Saturday, June 16, 2007

SF 8 Joint Statement on Torture

Anti-Torture Legislation Campaign

In our joint statement, we, the SF 8, proposed three (3) specific goals to be achieved in support of our case. We believe true solidarity means struggle, and in support of the SF 8 our struggle is to challenge human rights violations in accord with the UN Declaration on Human Rights. In this regard, our first initiative will be an Anti-Torture Legislation Campaign.

We therefore are asking friends and supporters in solidarity with the SF 8 to organize the following goals:

1 – In your specific locality, we ask you to organize a broad-based coalition to persuade your City Council, Board of Supervisors or Mayor to declare either by legislation or proclamation the use of torture by law enforcement as an interrogation technique a violation of human rights.

Develop a survey and a petition. Each locality or city needs to structure a survey to raise two specific questions.

Do you believe torture of any kind should be used by law enforcement as an interrogation technique?
Do you support a city proclamation or legislation declaring torture to be an inhumane infringement on civil and human rights?

The compilation of the survey and petition will then be used to persuade and enable local elected officials to in fact declare torture of any kind a human rights violation.

2 – This objective will permit SF 8 friends and supporters to organize young activists to advocate at various programs, venues and events against torture as an interrogation technique; to educate others on the legal and political developments of the SF 8 Case; and further coalition building on local and national levels among progressive forces in solidarity with the SF 8.

Target groups:

Consideration should be given to establishing a youth contingent of activists in the various ethnic communities to canvas with the survey and petition.

Contact and communications need to be developed to persuade community activists and progressives to join in a broad-based coalition in support of the SF 8 and the objectives of the campaign. To further identify, record and report on other incidents of torture by law enforcement on local levels. These records/report will eventually be used to indicate the pervasiveness of the problem on both local and national levels.

Identify specific faith-based institutions and persuade them to support the campaign, introducing the survey and petition to their respective congregations. Parishioners of the many faiths should be encouraged to conduct the survey, sign the petitions, and communicate their support of the campaign to their elected city council board members and the mayor’s office. This also applies to union groups, immigration rights organizations, and anti-war activists.

Gain the support of students to organize fundraising events on college campuses to facilitate this campaign, and extend the potential for broad-based coalition building.

It is believed by virtue of this campaign, Anti-Torture Legislation and Proclamations across the country will eventually challenge the national policy espoused by US Attorney General Gonzalez and end support for torture as an interrogation technique by law enforcement and military personnel.

It is our sincere hope that activists and progressive folks will see the utility of the campaign to broaden our national determination toward coalition building and demanding an end to torture and to ensure human rights is the order of the day.

Signed

The San Francisco 8

Woodfin & ICE Caught in Political Scandal !!!

The Bay Guardian revealed today that Samuel Hardage owner of the Woodfin
Suites hotel chain used his political influence as a Republican Party
leader and donor to have his Congressman persuade the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency to investigate his very own hotel and
workers.

In an interview with a Guardian reporter, a representative of Congressman
Brian Bilbray's office admitted that the Congressman's office had been
asked by the Woodfin Suites Hotel in Emeryville to initiate an ICE audit
of their very own hotel. Bilbray then asked Julie Myers, the head of ICE,
to conduct the audit. ICE agents arrived at the hotel in April despite
ICE's written policy not to intervene in labor disputes. Woodfin then used
the ICE's audit as justification in court for firing these workers.

For almost a year, Hardage and the local hotel management have repeatedly
denied that their motives for terminating the Measure C whistle blowers
were retaliatory. Instead they have claimed that they were complying with
federal immigration law to avoid criminal and civil penalties. However,
while Woodfin told the Alameda Superior Court, the Emeryville City Council
and the media that it was firing workers because of the ICE audit, it
never mentioned that it had brought this audit onto itself and had used
political connections to do so.

According to the Guardian:

"For months the Woodfin Suites has tried to justify firing workers who
organized for better labor conditions by alluding to fears of reprisals by
ICE The 'fact that our hotel has been asked by the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to provide employment records suggests that our
actions are anything but voluntary,' he [Woodfin General Manager, Hugh
Macintosh] wrote. The Bilbray connection significantly undermines this
claim?"

To read the article, go to:

This is a drastic example of why we need comprehensive immigration reform
that includes strong workers' rights protections! Let's rise up against
this political corruption and send a strong message to ICE and the Woodfin
that the community won't stand for this scandalous cronyism!


For more information, call EBASE at (510) 893-7106, ext. 27, email
info@workingeastbay.org, or visit www.workingeastbay.org.



EBASE Email News and Updates
1714 Franklin Street - Suite 325 Oakland, CA 94612 : 510.893.7106

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Thanks!

Well the cruelest month is over. Big ups to all who participated in the events that led up to Mayday 07-- Check up on this site for future get-togethers as we all recover.
Some one jokingly said "Now you should start the 'Nights of May Collective'."

Friday, April 27, 2007

Stand Beside Woodfin Workers

Woodfin Workers FIRED!!!

We are deeply distraught to announce that the Woodfin Suites Hotel in
Emeryville fired 11 workers in apparent retaliation for blowing the
whistle on the hotel's violation of Emeryville's living wage
ordinance. These firings are a malicious attack not just on
hard-working housekeepers and their families, but also on our
community's values of immigrant workers' rights, democracy, and
justice.

We are writing to ask you to stand beside Woodfin workers as they
fight for reinstatement. The firings come after 7 months of intense,
sustained protests by workers, residents, faith leaders, and immigrant
rights advocates. But as the chant goes, "The Woodfin ain't seen
nothin' yet." We will not abandon the workers and will demand
accountability from the Woodfin and the city council. We ask you to
join us in sending a strong and immediate message to the hotel that
the terminations are unethical, and to the city that they must hold
the Woodfin responsible and defend the workers' jobs.

Here's what you can do to help:

1. Attend two upcoming emergency response actions:

* Tomorrow, Saturday, April 28th at 9 AM. Join us for a rally
during our regular 7-11 AM pickets to send an immediate message to the
Woodfin that the community is behind the workers.
* Thursday, May 3rd at 5 PM. Join us for a critically important
rally to demand reinstatement of all fired Woodfin workers.

Both actions will take place at the Woodfin Suites Hotel located at
5800 Shellmound in Emeryville.

2. Email the Emeryville City Council. The firings violate the City of
Emeryville's urgency ordinance, which prohibits hotels from firing
workers until the city has had 90 days to investigate worker
complaints. To send a message to the Emeryville City Council to tell
them to immediately deny the Woodfin an operating permit until the
hotel reinstates workers and pays them back wages go to
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/EBASE/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11219.

3. Donate to the Living Wage Hardship fund. To make a donation to
support fired workers and their families go to:
http://www.workingeastbay.org/article.php?id=204.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Immigrant Workers Organize!

SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2pm - 5pm
Corazon del Pueblo
4814 International Boulevard, E. Oakland

IMMIGRANT WORKERS ORGANIZE

Bosses use ICE and the threat of deportation to intimidate workers and
deny them their rights. Come exercise strategies to defend ourselves from
La Migra. This workshop will look at using the law and ways to act beyond
the law.

-------------
This event will be a participatory workshop for immigrant workers, non-immigrant co-workers, worker advocates, union stewards, and other labor organizers who wish to formulate strategies to resist ICE raids and other anti-immigrant scenarios occurring in the workplace.

We'll discuss different case scenarios (drawn from actual experiences) and create responses. Scenarios include not only ICE raids but situations in which bosses/clients have used immigration status (legal or illegal) as a way to exploit immigrant workers. The examples of scenarios range from losses in wages, sexual abuse, no-match letters, wrongful eviction, and other forms of discrimination, intimidation, exploitation and violence.

Our outreach is specifically to immigrants employed in the domestic service industry, sex work industry, garment industry, hospitality industry, and restaurant industry. These are industries where the majority of workers are immigrant women of color and transwomen.

Goals of the event include:

* accurately discuss the specifics of case scenarios (based on experiential 1st person accounts)
* familiarize ourselves with, and emotionally prepare to confront, the current practices of the ICE and other agents of the State
* understand the Law in terms of how it can be used, the limitations based on documentation status, and how to move beyond the law
* identify processes of criminalization, coercion, exploitation, divisiveness, particularly who is targeted/harmed vs. who benefits.
* create a space to acknowledge each other and our collective power
* strengthen worker solidarity by redefining "work", formal and informal,and it's value.
* privilege the voices of immigrant women of color and transwomen and maintain a transnational feminist perspective.
* coordinate interventions with union reps, coworkers, family, neighbors and advocates
* determine ways to resist and fight back with dignity and self-determination

This workshop will honor particularly the work experiences of immigrant women of color and transwomen. Respect the space.

Translation and childcare provided.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Decolonization and Autonomous Solutions More Details

Here's more details on the next event, this Saturday. For the full calendar click here.

Decolonization and Autonomous Solutions

An open dialogue by and for indigenous people, immigrants and other people of color; Let's strengthen autonomous solutions towards decolonization. An afternoon discussion hosted by Estacion Libre Oakland and Days in April Collective.

SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2pm - 5pm
at Corazon del Pueblo at
4814 International Boulevard, E. Oakland

Featuring:
*Speakers from Estacion Libre-Oakland chapter
*Morning Star Gali; Intertribal Friendship House
*Harjap Grewal; No One Is Illegal (Vancouver, Canada)
*Speakers from Colectiva Zapatista Ramona
*Lara Kiswani; Organizer for self-determination in Palestine

Some of the questions we'll be focusing on are:
-How are we moving towards autonomous solutions?
-What more can we be doing?/Want to be doing?
-What does/would autonomy look like? (is autonomy land? is autonomy structures?)
-As different immigrant/multi-racial communities, what are our contexts towards building autonomy?
-What are some of the common networks and struggles?
-How do we undermine each other?
-What are some unaddressed problems and issues?
-What challenges arise when we attempt to create autonomous spaces while at the same time working to create popular movements?
-How do we define autonomy (economic, cultural, political, individual, community)?
-What is our immediate goal in creating autonomous spaces and is our longterm work limited to these goals?

Ships in the Night

Ships in the Night is a queer dance party that happens every 3rd Thursday and benefits different projects/organizations in the bay--

Thursday, April 19th, 2007 will benefit the Days in April Collective-- specifically to help us pay for the posters we got printed (Eberhardt Press in PDX is amazing by the way) and interpretation headsets we rented.

the Gangway
841 Larkin
between O'Farrell & Geary in SF

Thursday April 19th:
DJs Durt, C-Face, Adan
$3.00-5.00
10pm

see you there,
b. nogood

Sunday, April 15, 2007

No Pig Logic

Yesterday approximately 50 prison abolitionists, media workers, queer liberationists, anti-assimilationists, healthcare providers, and community organizers gathered to talk candidly and publicly about ending criminalization on all its fronts. Parts of it may be broadcast over the radio, I'll give yall a headsup here when that happens.

No pictures this time! But we politicked, made new friends, and shared stories. We all left with a clearer understanding of how we challenge criminalization in our day to day, and what might be our next strategies/actions to kick it up a notch and confront it. It was an exciting afternoon for me-- especially to meet all of the new faces.

Next Saturday is the Decolonization and Autonomous Solutions event in East Oakland-- More details here as it comes out.

For now what we know is:

DECOLONIZATION AND AUTONOMOUS SOLUTIONS

An open dialogue by and for indigenous people, immigrants and other people of color; Let’s strengthen autonomous solutions towards decolonization. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2pm - 5pm at Corazon del Pueblo at 4814 International Boulevard, E. Oakland

Hope to meet you there,
b. nogood

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

No Pig Logic. More Details!

Latest details on the No More Pig Logic event including info on the speakers. The flyer is here. Pass the word if you can and see you there!
b. nogood

Days In April Presents:

No More Pig Logic: Abolishing Criminalization and Building Solidarity.
Saturday. April 14th. 2007.
2pm. La Raza Centro Legal. (2nd Floor Auditorium).
474 Valencia St. at 16th St.
Wheelchair Accessible | Childcare Provided | Spanish/English Interpretation

Join us for a participatory discussion to break down criminalization and the ways it impacts people of color, queers, and immigrants. We'll brainstorm strategies to end criminalization and hear about on-going work on the ground in the Bay Area. This will be a space dedicated to building solidarity and abolishing pig logic. Everyone welcome.

Featuring:
Nat Smith from Critical Resistance Oakland.
"Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe." www.criticalresistance.org

Patricia Hemphill from Committee for the Defense of Human Rights.
The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights is the organization spearheading support for the San Francisco 8 (8 Ex-Black Panthers arrested on January 23rd, 2007). www.freethesf8.org

Lily from Arab American Legal Services.
"The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-San Francisco Chapter is part of a national, grassroots civil rights organization that aims to build, nurture, and empower the Arab-American Community." www.adcsf.org

Guillermina from Deporten a la Migra Coalition.
Deporten a la Migra is an immigrant led anti-imperialist coalition that’s composed of many grassroots groups in the Bay Area. They are active in organizing demonstrations, teach-ins and weekly street outreach about ICE raids, detention centers, and deportations. www.liberationink.com

RSVP to daysinaprilcollective@gmail.com
daysinapril.blogspot.com | 415.452.5256

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Film Tonight on Cambodian Migrations!

Tuesday. April 10th. 6pm.
SF Main Public Library. Koret Auditorium.
100 Larkin St. (near Civic Center BART)
Free.

Sentenced Home
is a film about Cambodian immigrants to the US-- it's just come out and it's screening it for free tonight. More info here. Hope you can make it--
b. nogood

Flyer for No Pig Logic Event

Here's the flyer for you to print and distribute-- two flyers should fit on one sheet of 8.5x11. pass the word if you can! see you there!
b. nogood.

Days In April Presents:

No More Pig Logic: Abolishing Criminalization and Building Solidarity.
Saturday. April 14th. 2007.
2-5pm. La Raza Centro Legal.
474 Valencia St. at 16th St.

Featuring Speakers from:
Critical Resistance Oakland,
Arab American Legal Services,
Committee for the Defense of Human Rights,
& Women's Collective of the SF Day Laborer's Program.

Join us for a participatory discussion to break down criminalization and the ways it impacts people of color, queers, and immigrants. A space dedicated to buidling solidarity and abolishing pig logic.

Childcare and Spanish/English Interpretation.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Festival Kicks Off Days In April

Thx to all yall who came out to the festival in the Fruitvale district of East Oakland. Kids smashed symbols of oppression, the Brass Liberation Orchestra played all my jams, and everyone got to play some football.
Pictures of the ruckus here.
See yall at the Woodfin workers march and at our next event: "No More Pig Logic"-- posters up tomorrow.
soon,
b. nogood

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Days In April. Towards Autonomous Solutions.

April is the cruelest month...
T. S. Eliot

For more information about the Days in April collective see the contacts to the right. But the quick jist is we're a mostly poc crew, mostly in our 20s, mostly queer, working with lots of other people/orgs/projects to set up some events in the bay to help build momentum towards Mayday. Here's a calendar including events by other people/orgs/projects we think are vital and amazing. Ultimately we're experimenting ways to build the road to autonomy and self-determination for all of our communities.
soon,
b. nogood
and the days in april collective


Days in April
*Immigrant Rights Calendar*

NIGHT OF A THOUSAND CONVERSATIONS
Join the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition for a night of conversation, art, music and performance on immigrant rights on the context of social and economic justice. THURSDAY, APRIL 5. Time and location TBA. Organized by National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition. Contact diana@nnirr.org or evelyn@immigrantrights.org

COMMUNITY FEAST AND CELEBRATION
The Intertribal Friendship House will host a Community Feast and Celebration to express appreciation to the community for its prompt mobilization and grassroots fund-raising to help "save the legacy" of this historical, urban Native landmark. FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 7pm at the Intertribal Friendship House, 523 International Blvd, Oakland. Organized by the Intertribal Friendship House.

FESTIVAL DEL INMIGRANTE
Join us in the park to enjoy music, theatre and resources for immigrants like legal and community organizations. SATURDAY, APRIL 7, 10-2pm at Josie de La Cruz Park, 1637 Fruitvale Ave, E. Oakland

MARCH FOR JUSTICE WITH WOODFIN WORKERS

Show the Woodfin hotel bosses and other Emeryville businesses that we will stand with the housekeepers and against racism and immigration raids. Organized by EBASE. TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 5pm, at Emeryville City Hall (Park St. at Hollis), Emeryville.

NO MORE PIG LOGIC: CRIMINALIZATION AND SOLIDARITY

A participatory discussion on the opportunities and challenges in building a people of color movement in the United States. Forge solidarity and break down criminalization and the different ways it impacts people of color, queers and immigrants. SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 2-5pm at La Raza Centro Legal, 474 Valencia St. (near 16th St) Suite 295, San Francisco

WHAT IS DIRECT ACTION

Come explore organizing tactics in a basic workshop of direct action. This is a space to break down strategies, decision-making roles and more. TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 1pm - 3pm at City College of San Francisco, 50 Phelan Ave, Student Union Rm 104 at the Multicultural Resource Center.

DECOLONIZATION AND AUTONOMOUS SOLUTIONS

An open dialogue by and for indigenous people, immigrants and other people of color; Let’s strengthen autonomous solutions towards decolonization. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2pm - 5pm at Corazon del Pueblo at 4814 International Boulevard, E. Oakland

IMMIGRANT WORKERS ORGANIZE
Bosses use ICE and the threat of deportation to intimidate workers and deny them their rights. Come exercise strategies to defend ourselves from La Migra. This workshop will look at using the law and ways to act beyond the law. SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2pm - 5pm“ at Corazon del Pueblo at 4814 International Boulevard, E. Oakland

EL GRAN PARO AMERICANO II

No to Borders! No to White Supremacy! No to Genocide! No to Neoliberalism! For Dignity! For Self-Determination! For Autonomy! TUESDAY, MAY 1. In your streets!


DIA EVENT PARTICIPANTS include: Arab American Legal Services, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, Deporte a la Migra, Estacion Libre-Oakland, No One is Illegal-Vancouver, Priority Africa Network, International Institute of the East Bay, Dulce, Women's Collective of the San Francisco Day Labor Project, Critical Resistance-Oakland.

ENDORSED BY: International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 6