Climate Forum: Fighting Coal Exports in the West

  By robb | March 9, 2013 - 8:51 am | ,
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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

Too Big to Fail

  By Johnsf | March 8, 2013 - 7:17 pm |
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Reform-Wall-Street.org presents

Too Big to Fail

A 99-minute HBO film (2012)

Directed by Curtis Hanson

With Paul Giamatti, Ed Asner, James Woods and William Hurt

 Based on Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System–and Themselves (2009), a book by Andrew Ross Sorkin. The film depicts the financial meltdown of 2008, particularly the role of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Sunday, April 7, 3 pm

Padre Palou Community

3400 16th St. (at Church St.), SF

Free

A DISCUSSION WILL FOLLOW THE FILM. For more info, visit: http://reform-wall-street.org/contact/ or call 415-722-5852 Co-sponsored by Occupy SF Outreach Working Group

Anarchist Book Fair

  By Johnsf | March 7, 2013 - 8:18 pm |
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8 Day of Anarchy 2013 has begun!

Wednesday, March 13 – we will be showing crime movies from the 90s and discussing if time and energy allow. Location: the long haul, Berkeley California

Thursday, March 14 – we will be honoring the life of Audrey Goodfriend with our anarchist and radical comrades. This will include video footage, still photography, acoustic music, and speakers on various aspects of the radical movement she was a part of including the Spanish Civil War, the protest of World War II, the pacifist movement, the free education movement, performance, and finally anarchism. This is a potluck event, please bring bread, cheese, chocolate, and smiles. Location: Humanist Hall, Oakland California 7 pm

Friday, March 15 – there are several events happening today including the anarchist Café in San Francisco (7pm), a march against police brutality in Oakland (9 pm), and we will be having an anarchist picnic at noon. Watch for the black flags. Bring good food! Location: the top of Ohlone Park, Berkeley California

Saturday, March 16 – anarchists amok in the Mission! Alongside the armory event we are involved in four other events. More information below

  1. (A) Subversive Book Event @ Station 40 (3030b 16th Street). 11am-6pm
  2. A Day of (A) THEORY & DIY Skill Shares! @ In The works (3265 17th Street)
  3. Hackmeet Presents: Hack For Anarchy! @ Noisebridge (2169 Mission Street)
  4. Anti-Capitalist Theory & Practice @ the Redstone building (2940 16th Street)

Sunday, March 17 – the 14th annual BASTARD conference. Workshops and times have been announced on the BASTARD website. Location: The Genetics and Plant Biology Building on UC Berkeley Campus

For more info on 8 Days of Anarchy visit http://www.anarchistnews.org/content/8-day-anarchy-2013-has-begun

2013 Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair

Saturday & Sunday March 16 – 17

The 18th annual San Francisco Anarchist Book Fair will be March 16 and 17, 2013.

For the first time, the book fair will be held at The Armory Community Center (http://www.armorycommunitycenter.com), located in San Francisco’s Mission District at the corner of 14th Street and Mission.

The Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair is a free two-day event presented by Bound Together Bookstore (http://boundtogetherbooks.wordpress.com).

http://www.bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com

Occupy Forum & Code Pink Drone Protest at Sen. Feinstein’s House Sunday

  By robb | March 2, 2013 - 10:03 pm | ,
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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"

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

Anonymous Calls for Rally in Support of “PayPal 14″ at SF Federal Court

  By robb | February 28, 2013 - 9:05 pm | ,
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    The internationally lauded ‘PayPal 14′ are due in San Francisco Federal Court (450 Golden Gate Avenue or 90 7th Street on the corner of Mission and 7th Streets??) on Monday, March 1, 2013 and Anonymous is calling for a rally all day beginning at 8:30am to support the online heros who allegedly dared to act against the gross media censorship by e-Bay’s subsidiary PayPal after terminating it’s donation processing service for Wikileaks’ when nation-states began targeting them for revealing international war crimes and crimes against humanity from the Bush-era of the “War on Terra”

Selection_001

    The defendants were arrested in July of 2011 after PayPal reportedly suffered 3.5 million pounds in damages in 2010 due to a cyber-sit-in or DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on their website. The incident was allegedly a response to the online giant’s unprecedented decision to cut off journalists Julian Assange and Wikileaks from revenue and legal defense funds.

    Though the Federal Gov’t has been calling Julian Assange a terrorist and finally beginning to try Bradley Manning for espionage charges after 1000 days in cruel confinement, the public by and large considers the Bradley Manning/Wikileaks leak, including Collateral Murder, to be an act of whistleblowing and journalism on crimes against humanity. Similarly, the European Human Rights Court recently found the CIA guilty of torturing and sodomizing German Citizen Mr. el-Masri after subjecting him to illegal extraordinary rendition in a case of mistaken identity.

    Last week in San Jose the defendants plead Not Guilty to the two felonies against them carrying maximum penalties of 15 years in prison and $500,000 fines. On March 1, they reportedly will be meeting one by one with a judge “who will weigh out whether the gov’t, or us for the matter, have a strong case.”

paypal14

    Please come show your support for whistleblowers, First Amendment Rights and their heroic defenders.

Bring your mask…and maybe a sign.

Occupy Forum: Making our workplaces more Democratic

  By robb | February 24, 2013 - 12:45 pm | ,
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OccupyForum presents:

 

Making Our Workplaces More Democratic

 

The Surprisingly Rich History of Worker-owned

Co-operatives and Communes in the U.S.

with author John Curl and Members of Local Co-Ops

Occupy Forum continues Monday, February 25th from 6 - 9 pm

Global Exchange 2017 Mission Street

 Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

 

Most workers today have little or no say in the way their workplace is run and are largely at the mercy of the whims of the boss who has virtual autocratic control of the environment where they spend much of their waking lives. Even though we may feel there are no alternatives to the current structure, there is in fact a long history of worker-owned  co-operatives and communes in the U.S. and there are many such businesses and groups thriving around us today, allowing workers to direct the way their workplace functions and to make their working lives

much more democratic and fulfilling.

 

Author, poet, professional woodworker and activist John Curl will tell us about the many forms of worker co-operatives which have existed throughout U.S. history and how the desire by people to escape from the tyranny of traditional capitalist structures brought them about. He will also talk about more contemporary examples of alternative structures for the workplace and about the role communes have played in the human desire for more freedom in the way we live and work. A member of numerous co-operatives and collectives, Curl, a Berkeley resident, has written several books on these subjects including the authoritative For All The People, a history of co-operatives and communalism in the U.S. He has written seven books of poetry and translated the works of Inca, Aztec and Mayan poets.

 

We will also be joined by members of several local worker-owned co-operatives, including Arizmendi Bakery and Other Avenues health food store who will share their experiences of working in an alternative workplace, discussing the pros and cons of these organizations.

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!

1000 Days Without Trial | Bradley Manning Plaza, SF | Sat. Feb. 23, 2013

  By robb | February 21, 2013 - 5:03 am | ,
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Whistleblowing is not a crime! Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 marks the 1000 day of Whistleblower Private Bradley Manning’s cruel and unusual confinement without a trial and OccupySF will be back at Bradley Manning Plaza (formerly Justin Herman Plaza) joining SF and Bay Area Bradley Manning supporters on the International Day of Action!

Bradley-Manning-Heroism-Poster

WHEN: 02/23/2013, 1:00pm – 4:00pm
WHERE: Bradley Manning Plaza, 1 Market St, San Francsco, CA 94101
LOCAL ORGANIZER INFO: Michael Thurman michael@couragetoresist.org
A Bradley Manning supporter is someone who believes in exposing war crimes, in international justice, in people’s right to know what the government does in our name. (Visit www.bradleymanning.org to learn more)
Blowing the whistle on war crimes and telling the truth about US foreign policy is an heroic civil act in times of tyranny. Though the US has cavalierly been selling arms to Al-Qaeda and Mexican Drug Cartels, the White

 

OccupyForum: Strategies and Tactics of The Environmental Movement

  By robb | February 16, 2013 - 7:34 am | ,
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OccupyForum presents:

A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet

A documentary on 5 decades of the Environmental Movement

followed by discussion with Director Mark Kitchell

Occupy Forum continues Monday, February 18th from 6 -  9 pm , Global Exchange 2017 Mission Street

 Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

The Strategies and Tactics of The Environmental Movement:

What can Occupy learn, adapt, apply?

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: The Battle for a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement – grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, the film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2012 and has won acclaim at dozens of festivals around the world.

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them.

It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.

The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima; a year and a half since stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and half a year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. As Obama begins a second term more people than ever are active — descending on Washington, DC on Presidents Day and launching a broad alliance to Stop Oil. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A FIERCE GREEN FIRE gives us reason to believe change can come.

Time will be allotted for Q&A and discussion. Monday 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Global Exchange 2017 Mission Street 2nd floor, near Mission and 16th BART.

DVDs available for sale after screening. Donations to OccupyForum to cover our costs are encouraged; no one turned away!

This is the perfect way to spend Monday evening after the Forward on Climate Action Sunday F17!!

Watch the video at http://youtu.be/ai-JjTrYLIE

OccupyForum: San Francisco: A City of the 1% or For Us All?

  By robb | February 11, 2013 - 3:16 am | ,
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OccupyForum with Homes Not Jails and the San Francisco Tenants Union

OccupyForum continues: Monday, February 11th 2013, 6 – 9 pm at Global Exchange 2017 Mission St., 2nd Floor

Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!

 Topic: San Francisco: A City of the 1% Or For Us All?

 

Ayisha Pelpon and others of HOMES NOT JAILS, and Ted Gullickson of the SAN FRANCISCO TENANTS UNION,

will speak on their fight against the class and ethnic cleansing taking place in our city today.

Possible Special Guest: OCCUPY BERNAL (a group very active in housing issues).

 

HOMES NOT JAILS formed in San Francisco in 1992 to advocate for the use

of vacant and abandoned housing by people who are homeless. With folks

dying on sidewalks in front of  empty buildings, affordable housing

advocates and poor people converged to find ways of utilizing such

properties, making a loud public statement of their
discontent in the process.

 

Homelessness and the exorbitant cost of housing is a crisis that many in

San Francisco, the U.S.A., and the world appear to accept as
“the way it is.” There is even a myth that living on the streets is like a vacation.

  

Since 1971, the SF Tenants Union has been fighting for the rights of

tenants and for the preservation of affordable housing in San

Francisco. From the struggle for rent control in the 1970s to 1998′s

Proposition G (to end the abuses of OMI evictions), the Tenants Union

has been the city’s leading advocate for tenants. The SFTU is 100%

membership supported and this enables our advocacy to be uncompromising

and immune to pressures from government or other funders.

Location: Global Exchange 2017 Mission St. 2nd floor, across from the 16th & Mission BART. A sign will be posted with a phone number to call for entry for those who arrive after 6:15. This is a smoke- and alcohol-free space. The last half hour will be reserved for Occupy Working Groups and Affinity Group announcements. Donations encouraged to cover our costs; no one turned away for lack of funds.

Join us at OccupyForum!

  HNJ Contact:

https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/homesnotjails
Or — come to our weekly Tuesday night meetings, 8pm, at the Housing Rights Committee, 417 S Van Ness

 

SF Tenants Union:
Just drop by! SF Tenants Union 558 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. Website, San Francisco Tenants Union

www.sftu.org/

Watch the video at http://youtu.be/XviNnD4ae6s

 Forum planning contact for above date: David Halenda, 415.871.4360

Occupy Forum – The Fight Against Environmental Racism

  By robb | February 2, 2013 - 2:59 am | , ,
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Occupy Forum with Greenaction for Health & Environmental Justice and Environmental Justice Community Activists

Monday February 4, 2013 * 6 pm at 209 Golden Gate Ave @ Leavenworth, San Francisco (Local 2 Union Hall) Information, discussion and community!

The Fight Against Environmental Racism: Updates from the Frontlines in Bayview Hunters Point, Richmond & Kettleman City and How to Stop the 1% from Poisoning Us

occupyforum-environ

Community struggles against environmental racism and injustice are raging in low-income communities of color across the bay area, state and country.  Communities are fighting for their lives, and for justice, challenging giant corporate polluters like Chevron and Chemical Waste Management and the government agencies that protect the 1% that profit from polluting our communities.

Hear from activists on the frontlines and get involved in planning actions this spring!

Speakers:
Maricla Mares Alatorre, El Pueblo/People for Clean Air & Water, Kettleman City (San Joaquin Valley)
Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition, Richmond
Marie Harrison, Greenaction Community Organizer, Bayview Hunters Point
Tessie Ester, Huntersview Mothers Committee for Health and Environmental Justice
Bradley Angel, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice
 

Donations gladly accepted to cover costs – no one turned away for lack of funds!

The last half hour will be reserved for Occupy Working Groups and Affinity Group announcements. Location: Local 2, 209 Golden Gate at Leavenworth, near the Civic Center BART. This is a smoke- and alcohol-free space. Join us at OccupyForum!