Calendar
11:00 a.m. : Meet at the Berkeley Post Office, with signs and banners. Hear speakers, and sing with the music.
12 noon : March to CONNECT THE DOTS between FedEx, UPS, and the Blum Center at U.C.
Protest those who want to privatize our public postal service and eliminate union jobs.
We will then return to the Berkeley Post Office
There is a danger that the encampment may be raided and closed soon. Please support our
actions to protect our public property! See you Saturday!
SAVE OUR PUBLIC COMMONS
Committee to Save the Berkeley Post Office
Occupy and JAB photographer Daniel Arauz is to be arraigned tomorrow.
Everyone knows Daniel. He’s been taking pictures and videos at activist
events around Oakland forever. Most recently he took a great set of photos
for the rally and occupation at the Berkeley Post Office.
Some weeks ago he got pulled down and arrested by OPD for taking
pictures of the freeway blockade by Treyvon Martin protesters. He was
the only person arrested and they took his camera.
On Monday, at 9:00 AM, Daniel will arraigned at Wiley Manuel Courthouse
(7th & Washington, one block from the Police Station) in Oakland.
Please come out and support him!!
12 noon press conference, with Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, Stop Mass Incarceration Network, people formerly Incarcerated in California Dept. of Corrections (CDCR) SHUs, SHU inmates’ families, and other voices of support and conscience.
If you want to go and need a ride, let us know at the contact number. If you can give a ride, please let us know as well. Most of us are meeting at the MacArthur BART Station @ 8am, but let us know if that doesn’t work for you and we’ll see what we can do.
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, in support of the California Prison Hunger Strikers and their 5 Demands invite the public to visit an installation of a life-sized mock Security Housing Unit (SHU) Cell on the California State Capitol South Steps in Sacramento.
This stark multimedia installation will allow visitors to acquire a tactile and visceral understanding of the reality of solitary confinement that over 4,000 California prisoners have endured for years and decades, and why this is cruel and unusual punishment deemed torture by the UN and human rights groups. The installation includes images of SHU cells and prisoners and moving testimony from prisoners and others.
On July 8, 2013, 30,000 California prisoners began a hunger strike to end the torture of solitary confinement and for their basic rights and humanity. Their central demand is “comply with the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.” Now, 100’s of prisoners have gone over one month without food and many more in many prisons have supported the strike and gone on and off the hunger strike since its beginning. Millions throughout society support the prisoners, including prominent voices such as Jay Leno, Danny Glover, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, Bonnie Raitt and Gloria Steinem; yet Governor Jerry Brown and the California Dept. of Corrections refuse to meet their just demands, have retaliated against the hunger strikers, and have publicly vilified the prisoners and the hunger strike. In a July 6 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, CDCR secretary Jeffrey Beard claimed that the notorious SHU “is not ‘solitary confinement.’”
On July 5, Amnesty International stated that “rather than improving,” conditions in California prisons “have actually significantly deteriorated:” On July 22, 2013, Amnesty International called California Prisons and the CDCR’s response to the hunger strike an “affront to human rights.”
The Stop Mass Incarceration Network states “This is an EMERGENCY! One hunger striker, Billy ‘Guero’ Sell, has already died. Many more people need to stand NOW with the prisoner hunger strikers!”
City College provides an excellent education to tens of thousands of students, yet the ACCJC accreditation commission is threatening to close our school in 2014. We will not let this happen! CCSF must remain open and accessible to the Bay Area’s diverse communities. Students will march on City Hall to pressure Mayor Ed Lee to demand the immediate reversal of the ACCJC’s unjust decision, which is currently under appeal. If the Mayor actually supports CCSF and its students, he needs to join with us to take action against the ACCJC — an illegitimate, out of control body — and its imposition of cuts and privatization.
Are you outraged that California will start FORCE FEEDING people soon??
Come out and show your support for the thousands of prisoners who have participated in this peaceful hunger strike since July 8!
Come show your opposition to the recent ruling that prisoners can be force fed against their wishes!
They need our support NOW more than ever. We cannot remain silent while California denies these people’s humanity.
We will meet to rally at 5pm, then march to Jerry Brown’s condo on Telegraph and 27th!
PLEASE INVITE YOUR FRIENDS AND SHARE WIDELY!!
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Great news – three fired Oakland Airport worker leaders are headed back to work! Join them as they stand up for good jobs and organizing rights for themselves and other OAK fast food workers!
“I can’t wait to go back to work at the airport,” said Subway cashier Hakima Arhab. “My co-workers are feeling so strong – they understand now that we can stick together and stand up for our rights, and win!”
On August 12, the airport’s Subway and Jamba Juice franchises agreed to reinstate Hakima, Bikram Thapa, and Diamond Ford, who were fired last summer after they spoke out against injustices and labor law violations on the job.
Subway also agreed to restore the schedule of Hayat Selmani, who lost work hours after she began participating in the campaign (Hayat was one of the workers who struck to protest unfair labor practices at the airport on July 14). All four workers will receive back pay.
In May, the National Labor Relations Board issued complaints against Subway and Jamba Juice for retaliating against workers for organizing. The reinstatements are part of the settlement of that case.
But the airport workers’ fight isn’t over. Workers at Subway, Jamba Juice and four other airport fast food restaurants are demanding a card check agreement – so they can decide whether to unionize without fear of retaliation. Unionized fast food workers at the airport enjoy job security, living wages, and affordable family health care.
Join the workers for an action inside and outside Terminal 2 – and show the restaurants that the community is standing up for good jobs at OAK!
On Saturday, August 24th at 5pm join us at Oscar Grant Plaza to march in solidarity with the California prisoners on the 48th day of their hunger strike. As they organize behind the closed doors of solitary, let our support ring loudly through the streets. Let us voice the demands of the prisoners and demand justice for Guero, the first prisoner to die participating in the hunger strike (may he rest in peace.)
Come ready to make some noise!!
Sponsored by the Anti-repression crew.
Israel Hernandez was an artist who used a variety of mediums, including graffiti, under the name Reefa. On the morning of August 6th, Hernandez was tasered to death by Miami Beach police, who proceeded to high-five and congratulate each other. This sick incident of police brutality is nothing new, and the list of people slain by police gets longer and longer.
The evening of August 24th we will gather to seek justice for yet another wrongful death at the hands of the state, and decorate the city how Reefa did when he was murdered.
Original call for action on IndyBay.
More info on the murder from the Miami Herald.
Direct Action.
DEFY Rotten #NSA Contractor #CSC AT #VMWorld2013.
Also Tuesday and Wednesday, same time, same place.
STOP THE WAR ON YOUTH OF COLOR
JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN –
JAIL ZIMMERMAN!
OVERTURN ‘STAND YOUR GROUND’ LAWS!
JOBS & EDUCATION
NOT MASS INCARCERATION!
END RACIAL PROFILING OF ALL FORMS!
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR INCLUDING STOP-AND-FRISK!
IMMIGRANT RIGHTS NOW
STOP DEPORTATIONS!
A LIVING WAGE AND UNION RIGHTS
FOR LOW-WAGE AND ALL WORKERS!
Stop Urban Shield Militarization & Surveillance of Our Communities
On Wed., August 28, after we’ve marched in Washington on Aug. 24 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the great march against racism in Washington, D.C., led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the People’s Power Assembly Movement calls on activists across the U.S. to hold local JUSTICE FOR TRAYVON MARTIN ASSEMBLIES, including rallies, speak-outs, marches in public squares or in front of federal buildings or local police headquarters.
Webpage for the national call for this event.
Local Endorsers: ILWU Local 10, ONYX Organizing Committee, Dignidad y Resistencia, Oscar Grant Foundation, Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition, Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement, Kenneth Harding Foundation, Peoples Community Medics, Idriss Stelley Foundation, Workers World Party, Urban Black Men United, Tsega Center, IWW, Peoples Database Project, Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee-Berkeley , Monterey Peace & Justice Center, Dan Siegel – attorney, Anne Weills – attorney, Shane Hoff – UTU Local 1741
f you work in a fast food or retail store anywhere in the country, the most effective thing you can do right now is make plans to take to the streets on August 29. Encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to do the same. The more of us who go on strike that day, the louder our message will be that it is not right for companies making billions in profits to pay their workers pennies.
Come support low-wage workers at a rally demanding a living wage and a right to form a union without retalitation. Across the country, thousands of workers are coming together to call for better pay and workplace respect. Now it’s time for the East Bay to join the fight for a living wage so workers can provide food, shelter and clothing for their families, and improve the economy for everyone.
Tomorrow morning August 30 fast-food workers in Oakland will return to their shifts. They need supportive members of the public to accompany them. If you can show up, you will show both the workers and the fast-food giants that the workers do not stand alone. It will make it MUCH harder for management to retaliate against them.
Just show up at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) office at 2501 International Blvd. Suite 2D (between 25th and 26th Ave in East Oakland) at 6:30AM. For any questions, email ACCE at oakland@calorganize.org. “
80 Oakland Airport food and retail workers will walk off the job tomorrow morning to protest unfair labor practices by their employer Host International.
We’ve been in negotiations with Host for a year, and the company’s most recent proposals would gut our contract–drastically reducing vacation and sick days; eliminating pensions, paid meal breaks, and even overtime pay on shifts longer than eight hours; cutting pay for new hires and freezing longtime workers’ wages for five years; and removing workers from the union’s affordable health insurance plan.
Come down and join workers from Starbucks, Chili’s, California Pizza Kitchen, and other shops on the picket lines. We will be on strike all day, with rallies at 7am, noon, and 5pm at Terminal 2!
We will be shuttling people from the parking lot of the ILWU Local 6 office at 99 Hegenberger Road before the 7am and 5pm rallies. If you want a ride to the airport, please meet us there by 6:45am or 4:45pm.
UNITE HERE Local 2850, 1440 Broadway, Suite 208, Oakland, CA 94612, Tel. 510-893-3181, Fax 510-893-5362
We are demanding that the United States government not start a hypocritical and destructive war against #Syria. Join us at Oscar Grant Plaza this Saturday August 31st, starting at 12 noon. We need to show the fierce opposition against US imperialism that exists in our nation! This protest will last as long as people feel willing to make it last.
Bay Area Occupy Returns With Labor Day Convergence on Monday…September 2
August 31, 2013—Occupy Action Council, a coalition of Bay Area Occupy groups that are part of the world-wide Occupy Wall Street movement announces their plans for a convergence on Labor Day (September 2nd) 2013. The all-day gathering starts at 10AM at Chelsea Manning Plaza (formerly Bradley Manning Plaza).
The location is the re-christened Justin Herman Plaza aka Harry Bridges Plaza, at San Francisco’s Embarcadero and Don Chee Way. Notable events throughout the day will include a press conference at 1PM, a General Assembly at 3 PM and a protest march to denounce and Chalkupy the Federal Reserve building at 101 Market Street.
An offensive symbol of the financial stranglehold that private (for profit) banks in the Federal Reserve System hold over the people of the world, the Federal Reserve building at 101 Market Street is also a symbol of political resistance and protest, being the site of the occupation that began in September 2011 and later spread to Chelsea Manning Plaza nearby. It is the place from which Occupy San Francisco was forcibly evicted in December 2011. Because the Federal Reserve represents the pinnacle of modern financial corruption, inequality, and the unchecked powers of concentrated wealth, alternatives to the Federal Reserve System including Public Banking and issuing debt free money, will be an integral part of the discussion at the convergence.
Ruthie Sakheim, a member of OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group explained, “The convergence is needed because voting in elections is no longer enough to bring about political change. Regardless of party, our politicians have repeatedly proven themselves either unable or unwilling to challenge the corporate elite. Victorious candidates have continued to serve the interests of the corporations, including companies within this building, at the expense of the rest of us: the workers, the middle class, the poor and the powerless. The only ones who’ve continued to prosper are the 1% by ruthlessly exploiting the people and recklessly plundering the natural world. They have so thoroughly corrupted and co-opted every level of our government that protest and direct action are our only means of redress left.”
“Occupy is coming together again because recent events have shown Occupy’s goals still have not been met,” said Jane Smith, an Occupy Bay Area United activist. Citing such problems as unwarranted privatization of public assets like the Post Office, dishonest double-dealing and union busting by the bosses and civic officials in places like the BART strike, the looting and pillaging of our public education system through attacks on the City College of San Francisco by opportunistic corporate bandits, and America’s still worsening income inequality, Smith felt a convergence is needed to brainstorm ideas and find objectives to end the ultimate corporate control that grips the Bay Area, the country, and the world in cycles of poverty, war, and environmental disasters.
Activities at the Occupy Convergence will include Displays of Occupy Art, Chalkupy, Free Food, Free Light Show, Local Advocacy Groups, Occucards, and Occupy Information, music, GENERAL ASSEMBLY speak outs, a childrens’ playspace, and an interactive Occupy Art Table. Spontaneous protest marches throughout the nearby financial district are likely to occur. The convergence will be open to all current Occupiers and all other interested persons. Occupy Action Council emphasizes that the group is wholly committed to nonviolent direct action, public safety, and to building our community of nonviolent resistance.
The Albany City Council has voted to begin the eviction of everyone living on the Bulb in October. More than 50 people, some of whom have been residing on the landfill for a decade will have nowhere to go but the streets and sidewalks of Albany. Come with us and tell the Albany City Council that we can share the Bulb, as we have been doing for years, and that eviction without housing is not a solution. March with Bulb residents to the City Council meeting and show that the future of the Albany Bulb should be decided in a way that includes the people who live there.
6:00 p.m: meet at the Albany Bulb Parking Lot (1 Buchanan Street Extension)
6:30 p.m: march along Buchanan Street to City Hall
7:30 p.m: Meeting, Albany City Hall (1000 San Pablo Avenue)
We are gathering every Thursday at 5:00pm at Oscar Grant Plaza in support of the 5 demands of the prisoner hunger strike.
This Thursday, September 5th will be DAY 60 of the hunger strike! We need to continue to grow support for the demands and demand that Gov. Brown and CDCr Sec. Beard negotiate!
Please join us, bring signs or banners if you have them.
Since OUR Walmart workers went it’s longest 2-week extended strike in June, Walmart has illegally fired and disciplined over 80 Walmart strikers. OUR Walmart Members gave Walmart until Labor Day to reinstate all workers. Yesterday we celebrated the victories we have won through organizing and the courage of every person to stand for what we believe in. Labor Day passed without a word from Walmart.
As promised, we will be taking to the streets nation-wide. Stand with illegally fired Walmart Strikers and to hold major corporations and CEOs, like Walmart and their Board of Directors, accountable to every working person Thursday Sept. 5, 5:30pm at Powell St. Bart Station!
RSVP here: Stand With The Walmart 60 – Bay Area.
Oakland Hunger Strike Solidarity peeps are conducting a 60 hour fast in solidarity with the 60-day (now suspended) CA Prison Hunger Strike.
From Thursday noon to Saturday, midnight, in honor and respect for the California Prison Hunger Strikers, who suspended their hunger strike after 60 days, we will publicly fast in front of Governor Brown’s condo, shining a light on his gross disregard for life and blatant profiteering off human suffering. We invite everyone to claim space with us, whether fasting or not. POWER TO THE PEOPLE.
They are going to have a noise demo at 9:00 PM Friday (as First Friday is winding down). They would love for us all to join them and to hang out with them any time on Friday and through the end of their fast.