Calendar
Report by Western States Legal Foundation Executive Director Jackie Cabasso on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference held at the United Nations in New York from April 27 – May 22, and the Peace & Planet Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just and Sustainable World: an international conference, rally, march, festival and petition presentation to UN officials April 24 – 26.
Enjoy reasonably priced, delicious Chilean and Latin American cuisine, find out about plans for the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab August 6, hear what’s new with Mayors for Peace, and more!
Donations to Western States Legal Foundation gratefully accepted!!
Buy your own dinner, starting at 6 pm; Program at 7 pm.
Sandra Bland, a young black woman, was pulled over for failure to signal in a small town in Texas, and then arrested. Three days later, on July 13th, 2015 she was found dead in her cell. The police claim she hanged herself, but the Bland family and her friends do not believe a word of it.
“…friend and mentor LaVaughn Mosley, 57 [[said]] “She was making plans for the future, so there’s no way she was in a suicidal state.”
Join those who stand against police terror and the outrage of in-custody deaths, in especial memory of Sandra Bland.
After Sandra Bland was pulled out of her vehicle and thrown to the ground a bystander video has her saying
You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can’t even hear! … You slammed me into the ground and everything.
AT FIRST THEY USED A NOOSE, NOW ALL THEY DO IS SHOOT #BlackLivesMatter #SandySpeaks https://t.co/O23QJytGVn
— Sandra Bland (@a_sandybeach) April 8, 2015
Join others who have signed a petition calling for the Department of Justice to do an autopsy on Sandra Bland.
We will stand in memory and we will let the world know about Sandra! Bring signs.
This event will be repeated each day this week and possibly into the future.
Sandra Bland memorial. This is where she was pulled over. #WhatHappendToSandraBland pic.twitter.com/nnfchdMQYC
— Rhys (@rhysism_) July 19, 2015
#SandraBland didn’t assault that damn officer. He assaulted her, threatened her, violated her rights. https://t.co/mIKNbdm3ua
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 20, 2015
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CryptoParty will be in the foyer, following open lunch at the Internet Archive. Bring your laptop and a USB drive (to be formatted). Ryan Taylor will be leading open discussions and workshops covering the importance and implementation of Free Software, Tails, Tor, PGP, Off-The-Record messaging and other anonymity, privacy, and security tools.
Users of all ages, skill levels and backgrounds are welcome to attend and participate. Learn how to create and use a Tails USB boot drive, then we’ll go over the features and vulnerabilities that exist in contemporary encryption/anonymity software to make yourself and your data more difficult to track and attack.
Experienced attendees are encouraged to lend their knowledge in the discussions and workshops. Let’s collaborate!
Above all else, we come to share and learn the latest accurate information to help everybody be more safe in their digital existence.
Some food and drinks will be provided by Ryan. Feel free to bring more to share! (Did someone say birthday cake?)
This event will be livestreamed (with respect for the privacy concerns of all attendees): https://youtu.be/FPMAVwdBLok
SAY HER NAME: Vigil for the murder of Sandra Bland and countless others + Speak Out against state violence.
#sayhername is about recognizing that police and state violence not only destroys black male lives, but has historically done the same to black women.
This is a time for folks to come together to garner strength from the community, as we mourn many lives- many black women- who have been victimized by state violence.
The “Speak Out” portion will be a time for black women to share their art, stories, emotions and testimonies around the major issue of violence against black women.
All are welcome so long as the space is respected.
Feel free to bring family, children, friends.
We must acknowledge our need to mourn and feel, all while knowing that we will continue to resist in this war on black mothers, friends, sisters, nieces, daughters and individuals.
Oakland 1946 General Strike Walk – “We Called it a Work Holiday”
With Gifford Hartman of the Flying Picket Historical Society.
This walk will revisit the sites of Oakland’s “Work Holiday” that began spontaneously with rank-and-file solidarity with the striking – mostly women – retail clerks at Kahn’s and Hastings department stores whose picket line was being broken by scabs escorted by police.
Within 24 hours, it involved over 100,000 workers and shut down nearly all commerce in the East Bay for 54 hours. In 1946 there were six general strikes across the U.S.; that year set the all-time record year for strikes and work stoppages. The Oakland “Work Holiday” was the last general strike to ever occur in the U.S.. This walk and history talk will attempt to keep alive the memory of this tradition of community-wide working class solidarity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKs-lhBgiM
The birthday of our public Post Office will be celebrated this year in Berkeley on Saturday, July 25th, from 12:00 noon till 2 pm, with music going on after that.
The postal unions have written to President Obama, asking that the occasion be celebrated every year as Postal Heritage Day. In Berkeley, we’ve been celebrating it every year at 2000 Allston Way since our struggle to save the P.O. began in July of 2012. So we’ll be celebrating three years of so-far successful struggle to prevent a sale of the building. Portland, Seattle and other cities are also holding Postal Heritage Day celebrations.
2015 also marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the new Berkeley Main Post Office in 1915.
LET’S CELEBRATE !!!
National Postal Heritage Day
101st Birthday of Berkeley’s Main Post Office
240th Birthday of the United States Post Office
Hear Peter Byrne, Author of Going Postal,
Comedian Mrs. T. Bill Banks, Music by Anna de Leon,
Occupella, Redd Welsh, Hali Hammer, and others
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!OccupyForum presents
Nuclear Whistleblower Bob Rowen:
Is Nuclear Energy a “Safe, Clean, and Economical” Alternative?
It is clear that nuclear power is unaffordable in every way. A reliance upon nuclear power impedes our efforts to develop and implement the production of electricity by safe, affordable, sustainable means, such as solar, wind, and geothermal.
Robert Rowen: My Humboldt Diary: A True Story of Betrayal of the Public Trust, Nuclear Power at Humboldt Bay
http://peaceandjusticeonline.org/2011/05/19/nuclear-power-dangerous-dirty-expensive-20-key-facts/
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements.
Subject: Special City Council Meeting
From: Council President Gibson McElhaney
Recommendation: Hold A Special City Council Meeting On Council And Committee Meeting Protocols, Including Discussion Of, And Possible Recommendations Regarding, The Council Rules Of Procedure, Brown Act And The Sunshine Act Regarding Meeting Rules In Article II
We will rally to Protect, Improve, and Expand Medicare to All. Nationally, the legislation we are campaigning for is HR 676 sponsored by 49 congress members.
EAST BAY FORESTS:Message From Hiroshima will be released by Cinema Libre Studio on August 4, 2015. However, in light of the upcoming 70th Anniversary of the atomic bombing, Cinema Libre has made the film available in advance to be shown by select non-profit organizations, including American Friends Service Committee.
Synopsis: Narrated by George Takei, Message From Hiroshima provides an inside look at life and culture in the city before the first atomic bomb was deployed. Today, where the Hon and Motoyasu rivers meet, stands the Peace Memorial Park – the former location of the Nakajima district, which once was home to thousands of people and hundreds of businesses. When the atomic bomb was detonated 2,000 feet above Hiroshima’s city center on August 6, 1945, all of that vanished. Seventy years later, director Masaaki Tanabe makes it his mission to revive the memory of what once was by interviewing hibakusha (survivors) and former residents. These heart-wrenching testimonials, along with computer-generated recreations of restaurants, shoe stores, cinemas, and the famous Industrial Promotion Hall, takes us deep into the hustle and bustle of a lost culture and people.
View Trailer: Message From Hiroshima Trailer
52 min. | Japanese, with English subtitles and English narration
Visit the film’s Official Website: http://www.cinemalibrestudio.com/message-from-hiroshima/
Visit the film’s Facebook Page: http://www.facebook/messagefromhiroshima
Attend the 8 am 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing witness at Livermore Labs on August 8th
Lake Merritt is the arena for “Knock Out Oil” on August 1st. Save the date for lively, family-friendly, anti-fracking street theater on the occasion of the statewide Clean Not Extreme Day of Action.
August 1st marks a pivotal moment in the fight to stop fracking and other forms of extreme oil extraction in California. For years, Governor Jerry Brown has refused to even consider ending these toxic practices before the results of an independent scientific study were released. That California Council on Science and Technology report has just come out, and it confirms what we already knew: that fracking and other forms of extreme extraction are indeed dangerous. (Read a recent LA Times editorial citing the study as grounds for a moratorium.)
A state-commissioned environmental impact report (EIR) was also released last week. It found that impacts to air quality, public safety and climate from extreme oil production methods are “significant and unavoidable.”
Fracking, moreover, is an environmental justice issue. It overwhelmingly occurs close to schools that serve predominately Latino populations. More than sixty percent of the 61,612 California children who attend school within one mile of a stimulated well are Latino. Statewide, Latino students are over eighteen percent more likely to attend a school within a mile and a half of a stimulated well than non-Latino students. This is why one Kern County family recently sued Governor Brown in a lawsuit brought by the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, claiming that the new fracking regulations put in place do not protect the health of Latino public school children.
Governor Jerry Brown has run out of excuses.
Sunflower Alliance, in partnership with a statewide alliance of fracktivists, strongly urges you to sign this timely petition to Governor Brown. He needs to hear the voices of the millions of Californians who want an end to fracking and other forms of dangerous extraction NOW.
Take a few seconds to sign the petition to ban fracking and other extreme extraction methods in California. And then come out to Lake Merritt on Saturday, August 1st, to “Knock Out Oil.”
WHEN
August 01, 2015 at 12pm – 3pm
WHERE
Lake Merritt
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to survivors and victims of violence and police terror in Oakland.
On Sunday August 9th, this will also be one year since the brutal murder of Mike Brown, a black teen, by a police officer in Ferguson. Around the country, events to commemorate Mike Brown and other victims of police terror are scheduled.
We are organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.
In April, it was two years since we started holding these prayer meetings at the Baha’i Center. Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us. We will serve a simple breakfast.
Folks are spread all over creation, many of us are meetinged out for the week, see you next week at the Omni at 2PM.
Special Ed
The BFUU is embracing the call from our Unitarian Universalists Association to engage in a program about the widening gap in well-being and incomes in the United States. This segment of our related series of study groups will focus on police militarization, its impact on our communities, its relationship to the widening gaps in our society and economy, and what we can do about it. Our guest speaker will be Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb; who will inform us of the latest developments and give us contact information for community involvement.
Sponsored by the Berkeley Fellowship of UUs
Wheelchair accessible.
Today, after 70 years, nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons-94% of them held by the USA and Russia-continue to pose an intolerable threat to humanity, and the danger of nuclear war is growing. Whether a nuclear exchange is initiated by accident, miscalculation or madness, the radiation will know no boundaries. The USA plans to spend a trillion dollars over the next thirty years “modernizing” its nuclear arsenal. The human cost of this is immeasurable-to our health, environment, ethics, and democracy, to our prospects for global peace, and to our confidence in human survival.
Program featuring Daniel Ellsberg, Country Joe McDonald, Taiko drummers and more; followed by a short march to the Lab gate, a traditional Japanese Bon Dance, nonviolent direct action and witness.
Sponsored by dozens of Bay Area peace and justice groups. More info: Tri-Valley CAREs, 925-443-7148, and Western States Legal Foundation, 510-839-5877
EMERGENCY ACTION AND MEETING TO DEFEND HUCHIUN – KNOWLAND PARK!
PLEASE SHARE AND INVITE!
http://www.facebook.com/events/1621914134725011/
12:00 PM – Thursday August 6th – The Knowland Park entrance by the intersection of Malcolm and Snowdown Ave.
6:00 PM – Planning Meeting – The Knowland Park entrance by the intersection of Malcolm an Snowdown Ave.
Please join us this Thursday to stop the construction and plan a long term resistance to defend the park and neighborhood from the Zoo!
Over the weekend the Oakland Zoo began constructing a fence around the proposed development site for the Zoo expansion despite public outcry against its negative impacts on the rare habitat and working class neighborhood. The Oakland Zoo plans to cut down 50+ trees including 2 old growth Oak trees destroying the home of the threatened Alameda Whipsnake, the rare Maritime Chaparral plant community and the Mountain Lion. We see this expansion as neo-colonial, gentrifying, and devastating to this rare and beautiful land. Now that the Zoo and City of Oakland are refusing to hear the concerns of a massive community coalition the we are being forced to take direct action to protect the land.
Join Slow Food East Bay and Transition Berkeley for an evening delving into the prickly world of fish, fishing and the health of the oceans. We’ll start at 6pm with a potluck dinner (true to Slow Food USA local and sustainable values!) then see the amazing new film about salmon and the northwest, The Breach, at 7. (http://www.thebreachfilm.com)
The evening comes to a point with a short panel of local fisher(wo)men, fish mongers and others involved with keeping this huge part of our ecosystem healthy and in balance and Q&A with local folks involved in the worlds of fishing and the oceans. How can we both support those that make their livelihood from the ocean and the fish populations? How can we be educated and inquisitive consumers of seafood, asking the right questions about sourcing, distribution and health? Join us in the conversation to try to find answers to these questions and more.
Representatives from Slow Food will also talk about the political & gastronomic history of the Slow Food movement, explain the ‘Good Clean & Fair For All’ mission, and announce current projects and opportunities for involvement. For more For more info: info [at] transitionberkeley.com
website: http://www.transitionberkeley.com
This event is co-sponsored by Transition Berkeley, Slow Food East Bay, and BFUU’s Social Justice Ctee.
Wheelchair accessible.
August 8-10: Mark the Anniversary of the Police Murder of Mike Brown and the Heroic Uprising that Followed:
It Was – AND IS – Right to Rebel!!
On August 9, it will be one year since a Ferguson, Missouri, cop, Darren Wilson executed Michael Brown for walking in the middle of the day on a sleepy street. Mike Brown was unarmed, running away, and had his hands up when he was shot multiple times and then his body was left lying dead in the street for four-and-a-half hours.
This brutal murder was met with outrage. For days and then weeks people took to the streets with defiance, rage, and righteous rebellion. People insisted on their rights and defended those rights in the street. Without the rebellion, this terrible state-done murder would just be another rerun of the same old, all-too-familiar story, the same murderous stuff that happens to Black and Latino youths over and over again. Very few people would have shared the grief of his parents for the terrible loss of this young man, at the very beginning of his life. The defiance and righteous rebellion challenged people all over the country to get off the sidelines and stand with those refusing to take this any longer.
It is important that on the weekend of August 8-10, the anniversary of the murder of Michael Brown, people stand firmly and publicly manifest that the verdict rendered by the people, that those who took to the streets of Ferguson in righteous and defiant rebellion and protest night after night, was true – Mike Brown did not have to die. It was right for the people of Ferguson to rebel and people everywhere are proud of them for rising up. On– Mike Brown should not have been murdered by the police.
HANDS UP! DON’T SHOOT! Fuck the DOJ! The struggle in Ferguson opened a crack in the coffin where America has buried alive whole sections of Black and Latino youths and the struggle over the last year has widened the crack further. WE WILL NOT GO BACK.