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!

The Wachowskis’ neo-noir dystopian political thriller sci-fi classic feels more relevant today than ever. Though it concerns the underground rebellion against Nordic supremacy and neo-fascist totalitarianism in an alternate futuristic Britain, it sure seems a lot like 2024 America.

In a future British dystopian society, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of “V”, plots to overthrow the tyrannical government – with the help of a young woman.

Agenda Items:

3. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPW – Report On OPD Request For Video Footage From
Illegal Dumping Cameras
a. Review and take possible action

4. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPW – Illegal Dumping Camera Program Proposed Use Policy
Amendments
a. Review and take possible action

5. Assembly Bill 645 – DOT – Automated Speed Camera Implementation Impact Statement and
Proposed Use Policy
a. Review and take possible action

Each person wishing to speak on items must fill out a speaker’s card. Persons addressing the Privacy Advisory
Commission shall state their names and the organization they are representing, if any

.
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.

To observe the meeting via Zoom, go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85817209915

SAN FRANCISCO EMERGENCY ACTION: US OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! STOP FUELING REGIONAL WAR!

Join us in protest as we pass 300 days of continued Zionist violence and atrocities against the Palestinian people. Israel, with full backing from the United States, has continued its genocide against Palestinians with total impunity. With continued escalations in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, the Zionist occupation has made clear how desperate it is to spark a regional war before putting an end to the genocide of Palestinians.

We call on our community to mobilize and demand that the US stop fueling regional war with the Zionist entity: Hands off Gaza, hands off Lebanon, and hands off the Middle East—US out of the Middle East! US out of everywhere! For our martyrs. For our prisoners. For Gaza. For the struggle towards a better world!

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.

For our July meeting we will be reading The Path to a Livable Future: A New Politics to Fight Climate Change, Racism, and the Next Pandemic by  Stan Cox (Amazon, City Lights).

An urgent call for the political transformation needed to address the common causes of climate change, COVID-19, and racism.

“ . . . some big titles will address emergencies that have outlived Trump. The Path to a Livable Future by Stan Cox, explores the connections among the many crises of the past year and a half.”—Dorany Pineda, Los Angeles Times

2020 was a year defined by crisis. For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm about the urgency of addressing climate change, but it took COVID-19 to demonstrate clearly that the future of human life on Earth is interconnected and at risk. While the virus quickly spread across the globe, extreme weather events compounded the suffering and economic catastrophe. In the U.S., public demonstrations of outrage over the murder of George Floyd expanded to include a growing awareness of the pandemic’s disproportionate impact on communities of color. In cities around the world, people took to the streets to protest racial inequity in all of its forms.

In The Path to a Livable Future, Stan Cox makes plain the connections between the multiple crises facing us today, and provides an inspired vision for how to resolve them. With a deeply informed, clear to-do list, Cox shows us how we can work together to address the climate emergency, white supremacy, and our vulnerability to future pandemics all at once. Our future depends on it.

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 and The Persuaders.

We are excited to invite you to a special virtual town hall hosted by the Student Debt Crisis Center. This event will focus on the latest updates about the SAVE Plan and the ongoing lawsuits impacting millions of student loan borrowers.

During this town hall, we’ll do our best to help folks understand the implications of current lawsuits surrounding SAVE, what to do if you want to consolidate or apply for an Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plan, and what we know about Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) credits during these administrative forbearances. Those who join us will also have the chance to ask questions and get answers from SDCC experts, as well as gain insights directly from a representative from the Department of Education.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON 8/7 AT 7PM ET / 4PM PT

Our goal is to provide you with the most up-to-date information and support as you navigate the complexities of student debt. Whether you are directly impacted, know someone who is impacted, or just want to stay informed, this town hall will offer valuable information and can help you take the next step in your student loan journey.

We look forward to hearing from you in this important discussion. Together, we can better understand and address the challenges of the student debt crisis so we can bring it to an end once and for all.

Speaker: Carlos L. Garrido

For decades American politicians, the representatives of the country’s oligarchs, have lied to the American people about their country’s relation to socialism. America has been presented as fundamentally antithetical to socialism, Marxism, and communism.  shows how we have, starting in the early parts of the 19th century, a homegrown tradition of socialist thought that grounds itself in the most progressive components of American history. This is a tradition which holds that the values of 1776 can only be capable of being fully realized in a socialist society. Why We Need American Marxism develops, within the Marxist framework, upon this tradition of homegrown socialism and argues that only by developing American Marxism, and organizations of working people based on it, can we overcome the crisis we are in and establish a society that is genuinely of, by, and for the people.

Carlos L. Garrido is a Cuban American philosophy instructor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is the director of the Midwestern Marx Institute and the author of The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism (2023), Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview (2022), and the forthcoming Hegel, Marxism, and Dialectics (2024). He has written for dozens of scholarly and popular publications around the world and runs various live-broadcast shows for the Midwestern Marx Institute YouTube. Carlos runs the Philosophy in Crisis Substack.

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Contrary to recent public statements by US politicians, media and mainstream neoliberal economists, the US economy is not doing ‘great’. How accurate are official claims regarding inflation, jobs, and US GDP? The presentation will review independent data sources, and even often ignored government statistics, to show a picture different from the mainstream ‘spin’ on inflation, jobs and GDP: Why inflation is actually higher than reported in CPI and PCE indexes, why job creation is less than reported in the government’s main CES survey, and why the latest GDP trends point to a deeper recession in 2025, not a ‘soft landing’.

Related themes presented include why record US deficits, debt and interest costs will continue to surge in 2025 and after, resulting in the announcement of a major Austerity fiscal policy in 2025 regardless of who wins the election; how the recent rapid expansion of the BRICS and their alternative currency and global financial structure now emerging will further negatively impact the US domestic economy in 2025 and after; and why neither the policies of Harris or Trump will resolve the deepening problems in US economy or the accelerating decline of the US global empire.

Dr. Jack Rasmus is the author of The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump, Clarity Press, 2020, and the forthcoming The Twilight of American Imperialism, Clarity Press, 2024.

Dr. Rasmus is also author of several prior books on the USA and global economy, including Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed, 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes, 2017; Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, 2016;  Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy, 2015; Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression, 2010; Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few, 2012; and The War At Home: The Corporate Offensive From Reagan to George W. Bush, 2006.

Dr. Rasmus formerly taught economics at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. Prior to teaching and publishing, Dr. Rasmus was an economist and strategic market analyst for various global tech & market research companies for twenty years. Before that, for fourteen years, he was a local union president, contract negotiator, strike coordinator, and organizer for various unions, including the UAW, CWA, HERE, and SEIU.

Dr. Rasmus blogs at: https://jackrasmus.com/ & his twitter handle is @drjackrasmus. He hosts the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network (podcasts available at: http://alternativevisions.podbean.com and from his blog).

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.

Time: August 11, 2024, 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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

Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k39IUnw59

​Octavia Butler Science Fiction AI Theme

​This week’s theme: Print is hardware too! And what better muse can we imagine than Octavia Butler, science fiction Goddess.

​We’ll have a pre-hardware hack night presentation on creative ways to mix print with electronics, use artificial intelligence in the most open source and ethical way, and work on our SudoRoom print zine! Throw in some 3D models into the mix too!

​Hack on Anything and Everything

​○ Projects: can range from building course materials for teaching local kids electronics to a robotic arm that draws, to light projection art, to people building their own microchip boards! We provide the space, tools and peer learning – you bring your project and enthusiasm!

​○ Group Sewing: Learn to do simple mending or get help with technical fabric and textile projects. In addition to regular machines our Sewing Lab features heavy-duty industrial sewing machines and sergers. Our in house sewing guru CC has worked for Academy or Art College, Tesla, SuitX, and Zipline and has vast sewing machine repair and maintenance experience; bring your own machine to tune up for tip-top operation and sew alongside others.

​○ General Repair: Fix it Clinic’s weekly Oakland residency: bring your broken, non-functioning things – electronic gadgets, appliances, computers, toys, sewing machines, fabric items, etc.– for assessment, disassembly, and possible repair. We’ll provide workspace, specialty tools, and guidance to help you disassemble and troubleshoot your item. First-time repairers and “Fixing Families” are heartily invited. Learn more at https://www.fixitclinic.or

Speaker: Radhika Desai.

The application of Neoliberal Economics had its beginning with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. It held its sway for almost four decades starting when China allowed G-7 capital to exploit a vast pool of labor power, but unlike in the past when it resulted in failed economics in the Third World, China rose as an economic giant in just three decades, with the Communist Party of China firmly controlling the process. The US workers largely lost good industrial wages even as they benefited from cheaper consumer products imported from China in these three decades. But lately the Chinese economy has also run into a slowdown and as shown by the recent parliamentary elections in India and Mexico, the Neoliberal Economics has lost support from the vast majority of these two countries and there appears to be opposition to it in China as well. Prof. Desai’s talk will focus on this core issue and how it is related to the decline of the G-7 group of countries, and its impact on the geopolitics and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.​

Radhika Desai is the convener of the International Manifesto Group (https://internationalmanifesto.org/), which analyzes the fast-changing political and geopolitical economy of the world order. From around the world, they represent a diversity of currents of anti-imperialist socialist thought.

Dr. Desai is professor at the Department of Political Studies and director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba. Among her many publications are Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party. She is also the author of numerous articles in Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals and in edited collections on parties, political economy, culture, and nationalism. With Alan Freeman, she co-edits the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press.

Her article, “The Long Shadow of Hiroshima: Capitalism and Nuclear Weapons, International Critical Thought,” was published online: 08 Apr 2022

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21598282.2022.2051582?tab=permissions&scroll=top

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The military industrial complex and PTSD:  In a country where the electorate on both sides screams “support the troops”, why haven’t we had any meaningful direct action on the lack of support for veterans?

Join the Oakland Greens & special surprise guests, Monday August 19.  Discussion starts at 7 PM and will end no later than 9:30 PM.

The Oakland Greens Townhall Discussion Series is a community discussion event. Get in – persxn & virtual tickets and information thru http://www.oaklandgreens.org/events   These community engagement events are held the 3rd Monday of the month January thru October.

Please register by Sunday at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-oakland-greens-hybrid-townhall-military-industrial-complex-tickets-859106088437?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

Speaker: Roger Harris

The whole world was monitoring the high-stakes Venezuelan presidential election on July 28, not only because the country boasts of the planet’s largest oil reserves but also because it has been an exemplar of independent sovereignty from the US empire.

Corporate media coverage of the election and its aftermath was akin to an investigation of a homicide that is focused not with identifying the murderer but with an unpaid parking ticket of the victim.

Our speaker, Roger D. Harris, accompanied the election in Venezuela and will report back on what happened there as well as on Washington’s campaign to delegitimize the country’s Bolivarian Revolution with the ultimate aim of regime change.

Roger is on the executive committee of the US Peace Council and joined their delegation to Venezuela. He is on the ICSS program committee that has for over a decade and a half presented the weekly Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library series. He is active with the anti-imperialist human rights group Task Force on the Americas, the SanctionsKill Campaign against unilateral coercive measures, and is a founding member of the Venezuela Solidarity Network.

Recent articles by Roger on Venezuela include:

CNN’s Fraudulent Analysis of Fraud in the Venezuelan Presidential Election https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/08/15/cnns-fraudulent-analysis-of-fraud-in-the-venezuelan-presidential-election/

Media Coverage of Venezuela’s Presidential Election Normalizes US Interference https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/12/media-coverage-of-venezuelas-presidential-election-normalizes-us-interference/

Venezuelans to Vote on Continuing the Bolivarian Revolution https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/venezuelans-to-vote-on-continuing-the-bolivarian-revolution/

How Venezuela Is Overcoming the US Blockade https://www.pressenza.com/2024/06/how-venezuela-is-overcoming-the-us-blockade/

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