January/February Critical Resistance organizing update

Welcome to Critical Resistance Oakland's Monthly Organizing Update!"Why are
so many people we LOVE behind bars?"

CR is a member-based organization, fueled almost entirely by volunteers.
This update includes upcoming ways to organize with Critical Resistance -
and even more can be found on CR
<http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=Critical-Resistance-Oaklan
d> Oakland's website. To come to an orientation, get involved in our work
to create real safety in Oakland and across the country, or learn more,
please contact us at 510-444-0484, or at
<mailto:croakland [at] criticalresistance.org> croakland [at] criticalresistance.org.


Please also consider
<https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=6817> becoming a dues
paying member of Critical Resistance for 2007 - we need your help to
continue this vital work!
-Nat



Upcoming CR Oakland Organizing Opportunities and Allied Events



Thursday, January 25th, 6:30pm
Plan for a Safer Oakland Meeting

1904 Franklin Street

Oakland, one block from 19th Street BART

3rd flr Conference rm, take a right out of the elevator
CR has initiated a partnership with All Of Us Or None to work towards REAL
safety in Oakland. Join us as we fight for more and better re-entry services
that welcome people coming home from prison, call on Oakland to invest in
people instead of prisons and policing and stand up for our youth.


Saturday, January 27th, 8pm
Critical Resistance Benefit Party, "Prisons Don't Make us Safer, Community
Does"!!
KnockOut
3223 Mission Street

San Francisco
Featuring DJ Vanka (afro-brazilian beats), Wailing Junket (percussion trio)
and DJ iDLG (eclectic beats)

$5 before 10pm, $7 after, no one turned away for lack of funds. We are the
ones who need to support our work financially!

For more information call 510.444.0484



Thursday, February 1st, 7pm
"I Cried, You Didn't Listen" Book Release and Discussion
AK Press
674 23rd Street

Oakland
Please come out to AK Press for an evening of readings and discussion
marking the release of a new edition of Dwight E. Abbott's I CRIED, YOU
DIDN'T LISTEN-a chilling chronicle of the author's life growing up in the
California Youth Authority (CYA) and an indictment of the prison industrial
complex. Since Abbott is imprisoned, passages of his writing (including new
work) will be read by staff from the prison writing publication THE BEAT
WITHIN. Joining us in conversation will be Marshall Trammel from Critical
Resistance as well as several young people who are recently free from the
CYA. Join us in this meaningful discussion.

For more information call 510.208.1700



Tuesday, February 6th, 6:30pm
New Member Orientation

1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504

Oakland, one block from 19th Street BART
Getting pumped reading these emails? Worried about the Governor's Prison
Expansion plan? Concerned about the Bay Area's misplaced priorities around
ending violence? Come to our monthly New Member Orientation and learn more
about what we are working on and how you can get involved. No previous
skills necessary, just a desire to fight and end prisons, policing,
surveillance and other forms of social control.

For more information call 510.444.0484





Wednesday, February 7th, 7 pm
"Legacy of Torture" Screening and Discussion Potluck

Next to 115 Echo Avenue, off Piedmont Ave.

Oakland

Our monthly potlucks are where we get together to discuss topics ranging
from speaking with our parents to recognizing the depth to which pop culture
is a venue for pushing pro-punishment politics. This month we'll be watching
the ever relevant Legacy of Torture, The War Against the Black Liberation
Movement, a film made the Freedom Archives. In the wake of recent events;
the men featured in the film we arrested yesterday on charges relating to an
event over 30 years ago in the wake of their recent struggle with a San
Francisco grand jury. Join us as we discuss the film, its relevance and
importance for current work and what we as a chapter can do to support our
comrades and come ready to share.

Call 510.444.0484 to rsvp . Directions: From MacArthur BART, go up 40th to
Piedmont, turn left, then turn right on echo. The house is at the end of
the looooooooooong driveway next to 115 Echo. By car/freeway, get off at
51st St exit of the 24, turn right, turn right on piedmont, left on Echo.





Thursday, February 8th, 7pm AND Friday, March 16th, 5:30pm
Celebrate the Release of Ruth Wilson Gilmore's "Golden Gulag: Prisons,
Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing California"

First, go to City Lights, buy the book and hear Ruth speak. Second, Come to
hear Ruth speak some more, discuss the issues at hand, raise money for
Critical Resistance and organize!



February 8th, 7pm

City Lights
261 Columbus Avenue

San Francisco



March 16th, 5:30pm

Uptown Body and Fender Shop

401 26th Street between Broadway and Telegraph

*Food* *Drinks* *Politics*

Join Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Critical Resistance member and author of Golden
Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California.
We'll talk about why California is still trying to build more prisons, raise
funds for Critical Resistance, and share ways we can join the fight to make
prison construction a thing of the past.

For more information call 510.444.0484



Thursday, February 15th, 6-9pm
Love Your Way to Abolition Party with Saint Valentine

Benefit Party for our comrades at Justice Now
El Rio
3158 Mission Street @ Cesar Chavez

San Francisco

Justice Now works with People in women's prisons and local communities to
build a safe, compassionate world without prisons.

For more information call 510.839.7654 x4#


March 28th
Third Annual Grassroots Mobilization Day
CURB (Californians United for a Responsible Budget) and CEPS (Coalition for
Effective Public Safety) are two powerful coalitions that aim to educate,
agitate and activate around policies that actually make us safer. This year
we are doing it again with a mobilization to directly address the Governor's
Prison Expansion plan. Join us as we go to Sacramento to stop the governor
in his tracks and demand real solutions to deal with our overcrowded
prisons. Transportation and lunch provided. For more information on how to
get involved, call us at 510.444.0484

Every Fourth Friday 4-5 pm
Listen to Abolitionist Radio!Without Walls radio, a collaboration between
Critical Resistance, Hard Knock Radio and Legal Services for Prisoners With
Children AIRS on KPFA 94.1 & KPFB 89.3 in Berkeley and KFCF 88.1 in Fresno.
Archived shows can be accessed at
<http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?show=14>
http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?show=14

Join us in this movement. Please call 510-444-0484 if you have questions
or if you want to get involved.

In solidarity,

Critical Resistance Oakland

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Nat Smith, Organizer
Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612
Phone: 510-444-0484
Fax:510-444-2177
http://www.criticalresistance.org

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MEMBERSHIP IS POWER

Become a dues-paying member of Critical Resistance! Every donation - big
and small - is vital to sustaining CR's fight to end the prison industrial
complex. Go to http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=Support-CR,
or mail checks to Critical Resistance, 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504,
Oakland, CA 94612. Thank you for your contributions to this struggle.
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