
Monday, September 9, 8AM to Tuesday, September 10, 8 PM
Cost: 0 – $300
Beginning on August 10th, the Strike Debt Bay Area Economics Book Group began discussing Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. We tackled the introduction and first chapter, available through the ‘Look Inside’ feature on Amazon, for the August 10th meeting.
For our September 7th meeting, we will be discussing the rest of the first section, Chapters 2-6.
For our October 12th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 7-9, the first part of the second section.
For our November 16th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 10 – 13.
For our December 14th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 14 and through to the end.
All are welcome!
The Economics Book Group began with Doughnut Economics and continued with Take Back the Economy. We read a few chapters every month.
“Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.”
“In Banking on the People, attorney Ellen Brown provides a much-needed roadmap for reforming monetary and credit systems and the central banks now strangling our common human future. More lucidly that any other expert I know, she shows how we can break the grip of predatory financialization now extracting value from real peoples’ productive activities all over the world. Her in-depth research and systemic overview of the global and local politics of money-creation and credit allocation include all the viable proposals of global experts and reformers. She reviews many of these reforms: from financial transaction taxes, to a universal basic income to provide purchasing power for the cornucopia of goods and services now produced, to expanding the public banks she so ably promotes via the Public Banking Institute, to returning the Fed and all banks to serving the public utility functions that economies require. This book is a must read for citizens in all societies who see the promising future as we seek to widen democracies and transform to a cleaner, greener, shared prosperity, based on the renewable abundance of free daily energy from our sun.” – Hazel Henderson, CEO of Ethical Markets Media and author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books.
Enjoy live readings from a new anthology of poetry, prose and art by 100 Bay Area writers and artists of color and allies celebrating the rich diversity that truly makes America great.
Civil liberties matter to everyone—not just those who are targeted now. Those who keep silent may be next. Although we are 60% of the Bay Area’s population, people of color remain under represented and under published. Democracy can’t be taken for granted. We must stand up and be counted. We must reach within ourselves and reach out to others, so we can move forward together towards a just and inclusive society.
Readers: Avotcja, Ravi Chandra, Carole Chinn-Morales, Keh-Ming Lin, Tureeda Mikell, Grace Morizawa, Roji Oyama, Susana Praver-Perez, Shizue Seigel, R. Sridevi, and Kimi Sugioka.
Visual artists: Cris Matos, Joan Osato, Choppy Oshiro, Pancho Pescador, Edsel Rivera, Shizue Seigel, Leon Sun, Mel Waters, and Jess X. Wong.
Co-presented by Oakland Asian Cultural Center and Eastwind Books of Berkeley
Can we rise up like Hong Kong? Fill Mission Street from 5th to 8th Streets. Needs at least 880 people. Bring your charged phone to hold up.
In January 2016, youth at YSA initiated a community organizing campaign to build a Youth Tiny House Village in the San Francisco East Bay. They are working in partnership with non-profit developer Housing Consortium of the East Bay and the local interfaith community to complete a multi-face, community-led Village that is designed by the young people it will benefit. The Village will feature:
– 14 secure 8′ x 10′ Tiny Houses with lofted beds, windows, skylight, storage, electricity, furnishings
– On-site, clean communal bathrooms and showers
– A kitchen yurt for residents to cook weekly communal meals and securely store their own food
– Community gathering space for meetings
– Associated jobs training program through YSA
– Associated social services through YSA
– Restorative justice covenant and community process
– On-site Resident Assistant who lives in the community
In addition to a prototype built in 2017, YSA has built two houses in March and April of 2019 and will be building 12 houses in August and September.
We are actively recruiting members of our community to support us with building one of the 12 remaining houses by exclusively women, trans and gender non conforming folks.
We have six build days and are looking for 12-15 volunteers each day.
The build days are:
August 17 & 18
August 24 & 25
September 7 & 8
While we don’t know the exact time of the build each day, we anticipate building from as early as 8am to as late as 5pm.
To learn more about this project visit:
http://youthspiritartworks.org/programs/tiny-house-village/
When you think of the upcoming Global Climate Strike (Sept. 20-27), who is leading the demonstrations? Young people, right? They’re increasingly taking the lead for climate related actions through organizations such as Sunrise. “The dark hour in America cannot last,” proclaims this new youth-centered activist group.
But marching beside the young people is spirit if not always in body will be revered elders in the ecology movement such as Joanna Macy, the author of 13 books and a veteran of six decades of political activism.
In fact, Macy and Sunrise people will literally be standing side by side at an upcoming event “Rising to the Climate Emergency: What Can we Count On?” at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists on September 8.
“The climate emergency is really serious,” says Macy, “but we don’t want people to feel paralyzed by the enormity of the challenge. We must help everyone find resources within themselves to realize they can make a difference.”
Macy is most noted for “The Work that Reconnects,” workshops that inspired thousands to experience their connections with each other and gain motivation to play their part in creating a sustainable civilization.
Macy’s spiritual descendants in the Sunrise Movement are definitely eager to play their part. They’re building a mass movement to stop the climate crisis and create millions of good-paying jobs in the process.
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists is one of the epicenters of progressive political action in Berkeley, through its own actions and the many activist groups that meet there. All who are concerned about the climate crisis are invited to join Joanna Macy and Sunrise at 10:30 AM September 8. Free potluck and lively conversation will follow.
Free to the public.
Hosted by North Oakland Restorative Justice Council
We invite you to our next edition of our 45th St Brunches & Brooms, a neighborhood cleanup, community meal, and hygiene/winter gear kit distribution centering at the highway underpass off of 45th Street and MLK. In partnership with our neighbors who live there, we would like to gather to share some food and help with cleaning up the dumping under the 45th overpass.
Donate at
Facebook Giving: https://www.facebook.com/donate/361009014828047/
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/45th-st-community-cleanup-meal-care-kit
Help us assembles hot meals and care kits for 250 unhoused neighbors, that will be delivered to surrounding encampments during the days We are $1,000 to make the distribution happen in completion.
We need:
-$ – donate above
-Tents/Tarps/Rain Gear
-Gift card to costoco/target
-new socks, underwear
-dog food (for unhoused neighbors with pets)
-new tooth brush/toothpaste
-deodorant, small soaps, etc
-water (1 gallon or larger please)
-granola bars
-canned with pop top ready to eat stuff (tuna, sardines, jams, etc)
-Food for the brunch (high quality eggs, maple syrup (real), meats, etc)
-barber
***
Many hands make for light work and we hope you can join us at some point during the early afternoon.
This event is brought to you by the Longfellow Community Association, the North Oakland Restorative Justice Council, Self Help Hunger Program, Phat Beets Produce, Oakland Communities United for Equity & Justice (OCUEJ) PLACE for Sustainable Living, RJOY, and the residents of the underpass. Special thanks to the Akonadi Foundation for their support of this event
Feel free to email Northoaklandrestorativejustice@gmail.com with questions
Save the date for the next Plant Sale fundraiser! The official Ambassador Greeters, Lulu and Deuce, will be there to gladly accept your lovin’.
Free Oakland UP
An alternative retail space focused on the economy, the environment and building community by offering FREE art and everyday items.
One free item per person per day. For a fair monetary donation you may choose more. More treasures!!
Gallery:offering monthly solo or group exhibitions featuring experimental, interactive projects focused on alternative economies, cultivating socially activated art, sustainability and building community through art and active participation.
Gift/Thrift Shop: Everything is FREE – one item per person per day OR for a monetary gift to help pay the rent you may choose more!
Artist Residencies: Offering free alternative art supplies and emphasizing sustainable art practices. Everyone of all ages and abilities is invited to apply for the AIR program
Global recession is underway. Manufacturing is contracting worldwide. Trade is no longer growing. Germany and Europe are on the brink, Japan is stagnating, and China is slowing. On the financial side of the global economy, stock markets are becoming unstable, bonds and gold are in a bubble, oil, commodities and currencies are deflating, financial crises are erupting in Argentina, South America, and India, and German and Italian banks are becoming fragile. In the USA business investment and construction are contracting and manufacturing has stalled. Meanwhile, corporate, household and government debt are at dangerous levels. Will the US join the global economy slide into recession? If so, how soon? And will it be like 2008-09 or worse? Or not?
The presentation will show what role Trump’s policies have played in the scenario. It will include analyses of Trump’s trade wars, his $4.5 trillion business-investor tax cuts, his escalating War/Defense spending, and the trillion dollar annual budget deficits that tax cuts and war spending have spawned for another decade. What’s really behind the Trump tariff war with China? Why Trump is attacking the Federal Reserve chairman, Powell. Why wages and jobs are not really rising as Trump claims. And why Trump policies are leading to a political and constitutional crisis in the U.S.
The presentation will conclude with a political analysis why corporate-friendly Democrat Party leadership has not been able to stop Trump nor deal with the political movement (and money) behind him. And why their current strategy may lead to another Trump victory in 2020.
As part of the presentation, Dr. Rasmus will share some of the quantitative data and analyses from his forthcoming book, “The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Policy from Reagan to Trump”,Clarity Press, October 1, 2019, which raises the theme: Neoliberalism entered a crisis after 2008-09 and Trump represents a desperate effort to restore it in a new aggressive, virulent form which requires a fundamental restriction of civil liberties and restructuring of the American democratic system.
Dr. Jack Rasmus is the author of the forthcoming book, “The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Policy from Reagan to Trump”, Clarity Press, October 1, 2019. Dr Rasmus currently teaches economics at St. Marys College in Moraga, California, and publishes on subjects of US economic policy, US political change, global financial instability, financial business cycles, history of economic thought, American Labor and unions, and US Economic History. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA Economics) and University of Toronto, Canada (MA, PH.D Political Economy).
Prior to his academic career and publishing, Dr. Rasmus was formerly an Economist, Vice-President, and strategic market analyst for various global tech, market research, and silicon valley technology start-up companies for twenty years. Before that for more than a decade he was a local union president, vice-president, contract negotiator, strike coordinator, and organizer for various unions, including the National Writers Union/UAW, Communication Workers of America, and Hotel & Restaurant and Service Employees International Unions.
Dr. Rasmus is also author of several prior books on the USA and global economy, including, Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed, Lexington Books, March 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes, Clarity Press, August 2017; Looting Greece, Clarity Press, September 2016; Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy, Clarity Press, January 2016; Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression, Pluto Books, 2010; Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few, Pluto Books, 2012; and The War At Home: The Corporate Offensive From Reagan to George W. Bush, Kylos Books, 2006.
Dr. Rasmus blogs at jackrasmus.com and his website http://kyklosproductions.com, where his articles and radio and TV interviews are available for download. His twitter handle is @drjackrasmus. He also hosts the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network podcasts available at http://alternativevisions.podbean.com). He may be contacted at: drjackrasmus@gmail.com or jjr2@stmarys-ca.edu.
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. Snacks are potluck. Vegetarian and vegan snacks are always welcome, but we appreciate whatever you can bring! The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows, at 6:45 pm. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.
Monday, September 9, 8AM to Tuesday, September 10, 8 PM
Cost: 0 – $300
Border walls. Travel bans. ICE raids. Separation of families. Deaths of migrant children
at the border.
These immigration issues have been consistently pushed to the forefront since Trump took office. In the United States, immigration has been an integral part of our history.
But why has it become such a contested topic today? What is actually happening at the U.S Mexico border? How are Trump’s policies affecting migrant communities? And most importantly, what can we do to make a difference?
At this panel, we will hear from community advocates who will help us process these questions and inspire us into action.
Moderator: Miriam Warren, Yelp (Vice President of Engagement, Diversity, and Belonging)
Panelists:
–Niloufar Khonsari and Rosario Rosales, Pangea Legal
–Alan Pelaez Lopez, Black LGBTQIA + Migrant Project
–Bianca Sierra Wolff, California Change Lawyers
–Iliana G. Perez, Immigrants Rising
Schedule:
5:30PM Doors Open
6:00PM Panel Starts
6:45PM Lobby Closes (please call event organizer after this time to get inside)
7:00PM Networking
8:00PM Event Ends
Food and drinks will be provided.
Monday, September 9, 8AM to Tuesday, September 10, 8 PM
Cost: 0 – $300
Get your copy of THE TESTAMENTS.
Find out what happened to Offred of THE HANDMAID’S TALE.
“Dear Readers: Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in.”
-Margaret Atwood
The author Margaret Atwood will not be present.
Price: Free
Promoted by Pat Schwinn
THE POLLINATORS
Year: 2019
Genre: Documentary – Environmental
Producers: Sally Roy, Peter Nelson and Michael Reuter
Director: Peter Nelson
Thousands of semi-trailers crisscross the country in the dead of night delivering goods through the darkness to stores, warehouses and factories nationwide. But some of them carry an unsuspected and highly unusual cargo. Honey bees. Tens of billions of them are transported back and forth from one end of the United States to the other in a unique annual migration that’s indispensable to the feeding of America. One out of every three bites we eat, the growth of almost all our fruits, nuts and vegetables, would be impossible without pollination from bees. A new documentary feature, The Pollinators, directed by Peter Nelson and produced by Sally Roy, Nelson and Michael Reuter, presents the fascinating and untold story. And warns that the bees are in serious danger.
Judge Alsup has been in the news, having presided over some high-profile cases, including the case preserving DACA, cases preserving Berkeley’s historic post office, cases involving Berkeley’s homeless, the dispute over the Albany Hill Cross, Waymo v. Uber, Oracle v. Google, and the prosecution of the MS-13 gang. As a judge, he cannot discuss these or other cases, but they help show his depth of experience.
Please join California Institute for Community, Art & Nature for a reception and conversation with William Alsup about his new book, Won Over: Reflections of a Federal Judge on His Journey from Jim Crow Mississippi. Bill is one of the most principled, interesting, and thoughtful people I’ve ever met. I’m sponsoring this evening to honor our friendship and to give my friends a chance to participate in what I guarantee will be a lively and inspiring discussion.
WILLIAM ALSUP, a federal district judge in San Francisco, was born in 1945 in Jackson, Mississippi. He attended white-only public schools and spent his childhood in a world where segregation was embedded in every aspect of society. In Won Over, Alsup gives a trustworthy, literate, personal, and nuanced account of the Deep South during the Jim Crow era and the changes brought about by the Civil Rights Movement. As both a witness and a participant, Alsup describes the impact of this era with honesty, modesty and integrity in a way that makes us realize how and why he (and others) were won over to the right side of history.
It’s a pleasure to hear Bill talk, and we hope to engage him and other guests in conversations about racism and how people escape the narrowness of their upbringing to develop a more capacious view of the world. Brown v. the Board of Education is now 65 years of age in the past. The history of the Jim Crow era that preceded it and the changes that the Civil Rights Movement created will soon be gone from living memory. This evening presents us with a unique opportunity to hear from a reliable witness what this era was like and what it means today.
Copies of the book will be available for sale at the event. They can also be found in store at University Press Books or online at www.universitypressbooks.com/book/9781588383426. Bill will be pleased to sign and inscribe your copy. RSVP to info@californiaican.org. If you have any questions, email us or leave a message for Skye at 805-458-6686.
“We know how to be racist. We know how to pretend to be not racist. Now let’s know how to be antiracist.” – Ibram X. Kendi
Borealis Philanthropy, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society and Northern California Grantmakers are excited to invite you to a special afternoon with Ibram X. Kendi, one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices.
In his new book, How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi holds up both a magnifying glass and a mirror to examine how to uproot racism from society—starting with ourselves. Followed by his talk, Kendi will be joined in conversation by john a. powell of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, Lateefah Simon of the Akonadi Foundation, and moderated by Alice Y. Hom of Northern California Grantmakers.
Signed copies of How to Be Antiracist will be available for sale 30 minutes before and after the event.
Ibram X. Kendi, Founding Director, The Antiracist Research & Policy Center, American University
Ibram is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist voices. He is a New York Times bestselling author and the Founding Director ofThe Antiracist Research & Policy Center at American University in Washington, DC. A professor of history and international relations, Kendi is an ideas columnist at The Atlantic. He is the author of The Black Campus Movement, which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize, and Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History Of Racist Ideas In America, which won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. At 34 years old, Kendi was the youngest ever winner of the NBA for Nonfiction. He grew up dreaming about playing in the NBA (National Basketball Association), and ironically he ended up joining the other NBA.
john a. powell, Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society; and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley
He was previously the Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University and the Institute for Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. Prior to that john was the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is a co-founder of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the boards of several national and international organizations. john led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health, health care, and employment and is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” to effect equity based interventions. john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University. His latest book is Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.
Lateefah Simon, President, Akonadi Foundation
The Foundation nurtures movement building to advance racial justice in Oakland. A nationally recognized advocate for civil rights, Lateefah brings over 20 years of executive experience advancing opportunities for communities of color and low-income communities in the Bay Area. Before joining Akonadi, she was Program Director for the San Francisco-based Rosenberg Foundation.
Lateefah has received numerous awards for her work, including the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the Jefferson Award for extraordinary public service, and in 2017 ‘Most Promising New Foundation President’ by Inside Philanthropy. Lateefah was elected to the Bart Board of Directors and Gov. Jerry Brown appointed her to the California State University’s Board of Trustees in 2016. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Tipping Point.
Alice Y. Hom, Director of Equity and Social Justice, Northern California Grantmakers
Alice is a community builder invested in bridging diverse and overlapping communities for social change. As the Director of Equity and Social Justice, Alice will focus on racial equity with an intersectional lens that brings multiple issues, communities, and sectors together to build on the common good. Before joining NCG, Alice was a Soros Equality Fellow where she created a podcast and a digital archive on activism by LGBTQ People of Color. Prior to that, Alice worked as the Director of the Queer Justice Fund at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.
She serves on the boards of California Humanities and Borealis Philanthropy and on the Advisory Council for the Conscious Style Guide. Alice is a historian with a PhD from Claremont Graduate University, a MA from UCLA, and BA from Yale University. In her spare time, you can find Alice working on her podcast, Historically Queer, or enjoying the culinary delights of restaurants and bakeries with friends and family.
Films:
24 hours by Yesica Prado
Tent City by 393 Films
https://www.tentcitythemovie.com/
Homeless First by Anka Karewicz & Travis Schirmer (Liberated Lens Film Collective)
https://liberatedlens.org/our-work/first-they-came-for-the-homeless-homeless-first/
VIII. OPD Plan for Working with the City’s Social Media Policy
IX. OPD Towing Policy Regarding Victims of Crime
X. Review of CPRA Pending Cases and Completed Investigations
XI. Scheduling a Public Hearing on Use of Force
Join us on 9/14/19 for a showing of blbfilmproductions.com
Health Care for All – Contra Costa and Alameda County Chapters will show The Power to Heal: Medicare And The Civil Rights Revolution, a 56-minutes long public television documentary that tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. This film was shown in July at the NAACP National Convention in Detroit.
After movie Q&A with:
Co-sponsors: NAACP El Cerrito Branch and Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia
In order to guarantee your seat register at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4300560
Action Spokescouncil* called for by Idle No More SF Bay, The Society of Fearless Grandmothers, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay, Diablo Rising Tide and the 1000 Grandmothers Bay Area.
*For Spokescouncils, we are encouraging groups, organizations and individuals to organize affinity groups (AG) and send spokespeople who represent affinity groups or clusters of affinity groups. These will be the ‘empowered’ representatives who represent and are responsible for consulting others in their AG or cluster for input and decisions.
RSVP form:https://actionnetwork.org/forms/september-14th-1st-spokescouncil-meeting-for-sept-25-action/
REMEMBERING WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN PEDIE’S 30TH BIRTHDAY
CANDLE-LIGHTING
BALLOON RELEASE
refreshments
Pedie was an intoxicated young man who tried to walk away from a Richmond cop who was hassling him. The police officer, Wallace Jensen, claimed that when he tried to apprehend Pedie the unarmed young man tried to grab his gun, so he stepped back and fired 3 rounds into Pedie, killing him. The surveillance video from the liquor store doesn’t show the “altercation” but does clearly show that the cops didn’t try to render any assistance to Pedie as he lay dying on the liquor store floor. The police “investigation” was a cover up that didn’t even discuss the two (six, really) eye-witnesses that contradicted the cop’s story. The 33-year old cop subsequently Jensen retired on a full disability tax-free pension of $70,700 plus benefits because he was so traumatized by gunning down an unarmed young man who didn’t immediately follow his orders, so I guess in less than a decade he’ll be paid more in benefits and income than the family & and lawyer got in the miserly settlement. FWIW, the Richmond Police Review Commission found that Jensen used excessive force by a 7 to 1 vote. With that and a dollar you can still get a coffee some places. The police report and some cell phone evidence taken by by-standers has never been released to the family or anyone else because there was no law requiring to cops to provide such things to the family. But disgraced & disbarred Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson “issued a rare, seven-page report explaining the course of the investigation, in which he maintained that the case was carefully reviewed.” The plead deal allowed Peterson to keep his pension, estimated at $128,000 per year, with adjustments for inflation