A lot of people are not aware that Peoples Programs are comrades/collaborators with CLP, the authoritarian group that tried to take over Omni, blocked TANC from joining us (which would have very likely helped us achieve a new mortgage lender by now), and then spread a campaign of misinformation and an entire boycott against us in order to destroy our events income.

Peoples Programs still have their tweet up from October 5th calling on boycotting Omni Commons:

CLP actually suggested that we allow Peoples Programs to be our new lender - in exchange for a controlling interest in the Board of Directors (now made up of our delegates) of course, and they suggested this BEFORE we came to the conclusion to separate from CLP (remove them by unanimous vote).

In this light it seems clear that CLP and PP are collaborating to disrupt our ability to keep the building so they can take it over.

The founder of PP was at the "callout meeting" that Omni hosted after the CLP attack, and when an Iranian woman was speaking about how she was afraid that she would be killed if she returned to Iran, The PP founder stood up and said "Inshallah" meaning "it is the will of god" and TOOK HER PICTURE NONCONSENSUALLY to identify her.  Is this the kind of group we want to donate our building to?  Because make no mistake, allowing PP to "bail us out" means signing over complete control of the building to them.  It's a sale.  We only get to stay if they feel like letting us stay.

In contrast, the Mulberry Trust, which is our present lender, is a charitable organization that DONATED $1 MILLION toward our purchase of the building, as well as giving us the loan in the first place which nobody else would do.  If we fail to find a new lender in the time remaining (which is more than the rest of the month but don't get too comfortable), the building goes back to their ownership and they will put it toward a charitable purpose, such as low-income housing.  They are our best option if we are unable to find new financing.

For anyone who doubts that CLP and PP are partners, here's a link to that article by Rafiq (leader of CLP) posted on PP's Medium page, praising the Iranian Regime (aka the Morality Police who kill women for not wearing a headscarf):

https://medium.com/@PeoplesPrograms/the-legacy-of-the-iranian-revolution-2c7de74b3df8

As recently as four days ago, Rafiq or Billy of CLP is apparently emailing people who try to book events with us, trying to discourage them from doing so:

and in case anyone needs a reminder, here's the doxxing attack that's still the first link of CLP's linktree.  "WO" is TANC, aka Tenants and Neighborhood Councils, a diverse oakland organization that protests evictions which CLP was vehemently opposed to for some reason.

and here's Peoples Programs linktree:

https://linktr.ee/PBO

and CLP's linktree:

https://linktr.ee/clp_

On Mon, Dec 11, 2023 at 8:59 AM Sven Pedersen via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:

Good morning,

I realize I don't have much at stake here, and I wish success to Omni though I stepped back after the recent drama. This organization People's Programs are doing really good work and overall seem like probably great people, but I see the same pattern of the recent conflict -- someone who leads their political education is holding up the Iranian regime as an example of freedom -- I don't understand why, apart from its frequent use of "revolution"; Iran isn't socialist and their use of incarceration, torture and violence against all who question them isn't "free." I'd even say they're also neocolonial given their horrifying proxy war in Yemen with Saudi Arabia looks like ugly U.S./Russia history, but I realize that's debatable.

From their "Pan Africanism New Afrika Nation Building"

``According to Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
1. Everyone has a right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Nations are usually either capitalist or socialist. Developing free nations often times use a hybrid model.
Nations are either settler colonial..(America/Israel).. Neocolonial (Nigeria) or free (Cuba, Iran)``

Just wanted to give a heads up, if you can save Omni with an agreement with an org that is slightly different in ideology that'd probably be a big win vs. the level of ideological differences with an average bank. :shrug:

--Sven

On Sat, Dec 9, 2023 at 2:42 PM Paige P via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:

The Mulberry Trust gave Omni a loan some years ago to pay off the building. The loan was just meant to be a temporary thing to get Omni up and running, but not supposed to be a long term loan (like that of a bank).  From the wiki, these were the terms

Mortgage
Starting Jan 1st, 2017 we officially stopped paying rent and started paying off a mortgage loan! Our loan is for $975,000 at 5.5% interest, with a balloon payment due Jan 1st, 2021.
$5,365.61 + 5.5% ($312.28) = $5,677.89/mo"

The balloon payment ($900k) was supposed to be a way to get Omni to find some other lender in 2021 so that the trust could be off the hook. We couldn't pay it in 2021, and the lender gave 2 years of extension. We were hoping to get another extension this year too, given there was this property tax drama and the boycott, so its hard to find a lender right now, but we just got news that there will be NO extension. So unless we find the funds, a new lender, or a new owner who will lease or let us stay, we will have to leave Omni Commons.

So far, some ideas going are - find a big donor to foot the bill, get 20people or so to loan us $50k (idea copied from another hackerspace), find a partner who will let us stay, or find a land trust to own the land and let us use it.

A nonprofit called People's Programs has offered to bring in one of their donors to pay off the needed $900k, and keep us on as partners. They made a proposal to delegates about this on Thursday.

This is a doc Sarah made to summarize Omni's finances to potential new lenders or owners: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iGTfhoUMEpHH9Nj0NEh4KODPdiU3BZLW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=114020505367638201004&rtpof=true&sd=true

Also attaching an Omni brochure Silver made, and I just made edits to recently that we can share around. But it could use some better info for potential lenders/donors.

On Sat, Dec 9, 2023 at 1:37 PM Romy Ilano via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:

I just got back from Argentina and. 

Is there a quick summary of what’s going on? I cannot make it this Tuesday because I have to go to a Noisebridge meetup to ask for collaboration with another engineering group.

Is there a Wednesday meeting after 7:45pm
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``Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry,
  the philosophy which does not laugh
and the greatness which does not bow before children.''
~ Khalil Gibran

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