Calendar
Join us as we start a new year and plan a rally for early February demanding that Kamala Harris prosecute Miguel Masso for the murder of Alan Blueford. The subcommittee meeting for this campaign will take place immediately following the main coalition meeting.
Get up-to-date on the civil lawsuit that is proceeding against OPD and the City of Oakland.
We will also be planning other events in conjunction with other groups, including an action in Sacramento in late January.
Join Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide mass surveillance center.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to: oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Through the end of January we will have General Assembly at the sudoroom on 2141 Broadway, Oakland, CA.
Here are instructions to access the room, the entrance is on 22nd Street:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Getting_there
This Sunday will be a Cryptoparty at the sudoroom, along with the third Sunday in January, these will be opportunities to update your digital profile so the government can’t easily track your every move. More blather on this to follow this afternoon when I have a moment.
Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally and has equal decision-making power. Occupy Oakland’s General Assembly uses a participatory decision-making process appropriately called, “Occupy Oakland’s Collective Decision-Making Process.” Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
Autonomous Action & the General Assembly
The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and associated groups that report back to the general assembly. Everyone participating in Occupy Oakland should be part of at least one associated group. Occupy Oakland encourages autonomous actions that do not require consensus from the General Assembly. This encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome
- Welcome Announcements
- Agenda Overview
- Forum
- Reports from Committees, Subcommittees, Caucuses, & Working Groups
- Action Announcements
- General Announcements
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
In November the Planning Commission passed on to the Berkeley City a proposed Zoning Ordinance that would make the Post Office property less desirable to potential purchasers of the capitalist variety. We are still waiting for action on this from the City Council and are organizing to put pressure on City Council members to make sure this measure is brought up and passed.
The Postal Service has announced that they are contracting with Staples to provide Post Office window services inside Staples stores, using Staples employees instead of Post Office employees. There is already a pseudo Post Office operating inside the Berkeley Staples store (Shattuck & Durant). We conducted our first action against this privatization of postal services on December 21st.
Come and help plan our next actions in defense of our Post Office and against privatization and non living-wage jobs. We want to send a message to CBRE, the Post Office, Staples and Berkeley politicians that the sale will not be tolerated!
�
Despite powerful attacks, Richmond became the first municipality in the nation to beat back Wall Street threats, litigation, and a campaign dedicated to end the city’s program using eminent domain to help underwater homeowners. How was the community, led by Mayor McLaughlin, able to hold off the banks, asset managers and securities units of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and AIG, the very same firms that caused the foreclosure crisis in the first place?
�
For decades, environmental justice groups including Richmond Progressive Alliance, West County Toxics Coalition, and Communities for a better environment have fought Chevron, one of the world’s top polluters and a major tax evader whose refinery has long dominated the city. Chevron’s toxic, explosive, and corrosive chemicals and toxic releases cause devastating harm. To add insult to injury, Chevron vehemently opposes paying its fair share of taxes. Last fall, the oil giant pumped $1.2 million into city elections “They have been polluting our democracy along with polluting our environment,” said McLaughlin. The City of Richmond is currently suing Chevron for damages from the massive 2012 fire and Mayor McLaughlin has called on Chevron to pay its taxes and create a new corporate culture by putting the health and safety needs of Richmond residents before its profits. At the press conference announcing the city’s lawsuit against Chevron, McLaughlin was clear: “This isn’t just about money, it’s also about a culture of abuse. This suit is a situation requiring Chevron to be accountable to our community.”
�
Richmond is on the rise. Mayor McLaughlin’s focus on working side by side with a community that has suffered decades of injustice is helping to showcase how an urban community is transforming itself in the 21st Century.
�
More info at:
http://www.saverichmondhomes.org/
�
Time will be allotted for Q&A, discussion and announcements. Donations
to OccupyForum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
Politics of Debt will be primarily discussing the Modern Monetary Theory vs. Austrian School proponents’ video debate. We will elaborate on what Modern Monetary Theory is and stands for.
A link to the public school webpage with the class info and reading/video links.
On January 11th we will be holding a public forum to organize actions for March 15th, international day against police brutality. This forum will take place at the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, which is located near 25th on Telegraph Ave in Oakland.
Everyone is invited! We encourage approaching this forum as individuals rather than as an organization.
Hope to see you there!
Through the end of January we will have General Assembly at the sudoroom on 2141 Broadway, Oakland, CA.
Here are instructions to access the room, the entrance is on 22nd Street:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Getting_there
This Sunday will be a Cryptoparty at the sudoroom, along with the third Sunday in January, these will be opportunities to update your digital profile so the government can’t easily track your every move. More blather on this to follow this afternoon when I have a moment.
Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally and has equal decision-making power. Occupy Oakland’s General Assembly uses a participatory decision-making process appropriately called, “Occupy Oakland’s Collective Decision-Making Process.” Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
Autonomous Action & the General Assembly
The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and associated groups that report back to the general assembly. Everyone participating in Occupy Oakland should be part of at least one associated group. Occupy Oakland encourages autonomous actions that do not require consensus from the General Assembly. This encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome
- Welcome Announcements
- Agenda Overview
- Forum
- Reports from Committees, Subcommittees, Caucuses, & Working Groups
- Action Announcements
- General Announcements
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
24 Hours to Save the Post Office! A Festival of Celebration and Resistance.
It’s happening Saturday starting at 11:00 AM at the Post Office and going for 24 hours.
In November the Planning Commission passed on to the Berkeley City a proposed Zoning Ordinance that would make the Post Office property less desirable to potential purchasers of the capitalist variety. We are still waiting for action on this from the City Council and are organizing to put pressure on City Council members and the Mayor to make sure this measure is brought up and passed. We collected 600 petition signatures so far as part of that pressure and are aiming for a lot more!
The Postal Service has announced that they are contracting with Staples to provide Post Office window services inside Staples stores, using Staples employees instead of Post Office employees. There is already a pseudo Post Office operating inside the Berkeley Staples store (Shattuck & Durant). We conducted our first action against this privatization of postal services on December 21st.
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has chosen Richmond as the location for voting on its final report on the August 6, 2012, Chevron Richmond Toxic Explosion and Fire. The hearing will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Richmond City Council Chambers at 440 Civic Center Plaza.
Please join Communities for a Better Environment, APEN, RPA, ACCE, 350.org Chevron Watch and Bay Area, the Richmond Environmental Justice Coalitionand community representatives from Pittsburg, Rodeo/Crockett and Benicia at 5:30 p.m. for a rally in the Civic Center Plaza.
This is a MAJOR event for our communities, because the CSB is recommending a new standard for regulating Big Oil’s refineries in the US – the Safety Case regime. We demand Safety First! No new Permits w/o the Safety Case!!
Please come out and support the CSB, the people of Richmond and the Bay Area refinery towns!
San Francisco Living Wage Coalition Meeting. The Living Wage Coalition is building a grassroots movement of low-wage workers and their allies to win economic justice. Anyone who works full time should be able to survive on what they earn and support themselves and their children. Come to be a part of discussing next steps in pursuing an economic justice agenda.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group will meet at the Sudoroom Wednesday Jan. 15th at 6:30 to organize to stop the planned building of an Oakland-wide surveillance grid to monitor the citizens of the East Bay.
Approval for a contractor to take over Phase II of the DAC contract from SAIC – summarily dismissed months ago for violations of Oakland’s Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance – is supposed to take place at the January 21st City Council meeting.
For more information on the insidiousness of the DAC and how it came to b in Oakland check out the DAC FAQ, the Oakland Wiki Domain Awareness Page and the Oakland Privacy WordPress.
OPG hopes to have a large presence and a big rally on February 4th in front of City Hall at Oscar Grant Plaza, and YOU ARE INVITED. We are planning to have potluck food & drink at the plaza at 6:15 before going in to the council chambers to voice our opinions on this spy-network. So far the City has always scheduled this skulduggery as the last item on the agenda, well after midnight, to try to discourage public comment, so we are planning to show movies in the Plaza to keep folks entertained while waiting for the item to come up. Let’s stop this fucking thing, privacy is an essential element of freedom.
Join Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide mass surveillance center.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy Working Group email listserv, send an email to: oaklandprivacyworkinggroup-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
On line petition to stop the DAC
On line petition to stop the DAC
If you’re interested in direct action related to local foreclosure defense, show up early and learn more.
The San Francisco Gray Panthers are very concerned about issues of mass incarceration, prison expansion, profiling of minorities and youth, and the criminalization of poverty. Particularly in San Francisco, with such extremes of wealth and poverty, it seems outrageous to build more jail space, when three-quarters of prisoners are there because they’re too poor to make bail.
We are helping to organize two important upcoming events to stop the new jail and we hope you will join us!
Here’s the details:
Saturday, January 18th: Attend our Town Hall meeting to speak out about the jail plan, and get prepared for the upcoming Supervisors meeting: 2-4 PM at the Redstone Building, 2940 16th Street (near mission). Download the event flier here.
Thursday, January 23rd: Speak out at the San Francisco Supervisor�s Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee Hearing on the Jail Replacement Project: 1-3:30pm, in City Hall Room 250.
Join Strike Debt Bay Area in working on some exciting projects locally and nationally to fight unjust debt.
– The latest on our coalition efforts to Save the Berkeley Post Office and fight the privatization of our commons.
– The latest on our efforts to help Richmond and NGO allies push for principal reduction for Richmond’s homeowners. Read an article written by two Strike Debt Bay Area members on the Richmond principal reduction / eminent domain case.
In addition, we are exploring the use of a public bank to help Richmond, CA and other communities escape the thrall of Wall Street.
– A report on FedUp, our action in coalition with Occupy SF and others to highlight (and Illuminate!) the Fed’s contributions to the ills of our economy and call for it to become unprivatized.
– Work on our radio segment on KPFA
– Other projects include efforts to fight against student debt in conjunction with peeps at UC Cal via a Debtors’ Union, a book group with semi-weekly discussions, investigations into the legitimacy of mortgage ownership and therefore the right to foreclose, efforts to thwart payday loan usury and more.
“Just as bosses are dependent on workers, so are lenders dependent on borrowers. If workers walk out, the enterprise stops. If borrowers refuse to pay their debts, the lenders could be in real trouble. Each side depends on the other. The millions of underwater mortgage holders, of student debtors and credit card holders, need the bank loans – but so do the banks need those borrowers, and they especially need them to cooperate by paying their monthly charges. Otherwise, the capital that the banks list on their books begins to drain away.” ~Francis Fox Piven
Check out our website, our Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.
Through the end of January we will have General Assembly at the sudoroom on 2141 Broadway, Oakland, CA.
Here are instructions to access the room, the entrance is on 22nd Street:
https://sudoroom.org/wiki/Getting_there
This Sunday will be a Cryptoparty at the sudoroom, along with the third Sunday in January, these will be opportunities to update your digital profile so the government can’t easily track your every move. More blather on this to follow this afternoon when I have a moment.
Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally and has equal decision-making power. Occupy Oakland’s General Assembly uses a participatory decision-making process appropriately called, “Occupy Oakland’s Collective Decision-Making Process.” Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
Autonomous Action & the General Assembly
The bulk of the work of Occupy Oakland does NOT happen in the General Assembly. It happens in various committees, caucuses, and associated groups that report back to the general assembly. Everyone participating in Occupy Oakland should be part of at least one associated group. Occupy Oakland encourages autonomous actions that do not require consensus from the General Assembly. This encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
- Welcome
- Welcome Announcements
- Agenda Overview
- Forum
- Reports from Committees, Subcommittees, Caucuses, & Working Groups
- Action Announcements
- General Announcements
The Postal Service has put the Berkeley Post Office up for sale!!
The Postal Service has started to outsource Post Office services to Staples, replacing union jobs with low-paying, low benefit work.
We’ll be reviewing our Festival of Celebration and Resistance on the 18th.
Come help us plan our next steps. Come help us plan our action for the 25th. Come help us prepare for the City Council meeting soon at which the Zoning Overlay Ordinance will be considered.
AND CHECK OUT OUR SPIFFY NEW WEBSITE.
Sponsored by the League of Women Voters Oakland:
How does a city like Oakland respond to residents’ demands for more effective crime prevention and reduction while protecting everyone’s civil liberties? What is the Domain Awareness Center and how will it impact Oakland? How much surveillance is enough — or too much — to enhance our law enforcement capabilities?
Bring your ideas and a friend or neighbor to discuss these important issues with knowledgeable resource people and fellow Oaklanders.
The Oakland Privacy Working Group will meet at the Sudoroom Wednesday Jan. 22nd at 6:30 to organize an action for February 4th at City Hall to stop the planned building of the DAC, an Oakland-wide surveillance grid to monitor the citizens of the East Bay.
The City Council will be voting on selecting a contractor to take over Phase II of the DAC contract from SAIC (who was dismissed for violating Oakland’s Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance, which prohibits the city from knowingly doing business with any entity that is engaged in nuclear weapons work). Apparently all the other alternatives have dipped their toes in the nuclear pool, as well. The Oakland Privacy Working Group hopes to have a big presence in Oscar Grant Plaza in front of City Hall before we go in to the chambers to voice our opinions about building out this privacy-destroying networked spy hub. We are planning on a potluck at 6:15 in the plaza, bring goodies to share. There will be speakers and music, as well. Since the City Council never seems to address the DAC issue before the witching hour or later we will also have some movies in the plaza.
For more information on the insidiousness of the DAC and how it came to be in Oakland check out the DAC FAQ, the Oakland Wiki Domain Awareness Page and the Oakland Privacy WordPress.
Plans for the demo that need to be firmed up:
-
Facebook Event Page -
Brass liberation orchestra -
Music - Last bar fighter -
Food -
Movie -
Sound System -
Puppets -
Speakers
-
suggestions? Daniel Ellsberg? Edward Snowden? Batman?
-
Fired after
-
Anti Repression Committee
-
press outreach
-
-
press release -
press conference
Please sign the on line petitionetition to stop the DAC
Sign the on line petition calling for the DAC to be defunded. We got 4,000 signatures in about a week and need another 900 to reach our goal.
Click for printable PDF
The San Francisco Gray Panthers are very concerned about issues of mass incarceration, prison expansion, profiling of minorities and youth, and the criminalization of poverty. Particularly in San Francisco, with such extremes of wealth and poverty, it seems outrageous to build more jail space, when three-quarters of prisoners are there because they’re too poor to make bail.
We are helping to organize two important upcoming events to stop the new jail and we hope you will join us! The first was on January 18th. This one:
Thursday, January 23rd: Speak out at the San Francisco Supervisor’s Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee Hearing on the Jail Replacement Project.