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While as Democratic Socialists, we all agree on the need to go beyond Social Democracy, we will be reading a few articles about the successes and limitations of social democratic movements around the world and discussing what we can learn from them and incorporate into our actions as Democratic Socialists.

** Note that this will mostly be a discussion with a very light presentation at the start, so to get the most out of it please read the readings ahead of time. **

Articles: TBD

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 Dr. Bart Ostro, Dr. Heather Kuiper, and Dr. Nicholas Spada will share results of their new research comparing particulate emissions from trains in Richmond. The scientists documented significantly more PM 2.5 pollution from trains containing coal than from empty coal trains, passenger trains, and other freight trains, as NCIO reported late last month.

These scientists will explain their findings and answer our questions in a Zoom-based community meeting. After their report and dialogue with us, Oakland and Richmond residents will meet in separate breakout rooms to discuss next steps for our campaigns, including how we can use this new information to alert our neighbors to the dangers of coal traffic in our communities.

To get the Zoom link for the Town Hall, please RSVP here.

~No Coal in Oakland

The City of Hayward and Chabot Community College District are convening people from community colleges, municipalities, and nonprofits to “foster greater collaboration, improve our collective capacity to receive funding, and increase the effectiveness of our response to the climate crisis.”  The emphasis is on making sure that colleges, local governments, and nonprofits work collaboratively on climate action with an emphasis on social justice.

The interactive event will bring people from all these sectors to share tools and start planning future collaboration.  Students from community colleges will also share their research and perspectives.

Info/register here

Lunch provided.

Oakland Community Townhall on MARCO.

Register in advance: https://t.co/SbvOpkNXRu pic.twitter.com/08SdpPLRVe

— The Black Elle Woods (@BlkElleWoods888) April 28, 2023

The world working class and unions of the world are facing a major global struggle as the crisis of capitalism drives towards dictatorship and world war. Steve Zeltzer will look at the declining US imperialist empire and the intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry and the growing move towards a world war that threaten workers and people of the world.

He will also look at the increasing attacks on the unions and the escalation of attacks on the working class to pay for the crisis.

This also takes place in the midst of the frenzied development of AI and the likely loss of hundreds of millions of jobs as not only the skilled manual worker but writers, doctors, architects, software engineers, and attorneys face loss of jobs. It also plays a key role in the military-industrial complex and preparation for war.

This is also combined with the global climate crisis, which is threatening the lives and jobs of workers and people worldwide.

This presentation will look at the global attacks on unions, how they are fighting back, and what is required for unions and the working class not only to defend their jobs and livelihood but to go on the offensive on a global scale.  The internet, which is a tool for greater profits by the capitalist class, can also be a tool for internationalism and the development and advance of a new world working class that fights for power and resolves this historic struggle for survival not only of the working class but humanity.

This is also the first time in history that the world working class can be linked up simultaneously in not only organizing but using these tools in the fight for power.

Our speaker, Steve Zeltzer,  is a member of CWA NewGuild Pacific Media Workers Guild and founder of LaborNet, Labortech, and Laborfest. He is a member of the United Front Committee For A Labor Party and a producer of WorkWeek on KPOO.com and with Pacifica Radio Network where he is a producer of Covid, Race, and Democracy

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From the Polk Award–winning investigative duo comes a critical look at the systematic corruption and brutality within the Oakland Police Department, and the more than two-decades-long saga of attempted reforms and explosive scandals.

No municipality has been under court oversight to reform its police department as long as the city of Oakland. It is, quite simply, the edge case in American law enforcement.

The Riders Come Out at Night is the culmination of over twenty-one years of fearless reporting. Ali Winston and Darwin BondGraham shine a light on the jackbooted police culture, lack of political will, and misguided leadership that have conspired to stymie meaningful reform. The authors trace the history of Oakland since its inception through the lens of the city’s police department, through the Palmer Raids, McCarthyism, and the Civil Rights struggle, the Black Panthers and crack eras, to Oakland’s present-day revival.

Readers will be introduced to a group of sadistic cops known as “The Riders,” whose disregard for the oath they took to protect and serve is on full, tragic, infuriating display. They will also meet Keith Batt, a wide-eyed rookie cop turned whistleblower, who was unwittingly partnered with the leader of the Riders. Other compelling characters include Jim Chanin and John Burris, two civil rights attorneys determined to see reform through, in spite of all obstacles. And Oakland’s deep history of law enforcement corruption, reactionary politics, and social movement organizing is retold through historical figures like Black Panther Huey Newton, drug kingpin Felix Mitchell, district attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, and Mayor Jerry Brown.

This event is being co-sponsored by the National Lawyer’s Guild.

In the 14th century, William of Baskerville (Sean Connery), and his apprentice, Adso of Melk (Christian Slater), travel to an abbey where a suspicious death has occurred. William begins investigating what he believes to be murder. The church leaders call forth Bernardo Gui (F. Murray Abraham), William’s nemesis, to find the truth.

The Oakland Greens Free Movie discussion series is a virtual community building event held on Zoom. A relaxed fun space organized by The Oakland Greens to discuss solutions to local issues that hurt us and many others. Registration is required for this FREE event. Tickets thru Eventbrite, here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oakland-greens-april-2023-free-dinner-movie-discussion-series-tickets-491381765087?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

You are invited to the Municipalism and Labor panel, hosted by the Municipalism Learning Series.

Workers are rising up and taking back cities from capitalists and corporations. Unions are negotiating for benefits for the community and not just members, emerging from behind the fortress. This moment of labor insurgency in the aftermath of the pandemic, which laid bare the disposability of the working class, has echoes in historical struggles to make cities more livable and democratic.

RSVP to receive the Zoom link at http://municipalism.org

Panelists:

BIANCA CUNNINGHAM, Bargaining for the Common Good
CLAUDIA JIMENEZ, Richmond Progressive Alliance
RAND WILSON, Somerville Stands Together
SHELTON STROMQUIST, labor historian

Facilitated by MICHELLE CHEN, host of Belabored podcast

AGENDA ITEMS:

4. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – DPW – Illegal Dumping Cameras
a. Third party sharing (Use Policy Sec. H) notice and report
b. Review and take possible action, including to receive the report and possibly make recommendations to the City Council.

5. Dept. of Transportation – Speed Safety System Pilot Program
a. DOT will present on AB 645 and request a motion of support for the bill. The SOS Initiative aims to prevent severe and fatal traffic crashes, eliminate injury inequities, and carefully assess and mitigate any equity impacts resulting from safety measures. As part of its work, the SOS Initiative has supported the piloting of automated speed enforcement systems in Oakland to address the traffic violence on Oakland city streets and the disproportionate impact traffic violence has on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities, seniors, children, and people with disabilities.
b. Review and take possible action

6. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – Annual Reports
a. Review and take possible action on the annual reports for ShotSpotter, Cell-Site Simulator, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/Drones, Live Stream Camera, and Mobile Fingerprinting ID

7. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – DOT – Parking Mobile Payment System
a. Review and take possible action

Kshama only takes an average worker’s wage, donating the rest to a solidarity fund to support working class people fighting for their rights.

Through Kshama’s office, we’ve won:

– the first $15/hr minimum wage in the country, launching the 15 now movement nationally
– a tax on Amazon’s profits to build affordable, green housing in Seattle
– the nation’s first ban on caste discrimination
– caps on late fees for renters in Seattle

Now Workers Strike Back, initiated by Kshama and Socialist Alternative, is building a movement to take the struggle nationwide.

Come Rally with the Socialist that Didn’t Sell Out!

Click Here to Register!
Check It Out: How Kshama’s Approach is Radically Different from the Democrats
Thank you – Socialist Alternative Bay Area

Join Us to Celebrate People’s Park!

Join the People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group for a moment of refreshments and celebration of the recent appellate court victory and People’s Park’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.

We want to thank the historians, writers, gardeners, everyone who came together and continues to work toward the longevity of Berkeley’s most famous landmark. Tom Dalzell, author of “1969; the Struggle for People’s Park”, will speak, and we’ll have additional speakers to clarify where we are now in our effort to educate and protect People’s Park’s historic national place in history.

We look forward to seeing you, but if you can’t make it and wish to donate to support any legal efforts needed to defend our victory, please go to� http://www.peoplesparkhxdist.org/donate-now/� – GoFundMe, Venmo and check options available.

Long Live People’s Park!

David Bacon will speak about the struggle for housing in rural and urban California.

For background, see David’s latest Photoessay, Wood Street Commons Final Stand.

https://capitalandmain.com/wood-street-commons-final-stand

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Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
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 Climate Chaos: An Existential Crisis — With Ted Franklin (talking about the challenges facing the climate crisis movement), Eugene Coyle (talking about the question of de-growth), and (probably) Steve Ongerth (talking about the efforts to join the struggle within the labor movement).

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Greens.  A hybrid event, at the Starry Plough and on Zoom, via:  https://bit.ly/ClimateChaos-230506

Goldman Sachs bank research this past week published a report that 300,000,000 jobs worldwide will be impacted by the now accelerating introduction of Artificial Intelligence software (machines) that will either eliminate or sharply reduce the hours of work for workers involved in simple decision-making tasks like customer service reps, paralegals, receptionists, retail services, human resources reps, copywriters, basic software coders, and countless other occupations. Its report updates that of five years ago by McKinsey Consultants that estimated 5 million jobs impacted.

Academics hail the news that it will mean a sharp increase in productivity (and therefore profits which they don’t say). But this comes at the expense of destroying jobs and lowering wages. Jobs that might be created by AI will be mostly highly skilled software jobs, many of which the multinational tech and other corporations will import from their foreign subsidiaries via H1-B and L-1 visas from the US government.

Few jobs and greater productivity also mean more intensive exploitation from those workers who will still have work. AI is the latest restructuring of capitalist labor markets in the past five decades that witnessed greater exploitation of labor as a result of the expansion of ‘precarious’ work (involuntary part time and temp jobs) and gig work. AI represents the ‘third wave’ of intensification of the exploitation of labor.

The topic for discussion: what is AI, how it works, and what are the consequences of its adoption for the working class.

Our speaker is Dr. Jack Rasmus, Ph.D Political Economy, teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author of The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy From Reagan to Bush, Clarity Press, October 2019; Alexander Hamilton & The Origins of the Fed, Lexington books, March 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression, Clarity Press, August 2018; Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, Clarity Press, Sept. 2016; Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy, Clarity Press, January 2016; ‘Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few‘, Pluto Press, 2012, ‘Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression‘, Pluto Press, 2010, and ‘The War at Home: The Corporate Offensive from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush‘, Kyklosproductions, 2006.

Jack is the host of the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network, and a journalist writing on economic, political and labor issues for various magazines, including European Financial Review, World Financial Review, World Review of Political Economy, ‘Z‘ magazine, and others. Before his current roles as author, journalist and radio host, Jack was an economist and market analyst for several global companies for 18 years and, for more than a decade, a local union president, vice-president, contract negotiator, and organizer for several labor unions, including the UAW, CWA, SEIU, and HERE. Jack’s website is www.jackrasmus.com

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Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
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The climate crisis is a global emergency. Government action is beginning to turn things around, and yet the pace is still much too slow. Tonight Dr. Bernadette Rodgers will talk about the current state of the climate crisis, and what we can do. She’ll tell us about her own path to activism, the many ways to engage, what activists call the “Ladder of Engagement”, the rise of Scientist Rebellion (among others), and the surprising personal rewards of direct action. We are living in an “all hands on deck” moment, so please join us on May 14th.

Bernadette Rodgers is a PhD Astronomer who spent 12 years working at an International observatory in Chile before moving to Portland, Oregon and changing career paths to commit more time to climate activism. She currently teaches astronomy and natural science at Willamette University and Portland Community College, and volunteers with Scientist Rebellion and the Portland chapters of 350, Extinction Rebellion and Climate Reality, and serves on the board of the national youth organization SustainUS.

On Zoom: Zoom Link