Calendar

9896
Jan
21
Thu
A Socialist Strategy for Defeating The Far Right @ Online
Jan 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

RSVP here
Zoom Link

It has been two weeks since the attempted far-right coup at the US Capitol, egged on by Trump and some Republicans. Though in many ways the aftermath of January 6th was a defeat for Trump, the far right isn’t going anywhere, and we need to take the riots seriously as a possible embryo for a more organized far right movement.

In response, left and establishment Democrats, along with some Republicans have started impeachment proceedings. While impeachment is positive, it does virtually nothing to neutralize the conditions that brought Trump into power, discourage far right forces emboldened by him, or prevent another far right leader from running for office in 2024.

So how can we mobilize the largest possible masses of working people into the streets to show our strength against the far right? How can we further this fight to unite working people around a program to win working-class demands like Medicare For All, COVID relief, and an end to racist policing? How can we build a political alternative to Trumpism and billionaire backed establishment politicians?

Join Socialist Alternative this Thursday, Jan 21, to discuss how we can build an organized mass movement to defeat the far right, and ultimately, the billionaire class!

68597
East Oakland SuSu Lending Circle Informational @ Online
Jan 21 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Do you face barriers to accessing loans from traditional banks? Interested in programs that will help with debt management, jump start a business and enhance your quality of life? Join us to learn more about collective economics through the East Oakland SuSu Lending Circle program!

  Register via Zoom 
68588
Jan
24
Sun
The US Capitol Building Riot and Its Blowback: Scarier than QAnon? @ Online
Jan 24 @ 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=TTdlcFlnZEVCdWt2VlRHeWZLeHNKQT09

 Meeting ID: 259 108 2607 Passcode: 6MwQP7

One tap mobile
+16699006833,,2591082607#,,,,,,0#,,396538# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,2591082607#,,,,,,0#,,396538# US (Houston)

The US Capitol Building Riot and Its Blowback:
The Only Thing Scarier than QAnon Is the Reaction to ItThe right-wing riot at the US Capitol on January 6 was a spectacle, complete with Confederate flags and a QAnon shaman in red-white-and-blue face paint. Some half of the active electorate sympathized with the belief that the 2020 presidential election was a steal. The other half of the active electorate was abhorrent, speaking with semi-religious reverence about the desecration of sacred institutions. The true blue had suspected that the Russians stole the 2016 presidential election and, for the last four years, supported politicians ever vigilant against détente breaking out with the second most powerful nuclear state.
The US state has not been meeting the needs of its people, its naked dysfunctionality is bare for all to see, and the ruling circles are experiencing a crisis of legitimacy. The response of the rulers to mass discontent is not to address the root causes but to step up suppression. The aftermath of the events of January 6 has precipitated blowbacks by the ruling elites, such as proposed anti-domestic terrorism measures, in anticipation of popular resistance to the intensifying contradictions of the US imperial project.Our speaker, Roger D. Harris, will begin the discussion with an abbreviated presentation followed by Q&A and robust group discussion on the many issues raised by the Capitol building riot. Was it a riot or a coup? Was it a trap for Trump and did the police collude with the rioters? What is the danger of fascism? What does the rising right-wing insurgency signify and what should be the response to it? Whither Trump and what about the Squad? And most of all, what do the developments of January 6 and its blowback mean for left organizing and progressive social change?

Roger is a member of the ICSS program committee and the human rights organization, the Task Force on the Americas. Roger recently wrote on the US Capitol riot of January 6: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/01/13/the-only-thing-scarier-than-qanon-is-the-reaction-to-it/

Also recommended is the US Peace Council’s statement on the event and its aftermath, People’s Movement is Faced with a Serious Threat (Roger was one of the authors):
http://wpc-in.org/statements/people%E2%80%99s-movement-faced-serious-threat

Additional recommended reading are the blogs by the inimitable Caitlin Johnstone, who tells us “Modern liberalism is just QAnon for people with diplomas on their walls.” See on today’s topic:
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/stop-trivializing-the-term-coup-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix-fdc49a95fdd2

icss-2021-01-24mod.pdf_600_.jpg
68601
Jan
25
Mon
Ladies Get Paid @ Online
Jan 25 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Eventbrite Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/claire-wasserman-and-dad-steve-wasserman-ladies-get-paid-tickets-130905918125

Claire Wasserman is an author, public speaker, podcaster and founder of Ladies Get Paid, a global organization that champions the professional and financial advancement of women. She is also the producer and host of John Hancock’s podcast, “Friends Who Talk About Money.”  Claire has traveled the United States teaching thousands of women how to negotiate raises, start businesses, and advocate for themselves. She was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women and is a highly-sought-after expert for Fortune 500 companies working to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organizations.

Claire Wasserman has one crucial goal for women: rise up and get paid. She has worked her entire adult life to promote gender equality in the workplace. If you’re looking to get a promotion or break the glass ceiling, Ladies Get Paid is your essential toolbox for achieving success.  Filled with straightforward advice and inspiring stories, the book encourages self-advocacy and activism as a way to advance your career and earn more money. Covering topics as crucial and varied as how to find the perfect mentor, how to negotiate a raise, and how to become a leader, Ladies Get Paid is a reminder that you are valuable—both as an individual woman and as part of the female community. And ultimately, it’s about more than your wallet—it’s about your worth.

In conversation with Claire will be her proud father, Steve Wasserman, a prestigious cultural figure on his own. Heyday Books’ publisher was formerly editor-at-large for Yale University Press and editorial director of Times Books/Random House, among other achievements in publishing. Besides serving nine years as editor of The Los Angeles Times Book Review, Steve has written for The Village Voice, Threepenny Review, The Nation, The New Republic, The American Conservative, The ProgressiveColumbia Journalism Review, and The London Times’ Literary Supplement. Along the way he worked as a partner in Kneerim & Williams Literary Agency, where he represented, among others, Robert Scheer, Christopher Hitchens, Linda Ronstadt, and Placido Domingo.

Attendees of those KPFA author events hosted by Steve Wasserman will know that this Zoom conversation with his daughter Claire is certain to be charming and enlightening.

68440
Jan
26
Tue
Climate Safe Webinar: What the Science Requires @ Online
Jan 26 @ 10:00 am – 11:00 am

Join the first in a series of webinars hosted by The Climate Center. as they introduce their “Climate-Safe California suite of policies.”

This introductory webinar will provide “an in-depth review of the current science, . . . the urgent need for accelerated action [and] what targets for greenhouse gas reductions the science supports.”

Speakers:

Ben Santer, atmospheric scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Ellie Cohen,  CEO of The Climate Center

Jason Barbose, senior policy manager, Western States at Union of Concerned Scientists

 

Future webinars will discuss:

Phasing Out Fossil Fuels: A Just Transition
Community Energy Systems
Clean Mobility
Natural Sequestration
Funding Climate Action
Climate-Safe California Policy

68516
SF Public Bank Press Conference @ Online
Jan 26 @ 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Watch live: https://t.co/zW8qpcw4Zk?amp=1

68608
Build Back Fossil Free, January 26 and Beyond @ Online
Jan 26 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

RSVP: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Dtfn2D_QSJuQQcyX-b-i6w

 

Join a Build Back Fossil Free mass digital rally calling on President Biden to take bold executive action to end the era of fossil fuel production, protect communities reeling from the climate and COVID-19 crises, and #BuildBackFossilFree.

The virtual rally will feature frontline leaders fighting toxic fossil fuel projects (including in California), and lay the groundwork for a coordinated organizing push to build on this week’s momentum.

The Build Back Fossil Fuel Free national campaign is demanding that Biden take bold climate justice action by executive order in his first 100 days in office.  The Build Back Fossil Free Coalition includes “dozens of groups representing millions of people across the country fighting for climate, racial, and economic justice.” It’s leading an escalating series of actions promoting “Biden’s Executive Action Blueprint,” a comprehensive list of strong actions Biden should take to:

  • Protect and invest in the Black, Indigenous, Brown, and working-class communities that have borne the brunt of fossil fuel pollution and climate disaster.
  • Reject new fossil projects, eliminate giveaways to oil, gas, and coal corporations, and end the era of fossil fuel production
  • Launch a national climate mobilization to Build Back Fossil Free, delivering jobs, justice, and opportunity for all.

See the full Blueprint here.   Sign the petition in support of the Blueprint—and to receive campaign updates.  Encourage your organizations to sign.  Spread the word to your networks.

 

68603
Climate Crisis: Digital Rally to Build Back Fossil Free w/ Indigenous Frontline Leaders @ Online
Jan 26 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

#BuildBackFossilFree Digital Rally

Please join us on Tuesday, Jan 26th for a digital rally featuring frontline leaders calling on President Biden to take bold executive action to end the era of fossil fuel production, protect communities reeling from the climate and COVID-19 crises, and #BuildBackFossilFree.

Indigenous organizers and allies won a decade-long campaign against the Keystone Pipeline. This is a huge victory – AND – we need to keep up the momentum to make sure Biden follows through with immediate action on Line 3, DAPL, nixing all fossil project approvals, and investing in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and an economy that works for all.

The rally will feature frontline leaders fighting toxic fossil fuel projects and lay the groundwork for a coordinated organizing push to build on this week’s momentum.

Tuesday, Jan 26, 2021 @ 5 PM PT (8 PM ET)

RSVP for Zoom: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Dtfn2D_QSJuQQcyX-b-i6w

En español:

Traducción al español disponible registrándose aquí:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Dtfn2D_QSJuQQcyX-b-i6w

ORGANIZATIONS:

Indigenous Environmental Network
Center for Biological Diversity
Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective
Oil Change International
Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network
It Takes Roots
Movement Rights
350 Butte County
Oil Change U.S.

68602
Jan
28
Thu
Bring on the Power of Public Banking – Special Guest the Pres. Bank of N Dak. @ Online
Jan 28 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Facebook Live URL

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deeply rooted imbalances at the core of so many or our economic institutions. As Wall Street banks continue to exploit the crisis and exacerbate economic inequalities, we must advance toward a financial solution that will help us invest in our New York State. The need for a public bank that will generate revenue, with our community as its top priority, has never been clearer.

On January 28th at 6 p.m. Public Banking Institute’s Chair Ellen Brown, Chair Emeritus and Senior Advisor Walt McRee & Advisory Board member Amara Enyia, will be joined by NYS Senator James Sanders, Jr. for a virtual Town Hall: Bring on the Power of Public Banking for New York.

Our Special Guest is Eric Hardmeyer, President and CEO of the Bank of North Dakota!

They will be joined by NY elected officials, union representatives and public policy experts.

The Town Hall will be livestreamed on Facebook, where staff from PBI and Senator Sanders’ office will answer your questions in real time.

Image may contain: ‎10 people, ‎text that says '‎IF PUBLIC BANKING IS A TOOL, WHAT PROBLEMS DOES IT SOLVE? FEATURING: WITH SPECIAL GUEST NYS Senator Jabari Brisport Sarah Ludwig Ellen Brown Walt McRee Founder and Founder Chair Senior Advisor at Co-Director oft Public Banking Institute Public Banking Institute New Economy Project NYC Council Member Robert E.C Cornegy Jr. Amara Enyia Advisory Board Member tPuic Banking Institute Wallace Ford CUNY Professor Eric Hardmeyer President and of the Bank North Dakota Bob Master Kathryn Franco Legislative Director Chair Buffalo Niagara for CWA NorthEast Community Reinv Coalition م Join via Facebook Live at htt:/fbo Economy Project‎'‎‎

68611
Fighting Police Repression and the Surveillance State @ Online
Jan 28 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

68615
SURJ: Anti-Racism 101: How To Show Up for Racial Justice @ Online
Jan 28 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

The past year has shed sustained light on the immense influence white supremacy continues to have on our nation. From police violence to the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color to the recent insurrection at the Capitol, now is the time to find pathways into anti-racism work in our communities. If you are feeling called to action but are not sure how to or where to begin, this workshop is for you.

Click here to RSVP: https://actionnetwork.org/events/anti-racism-101-how-to-show-up-for-racial-justice-3?source=direct_link

68607
Jerald Walker and Kevin Cartwright: How to Make a Slave
Jan 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

KPFA Radio 94.1 FM presents:

Jerald Walker and Kevin Cartwright: A Zoom Event

How to Make a Slave

Finalist, 2020 National Book Award in Nonfiction

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

For the Black community, Jerald Walker asserts in How To Make a Slave,” anger is often a prelude to a joke, as there is broad understanding that the triumph over this destructive emotion is in finding its punchline.” It is on the knife’s edge between fury and farce that the essays in this exquisite collection balance. Whether confronting the medical profession’s racial biases, considering the complicated legacy of Michael Jackson, paying homage to his writing mentor, or attempting to break free of personal and societal stereotypes, Walker elegantly blends intimate revelation and cultural critique. The result is a bracing, often humorous examination by one of America’s most acclaimed essayists of what it is to grow, parent, write, and simply exist at this time as a Black American male.

“These powerful essays offer an incisive glimpse into life as a Black man in America…crafted with honesty and a wry comedic flair, these essays are both engaging and enraging.” —Kirkus Review

Jerald Walker is the author of The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult and Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption (winner of the 2011 PEN New England Award for Nonfiction). His work has been widely anthologized, including five times in The Best American Essays. He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Emerson College.

Kevin Cartwright, a former Program Director with KPFA Radio, has also produced a and contributed to a number of local and national public affairs programs, including Democracy Now, Living Room, The Morning Show, Education Today, 1440, and various short run documentaries. In addition, Kevin is a playwright, poet, and short story writer. He’s written several full-length plays about life in Oakland, and is currently finishing two plays dealing with the musical implications of life under racism.

68446
Reimagining Public Safety: Can Surveillance Be a Fair and Effective Tool? @ Online
Jan 28 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

The Piedmont Racial Equity Campaign + League of Women Voters will co-host a virtual panel at 7 pm on January 28th: Reimagining Public Safety: Can Surveillance Be a Fair and Effective Tool?

Piedmont’s Police Chief Jeremy Bowers will participate, along with:
Brian Hofer, Chair, City of Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission, and Exec. Dir., Secure Justice
Jennifer Jones, Technology and Civil Liberties Fellow, ACLU of Northern California
Mathew Guariglia, Policy Analyst, Electronic Frontier Foundation

RSVP to get the Zoom info here

68590
Jan
31
Sun
Master of Space: Corporate plans for the militarization & privatization of space @ Online
Jan 31 @ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=TTdlcFlnZEVCdWt2VlRHeWZLeHNKQT09
Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: 6MwQP7

Bruce Gagnon will reveal the deadly connections between the corporate drive to ‘control and dominate’ space as spelled out in the US Space Command’s 1997 planning document called Vision for 2020.
https://thecommunity.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Vision2020.pdf

The gold rush is now underway as space technologies have matured to the point where mining the sky for precious resources becomes possible.  Corporate forces intend to use the newly formed ‘Space force’ to guard the front gate on and off Earth to ensure that only ‘authorized’ companies and nations would be allowed to access space.

This vision was first spelled out before Congress in the early 1950’s when former Nazi Maj. Gen. Walter Dornberger shared his vision of orbiting battle stations in space to control the pathway on and off our planet.  Dornberger had been Hitler’s liaison to V-1 & V-2 rocket scientist Wernher  von Braun during WW II.  After the war Dornberger, Von Braun and more than 1,000 Nazi leaders were secretly brought to the US to serve in the military industrial complex.  Van Braun built the US space program and Dornberger became a V-P of Bell Aerospace in New York.
http://www.space4peace.org
BIO: Bruce Gagnon is the Coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.  He was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992.

LOGIN INFORMATION
The meeting 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. We Intend to start the presentation as close to 10:30 am as possible. The program (and recording) will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open for informal discussion.

Raj Sahai’s Zoom Meeting.

Sun Jan 24, 2021 10:15am – 1:15pm Pacific Time

One tap mobile

+16699006833,,2591082607#,,,,,,0#,,396538# US (San Jose)

+13462487799,,2591082607#,,,,,,0#,,396538# US (Houston)

68627
Giant Book Sale (New & Used) to Benefit the Revolution Tour @ Revolution Books
Jan 31 @ 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Giant Book Sale (New & Used) and a wild variety of mainly Classical sheet music to Benefit the Revolution Tour

Friday- Sunday, Jan. 29-31 from 1-5 pm

Come early for the best selection

68633
Alternative Political Parties: a local approach   @ Online
Jan 31 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Alternative Political Parties: a local approach

The Oakland Greens present the January 2021 Virtual Townhall:
Alternative Political Parties: a local approach
These Happen on the Last Sundays of the month, from January through October

From third parties to alternative political parties, how to break the two party system. The Oakland Greens Virtual Townhalls are designed to hear your ideas & thoughts. At this event we want to listen to you, not talk at you. Join us in ZOOM Sunday January 31, room opens at 5:45 PM PST, discussion at 6:15 PM PST, with unique topics & unique discussions. These are donation only events and as always NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS.

Find tickets @ https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-oakland-greens-30818034656  or:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-oakland-greens-present-alternative-party-virtual-town-hall-vote-local-tickets-126696501647

68618
Feb
3
Wed
San Francisco Green New Deal Town Hall @ Online
Feb 3 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

 

RSVP if you and your organization can attend.

Join communities of color, youth, immigrants, workers and union members to shape a People’s Climate Justice and Just Recovery Platform for San Francisco.  We need a plan to recover from the pandemic that will transform our city and set an example of what is possible for other cities around the country.

While San Francisco has adopted a series of ambitious climate goals, including all renewable energy by 2030 and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, we must ensure that these plans serve the needs of our communities.

As global climate chaos meets our local crisis of wealth disparity, the city is slated to release an updated Climate Action Plan in the coming year. Now is an ideal time to push an immigrant, communities of color and worker-led climate justice, just recovery and just transition agenda in San Francisco.

The goals of this gathering are to bring together workers and community members to learn about climate justice and give feedback, so that we can co-create a vision for a Green New Deal in San Francisco. Please bring any and all of your members who want to learn more about climate justice and share ideas about what a just, green, economy can look like!

Conveners include PODER, Jobs with Justice San Francisco, Bayview Advocates, the Public Bank Coalition, United Educators of San Francisco, American Federation of Teachers 2121, SEIU United Services Workers West, SEIU 1021, SOMCAM, SF Rising, IFPTE Local 21, Reclaim Our Power: Utility Justice Campaign, Youth vs. Apocalypse, unions, environmental organizations and allies.

Interpretation is available.

68620
Behind the Mask: A Forum on Racist Policing in Berkeley @ Online
Feb 3 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Zoom link: http://bit.ly/behindthe_mask

Meeting ID: 894 1304 1160

Passcode: justie

68598
Virtual Mask Build @ Online
Feb 3 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

SIGN UP AT THIS LINK: tiny.cc/dsamask

DSA: Join the Green New Deal committee for a virtual mask assembly party! The COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying with hundreds of thousands of deaths likely over the coming months, and the U.S. continues to experience PPE shortages, especially of high-grade face masks. The failures of the capitalist system are devastating clear. But with mutual aid, we can take the safety and wellbeing of our community into our own hands, while developing relationships across the East Bay and building our own organizational power.

We will be assembling hundreds of no-sew, submicron “N85” masks for distribution with community partners. All we need is your help!

This is a great event for new members to attend. Training and materials are delivered to your door (!), no experience necessary. During the build, we’ll hang out on a online call together to talk about mutual aid, socialism, and whatever else you’d like to!

Please RSVP at the link below several days before the build so we provide materials via a touchless kit drop-off at your door! We request that attendees commit to both the January 27 and February 3 mask builds.

 

68621
Feb
4
Thu
Honoring Black History Month @ Online
Feb 4 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm

Image may contain: text that says 'ST.MARY'S CENTER Everybody Ever needs place Honoring Black History Month Celebrating the Music & Art of Oakland four "must see events" on Thursdays, February, 4, 11, 18, 25, 2021 from 11-12 pm Presentations and Performances by Street Spirit, Youth Spirit Art Works and others Hosted by St. Mary's Center Senior Advocates for Hope and Justice Art work Leon Kennedy Inspirational Uplifting Educational Wonderful Zoom Meeting ID 857 0496 8720 Passcode: 472245 RSVP to jcastillo@stmaryscenter.org'

Celebrating the Music and Art of Oakland four “must see events” on Thursdays, February 4, 11, 18, 25 2021 from 11-12pm. Presentations and performances by Street Spirit, Youth Spirit Art Work and others. Hosted by St. Mary’s Center Senior Advocates for Hope and Justice.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85704068720?pwd=QXJ3T05sUURtL0JIYzk5eEpnSDJDUT09

Zoom Meeting ID 857 0496 8720
Passcode 472245

RSVP to jcastillo@stmaryscenter.org

68619