Judge and author Lise Pearlman brings to AAMLO her well-researched book on prisoner rights activist and movement lawyer Fay Stender. Stender achieved amazing legal successes in criminal defense and prison reform, known for defending both Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton and revolutionary prisoner George Jackson, before she ultimately refocused with similar zeal on feminist and lesbian rights.
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
The housing crisis in the Bay Area and beyond is a wholly preventable disaster, created and maintained by the notion that housing is a commodity and not a human right.
On Saturday, September 23, join us in the campaign for the Yes on Prop 10, also called the Affordable Housing Act — a ballot initiative that that will give our cities and counties the power to adopt rent control necessary to address the state’s housing affordability crisis by repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act.
The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act upholds landlord interests, and — in tandem with the housing crisis — has deeply exacerbated social disparities, displaced longtime communities, driven homelessness, and dealt a blow to working-class power by making housing ever more insecure and inaccessible.
Come learn more about Prop 10 and repealing Costa-Hawkins, and then we’ll hit the streets to talk with our neighbors about housing justice and the Affordable Housing Act!
We will be meeting within the park. Look for the big DSA flag!
Accessibility: McClymonds Park is ADA-accessible.
Our Agenda is as follows:
1PM – Brief introductions and agenda check in
1:15 to 2:30PM – Candidate oral statements and Q & A
2:30PM – Ranked-Choice Voting discussion
3:00PM – Endorsement Vote
3:15PM – Fall Strategy Conversation
4PM – Adjourn
Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. We’ll discuss ongoing eco-campaigns and plans for the future. Newcomers and old friends welcome — we need your participation and your voice. Come early to hang out and share a potluck lunch.
Potluck lunch: 12:30 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
Come and celebrate the big win at BART at Oakland Privacy’s Movie Night.
Two great films from the land down under, free snacks, and a bit about how we’re wiping out secret surveillance across the Bay.
Join Oakland Privacy for two award-winning Australian films about our dystopian techno-state. Cosponsored by Liberated Lens Film Collective.
Doors open at 5:30pm
Program starts at 6pm
iRony, directed by then 19-year old Radheya Jegatheya, is an 8 minute animated film exploring the relationship between human and technology …. told from the perspective of a phone. The hand drawn animated film is based on a poem by the director which won 2 national poetry awards in Australia and has received 14 “Best of” awards in film festivals around the globe.
Stare Into The Lights My Pretties, directed by Jordan Brown, investigates questions of how did we get here and who benefits to form a critical view of technological escalation driven by rapacious and pervasive corporate interests. Covering themes of addiction, privacy, surveillance, information manipulation, behavior modification and social control, the film lays the foundations as to why we may feel like we are sleep running into some dystopian nightmare with the machines at the helm. The film won the “Edward Snowden Award” in Argentina, “Most Challenging Film” from Indie Lincs in Lincoln United Kingdom, “Most Unforgettable Film” Silver Award from the Spotlight Film Festival, United States; and winner and semi-finalist accolades from events in Poland, Bangladesh, Russia, Ireland and Belgium.
With a brief q+a with Privacy Advisory Commission chair Brian Hofer about what we can do to slow down dystopia right here in our backyard.
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. THE ITEM WILL NOT BE TAKEN UP BY THE COUNCIL THIS DAY.
Council Person Abel Guillen is proposing the Nordic Model for East Oakland otherwise known as End Demand legislation. The law would target clients, thereby creating a smaller pool of paying clients. This is the last thing we need while we are reeling from FOSTA/SESTA.
Every time this kind of bad legislation is put into law, anywhere in the world, it causes more violence against sex workers and unsafe working conditions. We need folks to come pack the meeting and fax City Council before hand at https://tribunus.typeform.com/to/ABrd2T
Accessibility info – This is at City hall – on the 3rd floor, there is an elevator up to the 3rd floor, in terms of scents, it is City Hall, so it’s not scent free
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), opposing Urban Shield (now gone!) and pushing back against ICE with local legislation.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/ Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy
Check out our sister site DeportICE.
Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County. To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority.
Please attend! Tell people. Spread the word. Challenge this. UC must not be allowed to expand at the expense of rising rents and to displace homeless people!!! This year they admitted 2000 more students into a city that already has a huge affordable housing shortage! Are they manipulating the market just to KEEP RENTS HIGH?
People’s Park Project – An overview & planning steps for development presented by Ruben Lizardo, Director of UC’s Government & Community Relations
You’re invited to the Le Conte Neighborhood Association meeting:
People’s Park Project – An overview & planning steps for development presented by Ruben Lizardo, Director of UC’s Government & Community Relations, with Telegraph business perspectives from Stuart Baker, Executive Director of Telegraph BID
ORGANIZING IN THE GONE CITY
A conversation with Dick Walker on his latest book,
Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity
in the San Francisco Bay Area
Join LeftRoots and the The Center for Political Education for an
evening with radical geographer Dick Walker. He will be joined by on-the-ground organizers against gentrification, displacement, and exploitation by the tech industry in the Bay Area, including:
• Vanessa Moses, of Causa Justa Just Cause
• Alex Tom, of Chinese Progressive Association
• Divya Sundar, of ASATA – Alliance of South Asians Taking Action
The San Francisco Bay Area is a jewel in the crown of capitalism—the tech capital of the world and a gusher of wealth from the Silicon Gold Rush. The Bay boasts of being the Left Coast, home of green cities, and the best place for workers in the USA. So, what could be wrong?
Join us to examine the dark side of this success: overheated, exploding inequality, and severe environmental damage—and how Pictures of a Gone City can help us build power and win in these changing and challenging times.
Dick Walker is one of those rare scholars who helps us understand the world in order to change it. A professor emeritus of geography at UC Berkeley, he has long been a resource for Bay Area activists seeking to understand where we live and work, its local dynamics and global context. Pictures of a Gone City—sweeping in scope and exquisitely detailed—examines the political economy and class structure of the region; displacement, internal migration and the growth of its cities; and its history of environmental and political organizing.
Wheelchair accessible.
For more information, email bayareacc@leftroots.net or center@politicaleducation.org
The California Air Resources Board takes testimony this week on the new state Community Emissions Reduction Program, established by Assembly Bill 617. The CARB board will decide whether to adopt their staff’s “blueprint,” and will set the communities receiving emissions reduction plans and requirements for the first year. Your important testimony could make all the difference between a weak, inequitable program and one that lives up to its promise.
What exactly is AB 617?
AB 617, the “Community Air Protection Act” was adopted in the summer of 2017 as a companion bill—and justification—for AB 398, which extended the much-protested state cap-and-trade program. This greenhouse gas trading program allows big polluters to pay to pollute, instead of directly cleaning up fossil fuels in impacted communities. AB 617, its intended antidote, is supposed to cut toxics and smog “co-pollutants.” These are emitted at the same time as greenhouse gases when fossil fuels are burned or evaporated in industry and transportation, especially in most impacted communities of color.
Now that AB 617 is in place, environmental justice organizations that first opposed it are working to get as much pollution cleanup as they can. Some 617 concepts do include important measures community members have long sought, such as community-level plans to cut cumulative stationary, transportation, and other emissions. But here’s the problem: only ten communities in the state are proposed to get any plan the first year, and only seven of these would get an emission reduction plan. (The rest get only air monitoring plans!) This is not enough: dozens of seriously impacted communities need such cleanup.
In the Bay Area, we’re very happy that West Oakland was chosen to receive an emission reduction plan. But East Oakland and Richmond were left out! And in southern California, Southeast Los Angeles was also passed over.
What do environmental justice groups want?
Community Selection – Add Community Emission Reduction Plan (CERP) for ► Richmond ► East Oakland ► Southeast LA.
State Blueprint – Need Oil Industry Requirements:
JOIN US ON AMTRAK! Capitol Corridor #522 to Sacramento: Oakland: 6:25; Emeryville: 6:34; Berkeley: 6:38; Richmond: 6:45; Martinez: 7:11; Sacramento: 8:25 AM
On September 13, BART unanimously adopted a surveillance transparency ordinance, the 6th Bay Area entity to do so and the first transit agency in the country. Thanks to you, there will be no more secret surveillance on BART. But BART still has plans for enhanced security and has scheduled a meeting in the suburbs. What BART does affects all of its riders, so your voice should be heard – even if they make you travel a long way to do it. Pittsburg City Hall, to be exact.
Free shuttle from the Pittsburg Center BART station.
Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in the East Bay DSA Labor Committee, and learn how you can get involved!
Bay Area Landless Peoples Alliance:
Regional meeting of landless activists of the San Francisco Bay Area
Futbolistas 4 Life takes you into the lives of two Oakland high schoolers: One is a college hopeful and DACA applicant who’s navigating the reality of his immigration status, and the other is an American citizen who lives in fear that her undocumented parents may be deported. These youth take solace in the game of soccer that lets them, if only for a moment, put their worries on the sidelines.
The film also features the fighting spirit of their coach Dania – a former professional soccer player. At a time when Colin Kaepernick and professional athletes around the world have used their platform to speak out on injustices in the U.S., Dania also uses her role to help players understand the inequities that exist in their community. A former professional athlete and the daughter of political refugees from Chile, Dania uses her love for the game and her family’s own immigrant experience to connect with and empower her players.
Futbolistas 4 Life sheds light on the overwhelming stress experienced nationwide by immigrant youth living in communities with high rates of poverty and violence – communities increasingly in the crosshairs of harsh federal immigration policies.
Director’s Bio
Jun Stinson is an Oakland based independent filmmaker and a producer at AJ+. She has been a post-production producer and editor with Al Jazeera America, produced segments for Current TV and KQED, among others. She was also on the post-production team of the feature documentary Spark: A Burning Man Story that premiered at SXSW in 2013. Her work is published in the Washington Post, Associated Press, espnW, and SFGate.com. She is a former BAVC National MediaMaker Fellow and San Francisco Film Society FilmHouse resident. Jun was raised in both Oakland and Kobe, Japan and is a graduate of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Ray McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years, is a founding member of VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) and an erudite critic of U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Ray will speak on the “Russia thing”, the situation in Syria, Gaza, Julian Assange, and more.
Dennis Bernstein, host of KPFA’s “Flashpoints”, will M.C.
Emma’s Revolution will join us with their gorgeous soul-stirring music and will be joined by the CODEPINK Chorus.
CODEPINK dessert benefit (homemade pie and treats), Emma’s CDs and t-shirts.
Sponsored by CODEPINK and the BFUU Social Justice Committee.