OAKLAND, California – On Wednesday, June 1st, Johannes Mehserle, the police officer who murdered Oscar Grant, will go before Judge Perry and may be released.
UPDATE: It seems that the court date might be pushed back to June 13th.
On the day of his release meet at:
from Bay of Rage:
Oakland: Friday June 3, during Art Murmur
- Gather at 7:30, Broadway @ Telegraph
- Guerrilla Film Screening at 9:30 following march
This is the first in a series of counterausterity marches and events we have planned for this summer, in order to begin assembling an anticapitalist force capable of combating the current age of budget cuts and economic violence. This initial event – a roving street party ending in a guerrilla film-screening– coincides with First Friday and Art Murmur because we want to draw attention to the fact that while the gentrification of certain areas of Oakland continues via mechanisms like First Friday, the majority of Oakland residents will face a new round of punishing budgets cuts, staggering levels of unemployment and an increasingly militarized police force. This is no accident. Just as on a national level the money cut from education and public assistance reappears as bank bailouts and tax cuts for the rich, the wealth squeezed out of certain parts of Oakland reappears in other parts of the city, in the form of art galleries and expensive restaurants, new condominiums and police weapons. So come take the streets with us on Friday night as we show our power.
We expect this to be a disruptive but relatively low-risk event. Our intent is to build up momentum, energy and intensity over the course of the summer.
Get your flyers for Anticut #1 here
Also, mark your calendars now. Anticut #2 will be taking the streets on the afternoon of June 17 at the same location. More info to come.
LOS ANGELES, California – Johannes Mehserle, the police officer that murdered Oscar Grant on New Years day 2009, has spent the last 10 months or so in prison. He has a court date on June 1st, and may be released as early as the middle of June on good behavior.
SACRAMENTO, California – The CTA (California Teachers Association) held a rally Monday in the state capitol of California against Governor Brown’s upcoming budget cuts potentially reducing the budget for education by billions of dollars. Between 50-150 anti-budget cut activists composed of students, union members, and others sat in at the capitol. The demonstrators were given a dispersal order, and have now been arrested and taken to county jail.
Follow whats going on with the arrests with occupySac on twitter.
Update:
6:30am: One large group of protestors were released earlier this morning, however the county jail will not be releasing the next group for another 12 hours. Protestors are requesting people call the jail and request an earlier release, 916.874.6752
11am: All demonstrators have been released from jail.
from ReclaimUC:
There are currently about 15 union members in the UAW statewide office, located at 2070 Allston way, suite 205 in Berkeley. A rally is scheduled for 11:30 on Sproul Plaza, and will turn into a march over to the union office to support and/or join the occupation. We will continue to provide updates as the day goes on.
Here’s an email from Mandy Cohen, current head steward for UAW 2865 and running for recording secretary on the AWDU slate, announcing and explaining the action:
This weekend I witnessed one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in my life. On Friday the counting of votes in our union leadership election began in LA. I drove down with other Berkeley and Santa Cruz AWDU members when we heard that all of Berkeley’s votes had been challenged (meaning they might be invalidated). We arrived in the early hours Saturday morning and were able to help count the votes for Santa Cruz, Davis, Irvine, San Diego, Riverside and Santa Barbara. by 5pm all of those campuses were almost complete–and AWDU actually seemed to be breaking even.
The elections committee called an hour recess–and three hours later came back to say that the count was suspended, the results so far calculated were certified, and the rest of the count (including all 1500+ votes from LA and Berkeley) and all of the challenges were passed on to the Joint Council–which doesn’t meet until July! The elections committee then immediately fled the building and abandoned the ballots.
All the members at LA sat down in the union office to make sure the votes were secured and to start lodging our protests with media, union officials, etc.
Late last night we drove back to Berkeley, had a meeting, and are now sitting down (in good UAW fashion) in the statewide union office until the elections committee agrees to resume the vote count. We have one demand: COUNT OUR VOTES.
We cannot let our votes be thrown out! This is exactly why we were forced to form the Academic Workers for a Democratic Union more than a year ago, though these actions are almost incomprehensible in their disregard for union democracy and members rights. Please join us at the office as soon as possible (2070 Allston Way, Suite 205) or come to the rally at Sather Gate at 11:30 and march to the office.
A call is planned at 1pm today between incumbent leadership, AWDU members, the elections committee chair and our international representative from UAW. We need to show that our members will not allow their votes to be thrown out, that the count must be finished and new leadership instated.
For more info, including our responses to the attacks that have been emailed by Daraka Larimore-Hall, see: http://www.awdu.org/ and http://berkeleyuaw.wordpress.com/
[Update Monday 1:49pm]: Occupiers just voted unanimously to remain in the office indefinitely until their demand — that all the votes be counted — is met.
