Call for Action: Save the Berkeley Post Office is about more than saving the Berkeley PO

STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA has formed a coalition with SAVE THE BERKELEY POST OFFICE to oppose the sale of the historic main facility of the USPS at 2000 Allston Way in Berkeley. The intent is two-fold: to prevent the sale of a beautiful publicly-owned building containing Depression-era murals and to raise awareness of the ruthless asset-seizure pursued by the 1%, which is provoking the sale of post offices all over the country and is depleting the ability of the USPS to provide adequate service.

The coalition of SDBA and SBPO is planning action that cannot be ignored to defend the post office and oppose privatization. We need your help. We need activists on the street, and we need organizers to provide critical support.

Please come to the Occupy Oakland General Assembly at Oscar Grant Plaza – 14th St. and Broadway - on Sunday, June 9 at 2:00PM to find out more about tasks you can help us with in preparation for opposing the privatization of our only publicly-controlled means of communication.

STRIKE DEBT BAY area is determined to reveal all manifestations of debt-culture with the purpose of creating the consciousness that debtors form a very powerful social class. Almost every one of us is in some kind of debt, and community organizations that provide essential and humane services have had to borrow – not for expansion, but just to pay current operating expenses. As the prices of things we need have risen, and as our real wages have declined, we have had to put up more of what we have – our property and our labor power – as collateral, and more of this collateral is being possessed outright by the creditors of the 1%. Our municipalities are cutting services and selling public property to indifferent and far-removed financial capitalists in desperate attempts to make ends meet.

The United States Postal Service has done an exemplary job of resisting the predatory tactics of the 1%, but now they are on the brink of bankruptcy because they are being forced by Congress and the President to pay $60 billion over ten years to cover health benefits for their retirees for the next 75 years – an unjustifiable burden never-before imposed on any enterprise, public or private. Privatization of the post office – dismantling its extensive service structure and selling off its buildings – poses grave consequences for low-income people and those concerned about privacy. (These arguments are framed in an article linked here.)

For more information about STRIKE DEBT BAY AREA, visit our website and our Facebook page.

SAVE THE BERKELEY POST OFFICE WEBPAGE