Calendar
The indigenous Mapuche people have been mobilizing to take back their ancestral lands in Wallmapu (Chile) from vast industrial eucalyptus and pine plantations developed under the Pinochet dictatorship in the 1970s.Recovering their land is part of the larger effort of Mapuche people to reclaim their culture, spirituality and language, as well as food sovereignty for their communities.
A new “Usurpation” law makes Mapuche land recovery efforts illegal, and people who try to claim land or grow crops risk arrest or imprisonment.
Biofuelwatch co-Director Gary Hughes will address the unique connection between California and Chile, especially with regard to false climate solutions like biomass burning.This event is also the West Coast Book Launch for Portraits of Struggle by longtime movement photojournalist Orin Langelle.
Langelle’s captivating images document interconnected global struggles for environmental, social, and economic justice across six continents and five decades.Langelle will sign books during the event reception.
The Friday, 4/18 show is at 4:00 PM.
Students flooded Columbia University’s lawn to create the Gaza Solidarity Encampment in order to pressure their university to divest from the US and Israeli weapons companies. THE ENCAMPMENTS follows the central organizers of the encampment as they are thrust into the spotlight, face violent police repression and suspension, congressional pressure, and a media firestorm, all while fighting to attain their goal of divestment at any cost.
Also Saturday, 4/12 @ 5:10 PM, Sat 4/19 @ 12:00 Noon, Sun 4/20 at 3:15, etc.
RECONNECT RESIST
As we enter this era of crackdowns and suspensions of civil liberties, we must unite to defend our rights and our communities. We need to share knowledge and skills so that we can break barriers to holding cops accountable and create alternatives to police.This conference brings together local and national police accountability organizations to support communities and collectives facing police repression in its many forms. There will be a keynote speaker, panels on a range of topics related to police accountability and the state of our movement, and opportunities for community building.
Let’s work together to protect people not property, compassion not force, and rights not repression!
Register for the conference now.Schedule:
8:30: Registration and Breakfast
9:00: Welcome & Plenary Keynote
10:15: Breakout Session #1
11:45: Breakout Session #2
1:00: Lunch
2:30: Breakout Session 3
4:00: Closing Panel
7:00 – 8:30: Evening ActivityLearn more about our keynote speaker and panels.
Register HereRegistration for this conference is free.
You are welcome to register online in advance or day-of in person.
Please donate to Berkeley Copwatch to support the costs of this conference. Suggested donation of $25 per attendee.
No one is turned away for lack of funds.
Donate to Support the ConferenceIf you need accommodations for communication during the conference or information about mobility access features at Berkeley City College, please contact copwatch.conference@proton.me with as much advance notice as possible and at least 10-12 days in advance of the event.
Want to support the work of Berkeley Copwatch? We need volunteers and committed organizing members!Reach out to berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com to find out when the next New Volunteer Orientation is. Follow us on insta to stay up to date.
Do you want to get involved in Berkeley Copwatch? Learn more or contact us directly at berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
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Hosted by Green Eco-Socialist Network Join a participatory webinar with Ashley Brown, Gabe Medina, Gloria Mattera, and Sean Dougherty for an engaging session that will introduce the Green Eco-Socialist Network and discuss key topics surrounding the Hands Off Rally and its broader implications.
We look forward to your participation in this discussion! |
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STOP THE TRUMP ATTACKS
ON THE PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT
RALLY & MARCH
SATURDAY, APRIL 19th, 2025
1:00 PM
CONCORD BART PLAZA
Speaker: Elicha Gastelumendi & Rick Sterling
Elicha Gastelumendi and Rick Sterling will talk and show photos from their October 2024 visit to China. They were on their own in Shanghai and will describe what they saw in a regular community far from the booming downtown. Following that, they joined a delegation to Xinjiang organized by retired San Francisco Judge Julie Tang. Xinjiang is a large “autonomous region” thousands of miles west of Shanghai. This was a central gateway in the times of the Silk Road and in the developing Belt & Road Initiative today. It is also the area where the U.S. has accused China of committing “genocide” against the Uyghur minority community. Rick and Elicha will describe what they saw and experienced in travels from desert below sea level to high mountains as well as agricultural fields and an elementary school.
Bay Area activist Elicha Gastelumendi is originally from Peru. Rick Sterling, originally from Canada, is president of the Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center and with the Syria Support Movement and Task Force on the Americas.
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85175860127?pwd=bfZRQOSMuhX9Pfm4qhPMOZMrmE9Ohm.1
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Meeting ID: 851 7586 0127
Passcode: 580909
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We love the Tesla Takedown protests and the impact they have been having on Elon Musk’s wallet. Join us next Saturday, April 26 outside the Tesla dealership on 4th Street in Berkeley. In addition to the usual protest, our Absurdist street theater group will perform!
New Video
Our street theater Absurdists have come up with a new skit in support of the Make Polluters Pay Superfund bill, currently before the California legislature. Watch it now and please share to Make Polluters PAY:
Workers in the Crosshairs: The U.S. Trade War,
Tariffs, and Globalization
Speaker: Allan Miller
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
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Meeting ID: 851 7586 0127
Passcode: 580909
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This Sunday, the Marxist Forum will analyze and discuss the U.S. trade war, tariffs, and globalization from a working class perspective.
Allan Miller is a political activist and member of the ICSS Program Committee. He has a PhD in economics from UC Riverside, and has taught data analysis and statistical programming at UC Berkeley Extension.
The Oakland Greens Present: FREE Dinner & a Movie Community Discussion Series, April 2025 — Sunday, April 27: dinner begins at 6:30 PM; movie starts at 7 PM. Doors closed at 7:30 PM.
All Oakland Greens events are held in partnership with:
It’s Your Move Games & Hobbies
4920 Telegraph Ave, Suite B, Oakland, CA 94609
1. Call to Order, determination of quorum
2. Open Forum/Public Comment on Non-Agenda matters
3. Information Item: a. Report from Public Works regarding OPD request for video footage.
4. Action Items:
a. April 3, 2025 PAC minutes
b. Annual Reports 1. Biometric Crime Lab (OPD) 2. ALPR/FLOCK (OPD) 3. ATF (OPD)
c. Use Policies 1. OPD Community Safety Camera Systems (OPD) 1
To observe and participate in the meeting via Zoom, go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85817209915
r One tap mobile: 1 669 444 9171
Please register in advance at
https://bit.ly/SSS_
to receive your personal link to participate in this event online
Join us for Suds, Snacks & Socialism as we discuss The Assault on Campus Free Speech. We’ll examine the repression of the Palestinian solidarity movements on campus, the Trump administration’s revocation of 1,500 student visas, and the important role student activism plays in the fight for Palestinian liberation.
Lari Cursaro – U.C. Berkeley graduate student in Public Policy
*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.
Please help us celebrate our return to the Starry Plough by ordering food and/or drinks.
Please arrive early to place your order so that you do not miss any of the presentations.
An open discussion will follow the presentations.
We will be accepting donations which will be divided among the sponsoring organizations.
This event is sponsored by the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party,
the Alameda County Green Party and Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change.
For more information email <info@sudssnackssocialism.org>
Sunday, May 4, 2025: 10:30am-12:30pm Pacific Time
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85175860127?pwd=bfZRQOSMuhX9Pfm4qhPMOZMrmE9Ohm.1
To join on the phone:
Meeting ID: 851 7586 0127
Passcode: 580909
Call one of these numbers and enter the codes above:
• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 669 444 9171 US
Speaker: S. Brian Willson in conversation with Gerry Condon
On September 1, 1987, some of the most dedicated peace activists in the nation – including our two guests – were protesting outside the Concord Naval Weapons Station trying to block a Navy munitions train loaded with weapons bound for Nicaragua and El Salvador. Instead of stopping the train and arresting the protestors, authorities ordered the train to speed up. While some barely made it off the tracks, S. Brian Willson was run over. He suffered horrific injuries, but survived. He lost both legs and now walks via prostheses.
Join us for a half-century reflection on the “American War” in Vietnam from two of our heroic peace activists, who were instrumental then fighting for peace and continue today as national and international leaders. We invite others attending the Marxist Forum, who were also active against Vietnam War, to share in the Q&A. An overarching theme is how the US war on Vietnam changed us and our nation.
S. Brian Willson once commanded an Air Force combat security unit in Vietnam. He has since helped create a host of veterans’ organizations and has been a critic of the US criminal justice system and its foreign policies. Brian received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award at the Kennedy Library and Museum in 1992 and, in addition to his JD, holds two honorary degrees (LL.D. and Ph.D.). Author of On Third World Legs and Blood on the Tracks, he is the subject of a 2016 documentary, Paying the Price For Peace. Brian will be speaking from Nicaragua, where he currently lives and where he is rightly considered a national hero.
Gerry Condon, a Green Beret medic, deserted the US Army in 1969 after refusing orders to deploy to the war in Vietnam. He found sanctuary in Sweden and Canada for six years before returning to the US as part of a campaign for amnesty for all war resisters. He is a former president and current national board member of Veterans For Peace (VFP – https://www.veteransforpeace.
We are committed to standing up for our family, friends, and neighbors and to continue protecting our civil liberties for everyone!
Please join ACLU NorCal for our monthly immigration update and call to action. We will update you on the latest from the Trump Administration and the federal government, provide status updates and action opportunities on important California legislation to protect the California immigrant community, and provide important know your rights information.
We hope to see you!
We hope you all had an active and inspiring Earth Day, May Day, and Spring Rebellion. Our next Open House is this Saturday, May 10, at 11 am PT, 12 pm MT, 1 pm CT, 2 pm ET. Activists who participated in the Spring Rebellion will join us to talk about their local actions. We will also provide an overview of Non-Violent Direct Action in climate activism and brainstorm ideas about what activists need in this moment to fight climate collapse. We hope to see you all there!
Register Here for the May 10 Open House
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome!
For our May, 2025 meeting we will be reading the first fourteen essays in The New Possible: Visions of Our World Beyond Crisis (Barnes and Noble). For our June meeting, we will read the remaining essays.
2020 upended every aspect of our lives. But where is our world heading next? Will pandemic, protests, economic instability, and social distance lead to deeper inequalities, more nationalism, and further erosion of democracies around the world? Or are we moving toward a global re-awakening to the importance of community, mutual support, and the natural world? In our lifetimes, the future has never been so up for grabs. The New Possible offers twenty-eight unique visions of what can be, if instead of choosing to go back to normal, we choose to go forward to something far better.
Assembled from global leaders on six continents, these essays are not simply speculation. They are an inspiration and a roadmap for action. With essays by: Kim Stanley Robinson, Michael Pollan, Varshini Prakash, Vandana Shiva, Jack Kornfield, Mamphela Ramphele, Justin Rosenstein, Jack Kornfield, Helena Nordberg-Hodge, David Korten, Tristan Harris, Eileen Crist, Francis Deng, Riane Eisler, Arturo Escobar, Rebecca Kiddle, Mike Joy, Natalie Foster, Jess Rimington, Jeremy Lent, Atossa Soltani, Mark Anielski, Ellen Brown, John Restakis, Zak Stein, Oren Slozberg, Anisa Nanavati, and Fr. Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam
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.
Speaker: Bahman Azad
To Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 851 7586 0127
Passcode: 580909
Call one of these numbers and enter the codes above:
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The US/Israel are actively and overtly preparing for war on Iran. From their perspective current conditions may be favorable for an attack due to several strategic and geopolitical factors. Iran could be nearing weapons-grade uranium enrichment levels, but it does not yet have a nuclear deterrent capability. Additionally, regional instability—such as the weakening of Iran’s allies in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen—may reduce the risk of retaliation. Israel’s recent normalization of relations with several Arab states could also provide a buffer against diplomatic backlash. Domestically, political leaders both Washington and Tel Aviv may view military action as a way to demonstrate resolve and shift focus from internal issues. Combined, these conditions create a strategic window in which a limited strike or broader campaign against Iran might be deemed militarily effective and politically propitious.
Our speaker, Bahman Azad, is eminently qualified to discuss the current volatile situation in west Asia. He is a retired professor of economics and sociology. His area of research includes the political economy of capitalism and socialism. He is the author of the book: Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat: Factors Contributing to the Dismantling of the Socialist State in the USSR. Bahman is currently the president of the U.S. Peace Council, a member of the secretariat of the World Peace Council, and representative of the World Peace Council at the United Nations. He is also a member of the administrative committee of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC).
Bahman Azad is affiliated with the anti-imperialist, Iranian “10 Mehr” Group. He was co-chair of Venezuelan Embassy Protectors Defense Committee and is currently serving as the coordinator of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases and co-coordinator of the Hands-Off Syria Coalition.
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David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator of RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and hosts Talk World Radio.
On November 10, 2024, Swanson was awarded the Real Nobel Peace Prize by the Lay Down Your Arms Foundation in Oslo, Norway. Swanson was awarded the 2018 Peace Prize by the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation. He was also awarded a Beacon of Peace Award by the Eisenhower Chapter of Veterans For Peace in 2011, and the Dorothy Eldridge Peacemaker Award by New Jersey Peace Action in 2022, and a Global Peace Leadership & Excellence Award in 2024.