“COINTELPRO Then and Now” with Claude Marks and Nathaniel Moore of the Freedom Archives

COINTELPRO is the FBI’s secret and illegal program to undermine and destroy popular movements for social justice that swept the US, beginning with the early civil rights movement and Puerto Rican independence movement in the 1950s, continuing to the 1960s/1970s. Orders to misdirect, discredit, disrupt, and neutralize progressive and radical organizations and leaders, up to and including outright assassination of leaders resulted.

9:00:    Coffee/socializing.  Breakfast is available for nominal fee.
9:30:    Program
10:30:    Questions, Comments, Discussion
10:45:    Adjourn
11:00:    Worship Services (in the Sanctuary)

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For more information about the Freedom Archives, go to:  http://www.freedomarchives.org)

Reem’s will be popping up at Linden Street Brewery every other Sunday, and will partner with local organizations to support their work. Critical Resistance Oakland is this Sunday’s partner, and will receive 10% of sales. Join us for freshly baked Arab street food while supporting the fight against he prison industrial complex.

Midnight Matt is gone. Matt was there many nights at the Post Office protest, providing his quiet solid security presence, filming during raids and bringing loads of food in the big wooden box on his bike.

I had a sorrowful surprise on Friday last…Matt Dodt died of a massive heart attack while working on a construction job in San Francisco. Except for some pains that might have been angina pectoralis last month, he had no prior history of cardiac trouble and was a strong, worker with a can do spirit.

Anyone who knew that hardworking activist, “midnight” Matt Dodt, is welcome at this or any of our memorial circles…there is one planned at OMNi Commons on Monday evening June 6 at 7 PM.

TURN UP with us at the June 9th Public Protections Meeting to OPPOSE Alameda County’s $61 million Santa Rita Jail construction project that has been approved without the community’s consent.

The jail expansion is being presented and folded into other projects as an “imporvement project” in order to gain supervisor votes. We need to flex our growing grassroots community power to our Board of Supervisors so they will prioritize spending on county care, not cages!

Will you be there to help us change the tide right here in our community? Offer your public comments to prioritize spending on mental health and community-based programs.

We encourage community members to join us outside at the Alameda County Administrative Building at 9:30am. We will then move into the county chambers at 10am to collectively voice our opposition.

Join us for a town hall- let’s win 1400 jobs. It’s time for Alameda County to act by employing people impacted by the criminal justice system and youth in the school-to-prison pipline.

Pre-Registration form: http://bit.ly/jobs4freedom

Breaking Through Concrete – An Arts & Activism celebration

This is a celebration. This is a gathering of local organizations and artist from impacted communities on the front lines of oil refineries, coal and oil train fights, displacement and gentrification. We will showcase artist who are exploring the impact of interconnected social and environmental justice issues that threaten the health and safety of our communities and our future, and offering solutions. Come and celebrate our resilience, our creativity, and our power.

This FREE, All ages, event features speakers, performance artists, musicians, and poets such as:

David Solnit (Artist in Residence for 350 Bay Area)
AshEl SeasunZ (Earth Amplified & Hip-Hop is Green)
Khafre James (Hip Hop For Change)
Desarie Harp (Wappo Native Performer)
Ajman (Black Men Determination Project)
DJ Davey D (KPFA: Hard Knock Radio)
Aimee Suzara (Filipino-American poet, performer, educator)

Sponsors:
• Stand (formerly ForestEthics)
• Communities for a Better Environment
• Asian Pacific Environmental Network

Islam today is the world’s second largest and fastest growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith, discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims. A Jihad for Love was filmed in 12 countries and 9 languages and comes from the heart of Islam. Looking beyond a hostile and war-torn present, it reclaims the Islamic concept of a greater Jihad, whose true meaning is akin to ‘an inner struggle’ or ‘to strive in the path of God’ – allowing its remarkable subjects to move beyond the narrow concept of Jihad as holy war.

Sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Ctee as part of our Conscientious Projector series.

Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to survivors and victims of violence and police terror in Oakland.

The Baha’i 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.

May 14, May 21, May 28, June 4, June 11, June 18, June 25, 1-5pm

Using news photographs, memorabilia, reconstructed objects, documentary fragments, and original documents, contemporary artist Kate Haug re-tells the story of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last monumental social protest prior to his assassination. The exhibition features images and objects culled from Haug’s extensive research in the archives of the Associated Press, the popular press, and eBay, which have not been seen together before, bringing to life the complex ambition of King’s vision.

King began organizing the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC) in 1967 to unify America’s poor across class rather than racial lines, believing that economic parity was key to African American equality within the United States. The PPC culminated with a 3,000 person shanty town named Resurrection City, constructed on the National Mall in Washington DC. Resurrection City drew people from all over the country, was the nineteen sixties version of the 1932 Bonus March and a predecessor to “Occupy”. The exhibition time frame for this show mirrors many of the actual dates of the campaign, tracing the Resurrection City’s opening day to its final destruction.

The PPC echoes aspects of current social movements such as Black Lives Matter, Fight for Fifteen, and Our Walmart. In San Francisco, a city with one the highest rates of income inequality in the United States, King’s work asks pointed questions about the contemporary social contract and the democratic promise of America.

News Today: A History of the Poor People’s Campaign in Real Time runs from April 9, 2016 to June 25, 2016.

Gallery Talks:
Sat May 14, 2pm:
Justin Gomer Ph.D., Lecturer, American Studies, UC Berkeley
A discussion of the images in News Today as they relate to the shifting political landscape in the years after 1968.

Sat May 21, 2pm:
E.C. Feiss, Ph.D. Student, Art History, UC Berkeley
The Politics of Display

Inspired by Naomi Klein’s bestseller, this uplifting documentary portrays communities throughout the world living on the edge of climate change. Communities like West Oakland, now threatened by coal.

Please join the discussion at the end of the film.

Assistant City Administrator Claudia Cappio will speak at the Post Salon Community Assembly about the actions the city is taking on the Community Assembly’s 12 proposals as well as other actions of the city during Oakland’s 90-day Housing State of Emergency.

URGENT – HELP KEEP GAINS OF OAKLAND EMERGENCY HOUSING MORATORIUM

The Post Salon Community Assembly (with other local organizations) won a housing state of emergency that has lasted for the past two months. This ordinance has stopped hundreds and perhaps thousands of Oakland renters from having their rent raised above 1.7 percent (per year) and has prevented evictions without cause. But the ordinance ends on July 5. The Post Salon Community Assembly wants the city to take steps that will permanently protect the 60% of Oakland renters who typically earn less than $40,000 a year.

COME TO THE POST SALON TO DIALOGUE WITH CITY ADMINISTRATION ABOUT HOW TO MAKE THE GAINS OF THE EMERGENCY HOUSING MORATORIUM PERMANENT. (The Salon will also hear a brief report on the Police Commission initiative)

In March 2016, a delegation of 19 former prisoners, Black Panthers, activists and scholars convened by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, professor at San Francisco State University, visited Palestine. This was the first U.S. delegation to focus specifically on political imprisonment and solidarity between Palestinian and U.S. prisoners.

Join us for slides, stories, reflections and discussion. With:

Emory Douglas, Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party, Rabab Abdulhadi, Professor, San Francisco State University, and other delegation members.

Oakland’s rents are rising faster than almost every city in the United States creating a displacement crisis that touches all of our communities.  The crisis has particular negative impacts on Black residents that manifest in lack of access to quality housing, jobs, and education, as well as increased racialized profiling.

Meanwhile, the Oakland Police continue to be out of control.

STOP the hemorrhaging of severely impacted populations.

STAY – Retain current & long-time residents of Oakland.

EXPAND opportunities for displaced persons to return to the City.

and put the Oakland Police under civilian control.

The Week of Action is Supported by: ACCE Action, Anti-Police Terror Project (APTP), Community Ready Corps (CRC) and East Bay Organizing Committee (EBOC, Fight 4 $15).

Candlelight Vigil for #Orlando in #Oakland tonight. 8-10pm #OGP 14th & Broadway. Please bring items for an altar. pic.twitter.com/CnruKCB6YH

— Bri. (@zuchinno) June 12, 2016

Beloved Ones, the times are urgent and we must remember to love and hold one another. With the recent pains of the Orlando Massacre, we are reminded of the dangers that LGBTQI family members face every day.

I will be holding space at Henry J Kaiser Memorial Park for those who need a hug, a listening ear, a smudging, an energetic cleansing. Stop by to grieve, to ground for a moment of silence, to drum, to sing a mourning song. We will send metta and lovingkindness to our relations in Orlando who are suffering. Bring an item for the #LGBTQI altar if you feel called to do so.

Even if you cannot join us, please join us from wherever you are, in sending metta and prayers to the community in Orlando, and the family and friends of loved ones lost in this senseless and violent act. Feel free to share this invitation with others who may want to attend.

Come find me near the tree and “The Remember Them: Champions for Humanity Monument” in the park.

With all my love, Brenda

P.S. No charge. This is a love offering to community, and donations will be accepted but are not necessary. ♥ Please feel free to share with LGBTQI friends who may be needing energetic support at this time.

P.S.S. If you are a healer I know, and want to also offer support please private message me. Let’s offer space and healing to community together.