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The Oakland Greens Free Dinner & a Movie Discussion Series is a hybrid community discussion event.

The Whale is a 2022 American drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky and written by Samuel D. Hunter, based on his 2012 play of the same name. The film stars Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Samantha Morton. The plot follows a reclusive English teacher with morbid obesity who tries to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter.

The Whale premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on September 4, 2022. It had a limited theatrical release in the US on December 9, before a wide release on December 21 by A24, grossing $54.9 million against a budget of $3 million. The film received a polarized response; though critics lauded the acting, particularly Fraser, Chau and Sink, the film’s portrayal of obesity-related struggles drew criticism. For his performance, Fraser won the Academy Award, Critics’ Choice Award and SAG Award for Best Actor, while the film also won the Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Chau was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Join the Oakland Greens for this free community event — dinner starts at 6:30 PM and movie promptly at 7 PM.

The Oakland Greens Free Dinner & a Movie Discussion Series is a hybrid community discussion event. Get in persxn & virtual tickets and information thru  http://www.oaklandgreens.org/events  These community engagement hybrid events are held the last Sunday of the month January thru October. All Oakland Greens events are held in community partnership with It’s Your Move Games & Hobbies 4920 Telegraph Ave., Suite B, Oakland, CA.

Please register before 6:00 pm today (Saturday) at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/free-dinner-a-movie-discussion-series-presented-by-oakland-greens-tickets-786786007127?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

I’m writing on behalf of the California Poor People’s Campaign and
Western States Legal Foundation to invite and encourage you to join this
year’s public participatory reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s
prophetic speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence [2].”
Please let me know if you plan to join us Tuesday, April 4, if you’d
like to read a section of the speech, and if your organization would
like to endorse the event by completing this form [4].

This year’s readings are again part of the Poor People’s Campaign
initiative to build support for the Third Reconstruction Agenda to Heal
the Nation: End Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up [5].

An updated “tool kit” for the 2024 readings has been posted by PPC
National Mobilizing Partner, United for Peace & Justice, at Organize a
Public Reading of Dr. King’s “Beyond Vietnam” Speech in your
Community – United For Peace and Justice [6]. In the tool kit, you’ll
find the text of the speech, divided into 16 sections, in English.
You’ll also find an updated introduction for 2024 that connects the
speech to the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

If you can’t make it in-person on April 4, there will be a statewide
online reading at 6:30 pm. Register here.

Background:

On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his tragic assassination, in
his prophetic speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence [2],”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. declared: “I am convinced that if we are
to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must
undergo a radical revolution of values…. we must rapidly begin the
shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When
machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are
considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival [7] has
picked up Dr. King’s unfinished work weaving the interlocking
injustices of systemic racism, systemic poverty, environmental
devastation, militarism and the war economy and a distorted moral
narrative of Christian nationalism that blames poor people for their own
poverty, into one “moral fusion” campaign.

Please join us on April 4! Let me know if you have any questions or can
volunteer to help.

Links:
——
[1] http://www.wslfweb.org
[2] https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
[3] https://www.bart.gov/stations/12th
[4] https://forms.gle/mzub2CYautNwNPmi6
[5]
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/join-us-as-we-build-the-third-reconstruction/
[6]
https://www.unitedforpeace.org/organize-a-public-reading-of-dr-kings-beyond-vietnam-speech-in-your-community/
[7] http://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org
[8]
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ba-ppc-sg/0dd5c271-c229-46fd-bda5-645e7cf0cf10%40earthlink.net?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer

This Friday, March 22nd from 3-7pm we are excited to do a soft launch of The People’s Clinic!

The People’s Clinic is an abolitionist wellness and recovery center for people impacted by state/police violence and frontline organizers taking action against genocide.

(1/3) pic.twitter.com/aN3uXvzkrf

— Anti Police-Terror Project (@APTPaction) March 21, 2024

Join the Haiti Action Committee for this unique
opportunity to hear from leaders of Fanmi Lavalas, the people’s party of Haiti. As the
crisis in Haiti continues to unfold, the popular movement, including Fanmi Lavalas and
other grassroots organizations, strives to put in place a truly legitimate government to
deal with the crisis that the US has created.

Dr. Maryse Narcisse and Joel Edouard “Pacha” Vorbe will be joining us via zoom.

The event will be held 1-3 p.m. at Eastside Arts Alliance, 2277 Internat’l Blvd in Oakland as well as live-streamed on youtube.

Saturday, April 6th Award-winning journalist, and host of Democracy Now! Amy Goodman will be in Berkeley to honor KPFA’s 75 years of building community trust. Amy has a long and valued relationship with KPFA and will offer her unique perspective on our 75-year history. Tickets are now on sale! Get yours early and support the Bay Area’s truly independent media outlet.

Welcome to the Public Bank East Bay (PBEB). We are creating the first regional public bank in
the United States in over a hundred years, where our public money will be used for the public
good. The PBEB will be capitalized by the municipalities of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and
the County of Alameda.  The PBEB will also take deposits from these three cities and the
County. The deposits will provide money to make partnership loans to community- based small
businesses, Land Trusts, Co-ops, and other efforts to advance important projects in the East
Bay in the areas of housing and facilitating home ownership, small businesses/entrepreneurship
, and clean energy. We will help your local Community Banks, Credit Unions, and CDFIs by
partnering with them, sharing risk and reducing borrowing costs, which will allow us all to create
policies that promote equity in lending.

You are invited to join the Friends of the Public Bank East Bay and other community groups and
allies at a Town Hall to learn more about the proposed bank. RSVP

We want to hear from you!  At the Town Hall you will have the opportunity to learn more about
the PBEB, ask questions, and most importantly provide your input on what products and
services you would like the PBEB to provide.

On this zoom you will have the opportunity to meet the newly-hired CEO and PBEB Board
Candidates.

Who should come?� Community groups, allies and folks who want to learn more.

Topics to be covered include PBEB support for:

• Innovative Small business – including co-op lending
• Affordable Housing and Facilitating Homeownership
• Green Energy
• Land Trusts

When?  Tuesday April 9th, 2024, 11am – 12:30pm

Where? Join Zoom

We very much look forward to meeting with you on April 9th. � RSVP

Flyers about the business plan are available in English and Espanol. Please write to publicbankeastbay@gmail.com if you want digital copies.

Take action for social, economic, and racial justice in California
 Do you believe housing should be a constitutional human right in California?
So do we.

Join us this week for a town hall to hear more about the efforts to realize housing as a human right in California with special guests:

• Former United Nations Rapporteur Leilani Farha
• California Assemblymember Matt Haney, author of ACA 10
• Policylink’s Housing Director Rasheedah Phillips, and
• Professor Farah Hassen.

Event co-hosts include UCLA’s Promise Institute on Human Rights, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Housing Now!, ACLU California Action, Policy Link, National Homelessness Law Center, Power CA Action, and Western Center on Law and Poverty.

What: Panelists will explore how international human rights principles can inform our housing justice work in California, how a human rights framework applies to housing policy at the state and local levels, as well as the status of the campaign to pass ACA 10 — a bill to enshrine the human right to housing in the state constitution. Audience Q&A to follow.

Where: The event will be mostly virtual via Zoom, but there will be a small gathering in Los Angeles for anyone who wants to join in-person.

• In-person details: Room 1337 at the UCLA School of Law campus, located at 385 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90095.

Register to Join Virtually Here

We hope to see you there!

ACCE Action
https://www.acceaction.org/

Calling all Bay Area journalists: May 11 marks 2 years since the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh. Had Israel faced accountability for her killing, maybe some 140 Palestinian journalists wouldn’t have been killed. Come gather and mourn at this family friendly vigil. Wear black. pic.twitter.com/R0ToMmaqdj

— Isabeau Doucet (@IsabeauD_) April 30, 2024

In “sacrifice zones” around the country, communities — especially low-income communities and people of color — have been struggling against the effects of nearby oil, gas, and plastic production facilities.

Five speakers from these frontline communities will gather to share their stories and describe ways they are organizing to defend themselves.

Meg, an organizer with Speak Out Now and an environmental activist in Baltimore. She is actively organizing community and worker efforts to confront the fossil fuel industry and the capitalist system that drives it in areas like Curtis Bay, a neighborhood in South Baltimore, that houses the second largest coal export pier in the US and the largest medical waste incinerator in the US.

Art worked for 36 years with US Steel in the coke manufacturing plant in Clairton, PA and was involved with the safety and civil rights committee with the union. Now he is an organizer with Valley Clean Air Now (VCAN) in Allegheny County, PA and speaks out about the health and safety issues related to coal byproducts.

Carly is a resident of Beaver County, PA, across the state line from the East Palestine, OH ` train derailment. After the derailment and subsequent vent and burn, she and her family faced multiple health problems and she saw had no choice but to organize and advocate for herself and her community.

Elise is an environmental organizer and attorney from West Virginia who has spent decades organizing with others across the country against chemical spills and coal extraction and for autonomy for people everywhere.

David is a resident of Curtis Bay, an industrial neighborhood in South Baltimore. He started organizing around crime in the area, but realized it was connected to the poverty and pollution imposed by huge coal, chemical, and waste industries that we must confront.

or online:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82158800683?pwd=N2J6UjgxNWhNak1WRWdUdm9CUit4QT09

Meeting ID: 821 5880 0683
Passcode: 340756

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274

A dual focus.  The first focus will be on the results of last month’s primary election, especially with respect to the positions we took in our Green Voter Guide (see: https://acgreens.wordpress.com/voter-guides/ ).  We’ll discuss election surprises (such as Nikki Bas’s substantial lead over John Bauters for County Supervisor, and Kathryn Lybarger’s 4th place finish behind Arreguin, Beckles, and Kalb, for State Senate); as well as disappointments (including Jennifer Esteen’s loss to Nate Miley for County Supervisor, Lupe Angulo’s loss to Janevette Cole for County School Board, and Katie Porter’s distant 3rd place finish in the U.S. Senate contest).  And we’ll also discuss the victories, such as the passage of all of the ballot measures we endorsed, Margot Smith’s “Top Two” qualification for State Assembly, Angela Normand’s re-election to the County School Board, and Mark Fickes win for Superior Court Judge.

Our second focus will be on moving forward to the November general election, including the “runoff elections” between Jovanka Beckles and Jesse Arreguin for State Senate, and between Nikki Bas and John Bauters for County Supervisor.  And we’ll also cover the City Council and School Board elections in Berkeley and in Oakland, Berkeley’s Mayoral race, and of course the Presidential contest.

Please join us tonight at this key moment for our collective future.  As we wrote in our most recent Green Voter Guide, this is truly a year of monumental elections.

Bill Balderston is a Green Party County Council member and a regular contributor to our “Green Voter Guide”.  He has been a long-time leader and organizer with the OEA, the Oakland teachers’ union, and he is also active with Alameda Labor Council, East Bay DSA, and System Change, Not Climate Change.  He has been involved with peace and anti-imperialist organizing, on Vietnam, South Africa, Palestine, and Central America.

Brian Donahue is a longtime Green Party member and contributor to our “Green Voter Guide”.  He has also been an activist on school and local government issues for many years, and in 2022 was a candidate for the Emeryville School Board.  Brian was a co-founder of Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), which was able to elect every City Council member during their 14-year existence, and he also is the editor of the Emeryville Tattler news blog.

Greg Jan has served on the Alameda County Council for many years and is the coordinator of our “Green Voter Guide”.  He is also a member of the state party’s Coordinating Committee and is co-chair of its Candidates Committee.  He helped to organize the East Bay Green Alliance back in 1985 and in the early 1990’s helped with the founding of our state party.  Since that time, he has also worked on a number of Green Party campaigns, including for Dona Spring, Dan Hamburg, Peter Camejo, Aimee Allison, Laura Wells, and Jill Stein.

Negeene Mosaed is deeply engaged in progressive grassroots organizing in Berkeley.  She is the Chair of the Berkeley Tenants Union, serves on the steering committee of Berkeley Citizens Action, and in 2022 was a candidate for Berkeley’s Rent Board.  She is of Iranian ancestry and has deep roots with the Iranian people’s movement for liberation.  Negeene also is a member of Friends of Adeline and the owner of Berkeley Community Physical Therapy, the only clinic serving Medi-Cal and Medicare, and most types of insurance, and having the lowest cash pay rate in the greater Bay Area, as a commitment to serve and provide the highest quality of care to all community members.  Most recently, Negeene has been involved in organizing for a ceasefire resolution in Palestine, at the Berkeley city Council, and is one of the lead organizers of this growing and very active movement in Berkeley.

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274
Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k39IUnw59

This Friday, March 22nd from 3-7pm we are excited to do a soft launch of The People’s Clinic!

The People’s Clinic is an abolitionist wellness and recovery center for people impacted by state/police violence and frontline organizers taking action against genocide.

(1/3) pic.twitter.com/aN3uXvzkrf

— Anti Police-Terror Project (@APTPaction) March 21, 2024

People’s Park 55th Anniversary 4/20 street fest is this Saturday, noon till night, on Telegraph Ave! Come embrace the spirit of People’s Park and enjoy FREE performances, food, games, arts and crafts, political organizing, harm reduction, and more 💚
Free People’s Park! pic.twitter.com/NoDyf8FLxz

— Mama Lisa (@LisTeague) April 18, 2024

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.

For our April meeting we will be reading  Wealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and the Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today’s Crises, by Marjorie Kelly (Amazon, Penguin)

“This bold manifesto exposes seven myths underlying wealth supremacy, the bias that institutionalizes infinite extraction of wealth by and for the wealthy, and is the hidden force behind economic injustice, the climate crisis, and so many other problems of our day:

• • The Myth of Maximizing: No amount of wealth is ever enough.
  • The Myth of Fiduciary Duty: Corporate managers’ most sacred duty is to expand capital.
  • The Myth of Corporate Governance: Corporate membership must be reserved for capital alone.
  • The Myth of the Income Statement: Income to capital must always be increased, while income to labor must always be decreased.
  • The Myth of Materiality: Profit—material gain—alone is real, while social and environmental damages are not.
  • The Myth of Takings: The first duty of government must be the protection of private property.
  • The Myth of the Free Market: There should be no limits on the field of action of corporations and capital.

Kelly argues instead for the democratization of ownership: public ownership of vital services, worker-owned businesses, and more. And she sketches the outlines of a non-extractive capitalism that would be subordinate to the public interest. This is an ambitious reimagining of the very foundations of our economy and society..”

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included (in chronological order) Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth,  Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Beyond Money, Less is More,  Cannibal Capitalism,  Debt, the First 5000 Years , Poverty, By America, End Times, Jackson Rising Redux , The Feminist Subversion of the Economy and How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World.

Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc.. The program (and recording) will begin at 10:30 am and will end at 12:30pm. Join Zoom Meeting: