Marxism & the South African Tragedy of Marikana 2012

Violence claimed 44 lives in less than one week, August 11- 16 period. 10 were killed by the workers themselves, which included 2 policemen, 2 security guards, and 6 mine workers & 34 workers were killed and 70 injured by South African Police Services (SAPS) personnel at the site surrounding the British owned Lonmin Platinum mine located in Marikana, 78 km west of Pretoria.

Following this incident, President Jacob Zuma ordered an independent commission of inquiry headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge, Ian Farlam. After two years of publicly held testimony with all who were in any way connected to the incident, final arguments by the attorneys representing stake holders in this incident.
A section of US Left has charged the government of South Africa itself to be the culprit. Raj Sakai, a member of ICSS, will attempt to provide a dispassionate analysis keeping in mind Lenin’s admonition to all those given to emotions, oversimplifications and shortcuts, repeatedly reminding them that a concrete analysis that employees all relevant concrete facts is needed in such cases.

Plan to come early for coffee and donuts. We start promptly.
FREE – but hat will be passed for donations to NPML

About Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
A weekly discussion series inspired by our respect for the work of Karl Marx and our belief that his work will remain as important for the class struggles of the future as they have been for the past.
For descriptions and our full schedule, go to icssmarx.org

Hosted by the Theology and Religious Studies Department of USF, and sponsored by Tikku,  www.tikkun.org, and by the (interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-and religious-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives, The Metta Center for Non-Violence, and many others.

The recently elected Congress that will shape America in the next two years is committed to defunding government so that it cannot enforce the minimal environmental protections currently in place, provide health care coverage for those who need it, provide safety and health protection for our food and our work places, or protect the old, the young, the vulnerable  while at the same timee, that Congress will seek to decrease still further the taxes on the super-rich and the corporations they own and control.

This is an ethical, spiritual and religious crisis of monumental proportions — and calls for secular liberals and progressives to join with spiritual or religious activists to work together to develop strategies to save our planet earth and protect middle income and working people and the unemployed from the assaults of the selfish.

That’s why we, spiritual progressives of every variant (including atheists and secular humanists as well as people in every religious community) must now take action to present a different worldview, one based on the Biblical call to “love our neighbor” but also “love the stranger” (the Other/the powerless), and pursue justice and peace.

You don’t have to remind us that religion has sometimes been used to justify all forms of oppression or that spirituality sometimes devolves into self-indulgent flakiness. But so has democracy and socialism sometimes been used to justify imperialism or forms of totalitarianism. We’ve got to get well-intentioned people, both secular and religious, to stop putting each other down, and instead unite so we can help Americans re-embrace the values that once led us as a society to create institutions that embodied caring for each other and for the earth.

Too many people have responded to the 2014 electoral victories of the Right by feeling powerless. “What can I do?“ they tell themselves. “The Rightists have the money and are filled with passionate intensity, while those who seek peace and justice too often lack a coherent strategy. There are so many groups taking on one little part of the problem or another, but mostly they don’t cooperate with each other and don’t even try to educate people in each specific social justice, humanitarian or environmental struggle about how they are linked to all the other struggles. So to those on the outside, it looks like everyone is just fighting for their own special interest, but not for the common interests of the rest of us. I can’t see how I can do anything, given this mess.”

But there is something you can do, not alone, but with a movement that we are creating. The liberal and progressive forces have made some big mistakes but we can change that, and we have a strategy for how to do that and how to Reclaim America. And we need you to be part of it. And to learn from you as well, because we know we don’t have all the answers!

We approach this task with humility, but also with excitement about the possibility of forging a new direction, bringingtogether all those people who really yearn for a society based on love, kindness, generosity, social and economic justice, and peace. We call this goal “The New Bottom Line.”

We will mourn what has happened to our country and to the planet, and acknowledge our own responsibility. Rather than just blame the super-rich and their ability to manipulate media and spend millions on candidates who serve their interests, we also need to challenge liberals and progressives to think more deeply about what changes are needed in the ways that they present themselves (attention office holders – you are invited to be part of this), drraw upon the wisdom of secular humanists, religious traditions (at least the humanist and love-and-caring dimensions of all the world’s religious and spiritual communities), and spiritual-but-not-religious thinkers, and the work of the (interfaith and secular-humanist-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives.

We will hear each other’s ideas for how to move forward, build ties among the vast array of social change organizations, progressive religious and spiritual communities, and learn skills for improving our ability to have our most visionary ideas really taken seriously by our families, neighbors, co-workers, and even some of our most cynical friends. This gathering is just the first step in bringing this kind of discussion into the heart of everyone involved in social transformation, into every social change organization and every place where ethically sensitive people gather.
Part of our intention is to reintroduce into public discourse the ethical values that could contribute to rebuilding a society based on love, care, generosity, awe and wonder. And you can play an important role by challenging progressive organizations to introduce into all their activities a shared vision of the world we want  not just focusing on what is wrong with the way thiings are now, but presenting a positive vision of the world as it needs to be a New Bottom Line of love, caring, kindness, generosity, social justice, peace, environmental sanity and awe and wonder at the grandeur and preciousness of our planet earth and the universe of which we are part.

Undoubtedly, given the fact that it is people of color who are disproportionately represented among the poorest in the society, they will be facing especially rough times, added to the racism and violence that they face even under “normal” conditions, as exemplified recently in Ferguson. In particular, in light of the justifiable outrage at the racism manifest not just in the verdict from Ferguson but also in the way most Americans don’t seem to have a clue about the racism involved and how pervasive it is, we encourage us all to see fighting racism as not just as issue for African Americans or people of color, but as a priority as well for white people to address: what is the best strategy to both counter and transform that racism? How to do that, (without seeming to suggest that all whites are bad and hence provoke backlash that actually makes things worse for people of color), is part of the discussion we hope to initiate at this conference.

We invite liberals and progressives of every possible stripe to come together and strategize about how these kinds of values can reshape public life in the US. We ask you, the reader of this, to help us get leaders, activists, and members of progressive movements for social and economic justice, peace, environmental sanity, civil rights, feminism, LGBTQ rights, immigrant rights, unions, liberal and progressive political parties and elected officials to meet and strategize together.

We need  physicians and other health practitioners, lawyers, Silicon Valley techies, psychotherapists, working people in offices and factories and skilled trades, small business people, African Americans , Latinos, Asian Americans, and every other minority community,  philanthropists,  financial and investment experts, scientists, engineers, high school and college students, teachers and academics, researchers, seniors, millenials, boomers, and everyone in between who can fully commit to nonviolence and empathy as strict guidelines for how to approach those with whom we disagree. Please invite your friends  afterwards, when they hear how exciting it was for you, they’ll be disappointed that you didn’t try to convince them to come!

We cannot afford to stay in our separate silos working on single-issue politics, or immerse ourselves in cynicism and despair about the possibility of making significant change. At the very least, we need to articulate a shared vision of the world we want  not just the world we are against  so so that even as each of us continues in our focused activities to address specific ways that the world and its people are hurting, we simultaneously articulate a positive vision that we all share. We need a new unity and a new psychological and spiritual sophistication to heal and repair our very broken society.

Won’t you join us? Registration required at spiritualprogressives.org/reclaimAmerica

Cost: $15 for students and incomes under $30/k yr.; � incomes over $30k/yr: $25 if you register by Dec.5. $45 or anyone registering after Dec. 5.

By mail: make check to Tikkun and mail to 2342 Shattack Ave, #1200, Berkeley, CA 94704,� 510-644-1200.

For more info: Cat@spiritualprogressives.org

Hosted by the Theology and Religious Studies Dept. of USF and sponsored by Tikkun www.tikkun.org, and by the (interfaith and secular-humanist-and-atheist-and religious-welcoming) Network of Spiritual Progressives, The Metta Center for Non-Violence, and many others.

Ask your local chapter of any civic, religious, social change organization or your local church, synagogue, mosque, ashram, professional organization, union or any of the reputable groups willing to commit to non-violence in the struggle for social justice. Ask them to cosponsor or at least publicize this to all of their members wherever they live in the US and to get those members to either create other such gatherings (we’ll have materials and possibly even speakers for these events).

We are not proponents of any religion or spiritual tradition except for The New Bottom Line of love and generosity, etc. which you can read about at http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/yearning-for-a-world-of-love-and-justice.

​

And we are inspired by Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and liberation theologians in every religious or spiritual tradition. For example, read a little bit from the new pope: Pope Francis in Evangeli Gaudium:

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power a globalization of indifference has developed we en end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor… the culture of prosperity deadens us. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”

(A fuller version can be found in the Spring 2014 issue of Tikkun Magazine. When you join the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org, you get a free subscription to Tikkun Magazine.)

If you miss this conference, but want to be involved in the ongoing work, please contact the executive director of the Network of Spiritual Progressives Cat Zavis and tell her what specifically you are willing to work on (but only after you’ve read our essay “Yearning for a World of Love and Justice” at http://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/yearning-for-a-world-of-love-and-justice).

Since the murder of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, protests have spread to every major city in this country and cities around the world. In the Bay Area, we have witnessed and participated in almost two straight weeks of freeway takeovers, mass marches and, more recently, student walkouts.

Now, as these displays of rage continue with no end in sight, and as we quickly approach the Millions March, the questions before us are both extraordinarily simple and incredibly complex: Where do we go from here? How do we sustain the power we have built in the streets while working toward stronger coordination and organization between ourselves, our communities and other cities around the country?

We wholeheartedly believe that this ongoing movement presents exciting possibilities for new forms of revolutionary activity to emerge. But while we remain largely inspired by the recent wave of rebellious actions, it is our opinion that the time is now to collectively strategize how to expand and intensify our efforts.

As a small step, we invite any individuals or groups who want to discuss these and other related questions to meet at 2:00pm in Oscar Grant Plaza on December 14, 2014.

We encourage all participants to come prepared to collaborate in serious, principled reflection and debate on the events of the past two weeks. Proposals will be welcomed. Although we realize that such discussions will be unavoidably messy and contentious, we ask that all who attend to please refrain from personal or sectarian attacks and avoid rumor spreading or speculation. Also, we request that individuals and groups respect the need for the fullest possible participation from all those who wish to do so, and be mindful that they do not monopolize discussion time or conduct themselves in a way that discourages others from contributing.

If you or your group would like more information, or would like to help with facilitation and other logistical tasks, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Edge City, Oakland

Please come out for Court Support on Monday at 2pm at Wiley Manuel for:

– The Ferguson 3, who have pre-trial in Dept 115. The Ferguson 3 are three comrades who were arrested the night of the Mike Brown Verdict. They have court at 9 am.
AND
– Two comrades who have court in Dept 112 at 2:00 PM.

Please come and support!!!

Please check here for the most up-to-date-info before going, as court times and dates often get pushed back and postponed.

Keep up the fight against the privatization of the Post Office and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of living wage jobs.]

See Stop Staples and the American Postal Workers’ Union website

Berkeley Post Office Defenders, First They Came for the Homeless and Save the Berkeley Post Office support this fight.

A comrade, Ezra was tazed and arrested last night in Oakland during the protests. He has court Monday at 9am at Hayward Hall of Justice (24405 Amador Street) Dept 502. He is facing serious charges so we really need to pack the courtroom!

Please check here for the most up-to-date-info before going, as court times and dates often get pushed back and postponed.

More on Ezra:

Ezra was arrested on December 13, 2014 during an anti-police demonstration in Oakland, CA. He is currently facing 2 felony charges and 3 misdemeanors and is set to be arraigned on 12/15 at 2pm, with the bail set at $87,500. We are hoping he will be released, however given the severity of the charges, we are preparing to bail him. All money raised in excess will be donated to the Bay Area Anti-Repression Committee Bail Fund. Ezra is a local muralist and plays in multiple Bay Area bands. He has volunteered with Food Not Bombs for a number of years and is currently a student at Laney College. He is active in both San Francisco and Oakland communities and also supports his family back home. Let’s get him out of jail!

We need space for anger.
We need space for protests.
We need space for healing.
We need space to mourn.
We need US.

Join us on Monday @ 5:00 pm at Lake Merritt for a vigil for those who have lost their lives to police terrorism.

We will meet in three places:

1) the pillars at Embarcadero and Grand
2) lakeside drive across from snow park
3) grassy amphitheater on Lake Merritt blvd.

We will walk in a single file line in both directions until we have encircled the lake.

We will collectively hold space to mourn the lives stolen from us and create a circle of healing for families who have lost their children to police violence.

We recognize a need for community to gather and families to bring their children and we will hold this space as such.

Please bring candles. And we will engage in a silent procession around the lake.

OccupyForum Presents…
Pia Mancini on DemocracyOSÂ
(Democracy Operating System)

Information, discussion & community!

Monday Night Forum!

Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!

“Occupy Wall Street. Arab Spring. Greek Riots. We’ve been experiencing a great crisis of representation these past decades, regardless of our location, ethnicity or culture. The political system insists in excluding most of us from the spaces where the decisions are made that impact our lives. The internet has changed everything: the way we share and consume culture, how we engage in commerce, and how we communicate with others. But the internet has failed to change in one key area of our lives: politics. Democracy is in great need of a serious upgrade.

“We are working on a user-friendly, open-source, vote and debate tool, crafted for parliaments, parties and decision-making institutions that will allow citizens to get informed, join the conversation and vote on topics, just how they want their representatives to vote. A tool that will transform the noise we create during protests into a signal that has a clear, direct and strong impact on the political system. Our vision is that DemocracyOS will become the operating system of a more open and participatory government.”
— DemocracyOs.org (Go to www.DemocracyOS.org for more information.)

Come hear Pia Mancini speak via Skype from Buenos Aires, Argentina, about the
exciting new development called DemocracyOS (Democracy Operating System).

Since Buenos Aires is 5 hours ahead of us, it will be 11pm there when we
start here at 6pm, so please be on time!

Study up beforehand (or after the fact) at these sites:

Link to Huffington Post article:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thierry-
dufay/democracy-20-the-power-of_b_5964188.html

Link to Wired Magazine article: Â http://www.wired.com/2014/05/democracy-os/

Link to Pia Mancini TED talk on YouTube: Â https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=NXfYNdapq3Q

Preview YouTube video Pia Mancini: How to upgrade democracy for the Internet era
Pia Mancini: How to upgrade democracy for the Internet era

RALLY AND MARCH TO THE BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING
TUESDAY, DEC. 16, 5:00PM
GATHER AT BANCROFT + TELEGRAPH

Berkeley City Council Meeting 7:00PM @ Longfellow Middle School (1500 Derby St. in Berkeley)

We condemn the police riot last Saturday, December 6 on protesters and students fighting for justice for Michael Brown. We hold the Mayor, the Berkeley Police Department, and the City Council responsible for the brutal policy of attacking civil rights protesters. We demand dropping all of the charges against protesters and reject the Ferguson Grand Jury’s racist decision of “no indictment” against Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of Michael Brown. Jail and indict Darren Wilson and all killer cops now!

View the “Public Tribunal for Truth & Action: Justice for Michael Brown” that BAMN held Dec. 10 in St. Louis, MO with Michael Brown’s friends, family, and local Ferguson activists and organizers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLXtsxFx6QY

DEMANDS:
• Jail Darren Wilson NOW!
• Drop All Charges Against Civil Rights Protesters
• Stop the Racist Attacks Against Black and Latina/o and Other Minority Youth
• Jail the Killer Cops: A Badge is Not a License to Kill
• End the Policy of Cover-up and Blaming the Victim
• Abolish the Grand Jury System
• Create More Jobs and Educational Opportunities. Establish New School Desegregation Programs
• Down with the New Jim Crow! Down with the New Police State!
• Build the Independent, Integrated, and Youth-led New Civil Rights Movement
• No Justice in Ferguson. No Peace Anywhere!

Black Lives Matter in Berkeley : Emergency Community Rally to end racial profiling and the militarization of the Berkeley Police Department.

Berkeley Copwatch is hosting a rally at MLK/Civic Center Park (MLK & Center St.) at 5:30pm on December 16th prior to the final city council meeting of the year. We will be holding healing space for police brutality survivors, protestors, and community organizers to share their stories and strategic visions. We will be centering Black and Brown voices at this event.

If you are interested in speaking or need more info, please call (510) 548-0425 or send us an email at berkeleycopwatch@yahoo.com
Please share this event!

Please come out tomorrow to Wiley Manuel at 9am for a court hearing in Dept 104. Let’s support our comrades!

I just received this message: #OUSD #WalkOut is scheduled for this Wednesday. #Oakland. pic.twitter.com/4rDq0FcEZz

— Pendarvis H. (@OGpenn) December 15, 2014

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson is leading an effort to allow members of the community to vent their frustrations following non-indictments against white police officers who killed black men alleged of crimes in Ferguson, Mo. and New York City. Cases of police brutality have also occurred in the Bay Area over the years adding a strong local link to the anger felt all over the country.

Members of the public can participate in the town hall this Wednesday being called “A community meeting with elected officials and community leaders on solving the strained relationship between law enforcement and our communities.”
0 Telegraph Ave, Oakland.

Alameda Co. pub.defenders holding #BlackLivesMatter rally tmw while wearing gloves to signify "Hands up, don't shoot" pic.twitter.com/dX8DYGVZnY

— Henry K. Lee (@henryklee) December 17, 2014

There are lots of important reasons to protest at the CPUC, not only ‘Smart’ meters, but also Diablo Canyon’s nuclear power plant, massive toxic dumping by PG&E (remember Hinkley, Hunters Point, and many more), AT&T’s push to get rid of landlines (an accessibility issue), gasline explosions due to neglect, etc etc etc.

These issues are about environmental health, community defense, disability justice, and labor. The people who are most immediately impacted by the decisions of the CPUC are the workers forced to implement them.

For example, this former PG&E meter reader was fired for refusing to be silent about the fact that ‘Smart’ meters are a fire hazard, and lays out the financial reality that these meters are actually more expensive than meter readers, who were the only people working for the utility who regularly checked for gas leaks like the one that preceded the San Bruno explosion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnxIoItNUek

One of the victims who died in a fire caused by ‘Smart’ meters was Larry Nikkel, of Vacaville, a member of Stationary Engineers Local 39: http://stopsmartmeters.org/2013/06/21/when-smart-meters-kill-the-story-of-larry-nikkel-details-emerge-of-vacaville-ca-smart-meter-fire-death/

Please mobilize your friends and comrades to come out on Thursday – Peevey’s last day – and bring your friends and your own grievances against this supposed watchdog agency that acts more like a lapdog of the corporate utilities. Tell Peevey: Good Riddance!

Details below.

PRESS CONFERENCE/ DEMONSTRATION AT CPUC IN SAN FRANCISCO OPPOSING “SMART” METER POLICIES AND GENERAL CORRUPTION

California Public Utilities Commission
Thursday, December 18 8:30 AM
Van Ness at McAllister, San Francisco

Charges dropped for two SF folx arrested Sat! NO COURT SUPPORT NEEDED TODAY! Thnx for support! #BlackLivesMatter #courtsupportmatters #ftp

— AntiRepBayArea (@AntiRepBayArea) December 18, 2014

Two folks arrested at the Millions March on Saturday in San Francisco are having their arraignments at 850 Bryant, Room 101 @ 1:30pm. They’re facing big charges and a good turn out will help! Please come and show your solidarity!

Please check the Anti-Repression event and/or Facebook for up-to-date info. These court times and dates often change at the last minute!

Come sing Anti-Foreclosure Christmas Carols to Wells Fargo with ACCE this Thursday!

Home Defenders,

Thursday is our big day! We’ll be hitting Wells Fargo loud and clear to let them know that they need to give Gaylynne, Billy Jene, Kayode, Floyd, Njambi, Cheryl, Marie and Jose and others REAL loan modifications and principle reduction and that in light of our recent victory with KYHCA, that they sign an agreement with ACCE & the community to fully participate in the Keep Your Home California’s Hardest Hit Fund!

Action at Jim Foley’s Office (regional manager at Wells Fargo)