Calendar

The union-led 2011 occupation of the Wisconsin statehouse previewed Occupy and was a pivotal moment in the rebirth of organized labor in the US. Join us for an online movie night & discussion about it at 6:00 tonight! RSVP for a Zoom link at https://t.co/ixo3jmhpPl pic.twitter.com/TW2zABxAAE

— East Bay DSA 🌹 (@DSAEastBay) February 21, 2021

Tune into Webinar #2 in the Climate Safe California series, hosted by The Climate Center:

PHASING OUT FOSSIL FUELS: A JUST TRANSITION IN THE OIL & GAS DRILLING AND REFINING SECTORS

register here

How do we transition away from fossil fuels while ensuring a just transition for workers and communities? Speakers will discuss the current impacts of fossil fuel production on frontline communities and what needs to be done to address them, a plan for decommissioning California refineries, and the possibility of enacting a fracking ban. What does the clean energy future look like? Register below.

Speakers

Ingrid Brostrom, of theCenter on Race, Poverty & the Environment, has legal and policy expertise in environmental justice: toxics, climate justice, and land-use, with an emphasis on hazardous waste, oil and gas, and Just Transition.

Gustavo Aguirre Jr, a California native whose parents were farm workers and traveled from the coast to the desert following the seasonal crops, is a longtime social justice activist who has represented environmental justice communities on various state panels.

Greg Karras is an independent consultant with over 35 years of experience as a Senior Scientist for Communities for a Better Environment, author of the recent report, Decommissioning California Refineries: Climate and Health Paths in an Oil State.

Steve Garey is a retired refinery worker who has spent 25 years working for both Shell and Tesoro in their refineries in Washington State. He served as President of United Steelworkers Local 12-591 from 2010 until his retirement in 2015. Since then he has served on the executive committee of the Washington State Blue Green Alliance and on the steering committee of the Climate Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy in Washington.

Join energy policy experts as they unmask the false climate solutions now being promoted by big energy corporations and their enablers.

RSVP to get link

The word is they’ve given up on climate change denial and are now moving to promote false solutions to protect their bottom line. These false solutions are a distraction intended to derail efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Big Ag is trying to get in on the action too.

So they’re promoting things like elaborate pay-to-pollute schemes like cap-and-trade and carbon pricing, as well as unproven technology like carbon capture. “Renewable” biogas would prop up the unsustainable factory farm system without reducing methane emissions.

Learn how these schemes work, how they fall short of the urgent climate action we need, how thy disproportionately impact low income and environmental justice communities — and what we can do to counter this campaign.

Panel:

• Dr. Tamra Gilbertson, the carbon pricing education coordinator and climate change policy advisor of the Indigenous Environmental Network
• June Sekera, a Visiting Scholar at The New School for Social Research and public policy manager with over 30 years of experience at the federal, state and local levels of government
• Jim Walsh, the Senior Energy Policy Analyst for Food & Water Watch, working with state and national organizations to educate decision makers on policies that help facilitate a rapid and just transition off fossil fuels

We have to understand these dirty tricks so we can explain them — and prevent them from being used to stop what we really need to do: Keep It In the Ground!

Sponsored by Food and Water Watch

Celebrating the Music and Art of Oakland four “must see events” on Thursdays, February 4, 11, 18, 25 2021 from 11-12pm. Presentations and performances by Street Spirit, Youth Spirit Art Work and others. Hosted by St. Mary’s Center Senior Advocates for Hope and Justice.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85704068720?pwd=QXJ3T05sUURtL0JIYzk5eEpnSDJDUT09

Zoom Meeting ID 857 0496 8720
Passcode 472245

RSVP to jcastillo@stmaryscenter.org

Agenda and connection information here

The Future of People’s Park

UC Berkeley’s plan to build a 17-story high rise on People’s Park, which would destroy the historic and cultural legacy and an irreplaceable natural environment, has brought together writers, historians, students and park activists to oppose this ill-considered project.

This Zoom event, hosted by the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group, will present the historic background of the park, give details on the effort to recognize its national landmark status, and share plans for revitalizing this invaluable public open space.

The goal of this meeting is to develop strategies for taking our message to the broader Berkeley community, as well as the mayor, city council, UC Berkeley, state legislature and regents.

Presenters to include:

Tom Dalzell- author of The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969

Steve Wasserman � Participant and Activist during 19969

Max Ventura � People’s Park Committee

Aidan Hill � Former Berkeley Mayoral Candidate/UCB Student

Length of event: hour and a half

Introductory remarks and moderator – Harvey Smith

Each presentation 8 minutes with 4 minutes of submitted questions

Group discussion following and additional questions from viewers

Closing remarks – Harvey Smith

Join Zoom Meeting
https://sfsu.zoom.us/j/82773453022?pwd=UVEySUcvc0NUZlZwQ3ZvcS9YUC8zZz09

Meeting ID: 827 7345 3022
Passcode: 680198
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,82773453022#,,,,*680198#US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,82773453022#,,,,*680198#US (Tacoma)

Access info
 
The anti-war movements in the US and across the globe were at their peaks through the first years of the post-9/11 wars.  They were broad, diverse, international, and powerful.  They did not succeed in preventing the 2003 US/UK invasion of Iraq, but they set the stage for future movements and future victories, including stopping US bombing campaigns in Syria and escalation in Iran, parts of the Arab Spring uprisings,  and more.  By the time the Obama administration came into office in 2008, the movement in the US was already facing new challenges.  And over the next several years its power, size, breadth, and influence  had all diminished.  Many blamed it on “oh the peace movement was just too enthralled with Obama” and they stopped working.  But that claim, while holding a grain of truth among a few sectors of the movement, does not explain the changes.  Phyllis will discuss that history, and look forward to today’s legacy and new anti-war organizations, and the rise of anti-war/anti-militarism components in a broad range of intersectional organizations.

About the speaker: Phyllis Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., where she directs the New Internationalism Project, focusing on Middle East, U.S. wars and UN issues. For many years she has been a role model for those who would change US foreign policy by combining activism with crucial research and analysis.  In 2001 Phyllis helped found the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, and now serves on the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She works with many anti-war and Palestinian rights organizations, writing and speaking widely across the U.S. and around the world. She has served as an informal adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East issues and was twice short-listed to become the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Phyllis has written and edited eleven books. Among her latest is the just-published 7th updated edition of her popular Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. Other important works include Before & After: US Foreign Policy and the War on Terror and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments and the UN Defy U.S. Power.

Phyllis Bennis is an American writer, activist, and political commentator. Focusing mainly on issues related to the Middle East and the United Nations, she is a strong critic of Israel and the United States and a leading advocate of Palestinian rights.

The Oakland Greens present the February 2021 Virtual Townhall

With nazis feeling emboldened to come out the closet, it is more important we find ways to accept each other despite our own ideas. The Oakland Greens Virtual Townhalls are designed to hear your ideas & thoughts. At these events we want to listen to you, not talk at you. Join us in ZOOM Sunday February 28 room opens at 5:45 PM PST, discussion at 6:15 PM PST, with unique topics with unique discussions.

These are donation only events and as always  NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.

Find tickets @ https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-oakland-greens-30818034656

Find more info go to our Facebook:

www.facebook.com/oaklandgreens

and

web site: www.oaklandgreens.org

Contact email:

contact@oaklandgreens.org

https://acgreens.wordpress.com/
Express your green ideas and “like” us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenpartyofalamedacounty/

Participation and/or donations appreciated!  https://acgreens.wordpress.com/donate/
FLIER to print, post, distribute please:
https://acgreens.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/gpcaac_gs.png

Watch film for FREE here: https://vimeo.com/505335690

Register for Q&A w/ director at 3 PM PT here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/call-center-blues-live-qa-with-the-director

This year at the 93rd Academy Awards there’s only one film that focuses on immigration:

“Call Center Blues”. Directed by an immigrant woman filmmaker, Geeta Gandbhir,

it depicts deportees grappling with loss, love and the rebuilding of their lives and community in Tijuana, Mexico.

Many times, the stories of those who’ve been detained or deported are framed in a negative way to scare the public. This leads to policies that abandon much of our immigrant community and prevent policies that would otherwise protect people or reunite families.

The film “Call Center Blues” shows an honest portrayal of life after deportation and the cruelty of the deportation force without ever showing ICE’s side of the story, and it is one that is particularly important and must be heard — both at the Oscars and by President Biden and Congress.

Capitalist & Ecological Crises & Socialism

Check here for Zoom info near to date 

Forest fires in California, thawing of ice in the arctic, Glacier melting in The Himalayas, floods and bitter cold in Texas; and the Covid pandemic are all tied to the global warming from cumulative effects of capitalist commodity production over the past 200 years. Air pollution in much of world has worsened. Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and China taking the role of a biggest commodity producer for the world; other than tiny Cuba, there is no model of development that does not contribute to worsening of the ecological crisis all over the world. Class differentiation is leading to right-wing populism, threatening social peace in many countries. The internal contradictions of capital are extreme. To survive, capitalism requires even more exploitation of natural resources and human beings of the world, witness the farmers fighting capitalist predation laws in India. Result of all this is more pollution of air, sea and land on a scale that is undermining the very basis of healthy human existence on earth. Can the alienated individualism and consumerist way of life created by late stage capitalism be ended by a new socialist revolution? Can a new socialism build a healthy materially adequate society for all human beings which lives in balance with Nature?
Our Spesker, ICSS Member Raj Sahai will explore ideas and invite discussion with the participants, in a work in-progress.