Special Report: Pro-Palestinian Advocacy Tests Limits of "Progressive" Image for Oakland’s City Council and School Board: Update, Bas Urges Biden/Congress on Ceasefire; Update, Kalb did Speak at Press Conference

From Friday November 3 to Thursday, November 10, tens of thousands attended solidarity and direct political action events in the City of Oakland, advocating for the end of lethal violence against Palestinians in Gaza. The actions were some of the largest political events—and quite likely the largest pro-Palestinian events—in Oakland’s history. Beginning with a Block the Boat action on Friday where several hundred supported direct action to delay a military support ship bound for Israel to a large indigenous solidarity event in front of the Federal Building, actions against the US-funded war against Palestinians have grown demonstrably over the past several weeks. The protests reflect growing opposition to the Israeli government's widespread destruction and mass killing of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, and the US government's official diplomatic and economic support for them. A Data for Progress poll finds that 66% of Americans support a ceasefire in the conflict.

But attempts by advocates to persuade the Oakland City Council and Oakland Unified School District Board to pass a resolution demanding a ceasefire have, surprisingly, been frustrated at all levels, despite the reputation as progressive that the bodies enjoy both locally and nationally. Both efforts came to a revelatory climax last week.

City Council Resists Efforts on Ceasefire Resolution

The queue to enter last Tuesday's City Council meeting stretched from City Hall’s 14th St entrance to the corner of 14th and Broadway, as hundreds of pro-Palestine advocates waving Palestinian flags and wearing kufiyehs—the traditional scarf of Palestine—lined up to urge Council members to introduce and pass a resolution calling for a Ceasefire in Israel's month long attack on Palestinians. It was an unusual sight for a Council meeting.

The call out for the meeting reverberated outward from a small group involved in crafting and advocating for the ALCO Democratic Central Committee resolution. They then connected to some of the more substantive organizing that has brought big turnouts for protests around the Bay Area according to a source involved with the organizing. The handful of primary organizers assumed that the call for an Oakland City Council resolution would move forward fairly quickly, given the ease with which a similar resolution passed in Richmond—the Oakland resolution was at first considered an easy win. But after weeks of advocating for the text of the resolution to council members behind the scenes—and with the failure of even one Council member in making a personal public statement about the US-sponsored killings in Gaza—the group decided to bring the demand for a resolution to last Tuesday’s meeting.

Chambers Overflow with Ceasefire Advocates

The arrival of hundreds of participants strained the chambers, forcing many in the group into an overflow area in another part of the city hall building. Dozens of participants unacustomed to the rules at Council didn't know when the public could speak, which caused friction with Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas. After boisterous chanting and back and forth with attendees, Bas eventually allowed speakers to speak during the Consent Calendar public comment period, even though there was no item for a resolution on the agenda.

A few dozen advocates spoke on related items, tying a resolution on homelessness and an OPD staffing study into the moral and economic cost of the US attacks on Gaza during the Consent Calendar public comment. The energy of the crowd even drew in speakers who had not come specifically to demand the resolution. Two honorees during the Councils ceremonial item declaring Native American Heritage Month linked indigenous experiences to Palestinians struggles. Even Melvin McKay, an ILWU 10 Executive Board member, who began his comments with complaints on the A's resolution, concluded by criticizing the Council's hesitation on a ceasefire resolution.

But the meeting continued to be punctuated with loud calls for action from the group, who waited nearly an hour while Council deliberated on other items, including, ironically, an appeal for a tree removal permit. At one point a short recess was declared by Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas after several speakers demanded that the resolution be taken up as an emergency item. When the Council returned, the City Attorney’s Office parliamentarian Ryan Richardson told attendees that only items with action directly pertaining to an Oakland emergency could be thus scheduled.

Bas Committed to Moving a Ceasefire Resolution

Bas, nevertheless, then committed herself to finding a way to get the resolution scheduled to a council meeting and went even further, denouncing the violence and calling for a ceasefire herself.

“I want to share with you where I personally am, and what I believe is a path forward. I personally believe that the killings must stop. I personally support a ceasefire…you have my word that I will follow up with those that I met with yesterday so that we can discuss the resolution that you wish to bring forward to the Oakland City Council,” Bas told the crowd.

Advocates for the resolution then waited another three hours for Open Forum at the end of the meeting to make statements about the need for Council to put forward a ceasefire resolution.

Council Loses Quorum, but Nearly 100 Ceasefire Advocates Urge Council on Ceasefire

The threat of losing quorum, which would mean the Council would have to adjourn, was omnipresent throughout the meeting, as CMs fell off one after the other. CMs Rebecca Kaplan and Noel Gallo had already left by the tree permit appeal, CM Treva Reid was absent. CM Ramachandran left the meeting early with the intent to participate by Zoom, but it became clear that in doing so, she would cause quorum to collapse—and for a brief time it appeared that the meeting would need to be adjourned due to lack of attendance, an almost unheard of outcome for City Council. Ramachandran returned after being informed that she could not participate via Zoom unless the body had sufficient attendance for quorum without her.

By the end of the meeting, the Council did lose quorum as Ramachandran left for good, but the rules allowed the body to continue Open Forum, regardless. Nearly 80 pro-Palestinian speakers urged Council to adopt the ceasefire resolution during the public speaking period that went on for another hour and a half. Only Bas, D6 CM Kevin Jenkins, D3 CM Carroll Fife and and D1 CM Dan Kalb remained through the entire open forum period.

Resolution Potentially Delayed Until December

The action was ironically, but unintentionally, juxtaposed with a ceremonial event managed and directed by Mayor Sheng Thao and members of the City Council, who’d drafted and promoted a resolution proclaiming the A’s “belong in Oakland”. The proclamation was introduced at a Rules committee meeting last week and required an urgency finding to supersede Council rules on scheduling requirements—the rationale for the urgency was that the legislation had to occur before an MLB vote that may allow the franchise to relocate to Las Vegas. Thao and Council also held a pre-Council event for the A’s supporters which was well covered by local media corporations. But during the council meeting itself, the concerns and voices of the A’s advocates were drowned out by the outcry for a ceasefire, and most of the supporters on the A’s issue declined to speak.

In the aftermath of the meeting, however, and despite the sympathy publicly expressed by Bas, a resolution calling for a ceasefire was not introduced at the Rules Committee meeting for scheduling on Thursday. The failure to bring a resolution may seem more acute than it would have otherwise, because the Rules Committee did, regardless, schedule a special meeting for Monday in order to appoint an Oakland Police Commission [OPC] alternate in time for an upcoming OPC meeting. Had a resolution been introduced at Rules with an urgency finding—the same type of process that put the A’s proclamation on last Tuesday’s meeting with less notice than would normally be required by the Brown Act—it could have easily been placed on Monday’s agenda for consideration.

Advocates remain focused on what has now become a much more complicated task of convincing Oakland’s City Council to lend their voices to the demand for a ceasefire with the relevant urgency it requires. This week, Council has only committee meetings scheduled, in addition to the special meeting on the OPC appointment, then Council takes a break during Thanksgiving week, with no Rules committee meeting. That means the earliest a resolution could come before Council is early December.

So far, only Bas, and this week Jenkins, with an ephemeral Instagram “stories” post—have expressed a demand for a Ceasefire. Kalb is the only other Council member who has weighed in on Israel’s siege of Gaza that as of this writing has taken 11,000 lives, almost half of those children, in a bewildering protest by self-proclaimed OUSD parents demanding that the Oakland teacher's union rescind a demand to end the killing with a ceasefire. Kalb did not speak, but was prominently featured in the photo op of two dozen.

Noura Khouri, one of the organizers for the resolution and action, told this publication that she was disappointed by the lack of action by Bas and other CMs in the following days. But Khouri believes that Council passage of a ceasefire declaration could itself signal a return to a more vibrant and active progressive council.

“[the lack of movement] reflects the state of malaise that seems to be plaguing Oakland's politics and bureaucracy, a far cry from its progressive and radical roots. We believe it can return to its roots and to do so we need bold and courageous progressive leadership taking principled, unified and strategic action together remembering that our struggles are inextricably tied together,” Khouri said.

OUSD Meeting Adjourned After Only Minutes of Pro-Palestinian Public Speaking; Future Meetings Cancelled

Another organized group of advocates also arrived at Wednesday’s OUSD board meeting to support a scheduling proposal for a ceasefire resolution placed by Board member Valerie Bachelor. Additionally, an ad hoc group of parents, students and teachers also released a petition and statement of solidarity leading up to the meeting, which, among other things, asked for the OUSD community to support Bachelor's resolution. But these advocates, some of them involved with the previous effort at Council, also found their efforts frustrated.

Bachelor told this publication she was moved by Student Body board members’ comments at a previous meeting, urging the school board to take a stand against the violence and educate and inform students about the conflict. Bachelor said she began crafting the resolution with input from students and families, and believed that the prospects for passing a resolution were good after seeing Richmond’s city council pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire.

“We're in a moment as a nation where we really need to figure out what our morals are around war. Are we going to continue to perpetuate the killing of people, especially children in a foreign land? Or are we going to have that money go towards education, and supporting our children here at home? I really think that the least we could do as the OUSD board is [pass a resolution] for a ceasefire, return the hostages and provide humanitarian aid,” Bachelor said.

Bachelor’s fellow board member Sam Davis initially helped craft the language of the resolution, but Davis later withdrew his support. Davis apparently now opposes an OUSD resolution on the conflict.

Hutchinson Adjourns Meeting, Cancels Three Subsequent Meetings

OUSD Board President Mike Hutchinson appeared from the start uncomfortable with the large number of speakers—well over a hundred—on the issue and the gray area for public speaking caused by the introduction of the item. OUSD Board items can be scheduled at meetings for future discussion through the Board’s rules, but the rules don’t allow for protracted discussion by board members or directed public comment. Though, apparently, the item could have been discussed during public comment for non-agendized matters, Hutchinson at first instructed the public that they would not be able to speak on the item at all shortly after the open session convened—the Board’s parliamentarian later corrected the claim to the assembled public and informed them they would be able to speak on the item during the public speaking time for non-agendized matters.

The Board had been in closed session for over an hour by this time, around 6:30 pm. Nearly three hours after the meeting began, advocates—some with children who attend an OUSD school—again felt that their opportunity to highlight the resolution was slipping away, according to several sources. Hutchinson soon added that the advocates for the ceasefire resolution would have only a total of 30 minutes to speak on the issue during the appropriate public comment. Hutchinson declined to extend the time even after a request by board member Jennifer Brouhard.

After the Student Directors gave their agendized report, Hutchinson called for public comment on the student report. As Hutchinson cut the mic of the second speaker after their time elapsed, attendees rose to their feet jeered the board and cheered the speaker. Hutchinson called a recess and several minutes later adjourned the meeting with no further explanation, to active protest from the assembled group.

The drama around the proposed resolution, surprisingly, has not ended there. Sources have shared with the Oakland Observer that on the following day Hutchinson canceled three upcoming meetings: a budget committee meeting to be held on Thursday; a special full board meeting for the 14th, and the last regular meeting of the month that would have been held on the 29th. Coupled with the adjournment of the Wednesday meeting before any board business was heard, a total of 4 meetings will have been canceled in the month of November. Several sources have told this publication that Hutchinson cited “security” concerns in his email explaining the rationale for the cancellations, leaving many to assume he meant the potential presence of pro-Palestinian advocates.

Bachelor says that Tuesday’s adjournment and the cancellations impede the work of the board.

“In Wednesday’s canceled agenda there were contracts for literacy tutors, for music, education, for sports, other programs and coaching for staff. We would be revisiting those issues at the meeting on the 29th, but since that is already canceled, we wouldn't be able to revisit those issues until December. And that means that potentially vendors won't be paid. That means students at school sites won't have some resources and access to support. That means educators and staff won't have those resources as well, that can help them directly in the classroom and other school sites,” Bachelor said.

Requests for comment from Bas went unanswered by press time. When contacted over private messaging, Board President Hutchinson responded to questions on the adjournment of the meeting with this statement:

“A speaker went over their time so eventually the microphone was cut.  When that happened it became disruptive so I called a 5 minute recess.  Things escalated during the recess and it was determined that the safest thing to do was adjourn the meeting.”

Hutchinson did not comment on the rationale for cancelling subsequent meetings.

The text of Bachelor's resolution can be found below:

More on these stories as they develop.

Update, 11/13/2023, 2:35pm

Bas urges Ceasefire with social media posts and letter to Biden/Congress urging a ceasefire, chastises additional aid to Israel while domestic needs languish.

In a comment sent to the Oakland Observer on Monday after publication, Hutchinson said that the Board can't meet on 11/29 because of the California School Boards Conference in San Francisco. The conference is scheduled for 11/30 to 12/2, though there is a pre-registration day scheduled on the 29th, according to the conference schedule.

Correction:

This article was based on incomplete information about the press conference held by alleged family groups contesting the OEA statement on a Ceasefire last week. Kalb did speak, though his comments don't appear to have been televised. According to a third party transcript made available to OO, Kalb criticized the OEA for creating "irrelevant" resolutions that are "harmful" and "don't have all the facts". Kalb also implied that the OEA statement "enhanced hate".

"...almost irrelevant resolutions about things halfway around the world that really have no credibility OEA has no credibility to really put forward resolutions like that. And these are one sided, hurtful, harmful resolutions that don't have all this clearly don't have all the facts and are causing tremendous emotional distress for a lot of people in our community. And this has got to stop."