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

For our March, April and May meetings we are reading Debt: The First 5000 Years  by David Graeber (Warwick, Amazon).

For  our March meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.
For  the  April  meeting  we  are  reading  chapters  6 through  9.
For our May meeting will are reading the remainder of the book.

Before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors—which lives on in full force to this day.

So says anthropologist David Graeber in a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Renaissance Italy to Imperial China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong.

We are still fighting these battles today.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included 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, and Cannibal Capitalism.

Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library

Ann Garrison will discuss US foreign policy and struggles for self-determination in Africa, particularly in the Horn of Africa and the African Great Lakes Region. She spent the spring of 2022 in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Our sppeaker is Ann Garrison, a Contributing Editor to Black Agenda Report, and a contributor to The Grayzone, Counterpunch, the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, LA Progressive, and Pacifica Radio.  In 2014 she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes Region. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region.
Ann has invited an Eritrean scholar, Elias Amare, to join her.

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East Bay DSA has just *1* more general membership meeting before our annual chapter convention, and this is it! We’ll discuss how to run for Steering Committee, how to run for delegate to the national DSA Convention, and preview key topics that we will debate and discuss our chapter convention. This general membership meeting also falls at an important moment for teachers in Oakland Unified School District: the District has threatened to cut crucial school support staff while maintaining wasteful and bloated administration costs. OEA members are fighting back.

Join us on April 16th to learn more about how to support Oakland teachers, and to get ready for our upcoming local convention!

Since we won in City Council last year, we’ve been hard at work making sure the City of Oakland uses public land for public good. As a result of that hard work, we are currently in an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city to build a people’s proposal on the E. 12th remainder parcel.

It’s been a long, hard-fought battle, and though the work isn’t over, there is a lot to celebrate. So we thought we’d invite you to come join us to do that. RSVP here for a reminder.

We will be gathering on Sunday, April 16th for a celebration! We’ll bring refreshments and good vibes; you bring a friend, neighbor, or family member and your best ideas for the E. 12th parcel. In addition to celebrating our victories, we’ll do some updating to the visioning work we did together in 2015.

RSVP here for a reminder about this event.

Please share this invitation with people you know in the neighborhood! Everyone is welcome.

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 18 marks 3 years since San Leandro PD officer Jason Fletcher murdered Steven Taylor while he was having a mental health crisis. Since his death, his grandma Addie Kitchen has been leading the community efforts for justice.

The next court date against Fletcher is on May 12. Join the family and community of Steven Taylor tomorrow at the future site of the Steven Taylor Pavilion (San Leandro Marina) to celebrate life, justice, and community healing.

=====================================================================

Alameda County has a new District Attorney, Pamela Price. She ran on a reformist platform, and one of her first acts as DA was to reopen eight cases of police abuse in Alameda County. Unfortunately Erik Salgado’s case was not one of the cases that was reopened.

22-year-old Erik Salgado was murdered when plain-clothed California Highway Patrol officers in an unmarked vehicle shot 40 bullets into a car in East Oakland on June 6, 2020. Erik Salgado’s girlfriend, Brianna Colombo, was also in the car and injured. The lives of the officers were not endangered in any way when they recklessly opened fire in a residential area, on the same block as Elmhurst Middle School.

Please join the family of Erik Salgado by adding your name to the petition calling on DA Price to reopen the investigation into the murder of Erik Salgado by CHP!

Erik had his whole life ahead of him and had so much to learn and grow. There’s not a day that goes by that his loss hasn’t been felt in the life of his daughter Liliana, Erik’s parents, siblings, and the whole family. Price has said that her tenure is “the start of the reckoning Alameda County has asked for holding people accountable for their misconduct.” That reckoning cannot happen without Justice for Erik.

Tomorrow & every Friday on the corner of 6th & Bryant.. Join the mommas even if it’s for 5 minutes or the full hour.. Or drive by & honk your horn in solidarity.. 1pm to 2pm.. Mothers on the march against police terrorism.. ✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/wRDngzGEmt

— QUIP (@EQUIPTO) March 23, 2023

 
The loss of socialism is not as permanent as it appears and until capitalism’s inherent contradictions are resolved, its resurgence is not as improbable as Dugin suggests.  Until then, we as Marxists should not dismiss those who have picked up the mantle of anti-imperialism since the demise of the former Soviet Union, no matter which political form it takes shape.  By denouncing Dugin as a “fascist” and treating his work as unworthy of serious consideration, one is only showing that he is right to say that Marxism has become irrelevant in today’s world and Western capitalism is here to stay. The challenge has been issued, it remains to be seen whether we are up to it.

Speaker will be Max Parry, an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst based in New York. His writing has appeared widely in alternative media. Max may be reached at maxrparry@live.com

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Join @afrosocialistSF at one of our first Slow Book Clubs on 4/23 at 2 pm at 1916 McAllister. We will be covering Chapters 1 and 2 of Black Marxism by Cedric Robinson, and intend to cover approx 1 chapter per month over the next 12 months. Register: https://t.co/eK2fGezO1N pic.twitter.com/B4tPsXf0bL

— DSA San Francisco (@DSA_SF) April 7, 2023

NOTE: During the Plague Year of 2020 GA will be held every week or two on Zoom. To find out the exact time a date get on the Occupy Oakland email list my sending an email to:

occupyoakland-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

Join crime victims, survivors and community members who will be rallying in support of our Drum Major for Justice, Pamela Price on the steps of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland.

In case you missed it, SFGate exposed the Bay Area media members’ thirst for a recall in Alameda County. ABC7 News and the Berkeley Scanner are clearly on a mission to undermine Pamela’s vision for justice for our community. But we are not going to stand still or silent for these attacks.

In case you missed Pamela’s interview with KRON4’s Haaziq Madyun, here’s the KRON4 Live Link.

Also, here is Pamela’s interview with NBC7 Christine Ni, here’s the NBC7 Live Link.

Please share these interviews and the expose about the media members’ thirst for recall with your family and friends to help spread the truth about what is really going on! And join us this Sunday at the Alameda County Courthouse!

The Debt Collective:

Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.

At the end of April, three of the world’s largest funders of fossil fuels will hold their Annual General Meetings: Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America. These three banks alone have loaned more than $789 billion to coal, oil, and gas companies since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.

With allies across the country – we are going to shut down, occupy, and disrupt business at the global headquarters of all three banks the day before their annual shareholder meetings. their most important meetings of the year. Citi’s HQ in New York, Bank of America’s HQ in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo’s HQ in San Francisco will each be subject to massive, disruptive and impossible-to-ignore protests.
Yes, it’s an early wake-up call, but we would love your support in downtown San Francisco as we disrupt the business as usual that is killing the planet.

Learn more and RSVP here.

WE NEED YOU to keep us winning, to secure our Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) for E12th which will be voted  at Oakland City Council’s CED meeting.

We hear there may be turnout to throw curve balls at our project, so we’d love your voices of support. Our project is committed to the diversity that won this campaign as outlined in the ENA from the BIPOC neighbors who most risk displacement to those we want to hire to build this housing. We want council members of the CED to: pass the E12th ENA for 100% affordable housing, support deeply affordable housing that the Peoples Proposal delivers, and keep Public Land for Public Good.

HERE’S THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE FOR TURN OUT. Will you take action (at least email)?!

1. Public comment in person at CED meeting 4/25 Tue 1:30pm. City Hall (1 Frank Ogawa Plaza). Fill out a speaker card with the City Clerk, for item #6 on E12th.
2. Public comment by zoom or phone at CED meeting 4/25 Tue 1:30pm, for item #6 on E12th. Submit an Electronic Speaker Card to speak via zoom or phone by emailing CityClerk@OaklandCa.Gov to get on stack before the item comes up. Speaker card link: https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/fill-out-a-speaker-card
3. Email City Council by tomorrow morning to support our E12th ENA at council@oaklandca.gov. Here’s a sample message:

Subject: Support E12th Peoples Proposal ENA

Dear Oakland City Council and members of CED,

I’m a supporter of the E12th community’s campaign for public land for public good, and the Peoples Proposal for 100% affordable housing on our city’s public land on E12th St. Please vote yes on the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement to build the Peoples Proposal for deeply affordable housing. Thank you! (your name)

We appreciate you for taking action. Let’s keep winning!
– Mari Rose, Dunya & the E12th Revival crew

RSVP

While as Democratic Socialists, we all agree on the need to go beyond Social Democracy, we will be reading a few articles about the successes and limitations of social democratic movements around the world and discussing what we can learn from them and incorporate into our actions as Democratic Socialists.

** Note that this will mostly be a discussion with a very light presentation at the start, so to get the most out of it please read the readings ahead of time. **

Articles: TBD

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