Calendar
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.
You will hear about SURJ’s pathways for entering the work, including committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We’ll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice.
There will be a greeter in the lobby until 7:15, but please arrive by 6:45 to check-in and get settled so we can begin promptly at 7 pm. If you are driving, please try to carpool and arrive early to leave time to find a spot. Street parking is generally available in a 2-3 block radius.
BUILDING ACCESS
Folks have to sign in at the front desk when they arrive (and sign out when leaving), then take the elevator to the 5th floor.
Resource experts from a diverse field of perspectives: science, economics and public health will set the groundwork for a robust dialogue on what we can do for ourselves to be part of climate action in Oakland. Join the conversation!
Experts joining include:
– Margaret Gordon, Co-director, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project
– Jon Haveman, Ph.D., Economist, Executive Director, National Economic Education Delegation
– Hon. Dan Kalb, Councilmember, District 1, City of Oakland & former California Policy Director for the Union of Concerned Scientists
-Richard Sinkoff, Director, Environmental Programs & Planning, Port of Oakland
-Laiseng Saechao, Political Director, Asian Pacific Environmental Network
-Diz Swift, Ph.D., LWVC Climate Change Program Director
UnCommon Law’s 4th Annual UnCommon Heroes Event is a welcome home for those returning from prison as well as a celebration of Heroes among us.
This year, UnCommon Law is thrilled to announce our 2019 Honorees: Taina Vargas-Edmond, Founder and Executive Director of Initiate Justice as well as David Cowan of the Prison University Project and Director of Bonafide.
UnCommon Law is also excited to announce this year’s Heroes emcee: Choy Pangthong!
Anouthinh “Choy” Pangthong is currently a freelance digital creative designer and former intern at tech giant Adobe’s Digital Academy. Mr. Pangthong also works closely with formerly incarcerated individuals as well as community leaders to bridge common ground for a safer community.
With 20+ years of lived experience at various California State Prisons, Mr Pangthong was eventually paroled from San Quentin. Mr. Pangthong also has experience working closely with disenfranchised groups which has allowed him to really see the need for people’s autonomy, dignity, and empowerment.
Event Ticketing
General Admission Tickets: $100
Nonprofit Admission Tickets: $50
Formerly Incarcerated Attendees: FREE
We’re having another Wood Street community cookout on Wednesday 11/13 at 7 pm. I hope housed Oakland residents come out to learn more about how they can support their unhoused neighbors. Bring food if you can, if you can’t, no big deal. It’ll be fun. Meet at 24th and Wood.
— Zack Haber (@ZZZZZZZZZZZack) November 12, 2019
Training Overview
This is an intermediate to advance level restorative justice circle training focused on gaining proficiency in facilitating Conflict Circles.
At minimum, all participants must have already completed an Introductory RJ training and/or have equivalent experience in facilitating Community Building Circles.
Participants in this 2-day training will review RJ theory, practice, data and protocols for facilitating community-building Circles; and be introduced to, learn protocols for, and gain skills in facilitating conflict Circles.
The 2-day training will emphasize interactivity, relationship-building, and skills-building. Much of the second day will be devoted to simulated exercises to acquire skills in facilitating Conflict Circles.
Join the East Bay DSA’s Labor Committee for their regular Beer and Roses social. Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in EBDSA Labor Committee & learn how you can get involved.
Venue is wheelchair accessible
Agenda Items of Note:
IV. Draft Ordinance on Military Police Equipment
The Coalition for Police Accountability will present a draft ordinance for review. OPD will
also present their response to the draft ordinance.
IX. Subpoenas Regarding OBOA Allegations of Racial Discrimination
The Commission will discuss and possibly take action on whether or not to serve
subpoenas relating to the Oakland Black Officers Association’s allegations of racial
discrimination.
X. Report on Policing of Oakland’s Unhoused Communities
The Commission will discuss the report which was prepared on behalf of the Coalition for
Police Accountability by students at the University of California, Berkeley. This is a new
item. (Attachment 10).
XI. Vote to Submit Request to City Council to Create Standing Policy and Legislation
Committee
The Commission will vote to authorize the submission of a request to the City Council for
approval of a Standing Policy and Legislation Committee.
The Oakland Police Commission will consider the proposed ordinance on militarized equipment. Please come to the first part of this meeting to show support for this ordinance and make a short public comment. BAY Peace organizers will also present video testimony of youth violated by police military equipment.
Oakland PD has submitted a response to the proposed ordinance falsely claiming that it currently requests listed equipment through the Police Commission, City Council and Council’s Public Safety Committee. OPD says that the ordinance would remove these three bodies from their part in governing Oakland and the OPD! In fact, the ordinance will give the City Council and Police Commission authority for reviewing police equipment, with community input, that they have never had.
Please join us on Thursday at 6:30pm and consider asking others to come out on Thursday as well. The militarized equipment ordinance is the first item on the agenda. You can speak during Open Forum at 6:30, and/or right after the ordinance is presented.
You can share this online Petition to Regulate Police Military Equipment in Oakland.
We want civilian control over OPD’s use of military equipment, including sound cannons known as LRADs (Long Range Acoustic Devices). A federal court ruled last year that NYPD’s indiscriminate use of LRADs at a Black Lives Matter protest, where it caused damage to people’s eardrums, was illegal. An LRAD was used in Oakland against Occupy in 2011, causing some protesters to fall over and vomit. Yet, OPD states that “LRAD is not a weapon LRAD is a communication device…” OPD says it has no use policy for the LRAD, and appears to suggest that it doesn’t need one.
We’ve created this interactive map of deployments of the tank-like BearCat in Oakland in 2018 and 2019.
The more we learn, the more clear it is that the militarized equipment ordinance is necessary. Please join us on Thursday.
American Friends Service Committee
California Healing Justice Program
Tel: 510-282-8983
Come to a Discussion about How to Keep KPFA Going
Equity, social justice and access for every community voice may soon end at KPFA and its sister stations in Pacifica’s national radio network. After years of turmoil, an internal selection process – proposed as “new bylaws” – may hand power over to a self-selected few on the Pacifica network board.
Please join us as Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director of Media Alliance, and Peter Franck, former Pacifica president, discuss the future of Pacifica in a panel discussion. Radio host Peter B. Collins will moderate, fielding audience questions.
It is no secret that KPFA and the Pacifica network are struggling. Panelists will address the many concerns and factions at KPFA including:
- Information about recent dramatic radio network conflicts, resulting lawsuits, and proposed new bylaws
- The shut down and lock out of staff at New York affiliate WBAI
- The elimination of various independent programs at KPFA
- The truth about the Pacifica network’s financial state
- “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Whether you are a member or an occasional listener, Pacifica’s survival is essential to everyone’s free speech.
Please come and learn more if you value free independent media. Join us in protecting the fierce independence of KPFA’s local and Pacifica’s national programming, which speaks truth to power.
KPFA:
Is It the End of Our Local
Independent Community Radio Station?
Come to a Discussion about How to Keep It Going
Thursday, November 14, 2019, 7pm
Community Media Center of Marin (CMCM)
819 A Street
San Rafael, California
Equity, social justice and access for every community voice may soon end at KPFA and its sister stations in Pacifica’s national radio network.
After years of turmoil, an internal selection process – proposed as “new bylaws” – may hand power over to a self-selected few on the Pacifica network board.
Please join us as Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director of Media Alliance, and Peter Franck, former Pacifica president, discuss the future of Pacifica in a panel discussion. Radio host Peter B. Collins will moderate, fielding audience questions.
It is no secret that KPFA and the Pacifica network are struggling. Panelists will address the many concerns and factions at KPFA including:
- Information about recent dramatic radio network conflicts, resulting lawsuits, and proposed new bylaws
- The shut down and lock out of staff at New York affiliate WBAI
- The elimination of various independent programs at KPFA
- The truth about the Pacifica network’s financial state
- “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Whether you are a member or an occasional listener, Pacifica’s survival is essential to everyone’s free speech.
Please come and learn more if you value free independent media. Join us in protecting the fierce independence of KPFA’s local and Pacifica’s national programming, which speaks truth to power.
.
A substantial debate on single payer:
The pro side will be represented by a professor from the UC school of Public Health.
The con side will be represented by Sally Pipes from the Pacific Research Institute. She used to work for the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada.
ACCE Action Oakland is calling for a Bay Area-wide spokescouncil to plan and coordinate actions for a Week of Action for Housing Justice – November 17th – 23rd.
The housing crisis has never been this bad – at least in our lifetimes. Low-income communities of color are being hit the hardest. People are literally dying on our streets, because they cannot afford housing. We are calling on everyone who is being impacted in any way by the artificially-created housing scarcity in Oakland – whether you are unhoused, housing-insecure, rent-burdened, or just tired of watching your friends and , family and neighbors being forced to leave – to help us SHUT IT DOWN!
We need to continue raising the alarm and demanding action until our politicians recognize that housing is a basic human right; until everyone has a stable and affordable place to call home. We need to take the crisis in our communities to the doorsteps of decision-makers.
During this week we will be highlighting the damage being done by large corporate speculators that have bought up homes in our neighborhoods as an investment strategy for Wall Street bondholders. We will expose the large number of units sitting vacant in luxury buildings, bought as investments by the wealthy. We will expose speculators that are flipping our apartment buildings and jacking up our rents to move in wealthier tenants.
Together, we will unleash the vast creativity and organizing capacity of our communities and produce a spectrum of disruptive and visionary activity. We want these actions to meaningfully interrupt business as usual whether that be with direct action, teach-ins, flash mobs, or prayer vigils, and to do so with action-logic that links our resistance to fighting racism, economic injustice, and colonization. We want you to plan these actions independently, but together we will coordinate collective support for these actions through a spokescouncil so that they have maximal support and impact.
Attend a spokescouncil meeting :
Monday, November 4th at 7 pm
Thursday, November 7th at 7 pm
Saturday, November 9th at 11 am
Monday, November 11th at 7 pm
Thursday, November 14th at 7 pm
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.
Start forming an affinity group now:
Discuss this callout with your friends, comrades, fellow workers, families, roommates, etc. See if you can pull together a crew of people who will be in close contact for the next few weeks, who are similar-minded and want to step up to organize or take part in actions. Then start planning an action! At least one of you should come to the spokescouncil meeting to share ideas and coordinate with the larger group.
Members Needed for Working Groups:
If you have the capacity to participate in the week of action but do not have an affinity group, plus come and join one of our Week of Action working groups:
– Media
– Outreach
– Big March – Wednesday, November 20th
Training Overview
This is an intermediate to advance level restorative justice circle training focused on gaining proficiency in facilitating Conflict Circles.
At minimum, all participants must have already completed an Introductory RJ training and/or have equivalent experience in facilitating Community Building Circles.
Participants in this 2-day training will review RJ theory, practice, data and protocols for facilitating community-building Circles; and be introduced to, learn protocols for, and gain skills in facilitating conflict Circles.
The 2-day training will emphasize interactivity, relationship-building, and skills-building. Much of the second day will be devoted to simulated exercises to acquire skills in facilitating Conflict Circles.
Tamarack and Commune Magazine invite you to a video presentation by the Vitalist International:
BE WATER : WORLD
Lessons from the freedom movements in Hong Kong and Catalonia
Magic and Technology In the Revolution of Our Times
Umbrellas, laser pointers, and cardboard boxes, black blocks using encrypted platforms to vote live on escape routes and designers quitting their day jobs to make Pepe memes full time: The movement in Hong Kong is a signal fire showing us the future of resistance in an increasingly digital world.
From low tech solutions against the most advanced surveillance state on Earth to mesh networks and live mapping software, two participants in the movement will discuss the revolution in Hong Kong, from a user’s perspective.
Catalunya Fall 2019
After the Spanish Supreme Court convicted 9 Catalans of “Sedition” for their roles in the 2017 independence referendum, a wave of revolt crashed over the region. Drawing on lessons from the laboratory in Hong Kong, millions of people have built a movement that goes beyond its nationalist framework and questions the meaning of democracy in our time.
The USF Center for Applied Data Ethics will be hosting a Tech Policy Workshop the weekend of Nov 16 to 17. Systemic problems, such as increasing surveillance, spread of disinformation, concerning uses of predictive policing, and the magnification of unjust bias, all require systemic solutions.
We invite anyone working in the tech industry or in public policy, and to community members concerned about the impact of misuses of tech on society to attend. By hosting a Tech Policy Workshop, we hope to facilitate collaborations between those in tech and in policy, as well as highlight the need for policy interventions in addressing ethical issues to those working in tech. The workshop will include a mix of talks, workshops and breakout sessions.
s the week of actions around houselesness is approaching (November 16th-24th) Liberated Lens will conduct a Citizen Journalism training where you can learn how to do on the street media, simple streaming, vlogging, phone security etc.
Bring your cell phone or any recording device you intend on using.
Part II that will happen on November 24th will cover simple editing and post production tools.
Beginning on August 10th, the Strike Debt Bay Area Economics Book Group began discussing Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. We tackled the introduction and first chapter, available through the ‘Look Inside’ feature on Amazon, for the August 10th meeting.
For our September 7th meeting, we will be discussing the rest of the first section, Chapters 2-6.
For our October 12th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 7-9, the first part of the second section.
For our November 16th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 10 – 13.
For our December 14th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 14 and through to the end.
All are welcome!
The Economics Book Group began with Doughnut Economics and continued with Take Back the Economy. We read a few chapters every month.
“Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.”
“In Banking on the People, attorney Ellen Brown provides a much-needed roadmap for reforming monetary and credit systems and the central banks now strangling our common human future. More lucidly that any other expert I know, she shows how we can break the grip of predatory financialization now extracting value from real peoples’ productive activities all over the world. Her in-depth research and systemic overview of the global and local politics of money-creation and credit allocation include all the viable proposals of global experts and reformers. She reviews many of these reforms: from financial transaction taxes, to a universal basic income to provide purchasing power for the cornucopia of goods and services now produced, to expanding the public banks she so ably promotes via the Public Banking Institute, to returning the Fed and all banks to serving the public utility functions that economies require. This book is a must read for citizens in all societies who see the promising future as we seek to widen democracies and transform to a cleaner, greener, shared prosperity, based on the renewable abundance of free daily energy from our sun.” – Hazel Henderson, CEO of Ethical Markets Media and author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books.
You are cordially invited – please bring friends!
The End of Policing
A conversation with Alex Vitale
Sponsors – Northern California Communist Party, Harry Bridges Club, CPUSA and People’s World/Mundo Popular
Alex Vitale is Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 25 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. He also serves on the New York State Advisory Committee of the US Commission on Civil Rights and is the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics.
In his recent work, The End of Policing, Vitale gives a scathing critique of police reformism and presents realistic alternatives to policing, such as restorative justice and harm reduction programs implemented in various departments around the world.
The book is a means to spark a public discourse: telling the racist and anti-labor origins of modern policing as a tool of social control, in which police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice and public safety – so the event will be organized as a conversation with local activists Cassie Lopez and Nicole Evelyn Leopardo.
Lopez is an activist in Oakland and one of the principal directors of the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library. Leopardo is a lecturer of Race and Resistance Studies at SFSU; where she teaches critical thinking, focusing on the basic skills involved in understanding, deconstructing, and creating sound arguments using materials and theoretical concepts that center people of color.
Copies of The End Of Policing will be available for sale or signing for $15.
Communist Party USA | Radical Ideas. Real Politics.
The USF Center for Applied Data Ethics will be hosting a Tech Policy Workshop the weekend of Nov 16 to 17. Systemic problems, such as increasing surveillance, spread of disinformation, concerning uses of predictive policing, and the magnification of unjust bias, all require systemic solutions.
We invite anyone working in the tech industry or in public policy, and to community members concerned about the impact of misuses of tech on society to attend. By hosting a Tech Policy Workshop, we hope to facilitate collaborations between those in tech and in policy, as well as highlight the need for policy interventions in addressing ethical issues to those working in tech. The workshop will include a mix of talks, workshops and breakout sessions.
Sun, Nov 10, 2019
Open Mic/Political Karaoke
What’s bugging you, politics-wise? Here’s your chance to talk about any and every thing from the PG&E Power Shutdown to Brexit, from Nancy Pelosi to Greta Thunberg, maybe even the riots in Chile. Sign up for 5 minute slots!
Sun, Nov 17, 2019
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter.
Representatives of the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression have been invited to discuss their position on this matter.
Awaiting better blurb..
Sun, Nov 24, 2019
Women and War
Women have a long association with violent intergroup conflict and war going back to early human times. This presentation will survey women in the highly genderized institutions of war and the military in various periods and types of societies. Although women have been impacted in multiple ways and played many roles, the focus of this talk is on women’s role as fighter/combatant and direct supporters of this activity. Also covered are women in some of the revolutionary wars and militaries in the past two centuries. The fighter/combatant perspective on women is usually omitted or “hidden” in accounts by both conventional and feminist analysts who stress women as victims, survivors, peacemakers and supporters of men who fight. Women as fighters not only redresses this imbalance but indicates a role whose impact is as significant as the other roles that are more widely promulgated.
Presented by Al Sargis, Founder/Director of the Friedrich Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis (FEIMWAMA).