Calendar

9896
Mar
6
Mon
SuDo Room: Women and Nonbinary Coding Nights
Mar 6 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

74589
Mar
13
Mon
Thoughtful Biometrics Workshop @ Online
Mar 13 – Mar 17 all-day

Register

What are the concerns? 
Biometrics and AI are widely used and there are many questions about their ethically and socially appropriate uses.

Questions addressed include:

  • How do they work?
  • How are they being used?
  • What are the dangers of their use?
  • What are appropriate, even good uses?
  • What is the Context, and what are the challenges?
74539
Mar
18
Sat
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: Debt, by David Graeber @ Online
Mar 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

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

For our March, April and May meetings we are reading Debt: The First 5000 Years  by David Graeber (Warwick, Amazon).

For  our March meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.
For  the  April  meeting  we  are  reading  chapters  6 through  9.
For our May meeting will are reading the remainder of the book.

Before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors—which lives on in full force to this day.

So says anthropologist David Graeber in a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Renaissance Italy to Imperial China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong.

We are still fighting these battles today.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut EconomicsLimitsBanking on the PeopleCapital 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 TelescopeMission 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, and Cannibal Capitalism.

74594
Apr
8
Sat
Bay Area Troublemakers School @ Oakland Technical High School
Apr 8 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Bringing together union members, labor activists, and local officers, a Troublemakers School is an incredible space for networking, building solidarity, and sharing successes, strategy, and inspiration. It’s a real shot in the arm for newbies and seasoned activists alike.

You will be inspired. Hear speakers from the front lines of recent struggles.

You will learn new skills. The one-day conference features interactive workshops, panels and meetings, ranging from crucial basic skills like helping your colleagues beat apathy to advanced topics like winning first contracts and running for union office.

Registration (scroll down to bottom): https://labornotes.org/events/2023/bay-area-troublemakers-school


Workshops will include:

  • Beating Apathy
  • Turning an Issue into a Campaign
  • Opening Bargaining
  • Climate Justice and Labor
  • Strikes!
  • New Organizing
  • Race and Labor
  • …and more!

Workshops and schedule subject to change! Detailed program to come.

Registration fee (covers event registration and lunch):
$40 – Regular registration
$15 – Hardship rate registration (choose if you need)

Childcare will be provided. Complete the form that you will receive in an email after you register in order to sign-up for childcare.

Labor Notes is committed to making this event safe for all, including those who are medically vulnerable. Therefore, we strongly encourage masking. Masks will be provided for attendees.
If possible, take a rapid test before you attend. As well, if you are not feeling well, please stay home.

Questions? Ideas? Want to get involved? Email Barbara barbara@labornotes.org

74764
Apr
15
Sat
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: Debt, by David Graeber @ Online
Apr 15 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

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

For our March, April and May meetings we are reading Debt: The First 5000 Years  by David Graeber (Warwick, Amazon).

For  our March meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.
For  the  April  meeting  we  are  reading  chapters  6 through  9.
For our May meeting will are reading the remainder of the book.

Before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors—which lives on in full force to this day.

So says anthropologist David Graeber in a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Renaissance Italy to Imperial China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong.

We are still fighting these battles today.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut EconomicsLimitsBanking on the PeopleCapital 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 TelescopeMission 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, and Cannibal Capitalism.

74594
Apr
24
Mon
Tenants’ Rights Workshops @ Online
Apr 24 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

The Debt Collective:

Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.

74792
May
8
Mon
Tenants’ Rights Workshops @ Online
May 8 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

The Debt Collective:

Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.

74792
May
15
Mon
Tenants’ Rights Workshops @ Online
May 15 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

The Debt Collective:

Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.

74792
May
20
Sat
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: Debt, by David Graeber @ Online
May 20 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

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

For our March, April and May meetings we are reading Debt: The First 5000 Years  by David Graeber (Warwick, Amazon).

For  our March meeting we’ll be reading the first five chapters.
For  the  April  meeting  we  are  reading  chapters  6 through  9.
For our May meeting will are reading the remainder of the book.

Before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors—which lives on in full force to this day.

So says anthropologist David Graeber in a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom. He shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Renaissance Italy to Imperial China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong.

We are still fighting these battles today.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut EconomicsLimitsBanking on the PeopleCapital 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 TelescopeMission 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, and Cannibal Capitalism.

74594
May
22
Mon
Tenants’ Rights Workshops @ Online
May 22 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

The Debt Collective:

Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.

74792
May
29
Mon
Tenants’ Rights Workshops @ Online
May 29 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

The Debt Collective:

Our weekly online Tenants Rights Workshops for California renters. During these training sessions, we talk about the eviction process, reasons so many tenants are facing eviction, and what tenants can and are doing to defend themselves. These meetings are held on Zoom every 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Monday of the month. The next meeting will be held on April 24th at 3 PM Pacific time – you can register here for the meeting.

74792
Aug
24
Thu
Total and Permanent Disability Federal Student Loan Discharge Teach-In @ Online
Aug 24 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

NOTE DIFFERENT TIME FOR AUGUST 30th EVENT!

What the Heck is Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) Federal Student Loan Discharge? Teach-In and Community Discussion. Interested in building solidarity and sharing resources about Disability, Debt, Access and Benefits? Join organizers from our new Disabled Debtors Cohort to learn about recent changes to the TPD discharge process and our plans for what's ahead! Accessibility requests can be made during registration. Register at: bit.ly/TPD24th bit.ly/TPD30th This event will take place twice: Thursday, Aug 24th 7PM/ET/4PM/PT Wednesday, Aug 30th 10PM/ET 7PM/PT Description: dark text on beige. the background is a fun, summery look of swimming pool water and watermelon slices. The Disabled Debtors Cohort is a new Working Group of The Debt Collective. https://debtcollective.org/working-groups/disabled-debtors-cohort/ Please make accessibility requests BEFORE August 21 so we can accommodate them!

75408
Aug
30
Wed
Total and Permanent Disability Federal Student Loan Discharge Teach-In @ Online
Aug 30 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

NOTE DIFFERENT TIME FOR AUGUST 30th EVENT!

What the Heck is Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) Federal Student Loan Discharge? Teach-In and Community Discussion. Interested in building solidarity and sharing resources about Disability, Debt, Access and Benefits? Join organizers from our new Disabled Debtors Cohort to learn about recent changes to the TPD discharge process and our plans for what's ahead! Accessibility requests can be made during registration. Register at: bit.ly/TPD24th bit.ly/TPD30th This event will take place twice: Thursday, Aug 24th 7PM/ET/4PM/PT Wednesday, Aug 30th 10PM/ET 7PM/PT Description: dark text on beige. the background is a fun, summery look of swimming pool water and watermelon slices. The Disabled Debtors Cohort is a new Working Group of The Debt Collective. https://debtcollective.org/working-groups/disabled-debtors-cohort/ Please make accessibility requests BEFORE August 21 so we can accommodate them!

75408
Sep
10
Sun
Copwatch Community Cookout! @ Grassroots House
Sep 10 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Join us Sunday September 10! Stop by or hang out the whole time.
Know Your Rights training 12-2pm.
Share a meal in community 2-4pm!
You are invited Sunday Sept 10!
Delicious lunch grilled and prepped by your copwatch community. A training hosted by copwatch, for first-timers and those wanting a refresher course on their rights.
All are welcome.

Let’s talk about what’s going on in Berkeley, and beyond. We’ve got updates to share, and we wanna hear what you’re seeing and what you’re working on!

RSVP!
(RSVP so we can make sure there’s enough grub to go around!)

75499
Sep
13
Wed
New Copwatcher Orientation @ Grassroots House
Sep 13 @ 7:00 pm – 7:15 pm

New Copwatcher Orientation

Wanna get involved in Berkeley Copwatch? Sign up for an orientation this month. Learn about how we do the work and find where you can plug in!

Wed. September 13, 7:00-8:00pm
Wed. September 21, 7:00-8:00pm

There will be more new copwatcher orientations in the future, please email us if you can’t make the sessions above:
berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Do you want to get involved in Berkeley Copwatch?

Learn more or contact us directly at berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Donate

75500
Sep
21
Thu
New Copwatcher Orientation @ Grassroots House
Sep 21 @ 7:00 pm – 7:15 pm

New Copwatcher Orientation

Wanna get involved in Berkeley Copwatch? Sign up for an orientation this month. Learn about how we do the work and find where you can plug in!

Wed. September 13, 7:00-8:00pm
Wed. September 21, 7:00-8:00pm

There will be more new copwatcher orientations in the future, please email us if you can’t make the sessions above:
berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Do you want to get involved in Berkeley Copwatch?

Learn more or contact us directly at berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Donate

75500
Sep
24
Sun
Mental Health First Volunteer Training @ Online
Sep 24 @ 10:00 am – 5:00 pm

In her journal Octavia E. Butler wrote “All good things must begin.” Abolitionist alternatives to police must begin somewhere, but alternatives can only be sustained when individuals like you come together to build them together.

Mental Health First (MH First) is a project of APTP and Oakland’s first and only non-police, non 9-1-1 crisis response line for mental health crises, including but not limited to psychiatric emergencies, substance use support and intimate partner violence safety planning. We are currently dispatching on a case-by-case basis, and have volunteers on the hotline Friday and Saturday from 2pm to 2am.

We have an MH First volunteer training coming up open to all community members who want to join our team.

Register to join our next virtual MH First training!

The Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. In addition to our MH First services, we support families surviving police terror in their fight for justice, documenting police abuses and connecting impacted families and community members with resources, legal referrals, and opportunities for healing.

Register to join this incredible crew!

75610
Oct
9
Mon
Understanding Socialism with Richard Wolff
Oct 9 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Starting: Mondays, October 9TH @ 4-6PM ET (ONLINE) This class is co-organized by Democracy at Work.

This 4-Week seminar led by Richard Wolff, will begin with an introduction and brief history of world socialism from its 18th-century beginnings to today. We will examine the different kinds of socialism (Soviet, social democracy, democratic socialism, Cuban socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and worker-coop socialism) and likewise examine the differences among socialism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Finally, we will examine critiques of socialism. Throughout, we will be sensitive to different interpretations of socialism and distinguish between socialism as a critical movement within capitalism (how it began) and socialism as an alternative system (how it evolved).

The dates for each of the four sessions are on Mondays: Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th. Online Zoom information will be sent through email upon registration.

REGISTER HERE

75742
Oct
16
Mon
Understanding Socialism with Richard Wolff
Oct 16 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Starting: Mondays, October 9TH @ 4-6PM ET (ONLINE) This class is co-organized by Democracy at Work.

This 4-Week seminar led by Richard Wolff, will begin with an introduction and brief history of world socialism from its 18th-century beginnings to today. We will examine the different kinds of socialism (Soviet, social democracy, democratic socialism, Cuban socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and worker-coop socialism) and likewise examine the differences among socialism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Finally, we will examine critiques of socialism. Throughout, we will be sensitive to different interpretations of socialism and distinguish between socialism as a critical movement within capitalism (how it began) and socialism as an alternative system (how it evolved).

The dates for each of the four sessions are on Mondays: Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th. Online Zoom information will be sent through email upon registration.

REGISTER HERE

75742
Oct
23
Mon
Understanding Socialism with Richard Wolff
Oct 23 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Starting: Mondays, October 9TH @ 4-6PM ET (ONLINE) This class is co-organized by Democracy at Work.

This 4-Week seminar led by Richard Wolff, will begin with an introduction and brief history of world socialism from its 18th-century beginnings to today. We will examine the different kinds of socialism (Soviet, social democracy, democratic socialism, Cuban socialism, socialism with Chinese characteristics, and worker-coop socialism) and likewise examine the differences among socialism, communism, anarchism, and so on. Finally, we will examine critiques of socialism. Throughout, we will be sensitive to different interpretations of socialism and distinguish between socialism as a critical movement within capitalism (how it began) and socialism as an alternative system (how it evolved).

The dates for each of the four sessions are on Mondays: Oct 9th, 16th, 23rd & 30th. Online Zoom information will be sent through email upon registration.

REGISTER HERE

75742