Please join us for our regular biweekly meeting of the Sunflower Alliance. (Yes, it’s Labor Day weekend, but come if you can.) We’ll discuss ongoing campaigns and future plans, the September actions, and other ways to fight fossil fuels and work for a just and sustainable world. Old friends and newcomers are equally welcome. We need your participation and your voice! Come early to hang out and share a. potluck lunch.
Potluck lunch 12:30 PM
Meeting 1 – 3 PM
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
Does your landlord keep raising the rent? Does he ignore repair requests? Are you fed up and want to do something about it?!
Join the Berkeley Tenants Union for our second general membership meeting! Whether you were previously or already are a member of BTU, or are interested in joining for the first time, you won’t want to miss this great meeting.
Doors open/sign-ins start at 6:15 and the meeting will start at 6:30. We’ll be serving light refreshments. The meeting agenda will be posted closer to the meeting date.
Berkeley tenants unite!
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The Berkeley Tenants Union (BTU) is dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of Berkeley renters through grassroots organizing, outreach, and policy advocacy. We believe housing is a human right and rent control is Berkeley’s most effective affordable housing program. We empower and educate tenants to preserve their right to stable, quality housing, because Berkeley is a better place to live when people from all walks of life can afford to make Berkeley their home.
Our goals Include:
• Supporting a contact person or tenant organizer in every rental building in the city
• Creating a force of renters with hundreds of due paying members
• Changing policy to benefit tenants
• Organizing tenants to protect them from threats, intimidation, and bribes that lead to the loss of our homes
• Empowering tenants through tenants rights education and advocacy training
The Berkeley Tenants Union is volunteer-led and membership-supported. We are only as strong as our members.
Berkeley tenants unite!
Website: www.berkeleytenants.org
Subscribe to Our Newsletter: www.berkeleytenants.org/newsletter/
Pay dues (sliding scale of $10-$27 per year): tinyurl.com/BTUPayPal
Join us as we learn about gentrification and the role it plays in the criminalization and displacement of communities of color. This is an open member meeting, you do not have to be a member to attend. Wheelchair accessible. Dinner will be provided.
Come by our open Delegates Meetings! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
This meeting usually happens in the Ballroom, but the the location may change depending on the access needs of people attending and other events taking place in the building.
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com
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.
This month’s all-member meeting will be focused on the role of socialists in the labor movement. We’ll talk about the history of labor movement, how members are engaging with their unions, and how DSA can support and strengthen union activity.
We need volunteers! From setup to sign-in to mic-running, volunteering for our meetings is easy and low-commitment. Volunteer here: https://forms.gle/NzYMzXKQYVy1mFUC8 . 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 October. 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.
Accessibility Information: The Omni Commons ballroom is wheelchair-accessible via a lift and has wheelchair-accessible restrooms, and we provide child supervision and wireless microphones with runners. It is also accessible by BART (1/2 mile walk from MacArthur Station) and by AC Transit bus lines 18, 88, and 12.
Diablo Rising Tide is excited to host friends from the Civil Liberties Defense Center for a two-part training – specifically geared towards people doing climate justice organizing. The training will be held at The Warehouse (955 7th St) in West Oakland Oakland, beginning at 3pm. The space is ADA accessible, and just a 10-minute walk from West Oakland BART station. There is limited street parking. If you require translation or other assistance – please let us know in advance!
We will have a 30 minute break between the sessions, and you can attend either training or both.
RSVP only, please sign up on this form to attend.
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The Civil Liberties Defense Center supports movements that seek to dismantle the political and economic structures at the root of social inequality and environmental destruction. We provide litigation, education, legal and strategic resources to strengthen and embolden their success.
Diablo Rising Tide is the Bay Area chapter of the Rising Tide North America network. Rising Tide is an all-volunteer climate network in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico who confront the root causes of climate change with protests and grassroots organizing.The larger Rising Tide network spans four continents and works with activists in North and South America, Europe, and Australia.
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
Attend the fifth annual Soil Not Oil International Conference to learn about practical steps to achieve environmental justice and steward a path towards a thriving planet. The conference will cover topics such as carbon sequestration, regenerative agriculture, soil ecology, and biodiversity.Monday, September 9, 8AM to Tuesday, September 10, 8 PM
Cost: 0 – $300
9/9: Will be discussing issues related to this Crackdown and our strategy for the next 3 to 6 months.
9/16: We have many, many issues to discuss, including the forthcoming visit of Donald Trump and Ben Carson.
OTU’s Mission
The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.
Monthly Meetings
The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.
If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.
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.
We meet on the 1st Monday of each month
You can join our discussion list by sending a blank (doesn’t even need a subject) email to
oscargrantcommittee-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
Attend the fifth annual Soil Not Oil International Conference to learn about practical steps to achieve environmental justice and steward a path towards a thriving planet. The conference will cover topics such as carbon sequestration, regenerative agriculture, soil ecology, and biodiversity.Monday, September 9, 8AM to Tuesday, September 10, 8 PM
Cost: 0 – $300
Want to get involved with SURJ Bay Area? Come learn about our current work and activities. SURJ moves white people to act for justice, with passion and accountability, as part of a multi-racial majority.
You will hear about SURJ’s pathways for entering the work, including committee work, upcoming workshops, and events. We’ll answer your questions and share how you can get involved in the movement for racial justice.
LOCATION AND ACCESS:
The Movement Strategy Center is located at 436 14th St., Ste 500, (5th floor) at the corner of Broadway (right next to 12th St station).
There will be a greeter in the lobby until 7:15, but please arrive by 6:45 to check-in and get settled so we can begin promptly at 7 pm. If you are driving, please try to carpool and arrive early to leave time to find a spot. Street parking is generally available in a 2-3 block radius.
BUILDING ACCESS
Folks have to sign in at the front desk when they arrive (and sign out when leaving), then take the elevator to the 5th floor.
What skills, tools and approaches are useful in encouraging white people to sustain balanced engagement with anti-racism/racial justice education and work? How can we cultivate resilience (as opposed to white fragility) in ourselves, our communities, and our movements?
White Fragility is defined by Robin DiAngelo as “A state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation (2011).”
What skills, tools and approaches are useful in encouraging white people to sustain balanced engagement with anti-racism/racial justice education and work? How can we cultivate resilience (as opposed to white fragility) in ourselves, our communities, and our movements? Resilience is, in part, defined as:
1. Staying with the conversation
2. Giving and receiving information and feedback from facilitators and peers without becoming highly defensive, reactive, or shut down/dissociated for long period of time
3. Managing the guilt and shame that can arise in learning about the history and current reality of race and racism in the US.
This workshop will explore the role of the body, community, spirituality, intellectual knowledge and other themes that you bring from your experience. We will cover basic information about how the brain and body responds to perceived threats, and explore how to work with this toward greater resilience in moments of challenge.
This workshop is for all experience levels. Participants will be invited to discuss in small groups, move around the space, and hold their bodies in different shapes for 1-2 minutes if available. Content will be presented in both verbal and written formats.
Sliding Scale: $15-$85. No one is turned away for lack of funds. Preregistration is required due to limited space and a pre-workshop assignment.
ASL Interpretation: Requests must be made at accessibility@surjbayarea.org no later than 9 PM, September 12.
Phase 1 of our ongoing campaign:
-Recruit more people, from different sectors of the community, to get involved with this issue.
-Educate the public about the need for a stronger police review function in Berkeley, especially given the continuing racial disparities in policing.
-Build public pressure on the Mayor & City Council to put the charter amendment (Arreguin/Harrison version, which is currently under consideration) on the 2020 ballot. The vote to put it on the ballot could come as early as September.
Phase 2
-If the Council puts the charter amendment on the ballot, we will be working to ensure that it gets passed.
-If they do not put it on the ballot, we have the other option of pursuing a signature campaign to get it on the ballot.
Our September General Meeting will be an informal gathering to greet new and ongoing rebels and help them plug in to upcoming events. We’ll be on the south side of the park – look for the Extinction Rebellion banner. Come on down!
After the general meeting, hang around for Swarming Training – as we go over what swarming is, how it works, how to be a police liaison and a lookout, and how to de-escalate tense situations. We’ll be doing plenty of practice and role play, so you’ll be well prepared for the swarming action on September 23rd. De-centralized “swarms” briefly stop traffic to cause POLITE disruption and hand out info to drivers about the climate crisis and upcoming actions. Please swarm with us!
Number needed: 25-50, all genders, aged 21�45 ideal (we want to look like the Montgomery demographic) for an action on Montgomery St., San Francisco during the Strike for Climate Justice on Sept. 25:
Action:
Persons dressed for success (wearing business attire) and wearing N95 masks or other respiration devices will walk up and down Montgomery St. on Sept. 25, handing out leaflets and/or carrying signs. You look like any other business person on Montgomery, except you won’t be on your phone, and you are wearing what we all may need to wear in 20-30 years: breathing masks.
Contact: MaryAnn at doctorpepp@protonmail.com
The 2018 Charter Amendment for a strengthened police commission is back for 2020.
Please join a short-term “push,” over the next two months, to get the amendment on the ballot. Community members will meet for an hour on Sunday afternoon September 15 to get organized for action.
This push will not require you to go door-to-door or get signatures on petitions. It will not require raising money.
All that is necessary is for you to talk to people you already know, in your organization, congregation, union, club, or family and friends, and persuade them to write the city council and mayor to vote the measure onto the 2020 ballot.
Please join us for a brief discussion
At this meeting we will give an overview of the proposed ballot initiative and share suggested talking points for Council outreach. We’ll leave plenty of time for questions and answers.
* * * * *
Background.
Who is organizing this push?
What is our immediate objective?
Resources:
Thanks for your participation in this historic campaign. Always remember that this is a simple matter of justice. Public safety requires the trust of the community, and a certain knowledge that policing is done impartially. This moderate initiative will enhance public accountability and improve the policing experience for everyone involved.
Contact RCJR at:
racialandcriminaljustice@wellstoneclub.org or
middeen@berkeleynaacp.com