Who: Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group,
ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment)
and YOU!

Zaki Alshalyan, our neighbor, an Oaklander from the east side is facing a sale date of October 4th!

We will be joining another community group, ACCE, to simultaneously take action on several banks in the downtown area. We are sending a “delegation” to accompany Zaki and his family as they deliver a demand letter to his bank and their executives. We are demanding that they postpone his sale date and reopen negotiations with him in good faith.

In other words, he needs backup to make these bastards treat him like a human being.

Here is his story:

My name is Zaki Alshalyan.

I am Iraqi-American and I was a prisoner of war in Operation Desert Storm 1991. I am one of thousands of Iraqis who stood up with the American army to fight with them against Saddam Hussein.

I spend 5 years in the prison. It was the worse place in the Saudi Arabian desert. I spent days and nights… months and years in this place without exit to anything. I can’t see anything except the sand and the sky…no plant, no bird, no animal can live there. Everyday my body was totally covered with sand because my tent where I slept was broken from the storms and sometimes I can’t see or breathe and the days turned to darkness. I suffered torture by Saudi guards many times. After seeking freedom for 5 years, I had the chance to meet the American delegation. They check my story and they accept me to live in the USA as a refugee.

I arrived in San Francisco on 1/15/1995. I had hope for my future and family I left behind. After one month in San Francisco, I started working two jobs 16 hours a day, 6 days a week… working hard and paying my taxes.
In May 2005, I had saved my money and put down payment to buy this property, a small four unit building in East Oakland.

Four years later, my hardship started when the bank started raising my mortgage payment until it reached 5000 dollars a month. I couldn’t pay the high payment. I ask the bank for help, for a loan modification. It took two years and the bank kept asking me for documents and paper work and I send them everything they ask for over and over. Finally, the bank denied my loan modification for no reason. The loan modification and hardship has negative effect on me and my job, on my wife and my three kids. Now I live in tough times.

After I spend all the money I had, after I borrow money from friends and family to fix the property, now the property is worth nothing – I owe more than the property is worth.

Bank of America sent me a letter saying they want to sell my property at auction on October 4th. I can’t lose my property. This is my only income. I have no other support for myself and my family.

I am now seeking help from you to put pressure on the bank to modify my loan and help me save my property.

Thank you very much,

Zaki Alshalyan

Rally at the 12th Street entrance to the County Superior Court, 1225 Fallon Street (location of the district attorney’s office)

March to city hall for the 5:30 city council meeting.

Conscience demands that we stand against excessive force, harassment, and racial profiling by the Oakland Police Department–practices that contributed to the death of Alan Blueford–and that we call upon city officials to stand against them, too. To date, the city has been unwilling to take a stand; city council adjourned several hours early on September 18 rather than deal with the grief and anger of the citizens, and now they are seeking to change meeting policies to avoid being confronted with such feelings in the future

At the district attorney’s office and then at city hall, we will issue the following demands of the Blueford family, their friends, and supporters:

* Release a police report that includes a thorough investigation of Alan’s murder
* Terminate Officer Masso’s employment with the Oakland Police Department
* Bring criminal charges against Officer Masso
* Hold Chief Jordan accountable for changing his story to the family about what happened the night of Alan’s death.
*End de facto stop-and-frisk and other racial profiling practices of the OPD
* Work with state legislators to repeal the so-called Police Officers’ Bill of Rights that shields violent cops from prosecution and keeps them on the street.

An essay: Searching for answers to a Police Killing

Justice 4 Alan Blueford website

Sign the Petition for Justice 4 Alan Blueford

Demonstration against Chevron Wednesday October 3

Assemble 3 pm at Richmond BART
2nd Assembly point Washington Park
3rd Assembly point in front of the Chevron Refinery Gates

Points of Unity for the March/ Messages for Banners/ Speakers:…

1. Install the Air Quality Monitoring System NOW!

2. Community Compensation!

3. Reduce Emissions!

4. Worker and Public Safety First!

5.  Pay Your Fair Share of Taxes!

The goal is to deliver the demands to Chevron staff and demand that they give them to Chevron Management.

On October 5th, 2012 we are calling for a global day of action against the Mexican, US, and Canadian consulates and embassies worldwide. We are not recommending any particular actions; instead we are calling for as many people as possible to expose the role of these entities in resource extraction and poisoning of the earth, genocides, and assassinations of rebels rising up against the many headed hydra of capitalism—especially its mining companies.

This action is part of the Decolonize the New World 2012: West Coast Anti-Colonial, Anti-Capitalist Convergence in San Francisco during Columbus Day weekend. The convergence is being called for by Decolonize and Anti-Capitalist comrades in the Pacific Northwest and Bay Area.
https://decolonizethenewworld.noblogs.org/

http://www.facebook.com/events/192631270871977/

TO THE STREETS
Now is the time to form affinities in Oakland, the East Bay and beyond to respond collectively to harassment, assault, transphobic murders, homophobic bashing and patriarchal bullshit of all kinds in our homes, workplaces, organizing spaces and everywhere else. Now is the time to march in the streets of Oakland in feminist and queer solidarity.

Facebook Event

The Anti-Colonial, Anti-Capitalist March will gather at Justin Herman Plaza for a rally at 2pm and the march will begin at 3pm sharp.

Columbus Day 2012 marks the 520 year anniversary of the genocidal and ecocidal project of Empire building and colonial expansion that began with the conquistador invasion of this continent and continues to this day through the daily violence and exploitation of global capitalism.

via http://decolonizethenewworld.noblogs.org/

Calll Out for Solidarity:
http://afghansforpeace.org/archives/2904

“We call on the international community to join us on Sunday, October 7th in our actions across the globe. If we are not present in your city, we ask that you or your group organize an action to bring an end to not only this war, but every war. The impending war against Iran and Syria. The war on drugs. The war against women. The war against people of color and the poor. The war against indigenous peoples and their lands. The war against our environment. All WARS.”

*please spread far & wide!

******************************************************

Call Out – Full Text :

This Oct 7th marks the 11th anniversary of the US / NATO led War and Occupation of Afghanistan. In these 11 years we’ve seen the US and its allies burn hundreds of copies of the holy Quran, urinate on the bodies of dead Afghans and the CIA torture people to death. All of this happened with zero accountability and complete impunity. This has been proven by the US Justice Dept recent decision to not prosecute. The US military has shown its racism with “Kill Teams” who ran around killing civilians for sport and then collected body parts as trophies. In a particularly heinous so-called “incident” a soldier by the name of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales went house to house in several villages stalking and murdering men, women and children and attempted to destroy the evidence by burning the bodies. The US was quick to say this was isolated and that the attacker acted alone. The official Afghan investigation however, determined that up to 20 US military personnel were involved. Sgt. Bales was brought back to the US almost immediately and no Afghan official was ever allowed to interview him. The list of atrocities could go on forever. This is the justice that the US & NATO have given us with their occupation.

Over the past year, rumors have been circulating in the media about villagers taking up arms to defend themselves against the Taliban. Not only that, they have also stated that they are ready to fight the US & NATO forces. And they have little to no trust in the corrupt central Afghan government. The rebellion is growing and is said to be active in over 50 villages from recent reports. And thats only in the east. The facts about these groups are hard to find, but if these rebels are genuine in what they’re saying, then we support them. It must be said that historically, various rival political groups have been armed and funded by foreign interests, one of the worst offenders being the CIA. However, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Russia, India and other regional powers are equally guilty of causing chaos. These groups were vicious and tore communities apart and that is not what we support. What we need is a true peoples resistance movement in Afghanistan dedicated to liberation.

Now we must ask ourselves “are we really in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan?”. And “what are we doing to support them?”

Afghans for Peace has taken the same stance as those who are said to be in rebellion. We are against the US/NATO occupation. We are against the Taliban and we are certainly opposed to the wildly corrupt Afghan puppet regime in place right now.

We want to see the resistance flourish! We support the resistance against imperialism! We support the resistance against Taliban and we want our people free from the criminals that comprise the central government! We want our people to have the right to self-determination! We want autonomy for our people! They have the right to defend themselves against ALL oppressors!

At this point it has become clear that the US cannot sustain this war. US generals are desperately trying to prop up an Afghan National Army and Afghan National police force. These same security forces have been in wide spread revolt! Attacking their US & NATO counterparts at an alarming rate. The most obvious sign of the occupations unsustainability is that the US is losing more active duty soldiers to suicide than they are in the battlefield.

To the troops we say:

GO AWOL!
Refuse to fight!
Start a revolt amongst your ranks!

To the Multi National Corporations and capitalists that are slowly plotting to rape our lands; the oil companies, the mining companies and the thousands upon thousands of contractors we say:

GET OUT NOW!
Get out and be happy you still have your lives!

This message of anger should especially be heard by our own people who leave the west only to return to Afghanistan to be contractors and translators for the occupying forces. These people are a disgrace to us all. This war would be impossible without them. They may be related to many of us, but they are still an intricate piece in the wests colonial aspirations. They’ve chosen sides already and therefore we’re against them too.

We are fed up with the inaction of US lawmakers in doing next to nothing to end this war. From them, we’ve come to expect this and we have no illusions that the state ever had the interests of the Afghan people in mind. After all, the US has been in a state of perpetual war since its inception. We are equally fed up with the inaction of the people living in west who have also done next to nothing to challenge their governments to end the wars. This includes our own people – the Afghan community and the US antiwar movement which continues with its played out tactics of singing and permitted marches. We DO NOT need permission to express our outrage! These types of demonstrations give people the illusion they’ve done something for the Afghan people, but in reality does absolutely nothing to stop the occupation. This cooptation sucks the energy out of any real meaningful actions and pacifies much needed resistance. To them we say: stop tokenizing us. Stop using us as a way to increase your membership base and a way to make yourselves relevant.

Afghans for Peace is launching a new campaign, ”MISSION: FAILURE – 11 years of War & Occupation”. This international campaign will take up many different forms; from forums, conferences and rallies to street demonstrations and direct actions. The launch of this latest campaign will start on the anniversary of the war. We call on the international community to join us on Sunday, October 7th in our actions across the globe. If we are not present in your city, we ask that you or your group organize an action to bring an end to not only this war, but every war. The impending war against Iran and Syria. The war on drugs. The war against women. The war against people of color and the poor. The war against indigenous peoples and their lands. The war against our environment. All WARS.

This year we say NO to ALL WARS, EXCEPT CLASS WAR!

* Afghans for Peace will not be bringing any group identifying banners or signs. We do not want any other group to bring signs identifying their groups either. We encourage everyone to come as individuals. Bring signs and banners with relevant messaging and lets keep our affiliations out it. We do not want any organizations or any endorsements. We want people to participate as individuals. Lets move forward in Solidarity.

http://www.facebook.com/events/359193210822770/

Party, feast, slide show, games, toasts, music.  We are awesome, let’s celebrate.

The DA’s report was released last week. The DA refuses to prosecute Officer Miguel Masso for the murder of Alan Blueford.

The DA’s report was full of lies and took no account of the evidence or the testimony of many witnesses.

Come here the Blueford family speak. Come hear the lies denounced and the investigative failures exposed.

Sponsored by the Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition.

Mi Pueblo Markets chain has announced that it will implement E-Verify, a government database that allows Mi Pueblo to refuse work to undocumented workers. We will NOT stand by as Mi Puebloe discriminates against member of our community! Mi Pueblo has also refused to hire African-American workers and is under investigation for firing a pregnant woman.

We demand Mi Pueblo stop all unfair labor practices, discrimination, and re-hire fired workers immediately! We call on the community to support Mi Pueblo workers’ right to organize without Juevanal Chavez’s (the owner) intimidation and retaliation.

JOIN US!

Google Maps: http://goo.gl/maps/vPDBU

National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation.

Rally and March to the Oakland Jail. (The Alameda County Pipeline to Prison).

Wear Black

October 22nd – National Day to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation is a VERY IMPORTANT DAY to bring fighters against different aspects of the CRIMINAL “IN”JUSTICE SYSTEM – from police brutality and outright murder, the RACIAL PROFILING, the pipeline to prison by putting criminal and “gang” jackets on our youth, the rounding up of immigrants, the increasing “police state” laws where the president can declare any person a terrorist and lock them up indefinitely without reason, the 2.4 million men AND WOMEN warehoused in this nation’s prisons, the isolation and torture of tens of thousands of them, and the denial of basic rights to those who have completed their sentence.

This, all of this, is MASS INCARCERATION! in all of its aspects and consequences. It is an EMERGENCY SITUATION and WE MUST STOP IT!

This can be a new day of MASS RESISTANCE to the ILLEGITIMACY of this system, and a day when we step out and say NO MORE! WE BLOW THE WHISTLE ON ALL OF THIS!!!

Everybody out, Rain or Shine! Bring you banners and your signs. Bring pictures of your loved ones. Be ready to speak out. And come early, if you can. We need you to help

Antirepression & Foreclosure Defense got an email saying that last minute charges have been filed on people busted last October 25th, they have been ordered to appear tomorrow at Department 107 with almost no notice.

wiseoldsnail reports the same: http://occupyoakland.org/2012/10/court-tomorrow-for-newly-charged-o25-arrestees/

Anyone who was arrested last October 25th should check their mail and/or call the DA’s office at 510-268-7500 to make sure charges have not been filed against them. Anyone who has been served with these BS last-minute charges should contact the NLG.  And if you can make it please show up at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 661 Washington Street, Oakland at 9 AM, Dept. 107 for court support.

During the early hours of October 25, 2011, hundreds of violent police officers stormed into Occupy Oakland’s home base at Oscar Grant Plaza, near city hall, to evict protesters & to remove their belongings. 96 of our comrades were arrested after the cops used tear gas, flash-bang grenades and less-than-lethal munitions to subdue the crowd.

Occupy Oakland’s spirit was not damaged, we were emboldened and radicalized as thousands returned that afternoon to stand up and fight back. Unforgettably, so did the p…olice. The battle for the plaza went on into the night, turning downtown Oakland into what looked like a war zone. Hot canisters of tear gas flew through the air, rubber bullets crashed into the bodies of our fellow occupiers, one hitting an Iraq war veteran in the head, putting his life in serious danger.

This year we say, FIGHT BACK! Let’s re-converge and re-claim our home!

Meet at Oscar Grant Plaza at 3PM for an open forum to discuss how to effectively combat state and police oppression before the 7PM FTP march on OPD. Let’s show these pigs we will never back down in the face of violent oppression!

After the march, let’s hold down the plaza all night and continue our conversations on how to better serve our community and how to empower each other to stand up and fight back against the OPD street gang who puts so many Oaklanders in danger.

*******

Please join us for a day of discussion on how to effectively combat
state and police oppression on October 25th at Oscar Grant Plaza (City Hall) at 3PM.

Schedule of events:

• Converge on OGP at 3 PM to begin the open forum
• Dinner/break out groups at 5 PM
• FTP March at 7 PM
• Occupy OGP and continue conversations all night.

Please bring: Tents, warm clothes, shields, a defensive attitude and hella friends!

*************
Added 10/16/12 –

Roughly 10 organizers for this event have been meeting regularly to make sure this night is a success, meaning no arrests or casualties. Knowing that we cannot and will not control autonomous actions & respecting the various forms of anger within those who will be participating, we would like to make it clear that un-targeted property damage is not part of the plan and is discouraged in the interest of extending our presence past the march. This is not to say that a second autonomous march later in the night is out of the question.

Rather than the tactic of smashing, this night would be a great time to exercise our defensive tactics. (Bring shields, “tools of violence,” work together and act smart!)

There are multiple goals to achieve through this action including, holding space through out the night, calling out OPD violence in a very public way & celebrating our unity against oppression.

The march will make stops at various downtown locations where the OPD has shown their ugly side against dissenters. We would like to stop at each location and project video and images of what the police have done to us there, on the walls of a near by building or on our mobile slide show screen. Calling out OPD is such a public way will be a huge win for the Occupy Oakland community by showing the general public what true violence is.

The march will then end at one of three undisclosed locations where we will hold that space through out the night. Remember to bring items that will help you accomplish this goal: Warm clothes, blankets, tents… (For those bringing small easy to erect tents, it would be awesome to see them go up on the return end of the march, and held high above our heads as we zero in on our target.)

See you all on the 25th & seriously, FUCK THE POLICE!

Jodie Randolph and her possessions are about to go out onto the street, because Morgan Stanley has something better to do with her home than let her live there.

Jodie has been fighting to stay in her home for years. Companies affiliated with Morgan Stanley shuttled the loan around from one subsidiary to the other until they foreclosed on her.

When the truck comes Tuesday morning (yes, Election Day morning!) to take away her furniture and leave her on the street people we will be on that street to stop that truck.

More information here.

The most important thing to do is to be there Tuesday to a) stop the eviction and b) organize to make sure the eviction continues to not happen.

Public education in California is facing a severe crisis. State budget cuts and austerity measures have accelerated administrators’ efforts to privatize our public colleges. This November, UC Regents and CSU Trustees plan to submit our universities to radical, privatizing reforms. Even if Prop. 30 passes, in the best-case scenario, it would only maintain the status quo; meaning excessive fees, under-funded programs, overcrowded classes, layoffs and pay-cuts for campus workers, and an ongoing process of priv

Our dear friend Syd from the Holdout was picked up recently by the Oakland Police department on some bullshit charges.

His arraignment is this Wednesday, November 14th, at 2:00 pm in Department 112 at Wiley Manuel Courthouse on 7th and Washington street.

It would mean a whole lot for as many friends that can come out and support as possible to show up!

Fire to the Prisons, Free All Prisoners!

Israel launched "Operation Pillar of Clouds" earlier this week with a series of air strikes. 
More than a dozen people have been killed so far including women and children. 
International solidarity activists are in the streets all over the world, we have to be in SF. 
Please share this event with your networks, bring your banners and signs n spirit to the action!

Day 1: Thursday Nov 15th at 5:15pm at Israeli Consulate
Day 2: Friday Nov 16th at 4:00pm at Israeli Consulate

San Francisco | Israeli Consulate, Thursday November 15, 5:15 p.m. [link]

Emergency Global Actions for Gaza

Israel launched “Operation Pillar of Clouds” earlier this week with a series of air strikes. More than a dozen people have been killed so far including women and children. International solidarity activists are in the streets all over the world, we have to be in SF. Please share this event with your networks, bring your banners and signs n spirit to the action!

Day 1: Thursday Nov 15th at 5:15pm at Israeli Consulate

Day 2: Friday Nov 16th at 4:00pm at Israeli Consulate [link]

For additions or corrections please tweet @southsouth or @riverdryfilm or email southissouth@gmail.com.
Compiled from latest available information with Omar Robert Hamilton.

US Post Office Truckers are about to be ‘privatized.’ Join the early morning rally, march and lunch/brunch and help stop the privatization of the Post Office.

The Occupy Oakland Labor Solidarity Committee has endorsed this action and the cause of the Post Office Truckers.