Location: Clark Kerr Campus, Berkeley, CA.

Maria Moore, sister to Kayla, will speak on a panel at the Veterans For Peace National Convention: “Standing at the Intersection: Wars Abroad and Struggles for Justice Here At Home.”

Usually when people think of violence and economic and social justice struggles in the United States they do not think about about wars abroad. However, racism, militarization and patriarchal domination are some of the forces responsible for the violence and victimization we see both at home and abroad. Join our panel as we discuss the militarization of the police, military sexual trauma and domestic rape culture and the intersection of the movement for Black lives and the struggle for Palestinian rights.

This panel will be moderated by Michael McPhearson, Executive Director of Veterans For Peace. Panelists include Suhad Khatib, Maria Moore and Monique Salhab.

For more information visit: http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/

We wanted to invite you to a BBQ this Sunday 8/14 from 1 to 4pm to honor the life and legacy of Uncle Ernest Thorton, former homeowner of 835 Page Street in Berkeley, and show our support for the countless other families who are experiencing the loss of their homes. We’ll be at Uncle Ernest’s house at 835 Page Street in Berkeley. There will be free food and music as well as children’s activities, so bring the family!

You can RSVP for this event here. Please invite your friends and family!

We do this to hold space and bring attention to the legal sanction of Black displacement and the plunder of Black homes in the Bay Area and across the country. In this case, and many others, probate court is used as a means to seize the assets, property, and basic inheritance of Black families. The redlining, institutional housing discrimination, and predatory lending practices that have made it so hard for Black families to preserve wealth and stability are being systematically reinforced by the court system. But we continue to resist.

We need your support in stopping the sale of this home and preserving it for Uncle Ernest’s family, and on Sunday, we’ll do it together in a spirit of fun and community. “An injustice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.” We hope to see you this Sunday.

Berners, Greens, Leftists, Progressives, and Socialists, Let’s grow & unify the political revolution! What should we do now? THE GREEN PARTY of Alameda County invites you to come TALK ABOUT IT on Sunday 8/14, 5 pm (sharp) to 7 pm, in North Oakland. Speakers include Laura Wells, David Cobb, Tom Gallagher, Wyatt Ratliff, Pat DeTemple and Isra Allison
See full description: https://acgreens.wordpress.com/green-sundays/

Veterans For Peace is hosting a concert and public awareness event in honor of the innocent victims of gun violence. From the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida to the countless young black men and women lost at the hands of police, our communities are at war. This concert is a vital step forward in our mission to educate people about the true costs of war and bring about peace at home and abroad.

Confirmed performers are:
Jeff Turner
Mike Rufo & No Exit
Emily Yates
Miles Megaciph
Pat Scanlon
Jim Toler
Peter Tracy
and the
VFP Chorus.

Outraged and healing political music from multiple artists, spanning genres and regions of our country coming together to raise awareness and spread peace. VFP brings Hip-hop to the famous Freight and Salvage stage for the first time!

General Admission is $20. Buy your tickets in advance for this sure to sell out event at vfp8-14.brownpapertickets.com or any of three Bay area Pegasus Bookstores. Freight and Salvage has a 440 person capacity. All Ages Welcomed.

Register For the convention online:
http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/register.htm

National Call for a State Of Emergency/Moratorium on all PoLice Use of Force

As the most impacted, the poor, unhoused, Black, Brown, indigenous and disabled mothers, uncles and fathers who are becoming increasingly terrified for our children’s lives in this climate of post-colonial power abuse, we are releasing a national state of emergency/moratorium on the use of all force, weaponry, robots by these tax-payer paid for pedophiles, murderers and child abusers.

Due to the extreme danger, murder, and ongoing targeting of young peoples of color, Trans peoples, disabled and unhoused peoples by police forces in the US, We the targeted, criminalized, injured, unhoused Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples hereby call for a State of Emergency – Moratorium on the use of any firearms or weaponry by all police forces in the US. Specifically weaponry, tasers, guns, AR15 rifles, UZI’s, etc while on duty as police officers in any line of duty for the 90 day period following the call for the Moratorium.

We as community advocates and members of the most impacted peoples understand that many police agencies across the US have implemented CIT training programs, with little or no change in the ongoing murder and severe abuse of poor, Black, Brown and disabled people.

We need to change the focus from what the police needs to what the community needs. We need to look at other models where the community refocus on what the community need from Denver, CO where the community set up a neighborhood awareness program around autism so parents can call on neighbors not police.. Basically there needs a transition from putting funds to police to neighborhoods solutions…

In this 90 day period, it is our goal to explore the option of completely disarmament of police forces as well as the multitude of community based solutions that have been discussed, explored and conceived by movements of impacted peoples across the US and in other countries whose police forces do not use weaponry at all.

The money that will be saved from the continued purchase of high grade, murderous war weaponry which costs millions of dollars in tax -payer dollars can be redistributed to impacted, injured, unhoused,targeted, and po’Lice terrorized Black, Brown, injured, colonized, incarcerated and criminalized famlilies, elders, youth and community.

This call is being made in honor of so many of our Black, Brown, Indigenous, Disabled, Trans Children who have been abused, murdered and/or shot as of July 2016

Co-signers, endorsers so far include Idriss Stelly Foundation, POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE, Krip Hop Nation, Justice for Josiah Campaign, Peoples Commission for Justice, Justice4Josiah, The Anti-Police Terror Project, California Coalition For Women Prisoners.The Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (CCRA), Answer Coalition

If you would like to add your organizartion, family , coalition or community as an endorser please email poormag@gmail.com- If you would like to hold a press conference in your town, barrio or neighborhood outside the Bay Area on the same day please let us know so we can help you promote it

Two articles related to the National Call:
http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5562
http://www.poormagazine.org/node/5561

While the nation focuses on this year’s divisive presidential contest, it is worthwhile to look back at RFK’s bridge-building campaign of 1968, which reached its zenith with his win that summer in the California primary.

Former Boston Globe reporter Larry Tye will present on his newly released biography of Bobby Kennedy which traces his transformation from the cold warrior he was at the beginning of his public life to the hot-blooded liberal he’d become by the end.

FEATURED GUEST: DANIEL ELLSBERG

We are extremely pleased to announce that Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers and was a target of Nixon’s illegal activities, was a friend of RFK and will be joining this conversation as we look back on 1968.
Learn more about Daniel and his enduring legacy here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg

==============

Event Details:
• Free event – please RSVP of the Facebook page.
• Mr. Tye’s book will be available for purchase.

Schedule:
• 6:30pm Doors open
• 7-8pm Program with Larry Tye and Daniel Ellsberg
• 8-8:30pm Mingle

==============

A review of Mr. Tye’s book from the Sunday’s NY Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/books/review/bobby-kennedy-biography-larry-tye.html?_r=0

An interview about RFK on NPR”s Fresh Air: http://www.npr.org/2016/07/05/484780316/from-runt-of-the-litter-to-liberal-icon-the-story-of-robert-kennedy

Support the ex-Calavera workers in their class-action lawsuit by packing the court for their official public hearing!
Apoyemos a los ex trabajadores de Calavera en su demanda colectiva al llenar la corte para su audiencia pública oficial!

Earlier this year, 3 workers were terminated from Calavera, a high-end Mexican restaurant in Oakland, without receiving their final wages. Throughout their employment, these workers worked off the clock and were denied rest and meal breaks without proper compensation. Since the filing of this class-action lawsuit, two other former employees have joined, citing similar allegations of theft and abuse.
Al principio de este año, 3 trabajadores fueron despedidos de Calavera, un restaurante Mexicano de lujo en Oakland, sin recibir sus salarios finales. A lo largo de su empleo, estos trabajadores trabajaban fuera de su horario y se les negó descansos y pausas para el almuerzo sin compensación adecuada. Desde el inicio de esta demanda colectiva, otros dos ex empleados se han unido, citando acusaciones similares de robo y abuso.

Please join us in supporting the workers at this important hearing by packing the court THIS Tuesday! As a community we will come together to show our strength and resilience–we will not stand for exploitative practices that hurt our friends and family!
Por favor, únase a nosotros en el apoyo a los trabajadores en esta importante audiencia para llenar la corte el ESTE Martes! Como comunidad nos uniremos para mostrar nuestra fuerza y resistencia – no vamos a aceptar las prácticas de explotación que perjudican a nuestros amigos y familia!

See you at court!
Los vemos en la corte!

The goal of the meeting will be to celebrate this key victory, brief folks on the measure & discuss what it will take to win this November!

If you find yourself face-to-face with injustice, you don’t have to feel powerless. With a phone or other recording device, you can make a profound difference. Learn to share what you see. Join BAVC, Berkeley CopWatch and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for an informative evening about your rights when documenting injustice, where to send your videos, and how to stay safe while doing so. Admission is free.

Bethany Woolman is a communications strategist with the ACLU of Northern California. This year, she’s worked to publicize and expose the covert use of social media surveillance software by police, censorship of students’ political expression in the Central Valley, reproductive health violations in California jails, and discriminatory policies in local traffic courts. Bethany is also an artist, filmmaker, and restorative justice practitioner. She graduated from Stanford University, and has called the Bay Area home since 1989 – the same year a chimney fell through her kitchen window during the Loma Prieta earthquake.

As a founding member of the first Copwatch group (Berkeley Copwatch), Andrea Prichett has been watching the police for over 26 years. From protests to patrols, Andrea has documented police activity in cities around the U.S. and helped to create some of the most basic educational materials for the Copwatch movement including, “The Copwatch Handbook”, the Copwatch “Know Your Rights” presentation and she also contributed to the video “These Streets Are Watching”. In addition, Andrea has facilitated a UC Berkeley DeCal class, “Community Based Police Accountability” for over 15 years.

East Bay Democratic Clubs to Host David Dayen, Author of the Award-Winning Book “Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud”

The Lamorinda Democratic Club, Diablo Valley Democratic Club, San Ramon Valley Democratic Club, Contra Costa Young Democrats, and Democrats of Rossmoor invite you to join them as author David Dayen discusses his new book on Tuesday, August 16 at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center’s Community Room. The ocial time will begin at 7 p.m. with Dayen’s presentation to follow at 7:30 p.m. and a book signing with the author to follow at 8:30 p.m. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.
“Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud” was the 2016 winner of the Ida and Studs Terkel Prize. The book tells the dramatic true story of how, in the depths of the Great Recession, a cancer nurse, a car dealership worker, and an insurance fraud specialist helped uncover the largest consumer crime in American history—a scandal that implicated dozens of major executives on Wall Street. They called it foreclosure fraud: millions of families were kicked out of their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies that had no legal right to foreclose.
Lisa Epstein, Michael Redman, and Lynn Szymoniak did not work in government or law enforcement. They had no history of anti-corporate activism. Instead they were all foreclosure victims, and while struggling with their shame and isolation they committed a revolutionary act: closely reading their mortgage documents, discovering the deceit behind them, and building a movement to expose it.

The New York Times called Dayen’s book a “gripping story of foreclosure fraud,” Publisher’s Weekly said that Dayen’s “absorbing account grabs the reader early on and doesn’t let go,” and Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book is, “an inspiring, well-rendered, deeply reported, and often infuriating account.”
Dayen, currently touring the country to support the book’s release, is a journalist who writes about economics and finance. He is a contributing writer to Salon.com and The Intercept, and writes a weekly column for The Fiscal Times and The New Republic. He also writes for The American Prospect, Vice, The Huffington Post, and more. He lives in Los Angeles, where prior to writing about politics he had a 15-year career as a television producer and editor.

East Bay Homes not Jails in Collaboration with Liberated Lens present:
Occupy Everything: Films, panel, and discussion exploring open/public
occupations as a direct action tactic.

All proceeds to benefit the Omni Commons and the people of Oaxaca.

Films Include:

-A film about the 4/1/12 occupation of 888 Turk St in San Francisco

-The Battle of Oakland: the story of #j28 aka Occupy Oakland Move-In Day

-Stimulator Film on contemporary history of the struggle in Oaxaca

-Nochixtlan tierra de gente valiente: a film about the current
struggle in Oaxaca

Panel and open discussion to follow the films.

It is time for action! Join us in Sacramento on August 18th to demand that Peace Officers Bill of Right be repealed Come out to support families whose loved ones have been killed by Police. This is a Bill supported by Police and Law Enforcement Agencies to kill innocent citizens with impunity. It seems like there was a call for all white males to be deputized because there are 18000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. Even when there are black and/or brown in those positions they align themselves (by and large) with the Blue Wall of Silence. Yet some of these same Officers have been shot and killed themselves by White Officers.

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignoranceprevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
― Frederick Douglass

The ACLU of Southern California has been working to understand how many people have been killed by law enforcement in America’s most populous state. What they found is alarming. Over a six-year period that ended in 2014, California’s Department of Justice recorded 610 instances of law enforcement committing homicide “in the process of arrest.”
1. Whites were killed at 78 percent the rate one would expect if killings were distributed evenly across the state’s population.
2. Hispanics were killed at 115 percent the expected rate,
3. while blacks were killed at 280 percent the expected rate.
The killings described above are the ones recorded as police murders and does not cover suspected police killings of black and brown.

When not being killed out right we are wrongfully prosecuted and/or given disproportionate sentences to white offenders. We are demanding that the Legislature and Governor Brown take Action by repealing this racist Peace Officers Bill of Rights!

Pack the Court for the Preliminary Hearing!

New Video on the #LandAction4 – it's awesome. Watch this and support Aug 18th at Alameda Court Aug 18th https://t.co/pEEtgfueVx #LandAction

— Occupy Oakland (@OccupyOakland) August 15, 2016

My name is Isidoro Saravia Ramos. I worked for the Casino San Pablo for 15 years, and I’ve spent many years standing up for my co-workers as a union leader. I got injured – and then I got fired.

I have knee and back problems and I needed surgery. But the Casino only lets us take 3 months of medical leave. I couldn’t recover so fast, so I lost my job. (Please read more about my story and donate to help with my surgery if you’re able!) It’s terrible for pregnant women who work at the Casino. Management lets people smoke inside, so women have to take time off if they don’t want to breathe second-hand smoke while they’re pregnant. If a woman uses up her time off during pregnancy, she can’t take more after the birth – so she has to choose between breathing smoke and losing time with her new baby.

If a woman needs more than three months to care for her baby or recover from a cesarean, she can be fired!

Other California workers have more protections when they are sick or injured or have babies. But this casino is owned by a tribe, so we don’t have the same rights – to California pregnancy disability leave, California workers comp, or even a smoke-free workplace.

Join my co-workers and I for an action to show the Casino we deserve the same rights as other Californians!

In solidarity,
Isidoro Saravia Ramos

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The SF Unitarian-Universalist Center will show films on the environment every Friday this month. .

The next film, Aug 12, “Unacceptable Levels” tells the story of the inadequate federal measures to keep toxics out of our environment. A speaker from the EPA will help make sense of the situation and the new law recently passed.

In “Evolution of Organic,” showing Aug. 19, the story of the organic agriculture movement is told by those who built it – and looks ahead to the next generation of growers.

In “Bill Nye’s Global Meltdown” showing Aug 26, Nye goes to a psychoanalyst’s couch to struggle with his emotions about global warming and what to do about it.

Written and performed by
Charlie Hinton
Music by Bill Crossman
Directed by Mark Kenward

Charlie created Solitary Man based on letters and visits with prisoners in Pelican Bay SHU/solitary confinement. The show takes place in November, 2014, a year after the largest prisoner hunger strike in history.

This performance is a benefit for the coalition to Stop Urban Shield and militarized policing.

After the performance, we will have an update about Pelican Bay and discuss how and why people across California are mobilizing to stop the Urban Shield military expo and SWAT competition on September 9.

Sponsored by: School of Americas Watch East Bay; Stop Urban Shield Coalition; American Friends Service Committee.