Omni Commoner – March 2017!

Omni Commons
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News

Our Commons

As most readers will know by now, we did it! Since December 2016, through the work and support of many, in ways big and small, we collectively own 4799 Shattuck Ave. Your tax-deductible donations now go directly toward monthly mortgage payments and a growing capital fund to improve the building. Thanks especially to our Fundraising and Finance working groups. Don’t forget to congratulate your fellow Commoners!

Organizing at Omni

Following protests after the US election, and the successful Standing Rock Ready: Training for Water Protectors, members of the ad hoc Organize working group helped coordinate a well attended Direct Action Training on November 19th, 2016 at the Omni. The working group also arranged a new way for community and political groups that aren’t Omni member collectives to get priority booking for their meetings (though not larger public events, which should be booked in the usual way). This they publicized with the flyer below.

DIY Community Safety

In the aftermath of the tragic Ghostship fire, Omni community members and numerous others have facilitated meetings for Safer DIY Spaces, several at the Omni’s Ballroom. A mutual aid group has formed to coordinate inspections by qualified code and safety inspectors to DIY community spaces and to gather and put to use material resources to meet code and safety needs. About 40 spaces throughout the Bay Area have been inspected and assessed, and over $21,000 has been raised for the DIY Communities Safety Fund, with Omni fiscally sponsoring. Contributions are still welcome.

No More Presidents

On January 7th and 8th, 2017 AAA assembly (Autonomous + Anti-authoritarian + Anti-capitalist) organized the No More Presidents: Street Tactics, Political Education, Anti-Repression convergence at the Omni.

Direct Action Spokescouncils

For a third year, several days of direct action to Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy were coordinated through a series of spokescouncils assembled by the Anti Police-Terror Project and held both at the Eastside Arts Alliance & Cultural Center and at the Omni. This year there were 120 Hours of actions, beginning on Monday January 16th with thousands marching to #ReclaimMLK and concluding with Friday’s Presidential inauguration protests, which included ILWU Local 10 closing the Port of Oakland, a walkout by UAW 2865 graduate students, support action by IATSE Local 16 and the shutting down of Caltrain South Bay. Early Saturday morning, activists set up The Village, a safe, drug and alcohol-free peoples’ housing and services encampment at Marcus Garvey Park in Oakland on 36th Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way — recently disbanded by police following City orders, despite support by many Oaklanders for rights to improvise housing.

Donated labor, materials, and, pending revolution, money keep us going. New commoners can join one of our working groups — where much of what keeps us open happens. Check the calendar for the next working group meeting, and join the relevant mailing list.

Collectives’ Happenings

Sudo Room on March 1st held the first event of what is to be a monthly series, Five Minutes of Fame. Check out the livestream recording here! To sign up to give a talk on an upcoming First Wednesday, send an email to info@sudoroom or add your name to the wiki.

Phat Beets is currently hiring 3 full-time employees, a Program director, a CSA coordinator, and an office coordinator.

Liberated Lens has been hosting classes on how to film using drones. On February 26th they screened the film Within Our Gates (1920) for Black History Month. Their next screening will be on March 19th with films by Thalia Drori Ramirez and Cineastas de Granada.

Global Women’s Strike – Omni Collective and US PROStitutes Collective, held an International Women’s Strike Planning Meeting Sunday February 19th at Crossroads Women’s Center in San Francisco. Popular support seems to be gathering for the Strike, called for International Women’s Day, March 8th. At 7pm on March 7th a strike coordination meeting is being held in the Omni basement.

Counter Culture Labs has recently completed improvements to their lab that benefit the plumbing of the whole Commons. Yay!

Chiapas Support Committee held Poets against War & Racism | Poetas contra la guerra y el racismo on February 23rd. They reported on their event page, “more than 30 persons attended the first gathering,” writing further, “Amira Ali, Teboho Motaba, Rafael Jesús Gonzalez, Maria de la Rosa, Elana Chavez, Jesus Medina and Arnoldo García presented poems, including one by the famed Filipino poet Carlos Bulosan. You can still support the Zapatistas autonomy projects by visiting our web-site.”

Bay Area Public School is convening a new class, “Race abolitionist political activity &/as research.” For now, meetings are ad hoc. For more information as it’s available, contact bayareapublicschool-organize@groups.google.com.

On February 1st Omni community members Niki, Marcus, Jenny, and Julio emailed an announcement to the Omni’s Consensus and Finance email lists. Their in-progress worker cooperative, Agua Viva, a cafe for the Omni’s Entrance Hall, was going on indefinite hiatus as other matters required collective members’ attention.”We hold out hope that we can return to the project at some point in the not too distant future if the option is still available, but we didn’t want to prevent others from other creative uses of the Entrance Hall space in the meantime,” they wrote.

To this, Emji of Timeless, Infinite Light responded, and I think many Commoners would agree, “We were so excited for you to exist as a project. I hope you all take care and I’m glad you’re doing what you need to do, but we’ll miss u.”

*For offerings of news and opinions, or interest in collaborating on future issues of the Omni Commoner, please contact comms@omnicommons.org*

You can book space at the Omni Commons for your event online. Connected to a politically aligned group looking for space? We welcome new member collectives! Apply here. If your group needs space for a community/political meeting, our Organize working group looks forward to hearing from you.

Events

Upcoming:

Women’s Strike Oakland public planning meeting
Tues Mar 7th from 7-9:30pm in the Basement

Big Farms Make Big Flu: A Conversation
Wed Mar 8th from 7-8:30pm in Counter Culture Labs

Build a Biodigester Competition: Kickoff Event
Thur Mar 9th from 7-9pm in Counter Culture Labs

Liberate Cumbia Party
Fri Mar 10th from 6-11:55pm in the Ballroom

Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism Conference
Sat Mar 10th from 10am-6pm in the Ballroom with NoCARA, FB Event
Sun Mar 11th from 10am-6pm at Californian Institute of Integral Studies

Build Your Own Internet
Sat Mar 18th from 1-4pm in the Ballroom with the People’s Open Network

Teacher Like Me fundraiser and birthday party
Sat Mar 18th from 6-11pm in the Ballroom

DeEsclation and Grounding Skills Intro Workshop
Sat Apr 1st from 12:30-4pm in the Ballroom

Benefit Bash for for change dance collective (fcdc)
Sat Apr 29th from 6:30pm-9pm in the Ballroom