Calendar

Speaker: Greg Godels

Greg Godels returns to the Marxist Library to speak on the threat of fascism currently in the US and the uses to which that threat is put. Where do the threat(s) of fascism exist in light of the upcoming US presidential election?

Our speaker, Greg Godels, grew up in a working-class family in a rural coal mining community. He joined the Communist Party in 1975 and served on the party’s Economics Commission until Vic Perlo’s death. He wrote frequently for the Daily World and other party papers as well as Political Affairs and Nature, Society and Thought. Articles by him have also appeared in numerous publications, including Communist Review (London), People’s Voice (Vancouver), and Socialist Voice (Dublin). He is a joint founder of the website Marxism-Leninism Today and writes a highly regarded blog under the pen name Zoltan Zigedy.

See:
https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2023/07/election-fever-fever-dream.html
https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/fascism-after-a-hundred-years-by-greg-godels
https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2020/10/setting-record-straight.html
https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2019/08/lets-get-clear-about-fascism.html

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Relevant Agenda Items:

5. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – Automatic Resource Locator (CAD GPS) Impact
Statement and Proposed Use Policy

6. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD –
1) Amended Automated License Plate Reader Use Policy,
2) Memorandum of Understanding For Automated License Plate Readers (Flock), 3)
Memorandum of Understanding For Automated License Plate Readers (CA Highway Patrol)

7. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPW – Report on OPD Request for Video Footage from Illegal
Dumping Cameras

8. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPW – Illegal Dumping Camera Program Annual report

Members of the public can view the meeting live on KTOP or on the City’s website at
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/ktop-tv-10

Comment in advance. To send your comment directly to the Privacy Commission and staff BEFORE the meeting starts, please send your comment, along with your full name and agenda item number you are commenting on, to Felicia Verdin at fverdin@oaklandca.gov. Please note that eComment submissions close one (1) hour before posted meeting time. All submitted public comment will be provided to the Privacy Commission prior to the meeting.

Via Zoom: To receive the Zoom info, please register on the LaborFest website, here:  https://laborfest.net/event/the-fight-to-save-peoples-park/  

The ongoing battle to prevent the development by UC of People’s Park in Berkeley continues. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and an important Court of Appeal victory was won. However, UC appealed the court decision to the State Supreme Court and simultaneously subverted the court victory by getting the legislature to pass a bill to undermine it. Construction is halted until the court issues its decision. Organizing strategies are still being pursued to protect the park from destruction by a huge student housing project and the paving over with hardscape, despite the need for open space in the densest part of Berkeley. This Zoom panel will also talk about how privatization is pushing the monetization of the public assets of the University and how this process has become a national trend.

Speakers:
Harvey Smith � Peoplle’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group
Charles Wollenberg � former Chair of Social Sciences and Professor of Hiistory, Berkeley City College
Joe Liesner � Foodd Not Bombs

Speaker, Jose Luis Granados Ceja

General elections were held in Mexico on June 2, 2024. Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of the left-wing political party Morena, won a majority with over 60% of the vote. She is the first woman and the first person of Jewish descent to be elected president of Mexico.

The presentation will focus on the role that public policies favoring the interests of the working class played in the landslide victory for Morena and its allies that resulted in the election of Mexico’s first woman president and supermajority in Congress. The presentation will also look at what we can expect from Sheinbaum’s government. What does she mean when she talks about building the “second floor” of Mexico’s Fourth Transformation?

Finally, we will discuss, given the rout of the country’s opposition and their marginalization from public life, where we might expect opposition to come from and what anti-imperialist activists can do to resist US interference.

José Luis Granados Ceja is an anti-imperialist journalist and political analyst based in Mexico City, with 20 years of experience covering social movements, democracy, elections, and human rights. He is a staff writer with Venezuelanalysis, covering regional and international issues, and is the host of their podcast. He also serves as editor of the Mexico Solidarity Media website and writes a monthly opinion column for the Mexico Solidarity Project Bulletin. Together with Kurt Hackbarth, he co-hosts the Soberanía podcast, which provides English-language analysis of politics in Mexico.

See our speaker’s article in The Nation: “Claudia Sheinbaum’s Election in Mexico Shows How the Left Can Win. Sheinbaum’s landslide victory is thanks to her commitment to continue policies that put the interests of the working class first. (June 21, 2024)

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It’s not too late, if we act fast enough now! Even as emissions increase and treaties collapse, we can still stop these twin existential crises from becoming catastrophic. We already have all the solutions we need to stop burning fossil fuels and to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.

How can environmentalists and peace activists work together to overcome propaganda, problematic “solutions,” and political agendas that threaten our very survival? Author Timmon Wallis will share new insights and fresh strategies. The corporate profiteers who corrupt our legislators are surprisingly vulnerable to legal threats from the Nuclear Ban Treaty and from the global movement for a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

Timmon Wallis, PhD is the National Coordinator of the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. He has spent his life teaching, writing, directing organizations, and campaigning on peace and environmental issues in colleges, war zones, and with governments around the world. With his colleagues at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, he shares the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Vicki Elson, MA is the Creative Director of NuclearBan.US, which facilitates the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. After a long career in childbirth education and labor support, she has shifted her focus to supporting human well-being with total nuclear abolition and converting the resources wasted on WMD’s to science-based climate solutions.

(Followed by County Council business meeting at 7:00. All are welcome to attend)

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Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274

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The California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) are co-sponsoring an important webinar about the potentially negative cumulative health concerns of hydrogen infrastructure, and the environmental justice solutions.

While the state of California plans to expand its use of hydrogen as fuel, each stage of its life cycle—production, delivery, storage, and end use—presents a unique risk to environmental justice communities.  CEJA and CBE will deconstruct the greenwashing of hydrogen and its impacts, which include air pollution, pipe embrittlement, and gas line leaks and explosions.   Join this webinar to learn more about how you can demand transparent participation in the state’s energy infrastructure.  It’s not too late to create a truly equitable clean energy future for all Californians.

This event will happen in both English and Spanish.  Please reach with any questions to Mia Lopez-Zubiri at mia@ceja.org .

{PARTNER POST} JOIN US FOR A DAY OF GIVING! Alameda County Community Connect invites you to our Homeless Resource and Job Fair! Open to all – no registration needed!
🗓️Date: Thursday, July 18, 2024
⏰Time: 9 AM – 4 PM
📍Location: Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum pic.twitter.com/W59OxXEXTE

— Roots Community Health (@RootsEmpowers) July 17, 2024

“Climate and Biodiversity” is the next topic in the Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force’s fifth series of summits, this series focusing on “Climate, Colonization, and Rights for Humans and Nature.”

Online. Register here

Program:

9:00 AM

Land Acknowledgement

9:10 AM

Welcome

• Cheryl Davila, Founder, CEMTF & Former Councilmember, City of Berkeley

Speakers:

9:15 AM

Advancing Social Justice in Marginalized Communities & Among University Students

• Leonida Odongo, Founding Director, Haki Nawiri Afrika

9:40 AM

The Importance of Microbial Diversity in California Estuarine Ecosystems

• Karis Polfer, Steering Committee Member, CEMTF

10: 05 AM

From the Grassroots to the Global – Biodiversity Conservation beyond Protected Acres

• Liz Chamberlin, Director of Innovation, Point Blue

10:30 AM

Connected California: Helping People and Wildlife Coexist and Thrive

• Neal Sharma, Senior Manager, California Wildlife Program, Wildlife Conservation Network

10:55 AM Break

11:00 AM

Biodiversity Conservation Using Science, Policy, and Law

• Tiffany Yap, Senior Scientist, Urban Wildlands Program, Center for Biological Diversity

11:25 AM

Bioblitz!

• Martha Arlette Cerda, Naturalist, Tilden Nature Area, East Bay Regional Park District

11:35 AM

Q & A

11:50 AM

Announcements & Closing

• Cheryl Davila

Website: https://cemtf.org

Save the Date for the @GlobalComEduArt 8th Annual Immigrants' Rights Forum, featuring inspirational guest speakers, cultural performances, art exhibitions, and community dialogue.

Saturday, July 20, 2024 | 2 PM – 7 PM
4689 Telegraph Ave., Oakland

RSVP: https://t.co/yPwBwQwxAf pic.twitter.com/I3Jtw1h1YG

— Supervisor Keith Carson (@Keith_Carson) June 18, 2024

Speaker: Richard Becker

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Our speaker will discuss the new edition of his book, Palestine, Israel, and U.S. Empire. This is  an essential book for the current moment, providing a sharp analysis of the struggle for Palestine, updated following the events of October 7, 2023.

Taking an anti-Zionist perspective on the history of Palestine and Israel, Becker traces the movements of resistance from the division of the Middle East by Western powers and the Zionist settler movement, to the founding of Israel and its role as a watchdog for US interests, and on to present day conflicts and the prospects for a just resolution. This narrative is firmly rooted in the politics of Palestinian liberation. Here is a necessary contribution to the heroic efforts of the Palestinian people to achieve justice in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. This book contains a complete index and a timeline of developments in the history of Palestine.

Our speaker, Richard Becker, is a founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) and Western Region Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). He is author of numerous books, including Palestine, Israel and the U.S. Empire,  The Myth of Democracy, and The Rule of the Banks.​

NOTE: This will be our first meeting after the attempted assassination of Trump, so our speaker may also discuss its political significance. Folks may want to prepare themselves by reading:

PSL Statement � The attempteed assassination of Trump and its political fallout. Party for Socialism and Liberation July 15, 2024

PSL Statement – The attempted assassination of Trump and its political fallout

Vallejo community vigil tomorrow at 5. Come pray for our city with us! pic.twitter.com/JRd16IUpiC

— Melissa Nold, Esq. (@savage_esquire) July 26, 2024

We are delighted to invite you to the California Progressive Alliance 2024 Convention!

This will be our first in-person convention back since the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are excited to announce that for the first time ever, the CPA convention will take place in Southern California at the Los Angeles Trade-Technical College! This year’s theme is Movement Building & Organizing Sustainable Power in California. As with past conventions, we will come together to develop, build and strengthen avenues in political and social spaces that help us work for a better future for ourselves and for the next Seven Generations.

Earlier this year, we worked hard to announce a series of candidate endorsements. Our endorsements spanned different parties because we choose to recognize that many people are doing their part to move us in the right direction, and different people utilize different avenues. For some people, that looks like trying to bring the Democratic Party to the left, or at least try to prevent it from doing further damage. For others, it looks like running as a member of the Green Party or the Peace and Freedom Party. Still others choose other routes to build political power.

At CPA, we are not in the business of telling people where to engage in their struggle for our collective liberation. Instead, when people run for office and claim to uphold progressive ideals, we ask: Is this candidate corporate free? Do they support single payer healthcare, climate policies, and labor rights? Do they connect to and represent their community? These are the ideals that have always guided the California Progressive Alliance. It is with these ideals in mind that we announce the California Progressive Alliance 2024 Convention.

We are excited to bring you a full day program that will include speakers, special guests, pertinent topics, panels, 8 separate breakout workshops (choose 2), the presentation of the 2024 Gayle McLaughlin Award, breakfast and lunch (included in the cost of the ticket), music, movement building, and just spending time with new people and old friends building community.

General Admission: $40 Student Admission: $20

Limited Hardship Waivers available!

Speaker: Kenneth Hammond

Socialists in the Euro-American left have never really understood the dialectics of the Chinese Revolution from the formation of the People’s Republic, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, to the present. Just what is going on with the Communist Party of China (CPC)? Our speaker will help us better understand the dynamics of modern China.​

Our speaker, Kenneth Hammond, is a professor in East Asian Studies & Global History at New Mexico State University. He earned his PhD in History and East Asian Studies and was active in the student movement at Kent State Univeristy. He is also the author of From Yao to Mao: 5000 years of Chinese History and other books. Ken has lived and still teaches regularly in China​

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National Day of Mourning: Justice for Sonya Massey & Alexander Antonio Lopez

On July 6, a 36-year-old Black woman, Sonya Massey, called 911 to report a suspected intruder at her home. Her first words when she opened her front door to them were “don’t hurt me.” Instead of protecting her, Springfield, Illinois police shot and murdered her inside of her own home. The sheriff who killed her, Sean Grayson, was on duty in his 6th policing job of his career after being disciplined in five previous police departments.

Sonya is more than a victim of the police state. She was a mother, a sister, a daughter and a loving community member. We say her name as we continue to rebuke the paradigm that dying at the hands of the state is an unpreventable leading cause of death for our people.

Join us on Sunday for a vigil, healing ceremony and community gathering. There will be speakers, performers, healing justice practitioners and an open community mic.

As we join in this national day of mourning, we also want to honor the life of Alexander Antonio Lopez who was murdered right in our backyard by SFPD just last weekend.

Antonio was killed in the Tenderloin, in an area where homeless folks are frequently swept. As the state cracks down on people sleeping in the streets with nowhere to go, we call out this murder as part of the state’s efforts to disappear our people in the name of maintaining the illusion that the status quo of white supremacy and violence works for us all. It never has and it never will. We rebuke it in the name of our divine humanity.

Sonya Massey should still be alive. Alexander Antonio Lopez should still be alive. We continue to fight for a better world in their names.

Richmond Town Hall Meeting: “Climate and Community Health”

Our Richmond ACCE Chapter is proud to invite you for a very special Richmond Clean Energy and Healthy Homes Town Hall Meeting: “Climate & Community Health”. We will be joined by our special guest Dr. Bret Andrews, former Associate Chief of Neurology at Kaiser Permanente Oakland, who will lead a discussion about how climate change is impacting the health of our community!

Together we can build a future where our appliances do not give our children asthma, where local industries do not impact air and environmental quality, where we can all breathe healthy and clear air. Join us and be part of the movement!