PUEBLO Under Attack!

Dear Friends, Allies, Supporters, Comrades, and Community Members,

PUEBLO and Just Cause Oakland is under attack!! Members, board members and staff have been locked out of the office in a questionably legal move and prohibited from continuing to do the work of the organization and our movement. In addition, the Executive Director has been placed on unpaid administrative leave indefinitely and the staff have been placed on paid administrative leave until March 3, 2004, with no certainty that they will be allowed back to work.

On February 27, 2004 a questionable vote was taken by two members of the Board of Directors to indefinitely suspend the Executive Director without pay. On February 28, while staff worked in our offices, these same two Board members demanded that staff and over 20 community members who were also there at the time leave the office. Today, March 1. 2004, PUEBLO and Just Cause staff arrived at their offices only to see a note attached to the door saying that the offices have been closed until March 3, and that all staff had been placed on administrative leave.

We believe that these attacks have arisen from a divergence in vision and strategy regarding which direction the organization should be heading. While these 6 members and 2 Board members would like to see PUEBLO remain primarily an issue driven organization, the majority of our members and the staff would like to see PUEBLO as an organization that does both critical issue-based organizing, as well as be at the fore-front of building a movement for justice in Oakland and the world.

The PUEBLO community is demanding a just, fair resolution to this issue. We know that community means all of us, not some of us or even one, two or eight of us.

There are a number of different things that you can do to lend your support.

1. Go to http://www.PetitionOnline.com/PUEBLO4U/petition.html and sign on to the Save Pueblo petition. Please forward widely˜we are fighting to collect over 500 signatures by tomorrow night‚s Board meeting!

2. Call the 2 PUEBLO members that are creating all of this havoc, Gwen Hardy, Treasurer and Vildred Dawson, Chair. Let them know that PUEBLO is a community effort, not an 8 person dictatorship! Urge them to solve this conflict in a principled manner!

Vildred Dawson, Chair: 510.535.0664 or 510.551.4122
Gwen Hardy, Treasurer: 510.286.0156 or 510.654.8054 or 510.306.318

3. Print out the attached petition and collect as many signatures as you can! Petitions can be picked up, emailed, or faxed. Call 510.866.7105 for more information.

4. Print on organizational letterhead and sign the letter of support included at the bottom of this letter so that we can present them to the Board at tomorrow night‚s Board meeting. These Board members need to know that we are committed to fighting for justice, not just us, and that they should do the same!

5. If you or someone you know has administrative resources that you could share with us (i.e. office space, a computer, phones, a desk, etc.) please let us know asap. We can‚t do the work without them!
Email savepueblo2004 [at] hotmail.com or call 510.763.5877 for more information.

Your support is greatly appreciated. Please feel free to call or email us with any questions or information.
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February 29th, 2004

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a representative of ________________________. My organization
has worked with PUEBLO (People United for a Better Oakland), JustCause Oakland, or Youth of Oakland United (Y.O. U) for ________
years. Our relationship has included _____________________(examples: working together in coalition against Measure FF, collaborating to build the power of Oakland youth, campaigning together for better air quality in East Oakland, etc.)

We believe that PUEBLO - one of the few organizations dedicated to
building the community-based power in Oakland ˆhas made crucial
contributions to the social justice movement in the Bay Area over the past 14 years. We have been deeply impressed by the visionary
leadership of Dawn Phillips, by the hard work of the PUEBLO staff, and by the growing power of PUEBLO‚s membership.

My organization is deeply concerned about the recent actions of two members of the PUEBLO board ˆincluding indefinitely suspending the Executive Director, Dawn Phillips and removing other staff members from the PUEBLO office ˆbecause we believe that these actions
threaten PUEBLO‚s capacity to organize Oakland‚s communities to fight for justice. Over the years, these kinds of internal divisions have hurt the progressive movement and weakened our ability to win real gains for our communities, and it has to stop.

We support the staff of PUEBLO in its efforts to find a principled resolution of these conflicts. We encourage this faction of the PUEBLO board to engage in a fair and open negotiation with the PUEBLO staff and Executive Director. We believe that this kind of open process will put PUEBLO in the best possible position to be accountable to its membership and to advance its social justice agenda. We strongly encourage them to reinstate Dawn Phillips immediately and to allow the PUEBLO staff to continue its invaluable work to organize the people of Oakland to fight for community justice.

In solidarity,



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