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A second Trump administration will push U.S. policy in the Middle East in a very dangerous direction. Already, Trump has thrown his weight behind the most extremist elements in Israel while effectively renouncing international legal precedence, embracing Arab dictatorships, and making the U.S. very much of an outlier even among our pro-Western allies. However, the Biden administration pursued many of these dangerous policies as well. As a result, supporters of Palestinian rights–and proponents of human rights and international law in general–must be willing to challenge the leadership of both political parties in the coming months and years.
Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he served as founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. Recognized as one the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and of strategic nonviolent action, Zunes has served as a senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun.
He is also the principal editor of “Nonviolent Social Movements” (1999), author of the highly acclaimed “Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism” (2003) and co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution” (second revised expanded edition, 2022.)
Zunes was the recipient of the 2015 Dean’s Scholar Award from USF’s College of Arts and Sciences and, in 2002, he won recognition from the Peace and Justice Studies Association as their first Peace Scholar of the Year. He is also a frequent contributor to periodicals and major daily newspapers on four continents and has also served as a consultant and board member for a number of peace and human rights organizations in both the United States and overseas.
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.
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Debtors of the world, unite!
Alone, our debts are a burden. Together they give us power. When we share our experiences of debt and economic pressure with each other, we begin to see our collective power to change the systems that exploit us. Everyone is welcome to participate in this debtors assembly, whether or not you are currently debt-burdened.
This is a 100 Days to Build Debtor Power event. Over the first 100 days of the new presidential administration, we’re embarking – together – on an intensive campaign of organizing trainings, political education, and debtors assemblies to build our solidarity AND prepare us with the skills we’ll need in the months & years ahead.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome.
For our January, 2025 meeting we will be reading the first seven chapters Making Sense of Chaos by by J. Doyne Farmer (Yale University Press, Amazon). For our February meeting, we will be finishing the book.
We live in an age of increasing complexity—an era of accelerating technology and global interconnection that holds more promise, and more peril, than any other time in human history. The fossil fuels that have powered global wealth creation now threaten to destroy the world they helped build. Automation and digitization promise prosperity for some, unemployment for others. Financial crises fuel growing inequality, polarization, and the retreat of democracy. At heart, all these problems are rooted in the economy, yet the guidance provided by economic models has often failed.
Many books have been written about J. Doyne Farmer and his work, but this is the first in his own words. It presents a manifesto for how to do economics better. In this tale of science and ideas, Farmer fuses his profound knowledge and expertise with stories from his life to explain how we can bring a scientific revolution to bear on the economic conundrums facing society.
Using big data and ever more powerful computers, we are now able for the first time to apply complex systems science to economic activity, building realistic models of the global economy. The resulting simulations and the emergent behavior we observe form the cornerstone of the science of complexity economics, allowing us to test ideas and make significantly better economic predictions—to better address the hard problems facing the world.
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included (in chronological order) 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, Cannibal Capitalism, Debt, the First 5000 Years , Poverty, By America, End Times, Jackson Rising Redux , The Feminist Subversion of the Economy, How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World, Wealth Supremacy, The Persuaders, The Path to a Livable Future, Solidarity, Mutual Aid and Breaking Together.
This event is a part of the 100 Days of Debtor Organizing and in particular is for those a part of the Debt Collective’s 50 Over 50. This call is open to anyone and will serve as a training to supporting student debtors in your community with information on the current avenues to debt cancellation. We will be sharing how we hosted events in local communities to educate and support folks on these methods of debt cancellation. This is through existing programs such as Total and Permanent Disability Discharge, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and Income Driven Repayment cancellation. As well, we provide tips in how to have debtor organizing conversation.
Join us on zoom on Feb 19th at 8pm ET, you can register here.