Calendar
General Meeting of Renters. Preparations toward elections of officers. News of the ARC. Policy discussions. More to come.
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle to save the Berkeley Post Office, other Post Offices in the area, and the Postal Service from privatization. Support our Occupiers and help us plan our next steps in opposition to the theft of our public commons.
Since Federal Judge William Alsup’s ruling in April, 2015 after the Postal Service told the judge it is not currently selling the building, the Postal Service has remained silent and no further attempts at a sale have been attempted. But we’re not fooled. They could “find” a buyer at any moment (although the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the City of Berkeley’s lawsuit could be refiled).
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
In more recent developments, Berkeley has Declared War on Its Homeless, and an ordinance criminalizing the homeless came before the City Council on June 30th (see here and here) but was tabled to some indeterminate date.
November 1st will be the one year anniversary of First They Came for the Homeless’ occupation of the downtown Post Office’s grounds. FTCftH is planning a sit/lie protest in San Francisco on Black Friday.
Check out our website and the Save the Berkeley Post Office website, and First they Came for the Homeless Facebook for updates.
BPOD is an offshoot of Strike Debt Bay Area, which itself is an offshoot of Occupy Oakland and a chapter of the national Strike Debt movement, which is an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street.
Berkeley Copwatch is tired of unjust policing and lack of accountability. We stand in solidarity with those protesting the murders of black people across the nation and say that this must end! We have our unique problems in Berkeley and the East Bay and we must take local action to stand up and demand justice!
We Demand:
- End racial profiling in Berkeley! Get the statistics on who is really being detained and arrested and stop handcuffing men of color for no reason!
- No tasers in Berkeley! Spend money to study how to end racial profiling – not acquire tasers!
- End the militarization of the police! No boats, no armored personnel carriers, no more weapons and no more military games. Withdraw from Urban Shield!
- Justice For Kayla Moore!
- Decriminalize Mental Illness! Police with no training in mental health crisis are most often the first responders to these kinds of situations. Berkeley must fully fund emergency mental health response in the city and prevent militarized cops from being the first point of contact for members of the public who need help in dealing with emergency mental health situations. No more putting spit hoods over the heads of people with mental illness! No taser use on mentally ill people! Counselors not cops!
Meetings at 7pm every Monday!
Join us to fight for a livable wage for all Bay Area workers! We collaborate in principled reflection and action on what the Bay Area livable wage would be and where we are at on the right to a livable wage.
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds Community and Power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers.
Our work together encompasses:
(1) The concerns of precarious, care and contingent workers,
(2) Campaigns to improve wages for low wage workers, and
(3) Efforts by unionized workers and unions to improve wages and quality of work life.
We share stories and information in an egalitarian and participatory way to build relationships and build the movement.
Oakland Livable Wage Assembly meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, 6:30-8:00 PM at the SEIU Local 1000 Union Hall, 436 14th Street #200, Oakland, CA
Please love and support one another ~ We have a duty to fight ~ We have a duty to win!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568668586707336/
Please join workers and community members as we continue to challenge Walmart for $15 and Full Time. You can find more information on the national actions at www.protests.blackfriday. See you on Black Friday.
FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE HOMELESS IS ORGANIZING
Occupy the Sidewalks
DON’T STAND FOR SIT LIE
Stop the war on the poor
Section 168 of the San Francisco Police Code, makes it unlawful, with certain exceptions, to sit or lie on a public sidewalk, or on an object placed on a public sidewalk, between 7AM and 11PM.
(4) participating in or attending a parade, festival, performance, rally, demonstration, meeting or similar event conducted on a sidewalk under and in compliance with a street use or other applicable permit;
Protesting the law allows you to sit. The constitution guarantees you’re right to peaceably assemble in the commons. Remove their ability to prosecute and persecute the homeless. The commons belong to all!
The sidewalks of San Francisco have been a battleground if you are homeless. Sit lie is used to shuffle the poor out of sight. We take the shopping district on black Friday.
Join us for a speakout and rally against the recent white supremacist shootings against #4thPrecinctShutDown and #BlackLivesMatter demonstrators in North Minneapolis and in solidarity with the ongoing protests in Chicago in the wake of Laquan MacDonald horrific murder by police in 2014. From the growing white nationalism of Trump’s campaign to the now over 1,000 people shot down by law enforcement in 2015 alone, such systemic white supremacy has ushered in a new phase of the black liberation struggle. Now is the time to take sides and get organized.
Big ups to our comrades in Berkeley and East Oakland who have walked out of school and stood firm in the face of police terror.
Bring signs, banners, and noise makers!
Various community speakers will address the crowd as well as guests calling in from Minneapolis and Chicago!
#Oakland solidarity rally for #Justice4Jamar #Chicago #LaquanMcDonald #4thPrecinctShutDown. Fri November 27 5pm. pic.twitter.com/v2TyW1WcrD
— FireWorks (@FireWorksBAY) November 25, 2015
The Community Democracy Project is your connection to direct democracy in Oakland! Convened out of Occupy Oakland in Fall 2011, we’re gathering steam on a campaign to bring the people back in touch with the city’s resources through participatory budgeting.
Picture this: Across Oakland, Neighborhood Assemblies are regularly
held in every community. People come together to tackle the important issues of their neighborhoods and of the city. At these assemblies, people don’t just have discussions–they learn from one another, from city staff, and they make fundamental decisions about how the city should run. They decide the city budget.
Democratic, community budgeting is a powerful step toward building strong communities, real democracy, and economic justice–and it’s being done all over the world.
The budget of the City Oakland totals more than $1 billion per year. Although part of the budget must be used for specific purposes, still over half of the budget–over $500 billion per year–consists of general purpose funds paid by the taxes, fees, and fines of the people of Oakland. The Mayor and the City Council decide the city budget, with minimal input from the community.
Working together, we will not only get a seat at the table–we will REBUILD the table itself. Participatory democracy is real democracy–join us to say: Local People, Local Resources, Local Power!
Discussion / brainstorm of ideas for Leap Day Action Night 2016 in the Bay Area (February 29, 2016).
Leap Day — February 29, 2016 — is an extra day that gives us a chance to look at how we spend most of our days and wonder if we can’t do a little better? If the answer is “yes”, Leap Day can be an arbitrary but overdue moment to create decentralized, militant and yet creative and hilarious uprisings against the various oppressive systems that vex us.
Systems of inequality, racism, police violence and environmental destruction are vulnerable, but they won’t collapse on their own. They need our help. Everyone is standing around waiting for something to happen or just focused on the latest outrage. We need to take the initiative and throw the first punch every once in a while.
The call for decentralized revolt on Leap Day 2016 is open-ended in terms of tactics, goals and strategy. Leap day can be a laboratory to articulate our vision for the future in dynamic, emotionally resonant, new ways. Leap Day Action night aims to break down the artificial separation between “activism” and living our lives full of enjoyment and freedom.
Berkeley Copwatch is tired of unjust policing and lack of accountability. We stand in solidarity with those protesting the murders of black people across the nation and say that this must end! We have our unique problems in Berkeley and the East Bay and we must take local action to stand up and demand justice!
We Demand:
- End racial profiling in Berkeley! Get the statistics on who is really being detained and arrested and stop handcuffing men of color for no reason!
- No tasers in Berkeley! Spend money to study how to end racial profiling – not acquire tasers!
- End the militarization of the police! No boats, no armored personnel carriers, no more weapons and no more military games. Withdraw from Urban Shield!
- Justice For Kayla Moore!
- Decriminalize Mental Illness! Police with no training in mental health crisis are most often the first responders to these kinds of situations. Berkeley must fully fund emergency mental health response in the city and prevent militarized cops from being the first point of contact for members of the public who need help in dealing with emergency mental health situations. No more putting spit hoods over the heads of people with mental illness! No taser use on mentally ill people! Counselors not cops!
Meetings at 7pm every Monday!
Rally on the Old City Hall Steps beginning at 4:00 in support of the Homeless Occupation and Protest now ensconced on the grounds, in support of #BlackLivesMatter and against Berkeley’s participation in Urban Shield, an annual militarized police training and military-style equipment show.
Items concerning these issues will be on the City Council Agenda this evening – three anti-homeless ordinances, a spineless report about the Berkeley Police and their actions during the Black Lives Matters protests a year ago when people were tear gassed, shot at with bean-bag rounds and struck with batons, and something to continue Berkeley’s relationship with UASI, the funder for Urban Shield.
There will be a march commencing at 6:00 PM to the Longfellow School at Derby & Sacramento; there will be a press conference at 6:30 PM; and then the regular City Council meeting will begin at Longfellow at 7:00 PM.
The Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality & State Repression (OGC) is a grassroots democratic organization that was formed as a conscious united front for justice against police brutality. The OGC is involved in the struggle for police accountability and is committed to stopping police brutality.
We meet on the 1st Tuesday of each month at 7 pm at the Neibyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Avenue (near Alcatraz) in Oakland. For more information please call us at 925/798-3698 or e-mail us.
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
December monthly membership meeting –
This is the last membership meeting of the year! Let’s go out with a pop, not a whimper! If you’re curious about what we do and how we do it, there is no better time than to celebrate the year’s work and get involved with EBC! It will be a great way for people to meet the current members, learn about what the members have been up to and sign up for membership.
Our members have formed an Outreach Committee to support getting the word out about Prop 47. To join this committee contact Lauren at Lauren@ellabakercenter.org.
Hit the Streets tomorrow 9am-noon Montgomery BART in SF for the #climate & against #policeshooting in #SF by #SFPD https://t.co/JSBykhk7LO
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 3, 2015
In conjunction will the rally in solidarity with Climate Change protesters in Paris.
Alameda Renters Coalition monthly General Meeting this Saturday, 12/5. 2:30-4:30 p.m at 2311 Buena Vista Avenue in Alameda.
— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) December 3, 2015
MARCH in Oakland #JusticeForMarioWoods 4pm Sat Dec 5th 14th & Broadway #Oakland #MarioWoods fuck #SFPD fuck #OPD pic.twitter.com/Su1iibykUX
— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) December 4, 2015
Since December 9th 2014 the Community Dinner Project (a group of concerned citizens and volunteers who are working on building a more unified, compassionate and just community), have fed the hungry, distributed needed clothing and toiletries, and provided other assistance to them as needed or requested, in front of Sacramento City Hall every week. We feed around 75-130 people a week! The homeless people who line up and gather near City Hall, are fed a nutritious organic meal by the volunteers, who by feeding said homeless people, are in violation of a local ordinance that criminalizes said feeding. The local ordinance requires a permit to feed that costs over $300.00. This is a sum that exceeds the financial wherewithal of many people and groups, but more importantly, places an inhumane financial burden regarding people in need.
Following the healthy organic meal, a number of concerned citizens and some of the homeless people themselves, enter City Hall to address the city council during their weekly meetings to discuss issues of homelessness and the effects on their lives. We all have been vigilantly advocating for the repeal of the anti-homeless laws in Sacramento (especially the unlawful camping ordinance), and standing in solidarity to discuss and bring to the forefront other important community issues (police brutality, Black Lives Matter, Nestle’ water profiteering, the right to grow your own food (urban gardening), reopening the city park bathrooms, more effort towards housing first (rapid rehousing), raising the minimum wage, and more affordable housing, etc. We believe that by uplifting those who have been ignored by society with healthy food, a positive environment, and a supportive group to help them find a voice to speak out against injustice, we can help usher in a more unified and compassionate City of Sacramento!
On August 6, 2015 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), issued a statement of interest concerning a federal case over a camping ordinance in Boise, Idaho. In this case, seven individuals are suing the city over their conviction for the “crime” of camping. This case has been ongoing for over two years, and now the Obama administration has weighed in stating that the ordinance in question violates the 8th Amendment of the Constitution of The United States! This is a significant decision regarding the issue of homelessness in our country and we think that the time is ripe to press the City of Sacramento to undo its draconian ordinance that criminalizes homelessness and the right to feed the homeless.
There is also an advisory statement released by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. This statement was to advise communities to stop breaking up homeless encampments. Their reasoning was it makes building productive relationships harder, which in turn makes getting people connected to services to help them get off the streets.
Then there is HUD. In coming months, the Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to ask local homeless services officials to educate their communities against criminalization ordinances. Communities who do not comply will risk losing funding!!
In light of the federal governments stance, and the fact that we have been advocating for the repeal of our local camping ordinance, on December 8th, We (@Community Dinner Project) intend to occupy Sacramento City Hall to demand that City Council repeal the Unlawful Camping Ordinance.
Please join us in ending this assault on our fellow human beings and rather than punish those less fortunate, let us be a model city and demonstrate caring and compassion, and social justice for all and find more sustainable solutions for homeless people.
There are three levels of support we are asking for:
First, is to agree that the city should repeal, or place a moratorium on, the unlawful camping ordinance. This simply entails calling, writing, or emailing your council member to let them know you do not want your tax dollars (which is in the millions here in Sacramento) spent on criminalizing homelessness, and would prefer the city take a more active role with rapid rehousing!
Second, is as an active supporter which would include helping with supplies or food, coming down to talk with those who are occupying, jail support if necessary, etc.
Third, is to join the occupation by camping with us, and others, on the lawn at city hall, which is the civil disobedience portion.
http://www.latimes.com/
Demands:
- Public apology from Suhr to Mario’s mother
- SF pay for Mario’s funeral
- SF pay for Federal Investigation
- Identify all officers who fired weapons
- Fire all officers who discharged weapons
- Fire Police Chief Suhr
This Wednesday at 5 pm @ San Francisco City Hall: Demand Justice for #MarioWoods, murdered by #SFPD. pic.twitter.com/2bYKIzuP2K
— CRC Media Corps (@CRCMediaCorps) December 7, 2015
Join the Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against Stingrays being acquired by law enforcement agencies, against Urban Shield, for various privacy ordinances to be passed by Alameda County and the Oakland City Council, against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub, and against other invasions of privacy by our benighted City, County, State and Federal Governments. We are also engaged in the fight against Predictive Policing and other “pre-crime” and “thought-crime” abominations.
OPWG was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network, and its members helped draft the Privacy Policy that puts further restrictions on the now Port-restricted DAC.
We were also the lead in having Alameda County pass the most comprehensive privacy and usage policy in the country for deployment of “Stingray” technology (cell phone interceptors).
Stop by and learn how you can help guard Oakland’s right not to be spied on by the government & if you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to:
oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe AT lists.riseup.net
For more information on the DAC check out