Calendar
Speaker: Mark Albertson
June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler hurled 3,300,000 German troops against the Soviet Union, the start of the greatest land war in modern times. It will be the Soviets who will win the land war, defeating the German Army, not the United States and the Western allies. During the second chapter of the Great War, Britain will incur 495,000 dead; 405,399 for the US. A colossal 25,000,000, one of every seven in the Soviet Union, will die in 47 months. Yet the Eastern Front will loom large in the irrevocable alteration of the global dynamics of power. No longer will the Europeans dominate the globe. The two big winners were the US and the USSR. This mark a new global geopolitics and usher in the Cold War.
Our speaker, Mark Albertson, is a frequent presenter at the Library. 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.
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Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
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In the five years since the murder of George Floyd, where does the movement against racist police violence stand, locally and nationally? Please join us for this Sunday’s panel with two renowned guests, Steve Martinot and Walter Riley.
Steve Martinot has been a human rights activist for most of his life, as union organizer, community organizer, and anti-war organizer, including Latin America solidarity work. He has worked as a machinist and truck driver, and taught literature and cultural studies at the University of Colorado and San Francisco State University. His latest book is “Police Brutality: A Study of Police Culture in the US”. Some of his previous books, published by Temple University Press, include, “The Machinery of Whiteness,”, “The Rule of Racialization” and “Forms in the Abyss: a philosophical bridge between Sartre and Derrida.” He l ives in Berkeley and has led seminars on the structures of racialization in the US, and was active in a neighborhood assembly and with participatory budgeting.
Walter Riley is a renown civil rights attorney and organizer. Walter grew up in Jim Crow North Carolina; first being active in the NAACP there around desegregation and voter registration campaigns, then a leader in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), in the era of the freedom rides and their strategy of mass direct action.
Walter moved to the Bay Area in 1965, attending SF State and was very involved in the 1968 strike there around ethnic studies a nd a Black Student Union, and was afterwards, working in support of a Black Caucus amongst SF Muni bus drivers. He was also involved with the Black Panther Party and other community political groupings, and has been active in fighting the racist system and violent police culture here ever since. For example, Walter was attorney for Black Livers Matters protestors.
He has also received awards for his legal work from the California Black Legal Association and the National Lawyers Guild. He is a founding member of the Coalition for Police Accountability, as well as the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund and has been active lately in the fight against removing Pamela Price as County DA and against the corporate political offensive in Oakland.
The people of Los Angeles have courageously stood up against Trump’s reign of terror against immigrant families. In response, the administration has deployed the National Guard and heavily militarized federal troops in an attempt to spread terror and intimidate people out of exercising their right to protest.
But we refuse to be silenced! The people of the Bay Area demand ICE get out of our communities, stop the deportations, and stop the raids.
For those who believe in immigrant rights, for those who believe in democracy, for the entire working class – now is the time to take to the streets in protest!
Find actions near you here.
You can be a part of the massive outpouring of opposition on No Kings Day: Nationwide Day of Defiance on Flag Day, during Trump’s birthday military parade in Washington, DC.
Called by Indivisible and a huge coalition of partner organizations, local activists, pro-democracy and pro-worker organizations will come together for marches, rallies, and demonstrations. Trump’s military parade will not be the big story of the day—we will!
As the call to action says, “Donald Trump wants tanks in the streets and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington — it rises up everywhere else.”
The organizers make clear that all events will include a commitment to nonviolence and de-escalating conflicts.
Find actions near you here.
The narcissist-in-chief is throwing a ridiculous military parade for himself in DC – everywhere else we rise up to say NO KINGS!!
WATCH THIS SPACE FOR UPDATES!
Before 1:00: Gather at Wilma Chan Park (810 Jackson St.) – we recommend you arrive by 12:45. Parking will be challenging, so take BART to Lake Merritt Station (right next to the Park). Come early and have lunch in Chinatown!
1:00: March kicks off! March for 1 mile to Oscar Grant / Frank Ogawa Plaza.
1:15: At the Plaza: live music, plus tabling by the orgs co-sponsoring the event!
1:45-ish: Rally kicks off!
MCed by the fabulous Francisco Herrera!
Confirmed Speakers so far:
-Representative Lateefah Simon
-Pastor Mike McBride: https://livefreeusa.org/our-team/
-Joe Hawkins: https://www.oaklandpride.org/joeh
2:45/3:00-ish Rally wraps up!
SPONSORED BY Indivisible East Bay, along with these wonderful partners:
-50501 East Bay
-Alameda County Dems
-Bay Area Coalition
-Faith in Action
-Food & Water Watch
-Indivisible Kensington
-Indivisible Euclid
-Kehilla Community Synagogue
-ProRep Coalition
-Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
-Working Families Party – California
Speaker: Raj Sahai
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 669 444 9171 US
The Nation State in South Asia in the Era of Capitalist Decline
South Asian nation states were formed at the end of WWII, when Colonial Imperialism was given a body blow by the war. Britain, France and other European colonial capitalist states were badly weakened. Socialism was in ascendency, but US capitalism was also advancing. Today capitalism is in decline and is in its rottenest stage in the G-7 countries. The impact of it in South Asia will be examined, keeping in view the short military conflict between India and Pakistan.
Raj Sahai is a retired engineer and has been a researcher and activist with the Institute of Critical Study of Society, which he joined in 2006. He is a US citizen, an immigrant from India, he has lived in Illinois and California since 1966.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome!
For our July, 2025 meeting we will be reading the first two sections (approximately 115 pages) of Stellar, A World Beyond Limits and How to Get There (Amazon), (Goodreads) For our August meeting, we will finish the book.
A bold re-examination of the past, present, and future of humanity, Stellar challenges conventional thinking and offers a vision of hope and optimism – a necessary antidote to the fear and despair that define our times.
Stellar uncovers the root causes of today’s biggest challenges, from war and economic instability to inequality and environmental collapse. It reveals why solutions to these issues are little more than band-aids, why our political and economic structures are failing, and how to unlock humanity’s full potential.
Stellar reimagines what’s possible – a world that gives rather than takes from both people and planet. A Stellar World where today’s pressing issues simply dissolve, where humanity can thrive, free from fear, scarcity, and despair.
This book will transform how you see the world, and your place in 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, The Persuaders, The Path to a Livable Future, Solidarity, Mutual Aid, Breaking Together, Making Sense of Chaos and TechnoFeudalism.