Monthly Archives: May 2012

Jessica Hollie aka Bella Eiko speaks to the Oakland City Council

29 May 2012

3 Comments

May 23rd, Special Safety Committee Meeting

Transcribed by @MrEJFox

Can I get the technician to put this image up for a couple of minutes? It’s a close-up of what Bridget was holding just a second ago, so you guys can actually see the reason of us needing this.

And before I really go into what I’ve written, I want to let you know, Ms Kernighan, that I just found out my mother has 12 months to live, and I gotta come here and explain to you that a shield is about self defense. So let’s put your silliness in perspective really quick before I start.

Number one, I live in Oakland. I’m an Oaklander. I’m a raider, Oakland raider. I wear black. Black power. Black panthers. That’s what I do. Guess what? Our football team, what is their emblem? Skull and bones and shield, and you want to prosecute Oaklanders? Are you kidding me? Like on different levels I don’t understand the willful ignorance that you constantly perpetrate here.

The quotes for SFGate that Michael just talked about, I don’t wanna re-read it, I want you to know unfortunately for you I get to have a dissenting voice. In case you didn’t get the memo, with the constitution and the first amendment, let me be the one to remind you that I don’t care if you think a protest should look like that or not. I don’t think I should have to come out, downtown Oakland, before 12 noon to be tear gassed 3 times, and have to dodge a damn grenade or whatever it was that exploded behind my head. After I came and cried to ya’ll about me being afraid to go document mayday.

I went to see a therapist to get diagnosed with temporary PTSD, from the shit I saw on May 1st! The same shit that soldiers come home from war with, Iraq, Afghanistan, hiding in ditches, watching people get shot and killed, dragging families out of their home. They come home with the SAME SHIT.

You should be fuckin’ shamed of yourself.

I don’t have time to curb my language, because shit is fucked up and bullshit. I can sugarcoat it all day long, but all it does is make people be comfortable to be appeased. So I hope I am making you uncomfortable.

I also wanted to let you know I am running for city council. Because I plan to agitate the fuck out of you, do you understand? I don’t really wanna win, because I don’t have any faith in electoral politics anymore, didn’t come up here on december 20th like that. But if I do win, I promise I will ride your ass like a rodeo junkie. And make sure you don’t just get away with whatever. And I am talking to you like this, because you’re the one who said that citizen’s concerns are fucking ridiculous.

I remember I had to stand up for Sven when he  jumped down your throat like she should have. Remember that? It’s on YouTube, I made a video and sliced it up so people could just go on and watch that. As someone who worked with the radical feminist groups during the 70s I am disturbed by your consistent actions and statements that citizens concerns are foolish. And that’s only some of the reason I’d love to hear more about Jane Brunner’s term limits for city council members, because you’ve been here too long, it’s time for you to go.

With all this focus on violence I want to know what you’re doing about the very violent OPD that caused me to have PTSD after May Day. I didn’t commit a crime, unless maybe 148 a,b,c, what is it? I was standing on the sidewalk and when the police came I told them I had a right to be here, so maybe I blocked them for a second. Is that a crime? Should I go to jail for that? Do I not have a right to travel freely in downtown Oakland?

Shame on you for trying to pass legislation like this, using the fear mongering that MSM caters to while committing video plagiarism and then trying to label a very moralled college professor as a troublemaker. You can see mainstream media is gone, they don’t even wanna cover the shit I speak for. Of course these programs come here to express gratitude for you for the table scraps you offer them in comparison to what the police get to criminalize the same people that these programs are trying to help.

Like Lupe Fiasco said, “tease them with the upper crust, you give, then you move it, so you never keeping up enough.” Right, crabs in a bucket fighting for survival? They gonna be happy for the little table scraps you offer them, but you always have hella money for OPD, right? Resourceful as hell. You can reach out and fucking touch somebody, huh, to get some money for OPD. But when it comes up for social programming, or schools or any of that, you’re at a loss. Cry me a river I’m tired of your excuses. What I wanna know is why you’re cutting mental health services for the children, you should know these are the same children in Oakland who are getting mental health issues by coming outside and seeing what the police are doing when their parents try to teach them about their right to protest and have a dissenting voice in this country.

I wanna know why you haven’t talked about Grace Napolitano’s initiative, the Mental Health in Schools Act, that she’s been trying to push for some years. That had very successful test results in southern California. Do you know anything about that? That was my NFALD debate topic last year where I actually found that and did the research on my own because I’m concerned about my community and that was something that I was interested in debating. I did that for free. Actually I paid for it, because I have to pay to go to school. You get paid to be here, it’s your job to make shit better, what’s your problem?

I wanna say look at the Ice Cream 3, I spoke about Nneka before I came in here and cried, talked about her mom. Her mom’s right there. I talked about her sister, and how her sister’s a lawyer now. We’re all trying to go to law school. These are the same individuals that the Oakland Police Department and mainstream media slandered their names. Hate crimes. They don’t say anything about the fact I was standing there that my footage caught the lady calling teardrop a nigga, that I ran in front of her and said “don’t hit me” because she had her first drew back to hit him. But somehow the OPD managed to falsify the police reports to say that there were people present there who weren’t even there, they were just known occupiers. Hold on, let me give you one, they say Teardrop is Melvin, Teardrop is shorter than me, Melvin is hella tall, it doesn’t even matter do you see what I’m saying?

This happens in the court of law with the abusive legislation you put forth. Telling me “Oh I don’t think they’re going to prosecute it that way.” YES THEY DO. Because I am not as big as a sidewalk, when I stand on the sidewalk I am not blocking you from going by me, but I will get arrested for malicious obstruction of a throughway, you have got to be fucking kidding me.

I don’t see any recognition of the police department’s complete and utter failure to do anything that resembles law enforcement in regards to occupy protests. Instead the city council keeps giving them money and passing more legislation to excuse the abuses.

I’m talking to you please don’t look away from me right now.

I want to talk about mayday again, let me go back to that. Because we’re talking about this new policy OPD has, right? Well guess what their new policy did? Their new policy for snatch-and-grabbing still shot teargas in the crowd.

I’m talking to you, Ms. Kernighan, it’s your initiative, I’m talking to you, I don’t care! Look at me. I don’t care, stop talking! You don’t talk ’til all the speakers do. That’s your rules, abide by them. That’s your rules. Abide by them, it’s your job.

I want to talk about May Day again, okay. How many years has mayday been happening in the city of Oakland? How many times did it get teargassed? There were asthmatics in the group, children, disabled people. I’m standing behind the line of police, where the protestors are over there, and I gotta dodge canisters. And somehow that’s an improved policy? Like I said before, the policy doesn’t need to be changed, we got this reform so far up our asses it’s clouding our judgement. The policy doesn’t have to be changed, they need to be held accountable. You can sit up here and say whatever. I can say I’m not gonna cuss on the mic but if I get up here and still do it, then I’ve proven you I have no integrity, right? My word cant be counted on? Well they came and said they wouldn’t come and teargas large groups of people and crowds to control them, especially to grab one individual. They lied. Don’t believe it? Go to ustream.tv and search Bella Eiko, Courtney Occupy, Justizin. It’s free. You don’t gotta pay Comcast hella hundreds of dollars to get that.

Why is it that you don’t understand that you keep giving money to the same gang. Organized, oppressive, militarized force, oppressing our community. The same community you can’t seem to find resources for to provide permanent jobs. To provide a quality level of education. I’m talking to you, still talking to you. You are not doing your job. You are not doing your job. You are not, doing, your, job. You are fired, in my book. Do you understand? If I could hand you a pink slip right now.

I’m not a nihilist but I wish they would burn every fucking thing down except for the houses so we could understand we don’t need this system to survive. I don’t need to pay a corporation for food and water that’s provided by this same fucking earth. That we will arrest people who try to start urban farms… Don’t silence me. Don’t you dare.

["Jessica…"]

I am so tired. What you dealin with is more than rage. What your dealing with is me having to go to a fucking therapist to tell me I was fine on the morning of may 1st but by the evening I had an issue, PTSD.

["Miss Hollie your time has expired"]

Yeah, her time has expired too. And unfortunately don’t get to just shut me off. If you cut off the mic I’m still loud enough.

The side effects from the teargas on May Day may have me coughing up pleghm still, may make it hella hard for me to breathe so I borrow my boyfriend’s asthma inhaler. But I have enough in me to tell you that my Momma is dying, and you got me fucked up if you think that I’ma let you get away with continuing to criminalize my motherfucking community. I have got to deal with this as a black woman here. You don’t have to deal with this.

So you need to get off your high horse and remember the fact that you are a servant. Public servant. And you are not serving the people correctly. You are on your knees serving capitalism. Get up and get your mind right. Because if you take our shields, the only thing left is our 2nd amendment right. So when we shoot back, I want you to holler safety. And the American flag, the supreme court ruled it’s a perfectly protected form of self expression to burn that piece of shit that don’t represent nothing except imperialism and fucking oppression. But guess what? It’s not made of flammable material, you need an accelerant. So you are officially stopping free speech with your dumb ass initiative. I don’t live in the minority report movie, you do not have the right to arrest me because you think I might commit a crime. Fuck that, you on some dumb shit, I’m done too. You don’t have the right. You don’t have the right to arrest me because you think I may commit a crime, with a shield.

[Kernighan: "Ms. Hollie, are you going to just go on and on or,"]

I could go on and on because this is some ignorant shit. Instead of going to my momma. No, no, instead of being in my momma’s bed-

[Kernighan: "That's where you should- I'm sorry about your mom and, uh, you should probably be there. Is there another speaker? One more?" and then city council chambers erupted into chants of "The system has got to die, hella hella occupy!" ]

Dear Oakland City Council

29 May 2012

1 Comment

Dear Oakland City Council,

We see what you are doing. Holding on to your little slices of power and control while there is such an air of movement, change surrounding us all. You are holding on so tight, playing these political games. Now, my question remains do you consciously see the crooked things you do maintain your power and control, or has the lie become so loud in your head you can’t hear anything else? Either way, now is an appropriate time to examine our egos. What drives us? The interests of the people, or self-serving ones?

Old systems are crumbing and new ones arising. Why do you want to hold on to the old, repressive, and violent one? It could be so much better.

Examine your relationship to power and control. Pay attention to that little voice that tells you something is wrong. I am appealing to your conscience.
We are rising up. Join us. (Although when you do just be aware we might be a bit apprehensive at first, not so trusting, but considering your track record…Have compassion for us. We’ll come around.) We can see truth.

Molly Batchelder

Student protest in Montreal, Quebec, 22 May 2012

Solidarity with Montreal!

Featured

The following is from some activists in Occupy Oakland. A solidarity protest is planned for Friday, June 1, 7pm at 19th and Telegraph in Oakland.

Over the last few months, we have been enheartened by the revolt taking shape in the streets of Montreal. The students of Quebec have taken a struggle against tuition hikes and mobilized hundreds of thousands against austerity and state repression. What began as a one-week university student strike has precipitated into an anti-capitalist revolt against universities, banks and police in what many are calling a general and indefinite social strike. In the face of intense state repression, including the draconian law 78 more or less banning protest, court injunctions against university picket lines, and mass arrests, the rebels of Montreal return to the streets night after night for over 100 days. They have called for solidarity actions from everyone and everywhere that can connect with the struggle, saying that if the strike “cannot inspire disruptions of its own, then it will die out quick.”

In the Bay Area, we, too, have seen revolt spread from universities into the community through Occupy, and we’ve seen tens of thousands come together against state repression for the November 2nd general strike and December 12th west coast port shutdown. And during those days of intense struggle, we drew strength and joy from the solidarity extended to us from as far as New York to Mexico City to Cairo.

It is now time for us to extend our solidarity to our comrades in Montreal and work to inspire the same solidarity and desire to disrupt business as usual in our friends, families and neighbors.

Keep striking and don’t ever stop!

Infinite solidarity with the infinite social strike!

Protesting the Empire from Oakland to Chicago

25 May 2012

1 Comment

20120525-075058.jpg

By Molly Batchelder

We walked rapidly to meet hundreds gathered in front of the Art Institute. I found out from a comrade how the march there was started by four people, walking home from the large protest, who decided to take the streets. Yes, four people ignited hundreds! So together, at the intersection of Adams and Michigan Ave, we danced and draped our arms around each other and howled our favorite chants. “A-Anti-An-Ti-Ca-Pa-Ta-Lista. An-Anti-An-Ti-Ca-Pa-Ta-Lista.” People looked so beautiful in the streetlights, all faces absolutely shining. Oh, and it started to rain! We did not disperse! In fact, the rain was what actually gave rise to our complete exuberance. This was my favorite time, if someone were to ask me to choose.

But the riot police then moved in as a malicious force to snatch and grab a comrade (a new tactic for arresting “trouble makers”). I am sure they have a reason to put on paper, but really it was to divide us; to end our moment of cheerful solidarity. As my friend Ramon wrote of his experiences with the oppressors of his Basque people, “They don’t like seeing you having fun”.

So we voted to march, as our energy had shifted. We had a GA! And while most comrades who spoke expressed a longing to stay, to hold the space, to meet each other, when we voted it was overwhelmingly to march. So we marched. It was spirited at first, but became a sort of manic advance on unknown dark places as police lines blocked us from the fancy hotels filled with dignitaries we had hoped to reach. Some kids became interested in turning things over (benches, flower pots), for which Occupiers got to demonstrate our familiar beauty by turning things back and then talking to the youth. But cops moved in shortly after with a reason.

These cops were not the ones with the brimmed hats and the pressed suits, who stood on street corners engaging pleasantly with folks. These wore black body armor. They were huge. They looked like robocops. They reminded me of OPD. We were walking very fast in the back, and the scuffling sounds their back body armor made as all of them rushed in behind me… Do you know what that is like? When your body goes to fight or flight? And then they tackled someone, the scuffling sounds peaking, and I turn around and see four or five holding a woman up against a wall, her arm pinned above her head, the shock on her face! A woman! We walked towards her and said “We are just watching you arrest our friend. We have a right to do so.” But they don’t follow those laws, and we felt this and started for the march again. And again I hear hideous sounds and turn around to see another sister thrown to the ground with officers on top of her. I left. I headed for the nearest subway stop. I did not turn around again.

I spoke with other Occupiers during the convergence who have deduced that police go after women to insight our anger. How it is that police around the country are displaying similar tactics at the same time? Who is giving these orders?

I return to Oakland the next day to realize another young black man has been murdered by OPD. They claim Alan Blueford had a gun. But really, the officer shot Alan three times and then once in his own foot for his own protection. And now I find out they have just arrested my friend…

We are being systematically brutalized and murdered by the state because of who we are and what we represent. It’s very romantic to think change comes about in peaceful, non-interrupting ways. But that is not our consciousness yet, and now I struggle with the notion that maybe it is not the goal after all. So, I join my comrades on the street and yell, “Stand Up, Fight Back!”

What I saw in Chicago were so many brave people, using their bodies (no shields!) between others and police. To be on the front lines as the crowd attempts to push through and police beat heads with billyclubs… “What did they say back in ’68?” one officer said. “Billyclub to the fucking skull,” another officer replied.

I read an article about revolutionaries in Egypt, impoverished by the system, who come to the mosques for refuge, their eyes red from the tear gas, their bodies bloody from police weapons. They receive medical attention, food and water and then take back to the streets to return to the front lines. We are resisting! Please, don’t tell us to be peaceful. We have tried that long enough. And our redwood forests are gone; Our black, brown and poor people and abducted, incarcerated and murdered by the state; The Keystone Pine line is being built! Lakota grandmothers are standing in front of supply trucks. Let us have our anger! Let us demonstrate outrage! It is necessary.
We are in the midst of great transformation. And we are being challenged physical, mentally, emotionally on so many levels. Our adrenal systems (controlling hormones), nervous systems (controls signals between different body parts), muscular systems, are all hypervigilant.

Let’s take care of ourselves. And take care of each other.

Love Live the Oakland Commune and Fuck the Police!

AtoEbcuCAAET3jC

On the abduction of Chris M. by OPD

Featured

by Sri Louise

I want to let everyone know some of the details from the Act Full Gospel Church, where family and community members congregated yesterday to ask and receive answers from the OPD regarding the murder of Alan Blueford.

From the very start of the police “presentation” it was painfully clear that this was another charade meant to quell public unrest. Unfortunately, because the City and the OPD are not very smart, the same tactic they use to quell anger only inflames it. We see this tactic at every protest where the police instigate and insure violence.

One very telling control component of the meeting was that questions would not be fielded directly from attendees. Note cards and pencils were provided, questions would only be answered if they were written down. This type of process can easily censor which questions will be presented and in the end, only 7-10 out of the 100 questions submitted were answered before Chief Jordan declared the meeting over.

During and after the meeting, Chris was exercising his first amendment right to use speech as a form of redress. There was no threat of violence, ever. The meeting dispersed into the parking lot where we watched Chief Jordan get in his car and drive away while many of us shouted, JUSTICE FOR ALLEN BLUEFORD. Instead of deescalating the situation, the police did what they do best and escalated tension. 6 or 7 police cars pulled up in the drive way of the church, officers immediately drew their batons and they did this in the presence of a community that is suffering the loss of one of their young, deeply valued members, who was brutally gunned down by the OPD.

Chief Jordan began his presentation by saying how much “reverence” the OPD has for the residents of Oakland and yet time and time again, all I see is a violent insensitivity to life, community, faith, liberty and justice.

On our walk back to the Colliseum Bart station I watched at least two patrol cars monitor our status. One car only had one officer in it, at the time I thought that was strange, but I now know that tactic was intentional, they did not want to tip us off to what was about to happen. We arrived at the Bart station and I saw two patrol cars each carrying 4-5 officers. They were on the inner ring of the Bart parking lot and within about 2 min. were on the outer curb where Sgt. Beere instructed the men to arrest Chris. I’m not sure what the other officers were aware of prior to this abduction, because many of them seemed to appear uneasy, slightly inhibited and it forced Sgt. Beere to repeatedly yell at the officers to move faster.

Sgt. Beere served in Falluja during 2004/2005, which saw some of the most notorious destruction by US forces including chemical warfare. Here is some of what he and his comrades left behind.

Note: There was plenty of time and space to arrest Chris at the Church if any of the allegations were actually true. The Police waited until Chris was out of Church view, public view, surveilled his whereabouts and launched an illegal abduction. That way, when they talk to the media, they can say whatever it is that they want to justify their actions. The arrest was an act of revenge, their personal pay-back to a young man they despise for not cowering in front of their “authority”.

I asked several times, Why is he being arrested? Why is he being arrested? Why is he being Arrested and finally the default mechanism used to justify violence against community members, was, “assault on an officer.” Isn’t that what they said about Alan Blueford to justify murdering him?

So they handcuffed Chris, who did not resist and whisked him away making him sit in the back of a patrol car with two racist OPD officers. My intuitive fear was that those officers were about to do grave bodily harm to one of our own. I am relieved to write that reports from his mother say they did not.

Even after I was “gunned” down in an anti-war demonstration by OPD in 2003, I did not have the sentiment that I do now for the OPD. Since October, I have observed the demolition of our commune by armed forces. I have viewed OPD confiscate personal property and be unwilling to account for it and therefor return it. I have watched the OPD repress this community through repeated

harrasment, continual threats of arrests and countless illegal confinements and charges. I have witnessed them use extraordinary scare tactics to intimidate people out of public dissent. I have experienced them place many of us in really dangerous, potentially life threatening situations. I have watched them lie, stumble upon their own stupidity and be willing to enforce laws they cannot cite. And I have seen them do all of this with total impunity from within and with a stamp of approval from the City administration.

Repression invariable results in radicalization. I flashed my first fuck you sign when the plaza was raided on Jan 4th. I subsequently started to attend FTP marches. Many people have warned us not to let the police be our occupation, but I don’t think we have a choice and until more people are willing to stand up to the brutal injustice of the OPD, we will not be able to prevent them from killing more black and brown men in our community.

Our rage is an indication of how much we are suffering. Many of us are under extreme duress. Let us come together tomorrow and soothe some of this madness through a renewned sense of solidarity. Do not wait until someone you love is imprisoned or murdered.

Please, by then it will be too late, for all of us…everywhere.

In Prayer & Resistance,

Sri

NOTE: Chris will be arraigned Friday, 2pm at Wiley Manual Courthouse. An emergency march has been planned to support him Friday at 7pm at 19th and Telegraph.

Some Thoughts on the Council Meeting 5/22/12

23 May 2012

1 Comment

Last night was cathartic. There can be no doubt that what happened in Council Chambers last night was an event that will be marked in the history of Occupy Oakland, no matter the horrible press already written and to come. I saw people there I hadn’t seen in months. It reminded all Occupiers that we have far more in common than our differences. It reminded us who the enemy really was.

The fact that the City Council would care to take the time to consider such an ordinance shows us that they have no interest in the pressing problems of Oakland. When the Public Safety Committee morphs into the Police Safety Committee you know that your government has no interest in your well being.

Believe it or not, there are many things the City Council could be doing that could positively affect the well being of its citizens. And none of them have to do with criminalizing the carrying of protest signs attached to sticks thicker than 1/4″.

I spoke last night of how the Council could be addressing one of the most serious revenue problems it has — the draining of the City treasury by the Oakland Police because they continue to shoot people in the back and in the head, gun them down in the street and do everything possible to violate the 1st amendment rights of the population they allegedly protect and serve.

But there are plenty of other things the Council could do that would also have a real affect on the lives of those the police do not necessarily target, those who are just trying to scrape by.

Last night the San Jose City Council considered a measure to raise the minimum wage to $10/hr and index it to inflation, much as the City of San Francisco already has. The San Jose Council was too cowardly to pass it themselves — it will go on the ballot this November. But there is no reason the Oakland City Council should not be passing a similar measure.

Last year, there were more than 1300 foreclosures in Oakland. When a council ordinance speaks of violence perhaps we need to ask which is more violent — someone breaking a bank window or a bank demanding that the sheriffs come and throw a family out onto the street at 6:00 AM ? The Council may or may not be able to legally impose a moratorium on foreclosures in Oakland, but they could certainly create regulations that would make the foreclosure process much harder and more rigorous, while imposing fees and penalties that would make it more costly for banks to foreclose than to negotiate a loan modification.

San Francisco has a program called Healthy San Francisco that guarantees health care for all its residents (as long as they remain within San Francisco’s borders). With the Federal health care law quite possibly about to be declared unconstitutional, why isn’t Oakland’s City Council looking into how to set up a program similar to San Francisco’s for Oakland’s residents, or partner with Healthy San Francisco? What could be more worthwhile than for the Council to set a goal of health care for Oakland’s unemployed and working poor?

These are just three of many things the Oakland City Council could be doing to make the lives of the people it is supposed to represent better. Instead, as thirty-odd very agitated speakers made clear last night, the Council would rather waste its time on the definition of a shield than on creating a society where a job with a decent wage, a home, and health care are human rights.

Occupy Oakland announces Occupy AC Transit

17 May 2012

4 Comments

May 16, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On Wednesday, Occupy Oakland and rank-and-file AC-Transit drivers announced a campaign that will pressure the MTC to make transportation more accessible for low-income communities and to reverse concessions forced on transit workers. This campaign kicks off today by asking drivers to honor transfers for multiple use and up to 3 hours. Riders and drivers stand in solidarity in this demand for a just transportation system.

Next year, another round of fare increases is scheduled to go into effect. This is in addition to service cuts disproportionately applied to poorer communities of color. Many people have to pay two full fares to get to work, and two more to get back. This means many transfers expire while people are waiting for their second bus. Bus riders, especially economically disadvantaged bus riders, increasingly have had to pay more to get less.

Drivers have also had to give more for less. Sometimes a 12-hr shift is barely paused for a break of ten minutes or less. Besides creating an unsafe work environment and an unsafe ride, frustrated drivers and riders end up fighting with each other over transfers or late buses.

Meanwhile, the people ripping everyone off and gutting service – the 1% – are out of reach. The rich 1% could not make money without the support of hundreds of thousands of workers who ride the bus and the transit workers who take them there.

“For years, bus fares have increased while working conditions and pay have steadily declined,” said Mike King of Occupy Oakland. “This reality can only be rectified by riders and drivers standing together and building collective social power to create a just bus system for everyone.”

This effort around transfers is a small step, but will be one of many as we escalate the campaign in the coming months.

For online information, go to http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003741365182 or email us at occupyactransit@gmail.com.

##

Imagine only oil refineries

17 May 2012

2 Comments

by Chichi Clarke and Bigfoot Vicksburg

SOURCE: AP

Imagine the San Francisco Bay completely surrounded by petroleum refineries and chemical plants. Imagine there are no zoning regulations thus these refineries are interspersed with impoverished residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors. Imagine oil refinery tanks and pipes built along 2 or 3 sides of some houses in these neighborhoods, and chemical plants abutting schools. Now imagine you live in San Francisco; you may have no idea neighboring communities are suffering these conditions, because all you see are shiny sky scrapers, McMansions, and thriving downtown streets (financed by the same industrial oligarchy which poisons your neighbors.) Not many of us live this imaginary scenario here in the Bay Area, precisely because people DO live like this along the Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay.

We will have a chance to take action here, in solidarity with everyone affected by pollution from fossil fuel industries and climate change, at events surrounding the Chevron shareholders meeting on May 30th. On Tuesday May 29th from 6-10pm there will be a Teach-in on the True Cost of Chevron at the David Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. People from many communities impacted by Chevron will be participating.

The next day, people from around the world will descend on San Ramon, CA and confront Chevron at its annual shareholder meeting. For the details, see the event page here.

At the end of February, 2 Oakland Occupiers traveled along the Gulf Coast from Houston to New Orleans, visiting people and communities affected by the oil and gas industries, and meeting with local Occupiers. Our conclusion is that the Gulf Coast is largely a national sacrifice zone, supplying the rest of us cheap oil and gas. Prosperity in America is a thin veneer supported by thousands of square miles of oil and gas refineries and toxic materials processing plants. This sprawling industry dominates previously productive coastal ecosystems and endangers the lives and health of poor communities of mostly black and brown people throughout the region.

Last month we remembered the 2-year anniversary of the BP Macondo Oil Well explosion and spill. While it will be years before the vast environmental and human health impacts of the disaster are known and understood, the conditions created by government by and for the petroleum industry are clear with even a cursory investigation. Government officials and elected reps from the local to the national level along the Gulf Coast are dependent upon oil and gas industry contributions and political backing; they serve at the behest of these corporations. Thousands of residents are dependent upon these industries for their jobs. Not surprisingly, all of the organizers, activists, and Occupiers we spoke with lamented the lack of participation in community and political organizations fighting these industries.

For years throughout the Gulf region, the oil and gas industries have been responsible for the sickness and deaths of uncountable thousands of people. In 2005, an explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery killed 15 people and injured 170. The company was placed on criminal probation by the Justice Department, which required BP to correct the problems that caused the blast. In 2009, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the company $87 million for failing to comply with the conditions of the probation, and levied 709 additional violations, including 439 outside of the criminal case. Just before the Macondo Well explosion, the Texas City refinery flared toxic gases for 40 days without informing city official or Texas “regulators” until it was over. (Flaring for this long is illegal at California refineries.) On March 12th of this year, after paying only $50.6 million in fines, and providing little evidence that the violations were addressed, BP was released from probation. This is just one refinery out of hundreds in the Gulf region; one out of the thousands of toxic sites across the country created by drilling, fracking, mining, refining, burning, and disposing of fossil fuels.

Unfortunately, the Occupy movement has had little staying power along the Gulf Coast, and has been unable to capture the interest of people who don’t see how the mainstream depiction of Occupy Wall Street’s concerns about financial crimes relate to their immediate problems of environmental injustice and poverty. Occupy in this region has largely failed to bring local activists and community members into the core of the movement and invigorate the fight against the petroleum industry. Community based and left political organizations still struggle to mobilize people. 200 people turning out for a demo in Houston, or 100 in Port Arthur, is huge. If the Occupy movement here in the Bay Area targets environmental injustices done by the oil and gas corporations, it will create natural allies with people and communities struggling against these behemoths along the Gulf Coast.

The environmental, social, and economic injustices of the fossil fuel industries must be a major target of Occupy.

More information:
http://www.propublica.org/topic/gulf-oil-spill
http://www.thenation.com/article/167461/bps-toxic-legacy
http://truecostofchevron.com/

Locally:
Asian Pacific Environmental Network: The True Cost of Chevron on Richmond’s Laotian Community

http://www.westcountytoxicscoalition.org/

Occupy Oakland Environmental Justice Committee: email environmentaljustice@occupyoakland.org