Calendar
* Live from the Border: Pedro Ríos from the American Friends Service Committee Border Program, San Diego, will speak via Skype on the current struggle for rights of the Migrant Caravan at the Tijuana-San Ysidro border wall.
* Catherine Tactaquin, from the National Network for Immigrant & Refugee Rights (NNIRR) on the current struggles for the rights of migrants and refugees.
* Art and poetry to help us further connect the struggles of our communities across borders.
Come see the art on display at the Asian Resource Center Gallery:
“GRAFFIKA URBANA” | Prints by Noel Rodriguez from Mexico City
“PRESENTE! Defend Puerto Rico” | Puerto Rican Photographers
At the Asian Resource Center’s lobby gallery two timely exhibits portray the humanity of two nations – Mexico and Puerto Rico, currently disparaged in the mass media and besieged by governments’ mismanaged response to societal and natural disasters.
In “GRAFFIKA URBANA” printmaker Noel Rodriguez focuses on the hustle and bustle of Mexico City, one of the most crowded cities in the world, now undergoing a major challenge to the political corruption and drug trafficking that the State is commonly known for. Issues of revamping trade agreements and xenophobic immigration policies with Mexico have obsessed the Trump Administration’s agenda and directly impact communities here.
“PRESENTE!”, a small exhibit of photographs from Puerto Rico speaks to the resilience of local residents, both rural and urban, in the face of economic crises and the feeble
* * *
Sponsored by East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation East Side Arts Alliance
Chiapas Support Committee
Class Conscious Photographers
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
For more information on the exhibitions & reception/report-back
Call Greg Morozumi (510) 533-6629
The San Francisco Public Bank Coalition is gearing up for action! Their goal is to pressure the SF Board of Supervisors to author a charter amendment on the November 2019 ballot establishing the framework for a public bank. This framework will include mission, principles, and a governance structure.
The Coalition is planning a launch party for January 10. There’ll be music, food, presentations, and strategizing about how to move SF’s money from Wall Street to OUR streets. You’re invited!
Join East Bay DSA’s Labor Committee for their regular Beer and Roses Social!
Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in the East Bay DSA Labor Committee, and learn how you can get involved!
Join East Bay DSA’s Labor Committee for their regular Beer and Roses Social!
Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in the East Bay DSA Labor Committee, and learn how you can get involved!
Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority.
Prisoners started arriving at Guantanamo on Friday, Jan. 11 2002. This Friday, on the 17th Anniversary of Guantanamo Prison, DRAD will join Codepink and allies at a rally and press conference at UC Law School to call for closing Gitmo and prosecution of John Yoo for torture.
Join us to speak out against the injustice!
Meet up in front of the law school, rain or shine.
Gitmo now holds 40 men, including 5 who have long been cleared for release, and it continues to be a moral stain on our nation as well as enormously expensive. “Maintaining the prison at Guantnamo has cost the American taxpayer $4.8 billion since it opened in 2002, and an average of $454 million every year for the last five years.” ACLU, 2017
Did you know that UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky called for prosecuting John Yoo? That’s right. A 2014 Nation article said “Chemerinsky’s argument is that Yoo has committed a criminal act – conspiracy to torture – and that at he should be put on trial for it.”
At that time Chemerinsky was Dean of UC Irvine Law School.
This Friday at 12:30 we’re going to deliver a letter of concern to Dean Chemerinsky making him aware of the community’s opposition to John Yoo’s complicity in torture and asking him to take action to protect UC Berkeley law students from Yoo’s toxic theories and criminal actions.
Please Join Us!
It’s past time to shut Gitmo and for Yoo to be held accountable for his illegal actions.
The Japanese Abe government continues to restart nuclear plants throughout the country. At the same time they have accumulated over 1 million tons of radioactive water at the Fukushima plant which they want to release into the Pacifica ocean. It contains tritium which the government is saying is safe in “small amounts”.
The government has also covered up the statistics of thyroid cancer in children in order to continue the cover-up of the dangers of Fukushima. 3.11 Fund for Children With Thyroid Cancer has said that children who have cancer are not being counted by Fukushima Medical University which is controlled by TEPCO and other supporters of nuclear power. There is a growing increase of thyroid cancer and other diseases from the radioactive contamination. The government continues to demand that children and familiar return to Fukushima or lose the housing benefits outside Fukushima.
The danger of another major earthquake that threatens another Fukushima and also would release millions of tons of radioactive water into the ocean.
At the same time the government is pushing ahead to build a new military base in Henoko that will have US nuclear weapons despite mass opposition from the people of Okinawa. The same Abe government is pushing ahead to remove Article 9 that forbids expansion of Japan’s military role around the world.
Stopping another Fukushima and more militarization are part and parcel of the same struggle.
Come speak out to defend the people of Fukushima, Japan and the world.
For more event information:
http://nonukesaction.wordpress.com
7 YEARS LATER, WHY HASN’T JAPAN LEARNED FROM FUKUSHIMA?
Cancer rates in children are sky high, radioactive rubbish is piling up and radiation levels are rising. Yet the government bails out the plant’s operator – even as it announces a profit and plans to resume seaside operations
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2136176/7-years-later-why-hasnt-japan-learned-fukushima
Japan undecided on what to do with 1 million tonnes of radioactive water at Fukushima plant
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-02/fukushimas-radioactive-water-still-a-dilemma-for-japanese-gov/9504072
By North Asia correspondent Jake Sturmer in Tokyo
Updated 1 Mar 2018, 11:11pm
Fukushima 4-year-old missing in Japan thyroid-cancer records
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20170330/news/303309794
Directed by Schwarzer Hahn (Germany) – 108 minutes – in theaters soon https://vimeo.com/251190328
So you think you’re a radical activist. But do you have any idea what your parents were up to when they were your age?
Join us for a screening of the new film from by Schwarzer Hahn, a radical film collective from Berlin, Germany. Post-film discussion with the filmmakers about independent filmmaking and radical activism in today’s world.
Climate change, refugees locked up in detention camps, endless wars and the rise of the far right – enough shit to get angry about. But apart from a few half-arsed protests, nothing happens. Jenny and her friends decide to take action. But as the state starts coming down on the group, Jenny’s dad is confronted with his own militant past and has to take sides. The meaning of code name “Jenny” becomes ever more blurred. Where is the line between resistance and terrorism?
Subversive. Feminist. Anarchistic. Cross-generational. CODENAME: JENNY is a film about two generations and their activism.
Rally to Fund Public Education Now! Join 1,000s of other teachers in letting the incoming governor and legislature know that we are demanding a new day for California students and educators, including:
– Closing the Prop 13 loophole so commercial property owners pay their fair share of property taxes going to public education.
– Pressuring the State to assume a greater share of the funding for federally mandated services for students with special needs.
-Promoting policies that provide educators with the salaries and conditions needed to provide students with the best possible education.
Brought to you by The East Bay Coalition for Public Education, comprised of local CTA chapters, including Alameda Education Association, Albany Teachers Association, Castro Valley Teachers Association, Dublin Teachers Association, Emery Teachers Association, Fremont Unified District Teachers Association, Hayward Education Association, New Haven Teachers Association, Newark Teachers Association, Oakland Education Association, San Leandro Teachers Association, San Lorenzo Education Association and San Ramon Valley Teachers Association.
Imagine. A vision of thriving communities across the globe. So much has been known of aspects of this vision for 20 years, 50 years, and even centuries. Why have we not made more progress?
Our Historic Moment offers a vision for the world, in both book and video form, that is rooted in The Natural Step and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, weaving together renewable resource use, ecological health, radical inclusivity and equity. Our Historic Moment explores the barriers to greater progress that we’ve encountered to date to achieving this vision, and it offers solutions for positive change, looking at the most strategic places to apply our efforts. At heart, Our Historic Moment encourages big picture thinking, and encourages us to see our roles within the greater framework.”
Please join us and contribute to the discussion!
Doughnut Economics Reading Group:
Creating a world with neither human suffering nor planetary peril
Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist
By Kate Raworth Chelsea Green Publishing (2017)
The capitalist economic system defines every aspect of our lives: the schooling and medical care we get, where we live, and how we sustain ourselves. The system works for a lucky few and exploits everyone else. And it’s a real threat to the survival of our species (and many others) on this planet.
We know the system needs to change—but we can’t change what we don’t understand. We have to know what we’re talking about.
Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics lays out traditional economic theory—still taught as gospel at all the major temples of capitalism—with clarity, authority, lots of graphics, and quite a bit of humor. She exposes the flawed models and persistent myths that keep the system in place. Even more importantly, she presents seven big, basic ideas with which to begin creating the world we want to see. We can indeed build an economy in the “doughnut”—meeting the needs of all while maintaining the biospheres that support us.
All of us need to read this book. We’ve all grown up in this deeply unfair and absurd system; seeing it clearly and getting free of it require a group effort.
So we at Strike Debt Bay Area are sponsoring a group discussion of Doughnut Economics. We’re doing one meeting a month on the 2nd Saturday; we’ll usually do about one chapter per meeting. Please join us!
3rd meeting:
4:30 – 6:00pm, Saturday, January 12th.
Omni Commons, 4799 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland
We’ll be discussing the 3rd chapter.
Bring the book (available at your favorite online bookseller and in select local bookstores) and/or your thoughts on the topic (The first and possibly subsequent chapters are available online – http://tinyurl.com/ycysqtde ‘Look Inside’).
The book is an easy read (but full of ideas!) so it’s easy to catch up.
Author website: https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to healing.
The Bahá’í community of Oakland is 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.
Come share prayers, quotes, poems, and favorite passages from your scriptures with us. Simple breakfast will be served.
Doors open: 10:00 AM
Refreshments served: 10:00-10:30 AM
Prayers: 10:30-11:30 AM
Discussion and socializing: 11:30 AM – 12:00 PM
“Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” ~ Bahá’u’lláh
“Remember the saying: ‘Of all pilgrimages the greatest is to relieve the sorrow-laden heart.'” ~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
With Both Marx And Jesus: Liberation Psychology And The Refugee Question – Reflections By Adrianne Aron
Derived from Liberation Theology and developed by a Jesuit priest in El Salvador, liberation psychology became the most effective of all methodologies for helping Central American refugees fleeing from state terrorism wrought by U.S. imperialism. The Catholic bishops’ “preferential option for the poor” that guided the radical religious movement of the 1970s and ‘80s in Latin America paved the way for psychology to break its attachments to the elites and bourgeois elements it had always served in places like El Salvador and Honduras (and the United States), and begin for the first time to try to understand the psychological effects of oppression. (Martín-Baró, the founder of liberation psychology, asks: What does “motivation” look like from the point of view of a woman who sells fruit in the marketplace?)
As people began fleeing the extreme violence in Central America and were seeking political asylum in the United States, liberation psychology provided a way for North American psychologists to put a political and historical context around the “disorders” of the traumatized refugees, and to interpret their psychological conditions to both the judges of immigration court who were hearing their asylum cases, and to the suffering individuals themselves, who felt they were losing their minds. In North American psychology this was a significant departure from the dominant paradigms of behaviorism (which unabashedly holds conformity to the mean as the desirable achievement of “normal”), and Freudian psychology, which attributes pathology to personal and interpersonal conditions but does not consider structural conditions such as capitalist social organization as contributors to breakdowns in mental health. (Fanon is not widely known in the U.S.) With liberation psychology, North American psychologists could use their professional interviewing skills to win the trust of traumatized clients, and their credentials and academic skills to win the respect of doubting judges. Most significantly, they could use their own sense of justice – and a wish to promote justice – to to inform their psychological work, whether their basis for this commitment was in religion, Marxism, or any ethical standard whatsoever.
Suggested reading: Writings for a Liberation Psychology: Essays of Ignacio Martín-Baró (Aron and Corne, Eds., Harvard University Press, 1994, 1996)
Human Rights and Wrongs (by Adrianne Aron, Sunshot Press, 2018)
Adrianne Aron is a bilingual liberation psychologist in Berkeley. Her psychological evaluation of a persecuted Salvadoran student leader in 1985 opened the possibility for Central Americans to win asylum in the U.S. (at a time when 98% of all Salvadoran applications, and 99% of Guatemalan applications, were being denied). Human Rights and Wrongs, winner of the Sunshot Nonfiction Prize, is being nominated for the PEN/Galbraith Award
Info: www.adriannearon.com
East Bay DSA’s general meetings (GMs) are held on the second Sunday of each month. These meetings include deliberation and voting on member-submitted resolutions, member announcements, reports from our committees, and more.
Volunteering at the GM is lively, easy, and low-commitment, and hugely benefits the meetings and thus our internal democracy. If you intend to come and would like to volunteer (!), let us know. Use this form, too, if you have child supervision or accessibility needs, including the need for an ASL interpreter.
With our new regular schedule, member-submitted resolutions will be accepted on a rolling basis. Please email them to resolutions@eastbaydsa.org. The submissions deadline for each meeting is one week after the previous one.
General meetings are run by the Meetings Committee. For questions or comments, or if you are interested in joining the committee, write us at meetings@eastbaydsa.org!
Join us for a legislative strategy session and workshop that will demystify the legislative process, build our legislative capacity, and highlight the legislative priorities and strategies of our people of color (POC) led partners!
More Info:
This workshop is the first of a two-part series for anyone who is passionate, curious, or wants to learn more about the ways that policy combined with grassroots organizing can be used as a tool in the movement for racial justice and collective liberation.
This workshop will provide opportunities for participants to:
– Learn how the Movement 4 Black Lives Policy Platform (M4BL) fits into SURJ Bay Area’s organizing framework
– Leverage our grassroots power in the state Capitol
– Plug into statewide policy work and action
– Practice bringing your voice and positionality to the political process
– Hear from our POC partner organization, Initiate Justice, on their 2019 legislative campaign
This workshop is a fundraiser for Initiate Justice. Please bring a cash donation that is meaningful for you. We are eager to hear all of your voices and to help develop SURJ’s role in the California policy landscape. All levels of experience are welcome!
Hold the date for the second workshop in this two-part series: February 3, 2019!
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
Seneca Family of Agencies is located at 6925 Chabot Road, Oakland, CA 94618.
PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION
The Poor People’s Campaign, A National Call for Moral Revival (PPC) focuses on fighting the four pillars of evil: poverty, systemic racism, the war economy and environmental devastation, and on shifting the moral narrative. PPC supporters in the Bay Area have come together to form the Bay Area PPC Steering Committee and hope you can join this effort and share this information with others who may be interested.
AT THE UPCOMING MEETING WE WILL DISCUSS:
– Plans for the March 2019 PPC Bay Area Hearing (dates, times,
locations, format)
– Outreach to local organizations and venues
In the PPC, people directly impacted by the 4 pillars of evil are
central in our work.
We look forward to your participation as we move forward to build the PPC campaign here in the Bay Area and help grow this exciting new movement.
Let us break bread together! Bring a snack to share if you can!
Please let us know if you will need childcare by January 11th.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months, once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).
On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome & Introductions
- Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
- Announcements
- (Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
Visions of Unity panel: 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Keynote Speaker: Gayle McLaughlin, former two-term mayor of Richmond. Gayle is also co-founder and interim chair of the California Progressive Alliance (https://californiaprogressivealliance.org), whose Founding Convention will be held on March 30, 2019.
Panelists to join Gayle and the attendees discussing their visions of progressive coalitions:
Shawn McDougal, Community Democracy Project
Marsha Feinland, Peace and Freedom Party
Jack McShane, East Bay Democratic Socialists of America
Dan Siegel, Oakland Justice Coalition
Moderated by: NONI SESSION! Executive Director of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative & former 2016 Oakland City Council candidate
SPONSOR: Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are usually held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party of Alameda County follows at 6:45 pm. Council meetings are always open to anyone who is interested.
Thursday’s 1/10/19 meeting was not the final task force meeting after all. They will meet again on Monday January 14 from 3 to 8pm and then again on January 22 from 9-11am. The process of running through a long set of potential recommendations is about halfway completed.
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Meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Ad Hoc Committee on Urban Area Security Initiative, charged with reconstituting and rethinking Urban Shield.
The committee was established by the Board of Supervisors in March 2018 in response to sustained community concerns about Urban Shield, which is funded in part by UASI grants from the Department of Homeland Security, and coordinated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The Board of Supervisors decided in March, 2018 that 2018 would be the last year the county would approve Urban Shield, as currently constituted, and asked the Ad Hoc Committee to make recommendations to the Board on the UASI-funded emergency preparedness training and exercise in 2019 and beyond.
Agendas and materials for each meeting are posted at http://www.acgov.org/board/calendarcom.htm
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.