Calendar

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Apr
20
Wed
ABC4J: Meditation Happy Hour @ Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice
Apr 20 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Join us for free weekly meditation happy hour on Wednesdays from 6-7pm at The Alan Blueford Center For Justice 2434 Telegraph Ave in Oakland, co-hosted by the Art of Living Eastbay Berkeley/Oakland.We will teach simple and easy guided meditation and breathing techniques to let go of stress and trauma, let your hair down, and celebrate!

We believe that love is the universal language. We also believe that love is the universal cure to heal what ails societies worldwide. These meditation happy hours are our love offering to the community and are the result of a beautiful new & evolving partnership w/The Art of Living facilitated by Neelam Patil…& the universe ♥

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Apr
21
Thu
SF Hunger Strike: Stop the Execution of Our People @ SF Police Station
Apr 21 @ 10:00 am – 11:45 pm
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Support the Coalition for Police Accountability: Eat at Cafe Eritrea! @ Cafe Eritrea D'Afrique
Apr 21 @ 11:30 am – 9:00 pm

 Eat at Cafe Eritrea D’Afrique.
Just stop in for lunch or dinner and tell them you are eating for the Coalition for Police Accountability. 20% of your bill total will go to the CPA.

This Eritrean cafe focuses on bold flavors in traditional stews, vegetable platters & honey wine.
  Phone:     (510) 547-4520
  Hours: 10:00 AM to 11:00 pm
Menu:
www.urbanspoon.com

If you can’t make it, you can make a donation at www.coalitionforpoliceaccountability

 

This funding will be used to print petitions for our Oakland Police Commission ballot measure, flyers, and order more tee shirts, among other needs we have.

Let’s make this a HUUUGE success – we intend to make this a regular feature, with new restaurants each time.

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Film Screening: Occupy the Farm @ Omni Commons
Apr 21 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

“Occupy The Farm” tells the story of 200 urban farmers who walked onto a publicly owned research farm and planted it with two acres of crops in order to save it from becoming a real estate development. The Village Voice calls the film, “Riveting from the start.” This story took place in the East Bay, and is still unfolding to this day.

The filmmaker and some organizers from Occupy The Farm will do a Q&A following the screening.

Seating capacity is limited to 45. First come, first served.

View Trailer

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Homes Not Jails Film Night @ Omni Commons
Apr 21 @ 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

As part of 8 days of anarchy, homes not jails will be screening films about squatter movements from around the world. This will be followed a panel and discussion about the films and squatting in general.

Donations will support east bay homes not jails and the omni commons.

 

60818
Apr
22
Fri
Stop Urban Shield Town Hall @ Eastside Arts Alliance
Apr 22 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Urban Shield is a weapons expo and war-like police training that brings together law enforcement agencies from across the country and world to learn how to better repress, criminalize, and militarize our communities.

It is a key player in creating militarized emergency response systems that make police the first responders to everything from climate disasters to uprisings. But as we saw during Katrina, when “public safety” relies on armed emergency management, communities of color, and particularly Black communities, become an “emergency” that need to be controlled and managed with a military response.

Join the Stop Urban Shield Coalition to learn about the fight and how to get involved. Space is wheelchair accessible.

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Is Climate Change Protest Broken? @ David Brower Center
Apr 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The “Is Climate Change Protest Broken?” panel will include Bay Area activists. The forum will conclude with a question-and-answer session moderated by Michelle Myers of the Sierra Club.

Micah White, one of the founders of the Occupy Wall Street protest movement, will participate in the forum on the past and future of environmental protest. White is the author of “The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution,” which contends that reliance on materialism, empiricism and scientism has limited the potential of environmental protest, necessitating a social revolution for individuals, communities and the planet.

 

60732
Reverend Billy, Author of The Earth Wants You @ Laurel Books, Oakland
Apr 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Laurel Bookstore welcomes Reverend Billy Talen, spiritual leader and global activist, to speak on Earth Day from his new book The Earth Wants You.

A preacher’s exhortation, an activist’s primer, inspired visions and a call to arms for a wild, creative, Earth-led cultural revolution.

Civic life in the time of climate chaos—floods, fire, drought and superstorms—will require intensive policing and social control. Governing bodies will transform and democracy will fall by the wayside; the banks and the power stations will be heavily defended; whole populations will be incarcerated. While this might seem like dystopian fiction, it’s actually a description of life as it’s lived in much of the world now, and will become the norm unless we can stop it. When the ocean is pouring in through the door, will we find the will to act before we drown?

This book is a call for action as extreme as the weather. It’s meant to radicalize those who didn’t think the climate crisis would require any risky personal commitment. The Earth revolution is upon us, and it must be as wild and as unpredictable as life on Earth itself! Earth-a-lujah!

Reverend Billy and his choir of singing-activists are on the front lines of creative direct action, and here they offer up a distillation of the passion, the inspiration, and the hopes for love and survival that fuel their work. In a mix of essays, polemics, surrealist scenarios and news flashes from the frontlines, Reverend Billy answers the question, “What are we to do?” with a resounding chorus of “Take Action NOW!”

60693
Apr
23
Sat
21st Annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair @ New Oakland Metro Opera House
Apr 23 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

The Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair is an annual event for people interested and engaged in radical work to connect and learn through book and information tables, workshops, panel discussions, skillshares, films and more! We create an inclusive space to introduce new folks to anarchism, foster productive dialogue between various political traditions and anarchists from different milieus, and create an opportunity to dissect our movements’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and tactics.

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Cesar Chavez Parade & Festival @ Dolores Park
Apr 23 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

This Earth Day 2016, MARCH FOR THE EARTH in honor of Cesar Chavez because environmental rights are human rights! Gathering at 10am at 19th and Dolores, the parade departs promptly at 11 to walk to 24th and Mission. The festival is on 24th Street between Bryant and Treat. Please don’t miss the music, speakers and community! Bring signs and friends! Organizations please call John (415) 312-6924 or email marchfortheearth@gmail.com if you would like to be listed in the parade roster.

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Abolition of Policing Workshop @ 3rd Floor
Apr 23 @ 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Want to learn how to work toward abolishing the cops? Want to hear how we challenge the notion that policing keeps us safe? CR Oakland regularly offers this workshop that looks at the role and history of policing in the U.S., the way it has impacted various communities, and how people have resisted and challenged its inherent violence. This workshop also goes over how we can reduce our reliance on policing by highlighting the various ways that building up community strength and practices lead to true safety that does not depend on law enforcement.

The building is wheelchair accessible. Please email croakland@criticalresistance.org to RSVP.

60843
EARTH DAY Defend the Land at the Gill Tract. @ Gill Tract Organic Farm
Apr 23 @ 12:00 pm – 11:45 pm

Join us to celebrate EARTH DAY WEEKEND at the Gill Tract where we will come together to BUILD OUR POWER and continue the fight to DEFEND THE LAND.

As many of you know construction has started on the southernmost part of the Tract below Monroe St. UC Berkeley has sold out that parcel of public land to be turned into a luxury senior housing complex. But we won’t let the rest of the southside of Gill Tract be paved into a corporate chain grocery store. It’s a critical moment as permits may be issued any day now. Let’s seize this weekend of celebrating and protecting Mama Earth to resist further threats to this historic farmland and greenspace.

We’ll have a weekend full of engaging activities planned including speakers, music, food, and much more, SO COME OUT ALL DAY EACH DAY AND PLAN TO STAY THE NIGHT.

Saturday 4/23
*12 Noon: meet on the corner of San Pable Ave and Monroe St.
*Activities will include altar building so bring decorative fabric, remembrance pictures/images, flowers, battery-powered lights, special/sacred objects, etc.
*5pm Speakers: TBA
*6pm Dinner served
*7pm Music: Future Twins, group jam, more (tba)
*Camp out under the stars!

Sunday 4/14
*We will go support the fun activities at the northside Community Farm.
*6:00 Dinner
*Night time film screening of “This Changes Everything” (the Naomi Klein film) w/ popcorn

60836
The ‘Must Go On’ Celebration. @ Downtown Berkeley Post Office Steps
Apr 23 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

What’s Next in the Fight to Protect Public Spaces, the Rights of Homeless People, AND Free Speech

BPOD-FIRST-flyer-4-23-2016

 

A press conference and celebration to discuss what’s next for the activists who occupied the grounds of the Main Berkeley Post Office for a year-and-a-half

Why: Though our occupation has been torn down, the fight to preserve public resources, free speech, and the rights of homeless people must continue

Though the Main Berkeley Post Office is not currently up for sale, the USPS continues to pursue a “shrink to survive” strategy by reducing and outsourcing services, chiseling away at union employment, and selling post offices around the country.  Management of this huge enterprise is neglected with only three Governors on the Board that is chartered for eleven.  The Postal Service continues to ignore the strong recommendations of its own Inspector General to correct anti-competitive practices in its real estate division and to pursue financial viability by offering banking services to its customers.

Allowing the USPS to wither in this way threatens the citizenry with the loss of universally accessible mail service, with a devastating injury to organized labor, with the elimination of public space on Main Streets throughout the country, and with the abdication of the Constitutional mission to provided a vehicle for the transmission of free speech.

During our 17-month occupation of the Main Berkeley Post Office, we expanded our mission to protest the criminalization of homeless people.  Solving the widespread social problems that result in homelessness is not, nor can it be, the job of the police.  We will continue to raise awareness of this strategic miscalculation by city officials and to demand that truly affordable housing be created for the homeless so they can spend more time putting their lives in order and less time shifting their belongings from pillar to post.

Our press conference will review the course of our 17-month occupation.  We will thank everyone who played a role in sustaining our presence on the grounds of the post office.  And we will discuss our strategies going forward:

– To organize community members to call out the USPS for not using the Main Berkeley Post Office to its full potential, and for not heeding their Inspector General’s recommendations to crack down on their real estate division and to institute postal banking.

–   To invite candidates for election in November to use the Main Berkeley Post Office as a backdrop for supporting union labor, for Main Street Not Wall Street, and for attacking the predatory fringe finance industry.

– To retain and build on the way we’ve used public space for free expression. No matter how one might speculate as to the reasons why the Postal Police tolerated our occupation for so long, we demonstrated that public officials may not have absolute control over the use of spaces they administer, but that communities can override authorities without relying on permits, petitions, lawsuits, lobbyists, threats, or bribes. We can just use those spaces.

– To continue to nurture the community garden that we planted on neglected post office property over a year ago, and to which we are currently denied access by US Postal Police.

Berkeley Post Office Defenders: http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/

First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999?ref=br_tf

BPOD is affiliated with Strike Debt Bay Area: http://strike-debt-bay-area.tumblr.com/

For more on the privatization of the USPS:

Saving the United States Postal Service as a Public Enterprise: http://tinyurl.com/ltqq7ng

Privatization Is Social Cancer; Saving the US Postal Service: http://tinyurl.com/mbcbzrf

 

60845
POSTPONED: Dinner and a (Great) Movie: Pride @ SEIU 1000 Hall, 2nd floor
Apr 23 @ 5:00 pm – 10:00 pm

 

 

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL SOMETIME IN MAY, DATE TO BE DETERMINED.

pride-movie-flyer

60793
Apr
24
Sun
4 Year Anniversary of Occupy the Farm @ Gill Tract
Apr 24 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

Celebrating 4 years at the Gill Tract! Food, live music, holistic medicine, and farmin’! We would love your help in making the magic happen sign up to volunteer at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b4faba729a3fe3-earth

 

60779
Berkeley Anarchists Conference @ Omni Commons
Apr 24 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm

The BASTARD (Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory And Research & Development) conference promotes multiple approaches to anarchism. Come and share yours. Come and participate in a commerce-free event with other anarchists to talk about the philosophy and theory of where we’ve come from, where we are, and where we’re going.

Every year we have a loose theme, to allow people who want a framework on which to base a workshop. The BASTARD Conference is an annual event and gathering organized by the Berkeley Anarchist Study Group, which is an open long running (10+ years) anarchist study group that meets every week on Tuesday @ The Long Haul Infoshop (3124 Shattuck Ave. Berkeley CA. 94705).

http://sfbay-anarchists.org/

60834
47th People’s Park Anniversary @ People's Park
Apr 24 @ 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm

It’s time to celebrate our History of Struggle!

Leave it to Diva
Skank Bank
Funky Nixons
Hali Hammer
Yukon Hannibal
Bogues
Tee Lewis
Bay Area Harmonica Club
Us
Steven Lewis
Max Ventura
Chanel
All Nations Singers
DJ Soul

Food Not Bombs Field Kitchen all day
Tables

Good Community Good Times…Details TBA

60820
Post Salon: Barbara Lee, Troy Williams @ Geoffrey's Inner Circle
Apr 24 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Congresswoman Barbara Lee & Troy Williams to Speak at Post Salon.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee will discuss overcoming barriers for the formerly incarcerated to vote and find jobs at next week’s Post Salon. Troy Williams, former San Quentin inmate, will respond.

The salon will also report on the housing moratorium, a local voter registration drive and the crisis of jobs and job training programs in Oakland, discussing the significance of what will be discussed at the Tuesday, April 26 Community and Economic Development Community Meeting.

RSVP online

60851
Open Circle ~ Families Fighting for Justice @ Omni Commons
Apr 24 @ 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm

59100
Occupy Oakland General Assembly @ Oscar Grant Plaza or basement of Omni basement if raining
Apr 24 @ 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm

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

ooGAOO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over four years! 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

  1. Welcome & Introductions
  2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
  3. Announcements
  4. (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

 

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