Oakland Rally To Demand 1,000 Ca-OSHA Inspectors, PPE & Health and Safety On The Job
Stop The Murders and Pandemic In Our Workplaces NOW!
Workers and trade unionists will speak about about the failure of the the California Cal-OSHA to protect workers on the job.
There are less than 200 inspectors in California for 18 million workers. In fact there are more Fish and Game inspectors than OSHA inspectors.
In Los Angeles over 700 longshoreman are infected and 12 have died. At Foster Farms in the Central Valley 13 workers have died and workers face a lack of PPE and masks to protect their lives and those of their families. Farmworkers in California are being treated as disposable workers.
This is over a year after the pandemic has ripped through California workplaces.
Healthcare workers at Highland Hospital, San Francisco General, Kaiser, Sutter and UC are still fighting against reusing PPE masks and gowns and Cal-OSHA is unable to do regular physical inspections even after complaints. Healthcare workers are dying as a result of the failure to have proper protection for them and their patients.
Plants like billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla in Fremont has no Cal-OSHA inspections to enforce the law and other workers at Amazon, UBER and even public transit agencies are not getting regular inspections because of the virtual collapse of Cal-OSHA. Governor Newsom earlier this year instituted a freeze on hiring. Although this has recently been lifted this we are seeing the death agony of this critical agency in the middle of a deadly and historic pandemic. Apparently profits are above lives for the worker of California Cal-OSHA has become a ghost agency when workers need it the most.
For more Information:
committeeforlaborparty(at)gmail.com
Sponsored by
United Public Workers For Action upwa.info
United Front Committee For A Labor Party UFCLP
https://foramasslaborparty.wordpress.com
The Spring 2021 Critical Conversations series is organized around two themes: celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Barbara T. Christian, an architect of Black feminist criticism, a founding member of our Department and a gifted writer and teacher; and exploring the concept of “abolition democracy,” thinking creatively and collaboratively about the practice of abolition as necessary to building life-affirming institutions and robust democratic structures. Through both themes, we ask: what are the lessons of the Black Feminist, Black Radical, and Black intellectual traditions for our moment and what is the role of Black Studies in building more just futures?
We are joined in conversation by celebrated novelist, poet, and activist Alice Walker who will reflect on freedom, Black feminism/womanism, and writing in community. This event is the second in our series celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Barbara T. Christian
Darieck Scott and Ra Malika Imhotep will moderate a Q & A session with Alice Walker taking your questions.
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About Alice Walker, speaker:
Alice Walker is an internationally celebrated writer, poet and activist whose books include seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children’s books, and volumes of essays and poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1983 and the National Book Award. Walker has written many bestsellers; among them, The Temple of My Familiar; By The Light of My Father’s Smile; Possessing the Secret of Joy; We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness; and The Color Purple. You can read her full bio here.
About Professor Darieck Scott, moderator:
Darieck Scott earned his Ph.D. in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University, and an M.A. in African American Studies and a J.D. from Yale. Before coming to UC Berkeley he taught in the English departments of the University of Texas at Austin, and UC Santa Barbara. His teaching and research interests include: 20th and 21st century African American literature; creative writing; queer theory, and LGBTQ studies; race, gender and sexuality in fantasy, science fiction, and comic books.
About Ra Malika Imhotep, moderator:
Ra Malika Imhotep is a Black feminist writer + performance artist from Atlanta, Georgia currently pursuing a Doctoral degree in African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her intellectual + creative work tends to the relationships between queer articulations of Black femininity, vernacular culture & the performance of labor. She is co-convener of an embodied spiritual-political education project called The Church of Black Feminist Thought.
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BREAKING: Fast food workers nationwide are going on strike for $15 an hour, COVID-safe workplaces, and respect on the job February 16. #FightFor15 workers have been fighting too long for higher wages. https://t.co/gp6OuDrAHw pic.twitter.com/7F6i5nvCEO
— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) February 12, 2021
DO NOT CROSS THE PICKET LINE
*MCDONALD’S, BURGER KING, AND WENDY’S* WORKERS ARE FIGHTING FOR A LIVING WAGE.
***DO NOT*** ORDER FROM ANY OF THESE PLACES ON TUESDAY, THE 16TH
Join Stop the Money Pipeline’s launch event for our rapid response campaign to #DefundLine3. The banks that are funding Line 3 are funding climate destruction –
we’re taking action to stop them.
Find out how you can get involved, from supporting the frontlines to pressuring the financial institutions into dropping Line 3. Check your email for confirmation once you complete your registration.
RSVP: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DdbSiV2ZS-Gk0WsbziQTcA
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents a unique Zoom Event:
RASHID KHALIDI & Nora Barrows-Friedman
THE HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR ON PALESTINE
A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917—2017
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A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history
“A riveting and original work, the first to explore the war against the Palestinians on the basis of deep immersion in their struggle—a work enriched by solid scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this deeply unequal conflict. —Noam Chomsky
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members—mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists—The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age. He highlights the key episodes in this colonial campaign, from the 1917 Balfour Declaration to the destruction of Palestine in 1948, from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon to the endless and futile peace process.
Original, authoritative, and important, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine is not a chronicle of victimization, nor does it whitewash the mistakes of Palestinian leaders or deny the emergence of national movements on both sides. In reevaluating the forces arrayed against the Palestinians, it offers an illuminating new view of a conflict that continues to this day.
Rashid Khalidi is the author of seven books about the Middle East, among them the award-winning Palestinian Identity, Brokers of Deceit, and The Iron Cage. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and many other publications. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and co-editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies.
Nora Barrows-Friedman is a longtime broadcaster and journalist who has focused on Palestine and Palestinian rights issues for nearly 20 years. She was the co-host and senior producer of Flashpoints on KPFA from 2003-2010, and has since been an associate editor and reporter for The Electronic Intifada. Nora is the author of “In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine.”
Chevron’s recent spill of 600 gallons of an oil and gas mixture into SF Bay and the Pt. Richmond shoreline, and the continuing need for stronger air pollution controls at its Richmond refinery, will be taken up at the Richmond City Council meeting this Tuesday night. Public comment is hugely important: please come out and testify.
Chevron oil spill response is on the agenda as Item J-2. The city has asked representatives from Chevron, the Coast Guard, SF Baykeeper, California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and the Office of Spill Recovery and Response to report on the causes, responses and probable impacts of the spill.
This is an important opportunity for the public and members of the city council to ask questions and demand answers.
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We can speak to both issues when we comment on Item J-2: express our anger and outrage at the spill, and demand facts about its cause and impact. At the same time, we can thank the council for passing H-10. This is also the ideal moment to tell the city council they need to direct staff to start working on a plan for a just transition in Richmond.
The meeting is on Zoom. The link is on the agenda with instructions, and also here:
https://zoom.us/j/99312205643?pwd=MDdqNnRmS2k4ZkRTOWhlUldQOUF1Zz09
PW: ccmeeting
To participate: “**The clerk will announce the item number….” You may have less than 30 seconds to raise your hand virtually to speak.
Or iPhone one-tap: US: +16699006833,,99312205643# or +13462487799,,99312205643#
Or Telephone: Dial (for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 929 205 6099 or +1 301 715 8592Webinar ID: 993 1220 5643
TOMORROW! Community Ready Corps is hosting a special event featuring Fredrika Newton, Mama Akua Njeri, and Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr.
100% of the proceeds go to the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. https://t.co/qbCgFwujgQ #JudasAndTheBlackMessiah
— Nikki (@nikkivpraze) February 16, 2021
During this special event, Carroll Fife will interview Fredrika Newton (widow of Huey P. Newton and co-founder of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation), Mama Akua Njeri (widow of Chairman Fred Hampton, Sr.), and Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. (son of Chairman Fred Hampton, Sr.).
Ticket prices are sliding-scale (no one turned away for lack of funds), and 100% of the proceeds go to the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation.
ACCESS
This event will take place as a Zoom webinar. Automated captioning will be provided.
Email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to obtain Zoom meeting access info.
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 spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” — 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.
Check out some of what we worked on in 2020 and 2019.
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, mass aerial surveillance, 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, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.
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
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.
Join us for our virtual monthly membership meeting to hear what’s going on and talk about how you can get involved
Register in advance for this webinar using this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wlY4AD3ORs2VIK3c8rxXaw
Each attendee must separately register. Do not share your registration confirmation with others.
APTP General Membership meetings are held the third Wednesday of every month at 7pm. Join us to find out how you can get involved.
Very few people build data products because they want to promote racist or sexist ideas; however, it’s very easy to fall into these traps, particularly when we fail to question the widely held belief in the “objectivity of evidence.” A working understanding of how to incorporate equity into data products, and knowledge of practical tools that embed equity in your research and data, is essential for anyone conducting data analysis, or making decisions based on data analysis.
This session, led by Heather Krause, founder of Datassist and We All Count, provides you with several shocking real-world examples of mistakes made when using data that led to biased outcomes, and a seven-step framework for identifying inequity and hidden bias in the data product lifecycle. As interest in equity in data grows, this framework provides actionable steps for making changes in the way you and your team use data.
Registered attendees for Data on Purpose will have access to this session as part of their registration. If you are not already registered for Data on Purpose and would like to attend this session at no cost, please sign-up by filling out this short Google Form. (Please note that this form will close on Wednesday, February 10, 2021 at 5:00 pm Pacific Time, or earlier, if we reach our capacity).
Celebrating the Music and Art of Oakland four “must see events” on Thursdays, February 4, 11, 18, 25 2021 from 11-12pm. Presentations and performances by Street Spirit, Youth Spirit Art Work and others. Hosted by St. Mary’s Center Senior Advocates for Hope and Justice.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85704068720?pwd=QXJ3T05sUURtL0JIYzk5eEpnSDJDUT09
Zoom Meeting ID 857 0496 8720
Passcode 472245
RSVP to jcastillo@stmaryscenter.org
In solidarity with Water Protectors on the frontlines on Anishinaabe lands in Minnesota, we are racing against Enbridge’s next big financial deadline, On March 31st, 18 banks have a $2.2 billion loan to Enbridge due for renewal. The 18 major banks involved in that loan have to make a decision whether to continue to support Line 3 or walk away from Enbridge and its toxic, colonial pipeline. You can help to send them a message: Stop Funding Filthy Fossil Fuels.
If enough of us take these actions together, we can make the companies funding Line 3 feel enough pressure that they will walk away from this toxic tar sands pipeline.
Your email will go directly to the inboxes of the CEOs at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, CitiBank and the fifteen other banks funding Line 3. There’s no time to waste, we need these CEOs to get the thousands of emails on Friday, February 19 — will you take the time to click to #StopLine3?
Prefer to use the phone? Click here for a phone script and link to urge Chase Bank execs to defund Line 3: https://stopthemoneypipeline.com/call-chase-defund-line-3/
With Love and Rage and Action,
Extinction Rebellion SF Bay Area
The evolution of racial and economic oppression has only been amplified in the last year, as seen through both the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent acts of sedition. As the new administration and Congress steps into power, we must hold these leaders accountable to the citizens, organizers, and communities who uplifted them in November and urge them to build a new, non-carceral paradigm for public safety that keeps all communities truly safe.
Against this backdrop, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Leadership Conference Education Fund and Civil Rights Corps are hosting a Vision for Justice Summit on Friday, February 19, which marks a year and a half since the Vision for Justice platform was released.
The Vision for Justice Virtual Summit will be open to the public and serve as our opportunity to unite as a community, creating a collective strategy to design the future we want — a future rooted in restorative justice and equity. The summit will feature over thirty of the most respected, trusted organizers, civic leaders, activists and directly impacted people who have been doing the work to end mass incarceration.
We may not know what is coming next, but we can prepare for it anyway. Direct Action has historically been the most effective way to change the world, and we built a workshop to teach folks how it has worked, and how we can plan and execute strategic, effective, and engaging actions.
Do you want to learn effective techniques to intervene in an unjust world?
Do you want to plan effective and powerful direct actions?
East Bay DSA’s Direct Action Working Group is excited to teach our 3rd Direct Action Training! The training will take place on Zoom from 2 pm-4 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Attending both days is highly recommended. This training will cover the same ground as the previous Direct Action training which was very well received.
As racist violence, unemployment, evictions, and climate chaos keep increasing, we need to expand our capacity to leverage our collective power. This training series will introduce creative ways to escalate ongoing campaigns, participate in mass uprisings, and keep each other safe in our confrontations with capital and the state.
The training is 4 hours spread across two days. Please attend both days.
Direct Action Part 1: Sat Feb 20 10am-noon
•History and examples of Direct Action getting the goods
•Team Roles, Action Design
•De-Escalation
•Basic First Aid
•Affinity Groups & Decision-Making
•Know Your Rights
•Action Planning Breakout Groups
Direct Action Part 2: Sun Feb 21 10am-noon
•Gear/equipment
•Messaging
•Security Culture
•Action Planning Breakout Groups
•How to get involved
PART 1: Rights of Nature: Indigenous Cosmology & System Change: A Training Webinar from Movement Rights
Discussion facilitated by Jane Perry and Denice Dennis
Please Register in advance for this training:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAscuisrT4qHdBS6-2oiALRCjr4s4mLT6vB
Join the women of Movement Rights in this training webinar, which opens up with a prayer by respected Ponca elder Casey Camp-Horinek, about the Rights of Nature movement. The women give a brief history on Indigenous people maintaining respectful relationships with the sacred system of life, how harmful corporations obtained the rights to violate the health of life, water, soil and air, and the success of Movement Rights working with the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma to pass the first tribal rights of nature law with Casey Camp-Horinek, Pennie Opal Plant and Shannon Biggs. The webinar will be broken up for breakout sessions to reflect more deeply on the impact of this Indigenous wisdom on our understandings as grandmothers committed to speaking out and acting in support of a healthy, clean, safe and restored planet for all beings.
The webinar does not need to be viewed prior to the training date, however our experience is that we get something new or deeper out of each fresh viewing, and you may get more from the training if you do watch in advance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaUgAI5Dvxg
We are deeply grateful to Movement Rights for offering this webinar in July 2020 during the cocooning enforced by the global pandemic crisis. Most people who are familiar with the work of Movement Rights since 2014 would be shocked to learn that so much has been done by two seasoned and committed women activists working around a kitchen table with very little funding. We are inspired by the work of Movement Rights. As guests on stolen land, we are humble and embrace the gift of their wisdom in this webinar with our deep gratitude. Making a contribution today helps Movement Rights work with tribal communities to stop fracking and pipelines and protect the Rights of Nature.
https://www.movementrights.org/donation-page/
Green Eco-Socialist Network – 3 part series with David Cobb, Meleiza Figueroa, David Bond, Chey Bell!
Join us for a deep dive into Eco-Socialism, and learn how the capitalist status quo deprives us of our human rights and aspirations. The first presentation in this 3-part series is an introduction to Eco-Socialism vs. Capitalism including a discussion of what Eco-Socialism may mean to you.
The world we need and deserve is not only possible, it is an imperative. We and our children will not survive the status quo.
Event is FREE – advance registration required: https://rebrand.ly/GreenEcoSocialism.
Here’s the Facebook event page.
Event opens with Comedian Chey Bell !
The two following presentations in the series will build on the first event and will be held on Feb. 20th and April 10th, 2021. Presentations will focus on Eco-Socialist platforms and programs and institutions being built around the country to shift away from capitalist systems and into a just, sustainable future.
2020 showed us how corporate America tripled their riches while we scrambled to feed our families and keep a roof over our heads. It’s time to break up big corporations! The Green Party platform and our Green New Deal seek to build an alternative economic system based on ecology and decentralization of power. We believe private ownership of production and state ownership of production are not ecologically sound, socially just, or democratic and that both contain built-in structures that advance injustices. We seek democratic decision making in communities and workplaces in balance with nature. This decentralized system is knows as co-ops, communalism, or ecological socialism (eco-socialism).
Please join the Ecosocialist Network for this kick ass kick off with California Greens: Cooperation Humboldt co-founder David Cobb, 2016 press director for Stein/Baraka presidential campaign & UC Berkeley PhD candidate Meleiza Figueroa, and David Bond of Los Angeles who was Kenneth Mejia’s campaign manager. Cobb is an attorney who was the 2004 Green Party candidate for U.S. President.
This is sure to be a riveting panel, with kick ass comedy, to boot, to kick off the series!
The Green Party of California invites you to join us for a discussion on EcoSocialism cohosted with the Green EcoSocialist Network (GEN).\
Register to attend HERE and share the Facebook event page.
Many people are considering what it means to be an EcoSocialist these days. In this second presentation of our three-part series, we explore how we can build EcoSocialist programs in our own communities. Featuring Hip Hop Artist and Spoken Word Performer Shamako Noble, Guest speakers include Kali Akuno Cooperation Jackson, Misty Cross Moms4Housing, David Cobb Cooperation Humboldt, Mel Figueroa David Bond, and Green Party CA State Delegates – Noura Khouri, Nassim Nouri who will explore a number of issues including indigenous rights, housing, co-ops + solidarity economies and more. Presentations will be followed by breakout sessions focused on non-reformists reforms designed to help move us towards a general strike and ultimately an EcoSocialist future! Register to attend HERE and share the Facebook event page.
The first event in this series, on Jan. 16, was an introduction to EcoSocialism vs. Capitalism and the recording can be viewed HERE. The third and final event in this series on April 10th, 2021, will build on the first two. This event is open to all and free, but advance registration is required at https://rebrand.ly/GreenEcoSocialism
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When two parties have effectively bought and sold US democracy, it exists to serve their corporate paymasters NOT the people. The Green Party platform represents the majority point of view within the U.S. and is no longer the alternative; the Green Party is the imperative. To build political power and get on the ballot, would take over 20 years for another party–and is very difficult to do unless you have billions of dollars. Unless people stop voting for ‘lesser evil’, then nothing’s going to change and we along with the planet, are doomed. Imagine for a moment however, if we were able to effectively focus our demands on the kind of agenda and electoral infrastructure the Green Party has with a strong and unified message and everyone actually stood for and voted for what they believed in – then everything not only could, but would actually change.
