#OccupyCal UCB Chancellor Birgeneau resigns! Let's win all our demands - BAMN mtg Thursday

From: Ronald Cruz
Date: Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Subject: VICTORY: UCB Chancellor Birgeneau resigns! Let's win all our demands - BAMN mtg Thursday
To: Ronald Cruz


Victory for the Movement—Birgeneau Resigns!

Keep Fighting to Win All Our Demands!

BAMN Meeting Thursday (3/15) 7:00 pm, Room 141 Giannini Hall, UCB

 

In a major victory for the new student movement, UC-Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced today that he will resign at the end of the year. (BAMN press release below.) This has been one of the top demands of the movement. What we now need to do is fight to realize the other demands of the movement: doubling underrepresented minority student enrollment at UCB, dropping the charges against protesters, and reversing the fee hikes, cuts, and privatization at UCB.

Come to BAMN’s meeting this Thursday. Our proposed agenda is to plan two major initiatives this spring:

A. Direct Action on April 6 to demand (1) the end to the political witch-hunt and that UCB and the District Attorney drop the criminal charges against November 9 protesters and (2) immediate doubling of underrepresented minority student enrollment at UCB for this year’s incoming class.

B. Coordinating a slate for UC-Berkeley student government: the Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP). We need leaders in the ASUC who will be the voice of the movement to defend public education and who are committed to building the movement.  Come to Thursday’s meeting and learn more about running and supporting the DAAP slate.

- Yvette Felarca, Northern California coordinator of BAMN (Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary)

BAMN PRESS RELEASE:

Movement celebrates victory today: UC-Berkeley chancellor forced to resign

Students also demand that Birgeneau withdraw the criminal charges filed against Nov. 9 protesters before he leaves
 
BAMN and other movement activists are celebrating the movement’s victory today forcing the resignation of UCB Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.

At the press conference will be YVETTE FELARCA, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit brought against UC-Berkeley for police brutality from November 9, BAMN’s Northern California coordinator, and now a defendant facing criminal charges from Birgeneau and the Alameda County District Attorney for being at the November 9 protest.

“The new student movement demanding the preservation of public education and the restoration of affirmative action has won a major victory today,” Felarca said. “Chancellor Birgeneau’s resignation has been one of the top demands of the movement ever since he authorized police to beat me and countless other protesters who were standing up for public education on November 9, 2011. Birgeneau had to go. No chancellor can survive after doing what he did to his own students.”

“Birgeneau’s resignation is a confession that his policies of privatization, police brutality, and prosecutions have been a disaster,” said Monica Smith, BAMN attorney representing many protesters from November 9. “Before he leaves, he needs to withdraw the criminal charges he has brought against November 9 protesters and bring this political witch hunt to an end.”

“This victory is the result of the increased social power that students now have to determine the character of our education and the policies of this society,” said Matt Williams, UC-Berkeley senior and BAMN organizer. “On April 6, 2012, students will take direct action to double underrepresented minority student enrollment for the fall class and demand that all charges stemming from the November 9 protest be withdrawn and dropped—UC-Berkeley is a public university and must be democratically run and opened up to all of California.” 

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this came from the BAMN email announcements list.

#OccupyTheMail #NationalSolidarityCall from #OWS

So we were brainstorming because the United States Postal Service union came up to ask for support and solidarity on March 17th. As you know, March 17th is the 6th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, so we said that we would stand in solidarity with them but it'll be a busy day...

A few of us got to brainstorming...
What could we do to show solidarity to a huge union that stands in support of us?

The idea:
Get an #Occupy Pen pal!  (Or 2 or 3)
Write a letter!
Send it! 
Write #OccupyWallStreet or #OccupyOakland or #OWS or #OO on the back!

Ideas that we are working on:
Create some kind of preparation kit to give to people who are interested
Include:
Postage stamps (Custom Occupy Stamps, or maybe have a stamp drive to get stamps for interested parties)
Post Cards (Have a postcard drive or custom made Occupy postcards)
A pen + Paper
Possibly an address that we can give to a potential pen pal!
As long as the USPS can tell that it's from Occupy, we feel that it will build great support and community with this particular Union, and since they seem to be very involved with a lot of the communities that they deliver mail to could prove to be a good form of outreach as well. They'll see the occupy name on every letter that is being sent (and we can even add a message like #OO Stand in Solidarity with the USPS or something on the back) So that they know we are doing what we can to support them. 

Imagine if everyone #Occupier was to send out at least one letter per week (or even two to three!) to another #Occupier. What kind of message would that send to the United States Postal Service as a message of solidarity from us to them? 

Launch Date: March 17th

Final Comments on #OOMedia - Bottom Line. SO WHAT?!

Ok fine. I see I have to write a response to this #OOMedia shit even if I don't want to.

Here it is. First of all, I don't even care that much. I'm autonomous media and from an outside perspective it just looks like a bunch of people who stopped getting along had a power struggle and this is what came of it. However, let me touch on a couple more points because after this I'm done and don't want to hear anything else about it. I would RATHER FOCUS ON THE POLITICAL PRISONERS THAT NEED TO BE FREED!

1) The media committee was. Legitimized by the consensus process of GA. That means a group of people came together to ask permission to do shit they could be doing on their own anyway.

2) the GA approved the group and they colaborated to build a site. That site is official because it was put together by the legitimized media group.

3) SOME writers came together and wrote an article weak in the facts department and heavy in the pointing fingers at an individual within the movement. That was wrong. With the gravity of this situation and the accusations being INDIRECTLY made, more research should have been put in AND when the facts were FOUND (more than 1 confirmation of this) those facts that were in opposition of the article were denied/rejected/not published and it was pursued anyway.

Now comes the issue of accountability

Should the individuals who signed it be held accountable? Well if that were an option it might have been employed, however, because some wish to remain anonymous we have no clue who that is.

Why are people defending them rather than saying it was wrong? There has still been no apology. Everyone is attacked who think this was childish and foolish by not the individuals who are known to have written and publish it, but others in the media group. This makes me wonder if you are the anonymous ones.

Also, for all the talk of abuse. It constantly seems that the self proclaimed pacifists are the ones constantly waging rhetorical war on those they do not agree with which is both hypocritical and decidedly more dangerous to the sustainability and growth of the movement. This is people breaking up the movement on their own.

With the "transparency" and openness of Occupy, or at least what Occupy is supposed to be there are several infiltrators, undercover agents etc in our midsts. Guess what? You probably don't know who the hell they are! Stop all this constant fear mongering and fighting.

Imagine what we could be accomplishing if we weren't all biting each others heads off over articles on the Internet while vicious lies are printed all the time anyway.

Federal Receivership: Good or Bad for Occupy Oakland?

There has been a lot of talk about federal receivership for the Oakland Police Department in the past few weeks, and considering much of the readily available content online via YouTube, various blogs, and live streams, many would say that is a well deserved fate for many recorded incidents.


Thinking about all the defensive statements from Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Howard Jordan, one would be inclined to think that the Occupy Oakland protesters are really crazy and/or violent and should be jailed, or forcibly put in mental institutions for their behavior. It’s unfortunate that these same individuals have the power to send out highly publicized press releases that broadcast their damaging statements against people demanding social change and governmental responsibility at the very least.


However, there are some interesting facts that I have yet to see covered on CNN, or other means of Corporate Media....


For More please visit: http://ripperhollow.com/federal-receivership-good-bad-occupy-oakland/

Did the Bill Of Rights Ever Mean Anything?

There is freedom of speech and right in there is freedom of the press. The press are supposed to be able to film and/or be close enough to record the names of individuals when they are arrested. This being said, I am curious about the individuals wearing press badges, who have self identified as press and been recognized as such and have been arrested covering Occupy Oakland protests. Is this legal when the Constitution protects them being close enough to adequately document the events taking place?

Is it only my opinion that the highest law in the land is the Constitution? The reason I ask this question is because the press is supposed to be able to document so why is it that journalists get charged for things like CA penal code 647c (malicious obstruction of a sidewalk) when standing on the sidewalk filming police activity? Not just journalist but being that the freedom of the press is under the First Amendment granting freedom of speech to the citizens, are they not granted those same rights when documenting even if for their own purposes? This article is particularly disturbing Arresting someone for loitering is trivial and doesn't trump the freedoms granted by the First Amendment. So how is it these laws are being enforced and upheld by the judicial system in the form of stay away orders?

For those of you who think these Constitutional violations have only been occurring with the Occupy Movement, know that they have been happening in the past as well in many other places aside from Oakland. In New York a woman was arrested for filming an officer from her home. That article can be read here Something has to be done before even the facade of a democracy and Civil Liberties fades away. Let's stand up as a people and do what needs to be done to save our rights from our government.