OccupyForum presents

Left of the Left: My Memories of Sam Dolgoff

With Anatole Dolgoff

Sam Dolgoff was a prominent anarchist from New York City, raised among the Wobblies and Anarchists of the latter two thirds of the 20th century. Sam’s activist life included encounters with Emma Goldman, Vladimir Lenin, Eugene Debs, MLK Jr., and many others.

A house painter by trade, Sam Dolgoff was at the center of American anarchism for seventy years. His political voyage began in the 1920s when he joined the Industrial Workers of the World. He rode the rails as an itinerant laborer, bedding down in hobo camps and mounting soapboxes in cities across the United States. Self-educated, he translated, edited, and wrote some of the most important books and journals of twentieth-century anti-authoritarian politics, including the most widely read collection of Mikhail Bakunin’s writings in English.

His story, told with passion and humor by his son, conjures images of a lost New York City – the Lower East Side, the strong immigrant and working-claass neighborhoods, the blurred lines dividing proletarian and intellectual culture, the union halls and social clubs, the brutal cops and bosses, and the solidarity that kept them at bay.

His son, Anatole, a man now in his seventies who, as a child and young man, had a front-row seat to the world of proletarian politics and the colorful characters who brought it to life, will speak to us at OccupyForum and read from his book on his father.

“The American left in its classical age used to celebrate an ideal, which was the worker-intellectual – someone who toils with his hands all his life aand meanwhile develops his mind and deepens his knowledge and contributes mightily to progress and decency in the society around him. Sam Dolgoff was a mythic figure in a certain corner of the radical left … and his son, Anatole, has written a wise and beautiful book about him.” Paul Berman, author of A Tale of Two Utopias and Power and the Idealists

“If you want to read the god-honest and god-awful truth about being a radical in twentieth-century America, drop whatever you’re doing, pick up this book, and read it. Pronto! If you’re not crying within five pages, you might want to check whether you’ve got a heart and a pulse.” Peter Cole, author of Wobblies on the Watterfront

Anatole Dolgoff is the son of Esther and Sam Dolgoff, two of the most important anarchists in the United States in the twentieth century. He has lived in New York City his entire life and teaches geology at the Pratt Institute.

If you were to attend one book talk this year this is the one.

Time will be allotted for announcements.

Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

We are going to be making sure that the people’s budget gets the support it needs, and making sure that the City Council knows where to get the funding we need for our communities – TAKE IT OUT OF THE POLICE BUDGET!

Rally at 4:30 PM. Get to city hall as early as you can! If you can’t get there till 6 or 7, it’s still worth it to come! Touch base with the action coordinators when you arrive and they’ll plug you in!

Contact defundopd@gmail.com if you would like to come to a meeting in preparation for this action, on Monday 5/29 at 6:30pm!

Defund OPD!

Important Meeting Tuesday May 30th City Hall Meeting and Petition Deadline 5:30pm

May 30th, we are looking to hand over our petition forms to the city council to put pressure on them to vote on adding the money needed for the feasibility and implementation study in this budget cycle. This will require the attendance of everyone that supports the Public Bank of Oakland. Ideally we will all be wearing our green t-shirts. We’re trying to get over 100 people to come out in support with signs and in our shirts.

Press Conference re: #Berkeley DIVESTS from #WellsFargo. Tuesday 5/30 at 6:30 pm. Front Steps of Old City Hall. See you there!

— Indivisible Berkeley (@IndivisibleBerk) May 26, 2017

After nearly 36 years in prison for struggling for the independence of Puerto Rico, Oscar Lopez Rivera will be free as of May 17th and he’s coming to the Bay Area on May 31st! It’s a real honor that he’s coming here, and I hope you can come to celebrate him, and help us raise money for him as he begins his life back in the community that fought for so long for his release.

If you aren’t able to attend but would like to donate to the fund for Oscar, you can do that here: gofundme.com/welcomeoscar

Buy tickets on-line!
Limited tickets at the door.
welcomeoscar.brownpapertickets.com
Tickets are sliding scale as shown below.
All proceeds go directly to Oscar.

5:30 Reception $75-250
Sponsored by
the National Lawyers Guild  nlgsf.org
(Cost includes program ticket.)

A unique opportunity to meet and talk to Oscar!
Food and drinks will be provided.
Posters by local artist Doug Minkler and signed by Oscar will be for sale.

7:00 Program $20-50

José López
Oscar López Rivera
John Santos, Rico Pabón, Quenepas

Arrive early, limited seating available.
No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Note on Brown Paper Tickets: Reception tickets appear first. Scroll down on the “date” field to select the 7:00 Program tickets.

Make a donation to help Oscar set up his new life in Puerto Rico:  gofundme.com/welcomeoscar
LIke Oscar on Facebook!  facebook.com/WelcomeOscartotheBayArea
For more information:  freeoscarnow@gmail.com

Partial List of Endorsers:
AIM-WEST, All of Us Or None, Altruvistas, ANSWER, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Bay Area Anti-Repression Committee, Center for Political Education, Critical Resistance of Oakland, Emory Douglas, Freedom Archives, Global Exchange, Haiti Action Committee, Int’l Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, LAGAI Queer Insurrection, La Raza Resource Center, La Tertulia Boricua, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Lynne Stewart Organization, Making Contact, Malcom X Grassroots Movement, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu Jamal, National Network on Cuba (NNOC), Prison Activist Resource Center, Prison Radio/Redwood Justice Fund, QUIT, Socialist Action, Socialist Workers Party, Task Force on the Americas, Veterans for Peace #69 (San Francisco), Workers World Party

Downtown Post Office Update: Public Hearing Announced

A public hearing regarding the proposed closure of the Downtown Post Office has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 31, 6pm, at Richmond City Council Chambers, 440 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, CA 94804.

A notice posted at the post office announced the public hearing and information about submitting written remarks: for 30 days after the public meeting, anyone may submit written comments for the Postal Service’s consideration prior to its final decision.

Please come out to this important public hearing and submit your comments in writing to:

United States Postal Service

Attn.: Dean Cameron

1300 Evans Avenue, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94188

LEARN MORE

Volunteer with us!

The Prisoners Literature Project is based in Berkeley, California, and we’re always looking for volunteers to help answer letters, send out books, learn more about the prison system, and assist in other ways.

We currently meet on Sundays from 2-5pm and on Wednesdays from 6:30-9:30pm at the Grassroots House.  This is located at 2022 Blake St. (at Milvia), Berkeley, CA 94704.  (Map – there’s plenty of local parking, and the office is walkable in 11-15 minutes from downtown Berkeley BART or Ashby BART  – also, AC Transit bus #18 stops nearby.)

(Please note that we can’t accept prisoner book requests at this address.  Book requests from U.S. prisoners must be mailed to PLP; c/o Bound Together Books, 1369 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117.)

We welcome helpers of any age and experience at our volunteer sessions (here’s what they look like!), and are also very happy to host students looking for community service.  You should read a lot, have neat legible handwriting, and be able to follow the rules to get books into prisons. We don’t make the rules, but we do have to follow them!

Bringing more than four people? Please contact us first so we can better accommodate your group. (BTW, we maintain ‘call for volunteer’ listings on VolunteerMatch.org, on Idealist.org, and on AllForGood.org, so you might have seen us there!)

Oscar Lopez Rivera is coming to the Bay Area after 36 years in prison for his struggle to support  Puerto Rican Independence and sovereignity . For many of us, this is a welcome opportunity to celebrate his release and our shared victory.
He will be visiting the Bay Area for this unique one time only public appearance on May 31st.  Help us support Oscar as he continues his work while beginning his new life. Please make as generous a donation as possible. Let us show Oscar that the SF Bay Area community supports him as he continues to advocate for sovereignty and independence for Puerto Rico.

Book Talk: Sam Dolgoff, a lifetime well known anarchist from NYC, had many encounters and meetings with such notables as Emma Goldman, Lenin, Eugene Debs, MLK Jr. an many others. Anatole Dolgoff, his son, will discuss his book on his outrageous and adventurous father.

Meeting Agenda

4. 5:15pm: Staff update on Surveillance Equipment Ordinance
5. 5:20pm: Review and discussion of Oakland Police Department’s written report on their collaboration with ICE; database access and sharing with outside entities
6. 5:40pm: Review and discussion of Oakland Police Department’s Immigration Policy

Learn the sobering facts about oil production in California and the damage it’s doing to families, agriculture, our water and environment. Explore ways we can work together to challenge our Governor to be consistent in his environmental policies. We’ll watch a short film called DEAR GOVERNOR BROWN, STOP DRILLING CALIFORNIA. The discussion afterward features representatives from Food and Water Watch, a leader in the anti-fracking movement, and several other organizations concerned about fracking in California. We’ll close out the evening with a postcard writing campaign.

Bring healthy vegetarian snacks or a refreshment to share for meet and greet at 6:30. The program begins at 7:00 pm. This event is sponsored by: Transition Berkeley, San Francisco Bay Chapter, Sierra Club and BFUU Social Justice Committee.

Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom

Please join Angel Rico Ramos’ family and Anti Police-Terror Project at a press conference demanding justice for Angel and the release of his autopsy report.

Angel was murdered on January 23, 2017, by Vallejo police, and on June 3, 2017 he would be turning 22.

Solano county sheriff failed to release the autopsy report, which we believe constitutes negligence on their part. We feel the need to point out that Solano County has the largest number of murders by law enforcement in the Bay Area, and refusing to release Angel’s autopsy report appears to be a tactic to prevent the community from knowing what happened to Angel.

All that Angel’s family is asking for at this point is to be able to receive his autopsy report for his birthday.

Multiple requests by his family, community, and his family legal representatives to release the autopsy report have been denied. In order for Angel’s family to begin a healing process they need to know what happened to their loved one. Not releasing the autopsy report is exacerbating and prolonging the family’s pain.

At this press conference, we demand that the sheriff releases the report immediately, whether or not it is a part of a VPD investigation. We would also like to use this opportunity for the family, community members and organizations to voice their concerns regarding the high number of police murders in Solano County and the negligence of the sheriff’s department. We are concerned that as gentrification spreads to Vallejo and surrounding areas, local communities are at risk of further increase of police violence and terror.

We hope that the community can turn up to support Angel’s family.

If you need a ride – or can offer a ride, please email aptp.rides@gmail.com

Monthly Vigils

Interfaith Vigils to Support Immigrant Detainees 

1st Saturdays of every month.  

We invite you to join our vigils each month as we gather to pray and bear witness to the pain, suffering, and separation of immigrant detainees, and to call for real and immediate immigration reform. We invite you to join us to pray, sing, and act for just immigration solutions.  Please bring a noisemaker for our sacred Moment of Noise– where we let the detainees know that we have not forgotten them.

Why we vigil at the West County Detention Facility in Richmond

We do this to stand in solidarity with the (150-300) people being held here for deportation and thousands in the other 250 detention centers across the country. We know that many have not been convicted of any “crime”, but are charged with a civil immigration offense. We know that detained here and facing deportation are asylum seekers, green card holders, and long term residents. Often the chief breadwinner is taken away, putting children and families in economic jeopardy. We know that ICE’s implementation of our immigration laws makes communities insecure. THEREFORE…

We come here each month, to call attention to our government’s wasteful spending of resources, deporting 315, 943 in FY 2014 (865 people a day), while failing to address root causes of migration. We seek to stop this system of detention and deportation and change our nation’s policies.

We know that all the deportees held here have families, most came not just for a better life, but to survive and support families. Many have fled terrible violence and now face it here, in another form. And now, the children have come, many to reunite with families already here…. and even they, face expedited deportation processes.

We do this to give moral and spiritual support to the families whose loved ones are being held here. We know their trauma can be deep and their lives filled with fear. We seek to give practical advice and counsel on legal, medical, food and housing issues and to be a friendly face. And we also do this to provide opportunity for people directly impacted by our detention and deportation policies to share their truth – to give their testimony so that they know, they are not alone.

We pray together for a just and fair immigration policy closer to what our Statue of Liberty proclaims “Mother of Exiles … Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

We pray, knowing that all our faith traditions call upon us to welcome strangers and aliens, for they are our sisters and brothers and our families, like them, we were once strangers and aliens in this land.

For more information about immigration detention, go to:  Detention Watch Network, CIVIC.