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Caleb Maupin is a widely acclaimed speaker, writer, journalist, and political analyst. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East and in Latin America. He was involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement from its early planning stages, and has been involved in many struggles for social justice. He is an outspoken advocate of international friendship and cooperation, as well 21st Century Socialism. http://www.calebmaupin.com

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We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible, but the Zoom room 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.. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open until about 1 pm for informal discussion.

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GOOD FOR SUNDAY, Jan 23, 2022 ONLY
Raj Sahai is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Raj Sahai is inviting you to a scheduled

ICSS SUNDAY Zoom meeting  ON 1/23/2022.

Join Zoom Meeting
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 Please RSVP here. We want to stay as safe as possible as we celebrate our student debt deferment win and start plotting our May Day action.

Because of the Omicron variant, we are asking people to not to travel to Washington, D.C. and instead join our Virtual Debtors’ Assembly and Strategy Session or locally-planned virtual actions. Please take all precautions; health and safety is our utmost concern right now.

The fight is far from over but we just won a few more months to plan our escalation strategy so Joe has no choice but to CANCEL STUDENT DEBT.

A debt-free future may be closer than we think.

Yours in the struggle,

Calling 911 is the usual way people fearing threats to their safety reach out, and currently the 911 response is to send the police. However, there are times when this response is not appropriate.

The call may not concern a crime requiring police. A person may be going through a serious mental health crisis. It can involve long-term issues between domestic partners, problems with alienated youth, or a person undergoing trauma, such as homelessness or job loss. In some instances, a person may distrust police and be unwilling to call 911 or be unwilling to cooperate with an officer. On these occasions, the presence of a mental health professional rather than a police officer could defuse tension.

A number of East Bay cities have creative projects and new ideas for responding to these crises. On Monday, January 24th at 10:30 AM, Ashby Village will hear from a panel of those working on police reform in Richmond, Oakland and Berkeley. Please RSVP below to join us!

The panelists include:

• Kitty Calavita, Berkeley Police Accountability Board
• Amy Coulter, Family Member and Mental Health Advocate
• Andrew Greenwood, Retired Berkeley Police Chief
• Claudia Jimenez, Member, Richmond City Council
• Rebecca Kaplan, Vice Mayor, Oakland
• Zach Norris, Outgoing Executive Director, Ella Baker Center

The panel will be moderated by Judy Appel of the Ashby Village Board of Directors.

The Ashby Village Elder Action Committee and the Berkeley Friends Meeting are pleased to co-sponsor this panel at this time when police reform is a community topic of concern.

 

Moderator: Prof. Walter Turner (College of Marin); Speakers: Margaret Prescod (Sojourner Truth Radio Show); Borgela Jeantine aka Kafenol (Community Organizer and Radio Show Emisyon Fanmi Lavalas, Montreal, Canada); Leslie Mullin (Haiti Action Committee); Prof. Frantz Jerome (Community Organizer, Editorialist/Translator – Dekantasyon Radio Show)

Haiti is now at a crossroads. Hundreds of organizations, including Fanmi Lavalas, the people’s party, have signed onto the Montana Accord, calling for the end of the dictatorship and a new transitional government. The ruling PHTK party is now totally isolated, dependent on US support for survival.

REGISTER HERE
—
Haiti Action Committee
PO Box 2040
Berkeley,CA 94702
https://haitisolidarity.net

Please direct your donation for Haiti earthquake relief to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund www.haitiemergencyrelief.org.Thank you.

By a large margin, US military veterans favored Donald Trump for president in 2016�and voted for him again by a  smaller margin in 2020. As Trump gears up for another White House run, he continues to woo veterans and their families, plus active duty military personnel, as part of his right-wing political base.
   Progressive veterans organizations, like Common Defense, Veterans for Peace and About Face are working with unions and other allies to counter these efforts. Among the issues they are organizing around are the parallel threats of privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the US Postal Service, two of the biggest unionized employers of former military personnel.

Speakers: Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early, co-authors of “Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs” (Duke University Press, June, 2022). In their new book, “Our Veterans,” Richmond-based journalists Suzanne Gordon and Steve Early report on these and other struggles which affect millions of poor and working class people who have served in the military�and need more support from labor and the left.

Suzanne Gordon is an award-winning journalist and author. She has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, Washington Monthly,  American Prospect, Jacobin, and many other media outlets. She has co-edited a series on the Culture and Politics of Health Care Work for Cornell University Press. She is the author of two previous books on veterans healthcare.

Steve Early was a national staff member of the Communications Workers of America for thirty years and continues to be active in the CWA/NewsGuild. He is the author of four previous books about labor or politics, including “Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City” (Beacon Press, 2018), about municipal reform struggles in Richmond, CA.

LOGIN INFORMATION

We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible, but the Zoom room 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.. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open until about 1 pm for informal discussion.

ZOOM LINK

GOOD FOR SUNDAY, Jan 30, 2022 ONLY

Raj is inviting you to an ICSS Sunday scheduled Zoom meeting
on Sunday 30 January 2022.
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: ICSS0130rs
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Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc4RrpvAiQ

Speak out against an unnecessary war with Russia which could possibly lead to the use of nuclear weapons.
If the war starts before Feb. 1, this action will still take place, to voice our opposition.

Emergency Action to say  “Negotiate, Don’t Escalate: No War With Russia”
February 1, 2022 at 11:30- 1:30pm (PST)
Ferry Bldg., San Francisco
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/01/26/18847610.php

There will be banners, flyers asking people to call the White House and their member of Congress, and an info table.  Capitol Hill: 800-826-3688
We are on the brink of a massive war between the US and Russia�two nucclear-armed states. The time to speak out is now!

Biden just ordered 8,500 US troops to be on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, as the dangerous escalation at the Russian/Ukrainian border standoff intensifies. Biden is also considering sending more warships and aircraft, and has already delivered more “lethal aid” to Ukraine. The $500 million Congress is set to pass through a fast-track vote, could and should be used on communities and climate. The Pentagon has said that there is the possibility of sending as many as 50,000 troops!

Join the Feb 1 emergency action to say “Negotiate, Don’t Escalate: No War With Russia.”
Sponsored by CODEPINK
Endorsers:  Green Party of Alameda County, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Committee

CODEPINK’s recent webinar with Medea Benjamin and Larry Wilkerson: “Is the U.S. going to war with Russia over Ukraine?”

    http://www.GP.org
PLANET PEOPLE PEACE
before profit!

The U.S. and Russia have 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. Call on Congress, the White House and the media to listen to the people of Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. who Don’t Want War, don’t want NATO expansion, don’t want to further enrich the war industry or risk nuclear annihilation.
Instead, we want universal healthcare, quality education, eco sustainability, housing for all. green jobs!

Bring signs or borrow Code Pink’s. Hold a sign and/or pass out flyers urging people to email and call the White House and Congress.
Cheryl Davila and a few others will speak briefly at a short rally on the grass just west of the peace wall fountain in the park.
Then we’ll spread out along MLK Jr Wy with signs, banners, informational action flyers, also outside the Farmers Market entrance.

Click below for more info or to please RSVP:
Berkeley, CA: No War with Russia Rally 

 
Stephen Gowans investigates why, when all the tools to avert a catastrophe were available, the world failed to prevent the Covid-19 disaster. He examines the business opportunities and pressures that helped shape the world’s failed response. His conclusion:  the novel coronavirus, a killer, had a helper in bringing about the calamity: capitalism, the killer’s henchman.

Exposing the role profit-making played in creating the disaster, Gowans shows how capitalism, its incentives, and its power to dominate the political process, impeded the protection of public health and prevented humanity from using the tools available to solve one of its most pressing problems.

Bio:

Our speaker, Stephen Gowans, is an independent political analyst and writer whose principal interest is how public and foreign policy is formulated, particularly in the United States. His writings, which appear on his What’s Left blog, have been reproduced widely in online and print media in many languages and have been cited in academic journals and other scholarly works. He is the author of three acclaimed books Washington’s Long War on Syria (2017), Patriots, Traitors and Empires, The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom (2018), and Israel, A Beachhead in the Middle East (2019) all published by Baraka Books. He lives in Ottawa, Canada

We highly recommend his blog post: The pandemic is done. Except for the burials.  His new book on Covid is coming out in June:

The Killer’s Henchman, Capitalism and the Covid-19 Disaster

LOGIN INFORMATION

We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible, but the Zoom room 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.. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open until about 1 pm for informal discussion.

ZOOM LINK

Raj is inviting you to an ICSS Sunday scheduled Zoom meeting
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: ICSS0206rs
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Dial by your location
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An online webinar on the way forward for policy and practices for sex worker rights in LA and California.

Register

The Stop the Raids Committee (https://stoptheraids.org/) formed to address the onslaught of raids and arrests of members of our sex work community – including our clients. We fully expect that those raids will ramp up in the run up to Super Bowl LVI, which will be held Sunday February 13th, 2022 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

** Large sporting events like the Super Bowl see a huge increase in raids and arrests of sex workers, our clients, houseless people and others. Poverty and survival are being criminalized.

** Research shows that anti trafficking raids result in the devastation of everyone’s lives, and that actual victims don’t get help. See the IHRC report – https://humanrightsclinic.usc.edu/2021/11/15/over-policing-sex-trafficking-how-u-s-law-enforcement-should-reform-operations/.

Free COVID-19 Vaccine Fair happening this weekend! No appointment or ID needed. Please help spread the message, and stay safe! pic.twitter.com/wrEUQIx4Yd

— The Unity Council (@TheUnityCouncil) February 8, 2022

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

For February, 2022 we’re reading the first three chapters of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by the late David Graber and co-author David Wengrow.

For March, we’re reading the next four chapters, 4-7.

For April, we are finishing the book.

All are welcome!

“A dramatically new understanding of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution―from the development of agriculture and cities to the origins of the state, democracy, and inequality―and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation…”

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included 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 and Mine!.

Free COVID-19 Vaccine Fair happening this weekend! No appointment or ID needed. Please help spread the message, and stay safe! pic.twitter.com/wrEUQIx4Yd

— The Unity Council (@TheUnityCouncil) February 8, 2022

Bourgeois ideologists have been successful in obscuring the class basis of various international conflicts. Too few on the Left actively counter those narratives.  We will discuss the consequences of this failure for the struggle for working class power, using Ukraine  as a kind of case study.  Attendees are invited and urged to bring their insights and knowledge to the discussion.  Richard Fallenbaum, a member of ICSS will make a brief introduction..

LOGIN INFORMATION

Our Zoom room 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.. The program (and recording) will begin as close to 10:30 am as possible and will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open until about 1 pm for informal discussion.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=OGJrSW85ZzgrMnBUUCtnemlKMk5pdz09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: ICSS0213rs
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Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc4RrpvAiQ

As you’re all aware, for the last several years I’ve been intimately involved in our MH “system”. It’s horrid and dysfunctional. In fact the WHO refers to the good old USof A, as being the worst place on the planet to be seriously mentally ill. Although it’s hard to, I believe them.

For three years now I’ve been helping to organize a very grassroots family organization – Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI). We have lobbied, advocated, found allies, spoken up and educated and organized ourselves. Now we’re just plain fed-up and are taking our issues public as best we can.

On February 13th, Sunday, at 1:00 we will be rallying on the steps of the Board of Supervisors and some of us will stay and sleep there till their meeting Tuesday afternoon. Pamela Price and Loni Hancock will be speaking (briefly) among others – most importantly, families telling their stories (again briefly).

We’ll have art and music. Please join us and spread the word to whomever you think would be interested. I’m attaching our press release and flier.

HOSPITALS AND HOMES NOT JAILS AND STREETS

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 28,2022
Event:  Rally for HOSPITALS AND HOMES, NOT JAILS AND STREETS
for our Community Members with Serious Mental Illness

Alameda County Behavioral Health Department ignores State funds earmarked for
improving and expanding mental health infrastructure, while Supervisors vote to pour
money into Santa Rita Jail, which will conOnue to be the default warehouse of people
with mental illness.

Organized by Families Advoca.ng for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI)

On Sunday, February 13, the day before Valen’ne’s Day, beginning at 1:00 p.m., a broad-based
group of family ac’vists will gather on the plaza in front of the Board of Supervisors office
building at 1221 Oak Street in downtown Oakland to demand that Alameda County redirect
resources away from incarcera’on and into desperately needed community-based facilities
and services for those with Serious Mental Illness. There will be music and speakers, including
Alameda County District AQorney candidate Pamela Price, and former State Senator Loni
Hancock, throughout the aUernoon.

Participants will remain in the plaza un’l Tuesday, when the Supervisors meet, to demand a
public mee’ng to discuss recent funding decisions taken by the BOS and Alameda County
Behavior Health.

At a ‘me when the State of California is flush with tax revenue, and when the governor has
signaled that he intends to release funds to tackle the related problems of homelessness and
untreated mental illness, it is essen’al that elected officials listen to those who live with the
consequences of untreated mental illness. Families demand that all available resources are
sought and that they are allocated in a way that will make a difference in the lives of their
loved ones.
The State Legislature has already enacted the Behavioral Health ConOnuum Infrastructure
Program (BHCIP), which makes $2.2 billion in grants available to coun’es who apply for them
to “construct, acquire, and expand proper’es” that serve individuals with Mental Illness. These
funds can be used for much needed acute and/or sub-acute facili’es and suppor’ve housing.
Yet, to date, Alameda County Behavioral Health has declined to apply during the first rounds of
grants. These funds are once in a genera’on opportuni’es to create a decent con’nuum of
mental health care in the community. There are also other grants that can be used to subsidize
staffing and other needs.

At the same ‘me that the County is ignoring the opportunity to build more and beQer
community-based treatment centers, the Board of Supervisors has voted to allocate $300
Million to Sheriff Ahern for mental health facili’es at Santa Rita Jail, which has been sued for
its inhumane treatment of mentally ill prisoners. Ac’vists agree that jail condi’ons for those
with mental illness are deplorable, but they reject the idea that jail remain the default for
dealing with untreated mental illness. Public Defender Brian Bloom, who has been a fellow
advocate along with many others calling for “Care First, Jail Last” policies, said of the recent
seQlement, “Of course I want mentally ill individuals to be treated well in jail. But there’s only
so much money (and so many clinicians!) to go around: every penny that is spent in jail is a
penny not spent on keeping someone out of jail. “ Individuals frequently wind up in jail for
minor infrac’ons or innocuous behaviors simply because there is no other place to take them:
our hospitals and outpa’ent agencies are over-burdened. Jails are the beds that never say no.
Elected officials must step up and for’fy our Mental Health System so that it delivers for the
most vulnerable and overlooked members of our society: those with serious mental illness.
The demonstra’on is sponsored by Families Advoca.ng for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI), a
coali’on of family members, caregivers and supporters of those with severe neurobiological
disorders (aka SMI) such as schizophrenia, schizoaffec’ve disorder and bipolar disorder. FASMI
advocates for changes to public health funding, laws, policies and prac’ces that fail to
adequately help those with these illnesses. Families are the frontline of care and sustenance
for the mentally ill, but without the support of our ins’tu’ons and laws we are helpless to
protect our loved ones, and our family members become society’s problems.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89559844652 Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652

Please join us this evening for a Green Sunday based on the themes in Michael Goldstein’s recently published book, Blessed Disillusionment: Letting Go of What Cannot Save Us, Turning to What Can. Goldstein’s presentation will basically track the book, explaining the limits of mobilizing people to protest every new ruling-class abomination, working to take over the Democratic Party, once more electing new and better people, seeking constitutional amendments to reform the political system, and “yes,” third parties. The thesis is that these are useful, sometimes necessary, but that the political system absorbs such expressions of discontent while averting the fundamental change we need. Moreover, we face a real danger of neofascism, which the Democratic Party cannot stop.

“What Can . . . Save Us”? An actual popular revolution, i.e., structural change based on compelling the current regime to step aside in favor of our own self-rule. This can be brought about by a movement that invokes the image of the beloved community, embodies the values of such a community as its movement is building, and relies on nonviolent means. Goldstein has proposed, in some detail, a way to facilitate the emergence of such a revolutionary movement. Much of this analysis is new and therefore controversial, so we’ll have plenty of time for  questions and answers, which our presenter believes will serve both him and us.

Michael Goldstein is an Oakland author and retired attorney who defended men on death row, worked in factories and on highways, joined Standing Rock water protectors, and ran against Nancy Pelosi under the slogan, “New faces in Washington cannot stop the rise of fascism or create a caring society. Michael will use the office to help build the movement that can.” Blessed Disillusionment has been endorsed by Cornel West, Joanna Macy, longshore leader Clarence Thomas, and others. His previous book was Return of the Light: A Political Fable in Which the American People Retake Their Country.

Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows at 7:00 pm, after a 30-minute break. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

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Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652

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TONIGHT Feb. 16, 5pm: #DebtStrike victory party & panel WHEN DEBT IS POWER!
Featuring Jane McAlevey @rsgexp, Astra Taylor @astradisastra, @AFSCMELocal3299 & Veritas Debt Strikers discussing Veritas debt strike, tenant unions & organizing to win!
Register: https://t.co/Jt1JKqAllK pic.twitter.com/fbPKs5pX5R

— Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco (@housingrightsSF) February 16, 2022