Occupy Oakland Is Back! This Time we're OCCUPYING 2 DECOLONIZE

OCCUPY OAKLAND HAS BEEN RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD, by none other than the Tuk-Pikuni (tree-people), whose tree-sit in OG Plaza was the 1 thing that endured the raid carried out by the 8-agency task force of various popo in November 2011. The name of the game this time is OCCUPY TO DECOLONIZE, keeping in mind that the term `occupy' has a whole different meaning to someone in, say, Palestine, Iraq, or Afghanistan, and certainly to the First Nation people here in Turtle Island than it would to some of the rest of us.

This Occupy To Decolonize revival was started 19 days ago by Native Elder Zachary Runningwolf, and it's happening not in OG Plaza, but on land that deluded CalTrans (CarTrance) claims as its own, underneath the I-580 overpass on Telegraph Ave. in Oaktown, just south of the MacArthur Blvd. intersection. Yes, this Occupy action is centered on TREE-SITTING. And on top of all that, it also happens to be a Native burial site.

There's been no real trouble from the uniformed popo yet. That's come from some geezer who has claimed to be from the organization Safety First, then from the local BID, who had been coming 'round w\ a set of bolt cutters trying to cut through the chain-link fence and remove banners and other paraphernalia. However, last Friday Morning he was driven off by the spirit of the Grandmothers (video forthcoming!) and hasn't been heard from since. But CarTrance (CalTrans) continues to be a piece of work. After having come in near the official declaration of this new O2D action to needlessly massacre more trees, just yesterday they showed up and stole some of Runningwolf's sacred artifacts. But not to worry though, these pathetic little stunts have only strengthened our resolve. More than anything else, it proves we're doing the right thing and we're only going to ramp up our game. Things are looking bad for CarTrance now, with the highway-building fiasco in Willits, the BART strike, yet another Caldecott Tunnel bore, and now this. They're not even trying to hide the fact that their goal is to destroy Mother Earth w\ car and car-related poison. Join us or at least contribute something - paint, clothing and gear appropriate for the coming winter weather, pallets and plywood for making new platforms for tree-sitting, and the gear necessary for tree-climbing and sitting; climbing rope, climbing harnesses, climbing-grade carabiners, etc., etc.. As I write, I've become aware that Save the Albany Bulb lost the latest round in court, bringing the impending eviction one step closer. All you Bulb residents are going to need a new home, and participating in O2D will be way cooler than living in an `Operation Dignity' crackerbox. So come on down, you lot;)

THIS JUST IN: Just this morning (the 19th), CarTrance workers arrived at the site in what looked at first like a raid, but they just did some benign cleanup, and Zachary Runningwolf made contact w\ them and established a good rapport, w\ the crew supervisor saying he would try to recover some of the sacred artifacts taken during a previous `ground maintenance' effort. Chalk one up for class solidarity.

For more information, call [510]200-2403 or visit http://www.stopdriving.org/. A-ho.