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While working people are struggling to stay housed, support their families, and keep our neighbors safe, Antonio Gracias is getting richer. Gracias is the founder, CEO and CIO of Valor Equity Partners with $26 billion in assets, and a close advisor to Elon Musk. As part of the DOGE team, he spearheaded massive cuts to Social Security — putting millions at risk and unfairly laying off dedicated workers, and he is fueling ICE attacks across our cities, spreading dangerous misinformation about our immigrant neighbors and friends. As our communities live in fear, and struggle with rising costs of living, Gracias’ net worth has grown to $2.2 billion.
This is what happens when billionaires hold too much power and zero accountability. Our retirement security and Social Security benefits are threatened, hard-won rights are being eroded, and our data privacy is disappearing. Enough is enough.
That’s why, on August 5, we’re coming together—in cities across the country—to say: Our families come first. Not billionaires. Not politicians. Not corporate greed. We’re joining forces with working people across the country to say no to billionaire overreach and public harm, and demanding
- Public accountability —including full transparency around Antonio Gracias’ actions at DOGE.
- Restore full staffing at the Social Security Administration.
- Stop the scapegoating and deportation of immigrants.
- A government that serves the people, not billionaires.
Billionaires like Antonio Gracias have no business shaping public policy that affects millions of working people. That’s why we’re demanding clear boundaries, transparency, and accountability for anyone in government who also answers to corporate power.
RSVP now to join Bay Area working families in Palo Alto on Tuesday, August 5, as part of the Families First Day of Action across the country, who will come together in peaceful marches, rallies, and events to say — our families come first, and we will protect each other!
WHO: Working people , families, neighbors, and community allies
WHAT: Day of Action – Families First, Not Billionaires
We invite you to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with Tri-Valley CAREs and other peace and justice groups that are part of the Livermore Conversion Project.
We will gather at 9 AM on Wednesday, August 6 at the Livermore Lab West Gate, located in Livermore on Vasco Road (turn on side streets to park).
The theme this year is “80 Years of Nuclear Devastation: Remember Our History; Reshape Our Future!” We will join the cry of the Hibakusha, “Never Again,” and honor their lifelong commitment to the total elimination of nuclear weapons. And, we will do so at the West Gate of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where new nuclear weapons are being developed today for potential use tomorrow.
Our program will include speakers, music, and a symbolic “die in” followed by a traditional Japanese Bon Dance, which invites the ancestors to join us. Following the program, some of the participants may choose to approach the gate for a solemn nonviolent direct action, while others may choose to use their voices in song and support while remaining in the public space.
You are invited to bring your full being and your voice to support nuclear disarmament on this important occasion. Please see the flyer below for more information, and don’t forget to mark your calendar now!
Please bring your favorite nuclear disarmament banner. And, we will have extra “Nuclear Weapons are Illegal” and other banners to share with you if you would like. Also bring water, sunscreen and, possibly, a hat � along with your aspiratioons for a more peaceful and just world.
Speakers include Arjun Makajani, PhD. (Director of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Washington, DC), Helen Jacard (Veterans for Peace and the Golden Rule peace ship), Reverend Michael Yoshii (United Methodist Church and thinker on Japanese internment), Reverend Monica Cross (CA Poor Peoples Campaign), Patricia Ellsberg (peace activist and wife of the late Daniel Ellsberg), and Marylia Kelley (Senior Advisor of Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs).
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2025/06/30/18877718.php
To observe and participate in the meeting via Zoom, go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85817209915 Or One tap mobile: 1 669 444 9171
Relevant Agenda Items:
4. Informational Item a. Data Sharing policy for ALPR as pertains to ICE
5. Action Items:
a. Annual Reports 1. CrimeTracer Forensic Logic 2024 (OPD) 2. Cellebrite 2024 (OPD) 3. Pen Register (OPD)
b. Use Policies 1. OPD Community Safety Camera Systems (OPD)
c. Proposed Ordinance 1. The No Stolen Data Ordinance
Come out and support the Wood Street Community for a special work-in-progress screening and fundraiser for the documentary Wood Street — a gripping film that follows members of Oakland’s largest homeless encampment as they fight the city and state against eviction from their long-term community.
This intimate film centers on John and LaMonté—two unhoused men turned community leaders—who organize their neighbors in the face of displacement, addiction, and a failing social system. Their story is a powerful testament to resilience, solidarity, and the right to remain.
Directed by award-winning journalist Caron Creighton, Wood Street is currently in post-production and has received support from SFFILM, the Sundance Institute, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Black Public Media, Bay Area Video Coalition and the Berkeley Film Foundation.
We will show some scenes from the work-in-progress film, with the director and members of the Wood Street Commons present for a panel discussion after the screening.
Location: 1501 Harrison St., Oakland CA
Doors open: 6PM
Screening starts: 6:30PM
Price: The event is free with an RSVP — and you are welcome to donate what you want. Please make donations to our crowdfunding campaign.
Please note:
- The event space is about 1/2 block from 12th St. BART, some street parking is available.
- Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue.
- Limited space available. If you cannot attend, please return your ticket so someone else can take it.
Accessibility:
- Masks required at all times in the space.
- There are no steps to enter the space. More info on access needs can be found on Moments Co-op website.
Between Acton and Bonar, beside “The Way”, in front of the bike path.
Between Acton and Bonar, beside “The Way”, in front of the bike path.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome!
For our September, 2025 meeting we will be reading Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals: Cooperative Alternatives Beyond Markets and States. (Amazon) (Pluto).
Elinor Ostrom was both a groundbreaking thinker and one of the foremost economists of our age. The first and only woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics, her revolutionary theorizing of the commons opened the way for non-capitalist economic alternatives on a massive scale. And yet, astonishingly, most modern radicals know little about her.
Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals fixes that injustice, revealing the indispensability of her work on green politics, alternative economics, and radical democracy. Derek Wall’s analysis of her theses addresses some of the common misconceptions of her work and reveals her strong commitment to a radical ideological framework. This helpful guide will engage scholars and activists across a range of disciplines, including political economy, political science, and ecology, as well as those keen to implement her work in practice. As activists continue to reject traditional models of centralized power, Ostrom’s theories will become even more crucial in creating economies that exist beyond markets and states.
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 , TechnoFeudalism, and Stellar.