Calendar
Mark your calendars! We're hosting TWO Public Banking 101 sessions in November–one at Alley Cat Books, and one @DSA_SF. We hope to see you there 🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/8Sg3u7g293
— SF Public Bank (@sfpublicbank) October 25, 2018
REPORT FROM THE FRONTLINES:
A report-back on Palestine by the US Palestine Community Network
Join us for a report back on the recent delegation to Palestine organized by the U.S. Palestine Community Network (USPCN). USPCN members will share about conditions on the ground as they relate to political prisoners, refugees, health, land theft, and the right of return.
This event is free and welcome to all ages. Donations to support the speakers as they travel the country is greatly appreciated.
Hosted by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
For more questions contact info@araborganizing.org
Tell Barbara Lee to support immediate action for a Green New Deal! Join the Sunrise Movement to visit Barbara Lee in a national day of action calling on progressive legislators to support rapid national mobilization for an equitable clean-energy economy.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is sponsoring a resolution to create a Green New Deal , a 10-year economic mobilization to carbon-neutrality and drawdown. Her resolution includes the requirement that the plan promote “high income work, entrepreneurship and cooperative and public ownership” as well as “social, economic, racial, regional and gender-based justice and equality.”
It is essential that members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, including Barbara Lee, get behind this resolution to make it happen.
Last week Ocasio-Cortez joined the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats in a sit-in in Nancy Pelosi’s office. They said now that Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives it’s time to take bold action on the climate.
The Sunrise Movement and Climate Mobilization are calling on everyone to call five leaders of the Progressive Caucus on Monday and join in the national day of visits to legislators Tuesday.
Come meet our Biohackers and other Mad Scientists in our new space at the Omni Commons to discuss science, brainstorm projects, learn more about Counter Culture Lab, and plot world domination.
And hey – free pizza! See you there 🙂
To RSVP to this event, or check other events organized by Counter Culture Labs, see our Meetup page: http://www.meetup.com/Counter-Culture-Labs/
Join us at this 19th year gathering at our ancient ceremonial and the largest funerary site of the Ohlone people of the East Bay. This is a family friendly event, we will be handing out information and educating the public about this sacred site. Bring Cookies or snacks to share and a good attitude. We will have prayers and songs offered and updates on current work and issues in our communities
On Nov. 20, 1969, after centuries of being killed, displaced and driven from their land, a group of Native Americans landed on Alcatraz Island and claimed it as their own.
For 19 months the media reported every move, the government tried to stop them, and thousands of supporters visited and sent supplies.
In this 2015 documentary, the story of the historic, audacious takeover of Alcatraz is told with passion, humor and heart by Adam Fortunate Eagle, the main organizer.
Come out to Fruitvale Village and stand in solidarity with the International Call to Action for the Refugee Caravan and Central American Exodus. This day is being led by countless immigrant rights organizations that have been tirelessly organizing on both sides of the border.
The migrant caravan is a result of years of US imperialism and military intervention in Central America, which have resulted in thousands of people being forced to flee unlivable conditions in their home countries. We demand respect for the human right to seek asylum, and an end to the criminalization of all refugees.
We reject the imperialism, racism, mass incarceration, and xenophobia that have been validated and amplified by Trump and his administration. Refugees are welcome here!
Read the full call to action including demands and endorsing organizations here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PsPwJ2kORIefjU54OGdehxdzMAc7WMXNa3eGSKygess/edit
This will be a Spanish event, English translation will be available.
Thanks to community support, a federal judge granted us an extension today on the restraining order against eviction!
We have two weeks until our next court date: Show up MONDAY Nov 26, 3 pm, at Dellums Building at 1301 Clay St, 4th floor courtroom 2! #ByeLibby #UpgradeDontEvict pic.twitter.com/mhAHSwC0rA
— The Village, Oakland (@VillageOakland) November 14, 2018
Special Meeting Agenda
Commission Members:
District 1 Representative: Reem Suleiman,
District 2 Representative: Chloe Brown,
District 3 Representative: Brian M. Hofer,
District 4 Representative: Lou Katz,
District 5 Representative: Raymundo Jacquez III,
District 6 Representative: Vacant,
District 7 Representative: Robert Oliver,
Council At-Large Representative: Saied R. Karamooz,
Mayoral Representative: Heather Patterson
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4. 5:15pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – Unapproved Use of UAV by OPD during exigent circumstances – presentation of revised staff report and take possible action
5. 5:25pm: Review and take possible action on a Federal Task Force MOU with the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS)
6. 5:35pm: Review and take possible action on a Federal Task Force MOU with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
7. 5:45pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – Cell Site Simulator draft Use Policy – review and take possible action on revised staff policy.
8. 7:00pm: Adjournment
Unions play a contradictory role in advancing a progressive agenda, and nowhere is this more true than in electoral politics.
Despite decades worth of betrayals by the Democratic Party, unions are the party’s most loyal foot soldiers and some of its biggest donors — even for candidates that are tepid at best when it comes to working-class issues. When the politician who fought harder for the working class than anyone we’ve seen in our lifetimes, Bernie Sanders, sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, almost the entire labor movement lined up behind his corporate-funded opponent Hillary Clinton. The same has been true for other candidates backed by the Left since Sanders, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cynthia Nixon. While some progressive unions supported Jovanka Beckles — a democratic socialist and champion of unions and the working class — in her 2018 campaign against billionaire-funded, centrist Democrat Buffy Wicks, many other unions backed Wicks.
Why does labor seem to make these wrongheaded decisions over and over? And how should socialists respond to them? Join East Bay DSA and Jacobin editor Micah Uetricht for a discussion on how socialists should approach unions and electoral politics.
Micah Uetricht is based in Chicago and is the managing editor of Jacobin. He is the author of Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity and is currently working on a book about socialism and Bernie Sanders. He writes frequently about the US labor movement.
“Imprisoning a Generation” is a documentary film which follows the stories of four young Palestinians who have been detained and imprisoned under the Israeli military system. Their perspectives, along with the voices of their families, form a lens into the entangled structures of oppression that expand well beyond the prison walls. (50 minutes, Produced & Directed by Zelda Edmunds). Screened at the 2018 US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Conference. November 29 is also the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Join Us! Following the film, MECA Director Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch and film director Zelda Edmunds will give a brief update about Palestinian children being detained under house arrest and take questions.
TICKETS:
Benefit for MECA programs in Palestine & Lebanon. Wheelchair accessible.
For info: http://www.mecaforpeace.org.
https://www.facebook.com/events/184730162442385/?active_tab=about
Join East Bay DSA’s Labor Committee for their regular Beer and Roses Social! This will now be an ****after party**** for the event “Unions, Politics, and Socialism” earlier in the evening. Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2236804029868932/
Hang out with other members who are interested in the labor movement, hear about what’s happening in the East Bay DSA Labor Committee, and learn how you can get involved!
In her first work of literary nonfiction, HAPA TALES AND OTHER LIES, Sharon H. Chang explores her Asian American and Mixed Race identity through the prism of returning to Hawai’i as a tourist. But what begins as a journey to discover herself turns into much more as she learns the true history of the islands, Hawai’i’s Indigenous children, and the Native Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement.
Please join author Sharon H. Chang for a special Oakland Chinatown event celebrating her new memoir, co-hosted by EastwindBooks Berkeley. The evening will include reading and discussion with Sharon and NoCal writers Asha Sudra, Wei Ming Dariotis, Nia McAllister and Fredrick D. Kakinami Cloyd.
Revolution Books is screening this 2007 film at this time to celebrate the spirit of the Iranian people and stand with them against the new severe sanctions on Iran imposed by Trump.
Based on Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her life in pre and post-revolutionary Iran and then in Europe. The film traces Satrapi’s growth from child to rebellious, punk-loving teenager in Iran. Marjane grows up in a family of left-wing activist intellectuals who, after the CIA coup against Mossaddegh, opposed the brutal Shah’s dictatorship & participate in the 1979 revolution, but are soon are targeted under the rule of the mullahs.
Oakland teachers are fighting to end the teacher retention crisis and provide a great education for all our students. We’ve been working without a contract for 1.5 years, and since the Oakland Unified School District is refusing to meaningfully engage with our demands, we are preparing for a possible strike in early 2019.
Join Oakland teachers for our first neighborhood canvass to get the word out about our contract fight, and to give community members the opportunity to show their support. We’ll be going door to door with our support signs for people to post in their windows, and having conversations about all that’s at stake in this fight for the future of public education in our city.
MEET OUTSIDE OF THE GRAND LAKE THEATER AT 2PM! We will provide training, materials, water, and snacks.
Oakland knows that teacher working conditions are student learning conditions, and that our kids, teachers, staff, and families deserve more. Let’s give them the opportunity to show it!
We are fighting for a public education system that puts students first, and in order to win, we need our community to fight alongside us. OUSD spends extravagantly on consultants and administrators in their central office; yet when we say we need smaller class sizes, more student support, and a living wage for educators, they say the funding just isn’t there.
Join us in getting the word out and building support for our fight for the schools that Oakland students deserve!
The Peace and Freedom Party presents
After the 2018 Midterms: What’s changed, what hasn’t.
We have invited some knowledgeable comrades to lead our discussion of whether and how the recent elections have impacted our struggles in various areas, including foreign policy, immigration, gender relations, jobs, education, human rights, and more. Confirmed speakers include Gary Hicks, CP-USA and CCDS, Gene Ruyle, Veterans for Peace, PFP Gerald Smith, Oscar Grant Committee, PFP Tom Gallagher, Progressive Democrats of America; SF-DSA Stan Woods, will moderate for the Peace and Freedom Party.
This is part of our on-going Socialist Forum Series on the first Saturday of every month. Doors open at 2 pm and the program will start promptly at 2:30 pm. The forum will end by 4:30 pm, but folks can stay and talk afterwards. The opinions expressed are those of the speakers and do not reflect official views of the Peace and Freedom Party.
The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and
anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.
http://www.peaceandfreedom.org
How We Get Free features three leading activist-scholars who will come together in conversation about Black Feminism past and present. The speakers, each coming from a unique radical tradition, will combine their own research and experience with the history of past movements to explore questions around race, gender, class, and ultimately, liberation. What is the role of elections? Of #BlackLivesMatter? Of Trump? How should we be organizing today for our collective liberation?
Our speakers are Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Alicia Garza and Zoe Samudzi. How We Get Free takes place Saturday, December 1 at 7pm at First Congregational Church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison St, Oakland, CA 94612. The event is sponsored by the Fifth Annual Howard Zinn Book Fair (being held Sunday, Dec. 2 from 10-6 at CCSF, 1125 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA) and the International Socialist Organization. A donation of $5 – $10 is requested and any proceeds will go toward the Zinn Book Fair and ISO.
In the last several years, Black feminism has reemerged as the analytical framework for the activists response to the oppression of trans women of color, the fight for reproductive rights, and of course, the movement against police abuse and violence. The most visible organizations and activists connected to the Black Lives Matter movement speak openly about how Black feminism shapes their politics and strategies today.
—Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is an assistant Professor of African-American Studies at Princeton University. She is the author of From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, an examination of the history and politics of Black America and the development of the social movement Black Lives Matter in response to police violence in the United States. Taylor’s book, How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective explores the history of the Combahee River Collective, a trailblazing 1960s-70s group of radical black feminists through interviews with the groups founders. Her research examines race, housing, and public policy.
Alicia Garza is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement and the special projects director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) which strives to get better pay and working conditions for nannies and housekeepers. She also serves on the board of directors for the School of Liberation and Unity (SOUL) in Oakland. This school works to help underprivileged youth and people with low-income develop skills so they can improve their communities. Garza is also on the board of directors of Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD), another Oakland organization which helps black activists further develop their organizing skills. Garza is one of the activists interview in Taylor’s How We Get Free.
Zoe Samudzi is a co-author of As Black as Resistance: Finding the Conditions for Liberation and doctoral student in medical sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on the scientific logics that produce race and gender, particularly focusing on transgender health and the ways Blackness is constructed. Her writing has been featured in The New Inquiry, Warscapes, Truthout, ROAR Magazine, Teen Vogue, Black Girl Dangerous, and Bitch Media, among others.
Also featuring poetry readings by fiction writer and poet Idrissa Simmonds.
If Black women were free, it would mean that everyone else would have to be free.
—Combahee River Collective Statement
The Howard Zinn Book Fair is an annual celebration of people’s history, past, present and future. We gather together authors, zinesters, bloggers and publishers for a day of readings, panel discussions and workshops exploring the value of dissident histories towards building a better future. In the spirit of the late historian Howard Zinn we recognize the stories of the ways that everyday people have risen to propose a world beyond empires big and small. The Howard Zinn Book Fair is a non-sectarian left event that welcomes a wide variety of political traditions left traditions.