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Workshops & Strategy Retreats
Facilitating workshops, strategy sessions, and retreats to develop a shared analysis of the ecological crisis and its impacts on urban communities of color.
Resilience-Based Organizing
Supporting grassroots and community-based organizations in implementing new strategies based on building community resilience.
Earth Skills Trainings
Interactive, land-based workshops designed to help us restore and manage our relationship to the resources that meet our basic needs.
Introducing MG’s 2012 Earth Skills Training Calendar!
Posted January 25, 2012
Movement Generations’ Earth Skills training track is a series of interactive, hands-on & land-based workshops. They are designed to help us restore and manage our relationship to our own work and to the resources that meet our basic needs. Organizers, community members and all participants will gain practical skills that both help communities weather the impacts of the economic and ecological crises, and lighten our collective footprint on the planet. We aim to cultivate these skills in organized communities that want to build grassroots power by creating place-based, community controlled economies.
Earth Skills Training #1 – Restoring Health, Childbirth & Independence from Industrial Medicine
Saturday March 24 | 10am-5pm | Location TBA
In order for our communities to be truly resilient, self-sufficient and able to weather the impact of scare resources (money, services, etc.), being able to access ‘health care’ in the basic & broad sense and not depend on the medical industrial complex is crucial.
In this training we will highlight the importance of natural healing. We will talk specifically about restoring the role of Women in facilitating health, and look at the invaluable work of Midwifery and birth as a clear example of one of the most fundamental human experiences that has been co-opted and highly industrialized as part of the capitalist/dominant-culture way of life.
We are proud to bring you Sara Flores – founder of the ReCLAIM Collective of healers (Resisting Colonial Legacy & Its Impact on Medicine), Atava Garcia-Swiecicki – founder of Ancestral Apothecary, herbalist, flower essence, acupressure, massage and dream-work practitioner, as well as other amazing midwives and healers!
Participants will learn practical healing and techniques from first-aid to making plant- medicine.
Earth Skills Training #2 – Bee Keeping
June (date TBA) | 10am-4pm | Tassafaronga Community Garden: 975 – 85th Ave, Oakland 94621
Collecting honey from wild bee colonies is one of the most ancient human activities and is still practiced all over the world today. Bee Keeping is the practice and art of maintaining bee colonies in hives in order to collect honey and other valuable materials produced by bees that have been used for health and healing for many centuries.
In this training we will consider the importance of bees and other pollinators at a time when biological diversity is collapsing at the fastest pace humans have ever experienced. We will learn about what it takes to maintain a bee colony, how to harvest honey and other products of the hive, as well as how this practice can strengthen our local community of pollinators.
This training will be hosted by Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project at the Tassaforanga Recreation Center in East Oakland.
Earth Skills Training #3 – Gleaning in the City
August (date TBA) | 10am-4pm | Location TBA
Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. Recently gleaning has become part of an overall urban sustainability strategy, with overgrown fruit trees in residential neighborhoods being a major source.
In this workshop we’ll come to understand just how to establish a gleaning operation, that can not only meet community nutrition and economic needs, but also fosters building neighborhood relationships and networks that provide security and support.
Earth Skills Training #4 – Rainwater Harvesting: Installing Rainwater Catchment Systems
November (date TBA) | 10am-4pm | Location TBA
Given the critical nature of securing water in a future of water scarcity, we are excited to offer this training in 2012, after a hugely successful Rainwater Harvesting training this past fall at the People’s Grocery Garden & Greenhouse in West Oakland.
“Water is Life” is a globally used slogan that captures the critical necessity all living things have for this precious element. And yet, it has been turned into a profit-making commodity that prevents numerous communities from accessing clean water for their health and survival.
In this training we will learn about one step we can take towards becoming stewards of our own water supply again. We will install a simple and effective system to capture & store rainwater that falls on our roofs. This system is low-cost, low-tech and easy to duplicate in many urban settings!
Sign up for Movement Generation’s email newsletter, for up-to-date announcements as we develop details for each training.
New Video: A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests
Posted January 25, 2012Decolonize Jeju: Jam Docu Kangjung, Bay Area Premiere
Posted January 25, 2012Friday, January 27th
7-9pm
Eastside Arts Alliance
(2277 International Blvd, Oakland)
Hella Organized Bay Area Koreans (HOBAK) will be hosting the Bay Area premiere screening of short films by independent filmmakers about people’s struggles against the construction of a military base on Jeju Island.
On the island of Jeju, off the tip of South Korea, the South Korean government has been trying to build a huge naval base in Gangjeong Village that will not only host the Korean military, but also US naval warships and destroyers. From the beginning, the villagers have been resisting the construction of this base, but they have been brutally suppressed by the police and mainland military, as well as heavily fined for the “obstruction of governmental affairs.” This naval base threatens not only the ecosystem and the livelihoods of the villagers here, but the geopolitical balance in the region. Join HOBAK at Eastside Arts Alliance’s Final Fridays film screening to learn more about the incredible story of Jeju’s resistance against the naval base! Along with a full program and other solidarity activities:
INTERVIEWS — AnakBayan, Palestinian Youth Movement, and other allies will be interviewing each other about links between the many fronts against US imperialism around the world.
SONGS — performance by Dohee and Adria of Jeju Warrior.
VALENTINES GRAMS — send messages of love and resistance to people in Jeju.
Urban Tilth Honors Dr. MLK Jr. with a Day ON (Not a Day Off)!
Posted January 25, 2012
 This past Monday, Jan 16th, Movement Generation was proud to participate in Urban Tilth’s MLK Day of Service at the Richmond Greenway. Each year, Urban Tilth throws an annual day of service that brings 100s of community members together. This year, volunteers helped grow and maintain the beautiful community garden on the Richmond Greenway, while community organizations hosted tables of information and fun activities, and talented performers took the stage. 
MG has closely partnered with Urban Tilth in the past year, currently collaborating with them through our resilience-based organizing work. For the event, MG hosted a table with materials and info posters, that made the connection between climate change and the global ecological crisis and the importance of Urban Tilth’s work to grow community resilience and localize their food system! We were excited to be a part of the event, and to support Urban Tilth in doing the critical, powerful work that they are doing for communities in Richmond. To learn more about Urban Tilth’s work, visit urbantilth.org. |
Occupy Wall Street West
Posted January 17, 2012J20 Daylong Nonviolent Mass Occupation of the Financial District by the 99%
Friday, January 20th
San Francisco Financial District
Orientations all day at Justin Herman Plaza
Occupy Wall St West is calling a day of mass action centered in the SF Financial District to “occupy” banks & corporations attacking our communities, homes,
education, environment, livelihood and democracy.
General mass mobilization times are at 6AM, Noon and 5PM. There are many actions happening throughout the day, but here is a list of highlighted actions initiated by labor and community groups.
Wells Fargo HQ Action
8:00am @California and Montgomery
Contact: Sasha Wright, Pride at Work, sasha4justicia@gmail.com
Bank of America Actions
8:00am @Justin Herman Plaza
Contact: Grace Martinez, ACCE, grace@calorganize.org
Occupy CPMC/Healthcare and Jobs for the 99% Action
11:00am @Van Ness and Geary
Contact: Pilar Schiavo, California Nurses Association, pschiavo@calnurses.org
Fannie Mae/Wells Fargo/ICE Action March
12:00pm @meet at Justin Herman Plaza
Contact: Robbie Clark, Causa Justa, robbie@cjjc.org
Stop Wage Theft Action with Progressive Workers Alliance
3:00pm @Church and Market
Contact: Mario Demira, Progressive Workers Alliance, mario@filipinocc.org
Occupy Hyatt Picket and Action with Unite Here Local 2
4:15pm @Grand Hyatt Union Square, Stockton and Sutter
Contact: Gordon Mar, Jobs with Justice, gordon@jwjsf.org
Closing Unity March, Rally & Celebration
5:00pm @start from Grand Hyatt Union Square or Justin Herman Plaza for convergence in the Financial District
Contact: Jaron Browne, POWER, jaron@peopleorganized.org
You can visit www.occupywallstwest.org for a more detailed list of all J20 actions.