Calendar

The corporate press has always expressed the views of the rich and powerful. Now that giant corporations are consuming and consolidating once nominally independent news outlets, there is very little independent reporting. In order to get news about things like grassroots organizing, anti-capitalist political parties, efforts to halt state violence and anti-war viewpoints, we turn to alternative sources. At this forum we will discuss what some of these sources are and how we can access and support them.

Ann Garrison – Contributing Editor to Black Agenda Report and a contributor to The Grayzone, Pacifica Radio, and other outlets

Frank Sterling – Programmer, Full Circle KPFA radio; Producer, First Voice Media; Oscar Grant Committee and Reimagine Anitoch

Ken Epstein – Education Editor for the Oakland Post; formerly communication director for the Oakland Education Association

*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.

Speaker: Mark Albertson

This program addresses how the Korean peninsula was tragically split, why it remains so, and its contemporary implications. Once part of the Japanese Empire, the Korean conflict degenerated into a stalemate. Most important was the admission by then US Secretary of State Dean Rusk on how the 38th Parallel was agreed to as the infamous demarcation line; why the decision was made to cross the 38th parallel; and how George Kennan urged Truman not to.  This last development is most significant.  And, how the stalemate in Korea impacted whether the U.S. would intervene in North Vietnam in April-May 1954 to relieve 15,000 French paratroopers surrounded by 55,000 Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu.

Our speaker, Mark Albertson, is a frequent presenter at the Library.  In fact, according to his blog, in each of the last three years, he has logged 200-plus appearances. Mark is a military historian with a commanding knowledge of geo-politics. He is the historical research editor at Army Aviation magazine and is the historian for the Army Aviation Association of America. He has authored several books: USS Connecticut: Constitution State Battleship; They’ll Have to Follow You! The Triumph of the Great White Fleet; On History: A Treatise. He is at work on a two-volume history on the saga of Army aviation. Mark teaches history at Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdVC04xvn9

This new documentary tells the story of young American Jews coming to question the narrative they were taught about “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Over the course of the movie, they come to realize that their Jewish values are incompatible with support for an apartheid state.

Watch the official trailer

Co-sponsored by JVP Bay Area, IfNotNow and Chavurah for a Free Palestine of Kehilla Synagogue

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

 Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274

In The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism, Carlos L. Garrido provides a comprehensive development of his concept of the purity fetish, tracing the outlook to the Eleatic school of Ancient Greek philosophy, and showing how it has appeared in 20th century Western Marxism and in contemporary U.S. socialism. In every form the purity fetish takes in Western Marxism’s politics, Garrido argues that one finds not only the failure to obtain truth, but also the inability to create a revolutionary movement. Garrido asserts that today the critique (and overcoming) of the purity fetish is an indispensable task in the fight for the development of subjective conditions for revolution.

Carlos L. Garrido is a philosophy teacher at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Director at the Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis, and author of various books including The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism (2023), Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview (2022), and Hegel, Marxism, and Dialectics (Forthcoming 2024).

October 8th, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm  Via Zoom: please see the access info below
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.

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274
Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k39IUnw59

Annual Sunrise gathering on Alcatraz Island, Commemorating 531 years of Indigenous Resistance, Cultural Resiliency and Survival in the Americas
Ohlone Welcome, Pomo and Aztec dancers, All Nations Drum, other Indigenous Cultural Presenters and Special Guests

BOATS DEPART FROM PIER 33, TICKET OFFICE OPENS AT 4:00 AM, BOATS DEPART AT 5:00, 5:15 AND 5:30 AM, ALL BOATS RETURN BY 9:00 AM. 

TICKETS $12.00, CHILDREN UNDER 5 FREE.  ADVANCE TICKETS ON SALE NOW:
https://www.cityexperiences.com/san-francisco/city-cruises/alcatraz/programs-and-events/annual-events/indigenous-peoples-sunrise-gathering/

The event will be broadcast live on KPFA 94.1 FM, online at http://www.kpfa.org, and simulcast via IITC’s Facebook page from 6 – 8:00 AM.  Wheelchair accessible.
No drugs, alcohol, marijuana use or sales permitted on the island.

IITC’s webpage, www.iitc.org, or IITC’s Facebook event page for updates.

IITC’s San Francisco Office, (415) 641-4482, Morning Star Gali, morningstar@treatycouncil.org, or Rochelle Diver, rochelle@treatycouncil.org, (218) 576-2649

Starting: Mondays, October 9TH @ 4-6PM ET (ONLINE) This class is co-organized by Democracy at Work.

This 4-Week seminar led by Richard Wolff, will begin with an introduction and brief history of world socialism from its 18th-century beginnings to today. We will examine the different kinds of socialism (Soviet, social democracy, democratic socialism, Cuban socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and worker-coop socialism) and likewise examine the differences among socialism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Finally, we will examine critiques of socialism. Throughout, we will be sensitive to different interpretations of socialism and distinguish between socialism as a critical movement within capitalism (how it began) and socialism as an alternative system (how it evolved).

The dates for each of the four sessions are on Mondays: Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th. Online Zoom information will be sent through email upon registration.

REGISTER HERE

Most recently we played a key role in passing Senate Bill 567! We have been fighting for renters rights for a long time now, and we realize many of our struggles go beyond housing. Our housing, healthcare, jobs, environment, and education not only play a key role in our quality of life but are interconnected. That’s why we’ve created Rise Up California, or Levántate in Spanish, a project that addresses the overlap in the issues that our communities face while centering our collective power

Click here to REGISTER for a call TONIGHT, October 9th, at 6pm to learn more about Rise Up!

ACCE has come together with leaders from other community groups and unions to form Rise Up. With the rising costs of living and stagnant wages, we saw a huge need for a multiracial movement in California to fight back against discrimination and inequality in our state. Our goal is to make sure that every Californian – child, worker, parent, grandparent, elder, etc. has what they need to thrive. We want a California where wealth is redistributed and not just kept by billionaires.

We know that we can build a California that works for all of us. Are you in?

Click here to RSVP to today’s call at 6PM.

OTU’s Mission

The Oakland Tenants Union is an organization of housing activists dedicated to protecting tenant rights and interests. OTU does this by working directly with tenants in their struggle with landlords, impacting legislation and public policy about housing, community education, and working with other organizations committed to furthering renters’ rights. The Oakland Tenants Union is open to anyone who shares our core values and who believes that tenants themselves have the primary responsibility to work on their own behalf.

Monthly Meetings

The Oakland Tenants Union meets regularly at 7:00 pm on the second Monday evening of each month. Our monthly meetings are held in the Community Room of the Madison Park Apartments, 100 – 9th Street (at Oak Street, across from the Lake Merritt BART Station). To enter, gently knock on the window of the room to the right of the main entrance to the building. At the meetings, first we focus on general issues affecting renters city-wide and then second we offer advice to renters regarding their individual concerns.

If you have an issue, a question, or need advice about a tenant/landlord issue, please call us at (510) 704-5276. Leave a message with your name and phone number and someone will get back to you.

Our next healing portal will be at the Life is Living festival this Saturday!

Life is Living is a FREE community-powered and community-run festival in West Oakland’s Lil Bobby Hutton Park that is dedicated to resilience, the joy of living, and the health of the environment and all its inhabitants.

This year’s 16th annual festival is an homage to the Black Panther Party Survival Conference, and a celebration of 50 years of Hip Hop. Our community of artists and activists are putting together a vast collective of community voices to honor the past while creating a platform for the future.

We will be out there offering free healing services to community members and building an intentional space meant to interrupt state violence and make room for healing, community care, and wellness. Join us!

What: APTP Healing Justice Portal at Life is Living Festival

Email me at guadalupe@antipoliceterrorproject.org to get more info or if you would like to join us as a practitioner at our next healing portal.

We are also excited to share that our Healing Justice team is growing!

We are hiring a part-time Healing Justice Coordinator 2 (HJC) who will support all aspects of growing our Healing Justice work across the state of California and beyond.

Our vision and strategy is to spread Healing Justice across the state of California and beyond. We honor our legacies of utilizing our traditions and healing modalities to transform ourselves, our circumstances, and the world. We uplift HJ as a part of a political strategy that transforms trauma while building the power our communities need. Get more details and apply by October 20th.

According to our speaker, the Biden administration’s lawfare against Trump is supported by the left because of their own McCarthyism. The national security state, through the Biden administration, is engaging in lawfare to eliminate Biden’s only serious challenger and fix the 2024 election. Much of the progressive movement, rather than protest and stop police state interference, is supportive of it, even though this lawfare will be used against them in the future. The cause for the silence among liberals and leftists is their own McCarthyism: people are baited, and fear being baited not as Reds, but as Trump supporters. This left McCarthyismm pushes people towards voting for the supposed lesser evil Democrats and towards defending the actions of the national security police state. This national security state finds the Democratic Party a more useful tool to criminalize opposition to US wars and maintain their control over the US government.

Our speaker, Stansfield Smith, is a member of Chicago ALBA Solidarity, formerly the Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5. He has published in LA Progressive, Dissident Voice, Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Covert Action, Monthly Review online, and other websites. Smith is a long time anti-war activist, and opposed US interference over the years in Latin America. He produces AFGJ’s Venezuela & ALBA Weekly News and the online newsletter for the Nicaragua Solidarity Coalition. His website is ChicagoALBASolidarity.org.

Recent articles include:

* “The Danger that Lawfare against Trump Presents to the Progressive Movement,” https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/09/the-danger-that-lawfare-against-trump-presents-to-the-progressive-movement/;

* “JFK’s World Peace Speech and National Security State Takedowns of US Presidents,” https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/08/jfks-world-peace-speech-and-national-security-state-takedowns-of-us-presidents/; and

* “John F. Kennedy on Ending the US War on Vietnam � His Owwn Words,” https://www.laprogressive.com/war-and-peace/ending-the-us-war-on-vietnam.

* “Liberal and Left Silence on National Security Police State When Used Against Trump and His Supporters,”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/06/21/liberal-and-left-silence-on-national-security-police-state-when-used-against-trump-and-his-supporters/

Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdVC04xvn9

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

Starting: Mondays, October 9TH @ 4-6PM ET (ONLINE) This class is co-organized by Democracy at Work.

This 4-Week seminar led by Richard Wolff, will begin with an introduction and brief history of world socialism from its 18th-century beginnings to today. We will examine the different kinds of socialism (Soviet, social democracy, democratic socialism, Cuban socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and worker-coop socialism) and likewise examine the differences among socialism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Finally, we will examine critiques of socialism. Throughout, we will be sensitive to different interpretations of socialism and distinguish between socialism as a critical movement within capitalism (how it began) and socialism as an alternative system (how it evolved).

The dates for each of the four sessions are on Mondays: Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th. Online Zoom information will be sent through email upon registration.

REGISTER HERE

RSVP now!

With 2.3 million people trapped in Gaza, under fire from Israel’s relentless bombing – including suffocating illegal white phosphorus, peace activists worldwide are demanding a ceasefire to stop the unfolding human catastrophe and lift the blockade barring food, medicine, water and electricity to the Palestinians in Gaza.

After 75 years of occupation and the recent Hamas attacks in Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Tel Aviv to profess ironclad support and billions of dollars more for apartheid Israel as it imposes lethal collective punishment – a violation of international law – on the people of of Gaza, 50% of whom are children.

Our guests will offer a counter-narrative that affirms the Palestinian desire for liberation, addresses the root causes of the violence and issues a call to action.

Special Guest Co-Host:

Nour is CODEPINK’s Palestine and Iran Campaigner. She graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor’s degree in International Studies in June 2022. Nour has been advocating for Palestinian liberation for over 5 years, including organizing within her university. She also organizes around related issues, such as abolition.

Featured Guests:

Hassan El-Tayyab is the Legislative Director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Hassan leads FCNL’s work calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the bloodshed in the Middle East. In addition to advocating for Palestinian human rights, Hassan works to end U.S. military complicity in the Saudi-led war on Yemen and advance diplomacy with Iran. Prior to joining FCNL, Hassan served as the co-director of the national advocacy group Just Foreign Policy, where he worked to reassert Congressional war authority and promote human rights in the Middle East and Latin America. His passion for foreign affairs is rooted in his desire to make life safer for people in the Middle East, including his extended family in Jordan, Palestine, and Yemen.

Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian American activist and civil rights attorney who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led organization using non-violent protests and international pressure to support Palestinians.  A former candidate for US Congress representing Michigan’s 10th congressional district, Huwaida specializes in international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as domestic US civil rights litigation. A Hebrew-speaking Palestinian Christian, Huwaida spent time living on an Israeli kibbutz before rejecting coexistence efforts in favor of advocating for Palestinian resistance. The daughter of two Palestinian Christian parents  her mother came from Beit Sahour in the West Bank, and her father was a Palestinian citizen of Israel  she was born in Detroit shortly after her parents immigrated to the United States. She majored in Arabic studies, Judaic studies and political science at the University of Michigan.

Noura Khouri is Palestinian living in Oakland/Ohlone land and has worked for the past two decades as a human rights activist, campaign strategist and community organizer. Noura lived and worked in occupied Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement and other human rights organizations including Badil Refugee and Residency Center, Al-Haq and Holy Land Trust. She currently works as a preschool teacher, and serves as an Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition, National Committee Member, Green Party, Intl Delegate and part of Beloved Community Circles – where she conspires to destroy walls and build bridges of solidarity.

RSVP now!