This two-part video is a clear, down-to-earth introduction to the “paradigm busting” economics of Modern Monetary Theory.

You are invited to make a big bowl of popcorn (or your favourite movie food), and from the comfort of your own living room, enjoy twelve minutes of delightful animation, and about thirty minutes of friendly discussion (or quiet lurking!).

• Meet the video creators.
• Meet your fellow MMT-curious and MMT-advocates.
• Ask your questions in person or anonymously.

Whether you are new to this brand of economics, or are the veteran of in-depth debates with your monetarist neighbours, this is a wonderful way to share the enthusiasm for a brand new way of looking at our world.

As the ABC news asked recently: What if everything we thought we knew about public finance over the past 40 years has been wrong?

ALL WELCOME! Free and donation tickets available. All donations very much appreciated.

YouTube Livestream also available via this link: https://youtu.be/Xe1zkJV-s8Q

The situation in Myanmar (Burma) has become increasingly problematic since the military coup on Feb 1, 2021. We have invited journalist K.J. Hoh to discuss the background and developing situation in the area.
Our speaker, K.J. Hoh, is a journalist focusing on Asia.

Zoom info posted here a few days before the event

Billions today, trillions tomorrow. When debtors organize, we win.

It all started when 15 people went on a debt strike. Back in 2015, former students at Corinthian College said they were going to refuse to pay until all of their fraudulent student loans were cancelled. That kicked off a long process full of twists and turns spanning three administrations and several court cases.

This week, as a direct result of that debt strike, the Department of Education announced it was going to cancel another $1 billion dollars for 72,000 people, mostly Corinthian and ITT Tech students. Organizing works. This is just the beginning, and we can’t stop now. If we keep fighting together, we can cancel all student loan debt. We’re going to take the energy from this win to kick off our big week of actions.

Let’s celebrate our victories as we continue to fight for justice. Join the Debt Collective at 4 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. MT / 1 p.m. PT Sunday, March 28 to celebrate and to kick off our week of action to fight for full cancellation and College for All.
RSVP
We will be joined by several of the original Corinthian 15 debt strikers. We’ll hear from some people who recently won full debt cancellation, as well as those who are still fighting for justice. And we’ll get excited for full cancellation and our upcoming week of action.
RSVP

Join us to watch the new documentary Seaspiracy!

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86357565418
Meeting ID: 863 5756 5418
Seaspiracy is a follow-up documentary to Cowspiracy. The film explores the way government policy, the fishing industry, and even environmental organizations contribute to the devastation of marine life.
Learn more at https://www.seaspiracy.org/

Please join us to give a public comment in favor of the Berkeley ordinance on militarized equipment,
The zoom link to attend and speak is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88131245345

This is a special meeting convened to consider only the Equipment Ordinance – and will be the last before it goes to the full Council, after the recess, in late April or early May. Public comment will likely be at the beginning of the meeting. The meeting agenda is here.

Send your email comment to: PolicyCommittee@cityofberkeley.info
Subject line: Public Safety comment: Controlled Equipment Ordinance
In Bcc (important that it is bcc) put: council@cityofberkeley.info

Talking points you can include in your email or public comment:

• Ordinance sponsor Kate Harrison has inserted amendments that address points raised in the last meeting of the Public Safety Committee, including reducing the time for Police Accountability Board consideration of equipment if there is a time-sensitive grant opportunity for controlled equipment.
• BPD has said that “standard issue” equipment should not be subject to reporting or use policies. But for people in the community, it doesn’t matter if assault rifles are “standard issue”. If BPD is using these weapons often, the community, Accountability Board and City Council should know how often and in what neighborhoods the weapons are deployed. If they not using assault weapons often, then it is not a reporting burden.
• The Police Review Commission worked extensively on the ordinance to make it clear and respond to Department and community concerns, in more than half a dozen meetings – some of them devoted solely to the ordinance – since last summer. This included an in-depth discussion of what is “use” of militarized equipment to be reported, concluding that “display” of equipment is active and should be included in reports.
• As the comprehensive report on Fair and Impartial Policing pointed out, Berkeley PD uses force on Black people at a rate six times more than white people in Berkeley. This puts Black people at greater risk of being subjected to militarized equipment than white people – another reason why BPD should have clear and reasonable use policies for equipment and transparent reporting on its use.
• There is new academic research, published in December  demonstrating that there is no positive impact on public safety from the acquisition of military equipment. This suggests the importance of documenting the use of such equipment in order make the Department as effective as possible in strengthening community safety.
• The ordinance is modeled after Berkeley’s surveillance equipment ordinance, enacted in 2018, which has the same provisions for use policies, Council approval and reporting. This ordinance fills a gap not addressed by policies on surveillance equipment, use of force, or the reforms adopted by the City Council this week.
• Militarized equipment lacks transparency and civilian-directed decisions on acquisition and use policies. This ordinance creates a process for oversight and transparency about the acquisition and use of militarized gear.
• BPD currently is not required to disclose what or how much equipment it currently has, the financial costs, adverse impacts, alternatives to the equipment, locations of use, whether use was connected to a warrant, whether equipment involves third parties, or number of times the equipment was deployed. This ordinance helps to remedy that lack of transparency.
• The ordinance does not ban any equipment. Instead, it creates a process for civilian oversight and transparency. Oversight can include recommendations from the Police Accountability Board and decisions by City Council to exclude the use of specified weapons in Berkeley.
• The Alameda County Labor Council issued a resolution last year in favor of this ordinance.

Oakland is also moving a similar ordinance forward. We expect it to be introduced in the Oakland City Council sometime soon.

Watch the national livestream

Next Monday marks the last day for Amazon workers in Bessemer to vote on the right to unionize. Following last week’s Moral Monday, when Rev. Barber joined the workers in-person, the PPC is keeping its focus there next week, when the drive to boost voter turnout will reach its peak. Tune in and be a part of this historic fight. We’ve also got three ways you can lend your voice below.

The Amazon union drive has major implications for California
“The Bessemer 6,000,” as Rev. Barber called the Amazon warehouse workers, represent the first viable attempt to organize at an Amazon facility in the US. They’re fighting for workplace dignity – for basics like the right to use the bathroom without harassment aand extended sick time after being infected with COVID-19 on the job. In California there are 153,000 full and part-time workers employed at Amazon facilities. A pro-union win in Bessemer would have an enormous impact here. With a nod to this national resonance, Rev. Barber said that “Bessemer is our Selma” and part of America’s third reconstruction.

Here’s how you can take action in solidarity with Amazon workers

1. Call or email our US senators to demand they pass an immediate increase of the minimum wage for all workers to $15/hr, strengthen union rights and protect the right to vote. You can use this online call tool or this email tool.
2. Create a solidarity video using these talking points. (Be sure to record your video in vertical mode if you’re using your phone.)
3. Speak up on social media! Share your views and/or video on platforms with these hashtags: #PoorPeoplesCampaign #WeAreNotRobots #BAmazonUnion

Watch here: https://www.facebook.com/californiapublicbankingalliance

Next week the next step in bringing public banking to California will be in the news. Since the passage of AB 857, several regions are moving ahead rapidly in establishing public banks to enable cities and local governments to better manage their finances and fund their priorities.

But another concern we have is to improve conditions for those individuals who are ‘unbanked’ or ‘underbanked.’ These folks, many of whom are low-income people of color, are outside the traditional economy, with little or no access to the financial services that most of us take for granted. They are exploited by the para-bank industry�the payday lenders, check cashing and money order services, even pawn shops and prepaid debit card providers—with exorbitant rates and fees.

New legislation, AB 1177, the California Public Banking Option Act, will be introduced next Tuesday, March 30, to address this need. BankCal will offer no-fee checking and savings accounts, educational services, and zero-cost bill pay, fund transfers and auto-deposit to all Californians, and especially the financially marginalized.

Join us for the online press conference as we kick-off this critical bill to bank the unbanked and underbanked!

Speakers include:

• Trinity Tran, California Public Banking Alliance
• Joseph Bryant, SEIU Local 1021 and SEIU California
• Jyotswaroop Bawa, California Reinvestment Coalition
• Assemblymember Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles)
• Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles)
• Assemblymember Ash Kalra (D-San Jose)
• Assemblymember Mike Gipson (D-Carson)
• Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego County)
• Sofia Lima, San Francisco McDonald’s worker
• Maria del Carmen Bentancourt, Oakland McDonald’s worker
• Rene Bayardo, SEIU California

If you represent an organization that would like to join the fight to bridge the racial wealth gap and bring equitable banking services to ALL Californians, click on the link below to add your group to our growing endorsement list.

Organizations: Endorse AB 1177

Individuals: Endorse AB 1177

We hope to see you at the press conference!

TUNE INTO THE LIVESTREAM ON SEIU CA OR CPBA’S FACEBOOK PAGE AT 10AM, TUESDAY MARCH 30:

https://www.facebook.com/SEIUCalifornia/ and

https://www.facebook.com/californiapublicbankingalliance

Digital Toolkit: Share and tweet your support for AB 1177.
The Alliance is gearing up for a big year! Between our local city/county initiatives, the California Public Banking Option Act bill we’re announcing soon with SEIU California and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, and the (federal) Public Banking Act with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, public banking is going next-level in 2021! #PublicBanksNow
STAY TUNED!

Stay tuned for the groundbreaking launch of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Rashida Talib’s Federal Public Banking Act legislation which will pave a path for cities and states across the country to form public banks!
CaliforniaPublicBankingAlliance.org

The Sheriff Democracy and Diversity Act (SB 271) strikes California’s long-standing law-enforcement requirement for those running for the office of County Sheriff. SB 271 reverses the restrictive 1989 law that added law enforcement experience and California peace officer certification as eligibility requirements. SB 271 has the potential to open the role of County Sheriffs to those with a progressive vision for our criminal-legal and immigration systems. By opening the candidate pool, SB 271 would allow us to begin diversifying the office of county sheriff and re-engage disillusioned community members in these critical yet overlooked local elections.

100 members of the Debt Collective are on strike, demanding that Joe Biden cancel ALL student debt within his first 100 days. We have 100 stories, and more than 100 ways that full debt cancellation will change our lives.

Join us for the second installment in our 100 Strikers, 100 Stories series with Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, the stories of strikers and special guests. This call will be held on March 31st @ 8 PM ET/7 PM CT/6 PM MT/5 PM PT! We’ll be live on this Facebook link.

And, be sure and check out our great first installment with Senator Nina Turner and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib here.

https://t.co/b4fzgOXYYA

— BayArea DebtorsUnion (@BayAreaDebtors) March 28, 2021

Join Sunrise Movement in a Congressional recess action to tell Nancy Pelosi to sign the Good Jobs for All Pledge:

“I commit to doing everything in my power to pass legislation that guarantees good jobs for all, invests $10 trillion over the next decade to create millions of union jobs addressing the crises of climate change, economic inequality, and systemic racism, and puts money into the hands of people and communities, not the wealthy few.”

This event is part of a national Congressional-recess mobilization to demand that our representatives pass the real progressive legislation we need. Read more about the Sunrise mobilization for the Good Jobs for All Pledge here

RSVP

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85817209915

Agenda Items of interest:

4. Sanctuary Contracting Ordinance – CPO – presentation of annual report – review and take possible action.
5. Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – DOT – Chinatown Camera Grant impact report and proposed use policy – review and take possible action
6. Mobile Parking Payment Systems for Parking Management and Enforcement – review and take possible action.
7. Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – OPD – presentation of Annual Reports – review and take possible action:
a. Cell-site Simulator
b. Live Stream Transmitter
c. Mobile ID
d. GPS Tag Tracker

Zoom connect

Join us to ask Albany City Council to take a stance against horse racing.
More than 500 horses have died at the Golden Gate Fields horse racing track since 2007. Last November, the track was forced to shut down after a coronavirus outbreak there infected more than 300 people. But it reopened this year and already more than 5 horses are dead. It’s time to shut this place down for good, for the horses and the workers.
—
WHERE: Online, RSVP to receive the call-in link
WHEN: Monday, April 5th 7:30pm
WHO: Everyone is welcome!

How to watch the meeting from home:

1.	Meetings are streamed live and recorded on YouTube (www.YouTube.com/AlbanyKALB)

2.

To listen to the meeting by phone, please call at the noticed meeting time 1 (669) 900-9128, then enter Webinar ID 979 7011 4482, follow by ?#?. When asked for a participant id or code, press ?#?. Instructions on how to join a meeting by phone are available at?https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362663

3.	To observe the meeting by video conference, please go to https://zoom.us/s/97970114482 at the noticed meeting time. Instructions on how to join a meeting by video conference is available at https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362193%20

We're thrilled to be hearing from organizers across the country next week, like @CatsCommentary w/the Anti Police-Terror Project in Oakland.

She's joining our "Digital Dragnet" panel to talk about being surveilled as a protester.

Join us, register here: https://t.co/FdoIsR1Y2o pic.twitter.com/AdjNKAP5Qb

— Mijente 🐜🐜🐜 (@ConMijente) April 3, 2021

The anarchist theorist and anthropologist David Graeber died last year—far too young—and produced an outpouring of grief across the global Left. Occurring as it did, during the last quarter of a long, bleak year, with few prospects of dramatic improvements ahead, the loss of Graeber’s optimism not only of the will, but of the intellect, was felt as a body blow.

Building on James Meadway’s article in Salvage #9, Annie Olaloku-Teriba and Barnaby Raine will host a conversation between James and Hannah Appel—David Graeber’s friend and collaborator—on the lessons offered to the Left by Graeber’s life and thought.

***Register through Eventbrite to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event, and to receive email updates about this and other events. This event will also be recorded and have live captioning.***

This will be the first in the new ongoing Salvage Live events series, hosted by Haymarket Books.

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James Meadway is an economist and former economic advisor to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. He is writing a book on the pandemic and capitalism

Hannah Appel is an anthropologist and activist. She teaches at UCLA, organizes with the Debt Collective, and and is a co-author of Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: the Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition

Annie Olaloku-Teriba is a writer and podcaster whose research focuses on how neoliberalism has transformed the theory and practice of ‘race.’

Barnaby Raine is writing his PhD at Columbia University on visions of ending capitalism. He teaches at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research

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This event is co-sponsored by Haymarket Books and Salvage. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.

*Registering will also add you to the Salvage email list, which will tell you about future events in the series. You can unsubscribe at any time*

“Grandin has always been a brilliant historian; now he uses his detective skills in a book that is absolutely crucial to understanding our present.”  —Naomi Klein, author of No Logo

“Greg Grandin knows the history of modern Guatemala better than anybody else in the world  outside of that country-and therefore understands the nature of U.S. attitudes and action toward Latin America at their most disturbing. This grants him keen insight into the manic ferocity behind U.S. imperialism across the globe today, which he describes in fine, rich, vivid, bitter detail.  Grandin also shrewdly observes that the outrages possible in little U.S. neo-colonies are not so easy to accomplish on a grand scale… —John Womack, author of Zapata

The British and Roman empires are often invoked as precedents to the Bush administration’s aggressive foreign policy. But America’s imperial identity was actually shaped much closer to home. In a brilliant excavation of long-obscured history, Empire’s Workshop shows how Latin America has functioned as a proving ground for American strategies and tactics overseas. Historian Greg Grandin follows the United States’ imperial operations from Jefferson’s aspirations for an “empire of liberty” in Cuba and Spanish Florida to Reagan’s support for brutally oppressive but U.S.-friendly regimes in Central America. He traces the origins of Bush’s current policies back to Latin America, where many of the administration’s leading lights first embraced the deployment of military power to advance free market economics and enlisted the evangelical movement in support of their ventures.

Greg Grandin is the author of Fordlandia, Empire’s Workshop, The Last Colonial Massacre, and the award-winning The Blood of Guatemala. An associate professor of Latin American history at New York University, and a Guggenheim fellow, Grandin has served on the United Nations Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times,The Nation, The New Statesman, and The New York Times. 

Brian Edwards-Tiekert is the founder and co-host of UpFront, the morning drive-time public affairs program on KPFA Radio. He started his work in media helping to set up the Independent Media Center in Chiapas, Mexico, where he also did human rights work. He started at KPFA as a beat reporter covering environmental justice issues, during which time he served as a network correspondent during international climate negotiations and produced live national broadcasts covering elections and political conventions. In 2016, he was awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University.

The Ancestor Forest at Homefulness-honors 3 powerFULL Revolutionary Poverty /Disability Shero Ancestors with a humble a tree planting and prayer bringing ceremony

Kiilu Nyasha, is a revolutionary journalist, Black Panther, Organizer, Poverty /Disability Skola and Mentor to POOR Magazine who transitioned on her spirit journey April 18, 2018

Barbara Brust, is a Poverty /Disability Skola, warrior shero in the Come-Unity and founder of Consider the Homeless in Berkeley, transitioned on her spirit journey Feb 21, 2021

Geraldine Ambrose, a domestic worker, a gentrifUKation victim, poverty disability skola, mama of 3 and grandmomma of so many, who cleaned the toilets and washed the clothes of wealth-hoarders in SF only to be evicted from her home of 40 years to homelessness in Sacramento

Join us in a humble prayer and tree-planting ceremony for these warrior ancestors at the sacred Ohlone/Lisjan land us landless, houseless, indigenous peoples call #Homefulness