Calendar

Sun, Nov 15, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
The Ongoing War on Syria & Why it Matters |
Rick Sterling will discuss the current situation in Syria and future prospects if Biden assumes the Presidency. Unreported in mainstream media, the US and allies continue to wage hybrid warfare on Syria – economically, politically, judicially and militarily. Why does the US persist in attacking Syria, preventing it from recovering and harming millions of Syrians? Will this change with a Democrat in the White House?  Why has this struggle become a focal point of East – West conflict? What are the best and worst things that could happen?
   Rick Sterling is on the Steering Committee of Syria Solidarity Movement.

He is an independent journalist who has written many articles about Syria..
LOGIN INFORMATION
The meeting will be opened up, as usual, at 10:15 for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc. We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open for informal discussion.

Raj Sahai’s Zoom Meeting. (TO BE CONFIRMED)

Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:15am – 1:15pm Pacific Time

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=TTdlcFlnZEVCdWt2VlRHeWZLeHNKQT09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607

Passcode: 6MwQP7

Sun, Nov 22, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

How the US Dominates the World Economy: Failings of Modern Monetary Theory and why the US can print trillions of dollars and not experience inflation.

Stansfield Smith will explain how the US control of the world economy since the end of World War II has enabled it to bully the world’s countries into depending on the US dollar and using it as the international currency. This requires world countries to amass quantities of dollars to operate and to pay the cost of upholding the value of the dollar, which includes investing in the growing US debt. This also explains how the US can use its economic sanctions to punish countries that seek independence from US control. While Modern Monetary Theory gives an account of why the US can continue to print vast sums of money and suffer little inflation, its explanation avoids confronting the reality of US control of the world financial structure.

Stansfield Smith’s presentation is based on his articles: Inadequacy of Modern Monetary Theory and the Power of the US Dollar in the World Economy and Why the US Can Keep Increasing its Debt and not Suffer Inflation.
Stan Smith has been involved in the Freedom for the Cuban Five movement and the movements in defense of the sovereignty of El Salvador, Cuba, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries for 40 years. He has written numerous articles such as: First Two Months in Power: Hitler vs. Trump; What North Koreans Think; Framing North Korea; Is Russia imperialist; China’s International Solidarity Aid to the World During the Corona Pandemic; Chomsky and Other Liberal Intellectuals Ask Us to Join Them in Throwing in the Towel. He produces a weekly compendium of articles on Latin America at https://chicagoalbasolidarity.wordpress.com/.

Sun, Nov 29, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm (Thanksgiving weekend)
TENTATIVE: Abhinav Sinha on the International Working Class
Our speaker is editor of the renowned Hindi magazine ‘Muktikami Chhatron-Yuvaon ka Aahwan.’

Sun, Dec 6, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
The Logic of Capitalist Production and Marx’s Ecology
Even many Marxists are convinced that Marx believed in production without limitations, and thus Marx was oblivious to the question of ecology of the planet. Today the world is caught in a double jeopardy: on one hand capitalism is reducing workers’ organized bargaining power by production shifted to lowest wage countries pitting workers of one country against another and on the other capitalist production is consuming the resources of the planet provided by Nature rapidly while massively polluting land, water, and air. Since the fall of the USSR, China has been touted as the successful model of socialism using the capitalist market, or what is termed as “Market-Socialism”. This leads workers in US with no hope unlike in 1930s when they saw hope after the revolution in the USSR and workers had state power and were constructing socialism. A section of the US workers were drawn to a demagogue, namely Trump in the US and in India a majority of workers followed another demagogue: Modi in India. This trend is also developing in other countries. Raj Sahai will analyze this situation in the first hour and then in the second invite comments from the audience.

Join us for our November nonvoting General Meeting of East Bay DSA!

Please RSVP and invite other comrades to hear updates on our campaigns and events.

Agenda TBA.

The meeting will be conducted via ZOOM. RSVP and you’ll receive an email with the link.

This black youth-led event is being threatened ‘oath keepers’ and other violent white identity extremists today. Please come support local youth organizers.

Join DSA SF for our Single-Payer Open Strategy Meeting Nov. 15, 2-4pm! Come discuss what a long-term, grassroots organizing strategy for single payer should look like. Registration open to both DSA members and non-DSA members! Registration: https://t.co/kweQPbJE3X pic.twitter.com/QXEyRGa31W

— DSA San Francisco (@DSA_SF) October 22, 2020

• • Patrick Heller, Natural Resource Governance Institute
  • Roger Lin, UC Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic
  • Sarah White, Governor’s Office of Planning & Research

Sponsored by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law.

Register here.

Register here

The economic disasters affecting so many people during this pandemic have made even it more clear that we must stop shutoffs of energy and water — basic human needs.  Join the Network for Energy, Water, and Health in Affordable Buildings for a webinar on protecting the right to these basic necessities.

Leading innovators will share stories on how they are changing the narrative in this country on energy justice and utility service as a human right. Learn from a local organizer who mobilized during the pandemic to stop the harm perpetuated on people living with low incomes by winning a new program on debt relief from the CARES Act and from two attorneys who will share for the first time their proposal for a Bill of Rights for all utility customers

This collaborative discussion will educate, strategize for impact, and connect powerful local action to bold ideas about what it means to be “essential” before and after COVID.

Hear from:

Agustin Cabrera, Director of the RePower Los Angeles Network at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. He will tell about how the multi-sectoral organizing of RePower led to securing a new utility-debt-forgiveness program from the nation’s largest municipal utility company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Their innovative activism and advocacy, grounded in the principles of energy democracy, backed this program with $50 million of dedicated funding from the CARES Act. Agustin will share details that can inform how to replicate their work across the country.

Karen Lusson and Charlie Harak, attorneys at the National Consumer Law Center, will share their proposal for a national Utility Customers’ Bill of Rights. Their national perspective across multiple jurisdictions and utility governance models have informed their development of a concrete list of the obligations of state and federal policy makers, utility service providers (municipal and investor-owned), and advocates within these systems in order to end a punitive approach to poverty, utility debt, and energy insecurity.

Register Here.

Join us for a youth-led conversation on how militarized police impacts our communities and how we can work toward influencing local policy that #DefundsThePolice.

With testimony by Oakland youth on police militarization and from Mental Health First, moderated by BAY Peace. With small group discussions led by 67 Sueños, Urban Peace Movement, Young Women’s Freedom Center, The Village, BAY Peace, Council of American Islamic Relations, AFSC, and National Lawyers Guild.

Democratic Socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib are raising the expectations of millions of people across the United States and bringing them into a political awakening. The membership of DSA, the largest socialist organization in the United States, is rapidly growing by the thousands. Millions of working-class Americans are calling for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal rent control, and more.

But what is democratic socialism? What does it mean to be a member of DSA? How do socialists look at the crises of police brutality, economic recession, and COVID-19? And what will we do after the election is over?

Let’s talk about it.

Join us to discuss what our political moment calls for, meet new people, and get plugged into our fight for democratic control of the things that we need for all of us to live a dignified life.

Join us on Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84264682668?pwd=S0tCZXlqOGtCOXNPWTRzOVNDUk14Zz09

Meeting ID: 842 6468 2668

Passcode: intro

One tap mobile

+16699006833,,84264682668#,,,,,,0#,,870464# US (San Jose)

+12532158782,,84264682668#,,,,,,0#,,870464# US (Tacoma)

Email contact@oaklandprivacy.org a few days before the meeting to obtain Zoom meeting access info.

Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay and nationwide.

We fight against spy drones, facial recognition, police body camera secrecy, anti-transparency laws and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones; we oppose “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” —  to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government, and attempts to hide what government officials, employees and agencies are doing.

We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.

Check out some of what we worked on in 2020 and 2019.

Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.  We helped fight and helped win the fight against Urban Shield.

Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), supporting and opposing state legislation as appropriate, battling mass surveillance in the form of facial recognition, mass aerial surveillance, and other analytics, and pushing back against ICE.

On September 12th, 2019 we were presented with a Barlow Award by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for our work, and on March 16th, 2021 s James Madison Freedom of Information Award by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:

contact@oaklandprivacy.org

Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/

Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy

“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”

Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment.  Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in various municipalities around the Bay.  To help slow down the encroaching police and surveillance state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.

Learn about why a for-profit PG&E will never work for the people or the planet and be a part of winning a Community-owned, Community-controlled PG&E.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://dsausa.zoom.us/j/93277685636

Meeting ID: 932 7768 5636
Password: PGE

Join us for our virtual monthly membership meeting to hear what’s going on and talk about how you can get involved.

Agenda:
James Burch, APTP Policy Director, on Oakland’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force
Opening discussion on planning APTP’s 7th Annual Reclaim MLK Day, which will be two days before the Biden inauguration. Let’s start planning our demands. We won’t let Biden compromise our struggle!

Each attendee must separately register. Do not share your registration confirmation with others.

APTP General Membership meetings are held the third Wednesday of every month at 7pm. Join us to find out how you can get involved.

Register Here

The safety of students of color is jeopardized by use of police in schools—and across the country, students and allies are working for police free schools. In this webinar we will hear from young organizers from St. Louis, Chicago, and Oakland about the successful strategies and stumbling blocks in their work on this issue. Whether you are already engaged in a campaign locally, or just want to learn more, please join us to envision a future that invests in school safety through student wellbeing, not policing.