Calendar

9896
Apr
20
Wed
Anti Police-Terror Project General Meeting @ Eastside Arts Alliance
Apr 20 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Monthly APTP meeting, held on every 3rd Wednesday of the month.

The Anti Police-Terror Project is a project of the ONYX ORGANIZING COMMITTEE that in coalition with other organizations like The Alan Blueford Center For Justice, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Community Ready Corps and Workers World is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.

We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.

60831
Apr
21
Thu
SF Hunger Strike: Stop the Execution of Our People @ SF Police Station
Apr 21 @ 10:00 am – 11:45 pm
60841
Support the Coalition for Police Accountability: Eat at Cafe Eritrea! @ Cafe Eritrea D'Afrique
Apr 21 @ 11:30 am – 9:00 pm

 Eat at Cafe Eritrea D’Afrique.
Just stop in for lunch or dinner and tell them you are eating for the Coalition for Police Accountability. 20% of your bill total will go to the CPA.

This Eritrean cafe focuses on bold flavors in traditional stews, vegetable platters & honey wine.
  Phone:     (510) 547-4520
  Hours: 10:00 AM to 11:00 pm
Menu:
www.urbanspoon.com

If you can’t make it, you can make a donation at www.coalitionforpoliceaccountability

 

This funding will be used to print petitions for our Oakland Police Commission ballot measure, flyers, and order more tee shirts, among other needs we have.

Let’s make this a HUUUGE success – we intend to make this a regular feature, with new restaurants each time.

60837
Get Ready for May 2 Alameda Fracking Ban Hearing @ 11th Floor
Apr 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

w-fracking_rig-300

On May 2nd, the Alameda County Planning Commission—and the public—will revisit the Planning Commission’s proposed ordinance to ban all extreme oil and gas extraction methods.  Supporters of the ban will have a chance to address the damaging revisions to that proposed ordinance which were presented just a few hours before the previous April 4th hearing by E & B  Natural Resources.

To help prepare people for the May hearing, Alameda County Against Fracking will meet on Thursday, April 21st, from 6-7 pm, at 1814 Franklin St., 11th Floor, Oakland.

BACKGROUND:  After two years and much behind-the-scenes work by Alameda County Against Fracking (ACAF), a comprehensive ordinance that would ban all extreme oil and gas extraction methods is finally under consideration by the Alameda County Planning Commission.  The proposed Zoning Ordinance Amendment would:

Modify the Alameda County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO) to prohibit high intensity oil and gas operations in the unincorporated area, including Well stimulation by increasing the permeability of the formation; enhanced recovery wells that are injected with brine, water, steam, polymers, carbon dioxide, or other gases into oil-bearing formations to recover residual oil and in some limited applications natural gas; hydraulic fracturing; acid fracturing; acid matrix stimulation treatment; acid well stimulation treatment; and disposal or storage of the substances used in or the waste or byproducts of the uses listed above, including but not limited to hydraulic fracturing fluid, acid well stimulation fluid, well stimulation treatment fluid, flowback fluid, wastewater or produced water. Modify the ACZO to prohibit Disposal or storage in pits or sumps of any wastewater or produced water that is a byproduct of any oil and gas operations (uses listed in 17.06.040(I)).

Here is the full text of the ordinance:  PC Staff Report 2016-4-4 Fracking Prohibition (PDF)

This final draft includes provisions that ACAF felt were most important not only for banning surface activities that enable fracking and other extreme oil and gas extraction methods, but also the percolation pits and sumps which have been notoriously involved in contamination of surface waters and clean water aquifers in California’s Central Valley.

Opposition has included Bakersfield-based E & B Natural Resources, owner of the six wells operating in East Alameda County, which objects to any limitation on its current operations.  E & B is joined by the California Independent Petroleum Association and Californians for Energy Independence, a petroleum industry front group which argues that the County should defer to the State of California in these matters, despite (or because of) the many failures of state agencies to adequately regulate oil producers.  Some East County landowners have also spoken out against regulation in past committee meetings.

UPDATE:  Just a few hours before the April 4th hearing, E & B Natural Resources proposed last-minute revisions to the draft ordinance, which County staff obligingly incorporated into a new ordinance fast tracked for immediate vote.  These revisions seriously weaken the originally proposed ordinance.  One change sets a minimum concentration of acid that would define the borderline between ordinary well maintenance and “acidizing,” a form of extreme extraction the draft ordinance bans.   The other proposed change to allow “water flooding” would leave the door open to cyclic steaming and other water-intensive extraction methods.  E & B argues these changes are necessary in order for them to continue their current operation.  Several commissioners seemed to agree and it’s likely the revised ordinance would have been  approved by the Planning Commission had there not been vigorous protest by members of ACAF and other supporters.  We forcefully argued that the public needed time to respond to the proposed revisions and that the Commission needed to do its due diligence about “water flooding,” which E & B wanted to remove from the list of prohibited activities.  Luckily, the Commission Chair conceded that the questionable process was discouraging public trust in government and continued the hearing until May 2nd.  Once again we hope to see solid turnout of our own folks, pumped up and ready to testify, or to hold signs during the hearing.  We are very clear that the original draft—before the proposed revisions proposed by E & B—does not curtail E & B’s current operations, and is the version that must be approved by the Planning Commission.

Will Alameda County join Santa Cruz, Mendocino and San Benito in saying no pasaran to the oil industry?  Passage of this strong ordinance by the Planning Commission, unweakened by E & B’s proposed revisions, is the last hurdle before the Board of Supervisors makes the final decision.  Come join this historic effort!

ALAMEDA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION HEARING:

WHEN

May 02, 2016 at 6pm

WHERE

Public Hearing Room
Alameda County Offices
224 W. Winton Ave
Room 160
Hayward, CA 94541

60839
Film Screening: Occupy the Farm @ Omni Commons
Apr 21 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

“Occupy The Farm” tells the story of 200 urban farmers who walked onto a publicly owned research farm and planted it with two acres of crops in order to save it from becoming a real estate development. The Village Voice calls the film, “Riveting from the start.” This story took place in the East Bay, and is still unfolding to this day.

The filmmaker and some organizers from Occupy The Farm will do a Q&A following the screening.

Seating capacity is limited to 45. First come, first served.

View Trailer

60833
Homes Not Jails Film Night @ Omni Commons
Apr 21 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

As part of 8 days of anarchy, homes not jails will be screening films about squatter movements from around the world. This will be followed a panel and discussion about the films and squatting in general.

Donations will support east bay homes not jails and the omni commons.

 

60818
Apr
22
Fri
Stop Urban Shield Town Hall @ Eastside Arts Alliance
Apr 22 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

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.

It 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 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.

Join the Stop Urban Shield Coalition to learn about the fight and how to get involved. Space is wheelchair accessible.

60842
Is Climate Change Protest Broken? @ David Brower Center
Apr 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The “Is Climate Change Protest Broken?” panel will include Bay Area activists. The forum will conclude with a question-and-answer session moderated by Michelle Myers of the Sierra Club.

Micah White, one of the founders of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, will participate in the forum on the past and future of environmental protest. White is the author of “The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution,” which contends that reliance on materialism, empiricism and scientism has limited the potential of environmental protest, necessitating a social revolution for individuals, communities and the planet.

 

60732
Reverend Billy, Author of The Earth Wants You @ Laurel Books, Oakland
Apr 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Laurel Bookstore welcomes Reverend Billy Talen, spiritual leader and global activist, to speak on Earth Day from his new book The Earth Wants You.

A preacher’s exhortation, an activist’s primer, inspired visions and a call to arms for a wild, creative, Earth-led cultural revolution.

Civic life in the time of climate chaos—floods, fire, drought and superstorms—will require intensive policing and social control. Governing bodies will transform and democracy will fall by the wayside; the banks and the power stations will be heavily defended; whole populations will be incarcerated. While this might seem like dystopian fiction, it’s actually a description of life as it’s lived in much of the world now, and will become the norm unless we can stop it. When the ocean is pouring in through the door, will we find the will to act before we drown?

This book is a call for action as extreme as the weather. It’s meant to radicalize those who didn’t think the climate crisis would require any risky personal commitment. The Earth revolution is upon us, and it must be as wild and as unpredictable as life on Earth itself! Earth-a-lujah!

Reverend Billy and his choir of singing-activists are on the front lines of creative direct action, and here they offer up a distillation of the passion, the inspiration, and the hopes for love and survival that fuel their work. In a mix of essays, polemics, surrealist scenarios and news flashes from the frontlines, Reverend Billy answers the question, “What are we to do?” with a resounding chorus of “Take Action NOW!”

60693
Apr
23
Sat
21st Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair @ New Oakland Metro Opera House
Apr 23 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

The Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair is an annual event for people interested and engaged in radical work to connect and learn through book and information tables, workshops, panel discussions, skillshares, films and more! We create an inclusive space to introduce new folks to anarchism, foster productive dialogue between various political traditions and anarchists from different milieus, and create an opportunity to dissect our movements’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and tactics.

60659
Cesar Chavez Parade & Festival @ Dolores Park
Apr 23 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

This Earth Day 2016, MARCH FOR THE EARTH in honor of Cesar Chavez because environmental rights are human rights! Gathering at 10am at 19th and Dolores, the parade departs promptly at 11 to walk to 24th and Mission. The festival is on 24th Street between Bryant and Treat. Please don’t miss the music, speakers and community! Bring signs and friends! Organizations please call John (415) 312-6924 or email marchfortheearth@gmail.com if you would like to be listed in the parade roster.

60798
EARTH DAY Defend the Land at the Gill Tract. @ Gill Tract Organic Farm
Apr 23 @ 12:00 pm – 11:45 pm

Join us to celebrate EARTH DAY WEEKEND at the Gill Tract where we will come together to BUILD OUR POWER and continue the fight to DEFEND THE LAND.

As many of you know construction has started on the southernmost part of the Tract below Monroe St. UC Berkeley has sold out that parcel of public land to be turned into a luxury senior housing complex. But we won’t let the rest of the southside of Gill Tract be paved into a corporate chain grocery store. It’s a critical moment as permits may be issued any day now. Let’s seize this weekend of celebrating and protecting Mama Earth to resist further threats to this historic farmland and greenspace.

We’ll have a weekend full of engaging activities planned including speakers, music, food, and much more, SO COME OUT ALL DAY EACH DAY AND PLAN TO STAY THE NIGHT.

Saturday 4/23
*12 Noon: meet on the corner of San Pable Ave and Monroe St.
*Activities will include altar building so bring decorative fabric, remembrance pictures/images, flowers, battery-powered lights, special/sacred objects, etc.
*5pm Speakers: TBA
*6pm Dinner served
*7pm Music: Future Twins, group jam, more (tba)
*Camp out under the stars!

Sunday 4/14
*We will go support the fun activities at the northside Community Farm.
*6:00 Dinner
*Night time film screening of “This Changes Everything” (the Naomi Klein film) w/ popcorn

60836
The ‘Must Go On’ Celebration. @ Downtown Berkeley Post Office Steps
Apr 23 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

What’s Next in the Fight to Protect Public Spaces, the Rights of Homeless People, AND Free Speech

BPOD-FIRST-flyer-4-23-2016

 

A press conference and celebration to discuss what’s next for the activists who occupied the grounds of the Main Berkeley Post Office for a year-and-a-half

Why: Though our occupation has been torn down, the fight to preserve public resources, free speech, and the rights of homeless people must continue

Though the Main Berkeley Post Office is not currently up for sale, the USPS continues to pursue a “shrink to survive” strategy by reducing and outsourcing services, chiseling away at union employment, and selling post offices around the country.  Management of this huge enterprise is neglected with only three Governors on the Board that is chartered for eleven.  The Postal Service continues to ignore the strong recommendations of its own Inspector General to correct anti-competitive practices in its real estate division and to pursue financial viability by offering banking services to its customers.

Allowing the USPS to wither in this way threatens the citizenry with the loss of universally accessible mail service, with a devastating injury to organized labor, with the elimination of public space on Main Streets throughout the country, and with the abdication of the Constitutional mission to provided a vehicle for the transmission of free speech.

During our 17-month occupation of the Main Berkeley Post Office, we expanded our mission to protest the criminalization of homeless people.  Solving the widespread social problems that result in homelessness is not, nor can it be, the job of the police.  We will continue to raise awareness of this strategic miscalculation by city officials and to demand that truly affordable housing be created for the homeless so they can spend more time putting their lives in order and less time shifting their belongings from pillar to post.

Our press conference will review the course of our 17-month occupation.  We will thank everyone who played a role in sustaining our presence on the grounds of the post office.  And we will discuss our strategies going forward:

– To organize community members to call out the USPS for not using the Main Berkeley Post Office to its full potential, and for not heeding their Inspector General’s recommendations to crack down on their real estate division and to institute postal banking.

–   To invite candidates for election in November to use the Main Berkeley Post Office as a backdrop for supporting union labor, for Main Street Not Wall Street, and for attacking the predatory fringe finance industry.

– To retain and build on the way we’ve used public space for free expression. No matter how one might speculate as to the reasons why the Postal Police tolerated our occupation for so long, we demonstrated that public officials may not have absolute control over the use of spaces they administer, but that communities can override authorities without relying on permits, petitions, lawsuits, lobbyists, threats, or bribes. We can just use those spaces.

– To continue to nurture the community garden that we planted on neglected post office property over a year ago, and to which we are currently denied access by US Postal Police.

Berkeley Post Office Defenders: http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/

First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999?ref=br_tf

BPOD is affiliated with Strike Debt Bay Area: http://strike-debt-bay-area.tumblr.com/

For more on the privatization of the USPS:

Saving the United States Postal Service as a Public Enterprise: http://tinyurl.com/ltqq7ng

Privatization Is Social Cancer; Saving the US Postal Service: http://tinyurl.com/mbcbzrf

 

60845
POSTPONED: Dinner and a (Great) Movie: Pride @ SEIU 1000 Hall, 2nd floor
Apr 23 @ 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm

 

 

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL SOMETIME IN MAY, DATE TO BE DETERMINED.

pride-movie-flyer

60793
Apr
24
Sun
4 Year Anniversary of Occupy the Farm @ Gill Tract
Apr 24 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Celebrating 4 years at the Gill Tract! Food, live music, holistic medicine, and farmin’! We would love your help in making the magic happen sign up to volunteer at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4faba729a3fe3-earth

 

60779
Berkeley Anarchists Conference @ Omni Commons
Apr 24 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

The BASTARD (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development) conference promotes multiple approaches to anarchism. Come and share yours. Come and participate in a commerce-free event with other anarchists to talk about the philosophy and theory of where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going.

Every year we have a loose theme, to allow people who want a framework on which to base a workshop. The BASTARD Conference is an annual event and gathering organized by the Berkeley Anarchist Study Group, which is an open long running (10+ years) anarchist study group that meets every week on Tuesday @ The Long Haul Infoshop (3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley CA. 94705).

http://sfbay-anarchists.org/

60834
47th People’s Park Anniversary @ People's Park
Apr 24 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

It’s time to celebrate our History of Struggle!

Leave it to Diva
Skank Bank
Funky Nixons
Hali Hammer
Yukon Hannibal
Bogues
Tee Lewis
Bay Area Harmonica Club
Us
Steven Lewis
Max Ventura
Chanel
All Nations Singers
DJ Soul

Food Not Bombs Field Kitchen all day
Tables

Good Community Good Times…Details TBA

60820
Sunflower Alliance General Assembly @ Bobby Bowens Progressive Center
Apr 24 @ 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm

Join us to learn about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice action in our region. We welcome your participation and your voice! Steve Ongerth will present on “just transition” — ensuring that fossil fuel workers get support, training, and good new jobs as we eliminate fossil fuel.

Potluck lunch before the meeting at 12:30 PM.

 

60838
Post Salon: Barbara Lee, Troy Williams @ Geoffrey's Inner Circle
Apr 24 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Congresswoman Barbara Lee & Troy Williams to Speak at Post Salon.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee will discuss overcoming barriers for the formerly incarcerated to vote and find jobs at next week’s Post Salon. Troy Williams, former San Quentin inmate, will respond.

The salon will also report on the housing moratorium, a local voter registration drive and the crisis of jobs and job training programs in Oakland, discussing the significance of what will be discussed at the Tuesday, April 26 Community and Economic Development Community Meeting.

RSVP online

60851
Open Circle ~ Families Fighting for Justice @ Omni Commons
Apr 24 @ 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

59100