A Green Vision for Oakland

             Lets face facts we have many crises in Oakland that need immediate attention.

 

Oakland needs: (1) Quality Jobs for All, (2) Dignified Housing for All; (3) Excellent Education for All and (4) Public Safety for All.   To obtain these goals we must elect only those who will put the welfare of people before profit. We need to hold a public “town hall” convention and together develop a new and comprehensive city budget that redirects 30% of the Oakland Police Department’s half-billion-dollar yearly budget to jobs (10%), housing (10%), and education (10%) initiatives that will produce a genuinely safer and better Oakland for everyone, not just for the wealthy one percent who live in the hills.

There are three prong crises facing our community, which are education, crime and employment. (clarifying sentence) This will never happen until the people elect those that will always be people before profit. We need to hold a budget convention and together, to develop a new, comprehensive budget. We need to deal with the pension’s entitlement problems and have a stable, reliable budget, encompassing the various operations; needed to have a city for all residents. From education, parks and recreation, housing, health and safety. We need a budget that within its structure also focuses on the fluctuation of an economy, and preventative strategies are prioritized to protect the city’s population. There is a crisis in our democracy. Council districts should look like the neighborhoods of Oakland, All Oaklanders need to have a voice and be represented in our government. Money needs to be out of our local election process and; we need to formalize the relationship with our grass roots neighborhood groups and local community leaders, devolving part of the city authority and budget to those people that have live in Oakland and transform the city into an autonomous entity instead of upholding an oligarchical governmental system. We propose to make these and many others with the citizens of Oakland and not for them.  Also, our priority is to work on issues that will directly assist in the safety of all womyn. In the wake of our police force OPD trafficking minors for prostitution, it brings to the front the need to address the issue of decriminalization of sex work. Assist in unions when wanted, work with groups transitioning people from the corners to healthy establishments. Support secure internet sites that share information on predatory behavior, STI concerns, and other health and safety issues. The Oakland Greens also believe RESIDENTS should be producers, not consumers, of the politics in their own communities. That means taking ownership of our city, and participating in direct action, wherein we have to get involved with voting. We can no longer make excuses, we have to recognize the power that we have, and challenge the system that is rigged in favor of paid political advertising and the status quo.

The working-class, the common-person is the solution.  The running of money-free grass-roots campaigns, the energy behind a reform of the City Charter and budget, the will to deal with our most intractable social problems will not find their solution unless you take it.  We need to say NO to money politics and take a definitive position by not voting for it; but vote, there are more people struggling and actually on the streets that you outnumber the comfortable hill voters. No participating has not worked and a comprehensive group of candidates has not motivated you to participate. Do it for yourselves, just once work with people that would work for you and the city’s real needs such as:  Schools with vocational training. Schools with arts and sports with healthy food, safe public services, Community Policing, Restorative Justice, Local employment, Stable economic environment, Environmental retrofitting, and many, many other basic practical things that our city should be doing, but is currently only doing for show, if at all. The Oakland Greens are stepping forward to be some of those committed to a reform of our city from top to bottom, from police practices to budget policies with our faith in a system that includes all of us. Please help by registering to vote yourselves and getting those who have rightly been put off by the voting, voter marketing, process to register as well. There are thousands of registered Greens in Alameda County glad to have you join us.  But no matter how you register, do so.  Otherwise someone else is voting for you.

We encourage other progressives to put up candidates and join us.
Contact us and be part of forming the alternative.

Oakland Greens
contact@oaklandgreens.org (510) 866-7488 P.O. Box 20299, Oakland, CA 94620

Oakland Youth: Education, Employment, and Restorative Justice
Police Accountability, Surveillance & Incarceration
Fair Elections & Representation
Employment
Housing
Sustainability
Vision for an Oakland Progressive Alliance