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The loss of socialism is not as permanent as it appears and until capitalism’s inherent contradictions are resolved, its resurgence is not as improbable as Dugin suggests. Until then, we as Marxists should not dismiss those who have picked up the mantle of anti-imperialism since the demise of the former Soviet Union, no matter which political form it takes shape. By denouncing Dugin as a “fascist” and treating his work as unworthy of serious consideration, one is only showing that he is right to say that Marxism has become irrelevant in today’s world and Western capitalism is here to stay. The challenge has been issued, it remains to be seen whether we are up to it.
Speaker will be Max Parry, an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst based in New York. His writing has appeared widely in alternative media. Max may be reached at maxrparry@live.com
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Join @afrosocialistSF at one of our first Slow Book Clubs on 4/23 at 2 pm at 1916 McAllister. We will be covering Chapters 1 and 2 of Black Marxism by Cedric Robinson, and intend to cover approx 1 chapter per month over the next 12 months. Register: https://t.co/eK2fGezO1N pic.twitter.com/B4tPsXf0bL
— DSA San Francisco (@DSA_SF) April 7, 2023
Join crime victims, survivors and community members who will be rallying in support of our Drum Major for Justice, Pamela Price on the steps of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland.
In case you missed it, SFGate exposed the Bay Area media members’ thirst for a recall in Alameda County. ABC7 News and the Berkeley Scanner are clearly on a mission to undermine Pamela’s vision for justice for our community. But we are not going to stand still or silent for these attacks.
In case you missed Pamela’s interview with KRON4’s Haaziq Madyun, here’s the KRON4 Live Link.
Also, here is Pamela’s interview with NBC7 Christine Ni, here’s the NBC7 Live Link.
Please share these interviews and the expose about the media members’ thirst for recall with your family and friends to help spread the truth about what is really going on! And join us this Sunday at the Alameda County Courthouse!
At the end of April, three of the world’s largest funders of fossil fuels will hold their Annual General Meetings: Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America. These three banks alone have loaned more than $789 billion to coal, oil, and gas companies since the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.
With allies across the country – we are going to shut down, occupy, and disrupt business at the global headquarters of all three banks the day before their annual shareholder meetings. their most important meetings of the year. Citi’s HQ in New York, Bank of America’s HQ in Charlotte, and Wells Fargo’s HQ in San Francisco will each be subject to massive, disruptive and impossible-to-ignore protests.
Yes, it’s an early wake-up call, but we would love your support in downtown San Francisco as we disrupt the business as usual that is killing the planet.
WE NEED YOU to keep us winning, to secure our Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) for E12th which will be voted at Oakland City Council’s CED meeting.
We hear there may be turnout to throw curve balls at our project, so we’d love your voices of support. Our project is committed to the diversity that won this campaign as outlined in the ENA from the BIPOC neighbors who most risk displacement to those we want to hire to build this housing. We want council members of the CED to: pass the E12th ENA for 100% affordable housing, support deeply affordable housing that the Peoples Proposal delivers, and keep Public Land for Public Good.
HERE’S THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE FOR TURN OUT. Will you take action (at least email)?!
- Public comment in person at CED meeting 4/25 Tue 1:30pm. City Hall (1 Frank Ogawa Plaza). Fill out a speaker card with the City Clerk, for item #6 on E12th.
- Public comment by zoom or phone at CED meeting 4/25 Tue 1:30pm, for item #6 on E12th. Submit an Electronic Speaker Card to speak via zoom or phone by emailing CityClerk@OaklandCa.Gov to get on stack before the item comes up. Speaker card link: https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/fill-out-a-speaker-card
- Email City Council by tomorrow morning to support our E12th ENA at council@oaklandca.gov. Here’s a sample message:
- Subject: Support E12th Peoples Proposal ENA
- Dear Oakland City Council and members of CED,
- I’m a supporter of the E12th community’s campaign for public land for public good, and the Peoples Proposal for 100% affordable housing on our city’s public land on E12th St. Please vote yes on the Exclusive Negotiating Agreement to build the Peoples Proposal for deeply affordable housing. Thank you! (your name)
We appreciate you for taking action. Let’s keep winning!
– Mari Rose, Dunya & the E12th Revival crew
Social Democracy is promoted by its supporters as the set of reforms that pave the way for socialism, and attacked by it’s critiques as a way for a capitalist state to appease workers with some improvements
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:
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
Join Labor Troubadour Mike Stout From Pittsburgh, PA and Others Who Will Perform & Sing Out.
The world is on fire from the general strikes in France, in Greece and struggles around the world to defend public services, against privatization, to stop union busting, to protect the planet and to stop the growing repression, racism, fascism and danger of world war. Workers are fighting for unions throughout the country from Amazon, Starbucks. From the railroads, airlines, docks and auto plants workers are fighting as well for health and safety on the job.
It is time to unite and sing out in solidarity for all working people here and every country.
An Injury To One Is An Injury To All & Solidarity Has No Borders!
Donations Requested
Sponsored By Laborfest.net
laborfest [at] laborfest.net
Not Too Late brings strong climate voices from around the world to address the political, scientific, social, and emotional dimensions of the most urgent issue human beings have ever faced. Accessible, encouraging, and engaging, it’s an invitation to everyone to understand the issue more deeply, participate more boldly, and imagine the future more creatively.
Not To Late is latest in the series from Haymarket Books and Rebecca Solnit that started with Hope in the Dark and Men Explain Things to Me
Doors open 6:30 – event at 7pm. Please be masked and vaxxed. Thanks!
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
Rally and Discussion
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!