Calendar
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
- Presenting debt and inequality related topics at forums, workshops and in radio productions.
- Relieving Medical Debt through pennies-on-the-dollar buyback programs.
- Promoting single-payer / Medicare for All to end the plague of medical debt
- Money bail reform and fighting modern day debtors’ prisons and exploitative ticketing and fining schemes
- Tiny Homes and other solutions for the homeless.
- Student debt resistance. Check out the Debt Collective, our sister organization
- Helping out America’s only non-profit check-cashing organization and fighting against usurious for-profit pay-day lenders and their ilk
- Working on debarring US Banks that have been convicted of felonies from municipal contracts, and divesting from the Wall St. banks
- Promoting the concept of Basic Income
- Advocating for Postal banking
- Organizing for public banking in Oakland! We made the first steps happen… now there’s a spinoff group
- Bring your own debt-related project!
If you are new to Strike Debt and want to come early, meet one or two of us and get a briefing on our projects before we dive into our agenda, email us at strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com
Strike Debt – Principles of Solidarity
Strike Debt is building a debt resistance movement. We believe that most individual debt is illegitimate and unjust. Most of us fall into debt because we are increasingly deprived of the means to acquire the basic necessities of life: health care, education, and housing. Because we are forced to go into debt simply in order to live, we think it is right and moral to resist it.
We also oppose debt because it is an instrument of exploitation and political domination. Debt is used to discipline us, deepen existing inequalities, and reinforce racial, gendered, and other social hierarchies. Every Strike Debt action is designed to weaken the institutions that seek to divide us and benefit from our division. As an alternative to this predatory system, Strike Debt advocates a just and sustainable economy, based on mutual aid, common goods, and public affluence.
Strike Debt is committed to the principles and tactics of political autonomy, direct democracy, direct action, creative openness, a culture of solidarity, and commitment to anti-oppressive language and conduct. We struggle for a world without racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.
Strike Debt holds that we are all debtors, whether or not we have personal loan agreements. Through the manipulation of sovereign and municipal debt, the costs of speculator-driven crises are passed on to all of us. Though different kinds of debt can affect the same household, they are all interconnected, and so all household debtors have a common interest in resisting.
Strike Debt engages in public education about the debt-system to counteract the self-serving myth that finance is too complicated for laypersons to understand. In particular, it urges direct action as a way of stopping the damage caused by the creditor class and their enablers among elected government officials. Direct action empowers those who participate in challenging the debt-system.
Strike Debt holds that we owe the financial institutions nothing, whereas, to our friends, families and communities, we owe everything. In pursuing a long-term strategy for national organizing around this principle, we pledge international solidarity with the growing global movement against debt and austerity.
Join us for three days of presentations and discussions to help us understand our current conditions and the problems we face under capitalism. Most importantly, we will talk about the kind of organizing necessary in order to change these conditions and create the kind of society that we need.
Friday 10/12
6:30pm-9:00pm
Attica – a documentary film by Cinda Firestone
This film documents the events that began on September 9, 1971 when inmates at Attica State Prison seized the prison for four days after months of protesting inhumane conditions. The uprising resulted in the death of 43 people after state troopers were called in to put down the rebellion.
Saturday 10/13
10:30am-12:30pm
The Crisis of Civilization and How to Resolve It: An Introduction to Ecocentric Socialism
Kamran Nayeri is the publisher and editor of “Our Place in the World: A Journal of Ecosocialism”. Political Economist emeritus, UC Berkeley
1:30pm-3:00pm
The Middle East in the Era of Trump
Prof. As’ad AbuKhalil, Professor of Political Science at CSU Stanislaus and author of Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
3:30pm-5:00pm
The “Gig Economy”: A New Form of Servitude for the Working Class?
Keally McBride is a Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco. She teaches and publishes on a wide variety of topics, including punishment, law, decolonization, revolutions and political economy.
6:30pm-8:00pm
France: In The Streets, Workplaces, Universities, Schools & Hospitals
Gilles Kobry, an activist in the French Trotskyist group, Fraction L’Etincelle, will discuss the recent struggles against the Macron government’s enforcement of the Labor Law in France, as well as attacks on access to public education and the challenges facing the workers in France and throughout Europe.
Sunday 10/14
2:00pm-3:30pm
Sports And Capitalism – How Sports are Used to Squeeze Public Money for Private Profit
Jules Boykoff, former professional soccer player, currently teaches political science at Pacific University in Oregon. Co-sponsored by the Anthropology and Social Change department at California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
4:00pm-5:30pm
The Challenges We Face Today – Short-Term Mobilizing or Organizing for Real Social Change
A presentation by Speak Out Now (Revolutionary Workers Group) activists, followed by discussion and time to socialize. Refreshments and snacks provided.
Mark your calendars! Beginning in October, East Bay DSA will hold general membership meetings (GMs) on the second Sunday of every month at 1 p.m. This schedule begins Sunday, October 14. These meetings are the highest governing body of our organization and will include deliberation and voting on member-submitted resolutions, member announcements, reports from our committees, and more.
With our new, regular schedule, member-submitted resolutions will be accepted on a rolling basis. Please email them to resolutions-committee@eastbaydsa.org. The submissions deadline for each meeting is two days after the previous one.
General meetings are organized by the Meetings Committee. If you have questions or want to join our work, and in particular, if you have experience in A/V, child supervision, or graphic design, please write us at meetings-committee@eastbaydsa.org.
Celebrate 52 years of the Black Panther Party with a concert & rally featuring X Clan and more! Hosted by Gina Madrid + Saturu Ned. FREE EVENT, call for unity and solutions!
NOTE: Because of the 52nd anniversary All Power To The People Black Panther Memorial & Concert at the plaza this week General Assembly will meet at the Omni Commons at 48th & Shattuck Avenue at the normal summer time of 4 PM.
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 4 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall. If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph. If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 4:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. (Note: we tend to meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months from November to early March after Daylights Savings Time.)
On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 3 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.
OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over six years, since October 2011! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.
At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.
General Assembly Standard Agenda
Welcome & Introductions
Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
Announcements
(Optional) Discussion Topic
Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.
Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area
San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv
Our October Green Sunday program will focus on the upcoming November 6 elections: the various measures and offices which will be on the ballot in Alameda County, and the written analyses and recommendations in our Voter Guide.
Join a discussion about state and local tax measures, as well as candidates for various local races: mayors, city councils, school boards, special districts, etc.
We will have short presentations by Laura Wells (Green candidate for Congress, CA-D13), Saied Karamooz (Green candidate for Oakland Mayor), James Vann (about housing issues on the ballot), and Mike Hutchinson (No on Measure AA, the Oakland Children Initiative of 2018). [See bios below]
Bring your sample ballot, questions, and opinions. This is an opportunity to ask about — and comment about — items on the November ballot.
SPONSOR: Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are usually held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party of Alameda County follows at 6:45 pm. Council meetings are always open to anyone who is interested.
Hundreds of Green Voter Guides will be available, for those of you who can distribute them around town at cafes, bookstores, laundromats, libraries, and the like, or by passing them out at BART stations, farmers markets, grocery stores, or anywhere else where there’s a lot of foot traffic.
An electronic version of the Guide is now available at our blog website here: http://acgreens.wordpress.com/voter-guides
Bios of presenters:
Laura Wells has been a Green Party activist since 1992, when the Green Party was first on the ballot in California. She has been very active within the party at local and state levels, and has run as our candidate for state Controller and for Governor. This year, we called for a Green to run for Congress since Barbara Lee was running unopposed in the primary. Laura stepped up as a write-in candidate, and won. She faced Barbara Lee at a League of Women Voters candidate forum on October 5. With Top 2, they will be the only two candidates for Congress, District 13, on the ballot in November. https://laurawells.org/
Saied Karamooz is running for Mayor of Oakland. Saied has been involved in a number of progressive campaigns over the years. Most notably, he has been serving as an active member of the Coalition for Police Accountability that spearheaded Measure LL, resulting in the establishment of a Police Commission in Oakland. Currently he is a commissioner on Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission and President of the Jack London Improvement District. Over the past few years, Saied has supported initiatives such as the Fight for 15, Stop Urban Shield, the Public Bank of Oakland, and No Coal in Oakland. Saied’s campaign website (everyonesmayor.org) provides a clear outline of how to make Oakland an equitable city for all.
James Vann, a recently retired architect, is a long-time community, political, and housing activist in Oakland. He co-founded the Oakland Tenants Union, and continues to fight for justice and equality in the policies and laws of Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program toward the benefit of tenants. As an original member of East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), James works for funding and construction of housing that is affordable to Oakland workers and households throughout the flatlands. Politically, James was a organizer in 1967 of the Peace & Freedom Party, where he forged an alliance between Peace & Freedom and the Black Panther Party. P&F qualified for the ballot in 1968. James was elected that same year to chair the opening session of the founding convention of the P&F Party. www.oaklandtenantsunion.org/
Mike Hutchinson was born and raised in Oakland and is a proud graduate of the Oakland Public Schools. After working in our schools for 20 years, in 2012 he became a public education advocate. Since then he has been working to save and fix public education in Oakland by any means necessary. He is currently working to build the organization he co-founded, OPEN: the Oakland Public Education Network, which is a founding member of the Journey For Justice national alliance, and the west coast anchor organization for the #WeChoose national campaign.
Oct 14 Indivisible Berkeley General Assembly!
We will discuss models of organizing & put those learnings into practice.
Doors open at 7. Mtg: 7:30.
Questions? info@indivisibleberkeley.org.
ADA Accessibility: Finnish Hall has stairs leading 2 entrance so is not ADA accessible. pic.twitter.com/CrsZ4HrdOA— Indivisible Berkeley (@IndivisibleBerk) October 11, 2018
We will be holding a large engaging event at the toxic chemical giant turned food tyrant, now known as Monsanto-Bayer. We will arrive at their Woodland, CA facility to shut it down!! This is the largest biotech seed breeding facility in the world!
Prepare for a festive, fun, yet serious event.
Costumes (Bee, Tomatoes, Corn, etc.) , large puppets, Haz Mat suits, gas masks, protest signs, etc., are encouraged!
We will need everyone’s help to shut them down!
If you eat food, drink water, value yours and your children’s lives, you will want to be there!
Please spread the word far and wide!!!
Movie Trailer: https://youtu.be/lXyMwgGT6yg
6:30 PM – Introduction
6:40 PM – Film Screening
7:40 PM – Discussion
8:30 PM – Closing
Please bring snacks and other things to share if you can!!!
The economic system of capitalism has undermined democracies throughout the world, created huge income disparities, wrecked our ecosystem and isolated us from our own communities. Yet very few people truly understand its roots.
This six-part documentary series from Icarus Films is an ambitious but accessible series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world. Featuring interviews with some of the world’s great historians, economist, anthropologists and social critics (including Noam Chomsky, Thomas Piketty and more), CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities, and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years.
If we are going to challenge our current system, we first need to understand it. Join us, each Monday for a FREE screening and informal discussion. Please bring food to share for a collective potluck meal!!
All screenings will be inside Shelton Hall at the Oakland Peace Center, 111 Fairmount Ave.
Monday, 9/17 – Episode One: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market – Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries, and is rooted in the predatory practices of colonialism and the slave trade.
Monday, 9/24 – Episode Two: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel? – Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.
Monday, 10/1 – Episode Three: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom? – The roots of today’s global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.
Monday, 10/8 – Episode Four: What If Marx Was Right? – Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of his critique of how capitalism works – a critique that is as relevant and penetrating as ever?
Monday, 10/15 – Episode Five: Keynes vs. Hayek: A Fake Debate? – The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this simple dualism?
Monday, 10/22 – Episode Six: Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor – An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?
In May of 2018, Richmond became the first city in the country to prevent municipal contracts with companies that sell data to ICE. Now it is Berkeley’s turn as we try to build a region-wide resistance that will change the business decisions of companies. Using public money to subsidize the high-tech hunting of immigrants is a choice and we can make another, better choice here in Northern California. Sanctuary is not just a slogan.
The good news is that the contracting restriction is, currently, on the consent calender and we hope that means no opposition and a quick vote of approval. And an early night. But assumptions make a fool out of everyone, so community members speaking in support is important and we need to be prepared for a lengthier process in case one ensues.
We’re still finalizing this course.
Required Readings
Additional details and readings will be added shortly.
KPFA Radio 94.1FM presents
D.D. Guttenplan & Michael Lerner
The Next Republic: The Rise of a Radical New Majority
advance tickets: $12 Books Inc/Berkeley, Pegasus (3 sites), Moes, Walden Pond Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloways. East Bay Books $15 door, KPFA benefit
Exactly who are the new progressive leaders emerging to lead the post-Trump return to democracy in America? National political correspondent D.D. Guttenplans The Next Republic is an extraordinarily intense and wide-ranging history of the recent fall and incipient rise of democracy in America. Here youll meet some of the individuals who are changing the course of American history such as new labor activist Jane McAlevey, racial justice campaigner Chokwe Antar Lumumba, environmental activist Jane Kleeb, Sanders campaign veterans Zack Exley, Waleed Shahid and Corbin Trent, as well as anti-corruption crusader Zephyr Teachout.
Its high time that someone resurrected authentic populism activism from below, and showed how it can be the path to a better future. Thats done very convincingly in D.D. Guttenplans fine book, The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority. Noam Chomsky
D.D. Guttenplan has written a profoundly subversive book. At a moment when Trumpism, cynicism and corruption seem to reign supreme in our politics, he has made a compelling case for hope and optimism about the future of our democracy, and has put the meaning of our republic in its historical context. Victor Navasky
At a moment when history and truth are under attack, and the survival of our republic is once again in doubt, The Next Republic is a timely, humane, forceful narrative of our insurgent political momentand a deeply reported contribution to the fight for a progressive future in America. Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor & publisher of The Nation
D.D. Guttenplan, London correspondent for The Nation, is the author of The Holocaust on Trial, a book about the Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt libel case. In 2009 Guttenplan completed a biography of I. F. Stone titled American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone.
Michael Lerner is an American political activist, the editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine , and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley. He is the author of` Numerous books including Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin (with Cornel West), and
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country From the Religious Right.
Join Oakland Privacy to organize against the surveillance state, police militarization and ICE, and to advocate for surveillance regulation around the Bay.
We fight against “pre-crime” and “thought-crime,” spy drones, facial recognition, police body cameras and requirements for “backdoors” to cellphones, to list just a few invasions of our privacy by all levels of Government.
We draft and push for privacy legislation for City Councils, at the County level, and in Sacramento. We advocate in op-eds and in the streets. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and believe no one is illegal.
Oakland Privacy originally came together in 2013 to fight against the Domain Awareness Center, Oakland’s citywide networked mass surveillance hub. OP was instrumental in stopping the DAC from becoming a city-wide spying network.
Our major projects currently include local legislation to regulate state surveillance (we got the strongest surveillance regulation ordinance in the country passed in Oakland!), opposing Urban Shield (now gone!) and pushing back against ICE with local legislation.
If you are interested in joining the Oakland Privacy email listserv, coming to a meeting, or have questions, send an email to:
Check out our website: http://oaklandprivacy.org/ Follow us on twitter: @oaklandprivacy
Check out our sister site DeportICE.
“WATCHING YOU WATCHING US”
Oakland Privacy works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. Oakland Privacy drove the passage of surveillance regulation and transparency ordinances in Oakland and Berkeley and is kicking off new processes in Richmond and Alameda County. To help slow down the encroaching police state all over the Bay Area, join us at the Omni.
APTP meets monthly on the 3rd Wednesday of the month.
For this meeting, the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective will present information about their work and how they are building and supporting TJ. The presentation will talk about TJ and what it is, covering some of the core concepts of TJ. For those who would like to learn more, attendees will be invited to a more in-depth TJ Intro later in the fall,
Here are links to the BATJC website: https://batjc.wordpress.com
and here is an intro from an interview with BATJC: WE RISE Mia Mingus of the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VV_5reooT_Y
The Anti Police-Terror Project began as a project of the ONYX Organizing Committee. We are a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. Founding coalition members include the Black Power Network, Community Ready Corps, Workers World, and the Idriss Stelley Foundation.
Join this conversation with Michael Leon Guerrero. Learn about the Labor Network for Sustainability, the only national membership organization building support in the labor movement for a just transition to a sustainable, renewable energy economy, and its Labor Climate Convergence taking place in CA next year.
This will also be an opportunity to discuss next steps for Labor Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice following the hugely successful Labor Contingent in the September 8th march in SF.
Pot-luck dinner: We’ll provide food. Any dish you would like to bring to share is welcome but not required.
**Please RSVP** on the Face Book Event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/1026883824160478/) to be sure there is enough food for everyone.
Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom
Come find out why public banking is suddenly making national news: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and other cities and states are considering changing finance to finance change!
On Thursday, October 18, at the San Rafael Corporate Center 750 Lindaro Street in San Rafael, join 350Marin and hear author and attorney Ellen Brown, founder of the Public Banking Institute and host of the radio show ‘It’s our Money’ and Susan Harman, Co-founder of Commonomics USA Member of Friends of the Public Bank of Oakland, talk about about the Public Bank movement that’s rapidly building momentum locally and across the US. Refreshments and networking at 6:30pm. Speaking program begins at 7pm.
See, download and distribute the flyer HERE and RSVP below.
Meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Ad Hoc Committee on Urban Area Security Initiative, charged with reconstituting and rethinking Urban Shield.
The committee was established by the Board of Supervisors in March 2018 in response to sustained community concerns about Urban Shield, which is funded in part by UASI grants from the Department of Homeland Security, and coordinated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The Board of Supervisors decided in March, 2018 that 2018 would be the last year the county would approve Urban Shield, as currently constituted, and asked the Ad Hoc Committee to make recommendations to the Board on the UASI-funded emergency preparedness training and exercise in 2019 and beyond.
The agenda will include a presentation and Q/A with county emergency preparedness officials (from ACSO, Public Health, and Social Services); a discussion of criteria for weighing recommendations; and a presentation about community-based emergency preparedness initiatives.
Agendas and materials for each meeting are posted at http://www.acgov.org/board/calendarcom.htm
Meeting of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ Ad Hoc Committee on Urban Area Security Initiative, charged with reconstituting and rethinking Urban Shield.
The committee was established by the Board of Supervisors in March 2018 in response to sustained community concerns about Urban Shield, which is funded in part by UASI grants from the Department of Homeland Security, and coordinated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
The Board of Supervisors decided in March, 2018 that 2018 would be the last year the county would approve Urban Shield, as currently constituted, and asked the Ad Hoc Committee to make recommendations to the Board on the UASI-funded emergency preparedness training and exercise in 2019 and beyond.
Theagenda will include a presentation and Q/A with county emergency preparedness officials (from ACSO, Public Health, and Social Services); a discussion of criteria for weighing recommendations; and a presentation about community-based emergency preparedness initiatives.