Racial and Economic Justice Calendar March 28, 2007
**as always, following the abbreviated list of events are the longer descriptions of each event, and you can always check our blog for other event listings and for re-postings of articles and analysis that we find interesting or useful.**
Short version:
3/30: ONE DAY SHELLMOUND WALK: WALK AND PRAY TO HONOR OHLONE AND ALL ANCESTORS, PROTECT THE SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN SHELLMOUND! For more information, contact 925-286-5869.
4/5: Video Café: 'Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land' ; 7-9pm, Redstone Building 2940 16th Street, Room 216 C, 2nd floor
4/5: Dine for a Change: in honor of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, more than twenty five local participating restaurants will donate a portion of that day’s proceeds to San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR). The list of restaurants can be found here: http://www.sfwar.org/images/d4c_website-2-98.jpg
4/6: Native Peoples & Environmental Justice Allies to Protest U.S. Department of Justice Over Plans to Build Power Plants in the Sacred and Natural Medicine Lake Highlands near Mt. Shasta; Rally at High Noon at DOJ Office, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco
4/15: Picture Balata Exhibit: El Balazo Gallery; For more information or donations email: SFpictureBalata at gmail.com or call 415-861-7444
4/18: Digital Resistance: Palestinian Youth Media: perspectives on Palestinian history, culture, life under occupation and visions for justice. 7:30 to 9:30pm Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center Street (near Downtown Berkeley BART), $5-20 donation requested at the door.
4/24: Televising the Revolution: A Radical Film Series at El Rio, 3158 Mission St., SF, 8pm, A Benefit for Young Workers United, Showing the Film: "At the River I Stand"
4/27: Save the Date: Early morning rally to support the San Francisco 8…for more details on the case see http://www.cdhrsupport.org/what_to_do.html#court
Long Versions:
**********
3/30: ONE DAY SHELLMOUND WALK
Friday March 30 2007
WALK AND PRAY TO HONOR OHLONE AND ALL ANCESTORS
PROTECT THE SAN BRUNO MOUNTAIN SHELLMOUND!
The timing is crucial. This shellmound that we walked to in 2005 sits just north of a gigantic development site where work is scheduled to begin next month. Right now this is a wild slope just above the Bayshore Highway on San Bruno Mountain. The SF Chronicle called the development the largest planned in the region since 2001. Office Towers, supermarket, cinemas, and condos that developers call a "campus" Will bring traffic, noise, pollution, and consumerism to within yards of This sacred site. San Bruno Mountain Watch says proper studies of the impact have not been done. Many South San Franciscans oppose development and our walk will encourage them to stand up for this sacred site and Mother Earth.
Walk co-sponsored by Indian People Organizing for Change (IPOC), Vallejo
Intertribal, Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Order, San Bruno Mountain Watch.
For more information, contact 925-286-5869.
Tentative plan—South San Francisco BART station to Brisbane (6-8 miles total). Visit 3 shellmound sites—the first one covered over by urban development, the second gravely at risk, the third undisturbed and beautiful in springtime. Walk through downtown SSF past Old City Hall where decisions about development get made. Details and times of
ceremonies at the 3 shellmounds available soon.
**********
4/5:
Video Café: 'Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land'
Thursday April 5, 7-9pm; Redstone Building 2940 16th Street,
Room 216 C, 2nd floor (between S. Van Ness and Mission Streets in San Francisco)
A striking documentary exposing how US political elites working with Israeli public relations have a powerful influence over media reporting on Palestinian/ Israeli news in an attempt to distort public opinion. An evening to support Bay Area activities to Boycott Israeli Goods (BIG) and divestment from Israel. This growing international campaign opposes the US-Israeli wars in the Middle East and genocide against
Palestinian people. BIG is asking Rainbow Grocery, a worker-led co-op to take up the boycott.
Sponsored by Global Women's Strike SF/Bay Area and RainbowBIG
415-626-4114 sf@crossroadswomen.net
All welcome Entrance by donation – no one turned away for lack of funds. Wheelchair accessible, refreshments.
Part of International Women's Day Global Women's Strike events
**********
4/5:
Dine for a Change --Together We Can End Sexual Assault!
On Thursday April 5, 2007, in honor of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, local restaurants and cafés will support services for survivors of rape and sexual assault. More than twenty five participating businesses will donate a portion of that day’s proceeds to San Francisco Women Against Rape (SFWAR). The list of restaurants can be found here:
http://www.sfwar.org/images/d4c_website-2-98.jpg
The wide range of restaurants and café’s reflect the people in the San Francisco community affected by sexual violence. Materials will be available at each business, providing information about sexual assault and violence and the support services that SFWAR offers. Proceeds will directly support necessary services including legal advocacy, teen education, counseling services and a 24-hour crisis hotline.
For more information about Dine for a Change or SFWAR, call (415) 861-2024
or visit <http://www.sfwar.org/> www.sfwar.org.
Participating Restaurants:
Dottie's True Blue Cafe - 522 Jones Street
L's Cafe - 2871 24th Street
Atlas Cafe - 3049 20th St
Estela's Fresh Sandwiches - 250 Fillmore St
Dolores Park Cafe - 501 Dolores Street
Papalote - 3409 24th St
Tao Cafe - 1000 Guerrero St
Boogaloos - 3296 22nd St.
Maggie Mudd - 903 Cortland St.
Cote Sud - 4238 18th St
Coffee to the People - 1388 haight st
People's Cafe - 2015 Shattuck Ave, BERKELEY
Duboce Park Café - 2 Sanchez Street
Magnolia Pub and Brewery - 1398 Haight
Juicy Lucy's Juice Bar - 703 Columbus Avenue
Bissap Baobab - 2323 Mission
2223 - 2223 Market
Kiji Sushi- 1009 Guerrero St
Regalito Rosticeria - 3481 18th Street
Mariachi's - 16 Valencia St
The Magic Flute - 3673 Sacramento St.
Rotee - 400 haight Street
Ramblas - 557 Valencia
Alive! 1972 Lombard
Slow Club 2501 Mariposa St
Namu Bar & Restaurant 439 Balboa St.
Ali Baba's Cave 799 Valencia Street
Weird Fish 2193 Mission Street
Nova Bar & Restaurant 555 Second Street
**********
4/6:
Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites
Native Peoples & Environmental Justice Allies to Protest U.S. Department of Justice Over Plans to Build Power Plants in the Sacred and Natural Medicine Lake Highlands near Mt. Shasta
* Native People to Speak on the Situation *
Friday, April 6, 2007
Rally at High Noon at DOJ Office
450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco
S.F., CA–On 2/21/07 the US Department of Justice (DOJ), acting on behalf of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service (FS), requested that the 9th Circuit Court review the issues involving the proposed plans to build geothermal power plants in the Medicine Lake Highlands, a mountainous region held sacred to many Native Nations. In November 2006, a panel of the 9th Circuit unanimously ruled that the agencies not only violated the cultural rights of the Pit River Nation but also failed to uphold provisions of the National Environmental Protection and National Historic Preservation Acts. In their ruling the Court of Appeals found that the above Federal Agencies had never adequately considered whether the Highlands should be developed for energy at all. As a result, the Court rejected the leases that would have allowed Calpine Energy Company to build geothermal plants.
With DOJ's recent request to the 9th Circuit Court, the department may try to claim that the issue brought by the tribal government and supported by a panel of the 9 th Circuit is irrelevant. They may argue that the Native peoples who traditionally use the Highlands did not protest a new 40-year lease agreement that superseded the previous lease agreement.
In the 1980s, BLM decided to lease the Highlands for geothermal development, but did not go through the required tribal government consultation process mandated by U.S. law. Pit River, Modoc, Wintu and other Native peoples have been opposing these plans ever since they learned that their holy place would be violated. From a Native rights perspective, Medicine Lake Highlands is essential to the free exercise of Tribal religious beliefs and the encroachment of the proposed electrical power generating plant, represents a gross infringement of their constitutional and civil liberties. Native Peoples have never endorsed energy development in this pristine and sacred region nor will they ever. In fact, as far back as June 5, 1970, the late Mickey Gemmill, a distinguished cultural leader of the Pit River Nation issued a "Proclamation: To the President of the
United States and the American People" that stated "We are the rightful and legal owner of the land. No amount of money can buy the Mother Earth; therefore, the California Indian Land Claims Commission has no meaning. The Earth is our Mother and we cannot sell her." From this statement it is clear that the Native peoples that hold the Highlands sacrosanct would never support the pollution and money generating plans of the federal government and energy companies that would cause irreversible damage to the sacred and natural Medicine Lake region.
"Clearly, DOJ, BLM, FS, and Calpine energy company are grasping at straws with their latest legal argument to try to open up the Highlands for energy development," said Radley Davis, Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites.
James Hayward Sr., Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, said "If the Creator wanted such development in that area there would not be large amounts of dangerous arsenic and mercury in the ground to contend with. A panel of the 9 th Circuit and a lower court have already spent a great deal of time and other resources reviewing the case and it is time for developers to leave the Highlands alone. "
Mark LeBeau, Co-Chair of the Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, said "The federal government must cease and desist from supporting the building of power plants in the Highlands, stop playing politics and wasting tax payer dollars supporting an energy company bent on desecrating and negatively altering the Highlands. The government must ban such development out of respect for American Indian religious and traditional use rights and to fulfill its fiduciary responsibility to the tribal governments of the area and act in their best interests. In September 2004 President George Bush issued an executive memorandum requiring all federal agencies to respect Native sovereignty, self-determination and the government-to-government relationship as they make decisions; it is time for DOJ, BLM, and FS to abide by the president's order as it relates to Native protection and preservation of the Medicine Lake area."
Over 200 Native peoples, environmental justice allies, and other concerned citizens rallied in front of Calpine Energy Company's Headquarters on 1/29/07 in San Jose. Native nation representatives handed Calpine a Notice of Eviction from the Highlands. On 2/20/07 Natives, environmentalists, and other concerned citizens rallied outside the Alturas BLM and FS Field Office to demand the agencies not seek another review of the case involving Medicine Lake by the 9 th Circuit. The agencies have moved forward and therefore so have we: please join us in protesting DOJ at 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San
Francisco, CA on April 6, 2007 from high noon to 2:00 p.m.
Sponsors of the protest include Advocates for the Protection of Sacred Sites, Seventh Generation Fund, International Indian Treaty Council, Indigenous Environmental Network, Citizens of the Pitt River Nation, and Redding Rancheria Cultural Department.
*********
4/15: Picture Balata Exhibit: April 15, 2007
@ El Balazo Gallery
For more information or donations email:
SFpictureBalata at gmail.com or call 415-861-7444
**********
4./18
April 18, Berk: Digital Resistance: Palestinian Youth Media
Screening of pieces that offer new perspectives on Palestinian history, culture, life under occupation and visions for justice.
Wednesday, April 18, 7:30 to 9:30pm_Berkeley City College Auditorium_2050 Center Street (near Downtown Berkeley BART)_$5-20 donation requested at the door
In January 2007, a group of media makers and youth organizers from NYC and the Bay Area traveled to Palestine to facilitate a groundbreaking series of digital storytelling workshops as a part of the US-Palestine Youth Solidarity Network. Weaving together stories, images, and music, the young people created pieces that offer new perspectives on Palestinian history, culture, life under occupation and visions for justice.
Please join us for the first Bay Area screening of these digital stories!
For more info: events@mecaforpeace.org, 510-548-0542__Sponsored by Break the Silence Mural Project, the Center for Digital Storytelling and the Middle East Children's Alliance.
**********
4/24:
The Heads Up Collective Presents:Televising the Revolution:
A Radical Film Series at
El Rio
3158 Mission St., SF
www.elriosf.com
TUESDAY, APRIL 24th, 8pm
A Benefit for Young Workers United
www.youngworkersunited.org
Showing the Film:
"At the River I Stand"
Memphis's 1300 sanitation workers formed the lowest caste of a deeply racist society, earning so little they qualified for welfare. In the film, retired workers recall the fear as they took on the entire white power structure when they struck for higher wages and union recognition...At the River I Stand succeeds in showing that the causes (and possibly the solutions) to our present racial quandary may well be found in what
happened in Memphis. Its riveting portrait of the grit and determination of ordinary people will inspire viewers to rededicate themselves to racial and economic justice.
The mission of Young Workers United is to increase access for young people in San Francisco to quality education and employment by organizing youth as workers, students and consumers to hold corporations and policymakers accountable, and to unite the youth and labor movements to raise standards in non-union, low-wage jobs. Young Workers United was formed in 2002 to identify and address the particular needs of young workers, and of low-wage workers in food service and retail in general. While they build a local organization of young workers to improve their lives, they are also disseminating their unique analysis nationally to unionists, youth organizations, worker centers, researchers, and advocates.
This event is part of an ongoing monthly series showcasing radical films and supporting local organizing. Films are shown on the patio at El Rio every fourth Tuesday.
Free, but donations gladly accepted. Space is wheelchair accessible, but bathrooms are not. Unfortunately the space is 21 and over.
For more information, please contact radfilms@lycos.com
**********
4/27:
Save the Date:
Early morning rally to support the San Francisco 8…for more details on the case see http://www.cdhrsupport.org/what_to_do.html#court
