Open Forums

A Convoluted Mirage: Berkeley Post Office Defenders Denounce Postal Service Doublespeak.

Press Statement by Berkeley Post Office Defenders on the latest legal proceedings with respect to the Downtown Berkeley Post Office: The City of Berkeley is underestimated by Attorneys for the United States Postal Service  Thursday, April 2nd, 2015, in the matter of City of Berkeley v USPS, Berkeley’s lawsuit to stop the sale of its downtown Post Office, United States Postal Service lawyers notified Judge William Alsup that they will continue to disregard common sense, the will of the people and federal law by refusing to say that they are … Continued

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Help Defend AfrikaTown

Come out and support AfrikaTown and help it become an established community in our city. While the city of Oakland flaunts its newly developed downtown area, this “revitalization project” has come with the cost of the residents of Oakland. Gentrification, along with a brutal police force, has displaced black and brown residents as a means to “clean up” the neighborhood. AfrikaTown is a community effort to provide a different alternative, one that supports and lifts the existing community rather than displace it. AfrikaTown is already an important and necessary aspect … Continued

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With an Assist from Strike Debt Bay Area, the Debt Collective Take Three Strikes at Student Debt, Scores Hat Trick.

Since the announcement of the Corinthian 15’s Debt Strike in late February, Strike Debt Bay Area peeps have been assisting Debt Collective organizers in contacting and educating other Corinthian students and former students who expressed interest in participating in the Debt Strike or other forms of resistance. Additionally, Strike Debt Radio, a subgroup of a Strike Debt Bay Area, produced a radio segment on the Corinthian 15 Strike (see bottom). Today, March 20th, 2015, was a culmination of those efforts. Although Prock finally has the degree, the only potential job the … Continued

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“It’s An Interesting Case.” The Sale (Or Not) of the Berkeley Post Office.

Background. For at least two and half years The City of Berkeley and its residents have been fighting the sale of the downtown Berkeley Post Office at 2000 Allston Way. They even went so far as to rezone land in the Historic District the Post Office is a part of to preclude commercial use of the properties within it. (This would theoretically make it less attractive for the United States Postal Service (USPS) to sell the property.) In early November, 2014, the City of Berkeley and the National Trust for … Continued

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Justice 4 Alex Nieto: SF Police Station Shut Down and a People’s Trial of Four Cops.

On the 1 year memorial of Alex Nieto’s death at the hands of San Francisco Police, his parents released a reminiscence and activists shut down the Mission Police Station and held a people’s trial of the four officers who participated in his execution. Here is Refugio’s and Elvira’s reminiscence. Interspersed with tweets and tweetpics from the actions.   Words from Refugio and Elvira Nieto on the One Year Community Commemoration of Alex Nieto Here we are and it seems incredible that a year has transpired since Alex was taken from … Continued

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Why Pay For A Port Boondoggle – One With No Benefit To The City Of Oakland?

That boondoggle is the Domain Awareness Center System – the DAC. We don’t want it. We don’t need it. The Port refuses to allocate money for it We shouldn’t have to pay for it. We need to protect privacy not degrade it. In March of 2014 Oakland’s City Council restricted the DAC – a surveillance system to be installed at Oakland’s Emergency Operations Center, to just the Port of Oakland. A grant obtained by the Port from the Dept. of Homeland Security was intended to fund the operating costs. The … Continued

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Berkeley Declares War on the Homeless.

Tuesday night, March 17th, to a packed crowd, the Berkeley, Californa City Council voted 6-3 on a plan to banish the homeless from O’Berkeley declare war on the homeless. Homeless, advocates and supporters march before the City Council meeting.Ignoring testimony from academics who had done research on homelessness and criminalization at UC Berkeley, ignoring references to studies that repeatedly showed that criminalizing the homeless did not work, ignoring pleas from those who serve the homeless that criminalizing homelessness would only make their jobs more difficult by denying services to those … Continued

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Put the Brussels back into Sprouts, not Sprouts into Albany.

Occupy The Farm and other folks supporting the Gill Tract as farmland staged a rally and blockade at Sprouts in Walnut Creek on Saturday, March 14th. Sprouts in Walnut Creek? It seems that Sprouts, Inc has negotiated an agreement with the city of Albany and UC Berkeley to build a store on the Gill Tract (the only prime farmland left in the East Bay, at San Pablo & Marin, Albany, CA), and they will literally be paving over a last small bit of paradise to put in a parking lot. … Continued

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Out of Control.

With no apparent reasonable suspicion or probable cause, fifteen or more San Francisco Police Officers descended on a group of young black men making a music video recently, demanding that they put their hands up. The young men were then handcuffed and searched. No explanation was given, no justification provided, as far as anyone has written. It has not been established whether any of the young men were arrested. Watch the first few minutes of the video, and decide for yourself whether young men of color live in a police … Continued

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Pi Day (3-14) OO Hike around Knowland Park: This may be the last chance to see it before it is privatized.

Save Knowland Park

As early as next month the Oakland Zoo is going to start throwing up 8′ fences topped by 3′ of barbed wire around perhaps the most lovely park on the western flank of the East Bay hills and excluding the public from it forever unless you pay big bucks to visit the newly constructed paved roads, 50 structures, 15-car gondola, vistor center or high-end restaurant.  So I’m leading a little hike Saturday, March 14th so we can see what we are about to lose unless we fight back. BACKGROUND Knowland … Continued

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