-
Upcoming Events
May20Mon6:00 pm Occupy Forum @ Local 1Occupy Forum @ Local 1May 20 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pmNOTE LOCATION CHANGE THIS WEEK!!! Occupy Forum continues Monday, May 20th, from 6 – 9 pm at Local 2: 215 Golden Gate near Leavenworth [...]Jun2Sun3:30 pm “Money, Power & Wall Street: Episode Two” @ Western Park Apartments Community Room“Money, Power & Wall Street: Ep… @ Western Park Apartments Community RoomJun 2 @ 3:30 pm – 6:30 pmReform-Wall-Street.org presents Money, Power & Wall Street: FRONTLINE tells the story of the global financial crisis Episode Two: Inside the epic rise of a [...]View Calendar Add Add
Category Archives: Events
May Day
In solidarity
Anti-Capitalist Rally/March
Protest Gap in solidarity with Bangladeshi Garment workers burnt in factory fires
This Thursday, April 25 at 12:00pm, NOON
Join us at: Gap Inc. global headquarters
2 Folsom St. San Francisco, CA 94105 (near Embarcadero BART)
https://www.facebook.com/
Since 2006, more than 600 Bangladeshi garment workers have died in preventable fires while sewing clothing for companies like Gap and Walmart. 112 workers died in a recent fire at a Walmart supplier and 29 workers died at a Gap supplier, but Gap and Walmart are still refusing to pay for reforms and join with other companies in a binding fire safety agreement that includes independent inspections and workerrepresentation. Until there is real change, any day there could be another factory fire with workers locked inside.
JOIN A BANGLADESHI FACTORY FIRE SURVIVOR AND LOCAL ACTIVISTS TO CALL ON THE GAP TO PAY 10 CENTS MORE PER GARMENT & JOIN SAFETY AGREEMENT TO SAVE WORKERS’ LIVES!
At the protest, meet:
SUMI ABEDIN is a Bangladeshi garment worker who survived the November 24, 2012, fire that killed 112 workers at Tazreen Fashions, a factory that supplied Walmart, Disney, Sears, Dickies, and SeanJohn, and produced US Marines logo apparel for Delta Apparel / Soffe. Sumi was working on the 4th floor of the factory at the time of the fire and survived after jumping from the burning building.
KALPONA AKTER is the executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity (BCWS), one of Bangladesh’s most prominent labor rights advocacy organizations, and is herself a former child garment worker. BCWS is regarded by the international labor rights movement and by multinational apparel companies as among the most effective grassroots labor organizations in the country. Levi Strauss & Co. calls BCWS “a globally respected labor rights organization, which has played a vital role in documenting and working to remedy labor violations in the apparel industry in Bangladesh.” Kalpona is an internationally-recognized
This action is sponsored by Corporate Action Network, International Labor Rights Forum, San Francisco Jobs with Justice, SumOfUs, SweatFree Communities, and United Students Against Sweatshops. For more info: bit.ly/EndDeathTrapsTour | LaborRights.org/GapPetition
Conference to Restore the Republic 4/20
Activists across the political spectrum say it’s time to collaborate on a solution to the corruption plaguing our country. We agree!
Conference to Restore the Republic
That’s why Occupiers support and Represent.Us is a sponsor of Rootstrikers’ Conference to Restore the Republic.
On April 20, 2013 in San Francisco, California, activists, experts, and citizens of all political stripes will convene to debate some of the most challenging questions about the reform this country needs. Whether you’re new to the issue and not sure where to start or still trying to understand the variety of solutions proposed to fight corruption, The Conference to Restore the Republic is your opportunity to find clarity and community.
Confirmed speakers include Lawrence Lessig, Ann Ravel, Buddy Roemer, Trevor Potter, and Cenk Uygur — but this conference isn’t just about experts. This is a grassroots event being planned almost entirely by volunteers, and they’re making sure this conference is made 100% for you.
Click here to register for Rootstrikers’ Conference to Restore the Republic.
Hope to see you there.
Graham, Szelena and the entire Represent.Us and Rootstrikers teams
STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA STRIKES BACK ON TAX DAY!!
Monday, April 15
3:00 PM
Federal Reserve Building
101 Market St.
San Francisco
Banks don’t pay taxes but most people do!
Banks don’t pay their debts but we are hounded if we don’t!
Why must we pay income tax when banks and corporations don’t have to? They use accounting gimmicks, offshore headquarters and other scams to avoid paying their fair share. Is it fair that taxpayers bailed out the big banks, but they continue to profit at our expense? Why must we be crushed under the weight of debt for medical, educational, housing AND income tax obligations while those who have made a mess of our communities and our planet freeload at our expense?
On Tax Day, April 15, Strike Debt Bay Area will demonstrate our opposition to debt culture. We will reach out to indebted taxpayers with remedies to a life of financial servitude. Join us to spread the word about our activities.
STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA is beginning to organize for mass debt resistance. Collectively, we can decide that we’ve paid more than enough already for the blunders of the wealthy 1% and we can bill them for the debt they owe us and our communities.
Join us at the Federal Reserve, 3:00PM on Monday, April 15. Bring your voices. Bring signs! Bring your stories of debt persecution. Find out about STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA’s programs for debt resistance.
http://strike-debt-bay-area.tumblr.com/
This Sunday, 3pm Vigil in Solidarity with Guantanamo Bay hunger strike!
This Sunday, April 7th at 3pm at Market St. & Powell in San Francisco
Solidarity with Guantanamo Prisoners Hunger Strike
Vigil in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. The prisoners are being held without charges or trial, most over ten years. It is said now that 130 out of 166 detainees are refusing food. 11 are being forced fed, which is considered torture by the UN Human Rights Commission. Join us Sunday to show solidarity and build awareness of this grave injustice.
www.encyclopedia.com
Meet at 3pm this Sunday, April 7th at Powell & Market St in San Francisco.
Feel free to bring banners, signs and props for visual.
Facebook Event Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/607955282549856/
UN High Comissioner for Human Rights calls for closing of Guantanamo Bay today!
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/u-n-official-calls-for-closing-of-guantanamo-bay-20130405
NY Times Editorial from today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/opinion/hunger-strike-at-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=0
New York Times EDITORIAL
Hunger Strike at Guantánamo
Published: April 5, 2013
The hunger strike that has spread since early February among the 166 detainees still at Guantánamo Bay is again exposing the lawlessness of the system that marooned them there. The government claims that around 40 detainees are taking part. Lawyers for detainees report that their clients say around 130 detainees in one part of the prison have taken part.
The number matters less than the nature of the protest, however: this is a collective act of despair. Prisoners on the hunger strike say that they would rather die than remain in the purgatory of indefinite detention. Only three prisoners now at Guantánamo have been found guilty of any crime, yet the others also are locked away, with dwindling hope of ever being released.
Detainees there have gone on hunger strikes many times since the facility opened in 2002. A major strike in 2005 involved more than 200 detainees. But those earlier actions were largely about the brutality of treatment the detainees received. The protest this time seems more fundamental. Gen. John Kelly of the Marines, whose Southern Command oversees Guantánamo Bay, explained the motivation of the detainees at a Congressional hearing last month by saying, “They had great optimism that Guantánamo would be closed” based on President Obama’s pledge in his first campaign, but they are now “devastated” that nothing has changed.
For 86 detainees, this is a particular outrage. They wereapproved for release three years ago by a government task force, which included civilian and military agencies responsible for national security.
But Congress outrageously has limited the president’s options in releasing them, through a statute that makes it very difficult to use federal money to transfer Guantánamo prisoners anywhere. Fifty-six of those approved for release are Yemenis. The government, however, has said it will not release them to Yemen for the “foreseeable future,” apparently because they might fall under the influence of people antagonistic to the United States. That false logic would mean that no Yemenis could ever travel to this country, but that is not the case.
The other 30 detainees approved for release are from different countries, though the government will not say where they are from. Over the past decade, the government has sent detainees to at least 52 countries, The Times and NPR have determined, so it surely can find countries to take detainees who cannot be returned home.
As for the remaining 80 prisoners, the three who have been convicted and the 30 or so who are subjects of active cases or investigations can be transferred to a military or civilian prison. The rest are in indefinite detention — a legal limbo in which they are considered by the government to be too dangerous to release and too difficult to prosecute. Such detention is the essence of what has been wrong with Guantánamo from the start. The cases of these detainees must be reviewed and resolved according to the rule of law.
The government is force-feeding at least 10 of the hunger strikers. International agreements among doctors say doctors must respect a striker’s decision if he makes “an informed and voluntary refusal” to eat. But under American policy, Guantánamo doctors cannot adhere to those principles. The Obama administration justifies the force-feeding of detainees as protecting their safety and welfare. But the truly humane response to this crisis is to free prisoners who have been approved for release, end indefinite detention and close the prison at Guantánamo
Rally & Protest at President Obama’s San Francisco Fundraiser
This Wednesday, President Obama will be in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood for a fundraiser and OccupySF Visioning Group and Environmental Justice Working Group invite you to join the demonstrations.
OccupySF Visioning Group will be joining Rainforest Action Network and hundreds of our closest friends will be there to deliver a simple yet urgent message: reject Keystone XL.
It’s going to be huge—and we need it to be even bigger. More than 1000 people have already RSVP’d from CREDO, Sierra Club, 350, Friends of the Earth, and more.
Can you join us this Wednesday and help spread the word?
WHAT: Keystone XL Protest at President Obama’s San Francisco Fundraiser
WHEN: Wednesday, April 3, 5:30pm
WHERE: 2870 Broadway at Baker, San Francisco, CA
The president’s fundraiser this Wednesday will be a major opportunity for the president to hear from his progressive base that he needs to be a leader on climate change and reject Keystone XL.
Please click here to RSVP and invite your friends to join us, too.
The last time we protested outside President Obama’s San Francisco fundraiser, at the height of the Keystone XL fight in 2011, we know our pressure surprised the president and made a major impact on the White House.
We need to do it again. See you on Wednesday!
AND…
OccupySF Environmental Justice Working Group will be holding a Climate Rally & Obamacare Protest just a few blocks away: NO XL, NO FRACKING, NO NUCLEAR POWER, NO FOSSIL FUELS, STOP DIRTY POWER, Running out of time. See you there! Bring signs!!!
TIME: 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Location Details:
Divisadero & Pacific Ave
# 3, 24, 1 buses, map http://tinyurl.com/co5f89e
Event Type: Protest
Obama: Hands Off Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid!
Improved Medicare for All! Scrap the Social Security Payroll Tax Cap!
Obamacare? Hell No! Insurance Companies Got to Go!
Demonstrate at Obama’s Fundraiser
Wednesday, April 3, 5-6:30 PM
Divisadero & Pacific Ave
# 3, 24, 1 buses, map http://tinyurl.com/co5f89e
Obama’s in town raising money from his rich supporters, while preparing to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits from the poorest and most vulnerable people in society. Obamacare will leave tens of millions uninsured, including all undocumented immigrants, will force millions onto high-deductable insurance they can’t afford to use, will provide better care for the rich who can afford it, and will incentivize employers to convert full-time jobs to part-time. Obamacare also squeezes Medicare by clamping down on its spending, while allowing insurance and drug companies’ prices and profits to rise.
Improved Medicare is the solution to rising healthcare costs, not the problem. Having everyone pay into Medicare and having an improved Medicare cover everyone would provide Equal, Comprehensive, Affordable and Accessible healthcare for everyone, at less cost because of the resulting control over healthcare prices, economies of scale, and the elimination of the bloated profits and bureaucracy of the private insurance system.
Social Security is the country’s most successful social program. It does not, and can not contribute a penny to the national debt, and should not be even mentioned in discussing the debt. Social Security has a surplus of over $2.5 Trillion, and is growing, enough to fund full benefits until 2033, and 75% of benefits after that. Taxing incomes over $113,700 could sustain full benefits indefinitely. Obama’s chained-CPI is a Social Security benefit cut that would get worse as recipients get older, $1,200 per year for recipients in their 80s.
We need jobs rebuilding housing, schools, hospitals and roads, not austerity for us and more wealth for the rich.
And we need to protect planet Earth… Stop Poisoning Us. We Are the Environment.
Save Noisebridge Fundraiser – Art Auction, Music, Food & More
You are, hereby, cordially invited to Noisebridge on March 30, 2013 for a fundraiser to save the epic hackerspace from closing this July. Of coarse you don’t need an invitation to visit Noisebridge & enjoy the plethora of activities, classes & technical infrastructure available there; the space is open 24/7 & entry is merely based upon “be(ing) excellent to each other” so feel free to drop by anytime, day or night; but please…no sleeping.
Noisebridge members provided critical infrastructure & technical assistance to OccupySF. They made bike generator that powered the Media Tent. They provided free internet for all of Bradley Manning Plaza, a phone to make free local & long distance calls & a 24/7 webcam streaming to the internet that kept watch when we were under threat of attack from police. They built us an awesome website & hosted it themselves. They taught classes on internet security & privacy. They provided free assistance on all technical matters that arose & a place for occupiers to escape to when the frontline was too chaotic. Indeed, Noisebridge was OccupySF’s greatest ally in our battle for politico-economic justice throughout the encampment & still remain so to this day.
So, please, if you have the time, come by & enjoy the art, music, demos, presentations, festivities & more this Saturday while Noisebridge celebrates it’s 5 years of service to the San Francisco community & help save Noisebridge from closing this July. OccupySF is going to need them as things pick up this spring, summer & fall…it’s not over till it’s over & we have only just begun.
DATE: Saturday, 30-March-2013
TIME: 4pm to 11pm
WHERE: Noisebridge, 2169 Mission St, 3rd floor (1.5 blocks from 16th St. Mission BART) — Map & How to Get here
WHO: Geeks, dorks, nerds, hipsters, punks, hippies, weirdos — Anyone and Everyone — all genders — all ages!
WHAT: Live bands! Art! Demos! Presentations! Workshops! Sticker & Patch Exchange! Zines! Silent Art Auction! Raffle!
HOW: Gently Suggested $10 – 20 Donation!
and remember…be excellent to each other.
Climate Forum: Fighting Coal Exports in the West
Climate Forum: Fighting Coal Exports in the West
Friday March 08
7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics, 518 Valencia, San Francisco
Forum & Fundraiser for the Coal Export Action
Coal is largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world causing catastrophic climate change.
The Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming has been called “The Saudi Arabia of Coal.”
The coal industry’s domestic markets are drying up with increased regulation on pollutants from coal plants, increased environmental scrutiny and the cost of natural gas. Therefore, with a loss in profits, coal company’s like Arch Coal and Peabody Energy need a new place to sell their dirty black rock out of the Powder River Basin. Asian markets are more than willing buyers of all things coal. Industry just needs an efficient way to get it there. Now the coal industry is lobbying for more outlets for western state coal along the Pacific Coast.
In Montana, Arch Coal is looking to open up more coal mining. The coal giant applied for permits to mine Otter Creek in Eastern Montana.
Across the Northwest, a coalition of environmentalists and landowners have come together to fight back and stop the development of Big Coal’s vital infrastructure. In August at the Coal Export Action, in protest of the mining of Otter Creek, 23 courageous people from all over the west were arrested sitting-in in the Montana state capital. Now those activists are going on trial to press the climate issue in the courts.
Join us for a forum and fundraiser for the Coal Export Action.
Event to include:
-Reportback and panel on Western Coal Exports
-Amazing videos
-Snacks
WHAT:Climate Forum: Fighting Coal Exports in the West
WHERE:518 Valencia
WHEN: Friday, Mar. 8, 630pm-930pm
CONTACT:Jack at escobar.jack [at] gmail [dot] com
DONATE: $5-20 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds
This is a Rising Tide North America production
Occupy Forum & Code Pink Drone Protest at Sen. Feinstein’s House Sunday
Apologies for the last minute notice, again – everyday operations have been difficult since SFPD confiscated and, subsequently, “lost” all of our media equipment. Anyway, OccupySF received the following request for assistance from Code Pink, a long time allay of OccupySF:
John Stewart 4 Code Pink “We Want The Memos”
Friends,
Code Pink is in action AT DIANE FEINSTEIN’S house tomorrow to demand that she not go ahead with confirmation of John Brennan as Secretary of Defense until she obtains the DOJ drone memos that reveal his involvement with U.S. drone murder policy. We are telling her that, as her constituents, we are WATCHING her and demanding that she insist on getting the memos or NO CONFIRMATION. We believe that Feinstein is in the Bay Area, and that she will know we’re out there. We’ll have banners, signs, drums, flutes, good energy, videographers and photographers, and hopefully the news media.
Could everyone please forward this action information asap to occupy, peace and justice, and other groups you have contacts for? Thank you so much.
When: Sunday, March 3, 10 am -12 noon
Where: Diane Feinstein’s mansion, Pacific Heights, 2460 Lyon @ Vallejo St.
What: Stand with Code Pink to demand– No Drone Memos, No Brennan Confirmation!
Stop the killbots!
We’re also asking Feinstein to hold hearings on the U.S. drone program, and to stop the killing by drone of civilians, both U.S. and all others. No one should have to live in fear of death from U.S. drones in the skies above. We want the wars, all illegal, to end too of course. Come out and demand that your senator listen to her constituents and stop the bleeding and injustice NOW.
Cynthia Papermaster, Berkeley, CA, 510-333-6097
and Occupy Forum continues as scheduled
Occupy Forum with CODEPINK
Monday, March 4th, 6 – 9 pm
at Global Exchange
Occupy Forum continues at Global Exchange 2017 Mission Street, 2nd floor
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
DRONES: Killing by Remote Control
Liquidating human beings at the touch of a button? Surveillance from the skies? Sound like science fiction? With names like “Predator”, “Reaper”, and “Global Hawk”, drones extinguish human life, and frequently by mistake: civilians including children and babies have been blown to bits in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and drones could be used here at home to hunt down fugitives in a nightmare scenario. Drones are powerful surveillance tools, capable of carrying face recognition systems, license plate scanners, thermal imaging, open WiFi “sniffers” and other sensors. As the result of a lawsuit, the FAA released for the first time a list of the names of all public and private entities applying for authorizations to fly drones domestically. The Department of Homeland Security, The FBI, the Department of Defense, local law enforcement, businesses and private individuals are all hungry to use, or are already using, the technology. Combined with mobile phone tracking and drone video signals — and scarce legal privacy protections in the U.S.– drones will make our historical worst case scenarios look like a Sunday picnic. On what basis are targets selected? Why does Obama use the drone as his weapon of choice? Who is paying for all of this? We the Taxpayers? Who is behind it? How can we make it stop???
Nancy L. Mancias is a campaign organizer for CODEPINK. An anti-war, gay and women’s rights advocate, Mancias has been actively trying to bring the troops home from their overseas misadventures and waging peace and equality across the country. She has also been part of the movement against torture and a proponent of closing the prison in Guantánamo. Like many in the anti-war movement, Mancias views her work against drone warfare as a natural extension of her peace efforts. She is a contributing writer to Beautiful Trouble: A toolbox for revolution, a book that puts the accumulated wisdom of decades of creative protest into the hands of the next generation of change-makers.
CODEPINK organizer Mancias will explain who is behind this horrific idea, how it’s been normalized, and paid for by us, the Taxpayers, and tell us about CODEPINK’s multi-pronged campaign to stop drones
before they fill our skies.
Time will be allotted for Q&A and discussion. Monday 6:00 to 9:00 pm.
Global Exchange 2017 Mission Street 2nd floor (#200 on keypad) near Mission and 16th BART.
Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!
Watch the video at http://youtu.be/vm2kVGyeoX0