“Meet and Greet”- Abel Guillen for State Assembly

CLICK HERE TO DONATE to Abel’s campaign via ActBlue: 

or RSVP to me directly at NickyGY@mac.com to tell me you’re coming.

I’d like to invite you to my home to meet and support my good friend Abel Guillen who is running for the State Assembly seat representing Oakland and its surrounding East Bay cities.

Abel and I serve on the Peralta Colleges Board together. We have consistently been strong allies in building a progressive agenda to support student access, to protect and advance the rights of working people of all colors, and to create an environmentally sustainable world built on the foundations of a green economy.

I could name dozens of progressive measures we have taken together, whether advancing student access to bus transit, promoting worker’s rights, or fighting for undocumented students’ access to financial aid. But, one story will give you the measure of this man. Continue reading →

Peralta Board Supports the 99%

photo from Occupy Oakland- we are the 99%

How can progressive elected officials help built the 99% movement? At the November 15, 2011 Peralta Board meeting, Trustee Abel Guillen and I presented a resolution to divest our financial assets from for-profit corporate banks and to move our banking to Coop and Community Banks. I’m thrilled to report that our resolution passed unanimously!

I view this as a perfect example of the kind of advocacy elected officials can engage in– good progressive public policy that supports and mirrors the work being done through progressive grassroots organizing. Imagine what kind of powerful movement we could build if EVERY elected official in the East Bay and throughout the state and nation began to align the use of our public resources with the needs of the 99% while simultaneously supporting popular efforts to organize and to empower regular people?  Continue reading →

New Law Lowers Transit Costs for Community College Students (AP NewsWire)

(repost of a CBS5.com article via AP NewsWire)

Peralta Community College District officials held a news conference today at Laney College in Oakland to discuss a new law they estimate will save some students more than $1,200 per year in transportation costs.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 1980, a bill sponsored by Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland, into law on July 18, allowing school officials to set up the “AC Transit EasyPass”, a program that will give students discounts on Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District buses. Continue reading →