Calendar
Come to a meeting about what we learn from the real history of May Day, the Marxist traditions of working class organizing in America and discuss what we need to do today to continue the fight.
Followed by a social/fundraiser for the Socialism 2015 conference. www.socialismconference.org
Addressing police violenceand systematic racism through community building and direct action.
Open Circle, first and foremost, is an opportunity to build community with one another. Secondly, it is a space to reflect and collaborate on strategies and actions to bring an end to these egregious crimes.
Please join us for the Potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with speakers who have lost their loved ones to police violence. Then updates / announcements of upcoming actions followed by reflection and dialogue around the current state and thoughts or approaches on how to effect change.
We will end with working groups to organize and plan next steps in the struggle.
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office 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.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-Mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-mcdonald backed out of the deal in early December.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th. There was another hearing in March 26th. Federal Judge William Alsup decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the Postal Service says it is not currently selling the building. But we’re not fooled. The Postal Service could “find” a buyer at any moment. Fortunately, the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the lawsuit could be refiled.
Check out our response to the Judge’s order.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also 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.
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. In alliance with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) we organized the October 23, 2010 labor and community rally for Justice for Oscar Grant. On that day the ILWU shut down the Bay Area ports in solidarity.
Our mission is to educate, organize and mobilize people against police and state repression.
Sisters and brothers the Oscar Grant Committee invites you to join us in this vital struggle.
The Oscar Grant Committee meets on the 1st Tuesday of each month.
How the Gentrifiers are Gentrifying City College: Land Grabs, Student Push-out Policies and Downsizing
Join in a roundtable discussion of the rotten underbelly of the City College accreditation crisis: An official in Sacramento told Tom Ammiano that Mayor Lee did not want the elected Board of Trustees to be reinstated yet, as important real estate deals need
to be completed.
We will analyze the “January surprises” in which the current administration pushed out some 3100 already-
enrolled students in a single week—in the middle of a major enrollment crisis! On January 7, 2015, some
1400 students with small overdue payments were robo-dropped about five weeks before their financial aid
arrived, throwing their work schedules and childcare arrangements into chaos, and losing the college many
thousands in state appropriations.
On January 9th, the administration announced the abrupt closure of the Civic Center Tenderloin campus on
one afternoon’s notice, on the grounds of seismic concerns. When some 2000 new immigrant students
showed up for their ESL classes on Monday, the doors were locked and the administration provided
directions to alternate sites—written in English! Only 300 students ever made it to an alternate site. 1700
more students gone—the same “disposable” non-credit students de-prioritized by the Student Success Act
and the administration. Fiasco– or downsizing policy?
We will have a round table to share analysis and information (invited speakers below):
The Shock Doctrine and Disaster Capitalism—short videos on lessons from Chicago, where public school
closures have been concentrated in gentrifying Black and Latino neighborhoods close to valuable downtown
real estate;
A short slideshow on the Reservoir Wars in the 80s and 90s, in which the real estate industry
unsuccessfully tried three times to pass a ballot measure for luxury housing development at the Reservoir.
Grassroots organizing won the day! The real estate industry also tried to tear down Balboa High School to
build condos—grassroots organizing won the day!
MECHA and Asian Student Union organizers will discuss the payment policy;
James Tracy will discuss the Civic Center closure and community resistance;
AFT 2121;
Update on the PAEC and the May 5th meeting about the Reservoir.
Terminal Logistics Solutions, the developers of City-owned land at the former Oakland Army base, announced this week that it has received $53 million dollars from four Utah counties to export up to six million tons of Utah coal out of Oakland each year. It intends to begin construction on a mega shipping terminal within a few months.
Terminal Solutions? Six million tons annually? Do we need any more symbolic reminders that this project needs to be shut down?
Sign this emergency petition to the Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Fossil fuel activists recognize this as yet another instance of whack-a mole. Jess Dervin-Ackerman of the Sierra Club points out that “major organizing victories squashing export proposals in Oregon and Washington mean that Big Coal has turned its sights on California. Bay Area communities are already burdened by poor air quality caused by our five oil refineries and the shipping industry. We even have some coal snaking through our neighborhoods by rail and shipping out of a private terminal in Richmond. Now Oakland is in Big Coal’s crosshairs.”
Oakland Fossil Fuel Resistance, a coalition of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, Sierra Club, 350 East Bay and Sunflower Alliance, is meeting at the Sierra Club office in Berkeley on Thursday at 4 pm to begin community mobilization against the project. Oakland residents are particularly urged to attend.
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
Essentials of Scientific Socialism
Part of an ongoing series
“Clarity about the aims and problems of socialism is of greatest significance in our age of transition.”
Einstein’s comment remains true in our Century, when the growing interest in socialism is matched by a growing confusion about socialism. This workshop, led by Gene Ruyle of the ICSS, will be part of an ongoing series seeking to overcome this confusion through study and discussion, focusing on the classics of scientific socialism: The Communist Manifesto, by Marx and Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, by Engels, Critique of the Gotha Program, by Marx, and Fundamentals of Leninism, by Stalin. This session will focus on a close reading of the Communist Manifesto. In preparation, participants are urged to read, or re-read, this important document.
Sunflower Alliance general meetings offer a great opportunity to learn more about fossil fuel resistance and climate justice efforts in our region. Your voice matters.
We welcome newcomers.
Occupy Forum devoted to planning and expanding the coalition event of
“Listen Up Mayors…coming up June 19-22
at Union Square, SF and other locations nearby TBD.
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter
Stop “Fracking” Mother Earth
Stop Crude By Rail
People Before Profits
Homelessness is not a Crime
Medicare for All
Strike Against Student Debt
Tax the Rich
and Jobs Not Jails
These essential demands have been opposed by most Big City US Mayors.
So….Listen Up Mayors.. We are the 99%
In the SF Bay Area,
Gentrification and Home Foreclosures
only serve the 1%
WE MUST RESIST TOGETHER
also see http://www.ussocialforum.net/ussfgoals
The Oakland Livable Wage Assembly builds community and power among those who seek higher wages and better work life conditions for area workers. We meet every second and fourth Tuesday of the month.
Our work together encompasses:
- (1) the concerns of precarious, contingent and care workers;
- (2) current 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.
We look forward to learning with you and making change for the better. Please love and support one another. We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win.
- student debt resistance
- organizing for public banking.
- advocating for Postal banking.
- ongoing study group
- helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- our famous Strike Debt radio program
- our next Debtors’ Assembly
- saving the Berkeley Post Office and stopping the Staples non-union takeover of good Post Office jobs
- and much more!
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
Malcolm X and Black Liberation
In honor of the 90th birthday of Malcolm X (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), we have invited Gerald Smith, of the Oscar Grant Committee, to speak on the life and death of Malcolm X and his continuing relevance for the Black Liberation struggle.
Open Circle, first and foremost, is an opportunity to build community with one another. Secondly, it is a space to reflect and collaborate on strategies and actions to bring an end to these egregious crimes.
Please join us for the Potluck at 3:00 pm followed by the Open Circle at 3:45 pm. Please bring a dish or snacks to share!
Open circle will begin with speakers who have lost their loved ones to police violence. Then updates / announcements of upcoming actions followed by reflection and dialogue around the current state and thoughts or approaches on how to effect change.
We will end with working groups to organize and plan next steps in the struggle.
Solidarity is afoot so bring your ideas!
Notes from last meeting:
omnicommons.org/connect
We will be reading the introduction and first chapter of To Our Friends, the newly released book from the Invisible Committee. Bring food and refreshments. Some will be provided. Hard copies of the first chapter will be available, but those with copies are encouraged to bring them.
Come learn about continuing developments in the battle save the Berkeley Post Office 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.
The postal service wanted to sell the post office to Hudson-Mcdonald, a local developer. The City of Berkeley sued the post office to stop the sale. Hudson-Mcdonald backed out of the deal in early December.
There was a hearing in Federal Court on December 11th. There was another hearing in March 26th. Federal Judge William Alsup decided to dismiss the lawsuit because the Postal Service says it is not currently selling the building. But we’re not fooled. The Postal Service could “find” a buyer at any moment. Fortunately, the Judge ordered the Postal Service to provide 42 days notice before any sale, so that the lawsuit could be refiled.
Check out our response to the Judge’s order.
Check out the Community Garden at the Post Office.
Also 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.
Action Council Forum to coordinate actions
June 19-22, San Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee is hosting the 83rd Annual Conference of Mayors.
Around 200 Mayors, their families and corporate sponsors will be in attendance.
This is an opportunity to raise issues LOCALLY and NATIONALLY, that are of concern to us, The People, that the mayors have resisted and refused to act upon, or acted on against the interest of The People.
For instance:
“Black Lives Matter” ~ Police Militarization and Excessive Use of Force ~ Racism ~ Gentrification of our Communities ~ Homelessness ~ Privatization of our Commons ~ Homophobia and Trans-phobia ~ Immigration ~ the Environment ~ Corporate Greed ~ the People’s taxes being spent on wars enriching the 1% and not serving the needs of the people and more.
Let’s get ready NOW and send a message to the Mayors of this nation that they need to� Listen Up!
All are welcome
!
Announcements will follow. Donations gladly accepted; no one turned away!
Info: bob71947@aol.com
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LOCATION CHANGE: PREVIOUSLY THIS LISTING HAD THE IMPACT HUB AS THE LOCATION. NOW AT THE OMNI!
Join Oakland Privacy Working Group to organize against the Domain Awareness Center (DAC), Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub, and other invasions of privacy by our benighted City Government, and to support privacy ordinances now being considered by the Oakland City Council emerging from the effort to fight the DAC.
These pieces of legislation will be considered on May 26th by the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, and then later at a full City Council meeting. More information here. (That note says May 12th, but things got postponed on the 12th until the 26th)
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
The Anti-Police Terrorism Project is a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee that in coalition with other organizations like the Alan Blueford Center for Justice, Workers World and Healthy Hoodz is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.
We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.
We meet the 3rd Wednesday of every month.
Talking Richmond, Talking Politics!
Our focus this month: Talking Housing
The RPA Housing Action Team reports. Learn about the work the HAT’s doing on affordable housing, in lieu fees, city planning & neighborhoods.
And much more…
Participate and guide RPA Standing Committees and possible new Action Teams.
The Membership Committee wants your input
Health Action Team (HAT: DMC/Health related),
Education Action Team (EAT);
Police/Community Action Team (P-CAT: Pedie Perez/Justice/Community Safety) ,
Global Campus.
And we’ll revisit RPA’s mission statement: What’s our aim?
San Francisco is hosting the 83rd Annual Conference of Mayors June 19th, 2015 – June 22nd.. Around 250 Mayors will be in attendance. This is an opportunity to raise issues locally and nationally that are of concern to us.
- Black Lives Matter
- Gentrification
- Homelessness
- Privatization
- Homophobia and Transphobia
- Immigration
- The Environment
- Corporate Greed
- Wars not People
All are welcome to help plan for actions.