Collection of work from the Zapatista territory by Caitlon Manning
Eastwind Books of Berkeley and Oakland Asian Cultural Center welcomeLAST BOAT OUT OF SHANGHAI is the dramatic life stories of four young people caught up in the mass exodus of Shanghai in the wake of China’s 1949 Communist revolution—a heartrending precursor to the struggles faced by emigrants today.
Shanghai has historically been China’s jewel, its richest, most modern and westernized city. The bustling metropolis was home to sophisticated intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and a thriving middle class when Mao’s proletarian revolution emerged victorious from the long civil war. Terrified of the horrors the Communists would wreak upon their lives, citizens of Shanghai who could afford to fled in every direction. Seventy years later, members of the last generation to fully recall this massive exodus have revealed their stories to Chinese American journalist Helen Zia, who interviewed hundreds of exiles about their journey through one of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century. From these moving accounts, Zia weaves together the stories of four young Shanghai residents who wrestled with the decision to abandon everything for an uncertain life as refugees in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States.
Helen Zia is the author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People, a finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize,. Zia is the co-author, with Wen Ho Lee, of My Country Versus Me: The First-Hand Account by the Los Alamos Scientist Who Was Falsely Accused of Being a Spy. She is also a former executive editor of Ms. magazine. A graduate of Princeton University, she holds an honorary doctor of laws degree from the City University of New York School of Law and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
*Angelina Gomez Lopez
2017, 11:06
by Caitlin Manning and Joe Bender
Angelina Gomez Lopez, an indigenous woman potter from Amatenango, Chiapas, is part of “the Resistance”. Her journey towards liberation began when she joined a women’s group organized by the Diocesian Coordination of Women.
*Ik’ti Jme ‘tike (Dark Moon)
2013, 50:25
Experimental documentary by Ronyk and Thomas John
The daily life of Maya poet Angelina Suyul is portrayed using an unconventional audiovisual language that approaches both the personality and identity of its female protagonist as well as the meanings of her poetry.
The screening will be followed by Q and A with the filmmakers and a discussion on the current situation in Chiapas with members of the Chiapas Support Committee.
Chiapas Support Committee will be selling crafts by Zapatista artisans. Profits from the sales, and half of the donations at the door, will go towards a fund to build schools in Zapatista territory. For more info on this project and for updated information on Zapatistas, see https://chiapas-support.org/
Doors open at 4:30, films start at 5pm.
Say NO to the CPUC! The California Public Utilities Commission has scheduled a surprise emergency hearing to allow PG&E to pursue debtor-in-possession financing.
Please come to the CPUC Auditorium at 505 Van Ness to speak against giving PG&E a $6 billion bailout and allowing it to duck its debts from last year’s Camp Fire.
The first item is to determine an emergency situation under which the normal 10-day agenda notice can be waived according to Gov’t Code 11125.5(b). The second and third items grant exemptions from PUC Code sections to allow PG&E to do this.
Videocast is at http://www.adminmonitor.com/ca/cpuc/
The Oakland School Board has just scheduled a special meeting (less than 72 hours notice) for 6pm on Monday with only one item on the agenda, a final vote in the closure of ROOTS Middle School. The school board can not be allowed to displace our students and families from their neighborhood school. We are asking everyone to help, even if you don’t live in Oakland.
1. Please email the Oakland School Board and ask them to keep ROOTS open and demand that any “redesign” of the school can not displace any of the current students.
Aimee.eng [at] ousd.org
Jody.london [at] ousd.org
Jumoke.hintonhodge [at] ousd.org
Gary.yee [at] ousd.org
Shanthi.gonzales [at] ousd.org
Roseann.torres [at] ousd.org
James.harris [at] ousd.org
2. Please sign and share the community petition. We want people outside of Oakland to also sign. There are already over 2700 signatures and we want to show maximum support when it’s submitted to the school board on Monday.
https://www.change.org/p/keeppublicschoolsopen-gmail-com-keep-our-neighborhood-public-schools-open-f805c663-e4b0-49d6-8837-bc1863c4a0ee?recruiter=926411481&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition
3. Attend Monday’s 6pm school board meeting at La Escuelita 1050 2nd Ave. The ROOTS closure is the only item on the agenda. You can also submit an Ecomment on the school board website: https://ousd.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
4. We need legal help and advice. If the school board votes to close ROOTS we will be filing an injunction and we’ll need some help and guidance.
Please help us save ROOTS and send a message to the school board that we will not accept the continued closure and displacement of our neighborhood public schools. Thanks.
#NoCutsNoClosures
#EraseTheBoard
#FailureByDesign
#WeChoose
Here’s the link to the presentation: https://ousd.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6991988&GUID=580873AF-48BE-4507-BF01-6E0C7CDBEF1D
And the resolution: https://ousd.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=6991989&GUID=EF8774C2-43AA-418C-B2C7-3AAE5B440C7A
Imagine. A vision of thriving communities across the globe. So much has been known of aspects of this vision for 20 years, 50 years, and even centuries. Why have we not made more progress?
Our Historic Moment offers a vision for the world, in both book and video form, that is rooted in The Natural Step and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, weaving together renewable resource use, ecological health, radical inclusivity and equity. Our Historic Moment explores the barriers to greater progress that we’ve encountered to date to achieving this vision, and offers solutions for positive change, looking at the most strategic places to apply our efforts. At heart, Our Historic Moment encourages big picture thinking, and encourages us to see our roles within the greater framework.
Please join us and contribute to the discussion!
Join the next meeting of the Sunrise Movement, an army of young people fighting to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs.
And/or attend one of their Bay Area Green New Deal launch parties to kick off the local Green New Deal campaign.
NOTE: If you no longer qualify as a youth, please pass this on to young people you know.
See the readings that we’ll be discussing after a brief introduction from our members.
Join the pioneering environmental justice organization West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project for its annual fundraiser/holiday party/celebration of the birthday of its founder, Ms Margaret Gordon.
The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project has led the community of West Oakland in fights against environmental racism for many years. They also throw a great party, featuring fun, music, and food (gumbo, vegan gumbo, red beans and rice, salad and dessert).
And raffle tickets
The encampment at E 12th & 23rd Ave got eviction notice, happening over a week:
Thursday 1/31
Friday 2/1
Thurs 2/7
Fri 2/8.We’re asking for folks to come for eviction support at 8 am each day – bringing coffee, breakfast, and doing copwatch/documentation.
— The Village, Oakland (@VillageOakland) January 29, 2019
JOINT WALK‐IN CLINICS with Public Defender and EBCLC
*Please bring your statewide CA DOJ RAP sheet
if you have it or we can give information at clinic*
We may be able to help with:
Dismissal of Conviction – PC 1203.4
Felony Reduction / Prop 47 and 64 Relief
Early Termination of Probation
Certificate of Rehabilitation
Sealing Arrest Record – Factual Innocence
Juvenile Record Sealing
Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants and
Survivors of Human Trafficking
Employment denials due to criminal background
reports
Occupational Licensing Denials(DSS, Security
Guard)
Voting Rights, Jury Service Rights
We are stopping the destruction of trees and trying to stop the construction of housing. Trying to give land back to Ohlone, who are a landless tribe
KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents
advance tickets: $12: brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006
or Pegasus Books (3 sites), Books Inc (Berkeley), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore,
East Bay Books Mrs. Dalloway’s
$15 door
Dahr Jamail has journeyed along many of the geographical front lines of our environmental crisis, from Alaska to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef to the Amazon rain forest, to discover the consequences of the loss of ice to nature and to humans. The End of Ice is the firsthand chronicle of his travels, during which he scaled Denali, the highest peak in North America, swam in warm crystal waters around Pacific coral reefs, explored the tundra of St. Paul Island and spoke with some of the last subsistence seal-hunters of the Bering Sea. Accompanied by climate scientists and people whose families for centuries have fished and farmed in the various places he visits, Dahr begins to accept the dark fact that earth is almost certainly in a hospice situation. Ironically, this renews his passion for the planet’s wild places, cherishing the earth in an entirely new way. Like no other book, The End of Ice offers a true narrative that includes photographs throughout by Dahr of his journey across the world, of the catastrophic reality of our predicament, and the incalculable necessity of relishing this vulnerable planet while it is still possible. The author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, Dahr is an accomplished mountaineer and climbing guide. He has won the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism and the Izzy ‘Award for outstanding achievement in independent media.
Antonia Juhasz is a leading energy analyst, author, and investigative journalist specializing in oil. An award-winning writer, her articles appear in Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, CNN.com, The Nation, Ms., The Advocate, and many more. Antonia is the author of three books: Black Tide (2011), The Tyranny of Oil (2008), and The Bush Agenda (2006). Her investigations have taken her a mile below the ocean surface in the Gulf of Mexico to the rainforests of the Ecuadoran Amazon, from the deserts of Afghanistan to the fracking fields of North Dakota, from the Alaskan Arctic to the beaches of Santa Barbara, and many more places in between. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelors Degree in Public Policy from Brown University. She is a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors. Antonia founded and runs the (Un)Covering Oil Investigative Reporting Program. She delivered the lecture, “Covering Catastrophe: Environmental Destruction and Resistance in the Age of Trump,” at Yale in November 2017. Antonia reported from Standing Rock on the Dakota Access Pipeline for Pacific Standard Magazine and Grist. She completed a series of six articles for Newsweek on the UN Paris climate talks, reporting from Alaska, North Dakota and Paris. Recently she co-hosted KPFA Radio’s Up/Front show.
KPFA benefit
The encampment at E 12th & 23rd Ave got eviction notice, happening over a week:
Thursday 1/31
Friday 2/1
Thurs 2/7
Fri 2/8.We’re asking for folks to come for eviction support at 8 am each day – bringing coffee, breakfast, and doing copwatch/documentation.
— The Village, Oakland (@VillageOakland) January 29, 2019
Location is ADA accessible
The Center for the Study of Law and Society is pleased to announce
The CSLS Special Book Event
Tony Platt, CSLS Distinguished Affiliated Scholar, Beyond These Walls: Rethinking Crime & Punishment in the United States (St. Martin’s Press, January 2019)
Moderated by: Jonathan Simon, Adrian A. Kragen Professor of Law, and Faculty Director, Center for the Study of Law & Society, UC Berkeley
Comments by: Rebecca McLennan, Professor of History, UC Berkeley
Angela Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, UC Santa Cruz
Jonathan Simon, Faculty Director
Rosann Greenspan, Executive Director
SURJ Bay Area’s Queer and Trans (QT) Committee is hosting a screening of Pride, which highlights a true story of solidarity across identities for social and economic justice. This even is open to the public. Everybody is welcome to join us for an afternoon of film and snacks!
About the film: “Realising that they share common foes in Margaret Thatcher, the police and the conservative press, London-based gay and lesbian activists lend their support to striking miners in 1984 Wales.“
Tickets: This NOTAFLAF screening is also a fundraiser for SURJ Bay Area. As a chapter, at least 50% of funds raised are sent directly to BIPOC-led partner organizations, and other funds go toward making events like this more accessible. Please choose a ticket price from the sliding scale that is meaningful to you. Our platform doesn’t allow the sale of $0 tickets, so if you’d like to attend the event for free, email queertrans@surjbayarea.org, and we’ll save your spot on our guest list.
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
Black History Is American History
As Karl Marx wrote in Das Kapital, “Labor cannot emancipate
itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded.” Marx
also noted that for ALL workers Black Liberation is “not a
question of abstract justice or humanitarian sentiment but the first
condition of their own social emancipation.”
Speakers for our forum on Black history will include: Kingdom
speaking on “The Freedom Struggle–Then and Now,” and Steve
Johnson speaking on “Black Teachers Struggle for Justice,”
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of
every month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30
pm. The forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk afterwards. The
opinions expressed are those of the speakers and do not reflect official views
of the Peace and Freedom Party.
The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and
anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism,
democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
www.peaceandfreedom.org
East Bay DSA’s general meetings (GMs) are typically held on the second Sunday of each month. These meetings include deliberation and voting on member-submitted resolutions, member announcements, reports from our committees, and more.
Volunteering at the GM is lively, easy, and low-commitment, and hugely benefits the meetings and thus our internal democracy. If you intend to come and would like to volunteer (!), let us know. Use this form, too, if you have child supervision or accessibility needs, including the need for an ASL interpreter.
With our new regular schedule, member-submitted resolutions will be accepted on a rolling basis. Please email them to resolutions@eastbaydsa.org. The submissions deadline for each meeting is one week after the previous one.
General meetings are run by the Meetings Committee. For questions or comments, or if you are interested in joining the committee, write us at meetings@eastbaydsa.org!
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.