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Join the East Bay DSA Labor Committee for a 7-part study series on labor organizing in the 1930s, open to all and designed for anyone engaged or interested in workplace or non-workplace based movement work.

The Left has always played an essential role in building movements for social justice. The current pandemic and the deepening economic crisis presents us with urgent challenges. Especially since ours is a new socialist movement without tons of experience in labor and other working-class movements, we need to learn as much as we can about how socialists conducted themselves in the past. The 1930s was the last great period of labor organizing in the US. Like today, the 1930s began with widespread economic desperation, racist repression, and a weak labor movement. Yet, by the end of the ‘30s, millions of workers had created and joined unions after tumultuous struggles, with Left parties playing key roles.

What were the key lessons of the ‘30s that can inform our work today? How did workers organize themselves and their communities? To what extent was the fight against racism integrated into those struggles? What was the role of the union officials and the state? And in all of this, what were the strengths and weaknesses that Left organizations brought to the movement?

Groups will start the week of November 8th, consist of 10 – 12 people, and will meet every other week for a total of 7 sessions, factoring in a break for the holidays. Readings will be shared digitally at no cost, will average 50 pages every two weeks, and will include primary and secondary sources, fiction, and poetry.

For questions, comments, etc, please email labor@eastbaydsa.org

For a list of the readings, click here

Berkeley Copwatch would like to invite you to get involved in the movement to abolish policing, defend human rights, stand up for the rights of Black people, Indigenous people, Unhoused people, and all the marginalized members of our community. Since 1990, Berkeley Copwatch has taken a stand against police brutality, injustice, and the overreaching arm of authoritarian capitalism. Stand with us now and refuse to be abused! There are so many different ways to get involved in Copwatch (writing, art, activism, data entry), and no experience is necessary.

Meeting ID: 819 0627 1400

Passcode: assata

Eventbrite webinar link:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/chris-hedges-the-culture-of-despair-tickets-120320183909

 With the election over, it’s the perfect time to get the reliably candid response of one of our few great journalists. 

“Chris Hedges has been telling truth to (and against) power since his earliest days as a radical journalist. He is an intellectual warrior who confronts American empire in the most incisive, challenging ways. The insights he provides into the deeply troubled state of our nation cannot be found anywhere else. Like many of our most important thinkers, he has been relegated to the margins because of ideas deemed too radical—or true—for public consumption. Whether it is covering the dissolution of former Soviet states or embedding in the Middle East to understand

the post-9/11 world, he has been a singular voice pushing against mainstream media disinformation and the amnesia of establishment received wisdom. He is an intellectual heir to American radical heroes such as Thomas Paine and Noam Chomsky, and is dedicated to reigniting a shared commitment to radical equality and honesty.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning Chris Hedges spent nearly two decades as a correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans, with 15 years at the New York Times.  His books include Empire of Illusion; Death of the Liberal Class; War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt; and Wages of Rebellion. He currently writes a weekly column for Truthdig.

Mickey Huff is the Director of Project Censored, President of the Media Freedom           Foundation, and executive producer/co-host of the Project Censored Show on Pacifica Radio. His latest books include Censored 2020: Though the Looking Glass (co-edited with Andy Lee Roth) from Seven Stories Press and United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (And What We Can Do About It) co-authored with Nolan Higdon from City Lights Publishing. He is currently professor of social science and history at Diablo Valley College, where he is co-chair of history as well as the chair of the journalism program. www.projectcensored.org

Join the East Bay DSA Political Education Committee for an analysis of what’s happened since election day.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84783105991?pwd=Tlk5SENqWHFHV216M1lSZkRtUGk2dz09

Meeting ID: 847 8310 5991

Password: 897028

As resegregation reshapes the Bay Area, low-income communities of color are increasingly living at the expanding edges of our region, where they struggle to find quality jobs, schools, and public transportation, decent affordable housing, and a political voice.

Generating policy alternatives to the region’s unjust land use, housing, and transportation systems have not been enough to stop this trend. To truly achieve regional equity in an era of resegregation, we must demand transformative politics that increases the political power of disenfranchised communities.

ECOTOPIA 2050 5-PART SPEAKER SERIES

Ecotopia 2050 is designed as a 5 Episode speaker discussion series with the first episode serving as an introduction/prelude to the event. The speaker discussion series is paired with corresponding book club meetings that give participants a more intimate opportunity to discuss the themes of the book in the community.

Based on the 1975 blockbuster utopian novel Ecotopia, this discussion and book club event series revisit some of the futuristic visions of the Ernest Callenbach classic. His visionary ideas, and those of his generation, that he so skillfully captured in Ecotopia are a fascinating amalgam of technical, economic, societal, and cultural transformations. They are predictive on so many levels, and the series will explore what has come true, what remains on the list of things to do that were proposed, and what new visions we might begin to pull together in the construction of an updated Ecotopian vision of today.

Registration Instructions
1. Choose your experience (single episode) or full series
2. Are you joining the book club? *choose the add on
Note: You must be registered for the full series if you register for book club.
3. Check out.
4. A secure Zoom link will be sent 24 hours ahead of event time to registered email.

Register Here

Sun, Nov 15, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
The Ongoing War on Syria & Why it Matters |
Rick Sterling will discuss the current situation in Syria and future prospects if Biden assumes the Presidency. Unreported in mainstream media, the US and allies continue to wage hybrid warfare on Syria – economically, politically, judicially and militarily. Why does the US persist in attacking Syria, preventing it from recovering and harming millions of Syrians? Will this change with a Democrat in the White House?  Why has this struggle become a focal point of East – West conflict? What are the best and worst things that could happen?
   Rick Sterling is on the Steering Committee of Syria Solidarity Movement.

He is an independent journalist who has written many articles about Syria..
LOGIN INFORMATION
The meeting will be opened up, as usual, at 10:15 for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc. We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open for informal discussion.

Raj Sahai’s Zoom Meeting. (TO BE CONFIRMED)

Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:15am – 1:15pm Pacific Time

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=TTdlcFlnZEVCdWt2VlRHeWZLeHNKQT09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607

Passcode: 6MwQP7

Sun, Nov 22, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

How the US Dominates the World Economy: Failings of Modern Monetary Theory and why the US can print trillions of dollars and not experience inflation.

Stansfield Smith will explain how the US control of the world economy since the end of World War II has enabled it to bully the world’s countries into depending on the US dollar and using it as the international currency. This requires world countries to amass quantities of dollars to operate and to pay the cost of upholding the value of the dollar, which includes investing in the growing US debt. This also explains how the US can use its economic sanctions to punish countries that seek independence from US control. While Modern Monetary Theory gives an account of why the US can continue to print vast sums of money and suffer little inflation, its explanation avoids confronting the reality of US control of the world financial structure.

Stansfield Smith’s presentation is based on his articles: Inadequacy of Modern Monetary Theory and the Power of the US Dollar in the World Economy and Why the US Can Keep Increasing its Debt and not Suffer Inflation.
Stan Smith has been involved in the Freedom for the Cuban Five movement and the movements in defense of the sovereignty of El Salvador, Cuba, Venezuela, and other Latin American countries for 40 years. He has written numerous articles such as: First Two Months in Power: Hitler vs. Trump; What North Koreans Think; Framing North Korea; Is Russia imperialist; China’s International Solidarity Aid to the World During the Corona Pandemic; Chomsky and Other Liberal Intellectuals Ask Us to Join Them in Throwing in the Towel. He produces a weekly compendium of articles on Latin America at https://chicagoalbasolidarity.wordpress.com/.

Sun, Nov 29, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm (Thanksgiving weekend)
TENTATIVE: Abhinav Sinha on the International Working Class
Our speaker is editor of the renowned Hindi magazine ‘Muktikami Chhatron-Yuvaon ka Aahwan.’

Sun, Dec 6, 2020: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
The Logic of Capitalist Production and Marx’s Ecology
Even many Marxists are convinced that Marx believed in production without limitations, and thus Marx was oblivious to the question of ecology of the planet. Today the world is caught in a double jeopardy: on one hand capitalism is reducing workers’ organized bargaining power by production shifted to lowest wage countries pitting workers of one country against another and on the other capitalist production is consuming the resources of the planet provided by Nature rapidly while massively polluting land, water, and air. Since the fall of the USSR, China has been touted as the successful model of socialism using the capitalist market, or what is termed as “Market-Socialism”. This leads workers in US with no hope unlike in 1930s when they saw hope after the revolution in the USSR and workers had state power and were constructing socialism. A section of the US workers were drawn to a demagogue, namely Trump in the US and in India a majority of workers followed another demagogue: Modi in India. This trend is also developing in other countries. Raj Sahai will analyze this situation in the first hour and then in the second invite comments from the audience.

This black youth-led event is being threatened ‘oath keepers’ and other violent white identity extremists today. Please come support local youth organizers.

• • Patrick Heller, Natural Resource Governance Institute
  • Roger Lin, UC Berkeley Environmental Law Clinic
  • Sarah White, Governor’s Office of Planning & Research

Sponsored by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law.

Register here.

Register here

The economic disasters affecting so many people during this pandemic have made even it more clear that we must stop shutoffs of energy and water — basic human needs.  Join the Network for Energy, Water, and Health in Affordable Buildings for a webinar on protecting the right to these basic necessities.

Leading innovators will share stories on how they are changing the narrative in this country on energy justice and utility service as a human right. Learn from a local organizer who mobilized during the pandemic to stop the harm perpetuated on people living with low incomes by winning a new program on debt relief from the CARES Act and from two attorneys who will share for the first time their proposal for a Bill of Rights for all utility customers

This collaborative discussion will educate, strategize for impact, and connect powerful local action to bold ideas about what it means to be “essential” before and after COVID.

Hear from:

Agustin Cabrera, Director of the RePower Los Angeles Network at the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. He will tell about how the multi-sectoral organizing of RePower led to securing a new utility-debt-forgiveness program from the nation’s largest municipal utility company, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Their innovative activism and advocacy, grounded in the principles of energy democracy, backed this program with $50 million of dedicated funding from the CARES Act. Agustin will share details that can inform how to replicate their work across the country.

Karen Lusson and Charlie Harak, attorneys at the National Consumer Law Center, will share their proposal for a national Utility Customers’ Bill of Rights. Their national perspective across multiple jurisdictions and utility governance models have informed their development of a concrete list of the obligations of state and federal policy makers, utility service providers (municipal and investor-owned), and advocates within these systems in order to end a punitive approach to poverty, utility debt, and energy insecurity.

Register Here.

Join us for a youth-led conversation on how militarized police impacts our communities and how we can work toward influencing local policy that #DefundsThePolice.

With testimony by Oakland youth on police militarization and from Mental Health First, moderated by BAY Peace. With small group discussions led by 67 Sueños, Urban Peace Movement, Young Women’s Freedom Center, The Village, BAY Peace, Council of American Islamic Relations, AFSC, and National Lawyers Guild.

Democratic Socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rashida Tlaib 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 working-class Americans 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? How do socialists look at the crises of police brutality, economic recession, and COVID-19? And what will we do after the election is over?

Let’s talk about it.

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

Join us on Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84264682668?pwd=S0tCZXlqOGtCOXNPWTRzOVNDUk14Zz09

Meeting ID: 842 6468 2668

Passcode: intro

One tap mobile

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