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ACTION HEADLINES!
Stories are reviewed and provided by Northbay MDS Committees.
from the Committee to Free 'em All! [link], weekly spotlight on political prisoners in the USA:
Kijana Tashiri Askari of California [link]
Hands Off Our Homes! [link]
* Justice for Sabrina Carter's family! (2014-04) [link]
Bay Area Solidarity Committee [link]
* M.E.ChX.A de CCSF [link]
Liaison group to the Solano Peace, Justice & Freedom Coalition [link],
* "Veterans Oppose US Troop Deployments near Ukraine" [link]
Peace and Justice on Good Friday...
* at Livermore Lab [link]
* at Beale AFB [link]
Committee for the Investigation of Civil & Human Rights abuse:
* Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa retaliates against students seeking justice for Andy Lopez [link]
* "UN Human Rights Committee finds US in violation on 25 counts", from the San Francisco Bay View newspaper [link]
* "Memphis leads nation in use of deadly force by police, activists charge" [link], 2014-04-16 by JoNina Ervin from Memphis Black Autonomy Federation [facebook.com/BlackAutonomyFederation]
Defend Nubia
[youtube.com/watch?v=21czrNVTJXs], posted 2014-04-29 at the "Defend Nubia!" Campaign video channel [youtube.com/channel/UCGG8nKOaUBgEG3ftNf_2q8Q]. This video contains testimony describing a video showing BART Police and Santa Rita Sheriffs holding a tag-team assault of Nubia Bowe, a 19-year-old New African woman who exhibited no violent behavior prior to the assault! Produced by the One Shot Away Coalition (Bay Area) [facebook.com/oneshotawayba]
One might think that based on the sordid history and negative press surrounding Oakland's law enforcement activity, officers would think twice before using excessive force on unarmed citizens.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for many black and brown youth who are overly scrutinized and policed simply for existing in the skin in which they were born, nor was it the case for Nubia Bowe on Friday, March 21, 2014. On this evening, officers responded to a complaint of two young performers soliciting for money on the train. Two male passengers, and friends of Bowe, were approached by officers at the Lake Merritt station, with a witness who identified the two young men as the guilty suspects. The men were instructed by the officers to get off the train for questioning. Some of the train's passengers stood up for the youth, telling the officers that young people they were looking for had already gotten off the train at the West Oakland station and that these three riders had not been engaged in the solicitation of passengers.
Bowe, a 19-year-old African American female and full-time student of a local security-training program, repeatedly iterated the group's innocence, telling the officers that they were in violation of the young men's rights. This "challenge", as well as mounting vocal pressure from other BART riders, agitated the officers who forcibly removed Bowe from the train. One officer threw the 5'0" tall, 105 pound teen into the platform and repeatedly "roughed her up" according to one passenger. "They kept slamming her around..her mouth was full of blood" as she was ushered by her attackers to the Lake Merritt station holding cell in preparation for transport to Santa Rita County Jail on one felony and three misdemeanor charges.
Bowe's first experience with the law quickly intensified at Santa Rita where she was taunted, battered, and denied serious medical care, as well as the usage of phone privileges by deputies at the County Jail; a jail whose condition is reported to be torturous in-and-of itself. "Three male guards and one female guard came in my cell and beat me up. They hit me then said that I assaulted one of them..they chained my wrists to my ankles and tipped me over onto the urine-soaked ground so I couldn't get up. I could tell they were trying to break my spirit" says Bowe about the four-night stay that resulted in two additional arrest charges being tacked to her quickly growing rap sheet.
Nubia is not yet out of the woods. As a result of the felony arrest, she was kicked out of her training program at the Treasure Island Job Corp where she was only 2 months away from graduation; she is facing criminal charges that can potentially impact the rest of her life, and she will forever have to deal with the trauma of her experiences.
Defend Black youth from the prison industrial complex! Please share this video far and wide! They're trying to throw Nubia BACK in jail. The campaigns for Peace and Justice are connected. The police, the courts and the jails are always messing with our Black sisters and brothers. Justice for Alan, Justice for Nubia, and all Black youth! Justice for ALL Victims of State and racist terrorism!
Committee to Defend Workers' Rights! [link], archive [link]
* "BART Union Busting Politician Funded By Chamber Of Commerce" [link]
* SA Labor Speaker to spotlight struggle of South Africa's workers on May Day 2014 [www.transportworkers.org/node/1210],
Mayday!
Defend the Human Rights of All Workers, across the world!
Photograph showing South African police during the 2012 massacre of labor union members at Lonmin's Marikana Mine in South Africa. Learn about the "Marikana Massacre" [link].
The "Marikana Massascre" is being seen across the so-called "free world", and the amount of repression being seen across the world is currently reminiscent of the extreme fascism seen of the 1980s against labor organizers in the so-called Third World, especially in Latin America and Africa.
A Mayday call to unions for international solidarity was initiated by the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, part of a campaign to welcome Brother Mphumzi Maqungo of South Africa to the Bay Area with a series of events and media coverage [TransportWorkers.org/node/1200], and to honor the victims of the Marikana Massascre and the ongoing campaign of repression against labor unions, generally. Committee members organized personal outreach with flyers to labor unions and workers calling for labor solidarity from the Bay Area to Africa, containing a biography of Mphumzi Maqungo, Political Prisoner Mumia's transcribed audio message of solidarity, and a list of endorsers. with outreach at a recent ILWU Local 10 meeting, at the AC Transit barns in Alameda County, and with workers and members of the community at the West Oakland BART station. The Solidarity Committee offered reimbursements and help to anybody up for the cause of solidarity outreach. Fellow community member Isis posted info up on IndyBay, and Carole Seligman put out information on Prison Radio, and Bay Area United Against War got the word out, too. Union endorsements include the ILWU Local 10 Executive Board, Oakland Education Association and Local 510 Sign and Display Workers Union. This is the power of independent labor organizing, the power of community media, and the power of the People!
Building towards Workers Power on May Day!
Info from the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee:
FROM MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA TO OAKLAND, CA: THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS POWER -
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the national treasurer of NUMSA and past chair of NUMSA’s autoworker shop steward network, to discuss these developments.
* Thursday, May 1st, 7:00 p.m. at the ILWU Hall, Henry Schmidt Room 400 N. Point St./Mason, San Francisco.
* Friday, May 2, 12 Noon at UC Berkeley, McCone Hall (Room 575).
* Saturday, May 3rd, 2pm. Black Repertory Theater; 3201 Adeline, Berkeley (one block south of Ashby BART).
The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 was a watershed victory. It culminated decades of struggle by the Black and Colored South African masses, a struggle supported by millions in the U.S. and around the world. The victory brought to power the Tripartite government of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Now, two decades later, the ANC-led Tripartite government represents big business’s interests -- especially the interests of U.S. and European-based banks and corporations. This has led the government to brutally attack workers who fight back against austerity. Indeed, in 2012, at the Marikana mine, this government massacred 34 striking miners at the behest of the mine owners. Black poverty has worsened. Inequality has worsened. Trade union officials collaborate with employers against workers, youth, and unemployed. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t the situation similar in the US, with union officials not fighting employer and government attacks on workers, like the machinists at Boeing corp. in Washington State? But in South Africa, there’s an exciting new development: for the first time since the fall of Apartheid, there’s a serious challenge to the Tripartite government’s rule, and it comes from the largest and most militant union in Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the COSATU leadership and called for South Africans not to support the ANC in this year’s elections. It is currently building a workers’party and united front to lead the struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization, and strike breaking.
Mphumzi Maqungo is the National Treasurer of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa). He was elected into this position at the June 2012 elective conference of the union. Before this, at different times, he served as both a Treasurer and as Chairperson of the Eastern Cape region of Numsa and for a short while served as the Regional Secretary in an acting capacity.
Comrade Mphumzi hails from South Africa’s sixth largest City, Port Elizabeth, which forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and is situated on the coast in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Aside from being the birthplace of Comrade Mphumzi the Eastern Cape is also the birthplace of many other prominent South Africans, including Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Steve Biko and the unions General Secretaries both past and present. The province is one of the poorest in South Africa. The City is also commonly known as the Friendly City, which provides an apt mimicry for the Mphumzi Maqungo the union loves and knows.
Comrade Mphumzi was born in one of Port Elizabeth’s best known and oldest townships, New Brighton, a township known for its strong politics (the first cell of the African National Congress's military wing Umkhonto We Sizwe was formed in New Brighton), its high levels of poverty (with an unemployment rate of around 80%) and high rate of HIV/Aids infections (about 30% rate of infection among its approximate 40, 000 local community). He was a keen sports enthusiast, playing as a striker in his local football team, while also being active in the student movement and later in his life in the African National Congress (ANC) youth league and local branch.
The automotive industry plays a major economic role in Port Elizabeth, with General Motors and Volkswagen both having plants in the City. It is therefore not surprising that Comrade Mphumzi found employment at General Motors in Port Elizabeth in 1996 when he was just 21 years old. It was in 1999 that he was first elected as a shopsteward and very quickly rose to becoming a plant secretary at his workplace and a negotiator in the National Bargaining Forum for the auto manufacturing industry. From part time to full time shopsteward, Comrade Mphumzi was soon entrusted with leading over 30 000 auto workers within Numsa when he became the Chairperson of the Auto National Shopsteward Council in 2007. Since 2005 he has also represented Numsa in the General Motors world company council where representatives of all General Motor workplaces meet annually. While an excellent football striker, he is also known and admired among comrades for his ability to mobilise workers around industrial strike action.
As treasurer he is known for his sound financial judgement and unwavering commitment to protecting workers hard earned money. The Numsa staff see him as a comrade of principle, who is incorruptible. While being a serious and formidable treasurer his is also fondly known as the union’s “Mr. Cool” and is well known for being the liveliest and most fun and engaging master of ceremonies at union social events.
On April 28th, 2014, WorkWeek Radio on KPFA Pacifica [soundcloud.com/workweek-radio], honoring Workers Memorial Day which is celebrated around the world every April 28, with an interview with National Union Of Metal Workers of South Africa (SA NUMSA), and an exploration of a genuine Workers Party! [soundcloud.com/workweek-radio/ww4-28-14-workers-memorial-day-100th-anniversary-of-ludlow-sa-numsa-and-workers-party]. This event remembers workers who are killed on the job and the fight for health and safety of all workers. We interview Richmond City worker Stacie Plummer and UESF SF school worker Tobias Cain. Next we will look at the 100th anniversary memorial of the Ludlow massacre which took place on April 20, 2014 in southern Colorado, a vicious act of privatized terrorism by a corporation against workers organizing for a union Twenty workers and their wives and children were shot or burned to death. It was determined in an investigation that kerosene had intentionally been poured on the tents to set them ablaze and burn the miners and their families out. 34 minutes into the show, we look at the struggle in South Africa with Mphumzi Maqungo, who is the national treasurer of the SA NUMSA, and who has been the representative of General Motor workers in South Africa. NUMSA has called for the formation of a workers party with a socialist program since the Marikana mine massacre when 34 striking Lonmin miners were massacred by the ANC government. He will be speaking on May Day in San Francisco at ILWU Local 10 and other events in the East Bay.
"Workers Memorial Day: SEIU 1021 joins labor community to remember -- and keep fighting",
2014-04-29 from "1021 Newswire":
When a worker is killed, it's called a “tragic accident” even when there were plenty of warning signs, even when the death could easily have been prevented.
There was plenty of warning about the safety hazards that caused the deaths of two BART workers last year. Our Local 1021 and ATU 1555 both spoke up long ago -- and were ignored. BART had been cited by Cal/OSHA not once but twice before for the exact same hazard. Two weeks ago, the agency fined BART $210,000 for three "willful" workplace safety violations responsible for last year's deaths.
Every year, April 28 is Workers' Memorial Day, the labor movement's annual tribute and call to action in the name of those who have died trying to earn a living. The event marks the date -- April 28, 1971 -- that the federal Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) went into effect. The AFL-CIO’s theme this year is "Safe Jobs -- Save Lives; Make Your Voice be Heard."
The day is commemorated around the world and recognized by the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Labour Organization, a part of the UN, where it was declared World Day for Safety and Health at Work in 2002.
A day to remember -
SEIU 1021 took part in a ceremony Monday where union members marched from the Concord BART station to a downtown park where union leaders, injured workers and local electeds remembered the dead and promised to keep fighting for the living and a voice on the job.
"Management and unions must come together and keep workers safe before accidents happen, not after," said John Arantes, president of SEIU 1021's BART chapter, who spoke at the rally.
Dan Jameyson (pictured), vice president of SEIU 1021's Contra Costa County Rank and File chapter, said it is important for public employees to realize workplace safety isn't just about industrial accidents.
"In the public sector we often don't pay enough attention to safety, whether it's building safety or ergonomics," he said, especially people like eligibility workers, voter registration workers, hospital workers and others who deal directly with the public. "The verbal abuse they take on a weekly or even daily basis is a health hazard too."
The need -- and right -- to speak up -
Many workers across the country face employer retaliation if they speak up about hazardous workplace conditions, and for a simple reason: More than wage and hour issues, resolving health and safety issues can challenge the employers’ power to make basic decision about production -- the organization and pace of work, and whether to bring in contingent or outsourced labor.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and our state counterpart Cal/OSHA were established more than 40 years ago not just to make and enforce regulations but to ensure workers have a right to play a central role in ensuring employers live up to their legal obligations.
The laws and agencies have made a difference. Workplace fatalities have dropped by 82 percent nationwide. But this progress didn’t happen just because laws were passed.
Those key workplace safety milestones didn’t just happen. They came about because workers and their unions organized, fought and demanded action from employers and their government. Virtually every safety and health protection on the books today is there because of working men and women who joined together in unions. Much more still needs to be done.
California: Better than most -
This is particularly true here in California, where we have some of the most protective laws on the books -- including better right-to-know laws and stronger protections from chemicals, heat stress and other hazards.
Still, far too many die. More than 340 California workers died on the job last year -- nearly one per day. More than 400,000 are seriously injured each year. A new report by Worksafe gives all the numbers but also tells the personal stories -- including those of the two BART workers -- behind the facts and figures. The costs are personal, not just economic.
As in years past, the stories and statistics in the report are sobering reminders of the real human consequences of unabated hazards, the prioritizing of profit over safety and health, and the dangers workers face every day. They also serve to bear witness to the lives lost, allow us take stock of all that still needs to be done, and spur us to action as citizens, stakeholders, and fellow workers.
"That's why I'm here today," said an aerospace worker whose left hand was nearly torn off in a machine, "to be a voice for those who cannot be here to speak for themselves." As a result of the accident, his co-workers called up the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers a week later and said, "We want a union."
* Download "Dying at Work in California: The Stories Behind the Numbers" [http://www.worksafe.org/Dying_at_Work_California_2014.pdf]
* Also see AFL-CIO Blog: "Workers Memorial Day: Honor the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living" [http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Workers-Memorial-Day-Honor-the-Dead-Fight-Like-Hell-for-the-Living]
"Transit Irony: The More You Rely on It, the More They Cut",
2014-05-01 by Samantha Winslow from "Labor Notes" [http://labornotes.org/blogs/2014/05/transit-irony-more-you-rely-it-more-they-cut]:
Pittsburghers for Public Transit rally at the Pennsylvania state Capitol in Harrisburg. Photo: PPT.
On one side of town, tourists and young professionals head downtown on light rail: clean, air-conditioned, fast. If there’s a problem with service, the city diverts buses to help.
On the other side of town, workers wait at bus stops. The buses that carry them to work come less and less frequently, thanks to service cuts. Drivers struggle to get through their routes in less time.
Both scenarios are part of a promising trend: transit ridership is at its highest since 1956, with 10.7 million trips in 2013, according to the American Public Transportation Association [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/us/use-of-public-transit-in-us-reaches-highest-level-since-1956-advocates-report.html?_r=0].
This is despite widespread cuts to bus and rail service—and rising fares. The 2008 economic crisis started the pinch, but federal and local officials have continued to squeeze.
Yet “young people are rejecting cars in record numbers; they are moving to urban America,” Amalgamated Transit Union President Larry Hanley said at the recent Labor Notes Conference.
Whether the spike in rider numbers is caused by environmental consciousness, urbanization, or belt-tightening, clearly it calls for more transit funds, both for more frequent service and for infrastructure—not for cutbacks.
And the spending needs to be spread across our communities—not target one area at the expense of another.
CUT THE CAPTIVES -
Transit authorities often push cuts onto the people most dependent on public transportation, sometimes frankly called “captive riders.” They focus resources instead on luring tourists and “choice riders” out of their cars.
The latter goal is a good one, but it shouldn't come at the expense of people who have no transportation option.
In Pittsburgh, for example, bus riders are still feeling the cuts begun during the crisis, while the city’s seen a boost in light rail, which caters to tourists and people with cars.
In 2011 the transit authority cut its budget by 15 percent, eliminating 29 bus routes. It laid off 180 workers and reduced hours for more. The cuts continued the following year, and the region lost tens of thousands of bus riders [http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/2013-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf]. Some switched to cars, if they had one, or carpooling. Others walk now.
“We have whole segments of our community that don’t have any transit at all,” driver Mike Harms said. In neighborhoods where service was slashed, “people have to walk a mile to a bus stop.”
HIT THE GAS -
As cities cut corners on traditional transit routes, bus drivers are pushed to do more with less. They feel the pressure to serve the same populations, but with fewer routes and in less time.
“As funding decreases, they cut the running time,” Harms said. “Most people want to keep the bus on time.
“In order to keep the schedule, you are going as fast as that bus will go.”
Management and political leaders are sheltered from the impact—they don’t ride the buses or trains themselves. “If there are roaches on the bus, it bothers us, it bothers our passengers,” Hanley said. “It doesn’t bother the boss.”
So transit locals are looking for new ways to pressure transit authorities, declaring May “Transit Action Month.” Bus riders are obvious partners, Hanley said. “We have a hundred people who ride our buses and trains for every active member.”
Now that Pittsburgh has restored some transit funding, the community-union coalition Pittsburghers for Public Transit is working to make sure service is restored to all parts of the region. “Transit is not just for the affluent,” Harms said.
"La Clinica de la Raza: Workers take action, march on Board of Directors", 2014-04-29 from "1021 Newswire":
At La Clinica de La Raza, SEIU 1021 members are leading the way for long-term changes to secure a brighter future for the nonprofit and to improve services to the communities it serves, starting with a call for greater transparency and accountability from Kaiser. Kaiser insures most La Clinica workers and -- without explanation -- is demanding more money from workers and La Clinica in order to protect its profits.
On April 21 healthcare workers hit the streets and flooded the Board of Directors meeting in a sea of purple. CEO Jane Garcia, La Clinica management and the entire Board heard powerful testimony from workers, as more than 100 workers joined by their families and members of the community could be heard chanting “enough is enough” in the streets below.
At the meeting, workers called on the healthcare nonprofit’s leadership to remain true to La Clinica’s mission of providing accessible and affordable healthcare for everyone -- including its own workers, who are dedicated to providing quality, accessible care for our communities.
Because workers were willing to stand up and speak out, La Clinica management has agreed to continue contract talks regarding the containment of healthcare costs for workers and their families, in addition to discussing a number of remaining open issues. The next bargaining session is April 30.
MAY DAY
a definition from the Revolution Books collective of Berkeley:
May Day is the revolutionary internationalist holiday of the exploited and oppressed and all those who hate the world as it is and who are fighting for a different future. We live in a horrific world where the imperialist drive for profit forces people into poverty and squalor... where children in the thousands are kidnapped and enslaved... where wars have killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of people... where the lives of women from one end of the planet to the other are lives of brutality, domination, and degradation... where whole nationalities suffer from brutal oppression... where the destruction of the environment threatens the very existence of life on the planet.
May Day, 2014-a time to raise your voice and fight to end this modern day horror billions around the world live every day.
May Day, 2014-a time when our aspirations for the emancipation of all humanity are put front and center.
May Day, 2014-a day when revolutionaries and broad numbers of people the world look to the future and fight for revolution and a radically different and far better world
FIGHT THE POWER, AND TRANSFORM THE PEOPLE, FOR REVOLUTION!
WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT SLAVERY IN ANY FORM - HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD!
Three Outrages in Four Days in AmeriKKKa in April reveal how tightly white supremacy is woven into the essential fabric of AmeriKKKa... Supreme Court decision upholding ban on affirmative action, FASCIST 'folk hero' Cliven Bundy, racism displayed by NBA basketball team owner Donald Sterling...
Special message from Vic Sadot [vic.bfuu.sjc@gmail.com]:
Breaking News! The SJC has set up a YouTube Channel titled
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE HEART OF BERKELEY! Here are but a few of the video playlists offered. Share with friends!
* “Rise Up Singing! Songs For Peace Through Justice!” Playlist [youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6vlpoPDpR592Pu_nxZMcReTc_SNEzim]
* "Thomas Paine", an invocation by Social Justice Committee activist Ben Burch at the 3rd annual Tom Paine Courageous Spirit Awards event on January 30, 2014, one day after Paine's actual 277th Birthday on January 29, 1737. [youtube.com/watch?v=JoYf9I4xgS8&feature=share&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR7aGBoH3VRuu3eAJ3IupVhJ&index=2]
* "Save our Post Office, Mr. Postman!", with Hali Hammer singing at the Berkeley Post Office [youtube.com/watch?v=8L4aDHIYpUA&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR592Pu_nxZMcReTc_SNEzim&feature=share&index=2]
* "Great Speeches for Peace and Justice", including JFK's famous “Peace Speech” at American University in 1964, a speech by Mario Savio at UC Berkeley in 1968, a speech by Muamar Qaddafi at the United Nations in 2009 on the failure of the institution to stop 65 wars since its founding and what must be done to reform it so that it truly serves peace and justice... plus more historical speeches, all at [youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1ouM9d-xc&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR5Hs2EqgZiu5uSaaRYpjylI]
* “Defending the Constitution & Bill of Rights Against All Enemies Foreign & Domestic” playlist
[youtube.com/watch?v=8o47zQXikvk&feature=share&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR5F0wHwMsX_XzfgsBm1ZwoV]
* "Take Back Your Power", with information about the hazards of modern surveillance technology [youtube.com/watch?v=RGiefr6z4fk&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR690MqnJ-ksI_4ieEP3XNTw]
---
Vic Sadot is the current Chair of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee (BFUU SJC), which meets on the First & Third Sundays of the month at 12:30 pm in the Fireside Room on the second floor at 1606 Bonita Ave [www.bfuu.org/events/social-justice]. Vic also serves as one of the rotating hosts for the Berkeley Fellowship Monthly Open Mic every Second Friday of Every Month. Sign-up for performers is at 6:30 pm and the show begins at 7 pm. We have 20 ten minute spots available. Featured Artist are selected about two months in advance by our rotating Hosts. Somewhere between 8 and 8:30 pm the Host will call on the Featured Artist.
A special message in solidarity with an acclaimed independent newspaper,
The San Francisco Bay View newspaper needs YOU! It’s always nip and tuck when our biggest expense, the printer’s bill, comes due, and this month, simultaneously, a larger-than-usual insurance payment is due too. We just received a generous donation from a beloved supporter, and another $2,000 would put us over the top. But even a much, much smaller donation would be most welcome.
The option to make your donation tax-deductible is back! The 501(c)(3) status of our nonprofit arm, the Hurricane Relief Information Network, has been reinstated by the IRS retroactive to our temporary suspension (for being unaware of the need to file a little form). I’ll send the IRS paperwork to all donors to HRIN. Donations, tax-deductible or not, can be made online at [sfbayview.com/support] or mailed to 4917 Third St., San Francisco CA 94124-2309. Call me at (415) 671-0789 with any questions or concerns.
ACTION CALENDER!
SACRAMENTO MAY DAY GENERAL STRIKE
Thursday at 10:00am
Crocker Park, 3rd and O Streets, Sacramento, California 95814
[https://www.facebook.com/events/1427423797512504/]
It is a day for solidarity - when differences between left political factions are set aside and we recognize our shared goals + collective power. A day for specific demands, such as the end of police brutality + racist immigration policies and the beginning of respect for the earth and control over our working lives. But also a day to articulate our broader visions of how the world should + can be:It is a day to celebrate our power, our history, and our future.Facts and information for the General Strike on May Day (May 1st every year), International Worker's Day, can be found here [http://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/]
San Francisco May Day Action
More info: 415-821-6545 or www.ANSWERsf.org
Today, as workers are facing poverty wages, evictions and foreclosures, deportations, police brutality and countless other forms of oppression, the date is an important one which can unite these issues that affect all workers.
The following is a list of demands under the slogan "The Community Fights Back! ¡La Comunidad a Pie de Lucha!"
* Full Rights for All Immigrants! Stop the Deportations!
* End the Evictions and Gentrification! Housing is a Right!
* Stop Police Brutality!
* Stop the Privatization of Public Services! Living Wage Now!
* Halt and Reverse Environmental Destruction!
* No to wars and occupation!
In San Francisco, there will be a May 1st action at 24th and Mission at 4pm. Join community groups and activists to plan the march for this important date by attending a planning meeting this Sat., April 19, 3pm at the Mission Cultural Center, 2nd Floor, 2868 Mission St. at 25th St. There will be a short update on outreach and discussion about the day-of activities followed by a work session on developing the list of demands in order to present them on May 1st to the public.
Supporting organizations: ALIADI, ANSWER Coalition, BALASC, Center for Political Education, FMLN-NorCA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, SOA-Watch, Station 40, Yo Soy 132-Bay Area, Talleres Populares de Junio
May Day Celebration
Saturday, May 3rd, 6pm
at Revolution Books in Berkeley
with a Pot-luck Dinner and Culture
Use Your Heels to Heal Our Community!
[https://www.facebook.com/events/740497942649754/]
On Saturday May 3rd the Blueford family invites the community to join them in a walk around Lake Merritt to celebrate Alan Blueford's life which was cut short by a violent, racist, out of control OPD officer.
This walk is not a protest, it is a time for community unity as we celebrate & honor Alan's life. This walk is also a message to the Blueford's & to the community the Alan's life matters, all lives matter, including black & brown ones. We want to unite to send that message as we celebrate the life of one of Oakland's lost sons, and along with Alan, all of our children lost to violence.
In true Oakland celebratory fashion, this walk will be complete with a sound truck & rappers up on the truck....details are unfolding as I type....please stay tuned!!**
In the meantime, please "join" & then "invite" all your friends & also "share" the event page EVERYWHERE!!! TOGETHER, we can make this event HUGE!!!
Please bring home made signs and banners honoring Alan and opposing police brutality.
Initiated by Alan Blueford’s family. If your community, political group, church, or union, would like to endorse, please contact: abc4justice@gmail.com
We encourage you to please spread the word via social media and word of mouth. #H2H4ALAN #CommunityUnity 2 #EndPoliceTerror
**confirmed performers:
* Ras Ceylon, check out his track "Trayvon" [youtube.com/watch?v=YKaJoEyYXyI]
* Zar Tha Dip
* Phanom Iso, check out his freestyle "I'm Different" [youtube.com/watch?v=Q3JVcqUrzQw]
* Kev Choice,
* Moe Green,
* S.O.N. (Somethin Outta Nothin)
...more will be joining the line-up, please stayed tuned here & you can also "like" The Alan Blueford Center For Justice for updates [facebook.com/groups/justice4AlanBlueford/692752494122193].
A Video Showing and Discussion:
"Negroes With Guns", a book by Robert F. Williams
Sunday, May 4, 12noon – 3pm
At Qilombo 2313 San Pablo Ave. Oakland
Sponsored by Labor Black & Brown, labor donated
A Chronicle of a Militant Pioneer of Self-Defense. “Backed by a jazz score by Terence Blanchard (Barbershop and the films of Spike Lee), NEGROES WITH GUNS uses interviews, rare archival footage and searing photographs to chronicle Williams’ rise to notoriety, his eight-year exile in Cuba and Mao Zedong’s China and his much-publicized return home in 1969. Voices include historians, members of Williams’ Black Guard—armed men committed to the protection of Monroe’s black community—and Williams’ widow, Mabel.” –Independent Lens
Following the video will be a discussion about the right of armed self-defense, and its application in the U.S. in the fight for Black, Brown and working class rights.
Of particular interest is:
1. The recent history in the Bay Area, connected to the Oscar Grant events involving the ILWU.
2. A view of Bay Area Self-Defense organizations
Sunday, May 4 at 10:00am - 4:00pm
3268 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, Ca
Fight the filth of fascism, bring your ride down to the Black Riders! Show solidarity and keep Comrade Jihad on the streets doing revolutionary work for the people by bringing your car in for a thorough clean.
Music, snacks, raffle (need not be present to win), and more.
Carwash by donation, $5-20
The carwash will be in the parking lot of Just Cause/Causa Justa, 3268 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA.
A Celebration of Life and Struggle: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Welcome Home Lynne Stewart!
Free all political prisoners! End racist mass incarceration! Abolish the death penalty! Stop police brutality and murder!
Join Lynne Stewart and Pam Africa, Sunday, May 4, 6 pm reception; 7pm rally
at the Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland
Donation $10
Initial Bay Area Tour Schedule:
* Friday, May 2: San Francisco, Host: National Lawyers Guild, 6 pm 518 Valencia St., SF
* Saturday, May 3, Palo Alto, Host: Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, afternoon
* Saturday, May 3, San Jose, Host, San Jose Peace and Justice Center & NLG South Bat, evening
* Sunday, May 4, Oakland, Host: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
* Monday, May 5: Marin, evening
* Tuesday, May 6: Sacramento, evening
Sponsors: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & Lynne Stewart Defense Committee [510-268-9429] [jmackler@lmi.net]
Tour endorsers (initial list): SF Bay Area National Lawyers Guild • Middle East Children’s Alliance • United National Antiwar Coalition • Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal • World Can’t Wait • Freedom Socialist Party • Marin Peace and Justice Center • Peninsula Peace and Justice Center • Sacramento Area Peace Council • WILPF • SF Gray Panthers • Socialist Action • International Action Center • Freedom Archives
— This message sent to you by: The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal --
Lynne Stewart's release from prison was the result of great public support, an international petition campaign, and persistence by her husband. This victory for a political prisoner, as well as the release of political prisoner Marshall Eddie Conway after 44 years in prison; political prisoner Maroon Shoatz's transfer from solitary confinement to general prison population, inspires our efforts to free all political prisoners.
The exoneration of innocent death row prisoner, Glen Ford, just before the state of Louisiana was set to execute him, is another blow to the existence of the racist death penalty. And the massive hunger strikes organized by prisoners, including undocumented detainees, in California, Washington, Texas and Georgia are an example of resistance to prisoners and workers everywhere.
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