Calendar
Join the Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8759275991
Have you ever wondered how socialists should engage with elections? With the threat of Trump back in office in 2024 and a Democratic Party insistent on sacrificing Palestinian lives even if it means losing the presidency, the question has never been more urgent.
This Night School is a 101- and 201-level dive into the way socialists approach running for office and governing, which we call class-struggle elections. It’s geared toward new members and old heads alike. Bring a coworker, a mentee, or a friend! We’ll be joined by NYC DSA’s Zohran Mamdani from the New York State Assembly, plus EBDSA-endorsed Oakland School Board member Valarie Bachelor, who will talk about how they use their offices to build movements.
We encourage everyone to do the readings, but everyone is welcome regardless of whether they’ve done the readings.
Readings:
Class-Struggle Politicians Are Organizers First, Legislators Second, by Jack McShane, 2019 – https://socialistcall.com/2019/08/01/class-struggle-politicians-dsa-elections/
How a Grassroots Movement is Building Political Power: Notes From Richmond, California, by Mike Parker, 2020 – https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/11/26/how-a-grassroots-movement-is-building-political-power-notes-from-richmond-california/
Mike Parker on Political Action, 2021 – https://socialistcall.com/2022/01/20/mike-parker-electoral-strategy/
Palestine, labour activism and the US presidential elections, by Neal Meyer, 2024 – https://links.org.au/palestine-labour-activism-and-us-presidential-elections-interview-neal-meyer-bread-roses-dsa
Join us for a lively and informative discussion at the ROE V WADE: PROTECTING ABORTION RIGHTS PANEL event.
Our panelists, Liberty Crochet Mural Artists, TEACH (Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare) and other activists/practitioners will delve into the history, current status, and future of abortion rights in the US. Get ready to hear diverse perspectives and engage in thought-provoking conversations.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn and connect with others who are passionate about this important issue.
PANELISTS:
Flor Hunt (TEACH)
Kathryn Vercillo (Liberty Crochet Mural)
Ujjayini Sikha (WOMEN RISING Artist)
Tisha Kenny (Artist, activist and health care practitioner)
Dr. Cynthia Farner (OB/GYN)
More info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/roe-v-wade-protecting-abortion-rights-panel-tickets-859205295167
In partnership with the Wellstone Club: a viewing of Abortion and Women’s Rights 1970. This film serves as a powerful reminder of the conditionsand demands that inspired the movement for abortion rights fifty years ago, and speaks to the need for safe, legal abortion and the broader fight for reproductive justice today.
- Abortion and Women’s Rights 1970
- Directed by Catha Maslow, Jane Pincus, Mary Summers, and Karen Weinstein
- Sunday, March 24 at 7:00 PM
- On Zoom
- Introductions by Kate Harrison and Karen Weinstein
Karen Weinstein made this film with three other activists over 50 years ago and would have hoped that it would be irrelevant today. But it isn’t. They made this film when most of the legislators were male, and there were few women’s voices being heard. They wanted those voices to be heard.
ACLU NorCal is pleased to partner with Colmena Consulting to offer From Awareness to Action, a three-hour workshop designed especially for you, our donor community.
You’re aware of racial inequity. You know what inclusion is. You consider yourself anti-racist. But you’re wondering: Now what? What else can I actually do, day-to-day and over the long-term, to make a concrete change?
From Awareness to Action is an interactive, virtual workshop that takes you through a unique process to arrive upon tangible steps – designed for you by you – to make the most of everything you can give to this work.
Zoom (log-in details provided upon registration)
RSVP NOW
Colmena Consulting is a radical consulting cooperative of change-makers with systematically marginalized identities and social justice values, seeking to create change through new models of work.
Awareness to Action is a workshop they’ve fine-tuned, especially for ACLU NorCal supporters. It helps translate political beliefs into personal actions. The focus of this workshop is not ACLU NorCal’s racial justice program or work. It’s about you.
Accessibility is important to us. Live captioning will be provided, and we welcome other accommodation requests. Please use the RSVP form to share any accommodation requests or email us at events@aclunc.org.
Space in this workshop is limited and will likely fill up. To learn more and claim your spot, register today. RSVPs will be accepted until the workshop is full or 3/21.
Mark your calendars, we hope to see you there!
ACLU of Northern California
To prepare:
Reading: Elementary Concepts of Historical Materialism by Marta Harnecker, Chapter 5 “Base and Superstructure”, Chapter 6 “The ideological structure”, Chapter 7 “Juridico-Political Structure”, Intro, Chapter 4 “Economic Structure of Society”.
- Supplemental reading for context: The Philosophy of Marxism, the section titled “Materialism”.
This will be the second installment of the chapter’s new Socialist Fundamentals series, which was approved at our November 2023 chapter general meeting!The purpose of the Socialist Fundamentals series is to build a common language for socialists in our chapter – through the shared experience of reading and discussing the same texts as a group. The series is 11 self-contained parts and includes writing from famous socialists like Karl Marx and Ruth Wilson Gilmore, as well as less well-known but rigorous and important writers like Chilean Marxist Marta Harnecker, and East Bay DSA member Mike Parker.
The emphasis is on material that is either relevant for organizers in DSA today, presents or grapples with ideas that are historically significant for the socialist movement, or both.
Bioneers, “Revolution from the Heart of Nature,” will hold its 35th annual conference in Berkeley this year. Leaders, activists, and healers will give talks and lead discussions and workshops on a wide range of topics including: indigenous rights and wisdom, climate issues, digital rights and democracy, many approaches to personal healing, effective persuasion, reproductive justice, dealing with conflict, debtors’ rights, just transition, fossil fuels in the Amazon, the danger of rising fascism — and many more.
The conference will also include films, social gatherings, and more.
The introduction to this year’s conference says:
“We’re already in overtime. The driving question is whether we have sufficient time to make the transformational change necessary to begin to heal and regenerate people and planet.
“We need to connect and scale the constellation of brilliant social movements to reach critical mass and enact . . . breakthrough systemic solutions.”
Members of the Sunflower Alliance community can get a 20% discount using the code: Sunflower20
WHERE
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall and locations in downtown Berkeley
REGISTER EARLY FOR LOWER COST!
Rates go up February 21 and again March 13
Register here
Bioneers, “Revolution from the Heart of Nature,” will hold its 35th annual conference in Berkeley this year. Leaders, activists, and healers will give talks and lead discussions and workshops on a wide range of topics including: indigenous rights and wisdom, climate issues, digital rights and democracy, many approaches to personal healing, effective persuasion, reproductive justice, dealing with conflict, debtors’ rights, just transition, fossil fuels in the Amazon, the danger of rising fascism — and many more.
The conference will also include films, social gatherings, and more.
The introduction to this year’s conference says:
“We’re already in overtime. The driving question is whether we have sufficient time to make the transformational change necessary to begin to heal and regenerate people and planet.
“We need to connect and scale the constellation of brilliant social movements to reach critical mass and enact . . . breakthrough systemic solutions.”
Members of the Sunflower Alliance community can get a 20% discount using the code: Sunflower20
WHERE
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall and locations in downtown Berkeley
REGISTER EARLY FOR LOWER COST!
Rates go up February 21 and again March 13
Register here
Bioneers, “Revolution from the Heart of Nature,” will hold its 35th annual conference in Berkeley this year. Leaders, activists, and healers will give talks and lead discussions and workshops on a wide range of topics including: indigenous rights and wisdom, climate issues, digital rights and democracy, many approaches to personal healing, effective persuasion, reproductive justice, dealing with conflict, debtors’ rights, just transition, fossil fuels in the Amazon, the danger of rising fascism — and many more.
The conference will also include films, social gatherings, and more.
The introduction to this year’s conference says:
“We’re already in overtime. The driving question is whether we have sufficient time to make the transformational change necessary to begin to heal and regenerate people and planet.
“We need to connect and scale the constellation of brilliant social movements to reach critical mass and enact . . . breakthrough systemic solutions.”
Members of the Sunflower Alliance community can get a 20% discount using the code: Sunflower20
WHERE
UC Berkeley Zellerbach Hall and locations in downtown Berkeley
REGISTER EARLY FOR LOWER COST!
Rates go up February 21 and again March 13
Register here
Saturday, April 6th Award-winning journalist, and host of Democracy Now! Amy Goodman will be in Berkeley to honor KPFA’s 75 years of building community trust. Amy has a long and valued relationship with KPFA and will offer her unique perspective on our 75-year history. Tickets are now on sale! Get yours early and support the Bay Area’s truly independent media outlet.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our April meeting we will be reading Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s Crises, by Marjorie Kelly (Amazon, Penguin)
“This bold manifesto exposes seven myths underlying wealth supremacy, the bias that institutionalizes infinite extraction of wealth by and for the wealthy, and is the hidden force behind economic injustice, the climate crisis, and so many other problems of our day:
-
- The Myth of Maximizing: No amount of wealth is ever enough.
- The Myth of Fiduciary Duty: Corporate managers’ most sacred duty is to expand capital.
- The Myth of Corporate Governance: Corporate membership must be reserved for capital alone.
- The Myth of the Income Statement: Income to capital must always be increased, while income to labor must always be decreased.
- The Myth of Materiality: Profit—material gain—alone is real, while social and environmental damages are not.
- The Myth of Takings: The first duty of government must be the protection of private property.
- The Myth of the Free Market: There should be no limits on the field of action of corporations and capital.
Kelly argues instead for the democratization of ownership: public ownership of vital services, worker-owned businesses, and more. And she sketches the outlines of a non-extractive capitalism that would be subordinate to the public interest. This is an ambitious reimagining of the very foundations of our economy and society..”
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 and How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World.