A People's Tribunal

Looks like a good event, but why was it scheduled at the same time as the Super Bowl? We need workers and oppressed to attend such events, but I fear few will.

obviously not in touch with the working clas of oakland...

i'm against professional sports on principle, but i would never encourage my fellow oaklanders not to support their team, it would just show them that i'm not one of them, and basically forever alienate me from them.

what would that do for my cause?

"basically forever alienate me"

You have no such knowledge. Most people intent on watching the game probably won't bother with any activist meetings - so what? They could ask someone to record the meeting for them if they want to know about it. There's no alienation or disrespect involved.

By this logic, all movie theaters running films on this day, all book readings, all plays, etc. are showing disrespect for the team.

BTW, Chronicle exposed Jerry's manipulation of the police in their editorial section today :

BLAME IT ON SACRAMENTO
This won't be the last time we hear this song

Friday, January 24, 2003

-- NEWS FLASH: Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown blames state budget cuts for contributing to the melee on Oakland'streets after Sunday's AFC championship game.

-- BACKGROUND: There is no question that cities and counties are getting shortchanged by the state -- and that Oakland is hurting. But it's absurd for Brown to blame Sacramento for the city's failure to anticipate and react to trouble. Even in the tightest of budget times, controlling a mob scene must be a city's top priority.

-- UPSHOT: Look for state budget cuts to be the scapegoat of the year. Once it was "Blame it on El Nino." Loma Prieta, Bill Clinton, the energy crisis and Sept. 11 have also been been used, at times, as catch-all excuses.

-- QUOTE: "In Oakland last Sunday, (police) didn't put out as many people as they thought they should because they were ordered by me to cut back."

-- Jerry Brown, testifying in Sacramento.

We are all facing cutbacks.

Time to REmanage budgets.

RE Build the System, with HEART. From the Earth UP.

The current system is OLD SCHOOL! empty. ineffective. wasteful.

Duh.

Take True Community, Solidarity, LOVE, UNDERSTANDING, TOLERANCE, and >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>PATIENCE!!!

I really want to know what kind of principle is against professional sports.

Tim

it's not about disrespecting the team, i could care less about al "committment to greediness" davis and his overpaid meatheads...

i'm just pointing out that the overwhelming majority of the working class of oakland has been excited about this game all week, and that's something activists need to be in tune with. that's all.
have your function, and i support it.
but the rest of the working class of oakland won't.


as for the blame, i put it squarely on OPD, they have plenty of officers, many of whom are constantly breathing down the necks of the residents of fruitvale 24-7. funny how they magically disappeared last sunday night.
i bet they were all at the game in their makeup and darth vader masks....

"i'm just pointing out that the overwhelming majority of the working class of oakland has been excited about this game all week"

So are these people who also go to peace marches (not just the J18 one, which half the city went to, but others also)? Are these people who organize? If so, I'm glad to know that there are that many in Oakland who are sports fans and activists.

I'm guessing those people that are active can deal with missing a meeting.

"but the rest of the working class of oakland won't. "

1. you don't really know what the percentage of working class oakland both supports activism and the raiders - actively.

2. anyone can miss a meeting and still support the cause - they show up for the event which was planned for, they offer their help another time, they keep updated on the email lists, etc.

please don't speak for all of working class oakland when you are one person.

"i put it squarely on OPD, they have plenty of officers"

Of course they do. Jerry wants us to believe they don't - hwo hard is that to figure out? individual officers don't decide where they will be. In the end, Jerry decides, and he's the one to blame. If you read the article above you can see that he used this opportunity to try to manipulate the legislature for more money for cops. Also, if you followed the Riders trial, you'd know that they tried to call Jerry to tesify - why? It's not hard to figure out. Needless to say, the judge wouldn't have it.



Personally, I could care less about the game. So sue me.

As if the the war will be delayed because of the superbowl...i think political events like the tribunal thing is based not on whether people are pre-occupied with recreation but on the neccesity and relevance of the times...war is imminent and the urgency of building the opposition to it is paramount...it's a matter of choice and it depends on what is more important to a person...may I ask, when was the last time you've witnessed such a gathering? last year? five years ago? it's like not attending the wedding of a bestfriend bacause it falls on the superbowl day...or not being beside a loved one in a major operation or surgery...should I say it might be that it is the fans who are out of touch with the reality of times, partying while the ship is sinking?

Those idiots who "think" football should be respected should get off ths website right now. Professional football, baseball, basketball, soccer and boxing are all gambling rackets and that is the reason for their existence. There is no "sport" in these hideous war games where grown men toss, kick or bat a ball around or across a field or punch each other, all gladiators for the profits of the rich, while the filthy rich fans get stinking drunk watching this garbage and making their bets.

As to the workingclass, we are of different levels of education. Most of the workingclass, like all other classes, has a very low level of education and does not participate in any political discussion whatsoever. Education, culture and politics go together and in this very backward country, all three are seriously lacking, which is how a stupid idiot like Bush can end up in any office. His loyal "opposition," Al Gore, is just as stupid. Believe it or not, only a small percentage of the middle class and the capitalist class are intelligent and educated. If estate taxes were increased to the level where the rich were seriously taxed as they should be and education were free at all levels including university with no private or parochial schools allowed, we would see very different political leadership in this country.

We do not cater to the lowest common denominator on this website or when we do political organizing. I urge everyone to ignore the stupidity on the TV, better known as The Idiot Box, and either participate in this People's Tribunal, find another political/cultural event to attend, or stay home and read.

Obviously, in Oakland, there is now the problem of personal safety. These football crowds are drunken hoodlums and here in San Francisco, we had bitter experience with this garbage when 5 times, the drunken football crowds did their best to destroy our city. I suggest everyone who is going out on Sunday be sure to be home by the time the drunken football gambling stupidity is scheduled to end, certainly before sunset, which these days is 5 p.m. Go to the People's Tribunal early so you can get home safely.

Jeez, where to start on this fool? Doesn't he sound like a guy you want to have a beer with? All the football diatribes aside (about which I couldn't care less. Al Davis wouldn't pee on a Raiders fan if he was on fire) the best part was his cure for everything, taxing the rich. Don't take this the wrong way, but fuck you. I am NOT rich, NOT RICH, but you want to take away all a guy's money when he dies, just because you can? What kind of incentive is that? He pays taxes his whole life, and then he gets old, and poof, the state takes it all. Even on a red toothed socialist site like this one, you are a king-hell asshole.
Have fun at the "People's Tribunal." Maybe you should bring the donuts.

"Scheduling a political event to compete with the Superbowl is a slap in the face of the working class."

Maybe. The only way to really know how many working class people would even come to this (and might be offended by it's scheduling) would be to move this to another date, and then take a survey during the meeting as to how many people watched the game and were glad it got rescheduled.

And then you'd have to define working class.

Another thought: these organizers could put out an email & phone survey and ask people the same questions - did they stay home to watch the game and were they offended about the scheduling?

Although I don't care about sports, the excitement around this thing is contagious and humorous, fun and positive. For Oakland to be happy about something is important. Maybe no one will be murdered that day. For that reason alone I'd watch parts of the game and would be supportive. One more day without death is a victory. Can it happen that day?

Why limit this effect to working class? Doctors and lawyers are also exicted about sports and some of them are also activists.

BTW, I saw a march on the news in Oakland of people who wanted 'No more deaths,' but I missed which orgs those were. These are the groups that ANSWER, the Greens, United for Peace, etc. need to be lending their support to if they want to connect with people of color. They could do simple things - offer a contingent at their march, offer to pay for fliers, offer to have a speaker at the next rally. Just some thoughts. These groups are some of the most needy in the whole bay area right now.

I got this from a person of color responding to a Ruckus event he was in last summer, which he noticed was almost all white - he said that until white left orgs are getting into these neighborhoods - esp the most scary ones - and helping out, locating thier offices there, physically getting involved, you won't build any bridges or give those people reasons for supporting them.

Thanks for the Alinsky info.

well put.

And maybe if anyone can BEGIN to bring that sick system to a halt, the moron can, if he keeps going the way he is. A small part of why I voted for Nader. Unfortunately we'll have to also have nuclear war (maybe as early as Sunday night, too!). But then, things generally have to get infinitely worse before they can really get better when the stakes are this high. The question is, how bad does it have to get? I can't help but picture the entire earth burned to crisp, with only a handful of people surviving who look like they came out of Mad Max, before change can happen, if it's going to happen fast. If slow, maybe a different scenario.

1-bush's grandpa prescott financed the nazis and his bank was shut by the us govt in 1942 under the trading with the enemies act. 30 $million in nazi accounts. 2-bush senior as CIA chief ran operation CONDOR out of the NAZI compound in chile, colonia dignidad, assassination teams killed 30,000 leftists throughout south america. Kissinger brought nazi war criminals to south america and set up dictatorships with torture centers and death squads. read the histories of joseph mengele, klaus barbie, waltherr rauff( who gassed 300,000 jews). 3- as vice president bush sr ran the death squads and torture centers of guatemala, el salvador and the nicaraguan contras, killing 300,000 central americans. 4-bush sr is today running the USA with assassination teams. look at the enron executive who "committed suicide" in houston , days before he was supposed to go in front of congress.

well, a small affinity group would have a hard time taking the street lane much less the freeway, or you'd be locked up as fast as that 'all peeps' group that had the 20 second sit-in on Market street. That would require a flock!

On what that affinity group were actually doing. Small groups aren't likely to try to block traffic if they don't have the numbers. Lot's of other things can be done, non-violently, of course.

But people in antioch or santa rosa might have a dearth of local targets, yet not have any idea about San Francisco other than where the Cal Academy is. Yet a quick search of the internet does not reveal the location of a map which would tell one much about the locations of various buildings in San Francisco which we could stage creative street theater in front of.

To be planning on doing creative activities while you don't know the basic layout of the city is hard - I did that (although didn't engage in any illegal activities and don't support that, naturally) in Ottawa but I spent a couple of days in advance basically memorizing the maps, and then hooked up with a local to run through the streets with.

And those organizations published the locations of their targets on a map. It was even called 'Take the Capital,' which infuriated some, and caused Canada to blow a ton of money on security.

The benefit of those situations - where it's all in the open - is that half the city shuts down out of shear terror in advance, and so half the work is done before anything even happens. There might not be time for that in this case.

Does anyone know where that posting is to the manual for damaging things put out by the government a couple of decades ago? The one from central america? I think I forgot to make a link and now all I remember are a few things from it.

A People’s Tribunal ... given the political climate in America ... it is high time the people’s voice be heard.

jeez, I'm wondering what people would those be? Most Americans? Nope not them. Must be just a few self-loathing misanthropes then.