Calendar

Join the Gray Panthers.
Alex Werth from East Bay Housing Organizations will discuss “Eviction Moratoriums 101” – a presentation on the status of renter protections in Alameda County, Berkeley, and Oakland.  Slides available with q and a.

If you knew Margy Wilkinson, who died Saturday night, we will take a little time to remember her.

As time permits, we will conclude with member concerns, and action opportunities, including Berkeley Tenants Convention Online candidates forum July 5

To join Gray Panthers Zoom Meeting
Time: July 1, Wednesday 1:30 — This is a recurring meeting most Wednesday’s
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Meeting ID: 510 842 6224
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Other announcements and updates will follow as time permits.

Memory of Margy Wilkinson of Friends of Adeline

Members of the DSA Green New Deal Committee will discuss chapter 4 of “A Planet to Win”.

Anyone who has read the chapter is encouraged to attend.

Details
Where: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88237561151?pwd=S0FocjZ3TjBzeU5vVE5ySHJDZVZTUT09

National CODEPINK is calling for us to organize car caravans and other peace actions on July 4th with the theme being “Independance from War.”
For this banner drop action, we’ll have these messages on banners:
DEMILITARIZE, and MAKE AMERICA LOVE AGAIN.
Thanks to our friend, Barbara for generously offering to make these banners while being totally “sheltered in place!”

All are welcome to join, though we’d most like to be joined by those of you who could walk or ride your bike to the location. (Bernal/Mission/Noe/Glen Park) We already have a smallish crew and plan to stay socially distanced. Please let me know if you’d like to join us: mhubert7 [at] earthlink.net

I also have PEACE and VOTE banners that we could use, and there’s another bridge, within sight (Richland Ave.) that could accommodate additional banners.
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(Wearing a mask and socially distancing required)
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On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery in 1838 at age 20, gave one of his most famous speeches, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro” to the Ladies Antislavery Society of Rochester, New York. We will begin by listening to actor and activist Danny Glover reading a six-minute selection from the speech during a performance of Howard Zinn’s “Voices of a People’s History of the United States“ on October 5, 2005, at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Los Angeles. <https://vimeo.com/1275332>

Following a brief introduction by ICSS member Gene Ruyle, we will have a group discussion of the speech and its significance for today. Come prepared to share your views!

The full text (over 2800 words) of the speech may be found at:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html

Moderator: ICSS Member Sharon Rose

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Every time protests erupt after yet another innocent black person is killed by police, “reform” is meekly offered as the solution. But what if drastically defunding the police – not reform – is the best way to stop unnecessary violence and death committed by law enforcement against communities of color?

The alternative is not more money for police training programs, hardware or oversight. It is to dramatically shrink their function. We must demand that local politicians develop non-police solutions to the problems poor people face. Instead of giving them more money for pointless training programs, let’s divert that money into building up communities and individuals so we don’t “need” violent and abusive policing.

What is the origin of the modern police force? What functions do police serve in a capitalist society? What does defunding the police actually look like? Could society really function without the police?

Join us on Zoom as we discuss these questions and more, with a talk from featured speaker Brian Bean.

Priority Reading

Interview with Alex Vitale “Policing Is Fundamentally a Tool of Social Control to Facilitate Our Exploitation” Jacobin (10 min read) **New York-based sociologist Alex Vitale weighs in on the  failures of police reform efforts and why reducing police power is one of the best solutions available for combating systemic racism and advancing working-class interests.**

Other Recommended Readings/Videos

Brian Bean The Socialist Case Against the Police Rampant (30 min read) **Police don’t solve, stop or prevent crime because they were never designed to. Cops are the tools of the bosses, from the day they were invented to today**

Brian Bean Abolish the Police Rampant (30 min read) **Cops are not part of the working class and perform no socially beneficial function. Only good things can result from abolishing the police.**

Where: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84783105991?pwd=Tlk5SENqWHFHV216M1lSZkRtUGk2dz09

Zoom Link
Webinar ID: 979 4670 3278
Password: 611741

In 2019, with your support, we passed AB 857, the Public Banking Act, empowering cities and regions to create our own banks. In 2020, economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing local governments across the state to cut staff, services, and vital programs at a time when they are most needed. We must bring desperately needed funds into urban and rural communities ignored by Wall Street banks.

AB 310 proposes emergency COVID-19 relief by transferring 10% of California’s Pooled Money Investment Account (PMIA) into the existing California Infrastructure Bank (IBank). It then requires the IBank to convert into a state depository institution which can leverage funds and lend directly to cash-strapped local governments and small businesses. A California State Public Bank can offer emergency lending and credit to community banks and credit unions, rescue small businesses, and help historically marginalized communities.

We only have 2 months to move this bill through two committees in the Senate, the Senate floor, two committees in the Assembly, and the Assembly floor.

With such a short window, we’re targeting outreach and endorsements to: local government, Democratic central committees, labor, civic organizations, credit unions and community banks, and national, regional and statewide organizations. Just as we did on AB 857, we’ll also coordinate lobbying outreach to over 90 Senate and Assembly offices – except this time, we will do almost all of it virtually.
The California Public Banking Alliance is a grassroots, people-powered effort led by a team of volunteers. We need your help once again in the fight to take on Wall Street and bring about economic recovery for the people of California!

Support the CA State Public Bank with 3 action steps below. Endorse AB 310, send a letter to the Senate from your organization, and use our Action Network letter to email your State Representatives directly. Reach out to calpba@gmail.com with questions, ideas, and support.

3 ACTION STEPS TO SUPPORT A STATE PUBLIC BANK:

1. Endorse AB 310: Organizational Endorsement Form
2. Email your Legislators via Action Network
3. Send a Senate Support Letter from your Organization
Links to our subject-specific one-pagers, fact sheet and FAQ are below, along with our template resolutions.

AB 310 RESOURCES:

Want to know more about OPD’s share of the Oakland budget? Want to learn about the history of APTP’s Defund OPD campaign?

Register for our Defund OPD Teach-In at https://t.co/yGOmYamK7D#defundopd #defundpolice pic.twitter.com/IaMyT2XcUm

— Defund OPD (@DefundOPD) July 3, 2020

We are asking OUR HOUSED neighbors to contribute hygiene supplies, canned food, bottled water, rain gear, tarps, garbage bags, $$ et al on July 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12 to be redistributed on July 19 to encampments in North Oakland dealing with the COVID 19. We will sanitize and package your donations add a hot packaged meal and fresh fruit to the care kits to be distributed to North Oakland Encampments and surrounding encampments.

In order to properly sanitize and maintain social distancing we are collecting the materials a week prior to when we distribute 500 hot meals and care kits. Overflow resources will be distributed by sister orgs throughout Oakland.

Been to a “Heading for Extinction” Talk or seen us in the media? Want to get more involved? Attend a Zoom (video) Orientation Call! Note that this call is phone friendly! If you want to call in by phone, you can call in using the zoom meeting number (disclosed once you sign up).

Sign up here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIkcuuhqzMoG9Gkaji1tKcqCT_J6bDAEEqc

We are asking OUR HOUSED neighbors to contribute hygiene supplies, canned food, bottled water, rain gear, tarps, garbage bags, $$ et al on July 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12 to be redistributed on July 19 to encampments in North Oakland dealing with the COVID 19. We will sanitize and package your donations add a hot packaged meal and fresh fruit to the care kits to be distributed to North Oakland Encampments and surrounding encampments.

In order to properly sanitize and maintain social distancing we are collecting the materials a week prior to when we distribute 500 hot meals and care kits. Overflow resources will be distributed by sister orgs throughout Oakland.

We’re hosting a F*ck Your Budget Assembly to respond to the Oakland City Council’s failure to listen to the demands of thousands of people and 100 community, faith, labor organizations, and small businesses who all agree that we need to Defund the Police and Defend Black Lives.

Guest Speakers:
– James Burch of Anti Police-Terror Project’s #DefundOPD Committee
– Sharena Diamond Thomas of PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY MEDICS (Each One, Teach One)
– Jesse Wiltey of the Melanated Social Work Podcast
– Patricia Moran, Children’s Librarian, Oakland
– Sandra Rodriguez, restorative justice practitioner and trainer

You’re invited to participate in a fishbowl conversation on Zoom about how the city can better spend the $300million that we now spend on the police department.

What does a police free world look like? How can we better spend that money? How much of the city budget should go to housing? To violence prevention? To youth programs? To parks? To libraries?

Agenda:
– Introduction to “Participatory Budgeting” and Guest Speakers
– Fishbowl Conversation with Guest Speakers
– Breakout Rooms: Fill out budget survey (https://cooperative4thecommunity.com/oakland-peoples-budget-survey). A CDP Facilitator will be in each breakout room to answer questions about each city departments and to provide tech support if there are any questions about how to use the survey.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtfuuvqjMuE9NC61mDBlF7vn06Mcu-SV5P

For every victim and every death at the hands of police, there is a mother. Join the Mothers of the Movement as we discuss how to cope with grief, take care of mental health, and turn pain into purpose.

The Town Hall will happen on Zoom: https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/97524099924

Panelists to be announced.
We’ll also stream to Facebook Live. We’ll take audience questions off Zoom and Facebook.

***>> EMAIL STRIKE.DEBT.BAY.AREA@GMAIL.COM FOR ZOOM INFO A FEW DAYS BEFORE THE MEETING. <<***

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts a 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, and How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century.

For our July, August and September discussions we will be reading  ‘The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People’s Economy’ by Stephanie Kelton. (Find it at your local bookstore or through this site.)

For July, we will have read the first two chapters.

For August, we will have read chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6,

For September, chapters 7 and 8.

The book is easy reading, and it would be easy to catch up.  Join us – all are welcome!

Stephanie Kelton’s brilliant exploration of modern monetary theory (MMT) dramatically changes our understanding of how we can best deal with crucial issues ranging from poverty and inequality to creating jobs, expanding health care coverage, climate change, and building resilient infrastructure. Any ambitious proposal, however, inevitably runs into the buzz saw of how to find the money to pay for it, rooted in myths about deficits that are hobbling us as a country.

Kelton was chief economist on the U.S. Senate Budget Committee (minority staff) and an advisor to the Bernie2016 presidential campaign. Kelton is a regular commentator on national radio and television and speaks across the world at large gatherings of people interested in global finance, political economy and public policy. She has superb connections in all areas of print and broadcast national media. Her op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg.

For July, we will also have read two shorter pieces, following up on themes we have taken up in previous readings:

• The Neoliberal Era is Ending – What Comes Next? by Rutger Bregman
• From Banks and Tanks to Cooperation and Caring.

We are asking OUR HOUSED neighbors to contribute hygiene supplies, canned food, bottled water, rain gear, tarps, garbage bags, $$ et al on July 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 & 12 to be redistributed on July 19 to encampments in North Oakland dealing with the COVID 19. We will sanitize and package your donations add a hot packaged meal and fresh fruit to the care kits to be distributed to North Oakland Encampments and surrounding encampments.

In order to properly sanitize and maintain social distancing we are collecting the materials a week prior to when we distribute 500 hot meals and care kits. Overflow resources will be distributed by sister orgs throughout Oakland.

Monthly interfaith prayer meeting, held on second Sundays, dedicated to healing.

The Bahá’í community of Oakland is organizing this gathering for the community to connect, share prayers, writings and poems from all spiritual traditions, reflect and recharge and build coalitions interested in healing.

“Thy name is my healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verily, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.” ~ Bahá’u’lláh

“Remember the saying: ‘Of all pilgrimages the greatest is to relieve the sorrow-laden heart.'” ~ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Topic: Interfaith Devotions for Healing and Protection
Time: This is a recurring meeting Meet anytime

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July Meeting Zoom Facebook Event

June meeting Zoom URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/92725611668, Facebook event.

May meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/92725611668

Meeting ID: 927 2561 1668
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Meeting ID: 927 2561 1668
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Green Sunday: Political Courage and Racial Justice  

A conversation between Aidan Hill and Cheryl Davila, who are both running for political office in the Nov. 3rd, 2020 election. Both candidates have expressed a deep renewal of political affairs in the covid-19 world. They will discuss ways to combat climate change and military industrialism in cities as well as ending racism and xenophobia and other related intolerances in the Bay Area. Join us for this discussion regarding what it means to run for office, the impacts and the struggles of doing so, and how to create lasting change.

Speakers:

Berkeley Councilmember Cheryl Davila (She/Her) never imagined being an elected official. She simply stepped up to be ”part of the change you want to see made,” answering the call for regular, ethical people to run for office. Cheryl gained national and international attention while serving on the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission, when she called for Berkeley to divest from investments that benefited from Israel’s apartheid state and its oppression of Palestinians. Since being elected to represent District 2, she has remained a staunch defender of progressive issues on the city council.

Aidan Hill (They/Them) moved to Berkeley in 2016, pursuing a bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley and joined the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) to reduce single-use plastics in California. Currently, Aidan serves as the Vice-Chair of the City of Berkeley Homeless Commission, authoring resolutions to prioritize clean drinking water, housing assistance, sanitation, and regular waste removal in the city of Berkeley. Aidan is actively fighting to protect People’s Park, the 2.8 acres of green space created during the 1960’s Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, from development, and working with neighbors, small businesses, and student leaders to develop emergency preparedness plans across the city of Berkeley.

Via Zoom: please see access info below

Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows, at 6:30 pm. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

(Followed by County Council business meeting at 6:30. All are welcome to attend)

Time: Jul 12, 2020, 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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Meeting ID: 833 3769 8664

Password: 2020

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Meeting ID: 833 3769 8664