Calendar
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.
Join No Coal in Richmond for its monthly community meeting and potluck dinner. The Richmond Planning Commission postponed its hearing on the ordinance to stop coal and pet coke shipments from the Levin-Richmond Terminal, and we still need to keep building support for this critical protection for our health and the climate.
If you have any items for the agenda please send them to Terilyn, terilyn.chen@
If you think it’s important to get coal out of Richmond, here’s a chance to get involved.
No Coal in Richmond invites YOU to our community meeting AND potluck dinner! Meet members of your community, learn more about our campaign and how you can help get #CoalOuttaRichmond. TOMORROW, 7pm, 2540 Macdonald Ave, #RichmondCA. pic.twitter.com/fA2bLKjtD7
— Sunflower Alliance (@SunflowerAction) June 11, 2019
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.
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. We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition and other analytics, and pushing back against ICE.
On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work.
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.
“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”
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 various municipalities around the Bay. To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
Choice Action Now is organized by Lisa Cole, Michele Pred, and Hadley Dynak –artists, fundraisers, and cultural producers enraged about the state of reproductive rights and abortion access.
If you’re fuming too, OR if you’re feeling alone, overwhelmed, and not sure what to do about this assault on choice, join us. We’ve organized an event to help you learn, connect, and make a difference — right now.
Come alone or bring your posse. But show up.
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Speakers include:
- Amy Everitt, VP for Special Projects NARAL Pro Choice California, a statewide grassroots, pro-choice advocacy organization.
- Yamani Hernandez, ED, National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), a national nonprofit helping people get the abortion care they need.
- Michelle Oberman, lawyer and author of Her Body, Our Laws: On the Frontlines of the Abortion War from El Salvador to Oklahoma, about what will and won’t happen if abortion becomes illegal in the U.S.
- Michele Pred, Bay Area Artist whose work includes the Parade Against Patriarchy in Miami and Nevertheless We Vote, an art and social justice parade in NYC.
- FUTURE CHORUS, a Bay Area vocal ensemble who sing originals and covers relevant to the socio-political moment—to bolster movements that call upon love, resilience, imagination, inclusivity and determination to fight for a better future.
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- Cash bar with wine from Two Mile and beer from Almanac Beer Co.
- Food for purchase from Good to Eat Dumplings, Samara, and Allie’s Perfect Pickles — Oakland women-owned craft food businesses
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All proceeds benefit NNAF and NARAL.
>>>> Also consider a donation to Michele’s Kickstarter campaign to put Our Bodies Our Business pro-choice billboards in Alabama, OH, and MO. She’s close to her stretch goal so let’s put her over! The campaign closes 6/9.**
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$20/Advance Adult Tickets (18+)
$25/Door Adult Tickets (18+)
$5/Youth Tickets (5-18 years old)
Free/Child Tickets (under 5)
Venezuela is facing significant difficulties and one of its worst difficulties are the lies and misinformation spread by the government and the media. Laura Wells, longtime Green Party Activist recently returned from Venezuela as part of an “End Venezuela Sanctions” delegation and will report back on what she found. There will be a Q&A session after the reportback.
In 1990 members of the L.A. janitors union launched a strike that became a turning point for the labor movement. The “Justice for Janitors” campaign pit low wage, mostly immigrant women and men against powerful local business leaders and multinational corporations.
On June 13th, we will celebrate the brave women and men that sacrificed for the struggle. Century City showed us what organized labor can be and what our power can accomplish. On this day Janitors are launching a statewide campaign to continue the fight for immigrant rights calling on building owners to support sanctuary workplaces, end to rape on the night shift and provide good jobs for immigrant workers. Join us!
Movie Nights at Reem’s
The Arab Film and Media Institute and Reem’s are partnering to bring some of our favorite Arab films to Oakland. Screenings are free + the amazing team at Reem’s will be serving the full menu throughout the evening. And that’s not all! There will be movie snacks (including za’atar popcorn!),
April 11: Refugee Stories
Far from a one-size-fits-all marking of “experience” so often depicted on Western media outlets when it comes to the plight of the refugee, this program of 5 powerful short documentaries spotlight the multitude of hues that should be considered when discussions of the refugee experience are had.
May 23: Shorts (Playful Pondering)
From dating drama in Bahrain and an abandoned Qatari cinemaplex, to wacky Lebanese nuns and land mine explosions, this eclectic mix of 6 whimsical, albeit socially-concerned short format narrative works will take viewers on a journey of humor, self-discovery, and provocation.
June 13: Seventeen
The Jordanian under-17 women’s soccer team prepares for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup, hosted by Jordan in 2016. Coming from different backgrounds, each of the girls has faced a different set of challenges as a national team player. But now they come together to face their biggest challenge yet.
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Agenda Items of Interest:
- Pawlik Investigation Update
- Commission Subpoenas Related to CPRA/Pawlik Investigation Communications
- OPD Budget Update
- OPD’s Policy on the Deployment of the BearCat and Other Militarized Weapons
Analysis and OPD presentation on the use of the BearCat and the deployment of
militarized weapons and potential Commission action on OPD’s request for a purchase of a
second BearCat. The Commission may vote to appoint an Ad Hoc Committee on
Equipment Acquisition and Use Policy.
- Commission Letter to City Council Regarding CAHOOTS
The program CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) seeks to remedy the
skill mismatch and wasted expense when police officers and EMS personnel respond to
non-emergency mental health and health related crisis calls. The Commission will review
and may approve a letter to the City Council to support efforts within the City Council to
fund exploration of whether Oakland can and should implement a similar program.
Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 6:30 PM – Sat, Jun 15, 2019, 6:00 PM PDT
It’s time to have a family meeting.
The objective of this event is to provide a space for people of color and white allies–including activists, policy-makers, business leaders, employees, community organizers, or other residents or community members –to have an explicit conversation about dismantling systemic white supremacy (and the many discussions that come up around white supremacy) in a community-led forum.
This event is critically important because we believe that naming, disrupting, and dismantling white supremacy is a necessary precondition to creating an inclusive economy that works for everyone.
This event will be an Unconference.
An Unconference empowers the attendees to drive the conversation. There will be no keynote speakers or pre-set “content tracks.” The people who show up for the Unconference are the ones who decide what topics and sessions they want to organize.
Please note that we will have security for this event. See our conference page for more details about our approach to safety.
Who are the organizers?
The Dismantle Collective (a fiscally sponsored project of Community Ventures, a 501c3 non-profit) is a person of color-led group of Certified B Corps, including:
- Diana Marie Lee, Sweet Livity
- Samuel Gonzales, Sweet Livity
- Vanice Dunn, Provoc
- Lynn Johnson, Spotlight: Girls
- Ryan Honeyman, LIFT Economy
- David Jackson, Impact Hub Oakland
- Avery Ebron, Dismantle Collective
- Olayinka Credle, Melanin Essentials
- Dean Barduka, Element Five
- Marie Koesnodihardjo, Mangrove Web Development
- Flip Brown, Business Culture Consultants
Members of the Dismantle Collective have experience in running successful social enterprises, all while being deeply involved in activism, grassroots organizing, community engagement, facilitating difficult conversations, and supporting movement work.
We hope to help elevate the conversation around dismantling white supremacy in partnership with socially responsible business leaders and social justice allies.
Overview / FAQ / Contact
For more details, including information on donations, sponsorships, security, event agenda and more, please click here to view our full Overview and FAQ about this event. Folks who would like to apply for scholarships can do so here. If you still have questions, you can contact us at 12@dismantlecollective.org.
11TH ANNUAL WOMEN’S VISIONARY CONGRESS
Date And Time
Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 6:00 PM – Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 3:00 PM PDT
After a three-year hiatus, the Women’s Visionary Congress will gather again!
Twenty-four activists, researchers, healers and artists will present their work. Information about the speakers and their presentations is below.
The Women’s Visionary Congress promotes women and their allies who create groundbreaking strategies for healing and social change.
For the first time, the gathering will take place at the Omni Commons in Oakland, CA. The Omni Commons was created by and for community activist collectives.
Tickets are $125 for the entire weekend or $65 per day. People of all genders are welcome.
PLEASE JOIN US EVERY FRIDAY
“BASTA FREE CHELSEA AND JULIEN ” VIGIL DEMO POTLUCK MUSIC (7PM AFTER PARTY/MEETING ) FRUITVALE & MACARTHUR OAKLAND
WE HOPE TO CONNECT PEOPLE TO OUR ON GOING CAMPAIGNS IN THE BAY ARE here is a link to the bay area action for julien which includes CHELSEA SUPPORT PLEASE SIGN UP
https://bayaction2freeassange.org
Ok, folks, here’s the deal: the Main stream media (MSM) is so full of lies, it’s got the masses confused!! There’s only a few places we can get the truth.
Chelsea and Julian, were two of the most important WHISTLE BLOWERS to tell the truth about USA’s illegal, immoral WARS. That’s why our “US leadership” wants them dead. USA is the largest TERRORIST country in history, killing, wounding, and forcing immigration on millions of folks all over the world!!
To us, saving Chelsea and Julian is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! They told us the truth about the wars! And all the NEW MACARTHYISM. is due to blaming Julian for being a puppet of Russia. So much of all our issues stem from the honesty of Chelsea and Julian!! That’s why our govt. wants to kill them!
Please join us Fridays at our vigil/demo/music/potluck at MacArthur and Fruitvale, and if you know other organizations around the state and the country, contact them and encourage them to organize to protect Chelsea and Julian as well!! We have some pretty good posters, but also bring your own. Thanks. gg and Orion
VIRAL CHELSEA 2 MIN VIDEO TO ABOLISH ICE
https://youtube/R7qpQGGQqa8
AFTER U WATCH THE VIRAL VIDEO PLEASE WRITE LETTERS TO CHELSEA (only hand written and no post cards no pictures do not write any thing on the outside of the letter to Chelsea Elizabeth Manning
William G. Truedale Adult Detention Center
2001 MILL ROAD
ALEXANDRIA VA 22314
Meet comrades who want to stand up to PG&E’s corruption and criminal treatment of our communities and learn more about how to get involved in the fight for energy democracy!
The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969
Author Tom Dalzell will be in conversation with Steve Wasserman, publisher and executive director of Heyday, to reflect on the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most searing conflicts that closed out the tumultuous 1960s: the Battle for People’s Park.
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50 Years of Pegasus Books: 1969-2019
A week of special events celebrating 50 years of independent bookselling in Berkeley and Oakland.
From June 11-17. View the full schedule here.
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“Resplendent…. A masterwork of history.”—Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch
In eyewitness testimonies and hundreds of remarkable photographs, The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969 commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most searing conflicts that closed out the tumultuous 1960s: the Battle for People’s Park. In April 1969, a few Berkeley activists planted the first tree on a University of California-owned, abandoned city block on Telegraph Avenue. Hundreds of people from all over the city helped build the park as an expression of a politics of joy. The University was appalled, and warned that unauthorized use of the land would not be tolerated; and on May 15, which would soon be known as Bloody Thursday, a violent struggle erupted, involving thousands of people. Hundreds were arrested, martial law was declared, and the National Guard was ordered by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to crush the uprising and to occupy the entire city. The police fired shotguns against unarmed students. A military helicopter gassed the campus indiscriminately, causing schoolchildren miles away to vomit. One man died from his wounds. Another was blinded. The vicious overreaction by Reagan helped catapult him into national prominence. Fifty years on, the question still lingers: Who owns the Park?
Tom Dalzell has lived in Berkeley since 1984. He has worked as a lawyer for the labor movement for his entire adult life. He has written extensively about slang. He has been methodically walking the streets of Berkeley since late 2012 in search of quirky stuff, blogging about it since 2013. The New York Times described him as looking “too strait-laced to be the arbiter of the eccentric.” He accepts this verdict.
Steve Wasserman, raised in Berkeley and a graduate of Cal, is Heyday’s publisher and executive director. He is a former editor-at-large for Yale University Press and editorial director of Times Books/Random House and publisher of Hill & Wang and The Noonday Press at Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 6:30 PM – Sat, Jun 15, 2019, 6:00 PM PDT
It’s time to have a family meeting.
The objective of this event is to provide a space for people of color and white allies–including activists, policy-makers, business leaders, employees, community organizers, or other residents or community members –to have an explicit conversation about dismantling systemic white supremacy (and the many discussions that come up around white supremacy) in a community-led forum.
This event is critically important because we believe that naming, disrupting, and dismantling white supremacy is a necessary precondition to creating an inclusive economy that works for everyone.
This event will be an Unconference.
An Unconference empowers the attendees to drive the conversation. There will be no keynote speakers or pre-set “content tracks.” The people who show up for the Unconference are the ones who decide what topics and sessions they want to organize.
Please note that we will have security for this event. See our conference page for more details about our approach to safety.
Who are the organizers?
The Dismantle Collective (a fiscally sponsored project of Community Ventures, a 501c3 non-profit) is a person of color-led group of Certified B Corps, including:
- Diana Marie Lee, Sweet Livity
- Samuel Gonzales, Sweet Livity
- Vanice Dunn, Provoc
- Lynn Johnson, Spotlight: Girls
- Ryan Honeyman, LIFT Economy
- David Jackson, Impact Hub Oakland
- Avery Ebron, Dismantle Collective
- Olayinka Credle, Melanin Essentials
- Dean Barduka, Element Five
- Marie Koesnodihardjo, Mangrove Web Development
- Flip Brown, Business Culture Consultants
Members of the Dismantle Collective have experience in running successful social enterprises, all while being deeply involved in activism, grassroots organizing, community engagement, facilitating difficult conversations, and supporting movement work.
We hope to help elevate the conversation around dismantling white supremacy in partnership with socially responsible business leaders and social justice allies.
Overview / FAQ / Contact
For more details, including information on donations, sponsorships, security, event agenda and more, please click here to view our full Overview and FAQ about this event. Folks who would like to apply for scholarships can do so here. If you still have questions, you can contact us at 12@dismantlecollective.org.
11TH ANNUAL WOMEN’S VISIONARY CONGRESS
Date And Time
Fri, Jun 14, 2019, 6:00 PM – Sun, Jun 16, 2019, 3:00 PM PDT
After a three-year hiatus, the Women’s Visionary Congress will gather again!
Twenty-four activists, researchers, healers and artists will present their work. Information about the speakers and their presentations is below.
The Women’s Visionary Congress promotes women and their allies who create groundbreaking strategies for healing and social change.
For the first time, the gathering will take place at the Omni Commons in Oakland, CA. The Omni Commons was created by and for community activist collectives.
Tickets are $125 for the entire weekend or $65 per day. People of all genders are welcome.
Impeach Trump
- Our medical debt erasure campaign with RIP Medical Debt is doing well (but needs more signal-boosting). We joined another Alameda County campaign, and together we’re more than two-thirds of the way to our minimum goal. Our donation page is here. The online version of our flyer, with live links, is here. Our FAQ is here. We can also link you to a printable version of the flyer if you have places to hand them out. Press release: press-release-after-1m-raised-final
- Continuing our discussion group on new economic thinking., which began by reading and Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, continued with Take Back the Economy by Gibson-Graham et al, and for our August meeting will read the introduction and first chapter of Ellen Brown’s latest book, Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. The book group discussion will take place immediately following the Strike Debt Bay Area meeting.
- Organizing for public banking in the East Bay! Public Banking East Bay (which overlaps significantly with our group) is also an active member of the California Public Banking Alliance. The Green New Deal envisions financing through public banks! AB857, which will pave the way for local and regional California public banks, is in committee hearings next week in Sacramento.
- Supporting student debt resistance, working with our sister organization, The Debt Collective. At the end of last year, the Debt Collective won a huge victory against Betsy DeVos and the Trump Department of “Education.”
- Supporting the progress of bail reform law, better than the 2018 California law (including the new end of cash bail policy in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Charlotte’s county), while also fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
- Organizing for Tiny Homes, better sanctioned encampments than Oakland is now currently creating, and other ways to help homeless people get housing and support
- Promoting the concept of universal basic income
- Helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization (an Oakland institution) and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- Advocating for postal banking, now a national conversation because of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s bill to restore it to U.S. law
- Fighting the current proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, while promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
- Bring your own debt-related project!
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 – Principles of Solidarity
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.
Reading for June 15th Meeting: Introduction and First Chapter of ‘Take Back the Economy.’
Reading for July 13th Meeting: Fourth Chapter: Take Back the Market.
What can we, as individuals do, to seek a more just, sustainable and equitable world?
“Take Back the Economy dismantles the idea that the economy is separate from us and best comprehended by experts. Instead, the authors demonstrate that the economy is the outcome of the decisions and efforts we make every day. The economy is thus reframed as a space of ethical action – something we can shape and alter according to what is best for the well-being of people and the planet.
“The book explores what people are already doing to build ethical economies, presenting these deeds as mutual concerns: What is necessary for survival, and what do we do with the surplus produced beyond what will fulfill basic needs? What do we consume, and how do we preserve and replenish the common – those resources that can be shared to maintain all? And finally, how can we invest in a future worth living in?”
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this economics-oriented, non-technical book discussion group, meeting approximately once a month. The first month’s discussion was about the introduction to and first chapter of ‘Take Back the Economy’ by J K Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron and Stephen Healy. The second month’s discussion is about Chapter 4 of the book: Take Back the Market. It’s easy to catch up, the Intro and First Chapter are easy reading. All are welcome!
The book is available via online (e.g. Minnesota Press), the introduction is available via ‘Look Inside’, and a few copies exist in local libraries.
Bring your questions, comments and intellectual curiosity!
“Take Back the Economy is the single most farsighted and practical work enlightening us on the path to a steady transition toward a genuine postcapitalist world…” – Arturo Escobar, University of North Carolina
Come join us for a storytelling and fundraising party! Listen to wonderful stories on the theme “Oops//Redemption” and build community.
We will also hear from the Ella Baker Center’s Executive Director Zachary Norris about their exciting new building, Restore Oakland, and ways for you to get involved.
7:00 pm Community Potluck
8:00 pm Storytelling (please contact willyrogers@gmail.com if you want to sign up in advance to be a story teller)
What is Restore Oakland?
A joint initiative between the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United), Restore Oakland is a community advocacy and training center that will mobilize Bay Area community members to transform our economic and justice systems and make a safe and secure future possible for themselves and for their families.
Learn more at http://www.restoreoakland.org/
Accessibility:
Event will take place in a grassy backyard, chairs provided. There are several steps leading up to the house.