Calendar
BAY AREA: EMERGENCY ACTION TUESDAY: Last night, Israeli military’s genocidal assault targeted Rafah, the city that holds more than 1.4 million Palestinians, the majority of whom were displaced from elsewhere in Gaza. Over 70 martyrs and over 230 injured have already been reported in the US-funded Israeli strikes targeting homes, and mosques where many were sheltering. Israel is threatening a ground invasion in Rafah. We call on our community to take the streets to defend Rafah, Gaza, and all of Palestine. We assert that Rafah is a red line, and must mobilize to demand an end to this genocidal assault. HANDS OFF RAFAH NOW!
Are you a San Francisco resident against Prop E? Join us TOMORROW at 9am, in front of San Francisco's City Hall along with @aclu_norcal and other speakers as we say NO on Prop E. #NOPEonE https://t.co/PnHFOSfZkk pic.twitter.com/TG20ndJCP9
— EFF (@EFF) February 14, 2024
* Hess is one of the “Uhuru 3” facing 10 years in prison under a bogus DOJ indictment attacking her free speech rights to support black liberation.
* Lawson will speak on the campaign to free Leonard Peltier, an Indigenous leader unjustly imprisoned for 46 years.
* Odom leads the Hands Off Uhuru Fight-back Coalition to fight the US government’s attempt to silence the anti-colonial freedom struggles.
In 2022, the FBI raided seven homes and offices of the Uhuru Movement and the US government indicted Chairman Omali Yeshitela and the Uhuru 3. In 1977, the FBI framed American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier. Both are attempts by the US government to silence the anti-colonial struggle.
Come to learn and to join the fight-back of African, Indigenous, Palestinian and all oppressed peoples for free speech and liberation! Free and open to the public. The event is both in person and also will be streamed live at https://www.youtube.com/@UhuruSolidarity
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
Written by: Cat Brooks
Starring: Margo Hall
Directed by: Elizabeth Carter
Produced by: Black Lives, Black Words
The Black Lives Black Words International Project, in partnership with the Lorraine Hansberry Theater and the Anti Police-Terror Project, is thrilled to invite you to the powerful cinematic experience that is BOTTLED SPIRITS.
A captivating exploration of race, identity and social justice, “Bottled Spirits”, was produced by an almost entirely Black Oakland-based film crew in the historic Esther’s Orbit Room.
We are also excited to announce that Bottled Spirits will be presented following a screening of the film ‘Rideshare’, a psychological thriller exploring themes of race and power dynamics. The feature promises to be a meaningful cinematic experience.
Following this double feature, we will be joined by celebrated television host and activist W. Kamau Bell who will be hosting a post-show discussion featuring the film’s writer, director, and star, Cat Brooks, Elizabeth Carter, and Margo Hall.
Join the national day of action on Presidents’ Day. Mass mobilization for Palestine in San Francisco at noon, Civic Center. #StopingIsrael #CeasefireNOW pic.twitter.com/VGm2kleFig
— AROC #FreePalestine (@AROCBayArea) February 17, 2024
MEETING ID: 864 6575 2525; PASS CODE: 465295
PHONE IN: 699-900 9128 US (SAN JOSE)
“What is truly ‘affordable’ housing in SF and how can we get it?”
SF Gray Panther membership meeting from 2:30 to 3pm.
The lack of truly affordable housing in San Francisco is a serious problem that we need to solve. What can we do about it? Will the city and state measures on the March 5, 2024 primary ballot help us meet the need for affordable housing in SF? What else is being done about it? Join us to find out. Bring your questions and comments to our SF Gray Panther forum
Please email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to get up-to-date location information or obtain Zoom meeting access info.
(THE JANUARY 17TH MEETING, 2024 WAS MOVED TO JANUARY 24TH)
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for privacy, surveillance regulation of both corporations and the state, and government transparency, around the Bay and nationwide.
We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, tracking equipment, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” — to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Check out some of what we worked on in 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network. We helped fight and in 2018 helped win the fight against Urban Shield.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition and other analytics, mass aerial surveillance, ubiquitous license plate readers, and street surveillance, and fighting to ensure local governments adhere to State privacy and transparency regulations.
On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/
Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy, and/or on Mastodon at https://mastodon.social/@oaklandprivacy
The Israeli state claims that its genocidal slaughter in Gaza is self-defense. To maintain the support of the Israeli population for its horrific assault, it has exaggerated the impact of Hamas’s attack on October 7 and hidden the brutal nature of its war on the Palestinians. Israel’s propaganda has been repeated by the U.S. media and by U.S. politicians who have given Israel’s bloody war their total support.
Tali Shapiro, Israeli anti-Zionist activist and researcher whose work has exposed the lies spread by the Israeli state, will be speaking to us live from Ramallah, Palestine. Tali has over a decade of experience in Palestine solidarity efforts in the West Bank and anti-Zionist protests in Israel. Today she is a coordinator of campaigns for the movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, the international effort initiated by Palestinian civil society organizations to apply moral, economic, and diplomatic pressure against Israel so long as the human rights of Palestinians continue to be violated.
zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82158800683?pwd=N2J6UjgxNWhNak1WRWdUdm9CUit4QT09
Meeting ID: 821 5880 0683
Passcode: 340756
Speaker: Andrew Feinstein
Andrew Feinstein, a former South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress will speak on
- Apartheid in South Africa before it was abolished vs. what is practiced by Israel, as a Zionist state.
- Antisemitism – what it is and its abuse by the defenders of Zionism.
- Israel in global arms trade, and how it serves imperial interests.
- What lessons of the struggle against apartheid in SA could be applied to the struggle against Zionism today?
Our Speaker, Andrew Feinstein, is a London-based activist, filmmaker, author, political scientist, and filmmaker. He is chairman of the AIDS charity Friends of Treatment Action Compaign and executive director of Corruption Watch UK
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1
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
Please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-greens-free-dinner-a-movie-discussion-series-tickets-786403252297?aff=erelpanelorg
Sausage Party is a 2016 adult computer-animated black comedy film directed by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan and written by Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg from a story by Rogen, Goldberg, and Jonah Hill. It stars the voices of Rogen (in a dual role), Kristen Wiig, Hill, Bill Hader (in a triple role), Michael Cera, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Nick Kroll, David Krumholtz, Edward Norton, and Salma Hayek. The film follows an anthropomorphic sausage who lives in a supermarket and discovers the truth about what happens when groceries are purchased leading him on a journey with his friends to escape their fate while also facing a lunatic and malicious douche who wants to kill him.
The film’s animation was handled by the Vancouver-based Nitrogen Studios. It is the first computer-animated film to be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The film’s rough cut premiered on March 14, 2016, at South by Southwest, followed by its general theatrical release in the United States on August 12, 2016, by Columbia Pictures.
The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its story, voice acting and humor, though its animation and heavy use of profanity received some criticism. It grossed $141 million against a budget of $19 million, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated animated film at the time until it was surpassed by Demon Slayer: Mugen Train in 2020.
Plot: Unbeknownst to humans, a supermarket called Shopwell’s is filled with anthropomorphic grocery items that believe that the human shoppers are gods who take purchased groceries to a utopia known as the “Great Beyond”. Among the store’s groceries is a sausage named Frank, who dreams of living in the Great Beyond with his hot dog bun girlfriend Brenda and his friends Carl and Barry. The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVAcTZKTgmc
Join the Oakland Greens for this free community event, Sunday, February 25. The Oakland Greens Free Dinner & a Movie Discussion Series is normally a hybrid community discussion event. [[Get in-persxn & virtual tickets and information thru http://www.oaklandgreens.org/events These community engagement hybrid events are held the last Sunday of the month January thru October.]] Due to a medical emergency this event will now be online only.
This is a 21 and up event unless with parental supervision.
People’s Park is currently barricaded by stacked shipping containers topped with razor wire and guarded round-the-clock, following a midnight raid in early January by combined police forces from UC, CSU, Alameda County, San Francisco City and County and the California State Highway Patrol, organized by the UC Berkeley administration. Why? “The existing legal issues will inevitably be resolved, so we are taking this necessary step now to minimize the possibilities of conflict and confrontation, and of disruption for the public and our students, when we are cleared to resume construction,” said Chancellor Carol Christ (The Berkeleyan, January 16, 2024). Like others in the flood of official campus public relations communications with which students, faculty and staff have been inundated since the Chancellor’s 2017 announcement of plans to build student housing on the park, this response falls short of explaining why there is such fear of “conflict and confrontation” and such strong opposition to these plans, even from students whose interests the plans are supposed to serve.
For a broader range of perspectives on what was and is going on at People’s Park, Teach-Ins have been organized by UC Berkeley students (January 24) and by community groups (February 4). Please join us for the next one. There will be ample time for Q and A. Fiat Lux!
Presenters:
Harvey Smith, organizer of the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group and project advisor for The Living New Deal, UC Berkeley Department of Geography
Tom Dalzell, labor lawyer and author of The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969
Tony Platt, author of The Scandal of Cal: Land Grabs, White Supremacy and Miseducation at UC Berkeley and affiliated scholar at Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society
Steve Wasserman, publisher of Heyday Books and park activist since 1969
Sylvia T, recent UC Berkeley graduate, independent archival researcher and People’s Park defender
Sara Pech, Historic Preservation Club, a UC Berkeley student group
Representative from the Suitcase Clinic, a UC Berkeley student group
Moderator:
Kristin Hanson, Professor of English, UC Berkeley
Join the East Bay community as we honor the legacy of Martyr Aaron Bushnell, who courageously gave his life to protest the ongoing genocide. Let us reground ourselves in his final words and our rallying cry: Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine
The global Insure Our Future campaign focuses on pressuring insurance companies to stop insuring fossil fuel projects. Join a global week of action to bring this demand to the streets.
Insure Our Future writes:
“In order to build a new fossil fuel project, companies need three things: permits, money and insurance. Without insurance, most new fossil fuel projects cannot go ahead, and existing ones must close. This makes insurance the Achilles heel of the fossil fuel industry. . . .
Insurance campaigning has already made new coal power plants almost uninsurable, threatening their viability, Coal companies are finding it increasingly difficult to access insurance cover even for their ongoing operations. Now we need your help to do the same for oil and gas expansion.”
The Oil and Gas Action Network is hosting the Bay Area action.
The Bay Area climate community is planning a local action in coordination with the “Insure our Future” Global Week of Action. Together we will hold the insurance industry accountable for its role in the climate crisis. Without insurance, most new fossil fuel projects cannot go ahead and existing ones must close. This makes insurance the Achilles heel of the fossil fuel industry.
More information: https://global.insure-our-future.com/global-week-of-action-2024/
On March 2, millions across the world will march for Gaza! Join us in San Francisco as we join the call to hit the streets!
Gaza is facing famine, its hospitals are besieged, threats of ground invasion in Rafah loom near, and Israel continues its onslaught on the over 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The mass movement for Palestine has led to the isolation of the US and Israel on the world stage. With growing internal divisions and heightened political pressure on Israel and the United States, it’s time to push even harder.
Our mobilizations in this moment can be more decisive than ever, and we must show our full strength now to ensure a lasting ceasefire and an end to the siege on Gaza.
All out for Rafah! All out for Gaza! Stop the genocide!
Please register in advance at
to receive your personal link to participate in this event online
One year ago, Pamela Price took office. She was elected Alameda County District Attorney on a reform platform that focused on rehabilitation and addressing police misconduct and corruption within the D.A.’s office. Less than 7 months later the recall campaign, part of a backlash to criminal punishment reforms and fear-mongering over crime by police and their political allies, began.
At this forum we will discuss what a criminal justice reform agenda looks like and examine the forces advocating a return to repressive measures that have never kept us safe. Our panelists are:
Walter Riley – civil rights attorney
Linton Johnson – Protect the Win Campaign
Please arrive early to place your order so that you do not miss any of the presentations.
An open discussion will follow the presentations.
We will be accepting donations which will be divided among the sponsoring organizations.
This event is sponsored by the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party,
the Alameda County Green Party and Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change.
For more information email <info@sudssnackssocialism.org>