylum seekers with know-your-rights training, legal consultation, document support, meals and medical care.Bay Area SURJ members who spent several days at the border will share their experiences working with asylum seekers. Volunteering is a great way for you to work against white supremacy and for human rights, and Spanish is not required.

RSVP via Facebook

66516
Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza
Jun 2 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

 

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 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 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! 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

64398
Film Screening: THE LOBBY, ABRIDGED @ Redwood Gardens Community Meeting Room
Jun 2 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

“If Americans Knew” presents a 1-hour version of the censored Al Jazeera documentary, “The Lobby, Abridged”.

 

66606
Jun
3
Mon
Earth Strike Bay Area Meeting @ Longhaul
Jun 3 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Twitter: @EarthStrikeSFBA

Facebook: @EarthStrikeBA

We, the people of the world, are striking to save our planet. Leading climate scientists have warned that we only have until 2030 to prevent global temperature increases from exceeding 1.5ºC. At that time, many effects of Climate Change will be irreversible, and the consequences will be dire. If the global average temperature increases reach 2°C, the results will be catastrophic; famine, droughts, floods, wildfires, the spread of infectious diseases and mass extinction– all on an unprecedented global scale. It would mean the collapse of the human race. According to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s 2017 Carbon Majors Report, 71% of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions come from just 100 companies worldwide. Big business does not serve the interests of the environment or a sustainable future, and by extension, the interests of humanity and life itself. A drastic change in course is imperative to avert catastrophe. To address this potentially catastrophic event, our protests will raise awareness for the global general strike, beginning September 27, 2019. Until all the world’s corporations and governments are held accountable to the needs of the common person, we refuse to participate in a system that only serves to line their pockets. Under the provisions of our protests, there will be no banking, no offices full of employees, no schools full of children, until our demands are met. We refuse to function in a society and political system that is complacent in the environmental demise of our planet.

Earth Strike is not made up of political elites. We are not funded by Super PACs. We are not servants to corporate masters. We are not interested in being re-elected. We do not kowtow to institutions of power. We are people, common people, who understand the alarming situation we are facing, and we demand something be done. We have no vested interests, save one: the survival of all life on the planet. Earth Strike is a global movement with Chapters all over the world, building momentum and solidarity across country and state lines, through concerned communities, and spanning every person with the conscience to recognize the noble goal of the preservation of our home. Based in the idea of solidarity, Earth Strike is a coalition of horizontally-organized, popular, workers movement to save the very existence of life on earth. As an inhabitant of this earth, we urge you to join us, to mitigate and prepare for the effects of Climate Change. Spread our demands, organize with your community, and take a stand for the future, our future.

The Earth shall go on Strike!

Our Demands

  • Enact energy systems of community-led renewable energies
    • Wind-down and end all fossil fuel extraction, and become totally carbon neutral by 2035
    • End all pipeline projects
    • Guarantee the sovereignty of indigenous lands with regards to government and government sponsored projects involving their land
    • Democratically determine and allocate community led renewable energy initiatives
    • Fund and expand carbon neutral and fare-free public transit
  • Prepare for Climate Change and protect those most harmed
    • Aid communities displaced by climate catastrophes with a focus on rebuilding sustainable infrastructure, including providing state-level aid to United States territories for natural disasters
    • Increase funding for FEMA by at least 50%
    • Offer a grant program to people who lose their means of survival due to energy transition
    • Improve FEMA to better serve the needs of communities
      • End the FEMA 50% rule and all regulations that base community aid on market values of property.
      • Train FEMA and other disaster response personnel to work with low income and homeless, people of color, and other marginalized communities
      • End the use of military/police forces in disaster relief programs
      • Provide transportation and lodging in evacuation situations for everyone, prioritizing at-risk communities.
    • Protect workers by repealing the Taft-Hartley Act
    • Include climate change and environmental safety in collective bargaining and union negotiations with employers
    • Retrofit buildings for energy efficiency and disaster resilience
    • Build climate-adaptive infrastructure
  • Improve sustainability of agricultural processes
    • End all subsidies to the meat industry
    • Regulate large-scale agriculture to reduce methane emissions, limit hazardous runoff, and preserve biodiversity.
    • End factory farming and create significantly stricter regulations in regard to quality of life for livestock
    • Further research and development on addressing dairy and other animal agriculture related environmental concerns.
    • Cattle must be fed diet of at least 50% grass grazing and the rest will be supplemented with grain and forages with less than 10% corn
    • Enact non-retaliation policies to limit large company’s control over individual farmers’ agricultural practices
    • End seed patents on genetically modified crops
    • Incentivize planting native/food gardens on residential properties
    • In conjunction with the above, ban lawn grass.
    • Incentivize local production/consumption of food
  • Sustainably manage resources
    • Mindfully manage potable water resources, and the inclusion of rainwater into irrigation and waste systems
    • Limit logging to only what can be replanted in the span of 1 year and enforce that replanting occurs
    • Deprivatize and municipalize all water supplies
66594
Oscar Grant Committee Meeting @ Zoom Meeting
Jun 3 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Because of the COVID pandemic we will be meeting virtually via Zoom on the first Monday of the month.

Meeting ID: 828 0976 4186

If you wish to get the password please subscribe to the Oscar Grant Committee mailing list by sending an email to:

The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality.

In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity. Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression. Sisters and brothers! The Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.

We meet on the 1st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to

oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

63650
Jun
4
Tue
No Coal in Richmond: Important Meeting  @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Jun 4 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

No Coal in Richmond: Important Meeting

Photo by Baykeeper, 2013

Help plan an hour-long rally and press conference to be held right before the Richmond Planning Commission meets at 6:30 PM on June 20th to consider the historic Richmond Coal Ordinance.

You can contribute to making the No Coal in Richmond campaign a successful effort!  Even contributing an hour or two between now and June 20th will make a huge difference.

In December 2018, the Richmond City Council voted unanimously to send the Richmond Coal Ordinance to the City Attorney for review.  This land use ordinance relies on the city’s police powers to regulate businesses in the interest of residents’ health and safety, and it contains three main provisions:

  1. It prohibits new coal operations on private land in the city;
  2. It prevents existing facilities from expanding;
  3. It provides for a graduated phase-out of coal operations.

For more information about the ordinance, see the No Coal in Richmond website

And if you haven’t yet, please sign this letter to the Richmond City Council and Mayor supporting the ordinance to ban the handling and storage of coal and petroleum coke.  Urge them to vote ‘Yes’ on the ordinance and protect community health and the environment.

 

66648
CloseThe Loopholes in Oakland Rent Control @ Oakland City Hall Council Chambers,
Jun 4 @ 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm

We don’t have to wait to repeal Costa Hawkins to fight displacement and stabilize the homes of thousands of tenants in Oakland NOW.

Oakland City Council has the power to remove rent-control exemptions on thousands of currently owner-occupied duplex and triplex units in Oakland and protect the futures of families in thousands more. It’s time we demand they take action to stop displacement and rent gouging.

Closing the rent stabilization loophole for owner-occupied 2-3 unit buildings would immediately:
• Protect an estimated 5,100 tenants already living owner-occupied duplexes or triplex units by allowing them to re/gain rent stabilization;
• Qualify these tenants for protections under Oakland’s Tenant Protection Ordinance, which protects tenants from harassment and “bad acting“ landlords who are refusing to make necessary repairs;
• Make these tenants eligible for relocation payments for no-fault evictions
• Preserve the affordability of approximately 11,000 additional units vulnerable to losing rent stabilization and coverage under the Tenant Protection Ordinance and Uniform Relocation Ordinance.

Learn more about the fight here https://cjjc.org/mediapress/closetheloopholes-to-defend-and-expand-oaklands-rent-stabilized-housing/

And join us

Tuesday 5/21 @ 5:30pm First full City Council Vote – 3rd Floor Oakland City Hall

and

Tuesday 6/4 @ 5:30pm Final vote 3rd Floor Oakland City Hall

Also up for a vote on 5/21 – demand transparency and accountability from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department https://www.facebook.com/events/395420811306185/

66573
Socialist Night School: Anti-Imperialist Strategy @ East Bay Community Space
Jun 4 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Throughout the history of capitalism, capitalists in a handful of countries have managed to impose their dominance across the world, subjecting people, land, and resources in the Global South to intense forms of exploitation. Socialists call this system imperialism.

What is the connection between the socialist project and anti-imperialism? What can socialists in the US do to fight imperialism? And what might an international struggle against imperialism and capitalism look like?

Join us on Tuesday, June 4 for the third part of our three-part Socialist Night School series on imperialism to discuss these questions and others.

Accessibility: The venue is wheelchair-accessible.

Required Readings

See the readings that we’ll be discussing after a brief introduction from our members.

 

66620
Housing Struggles & International Solidarity: Eastern Europe @ Tamarack
Jun 4 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Housing Struggle & International Solidarity: Eastern Europe and Beyond

The housing crisis is a global issue. Across the world, struggles for housing justice are on the rise, as are fights against evictions, gentrification, and houselessness.

A transnational analysis and international solidarity strategy based on anti-capitalist, antiracist, and communitarian ideals has become increasingly necessary. Join us for an evening presentation and discussion around organizing and building regional and global solidarities!

Drawing upon their own contexts in Romania, Czech Republic, and the US (Bay Area), housing activists Eliska Černá (Wake up houses), Jakub Černý (Wake up houses, Squat Klinika), Erin McElroy (Anti-Eviction Mapping Project), Veda Popovici (Common Front for Housing Rights) will explore local tactics, regional radical visions, and the necessity for international housing movement solidarity.

66646
Jun
5
Wed
Ella Baker Meeting @ San Antonio Senior Center
Jun 5 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Join us for this month’s member meeting! We will be debriefing the legislative session, updating members on the status of our priority bills, starting the planning for our August Lobby Day and training folks on how to get our bills signed into law. Dinner will be provided and all are welcome.

66651
Making Political Art: Expression of a Movement
Jun 5 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

‘Making Political Art: Expression of a Movement’ invites you to a lively conversation as Oakland art critic Jeff Kelley facilitates a discussion with Bay Area artists Leslie Dreyer, Mark Harris & Sawyer Rose.

 

66623
Jun
6
Thu
Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission @ Oakland City Hall, Hearing Room 1, Oscar Grant Plaza
Jun 6 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Relevant Agenda Items:

5. 5:45pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – OPD – ShotSpotter technology Impact Report and proposed Use Policy – review and formation of ad hoc work group. No action on the use policy will be taken at this meeting.

6. 6:00pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – DOT – Mobility Data Sharing Impact Report and proposed Use Policy – review and take possible action.

7. 6:30pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – OPD – Remote Camera Impact Report and proposed Use Policy – review and formation of ad hoc work group. No action on the use policy will be taken at this meeting.

66660
‘Cacophony Society’ Reading and Signing @ Wolfman Books
Jun 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Launched in 1986, the Cacophony Society was a highly-influential, “randomly gathered network of free spirits united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society.” This underground collective of pranksters, culture jammers, and thrill-seekers birthed Burning Man, inspired Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, and freaked out the squares with their proto-flash mobs of SantaCon. Please join us at E. M. Wolfman for the premier signing and reading of the recently issued paperback edition of this crucial counter-culture document first published in hardback by Last Gasp Publishers of San Francisco in 2013. Co-authors, John Law and Kevin Evans will sign and there will be short readings from the book Including a memorial for book co-author and cacophony society stalwart Carrie Galbraith RIP.

And if you’ve never heard of the Cacophony Society before, don’t fret. You may already be a member.

“Before the Internet vomited headlines by the millisecond and turned the minutia of a million boring Facebook lives into news, we were left the privilege of mystery. This was something The San Francisco Cacophony Society gave me in spades. Over the years, I would catch glimpses, collect pieces of a puzzle I was slowly assembling—a car crushed flat by an earthquake miraculously tooling down Golden Gate, toasters glued to buildings, news-clips of mock protests and costumed impostors, flyers for strange art spectacles. Now the puzzle is assembled in this gorgeous graphic collection, a book every lover of eccentricity and enemy of the status quo should enjoy.” – Margaret Cho

66653
‘DOLORES’ @ Ellen Driscoll Playhouse
Jun 6 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century-and she continues the fight to this day, at age 88.

With intimate and unprecedented access, Peter Bratt’s film chronicles Huerta’s life from her childhood in Stockton, California to her early years with the United Farm Workers, from her work with the headline-making grape boycott launched in 1965 to her role in the feminist movement of the 1970s, to her continued work as a fearless activist.  Featuring interviews with Gloria Steinem, Luis Valdez, Angela Davis, Dolores’ children and more, Dolores is an intimate and inspiring portrait of a passionate champion of the oppressed, and an indomitable woman willing to accept the personal sacrifices involved in committing one’s life to social change.

“exuberantly inspiring…makes you want to march and dance.” David Talbot, San Francisco Chronicle

Among its many awards:

Best Documentary Feature: SF International Film Festival

Best Documentary: Seattle International Film Festival

Best Documentary: New Orleans Film Festival

The Piedmont screening will feature a taco truck outside the theater before the screening, beginning at 5:30pm. Come early to avoid a long line.   Film starts at 7 pm. Also:

66655
Omni Commons General Assembly @ Omni Commons
Jun 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

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

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.

66626
Omni General Assembly @ Omni Commons
Jun 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Come by our open Delegates Meetings every other 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

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.

66608
THE LAND AND LIBERTY social justice advocates’ training seminar – Land and Housing Justice @ Notable House
Jun 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
What if the value of what real estate agents mean by “location, location, location” were treated fully as community property? What would it mean as tax revenue to collect land values? What would happen to land speculation if the rent of land was collected by society to pay for social infrastructure? What would happen to the sales price of land were its private income potential sent to near ZERO? What would happen to landlords’ pocketbooks if the land portion of the rent you’re paying went to pay for streets, schools, fire protection, etc.?

To find out, through guided discussion, come to this week’s edition of THE LAND AND LIBERTY social justice advocates’ training seminar.

It’s free, it’s 7-9 pm, it’s scintillating, and it’s in San Francisco’s Red Hill neighborhood!

http://www.thecommonssf.org/the_seminars

to RSVP: info [at] TheCommonsSF.org

66661
Jun
7
Fri
Report back from Cuba and update on Venezuela. @ BFUU
Jun 7 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Report back from Cuba and update on Venezuela.
Two local activists who participated in the May Day activities in Cuba will be sharing information with the public. Alicia Jrapko, co-chair of the National Network on Cuba and the US coordinator of the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity, and Bill Hackwell, photo journalist and co-editor for the English edition of Resumen Latinoamericano will be speaking.

Recently returned from Venezuela:

David Paul, one of the four remaining members of the Embassy Protection Collective, arrested when it was seized by the DC police and secret service. The Collective was there for more than a month defending the Embassy on behalf of the legitimate government of Venezuela.

Laura Wells, 2018 Green Party candidate for California’s 13th congressional district.

Recently returned from Cuba:

Alicia Jrapko, co-chair of the National Network on Cuba and the US coordinator of the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity.
Bill Hackwell, photo journalist and co-editor of the English edition of Resumen Latinoamericano.                                Co-sponsored by Task Force on the Americas, BFUU Social Justice Committee and the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity.
Endorsed by Richmond, Ca./Regla, Cuba Friendship Committee, and the
Network of Intellectuals, Artists and Social Movements in Defense of Humanity.

For more info: 510-219-0092 or 415- 578-7930

Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee, the International Committee for Peace Justice and Dignity, and the Task Force on the Americas.

Wheelchair accessible.

66621