The images are jarring. Immigrant kids in cages. No room to lie down. No running water. Immigrant detention centers are the concentration camps of our time. Our duty is to #Closethecamps and give respite to and welcome those who have had to endure them. Join SURJ-BA and the Asylum Seekers Sponsorship Project for an informative “webinar” t find out how you can sponsor (host) and/or accompany folks who have arrived in the current migratory wave.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please download the free Zoom app.

WPA Berkeley Walk

This walk will explore the “New Deal nexus” in Berkeley that includes Berkeley High School, the Community Theater, Civic Center Park, Post Office art, the old UC Press Building (now being repurposed as the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), and the old Farm Credit Building. The tour will also include the incredible mosaic mural on the UC Berkeley campus, photographs of the California Folk Music Project, Western Museum Laboratory, WPA prints at the Berkeley Public Library, and WPA projects on the UC Berkeley campus.

See also: http://www.newdeallegacy.org

The images are jarring. Immigrant kids in cages. No room to lie down. No running water. Immigrant detention centers are the concentration camps of our time. Our duty is to #Closethecamps and give respite to and welcome those who have had to endure them. Join SURJ-BA and the Asylum Seekers Sponsorship Project for an informative “webinar” t find out how you can sponsor (host) and/or accompany folks who have arrived in the current migratory wave.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please download the free Zoom app.

This month’s all-member meeting will be a chapter discussion on the role of DSA locally and nationally. What should our strategy be for winning things like a Green New Deal or M4A or social housing? What does the socialist fight look like on the local vs. national level? What is DSA’s place in the labor movement and in fights against oppression?

We’ll hear thoughts on strategy from a panel of speakers representing different political tendencies and then we’ll have an all-member discussion on the subject, both in small and large groups. There will also be member announcements and a chance to informally connect with our delegates for the national convention.

We need volunteers! From setup to sign-in to mic-running, volunteering for our meetings is lively, easy, and low-commitment. Click here to volunteer! Use this form, too, if you have child supervision or accessibility needs, including the need for an ASL interpreter.

Our next voting General Meeting will be in August. Member-submitted resolutions will be accepted on a rolling basis—please email them to resolutions@eastbaydsa.org. The submission deadline for each meeting is three weeks in advance of the meeting itself.

Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid at OICC

El- Hajj Malik El-Shabazz / Malcolm X & our continuum of Struggle. A comprehensive examination of the global legacy of El Hajj Malik El-Shabazz / Malcolm X, within the context of the struggle for Black Liberation, Human Rights, and the establishment of Al-Islam in America.

Join us for our monthly farm party! Enjoy farm produce cooked on the grill, tend to the organic veggie beds, and take home donation-based produce.

Activities include:
• Harvesting organic produce! This helps our weekly farm stand get fresh food to the community.
• Planting! We have lots of starts to put in the ground. Starts are available to take home, as a part of our fundraiser.
• Weeding, prepping beds, and mixing compost

Connect with the Earth while helping cultivate the nourishing fruits and vegetables that help feed the Bay Area. Create new relationships with local community members, spread happiness to the neighborhood, and promote positive change for the environment. Invite your friends; all are welcome!

* This is a monthly event so if you can’t make it this month, save the date for next!

CODEPINK GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE PEACE WALK!
Our focus this month:
Immigrants rights/getting children out of cages/family separation
Some signs provided, or bring your own.
Dress warmly. It’s often chilly and windy on the bridge.
EVERYONE WELCOME. BRING YOUR FAMILY!
Suggested messages:
LEAVE NO CHILD BEHIND
FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER
REUNITE FAMILIES
NO BORDERS ON STOLEN LAND
NO BAN, NO WALL
SANCTUARY FOR ALL
CLOSE THE CAMPS

1:45 am: Gather at the plaza at the SF end of the eastern walkway of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Arrive early for best parking. We’ll take some photos while waiting for folks to show up.

Noon: Walk on the eastern walkway, from the south end to the middle of the bridge, where we’ll stop and hold a 15 minute vigil, showing motorists our signs (Berma-shave style, at least 10 feet between each sign/person). From there, we’ll return to our starting point in the plaza at the south end of the bridge.

1:30 pm: Photo ops and Closing Circle/Open Mike (no megaphone) on the SF side after the bridge walk. We’ll probably be finished by 2:00.
BE GREEN AND CARPOOL

How do we respond to violence within our own communities without relying on the police, prisons or other state systems? This event will offer a basic introduction to and overview of the core concepts of transformative justice. It will be a space for participants to learn about transformative justice and how to begin thinking about community-based responses to violence. We will also cover the concept of “pods” from the BATJC. This will be an educational event with a Q&A.

We ask for a sliding scale donation of any amount to support the continued work of the Alternatives to Policing Coalition. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

The workshop will be led by Mia Mingus from the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC), a local collective working to build and support transformative justice responses to child sexual abuse. Mia is a writer, public speaker, community educator and organizer working for disability justice and transformative justice. She is a queer physically disabled korean woman transracial and transnational adoptee from the Caribbean. She works for community, interdependency and home for all of us, not just some of us, and longs for a world where disabled children can live free of violence, with dignity and love. As her work for liberation evolves and deepens, her roots remain firmly planted in ending sexual violence.

ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP SERIES

A growing coalition of organizations in the Bay Area is coming together to explore alternatives to calling the police to our campuses and into our neighborhoods. Over the coming year, we will be offering a series of workshops to explore alternatives to calling the police. Some of these workshops, like this one, will provide deepening analysis and a grounding in alternative ways of thinking about community safety. Others will provide practical skills. All of them will lift up a transformative justice framework and emphasize the importance of self care.

The Coalition includes First Congregational Church of Oakland, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Agape Fellowship, Qal’bu Maryam, Jewish Voice for Peace, Skyline Community Church, Oakland Peace Center, Oakland LBGTQ Community Center, the Omni Collective, and Black Organizing Project. We are eager to partner with additional organizations so please contact us if you are interested!

Folks from the Bay Area Landless People’s Alliance will be convening once again for a grill on Sunday the 21st this month; we’re trying to make this a monthly event. If you’d like to join the festivities, feel free to come on down. And if you’re able to bring something to contribute to the food we’ll have there, it will be greatly appreciated, but don’t let it stop you from joining us if you don’t have something to bring.

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

Join us in offering hot food, drinks, snacks, and solidarity to releasees and visitors at Santa Rita Jail!

Sign up here: https://forms.gle/MD3k85stxBkWTfL4A

Prisons function to repress, warehouse and extract labor from those that our state deems “criminal”, primarily those of us who are Black, poor, or mentally ill. We believe that solidarity is a weapon of resistance, and that we must respond to the basic needs of our community while also confronting state terror.

In honor of Dujuan Armstrong Jr. who entered Santa Rita Jail for a weekend sentence and never came home, we’re providing material support and direct care to folks at Santa Rita Jail as a small but meaningful way to address the harm caused by incarceration in our community. We do not positively engage with the racist pigs who work at the jail, as they are willing agents of the state that criminalizes and incarcerates us.

We’d love to see you there! Meet us outside of the Lake Merritt BART station at 4pm – we’ll drive out to the jail together from there. All are welcome, no experience required. Sign up here: https://forms.gle/MD3k85stxBkWTfL4A

Free public cultural film series centered on the historic commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of the first Africans brought to British North America. The series will feature a monthly film screening over 7 months, from February 2019 for Black History Month, through August 2019.

Food at 4:30pm
Film at 5pm

Apocalyptic visions of the future pervade today’s political spectrum. One of the more popular comes in two recent works — Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century — by Yuval Noah Harari. For him multiple total crises demand that humanity come up with a “clear idea of what life is all about.”

The debate over “the meaning of life” has been going on “for thousands of years,” but now, says Harari, time is “running out” for Homo sapiens.

From the start Marx grounded his new humanism in a unifying principle that speaks to today’s impasse in human thought and human experience.

Today’s reality demands clarity on meaning be­cause, according to Harari, “the looming ecological crisis, the growing threat of weapons of mass destruction, and the rise of new disruptive technologies will not allow” delay.

What does Harari’s perspective on mean­ing have in common with most of the Left? How is Marx’s perspective distinctive from both?

OCCUPELLA will be singing at the TAX THE RICH RALLY EVERY MONDAY from 5-6 on upper Solano Ave. in front of the (closed) Oaks Theater. Songbooks are provided.

(We’ll also be LEADING SONGS ON JULY 13 at NOON in Civic Center Park (across from Berkeley High and old City Hall). The City of Berkeley will officially recognize the human rights abuses at the border.)

East Bay DSA is proud to host author Eric Blanc and OEA  2nd Vice President Chastity Garcia for a panel discussion and Q&A on July 22 from 7:00-9:00pm.

Educators across the country are rising up against low pay, privatization, and austerity. Former high school teacher Eric Blanc has been on the ground reporting on this historic upsurge for The Nation, Jacobin, and The Guardian. His new book “Red State Revolt” describes the inspiring story of the teachers’ strike wave and analyzes why it points the way forward for all working people. Join us for a discussion of the strikes — from West Virginia, to Arizona, to Oakland — and their lessons for today’s struggles to defend our schools and public services for all.

Please join us from 6-7pm for an informal meet and greet, mingling, and refreshments!

Accessibility Information: 2nd Floor, accessible by stairs only

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