Calendar
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- staging Debtors’ Assemblies
- Fighting for amnesty for and reduced in cost police tickets for the impoverished, who effectively go into debt to pay these off.
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
- saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- and much more!
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.
There is a good chance that the only reason this is even appearing on a committee meeting agenda is because the sum is more than $100,000 otherwise the citizens would not have known of this. One might wonder if this purchase came out of the recent Urban Shield vendor weapons display. The Oakland Police Dept will say the shotguns they already have are old and overused – which is a tired argument. Municipal police departments are not supposed to be firing weapons aside from on the firing range and these weapons – if maintained – will last for a very long time.
From the resolution … “WHEREAS, funds are available in the General Purpose Fund (1010), District Command Administration Organization (108010), Supplies Technical and Scientific Account (52913), Undetermined Project (0000000), Community Oriented Policing Services Program (COPS) …” COPS?! Is that what residents considered community-oriented policing? Or would they consider proper rubber-soled walking shoes to be community-oriented policing?
This is about priorities and stockpiling weapons for the upcoming repression. When combined with the OPD request of $279,000 for 8 “paddy wagons” to be heard later in the day, OPD will be consuming over $400,000. Funds that this supposed cash-strapped city could easily direct elsewhere.
Either appear in person or contact the four council members who warm the chairs on this committee to say NO to these purchases: DKalb [at] oaklandnet.com; AGuillen [at] oaklandnet.com; LMcelhaney [at] oaklandnet.com; ACampbell-Washington [at] oaklandnet.com
Join us to fight for a livable wage for all Bay Area workers! We collaborate in principled reflection and action on what the Bay Area livable wage would be and where we are at on the right to a livable wage.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds Community and Power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.
Our work together encompasses:
(1) The concerns of precarious, care and contingent workers,
(2) Campaigns to improve wages for low wage workers, and
(3) Efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
Oakland Livable Wage Assembly meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:00 PM at the SEIU Local 1000 Union Hall, 436 14th Street #200, Oakland, CA
Please love and support one another ~ We have a duty to fight ~ We have a duty to win!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/
Join the Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against Stingrays being acquired by Alameda County agencies, for various privacy ordinances to be passed by the Oakland City Council, against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub, and against other invasions of privacy by our benighted City, County, and State Governments. We are also engaged in the fight against Urban Shield, and Predictive Policing.
OPWG was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network, and its members helped draft the Privacy Policy that puts further restrictions on the now Port-restricted DAC.
Stop by and learn how you can help guard Oakland’s right not to be spied on by the government & if you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
For more information on the DAC check out
Long-time McDonald’s shift lead and fast food union organizer Sandra Roman, who has worked at the McDonald’s at 4514 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland for over 2 years, was fired yesterday, Oct. 27th. In response, fast food workers, union organizers community supporters and clergy staged a 3 hour protest to demand that Ms. Roman be reinstated immediately. Despite heavy police presence, the demonstrators forced McDonald’s to close its doors for the rest of the night.
EBOC will be holding an action tomorrow to keep the pressure on, we are winning and are pushing forward further charges. The manager admittedly fired Sandra for demanding her legal sick days on the same day The City of Oakland sent a retaliation notification to the company. WE WILL MEET AT THE STORE TOMORROW AT 11AM and will keep the pressure on throughout the day. Please come out when you can tomorrow and let your networks know. We continue to win fights like these with support from the community and Sandra’s coworkers are fully behind her.
Ms. Roman is a mother of 4 children, and struggles every day to provide a decent quality of life for her family. Without legally-guaranteed paid sick days, she would have to make the difficult choice between missing a days pay or caring for her diabetic son. She has gone on strike 7 times in the past to demand a pay raise to $15/hour and the right to form a union, and is a well-known fast food organizer.
See you out there!
Halloween at Noon – Come to the Cal Bears football game and help build public support for People’s Park as a California State Park. Help save People’s Park and stop the housing plan.
Bring Signs! Bring your memories of People’s Park! Bring your aspirations for People’s Park!
SAVE CALIFORNIA HISTORY! SAVE PEOPLE’S PARK!
RALLY AGAINST THE STUDENT HOUSING PROJECT
The UC Berkeley Department of Architecture and Chancellor Nick Dirks has announced their housing plan to replace People’s Park. The Dept of Architecture has been trying to build student support for the housing department, as have the student staff of the Chancellor.
Nick Dirks knows that in 4 years, People’s Park can be taken away from the University and made into a California State Park.
People’s Park had previously not been part of UC Berkeley’s development plan, and was going to be left as a Park until at least the year 2020. UC Berkeley had spent funds looking into altering the Park’s landscape, and possibly placing a cafe on the lot. The Park was going to be changed, but left as an open space, just under tighter control of the UC.
But Dirks is currently aware that UC Berkeley cannot wait until 2020. In 2019, the Park would go to the California State Parks. Now UC Berkeley has changed plans, and is going to clear out the lot to develop a student housing complex.
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 Bay Area Community Exchange (BACE) Timebank promotes and facilitates the use of Time instead of money in the exchange of goods and services.
The foundation of the Timebank is a free, open source online directory, reputation and accounting system.
These exchanges help develop stronger, more resilient connections between individuals and community service organizations which participate in them, by improving communication and the distribution of skills and resources among our participants. We work to help people meet their needs regardless of economic status.
Please join our Meetup Group:
And our timebank at:
http://www.bace.org
We are meeting a week earlier than normal so that we will be free to join the National Day of Action to support $15 an hour and a union, since this event is scheduled to occur on our normal 2nd Tuesday OLWA meeting day.
Among other things we will discuss planning for a OLWA potluck and film, which is tentatively scheduled for November 14th at SEIU 1000, but may be delayed for a week so folks can watch the second Democritic debate. WooHoo Bernie. The movie will be the classic labor film Salt Of The Earth.
Join us to fight for a livable wage for all Bay Area workers! We collaborate in principled reflection and action on what the Bay Area livable wage would be and where we are at on the right to a livable wage.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds Community and Power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.
Our work together encompasses:
(1) The concerns of precarious, care and contingent workers,
(2) Campaigns to improve wages for low wage workers, and
(3) Efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
Oakland Livable Wage Assembly meets every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, 6:30-8:00 pm at the SEIU Local 1000 Union Hall, 436 14th Street #200, Oakland, CA
Please love and support one another ~ We have a duty to fight ~ We have a duty to win!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/
We’re going to mobilize and head to a local Sprouts store to urge customers to boycott Sprouts! Email gilltractfarm@gmail.com for more info.
Come out to defend the Gill Tract! Despite 20 years of community organizing to maintain the land for farming, green-washing super market Sprouts is still planning to build a store on the Gill Tract. Meet up to coordinate with other folks before deploying to a Sprouts store in the Bay Area. This is a great way to plug into Occupy the Farm and take a stand for the land!
Creative community and hackerspace!
Our weekly meeting to get this hackerspace together, to provide a venue for those things that otherwise cannot be worked out through day-to-day practice.
Potluck! (optional) – bring your own tasty dish!
We’re going back to Sprouts to make sure they get our message loud and clear! They want to pave over a precious historic urban farmland (the Gill Tract) to build a new store in Albany. We say, this public farmland is for farming, not corporate chain stores! Back off, Sprouts!
MEET up at 3090 King St, Berkeley, at 2 pm this time. We will then carpool to a local sprouts store to take action, disrupting their business as usual and encouraging shoppers to join our boycott.
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!
Berkeley Copwatch is tired of unjust policing and lack of accountability. We stand in solidarity with those protesting the murders of black people across the nation and say that this must end! We have our unique problems in Berkeley and the East Bay and we must take local action to stand up and demand justice!
We Demand:
- End racial profiling in Berkeley! Get the statistics on who is really being detained and arrested and stop handcuffing men of color for no reason!
- No tasers in Berkeley! Spend money to study how to end racial profiling – not acquire tasers!
- End the militarization of the police! No boats, no armored personnel carriers, no more weapons and no more military games. Withdraw from Urban Shield!
- Justice For Kayla Moore!
- Decriminalize Mental Illness! Police with no training in mental health crisis are most often the first responders to these kinds of situations. Berkeley must fully fund emergency mental health response in the city and prevent militarized cops from being the first point of contact for members of the public who need help in dealing with emergency mental health situations. No more putting spit hoods over the heads of people with mental illness! No taser use on mentally ill people! Counselors not cops!
Meetings at 7pm every Monday!
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.
We’re standing together on November 10 to say, “We need a raise!” People across the country will be standing up with fast-food workers and all 64 million underpaid workers making less than $15, because it’s time for $15 for all workers. Together we’re turning the tide in favor of working people and our families. And we’ll need everyone’s help — including yours — to make this a reality.
RSVP here to receive email updates: http://fightfor15.org/s-petition/november-10-rsvp/
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We’ll call on corporate CEO’s to raise pay and respect our right to form unions without retaliation. And we’ll call on our elected representatives to stop letting the wealthy and powerful write the rules in their favor.
Together we can work to end racism and oppression, create a path to citizenship for immigrants, and fight for wages that strengthen our communities.
Click for full sized image
Click for full sized image
Join Black Workers, Labor Unions, the Fight for $15, and more to tell Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley: DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST THE BLACKFRIDAY14!
Workers from across the Bay Area unite on this National Day of Action for the Fight for $15 to say: Black Workers’ Lives Matter, and ALL Black Lives Matter.
We won’t stand for O’Malley’s racist prosecution and criminalization of Black folks. From the targeting of Black churches and African drummers, to the displacement of longtime Black Oakland communities, and police terror and murder of Black folks, there is a WAR on Black Lives, and so far, Nancy O’Malley is on the wrong side.
On November 28, 2014, the BlackFriday14 chained themselves to two BART trains at West Oakland Station, shutting down service as a call to action nationwide for folks to step up and put an end to the war on Black Lives.
Now the BlackFriday14 face criminalization of their own actions demanding justice.
District Attorney O’Malley has the power to drop all charges against the BlackFriday14 by just saying the word.
Workers stand with the BlackFriday14.
People of conscience stand with the BlackFriday14.
When will D.A. O’Malley stand on the side of justice?
Join us for a Black Worker Speakout, rally, and more to demand that D.A. O’Malley DROP ALL CHARGES NOW!
Afterwards, we will march to Oscar Grant Plaza to join the 4pm Fight for $15 Rally: https://www.facebook.com/
#BlackFriday14 #BlackLivesMatter #Fightfor15 #DroptheCharges
We’re standing together on November 10 to say, “We need a raise!” People across the country will be standing up with fast-food workers and all 64 million underpaid workers making less than $15, because it’s time for $15 for all workers. Together we’re turning the tide in favor of working people and our families. And we’ll need everyone’s help — including yours — to make this a reality.
RSVP here to receive email updates: http://fightfor15.org/s-petition/november-10-rsvp/
—–
We’ll call on corporate CEO’s to raise pay and respect our right to form unions without retaliation. Andf we’ll call on our elected representatives to stop letting the wealthy and powerful write the rules in their favor.
Together we can work to end racism and oppression, create a path to citizenship for immigrants, and fight for wages that strengthen our communities.
Click for full sized image
During the accreditation crisis, City College students and workers fought alongside our community for CCSF. Now Administration intends to shrink classes by 26%, layoff more than a quarter of the faculty, and refuses to negotiate a fair faculty contract. Help us defend a City College for everyone!
1:30 PM: MARCH for CCSF
from CCSF Downtown (88 4th St. @ Mission)
to CCSF Civic Center (1170 Market St. @ UN Plaza)
2:00 PM: RALLY for CCSF
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- staging Debtors’ Assemblies
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts
- saving the Berkeley Post Office, fighting Post Office privatization and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- fighting modern day debtors’ prisons
- and much more!
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.