Calendar
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 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 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (In prior years we have agreed to meet at 4:00 PM during summer hours, that is, once Daylight Savings Time goes back into effect).
On every last Sunday we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! 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
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
The story of recyclers in West Oakland – A journey through a landscape of love and loss, prejudice and poverty shot over 7 years.
http://www.thelonghaul.org
We document current events, make films together, steward an editing suite and share a film equipment library. We also host film screenings, often with local directors, and put on an annual short film festival for independent Bay Area filmmakers. Our goal is to make the digital filmmaking accessible – no overpriced college degree or certificate program required!
We are also a good group to reach out to if you’d like to screen a film at the Omni. We can be reached at [ liberatedlens@lists.riseup.net ].
We usually meet in the basement, unless otherwise noted.
Join AROC in Taking Action to Stop Urban Shield!
On Tuesday, January 10th, the Stop Urban Shield Coalition will be rallying to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, where the Sheriff is set to present on the militarized policing program and weapons expo Urban Shield. At the last meeting, the Sheriff’s department flat out lied to both the Supervisors and the general public, claiming that they were not applying for the federal funding that they use to hold Urban Shield. We knew otherwise, and a public records request proved us right.
With a Trump presidency right around the corner, stopping Urban Shield in Alameda County is a key local step to resisting the threats posed by him and his administration. Alameda County must stop sponsoring the racist, xenophobic, and lethal strategies, tactics, and technologies being spread by Urban Shield. We hope that you will join us in this fight, as it is now more important than ever.
- Come out on Tuesday, January 10th for our rally and press conference at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Meeting. We want to pack the room to show that our communities reject Urban Shield and everything it represents. 10am, Alameda County Administration Building, 1221 Oak St, Oakland, CA 94612. [Facebook]
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Call the Board of Supervisors on Monday, January 9th. Click here for contact info and a script that you can use.
- Are you an Alameda County Resident? Sign our petition, and share it with your networks.
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.
Join us in promoting a public bank for the City of Oakland!
The Friends of the Public Bank of Oakland was formed by members of Commonomics and Strike Debt Bay Area in August, 2016.
In November, we succeeded in getting the Oakland City Council to instruct the City Administrator to report on the usefulness of a feasibility study for creating The Public Bank of Oakland. Our next goal is to convince the City Council to commission that study as soon as possible, and incorporate it into a business plan for a public bank in Oakland.
(The City of Oakland is planning a public forum on public banking in Hearing Room 3 of Oakland City Hall, on Thursday, February 9, 2017, at 6:00 p.m., in City Hall (14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland), Hearing Room 3 – Come and support creating our bank!)
After the Administrator’s report, we will lobby the Oakland City Council to pass enabling legislation that will create and fund a public bank for Oakland. Our overarching goal is to see a public bank flourish in Oakland while it helps the community, thereby providing an example for other jurisdictions wishing to rid themselves of their dependence on Wall Street banks.
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!
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
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.
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!
This year, Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project is calling on our Bay Area community to up the resistance level, as we reclaim the radical legacy of Martin Luther King and resist the fascist Trump agenda. This year the Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March on Monday (1/16) will launch 120 hours of direct action, culminating on #HellNawGuration Day (1/20). This year we are focused on immigrant rights, protection of our Muslim brothers and sisters, womens reproductive rights, loving our LGBTQ sisters, brothers and siblings, and the defense of Black life.
As is our custom, we will host a Spokescouncil meeting to plan and coordinate actions in the SF Bay Area. PLEASE SAVE THE FOLLOWING DATES in your calendar.
Tues Jan 3 – 6-9pm – Omni Commons**
Sat Jan 7 – 2-5pm – First AME Church
Tues Jan 10 – 6-9pm – Omni Commons**
Sat Jan 14 – 2-5pm – First AME Church
Tues Jan 17 – 6-9pm – Omni Commons**
Thurs Jan 19 – 6-9pm – 955 7th St.
* If it”s your first meeting, please make sure to show up early to attend the orientation!
** The OMNI Commons meeting space is wheelchair accessible, and has a wheelchair accessible bathroom however the bathroom is not fully ADA compliant.
What is a spokescouncil?
A spokescouncil is a collective framework for direct action mobilizations, where large masses of people organize themselves into smaller teams called “affinity groups”. Affinity groups plan their actions independently with the intention of advancing the larger goal of the spokescouncil. Affinity groups are represented by at least one person (“a spoke”) at the meetings, where they are able to share resources and coordinate their actions with other groups.
Why a spokescouncil?
We propose the spokescouncil as a solution to many of the shortcomings of unstructured mass assemblies. We intend to provide a highly structured organizing space with clear tactical and messaging guidelines, that empowers participants to organize independently and in parallel. We intend to inspire a multitude of diverse actions and awaken the massive potential we have as a community engaging in direct action.
** for questions or more information about the spokescouncil please contact aptpspokescouncil@gmail.co
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
Thanks to everyone who joined the Coalition for Police Accountability’s campaign which resulted in a victory of 83% at the polls on November 8th.
But our work is not done. Now that we are poised to establish a meaningful, effective mechanism of civilian oversight of the Oakland Police Department, we need to stay engaged in the process.
Some of us are working on the legislation that is needed in order to implement this charter change in the time frame required by the measure. If you want to join in that effort, please send email to info@coalitionforpoliceaccountability.org. But we also feel the need to reach out to the wider community to make sure folks know what Measure LL is, and how they can benefit from it, regardless of where they live or who they are.
We also need to recruit folks from each of the 7 Districts in Oakland to sit on the Selection Panel which will appoint 4 of the 7 Police Commissioners.
If you want to help us get the word out and get involved in moving this agenda forward, please let us know, and try to attend our first Coalition meeting of 2017: January 11th at 7:00 PM at the PUEBLO office — 3528 Foothill Blvd (near 35th Ave).
Let’s make sure that this historic victory for police accountability delivers on its promise and is not derailed or compromised. We’ll need to continue to keep up the pressure in order to make sure that doesn’t happen.
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.
This “Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits” is Greg Palast’s documentary about steering an election through calculated racist disenfranchisement. Beginning with the 2000 election and continuing to the 2016 campaign, Palast interviews those who’ve been victimized, identifies schemes and villains, and presents the case for powerful corruption of the election system in the United States.
Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Ctee as part of our Conscientious Projector series.
Wheelchair accessible.
Pray 4 Oakland has partnered with the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office & Clean Slate Program as well as America Works Inc. to help community members clean their criminal records & obtain jobs!
We have the ability to assist residents reduce convictions, clear some criminal records, terminate probation early, seal juvenile records and more!
America Works Inc.specializes in job placement for “hard to employ” individuals.
East Bay Works will be present to speak about their job opportunities for people with criminal records/backgrounds.
The Traffic Amnesty program will be closing in March 2017 – we will have forms available for pick-up and completion at the workshop.
Please join us for this AMAZING opportunity at a SECOND CHANCE!
The People Get Ready conference is just a week away! We hope this conference will be an empowering place for organizers and activists to think together to deepen our understanding of the political moment and ways to struggle for shifts in power.
SESSIONS:
Clampdown: Understanding Fascism, Imperialism, and White Supremacy
Trying Times: Understanding the Impacts of Neoliberalism under Trump
Are You Going to Go My Way?: Considering Alliances, Fronts, and other Left Formations
Rocksteady: Exploring the Radical Potential of Community Defense
Many Rivers to Cross: Navigating Opportunities and Tensions between International and Domestic Organizing
Confirmed Speakers Include:
Phil Hutchings
Linda Evans
Alicia Jrapko
Emily Lee
Kung Feng
Liz Derias-Tyehimba
Tongo Eisen-Martin
Greg Morozumi
Corrina Gould
Lara Kiswani
Max Elbaum
Maari Maitrey
Alex Sanchez
Pierre LaBossiere
Lily Fahsi-Haskell
With More to Come…
This event is wheelchair accessible and free to the public. No registration is necessary.
Childcare will be provided.
This year, Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project is calling on our Bay Area community to up the resistance level, as we reclaim the radical legacy of Martin Luther King and resist the fascist Trump agenda. This year the Reclaiming King’s Radical Legacy March on Monday (1/16) will launch 120 hours of direct action, culminating on #HellNawGuration Day (1/20). This year we are focused on immigrant rights, protection of our Muslim brothers and sisters, womens reproductive rights, loving our LGBTQ sisters, brothers and siblings, and the defense of Black life.
As is our custom, we will host a Spokescouncil meeting to plan and coordinate actions in the SF Bay Area. PLEASE SAVE THE FOLLOWING DATES in your calendar.
Tues Jan 3 – 6-9pm – Omni Commons**
Sat Jan 7 – 2-5pm – First AME Church
Tues Jan 10 – 6-9pm – Omni Commons**
Sat Jan 14 – 2-5pm – First AME Church
Tues Jan 17 – 6-9pm – Omni Commons**
Thurs Jan 19 – 6-9pm – 955 7th St.
* If it”s your first meeting, please make sure to show up early to attend the orientation!
** The OMNI Commons meeting space is wheelchair accessible, and has a wheelchair accessible bathroom however the bathroom is not fully ADA compliant.
What is a spokescouncil?
A spokescouncil is a collective framework for direct action mobilizations, where large masses of people organize themselves into smaller teams called “affinity groups”. Affinity groups plan their actions independently with the intention of advancing the larger goal of the spokescouncil. Affinity groups are represented by at least one person (“a spoke”) at the meetings, where they are able to share resources and coordinate their actions with other groups.
Why a spokescouncil?
We propose the spokescouncil as a solution to many of the shortcomings of unstructured mass assemblies. We intend to provide a highly structured organizing space with clear tactical and messaging guidelines, that empowers participants to organize independently and in parallel. We intend to inspire a multitude of diverse actions and awaken the massive potential we have as a community engaging in direct action.
** for questions or more information about the spokescouncil please contact aptpspokescouncil@gmail.co