November 21, 2012
The fiery writing of JR Valrey began appearing in the Bay View a dozen years ago. JR made our original vision for the Bay View reality: to inspire Black youth to build a powerful Black community. As the Bay View’s associate editor and one of KPFA’s most popular programmers with his provocative Block Report Radio shows, JR and the youth who grew up on his empowering words and pictures are growing in influence, making a difference every day – and they’re just getting started.
November 10, 2012
ILWU Local 10 and SEIU Local 1021, two of the largest labor unions in the Bay Area, have pledged their support for the Justice 4 Alan Blueford campaign and the Nov. 10 march against racial profiling being organized with other Bay Area families victimized by police brutality. Join them at noon at Oscar Grant Plaza.
November 6, 2012
A now famous quote from Ernesto Che Guevara says, “At the risk of sounding ridiculous, the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.”
The legacy of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense has proven this repeatedly, even though the city in which the party was born continues to shower those who struggle within her boundaries with the most heinous disrespect.
July 16, 2012
The Community-Labor Coalition to Save the People’s Post Office rallied, marched and occupied the Civic Center Post Office in downtown San Francisco to stop threats of eliminating 220,000 living-wage jobs and closing 3,700 post offices, including four in San Francisco – most in poor neighborhoods and rural areas.
February 17, 2012
On Monday, Feb. 20, over a dozen rallies will be held throughout the U.S. for a “National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners.” Join the Bay Area rally 12-3 p.m. at San Quentin by getting or giving a ride at 10 a.m. at Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland or 1540 Market St. in SF. “The U.S. is the world’s leader of the incarceration industry – it’s time for the focused attention of the Occupy Movement,” notes Mumia Abu-Jamal. Big rallies on Feb. 20 will push California authorities to meet 12,000 California prisoners’ five core demands and challenge the prison industrial complex everywhere.
November 24, 2011
Occupy Oakland’s Thanksgiving gathering turned violent Thursday after police orchestrated the removal of portable toilets from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, which the protesters have renamed Oscar Grant Plaza. Occupy Oakland is one of the most assertive and appreciated of all of America’s Occupy groups.
November 18, 2011
Join the Occupy movement. But join with caution and ask yourselves of any movement: Does this group have a collective goal or game plan to work on which assures that we, Black people, are making progress for our people every day, if not every hour?
November 13, 2011
On Thursday, Nov. 10, Occupy Oakland was supposed to celebrate its one-month anniversary in the renamed Oscar Grant Plaza in front of City Hall. Instead the Occupy Movement worldwide was shaken by the cold-blooded murder of a participant less than an hour before festivities were scheduled to start.
November 11, 2011
The interests of big business have become the law of the land. The fictive “people of Oakland” invoked by business improvement districts (BIDs) LMUDA and DOA are nothing more than the personified corporations who want to turn Oakland into a gentrified metropolis devoid of any real public space.
November 2, 2011
“Everyone to the streets! No work! No school! Converge on downtown Oakland.” The General Strike demands are: 1) Solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement; 2) End police attacks on our communities; 3) Defend Oakland schools and libraries; 4) Oppose an economic system built on inequality and corporate power that perpetuates racism, sexism and destruction of the environment.
October 27, 2011
We as fellow occupiers of Oscar Grant Plaza propose that on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011, we liberate Oakland and shut down the 1 percent. We propose a citywide general strike and we propose we invite all students to walk out of school. Instead of workers going to work and students going to school, the people will converge on downtown Oakland to shut down the city. All banks and corporations should close down for the day or we will march on them. … The whole world is watching Oakland. Let’s show them what is possible.
October 26, 2011
Last night, I watched in horror alongside the rest of the world as Oakland police and 16 other police agencies from across the Bay Area fired tear gas and war grade weapons at the Occupy Wall Street movement. Now more than 50 writers have released a statement denouncing a “crackdown on free speech” by Oakland police and Mayor Jean Quan.