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Democratic Socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are raising the expectations of millions of people across the United States and bringing them into a political awakening. The membership of DSA, the largest socialist organization in the United States, is rapidly growing by the thousands. Millions of everyday people are calling for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal rent control, and more.

But what is democratic socialism? What does it mean to be a member of DSA?

Let’s talk about it.

This event will be held on zoom! Click here to join the zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83183193191?pwd=bmxjNkZORUtUQjcxNWJUYlZjWXNJdz09

Join us to discuss what our political moment calls for, make new friends, and get plugged into our fight for democratic control of the things that we need for all of us to live a dignified life.

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

Tonight, 7:30pm Oscar Grant plaza ✊🏼
The Youth Liberation Front in Portland has called for solidarity actions against the federal occupation of their city. https://t.co/3hhfxmMJUD

— Indybay (@Indybay) July 26, 2020

By the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group

People’s Park is at the center of fifteen other officially recognized city landmarks, which collectively are a de facto historic district. They represent the heritage of the 1960s and the context of the larger theme of a century of town/gown relationships. Berkeley became a major target of the New Right conservative backlash with Ronald Reagan promising to “clean up the mess in Berkeley.” The preservation of the community-built park is again threatened by UC Berkeley because of the pressures of over-enrollment that has engendered overreach through university expansion into Berkeley and an attendant drain on city resources. UCB proposes to cover People’s Park with concrete housing monoliths, possibly to be erected by a private firm that will profit from student occupants. This would destroy both a historical legacy and much needed open space when reasonable alternatives are available. If Berkeley all but invented the sixties, surely the city and its university should be able to commemorate that decade by preserving People’s Park as the heart and soul of a vital historic district.

Register here. Space limited.

#DefundOPD It’s not over by a longshot! Speak up at Tuesday’s City Council.https://t.co/aMcVW2M6RB pic.twitter.com/oPMophggzt

— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) July 26, 2020

 Please RSVP for this free event:
 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/is-police-accountability-possible-in-oakland-tickets-112869447556

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84693488061?pwd=M2t3S0dzdkhwN01oZm1hcFpHZS91UT09

In 2018 the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an alarming report, stating that the world needed to steeply cut its carbon emissions and make radical changes in order to limit the planet’s temperature from rising to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. If that goal wasn’t met, the report predicted a horrifying increase in suffering for almost all life and ecological collapses.

In America, this report was met on the political Left by sustained calls for the abolition of capitalist exploitation of people and the planet. The rationale was that capitalism’s imperative for endless economic growth required massive amounts of energy, the vast majority of which is still produced through fossil fuels. Some of the specific responses were reinvigorated support for anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggles by Indigenous peoples, surges in attendance at climate strikes, and great support for proposals like the Green New Deal by elected officials.

East Bay DSA will explore this theme in a Socialist Night School mini-series, co-organized with our Green New Deal Committee. These 3 events will explore what it means to be an ecosocialist, the Red Deal and Indigenous struggle, and how to fight for a Green New Deal after Bernie.

In this first Night School, we’ll get an introduction to ecosocialism, its history, and how we can organize as ecosocialists today from the local to the national and international levels. Our readings will cover a broad swath of socialist history, and we’ll get started with 2 speakers:

Becca Miller has been a member of Boston DSA for two years and is a core member of the Take Back the Grid energy democracy campaign. She recently started her second term on DSA’s nationwide ecosocialism working group steering committee, where she’s been working on a new member onboarding process. Becca works as a campaign manager to increase state funding for a program that helps SNAP recipients afford more fruits and vegetables from local farmers.

Benny Zank is a member of the East Bay DSA Steering Committee and has previously served as co-chair of the chapter’s Green New Deal committee. He has organized as an ecosocialist for several years building strong coalitions with other organizations in the Bay Area and works professionally on addressing environmental issues, like supporting the California Energy Code. Follow him @bread_by_benny.

Priority Readings:

DSA Ecosocialist Working Group Principles

Care and Repair: Left Politics in the Age of Climate Change

Recommended Readings:

Karl Marx on the materials of production

An Ecosocialist Manifesto

Register here

Watch on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/haitiemergencyrelieffund/live

Click here to make a donation to Haiti’s Campaign For Dignity

About Haiti Emergency Relief Fund

Since its inception in March 2004, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has given concrete aid to Haiti’s democratic movement as they attempted to survive the brutal coup against their democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and to rebuild shattered development projects. We urge you to contribute generously, not only for this immediate crisis, but in order to support the long-run development of human rights, sustainable agriculture and economic justice in Haiti.

Learn more at www.haitiemergencyrelief.org

The Chiapas Support Committee presents

¡Viva Zapata Film Series!
rebellious films | películas rebeldes

In partnership with PM Press and A Radical Guide.

Join us online for the second installment of the Viva Zapata Film Series.

We will be screening: The Fourth World War (A Big Noise Tactical Media production; 75 minutes)
Film screening followed by circle discussion with members of the Chiapas Support Committee
Please register here.

The Reality seen through this camera is more real – Subcomandante Marcos

Join us to view and discuss the documentary, The Fourth World War. This film gives us a snapshot of the global protest movements in the early 2000’s against global capitalism and neoliberal politics. The film features the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) and traces the common spirit of resistance, justice, and life between the Zapatistas and the peoples of Palestine, Argentina, Korea, and South Africa.

Afterwards, take part in a discussion about the EZLN, how it has unfolded over the last 26 years and how the Zapatista struggle relates and exists in solidarity with current global struggles today. We are currently living through a capitalist crisis and the people of the world have taken to the streets, from Hong Kong to Seattle, from Minneapolis to Palestine, from Oakland to DC to demand a world where many worlds fit.

Please register by clicking on the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIoc-uhrjIvGNOfld2iPt8QCh0j79dDodGq

About the Film:
From the front-lines of conflicts in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, and the North; from Seattle to Genova, and the War on Terror in New York, Afghanistan, and Iraq, The Fourth World War is the story of men and women around the world who resist being annihilated in this war.

While our airwaves are crowded with talk of a new world war, narrated by generals and filmed from the noses of bombs, the human story of this global conflict remains untold. The Fourth World War brings together the images and voices of the war on the ground. It is a story of a war without end and of those who resist.

The product of over two years of filming on the inside of movements on five continents, The Fourth World War is a film that would have been unimaginable at any other moment in history. Directed by the makers of This Is What Democracy Looks Like and Zapatista, produced through a global network of independent media and activist groups, it is a truly global film from our global movement.

Narrated by Michael Franti and Suheir Hammad

For more information, visit the Chiapas Support Committee’s blog: https://chiapas-support.org

ON BEHALF OF THE CHIAPAS SUPPORT COMMITTEE, please join me on Sunday, August 9, 2020, 2:00-4:00pm.

Can schools be reopened safely with the pandemic out of control? Why do several prestigious scientific and public health organizations push for reopening schools (the National Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Pediatrics; the Centers for Disease Control) — do they really know, is their advice really unbiased, and anyway is this really a strictly scientific decision or is it a social decision to be based on overall well-being?

What will be necessary for schools to reopen safely? Can we learn from the experiences of other nations and communities around the world? This talk will take up these and other related questions — trying to provide answers to some, and to promote dialogue on others.

Jack Gerson is a retired Oakland teacher who thinks about issues related to education, politics, public health and the pandemic — and every once in a while still writes or speaks about them. Before retiring, he was on the executive board and bargaining team of the Oakland teachers union (OEA). Among other things, he helped organize OEA’s campaign to bail out schools not banks and end foreclosures, and the Occupy Oakland education committee’s 18 day occupation of Lakeview Elementary in 2012 to protest school closures. He also has graduate degrees in public health (MPH and PhD in biostatistics).

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 6:15 pm. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 882 4636 7071
Passcode: 2020

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Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, WHOSE STREETS? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance.

Filmmakers Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis know this story because they have lived the story. WHOSE STREETS? is a powerful battle cry from a generation fighting, not for their civil rights, but for the right to live.

Official Selection:

Sundance Film Festival 2017 – World Premiere (U.S. Documentary Competition)

Full Frame 2017

Register: https://29050a.blackbaudhosting.com/29050a/tickets?tab=2&txobjid=0b916a66-f070-433d-81be-5b7a4687bca6

Participation instructions here
In response to Black Lives Matter, the tragic murder of
George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, Bay Area social
justice protests and public demand, the Board of
Directors requests that the General Manager work with
the Board of Directors on an immediate stakeholder
process to develop changes to the BART Police model
that de-emphasize the use of sworn personnel to
respond to homelessness, behavioral health and
substance use, among other issues that do not need an
armed police response. Recognizing that much has
been done to implement progressive and equitable
policing practices, we also need to consider a different
model of public safety that is more effective and
prevents racially biased policing. The goal is to have
recommendations for consideration in October when
the Board considers revisions to this year’s budget.

4. a. BART Police Model Enhancements. For information.
b. Overview of the BART Police Citizen Review Board Model. For information.
c. BPCRB Stakeholder Input and Recommendations. For discussion.
d. BART Board of Directors’ Comments and Feedback. For discussion.

Making sense of data has never been more important. “Big data” in healthcare, education and the economy influences policies that affect billions. The problem? Most of us are woefully unprepared to spot accurate information amid the flood of misinformation and propaganda shared on channels like social media.

University of Washington professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West, authors of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, have made it their mission to help us assess data, separate the accurate from the bogus, and fight back with effective analysis and argument

Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/calling-bs-how-to-spot-data-misinformation-with-professor-jevin-west-tickets-111174313364?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&mc_cid=a332aaba8f

Register: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/discussing-the-dangers/register

Panelists:

•  Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel for The Constitution Project at POGO
• Clare Garvie, Senior Associate from the Center for Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law
• Malkia Cyril, Senior Fellow at Center for Media Justice
• Matt Cagle, Technology and Civil Liberties Attorney for the ACLU of Northern California
• Congressman Jimmy Gomez, (D-CA)
• Senator Jeff Merkley, (D-OR)

Register here

Participate as the Commission continues work to develop a plan for to achieve a health care delivery system for California that provides coverage and access for all through a unified financing system.

The Commissioners are responding to our feedback!
More Opportunities for Public Input.
agenda is available online.

At this meeting, Commissioners will discuss and take an advisory vote on its first deliverable, An Environmental Analysis of Health Care Delivery, Coverage, and Financing in California. They will receive an update on community engagement plans. Finally, members of the Commission will discuss design issues related to financing.

Email your Comments and Stories.
HealthyCAforAll@chhs.ca.gov

Invite Others.

Together we can transform Health Care in California!