Calendar
Speaker: Kit Klarenberg
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87388824824?pwd=QTWNvr8cGeGo1ZDW7x9Y8W0sDaNxRc.1
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Over recent weeks, chaos has engulfed Nepal. Public and private buildings have been set ablaze, with dozens of civilians reportedly killed. On September 9th, Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli resigned. The Western media has universally framed the upheaval as spontaneous revolutionary fervor on the part of Kathmandu’s “Gen Z”, motivated by anger over official corruption, unemployment, state efforts to censor social media, and more. However, there are unambiguous indications the insurrectionary disarray has long-been in the making, and assisted by spectral, foreign forces.
British anti-imperialist journalist Kit Klarenberg writes for The Grayzone and Mint Press News, and is also co-hosts Decline and Fall, a weekly video stream on YouTube and Rumble exposing the crimes of Anglo-American imperialism. Kit’s substack is at https://substack.com/@kitklarenberg. Decline and Fall is at https://dandf.substack.com/
Three members of an extended Afghan family start their lives over in Iran as refugees, unaware they face a decades-long struggle ahead to be “at home”.
This program includes and in-person Q&A session with the director, Raha Amirfazli.
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.
Note: Although space is limited inside, we encourage walk-ins, as often people who have reserved tickets don’t show up.
Location: 2310 Telegraph Ave., Oakland CA
Doors open: 7PM
Screening starts: 7:30PM
Price: The event is free, but attendees who can afford to purchase a ticket are encourages to do so— donations will be accepted at the event as well. You can also make a tax deductible donation here.
Please note:
- The event space is about 5 blocks from 19th St. BART, some street parking is available.
- Ride-shares can drop off and pick up directly in front of the venue.
- Limited space available, but walk-ins are welcome at the door.
Accessibility:
- Masks required during the event, some will be available at the door, but we encourage you to bring your own.
- There are no steps to enter the space.
- There are 30 seats available, with some standing space. Please let us know at the door if you need assistance securing a seat.
Wood Street Commons was born out of displacement — and shaped by resistance. After the 2008 housing crash, the Oakland Police Department began directing unhoused residents to the fringes of West Oakland, along the Wood Street corridor. In the face of relentless instability, people came together and created something powerful: a self-governed community rooted in mutual aid, love, and care. We call it Wood Street Commons, and our motto is From the Streets, for the Streets. Here, people built homes with their own hands and kept each other alive. Residents formed outreach teams, shared food and medical supplies, and cultivated a culture of belonging in a world that treated them as disposable. Wood Street Commons became one of the largest unhoused encampments in the Northern California — a testament to community resilience and solidarity.
Caron Creighton is an award winning journalist and filmmaker residing in Oakland, California. Her feature documentary Wood Street has received support from the 2023/24 SF Film FilmHouse Residency, the 2024 Big Sky Pitch, and the 2024 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship. In 2025, Wood Street participated in Black Public Media’s PitchBlack Forum in New York, and won the Realscreen Pitch competition in Miami. She also earned this year’s UFO x Peace is Loud Impact-Post residency, and is part of the Sundance Cultural Impact Residency inaugural cohort and the Brown Girls Doc Mafia Sustainable Artist Fellowship. Caron has worked for The Associated Press, AJ+, KCBS Radio and The San Francisco Chronicle and has lectured at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She has reported on the struggles faced by Eritrean migrants in Israel, and West African migration through Latin America. Much of her work is focused on displacement within the African diaspora, as informed by her identity.
The 21st century workers’ struggle for socialism has changed, but some refuse to recognize this
Speaker: Rainer Shea
To Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
We need to analyze how the workers’ struggle for socialism has changed from that of the past century. In this session, we will go over the role of BRICS in the class struggle, why the U.S.-led bloc is the sole manifestation of imperialism today, and how to escape the patterns of stagnation that have long plagued much of the communist movement.
Rainer Shea is a California, Humboldt County-based writer and activist who seeks to advance the class struggle and understand the conditions required of the class struggle’s participants. You can find his writings on his Substack: https://substack.
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FOR OUR FULL SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING PROGRAMS,
AS WELL AS PAST PROGRAMS, GO TO ICSSMARX.ORG
NOTE: Our past programs have been recorded, and placed on YouTube. For a listing of our past programs, see the “Icss Marxist” channel on YouTube, and at icssmarx.org.
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The Oakland Greens Present: FREE Dinner & a Movie Community Discussion Series � October 2025
Sunday October 26, 2025: dinner begins at 6:30 PM and the movie starts at 7 PM. Doors closed at 7:30 PM.
Film: “Rabbit Proof Fence” (2002):
Rabbit-Proof Fence, a moving Australian film based on the true story of three young Aboriginal girls who were forcibly removed from their families by government authorities. The girls were part of what is now known as the Stolen Generations. It is loosely based on the author’s mother Molly Craig, aunt Daisy Kadibil, and cousin Gracie, who escaped from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families. They had been removed from their families and placed there in 1931.
Join the Oakland Greens for this free community event:
The Oakland Greens Free Dinner & a Movie Discussion Series runs from January through October, with events held on the last Sunday of each month. Attend in person�tickets and informatioon are available at theoaklandgreens.org & facebook.com/oaklandgreens. Walk-ins are always welcome!
All Oakland Greens events are held in partnership with: It’s Your Move Games & Hobbies
https://acgreens.wordpress.com/
| Panel: What Everyone Should Know about Resisting State Repression, October 26
Many of us have taken to the streets to confront those responsible for the current administration’s attack on environmental justice, free speech, its support for corporate domination of everyday life and fascist takeover of our government. Today’s state repression aims to eliminate our opposition. This panel will explore the ongoing conflict and lessons that we can use to push back against this authoritarian takeover. (doors open 6:30 PM) |
| 2025 CA Climate Policy Reviews
Both The Climate Center and CEJA will present environmental justice leaders, and clean energy experts talking about the legislative session that just ended. Hear and ask about what’s next for refineries and Cap and Invest (formerly Cap and Trade) as well as how we move forward on scaling up nature-based solutions, green zones, energy justice and more. Thurs Oct 30 10 – 11:30 PM, The Climate Center 1 PM, CEJA |
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome!
For our October, 2025 meeting we will be reading and discussing the first three chapters of The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart (The CBC Massey Lectures) by Astra Taylor (Amazon) (Anansi). For our November meeting we will finish the book.
Finalist, 2024 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction
Finalist, 2024 Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
These days, everyone feels insecure. We are financially stressed and emotionally overwhelmed. The status quo isn’t working for anyone, even those who appear to have it all. What is going on?
In this urgent cultural diagnosis, author and activist Astra Taylor exposes how seemingly disparate crises―rising inequality and declining mental health, the ecological emergency, and the threat of authoritarianism―originate from a social order built on insecurity. From home ownership and education to the wellness industry and policing, many of the institutions and systems that promise to make us more secure actually undermine us.
Mixing social critique, memoir, history, political analysis, and philosophy, this genre-bending book rethinks both insecurity and security from the ground up. By facing our existential insecurity and embracing our vulnerability, Taylor argues, we can begin to develop more caring, inclusive, and sustainable forms of security to help us better weather the challenges ahead. The Age of Insecurity will transform how you understand yourself and society―while illuminating a path toward meaningful change.
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Our first book was Doughnut Economics, and our most recent book was Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals”. For the rest of our reading list see here.
Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
Speaker: Raj Sahai
To Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
� +1 646 931 3860 US
� +1 669 444 9171 US
How Should Conscious Workers View Class Struggle in the 21st Century?
In his book in Italian language, published in 2013, its English translation published in May 2025, Titled: Class Struggle: A Political and Philosophical History; Italian Marxist Philosopher Dominico Losurdo argued that Class Struggle is much more than Workers against Capitalists, it encompasses National, Petit Bourgeois and Gender Struggles. Failure to grasp this, leads one to a version of Populism. Main points of his arguments will be summarized by presenter Raj Sahai. A Discussion with those present in the session will follow.
Raj Sahai has been a member of ICSS since 2007. An engineer by education and practice, he has participated in mass actions in support of workers rights and against imperialist wars starting 1968. He lives in Berkeley, California.
FOR OUR FULL SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING PROGRAMS,
AS WELL AS PAST PROGRAMS, GO TO ICSSMARX.ORG
ICSS is committed to providing the working class with the tools of Marxist theory and social research to confront the crises of capitalist society. We receive no funding from capitalists or their institutions and rely solely on the support of workers and oppressed people.
The best way to donate without incurring any deductions is by check. Your bank’s online bill pay feature will send a single check or recurring checks for you without any postal charges to you. Send us a note at icssmarx.org, click the Contact Us tab and we will send you the name and address for the check.
You can make monthly donations via Patreon � go to patreon.com and search for ‘ICSS – Institute of the Critical Study of Society’
or via Buy Me a Coffee. Go to buymeacoffee.com/icssedcomm. For one-time or recurring monthly donations.
Contact us at https://icssmarx.org/contact-us-2
For our full schedule, go to: icssmarx.org
ICSS Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
ICSS
6501 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
Pistachio Wars, with post-film discussion
At the center of the story are Stewart and Lynda Resnick. They’re billionaires. They live in the flashiest mansion in Beverly Hills, have a monopoly on the pistachio trade, and have branded themselves as ‘The Wonderful Company,’ which now uses more water each year than the entire city of Los Angeles.
With Academy Award-winning writer, director, producer Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) as Executive Producer, this fascinating investigative documentary from Journalist Yasha Levine and Filmmaker Rowan Wernham uncovers the environmental devastation caused by industrial agriculture and water mismanagement, the ties to the oil industry, including the use of chemically tainted wastewater for crop irrigation, and the massive lobbying efforts aimed at deregulating water and silencing environmental protections. The film also uncovers a shocking connection to U.S. foreign policy, including alliances with influential policy groups that have pushed for war with Iran — a direct competitor in the global pistachio trade.
It’s a road trip into the dark heart of the American Dream.
Every day in the United States the stakes of our work are getting clearer: We must push back against authoritarianism and oligarchy for democracy and a livable planet. Those who profit off of the destruction of people and the planet are attempting to further consolidate their power and are threatening so much that we hold dear.
Maybe you have been fighting back. And maybe you still want more skills and more friends in this fight.
You’ll hear from speakers from Freedom Trainers, who have trained hundreds of thousands in noncooperation strategies, and Americans for Financial Reform, who have been fighting for years for an economy that works for all of us. They will be joined by Public Citizen, who has been fighting, suing, and organizing against the Trump regime.
This will be the first of a four-part series of workshops the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) team is hosting over the next few months. These activists come from justice work all across the climate and financial reform movement.
Register here to join Organizing Under Authoritarianism: How Fossil Fuels and Finance Fuel the Regime
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 also raise their hand in Zoom if they have a question on an agenda item. The chair will determine the time allotted to speak on an agenda item.
1. Call to Order, determination of quorum
2. Open Forum/Public Comment on Non-Agenda matters
3. Action Items:
a. Annual Reports 1. CrimeTracer Forensic Logic 2024 (OPD) 2. Illegal Dumping Surveillance Camera Annual Report (OPW)
b. Use Policies 1. Surveillance Technology Use Policy for Illegal Dumping Cameras (OPW)
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 and participate in the meeting via Zoom, go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85817209915 Or One tap mobile: 1 669 444 9171 To participate in the meeting virtually, you must log on via Zoom. If you have a question, please raise your hand in Zoom during open forum and public comment.
For those attending in person, you can complete a speaker card and submit to staff.
This coming Friday, November 7th, the California State Lands Commission will take historic action to fully decommission offshore oil and gas infrastructure before the end of its productive life!
This sets a bold and exciting example of how to effectively respond to the climate crisis and hold oil corporations responsible for paying to clean up their mess.
Before the State Lands hearing, all are invited to attend a “retirement party” for oil platform Esther. After over 60 years of oil spill risks, this decrepit and dangerous platform off Seal Beach in Orange County will finally be brought down. This leaves just two remaining offshore platforms. Let’s celebrate a new chapter! We’ll have cupcakes, karaoke, a “well wishes” guest book to share your message for Esther, and more!
RSVP HERE.
WHERE: We’ll be set up to the left of the main entrance near Mishka Dog Boutique (in the Ferry Building).
WHEN: Friday, November 7th
- 9am: Retirement party
- 10am: Hearing begins, stick around for testimony if you’d like!
WHAT TO BRING: Any marine-life themed materials, stop offshore drilling signs.
Hosted by the Center for Biological Diversity, Oil & Gas Action Network, 350 Bay Area, and Sunflower Alliance.
There will also be an informal evening celebration at 5pm at 7th West in Oakland. Let’s celebrate the great election results and some other big wins in our battle against Big Oil, including:
the cities of Richmond and Oakland passing resolutions supporting the Make Polluters Pay Climate Superfund,
Santa Barbara county voting to phase out oil drilling, and denying the transfer of a pipeline permit from Exxon to Sable, which would restart 3 offshore rigs and a pipeline that have sat idle for ten years since the disastrous oil spill,
renewable energy outpacing fossil fuel development globally, and at lower cost,
and more!
Feel free to invite friends!
“Come join us for a medicinal day at Clinton park (655 International Blvd) in Oakland November 9th 9-5pm. Free ancestral medicine offerings from cafe collective students. No sign-up required. Options for masked providers, outdoor treatments, and masks provided. Vietnamese interpretation available.”
Speaker: Pierre Labossiere, with an introduction by Marilyn Langlois
To Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Our guest, Pierre Labossiere, will provide an update on the current situation in Haiti. He will explain who the players are and debunk media narratives about the nature of so-called “gangs” in Haiti that have been covertly supported by imperialist and outside forces tied to the “Core Group” and their Haitian collaborators. The self-appointed “Core Group,” with representatives from the US, France, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Spain, EU and OAS, is de facto governing Haiti at present.
Pierre Labossiere is Co-Founder of the Haiti Action Committee (HAC) and the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund (HERF) established in the Bay Area in 1991 and 2004 respectively. Working with Haiti’s grassroots movement that is engaged in the struggle for justice and democracy, HAC and HERF provide information regarding conditions on the ground, assist refugees and support community-based initiatives and institutions working for the liberation and the rebuilding of Haiti.
Marilyn Langlois is a long time Haiti solidarity activist who has been with the Haiti Action Committee for over 20 years and has traveled to Haiti 4 times. She is also on the Board of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, and brings the voice of Haiti to the Board of Taskforce on the Americas.
NOTE: Our past programs have been recorded, and placed on YouTube. For a listing of our past programs, see the “Icss Marxist” channel on YouTube, and at icssmarx.org.
******************************************************************
FUND APPEAL
ICSS is committed to providing the working class with the tools of Marxist theory and social research to confront the crises of capitalist society. We receive no funding from capitalists or their institutions and rely solely on the support of workers and oppressed people.
The best way to donate without incurring any deductions is by check. Your bank’s online bill pay feature will send a single check or recurring checks for you without any postal charges to you. Send us a note at icssmarx.org, click the Contact Us tab and we will send you the name and address for the check.
You can make monthly donations via Patreon � go to patreon.com and search for ‘ICSS – Institute of the Critical Study of Society’
or via Buy Me a Coffee. Go to buymeacoffee.com/icssedcomm. For one-time or recurring monthly donations.
We do not sell or share our subscriber information
Contact us at https://icssmarx.org/contact-us-2
ICSS Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
ICSS
6501 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
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Zurawski v Texas Film Screening
Meeting ID: 854 4920 3697