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Silicon Valley Bank – previously the 16th largest bank in the US and reportedly a source of funding for half of all the tech startups in the US – has collapsed.
It’s now become clear the more general banking crisis that has emerged is not due simply to a rogue, mismanaged bank that over-extended itself during the recent tech boom and then somehow mysteriously imploded in just 72 hours, March 7-9, until seized by the FDIC on the morning of March 10, 2023.
Deeper, more systemic forces are at play- in the case of both the SVB collapse and the now spreading contagion to US regional banks as well as to European banks. The SVB is just the tip of the current financial instability iceberg. In Europe the focus is the now collapsed big Credit Suisse bank announced today, March 19, by Switzerland’s central bank. The problem is thus now not just US regional bank centric, but is rapidly becoming global systemic.
What then are the systemic forces responsible for the SVB collapse and now spreading instability to US regional banks and European banks?
Dr. Jack Rasmus, Ph.D Political Economy, teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author and producer of the various nonfiction and fictional workers, including the books The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy From Reagan to Bush, Clarity Press, October 2019; Alexander Hamilton & The Origins of the Fed, Lexington books, March 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression, Clarity Press, August 2018; Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, Clarity Press, Sept. 2016; Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy, Clarity Press, January 2016; ‘Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few‘, Pluto Press, 2012, ‘Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression‘, Pluto Press, 2010, and ‘The War at Home: The Corporate Offensive from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush‘, Kyklosproductions, 2006. He has written and produced several stage plays, including ‘Fire on Pier 32‘ and ‘1934‘. Jack is the host of the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network, and a journalist writing on economic, political and labor issues for various magazines, including European Financial Review, World Financial Review, World Review of Political Economy, ‘Z‘ magazine, and others. Before his current roles as author, journalist and radio host, Jack was an economist and market analyst for several global companies for 18 years and, for more than a decade, a local union president, vice-president, contract negotiator, and organizer for several labor unions, including the UAW, CWA, SEIU, and HERE. Jack’s website is www.jackrasmus.com
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Do you think the Left needs to move beyond critique and towards constructive action? Can we do so in a way that’s honest, vulnerable, and respectful of differences?
If so, please join Margaret Kimberley, Gloria Mattera, and former Green candidate for US Pres David Cobb. Explore how to build deeper unity while encouraging responsibility for our feelings and actions. We’ll apply this framework to the question “What Is To Be Done?”
Host: Green Eco-Socialist network.
DSA EAST BAY
We will be discussing what class struggle is all about, and how it grounds our politics. Readings to come.
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Agenda Items:
4. Dept. of Housing and Community Development – Rental Registry
a. Review for compliance with City of Oakland’s Privacy Principles and take possible action
5. Federal Task Force Ordinance – OPD – Annual Reports – Review and take possible action
a. US Marshals
b. DEA
c. ATF
d. Secret Service
e. FBI Child Exploitation
f. FBI Violent Crimes
6. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – DOT – Mobile Parking Payment Proposal
a. Review and take possible action on the Impact Statement, proposed Use Policy, and Professional Services Agreement
For those who have asked how to support our library as we keep fighting for the digital rights of all libraries, there will be a rally on the steps of the @internetarchive next Saturday (4/8) @ 11am PT #EmpoweringLibraries #DigitalRightsForLibraries
RSVP👇 https://t.co/dDD7XHGA3u— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) March 30, 2023
Prior registration required.
What constitutes a progressive position on the war in Ukraine? What factors might bring about peace? Should the United States continue to send military aid, and other support, to Ukraine? What should be done about the parts of Ukraine currently occupied by Russian forces? What should be done about NATO?
Please join us on April 9th to hear Howie Hawkins and Jill Stein present their perspectives on the Ukraine war and how peace might come about. Jill and Howie are the Green Party’s two most recent Presidential candidates, Jill having run in 2012 and 2016 and Howie having run in 2020. Following their presentations, we’ll have time for questions and answers.
Howie Hawkins has been a Green Party candidate for city council, mayor, and auditor in Syracuse, New York, winning 48% for a district council seat in 2011, and 35% of the citywide vote for city auditor in 2015. Prior to becoming the Green Party’s Presidential candidate.in 2020, he was the Greens’ Governor candidate in New York in 2010, 2014, and 2018. He was a co-founder of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976 and the Green Party in the US in 1984. Howie moved to Syracuse in 1991 to develop cooperatives for CommonWorks, a federation of cooperatives. Howie’s articles on politics, economics, and environmental issues have appeared in Against the Current, Black Agenda Report, CounterPunch, Green Politics, International Socialist Review, Labor Notes, New Politics, Peace and Democracy News, Roll Call, Society and Nature, Z Magazine, and other publications.
Dr. Jill Stein is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Medical School and was a practicing physician for 25 years. She has served on the Greater Boston board of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Stein co-founded and served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Healthy Communities. She has worked with Clean Water Action, Toxic Action Center, Global Climate Convergence, Physicians for a National Health Program, and the Massachusetts Medical Society. She previously served as an elected member of Lexington Town Meeting, and ran for Massachusetts governor in 2002 and 2010. She also ran for Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2004 and for Massachusetts secretary of state in 2006, and in 2012 and 2016 she was the Green Party’s Presidential candidate.
Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows at 7:00 pm, after a 30-minute break.
Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our March, April and May meetings we are reading Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber (Warwick, Amazon).For our March meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.`For the April meeting we are reading chapters 6 through 9.
Before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors—which lives on in full force to this day.
So says anthropologist David Graeber in a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Renaissance Italy to Imperial China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong.
We are still fighting these battles today.
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth, Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Beyond Money, Less is More, and Cannibal Capitalism.
Anchored by the Wiyot Tribe’s Dishgamu Community Land Trust, several Cal Poly Humboldt faculty members, Green Eco-Socialist Network, Native Roots Network, New Economy Coalition, the US Solidarity Economy Network, and a growing network of additional partners, this 3-day virtual conference serves as a space to exchange experiences and information, strengthen alliances and networks, and to devise strategies to decenter colonial systems and implement concrete solutions to heal the land and people. Over 1,000 people participated in the 2022 Summit, and we expect even more in 2023!
Social Democracy is promoted by its supporters as the set of reforms that pave the way for socialism, and attacked by it’s critiques as a way for a capitalist state to appease workers with some improvements
While as Democratic Socialists, we all agree on the need to go beyond Social Democracy, we will be reading a few articles about the successes and limitations of social democratic movements around the world and discussing what we can learn from them and incorporate into our actions as Democratic Socialists.
** Note that this will mostly be a discussion with a very light presentation at the start, so to get the most out of it please read the readings ahead of time. **
Articles: TBD
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Join Us to Celebrate People’s Park!
Join the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group for a moment of refreshments and celebration of the recent appellate court victory and People’s Park’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
We want to thank the historians, writers, gardeners, everyone who came together and continues to work toward the longevity of Berkeley’s most famous landmark. Tom Dalzell, author of “1969; the Struggle for People’s Park”, will speak, and we’ll have additional speakers to clarify where we are now in our effort to educate and protect People’s Park’s historic national place in history.
We look forward to seeing you, but if you can’t make it and wish to donate to support any legal efforts needed to defend our victory, please go to� http://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/� – GoFundMe, Venmo and check options available.
Long Live People’s Park!