Calendar
OCCUPY THE CIVIC CENTER STEPS
TO STOP STRIKES AGAINST SYRIA.
There will be painting, chalking, speak-outs over the bullhorn and solidarity.
Bring art supplies, signs, cardboard.
Come by any time during the day and evening. Occupy is there now, and
no one’s leaving any time soon.
Please join the rally for public education and the march to the bargaining session of the UC Student-Workers Union (UAW 2865), this Tuesday, September 17, beginning at noon.
At the rally, speakers will address the meaning of Napolitano’s appointment for workers and students, and will talk about how this appointment shows the priorities of those who manage and govern the University: militarization, repression, and financial accumulation; not quality and accessible education.
The rally will be followed by a series of teach-outs on the following topics:
– financial speculation and student debt;
– austerity and the privatization of public education;
– Napolitano, the militarization of the campus and undocumented rights;
– the US threat to bomb Syria and the Syrian revolution; and
– the stakes for students and workers of the UC Student-Workers Union’s current contract campaign.
The teach-outs will be followed by a march to the bargaining session between the UC Student-Workers Union and UC management. Those who come to bargaining, which is open to all, will have the chance to speak about the importance of higher instructor / student ratios and better support for student workers to the quality and accessibility of public education in California.
Here is the schedule of the afternoon:
12-12.30pm: Rally on the Steps of Sproul Hall
12.30-1:30pm:
– Announcement of a contingent leaving to the Regents meeting to participate in public comment and possible action
– Teach-Outs in front of Sproul
1:30 – 2pm: All the groups reconvene for a common mini presentation and Q&A on the UAW contract negotiation
2 pm: March towards the UAW bargaining session
Hayward city employees are facing a 5% pay cut on top of a previous 12% cut. Join them to demand that the mayor and city council “Put People First” and stop the cuts.
Find the event closest to you or of most interest to you in the Bay Area here:
Over 70 events are already planned in states coast-to-coast, and this is shaping up to be an epic — not to mention beautiful — day of action. There are a bunch of neat actions planned: from a solar-powered barn going up in the pipeline route in Nebraska, to a tug of war between the fossil fuel industry and the climate movement in Boston, to a swimming party in a park in Jacksonville that might be underwater in the not-too-distant future — and many more to come.
Starting at 8 AM
Rally at 11 AM — Vigil at 4 PM
Twitter Updates @stopsfevictions
Like thousands of other working class San Franciscans, Mr. and Ms. Lee worked for decades in the city. Now elderly and caring for their disabled adult daughter, they are facing eviction by a real estate investor who bought their eight-unit apartment building in the once blue-collar Polk Gulch neighborhood. The investor has admitted that from the start, his business plan was to evict all the tenants and sell off the apartments. He has almost succeeded. All the other families have moved out and the Lees have also desperately tried to move. But as seniors on a fixed income with a disabled family member they faced a costly and doubly discriminatory rental market. They have applied to dozens of apartments without success. Yet their investor landlord has rejected their requests for help finding alternative housing and has asked the sheriff to force the family into the streets.
The Lee family’s story might be like thousands of others who have been quietly moved without public awareness. But overcoming their initial fears, Mr. and Ms. Lee have decided to take a stand: they are staying in their apartment and publicly protesting their eviction by the sheriff. With the support of the Tenants Union and others, they hope their fight will result in increased protections for all tenants and help for evicted tenants like themselves who need housing in the City.
Last month, a judge approved the eviction of the Lees without a trial, disregarding evidence that the landlord-investor misrepresented in his plans to evict the tenants in order to finance for his project. The court’s has allowed the landlord to proceed to request the sheriff to forcibly remove the family despite a pending appeal of that ruling. The sheriff is now scheduled to evict the family on Wednesday, September 25.
As head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano implemented programs such as Secure communities and 287g which have deported almost 2 million undocumented immigrants. Her only background on education is getting rid of in-state tuition for undocumented youth in Arizona.
We’ll be having a rally on Tuesday at 11:00AM on Upper Sproul to protest Napolitano’s nomination. At 12:00PM students from the Multicultural coalition are going to meet with Napolitano and present their demands.
It’s important that we show that we are one! Napolitano thinks this will be a quick and easy meeting. However, we will make it clear that she is not welcome in our UC System!
Therefore, around 11:20 We’ll head out from Upper Sproul to Oakland. Where her office is located.
Party/Street Party
The City of Albany plans on evicting the residents of the Albany Bulb sometime this month. The Albany Bulb is home to over sixty residents who have made the Bulb a home and a community like nothing else in the Bay Area. If evicted, the residents of the Bulb will have no where to go but the streets of Albany, a city with next to no support for its homeless.
Rally at the Albany City Council this Monday at 6:00pm! At 6:30 we will participate in the public comments meeting and make sure everyone in Albany knows about the Bulb and what’s at stake.
Afterwards there will be a march down Solano Ave. for an overnight camp out and demonstration.
Show your solidarity, lets save the Bulb!
Bring camping gear and tents!
Learn more at:
Share the Bulb.
Facebook event & RSVP.
Notice on IndyBay.
Lynne Stewart’s burthday is October 8th and rallies, vigils and speak outs will be held throughout the country. In the Bay Area, we will gather at 5 p.m. and speak out from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. outside the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein, Market and Montgomery in San Francisco. Our goal continues to be to win compassionate release for our fellow Guild member, who is suffering from cancer and turning 74 years old. Senator Feinstein has a unique role to play as a member of the Judiciary Committee.
There are two things you can do. (1) Join us on October 8th to call on Feinstein to exert pressure over the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons to release Lynne Stewart and accelerate compassionate release for all people in federal prisons. And (2) click here to add your name to the new petition to free Lynne Stewart.
Sponsored by the National Lawyer’s Guild.
Support Richmond eminent domain Wednesday October 9
Join the demonstration in Oakland to support the Richmond local principal reduction program, called by ACCE/Home Defenders League with the endorsement of Strike Debt Bay Area. Richmond has offered to restore financial stability to hundreds of homeowners by buying their distressed mortgages and negotiating new loans at fair market value–or seizing the mortgages by eminent domain if necessary. The banks holding these mortgages ignored the offers, Wells Fargo and other banks filed a law suit (dismissed for the time being) and Wall Street withheld purchasing a city bond. Wall Street is fighting back–and so are we! Show your opposition to the 1% and your support for Richmond’s creative campaign to protect homeowners. The demonstration will also push the Oakland City Council to make a strong statement to the banks that will express Oakland’s support for Richmond.
For more background information on the Richmond campaign see http://strikedebt.org/em-dom-richmond/
BART workers could go out on strike at 12:01 AM Friday, October 11th. BART management may attempt to run BART trains between West Oakland and Embarcadero.
Sponsored by the Transit Workers Support Committee.
On Friday at 6:30 pm we will be screening “Bum’s Paradise”, a documentary about the Albany Bulb, outside the Sierra Club’s bi-monthly “Green Friday” event. The Sierra Club is pushing a project on the land that would result in the eviction of the Bulb’s 60+ residents. Our screening will demonstrate to the Sierra Club that there is public support for the continued existence of the Bulb.
Food will be provided but bring blankets, folding chairs, mats, and warm clothing to stay warm!
“Bums’ Paradise is a 53-minute documentary that depicts the lives of the men and women who lived in the ten-year-old Albany Landfill community prior to their eviction. It follows them through the eviction and documents them one month after the eviction. The film emphasizes their concepts of community as well as the amazing art that they created. Instead of being a documentary about homelessness, Bums’ Paradise considers the question: What if the homeless — the indigent, the bums — told their own stories?”
http://www.bumsparadise.com/synopsis_new.html
http://sharethebulb.org/
Come to the Plaza at 11 am … park below … carpool … take the bus … bike … get dropped off … whatever way you can get there come join us!
The Police Accountability Tour, on the road from mid-August until December, will maximize police accountability by facilitating connections and collaboration among those who know that badges don’t grant extra rights, and through skill sharing and the capturing and dissemination of relevant content.
This tour will help further connect individuals involved with Cop Block, Cop Watch, and Peaceful Streets groups as well as all police-watching groups and people around the world, so we can together advance a reality free from institutionalized violence.
On Saturday, Oct. 12th we’ll have a meetup and patrol in the Mission area of San Francisco. If you’re around you should come on out! There will be a good crew present, lots of good information and ideas shared throughout the night, and almost certainly there will emerge some solid connections and working relationships.
n Saturday, Oct. 19th two short documentaries will be screened at New Parkway Theater – Manufacturing Guilt: A Short Film on the Innocence of Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Battle for Oscar Grant Plaza: OPD’s War Against Occupy Oakland.
Check back here for exact location of meetup.
Rally with Fast Food Workers as we hold Fast Food companies accountable!
While the fast food industry makes billions in profits, hard-working fast food workers are struggling to afford their basic needs like food, clothing and rent, and often rely on public assistance. Fast food companies rely on the fact that taxpayers will pick up the slack for their low wages. This is outrageous. Let’s hold fast food companies accountable.
End all U.S. military aid to Colombia, and close the U.S. military bases
Repeal the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade agreement
End the Repression of the Agrarian, Labor and Popular Movements!
Free Hubert Ballesteros; unionist, peasant rights and peace activist!
Support negotiations with Colombian popular movements
Stop the exploitation of Colombian human and natural resources by U.S. corporations, including Chiquita, Drummond, and Monsanto
Colombia has suffered from mass repression, poverty, and displacement, among other things, for many years but the resistance has grown and unified. After a long peasant movement in Catatumbo this year, popular sectors of the country called for a general strike on August 19. The movement grew nationwide and many organizations participated, making it the largest mass movement in the country in many years. It is still in process and some of the demands are being negotiated with the government at this moment.
It is important to support the Colombian mass movement here in the U.S. The US has had an infamous role in supporting repressive forces in Colombia in order to make way for the large US corporations, the maquiladoras, mining, banking, etc. They want Colombia to be the right wing trampoline for control and intervention in the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean by building a strong right wing government.
We need to become informed of the role of the US in Colombia and Latin America, support resistance movements and show the world that the resistance to US imperialism is everywhere. Join our demonstration in San Francisco.The movement in Colombia has issued a worldwide call to progressives, unionists and justice loving people everywhere to support the peace process in Colombia.
SUPPORT JUSTICE FOR KAYLA MOORE! Copwatch to Release Findings of People’s Investigation PEOPLE’S INVESTIGATION REPORT FINDS BERKELEY POLICE AND INADEQUATE POLICIES RESPONSIBLE FOR IN-CUSTODY DEATH.
Press Conference and Rally Demand that Police Review Commission to hold Special Hearing into the Death Of Kayla Moore.
According to a detailed report just released by a People’s Investigation, the in-custody death of Xavier Christopher Moore never should have happened. A coalition of groups and individuals will convene in front of the Police Review Commission offices on Wednesday October 16th at 4pm to submit the necessary signatures to administratively compel the Police Review Commission to hold a special hearing. Our goal is to present the report to the Commission and allow members of the public to express their concerns. I think the report is eye opening and extremely accurate in terms of what is going on with mental health services in Berkeley.
“The lack of those services means that police are the first responders to people in mental health crisis and they are not trained for these situations,” said Maria Moore, sister to Kayla Moore. “Our family is completely in the dark regarding what the city intends to do about this situation. We hope that the report and special hearing will act as a catalyst for the PRC and the City Council to take action.”
Although the PRC maintains that it began an investigation in March, no findings have been released or updates on their investigation made public. Berkeley Copwatch convened a variety of individuals and sources to find out what actually happened to Xavier Moore, also known as Kayla, when police entered her home on February 13th 2013. The People’s Investigation directly interviews witnesses and reviews documents in order to make a honest appraisal of a particular event and provide findings to the community. After a thorough examination of witness statements, police policies, mental health budgets, police reports, after interviewing Moore’s neighbors and family members, the People’s Investigation has reason to believe that, in addition to poor judgment and insufficient training of individual officers, there is a lack of city services, funding and policies about how to humanely provide emergency mental health services to the people of Berkeley.
The reports identifies these as factors that contributed to her death. The city of Berkeley has slashed the budget for mental health Crisis and Assessment in half since 2011. People in crisis are treated like criminals instead of patients. The Berkeley Police Association repeated their calls for tasers in response to a recent episode involving a mentally ill man. “Are tasers really going to be the way that Berkeley provides mental health care? It is time that our city comes to terms with the fact that people are dying because we don’t provide adequate mental health services,” said Andrea Prichett of Berkeley Copwatch.
PLEASE JOIN US ON WEDNESDAY OCT 16th!!! ———————-
Berkeley Copwatch
2022 Blake St
Berkeley, CA 94704
While Congress shuts down the Government and delays immigration reform, our communities continue to be terrorized by ICE.
Stop the unjust detentions and deportations.
*He signed SB 4, which will frack up CA
*He supports the Delta tunnels diverting water to Big Ag and Big Oil
*He refuses to reject REDD carbon credits, which will devastate indigenous communities around the world.
On Oct. 17, Governor Jerry Brown is being given the Right Stuff environmental award by the Blue Green Alliance. Brown just gutted and signed SB4 which will ramp up fracking in the state. He has declared war on CEQA, the environmental review law that is our last resort against polluters. And he is pushing the $54 billion Orwellian named Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) known as the twin tunnels. This is really a corporate water grab for Big Ag and Big Oil that will actually destroy a valuable ecosystem, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. Also, Brown’s Air Resources Board has not ruled out using REDD credits in its carbon trading scheme. These credits are having disastrous effects on indigenous communities around the world. We need to show him that his record cannot be green washed by even the most well meaning organizations and that we demand a ban on fracking, the strengthening not gutting of CEQA and the withdrawal of the twin tunnels plan.
Meet on the street in front of the hotel. A smaller group will be formed to stand at the entrance to the parking lot.
Bring creative signs saying “Ban Fracking Now”, “Stop The Tunnels,” Don’t Gut CEQA” and whatever other environmental issue you care about that Brown is assaulting.
According to this tweet by Lauren Riot Bart picketing will begin at 1:00 AM at the Lake Merritt BART station.