Strike May 2011

Friday 1:00pm: Rally, music, spoken word, strategies on the north side of the Capitol: bring your STRIKE strategies, along with your sleeping bags, tents, water bottles

Friday 3:20pm: FLASH MOB — West side of the Capitol

Friday 4:00pm: TENT CITY! Be prepared to OCCUPY & spend the night on North side of the Capitol….until our legislature votes to fund education, schools, teachers!

We have THREE main messages for today’s tent city action:

1) NO CUTS – we HAVE money – we’re spending it on wars and tax breaks for the wealthy & their corporations. Extending regressive tax measures only force poor to shoulder the burden of taxes – why would the rich pay their taxes when we are willing to make the poor pay most taxes?

2) TAX the RICH – if the top 400 most richest folks in this state (we have 660,000 millionaires!) paid simply their fair share at 26%, we would have 12 billion in ONE YEAR!

3) NO $$$ for WARS – Californians paid $158 BILLION for wars this year! Our national guard is drafted at a huge rate, as is our equipment such as helicopters, and suffers the greatest number of deaths, dismembering, suicides, etc. Not to mention the support services necessary to provide for families left behind, etc.

FIVE CodePINKers were arrested last night in Sacramento (along with 63 other teachers, activists, students) while occupying the rotunda of the State Capitol building, in order to demand Gov. Brown balance the budget by forcing the rich to pay their fair share of taxes, taxing corporations, and eliminating monies for war.

After being handcuffed & cited by the CHP (California Highway Patrol) Junie, Jolie, Darcy, Susan W. and Xan were hauled off to jail, to be cited yet a second time by Sacramento city police.

After spending most of the nite in jail, we were all out by 11:30am this morning- no mention of bail – but we’ve been charged with trespassing while skiing on a closed trail… (go figure….) with court dates in June.

AND the excitement continues in Sacramento! PLEASE mark your calendars and come STRIKE!

Wednesday (tomorrow): “Know your rights” workshops on the EAST side of the Capitol

Wednesday (tomorrow) 6-8pm:  for those intending to stay in the Bay but wanting to participate – “Jail Support” workshop, Mudrakers Cafe, 2801 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley rsvp 510-540-7007 ASAP)

Thursday 9-11am: Greet legislators at North side of capitol in front of security gates

Friday 1:00pm: Rally, music, spoken word, strategies on the north side of the Capitol: bring your STRIKE strategies, along with your sleeping bags, tents, water bottles

Friday 3:20pm: FLASH MOB Pillow Fight

Friday 4:00pm: TENT CITY! Be prepared to OCCUPY … spend the nite… until our legislature votes to fund education, schools, teachers!

Notes from teachers’ planning meeting:

American Federation of Teachers local 2121 is renting a bus for students and faculty to go to Sacramento Monday.  Anyone in the Bay Area who wants to participate in the capitol occupation should catch a ride on this bus!  There is plenty of room. The bus will leave from CCSF Mission Campus (Valencia and 22nd Street) at noon and return by 9 pm. Please contact Allan Fisher (afisher800@gmail.com) or Diana Macasa (dmacasa@gmail.com) if want to go or for more information.

May 9th Plan of Action:

We plan on having National Lawyers Guild legal observers present.  We plan to sit down and try and stay in the capitol building, but we are asking that activists keep this action non-violent, please do not resist arrest.

Bring extra food, clothes, sleeping bags, etc.

Social Media Information: SPREAD THE WORD!!!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#%21/event.php?eid=202119823151687
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Sacramento/171227449599102
Twitter; http://www.twitter.com/occupysac
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/occupysacramento

2:45pm:  Gather with us in West Sacramento at 4th & W. Capitol
3:00pm:  March across the Tower Bridge to the Capitol Grounds
4:30pm: Rally, sing, music, drumming west side of Capitol!

The awesome STRIKE MARCHERS have arrived!!! Let us march together across the Tower Bridge to our State Capitol as we reclaim the original intent of Mother’s Day!

“We women of this country must feel so tender towards women of other countries, we do not allow our sons to injure their sons!” Julia Ward Howe, 1870

We are scheduled to protest out in front of yet another high school. It is very hot, we are tired, but we make it in time to banner for at least 6 school buses.

We are heartened that these Fairfield/Vacaville students, most likely either from military families or highly recruited through JROTC which sits prominently right on their campus, are so positive, flashing peace symbols and grins, as the buses roar by.

One of the bus drivers, a large middle aged white woman, holds her nose as she drives the bus with her other hand down the narrow 2 lane street.

We proceed to the airforce base, where several white people, including their teenage daughter, stand waiting and waving flags, chanting “usa, usa, usa” and “Navy Seals 1; Osama 0″.

hmmmmmm

We have decided “DISARM” will be our theme at the air force base today. We chant “Stop the Killing, Stop the Hate! NO more torture, NO more Rape”.

We sing mournfully, weeping for the dead and devastated; and we dance full of faith that the time has come for peace to rise. Our singing, mourning, and dancing is much to the annoyance of the counter-protesters. We invite them to dialogue with us at 6pm when our protest will be over. by 5:10, they are bored, gather up their huge u.s. flags, plop into their new, shiny, bright blue double-door pickup truck and take off.

Lucia thinks they don’t understand “dialogue” and she says they probably think we are talking about killing a tree! hahaha

xan joi

Peace Train!!!! Folks take the Peace Train from the Bay Area to Suisun! They actually arrive at the station before we do! And are we so very happy to see them!

We have a brief Press Conference and Rally! The Peace Train Riders are our press and participants both! Food not Bombs has provided us w/tons of food and drinks!

We announce our plan for making a permanent Peace Train March from the Bay Area to Sacramento for others to follow!

We protest out in front of the Fairfield High School. Youth are milling about in large crowds in front of the school. We are across the street with our banners and loud speakers, urging them to join us, come to Sacramento May 9th.

Their reaction is positive and curious. We invite them to join our march at 4:00pm from the courthouse to the Bank of America – the tax cheater who got a TRILLION dollar bailout, had a 4.4 billion dollar profit, and has a branch in their town.

We get press! Amy is interviewed by the local paper and we make front page news!

My day begins with a long talk with another camper Mary, a compassionate quiet anti-war person who states she is not used to speaking out publically against war but seems to feel she must now. Her son-in-law, unable to find work, joined the army 2 years, much to their horror and confusion.

He returned from Afghanistan two months ago as he completed his two years, and immediately signed up for the CA National Guard, thinking he will be able to help in the state and avoid being sent back to Afghanistan.

He has his deployment orders for Afghanistan in January 2012. … to be continued

Our day for education, public sector, health care focus in Napa! We join the students noon at Napa Valley College, and then proceed at 2:30pm to Napa State Hospital where we greet the hospital workers at their shift change, stand out on the side of the Highway, holding banners, chanting, handing out flyers. We are greeted by many honks, peace symbols, positive recognition and are very happy!

At 4:00pm, we head to downtown Napa and end up at another busy corner on 29 and 3rd street. We have an encounter with an angry stereotypical biker – black leather, studs, tattooed, chromed, and bald. He summons the gruff police, who turn soft when we begin to talk about teachers and education…  to be continued

And today is the day that other CodePINKers join the STRIKE and MARCH – I am THRILLED!!!!