Calendar

9896
Apr
9
Sat
In Praise of Good Bookstores @ Online
Apr 9 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Apr
10
Sun
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library: Judy Greenspan on Workers World Party. @ Online
Apr 10 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm


 
We have invited Judy Greenspan, a longtime leader and organizer for Workers World Party to talk about life in the WW and about WW positions on the burning issues of our time.

Judy Greenspan is a member of the Bay Area Branch of Workers World Party. Judy, who uses pronouns them/them, is also an Oakland public school teacher, a union rep for substitute teachers in the Oakland Education Association, a writer for Workers World newspaper, and a long time activist in the prison abolition movement.
Judy will present a history of Workers World Party and the role it has consistently played in the working class movement in the U.S.  Judy will discuss WWP’s positions on self-determination, the fight against racism, sexism, gender and transphobia and anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. Judy will also talk about the significance of the recent Amazon and Starbucks workers union victories to the working class and progressive movements in this country. They will also discuss the rise of the rightwing, the US war drive and how we can fightback.

LOGIN INFORMATION

Our Zoom room will be opened up, as usual, at 10:15 for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc.. The program (and recording) will begin as close to 10:30 am as possible and will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room will remain open until about 1 pm for informal discussion.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=S2R1czVWNE4xdEVNZGtlekVuelQ2QT09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: ICSS2241rs
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,2591082607#,,,,*8548345688# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,2591082607#,,,,*8548345688# US (Houston)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: 8548345688
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kc4RrpvAiQ

69685
“Let’s Agree to Disagree” — with Mickey Huff!!  Director of Project Censored @ Online
Apr 10 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

“Let’s Agree to Disagree” — with Mickey Huff!!  Director of Project Censored
His new book is sub-titled: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management and Critical Media Literacy
Breaking through the polarization is essential, so don’t miss this riveting program!

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

In this age of extreme polarization, hyper-partisanship and “siloed information,” our society is challenged on agreeing to disagree, and our democracy has become fragile, and political future seems almost hopeless. America is in need for re-establishing a more tolerant and centered civil discourse.  What is the media’s role and how can we counter this? Every major change in the media promises democratic possibility and inclusive public conversation –  only to see old patterns of division and exclusion recur, and a challenge to civil liberties and free speech.  Is there a direct parallel between our world today to that of post-World War I America when the United States faced another raging pandemic and economic recession, with the Red Scare, and other sources of tumult?

Mickey Huff and Nolan Higdon, who teaches at UC Santa Cruz, have just written a book that discusses the origins of our current hyper-partisanship, and provides a roadmap to break through the polarization entitled:

Let’s Agree to Disagree, A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management and Critical Media Literacy.
Mickey will present an overview of the book and answer questions on this vital, urgent topic.

Mickey Huff is the director of Project Censored and president of the nonprofit Media Freedom Foundation. To date, he has co-edited 13 editions of the Project’s yearbook, including most recently Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2022, with Andy Lee Roth. He is also co-author, with Nolan Higdon, of United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (and what we can do about it) (2019). Huff received the Beverly Kees Educator Award as part of the 2019 James Madison Freedom of Information Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California. He is professor of social science, history, and journalism at Diablo Valley College, where he co-chairs the history program and is chair of the Journalism Department. Huff is executive producer and host of The Project Censored Show, a weekly syndicated public affairs program that airs across the U.S. on Pacifica Radio. Additionally, Huff sits on the board for the nonprofit Behind the Headlines and serves on the editorial board for the journal Secrecy and Society. For the past several years, Huff has worked with the national outreach committee of Banned Books Week, working with the American Library Association and the National Coalition Against Censorship, of which Project Censored is a member.  His newest book with Nolan Higdon is published by Routledge.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89559844652

Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652
One tap mobile
+16699009128,,89559844652# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,89559844652# US (Tacoma)

Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbmHLDhwS9

PLANET PEOPLE PEACE
before profit!

https://acgreens.wordpress.com/
Express your green ideas and “like” us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/greenpartyofalamedacounty/

Participation and/or donations appreciated!  https://acgreens.wordpress.com/donate/

69671
Apr
11
Mon
Establishment of an ALCO Sheriff’s Oversight Board – Public Comment
Apr 11 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Register here to receive email confirmation and a link:  https://tinyurl.com/ALCOAB1185

69679
Apr
12
Tue
🌹Socialist Night School: Capitalism and Class Struggle @ SPARC-it-Place
Apr 12 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.” – Karl Marx

This history is the history of class struggle. To understand the class struggle is to understand the fundamental conflict within capitalism, between capitalists and workers, and the means to move beyond it. It keeps our hope for a better world from becoming sentimental and anemic and empowers it with the means for fundamental change. Without an understanding of class struggle, socialists have no political program outside of a moral stance that the current system is unjust. But with that understanding lies the power for putting the wheels of history back into motion.

Readings

The ABCs of Capitalism – Capitalism and Class Struggle

69661
Apr
14
Thu
Azar Nafisi “Read Dangerously” Virtual Event @ Online
Apr 14 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
 

Please Join KPFA on Thursday, April 14th at 6:00 pm, when we welcome Azar Nafisi in celebration of the release of her fantastic and timely new book, Read Dangerously. This very special virtual event will be hosted by Steve Wasserman, publisher and executive director of Heyday Books.

The New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran returns with a guide to the power of literature in turbulent times, arming readers with a resistance reading list, ranging from James Baldwin to Zora Neale Hurston to Margaret Atwood.

“[A] stunning look at the power of reading. … Provokes and inspires at every turn.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Remarkable. … Audacious.” —The Progressive

Get your tickets via Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/azar-nafisi-read-dangerously-tickets-293899520377

69665
Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times @ Online
Apr 14 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Join KPFA for this special Zoom event when Steve Wasserman hosts Azar Nafisi and her book, Read Dangerously

Afar Nafisi with Steve Wasserman : A KPFA Zoom Event

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

The New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran returns with a guide to the power of literature in turbulent times, arming readers with a resistance reading list, ranging from James Baldwin to Zora Neale Hurston to Margaret Atwood.

[TICKETS / MORE INFORMATION]
Buy Tickets

69650
Apr
16
Sat
Empty Homes Tax Mobilization & BBQ – SF
Apr 16 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

69693
Justice 4 Steven Taylor @ Steven Taylor Park
Apr 16 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

69690
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber et al @ Online
Apr 16 @ 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

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

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

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

For April, we are finishing the book.

All are welcome!

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

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut EconomicsLimitsBanking on the PeopleCapital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth,  Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth and Mine!.

69533
Apr
17
Sun
Moving Toward Socialism with a Left Unity Slate @ Online
Apr 17 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm


Ww have invited Laura Wells to discuss the historic decision this year in which the Green Party and the Peace and Freedom Party created a Left Unity Slate of statewide candidates for the June 7, 2022 primary in California. This cooperative strategy was based on the many shared values between the two parties, all of which will save lives, money, and the planet. Among the values are a single-payer “Medicare for All” healthcare system, real justice not increasing criminalization, truly affordable housing, public ownership of energy, ending wars for profit, public banking, and a comprehensive climate plan including meaningful work that provides a living without destroying the planet.

Topics to discuss include the challenges and successes of these two progressive socialist and eco-socialist parties, and ultimately, the question of what does it really take to shift our states and nations toward socialist values for the survival of people and planet?

Laura Wells is a political activist in California and in solidarity with Latin America. She has been an organizer and a candidate for the Green Party, and is running again for state Controller in 2022. She also ran for Congress in 2018, and governor after the global financial meltdown in 2010. A former financial systems analyst, Laura focuses her platform on taxing the rich, public banking, reforming Proposition 13, and saving money and lives with an improved Medicare for All healthcare system.

For a list of the Left Unity Slate candidates, see https://leftunityslate.org/, and for Laura’s blog and campaign website, see https://laurawells.org/

ZOOM LINK

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2591082607?pwd=c1JuWjJyQ1hqTWFTNE8xUmhNYjJsdz09

Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
Passcode: ICSS2247rs
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,2591082607#,,,,*0620301838# US (San Jose)
+13462487799,,2591082607#,,,,*0620301838# US (Houston)

Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

69692
Apr
18
Mon
Alice Walker and her book, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire. @ First Congregational Church of Berkeley
Apr 18 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Join KPFA for this very special, IN-PERSON EVENT, when Beverly Guy-Sheftall hosts Alice Walker and her book, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire.

Alice Walker with Beverly Guy-Sheftall

Gathering Blossoms Under Fire

From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize�winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and wwriter Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker’s fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades as an artist, human rights and women’s activist, and intellectual.

*Proof of COVID-19 vaccination required for entry, masks strongly encouraged.

[TICKETS / MORE INFORMATION]
Buy Tickets

69651
Apr
20
Wed
Tell the Air District: Ban Gas Hookups in New Buildings @ Online
Apr 20 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Add your support for a proposed Bay Area Air Quality Management rule that would ban gas hookups in new buildings.

This measure would update the Air District’s guidelines for applying the California Environmental Quality Act.  It’s a way to extend the good work that dozens of Bay Area cities have done with reach codes and regulations to require all-electric new construction. This would apply a similar standard to the whole region.

Methane ( 80 – 90% of “natural gas”) is a much more potent greenhouse has than carbon dioxide. Extraction, transportation , and use of natural gas inevitably produces methane leaks all along the supply chain – in addition to the carbon dioxide produced by burning the gas.

In addition, methane is a toxic gas that increases acute and chronic respiratory problems including asthma, damage to lung development in children and other respiratory diseases. Several studies have linked asthma to use of gas stoves.

And use of natural gas increases the risk of fires and explosions.

Join the meetings where the Air District will consider this proposal and add your voice:

WHERE

Links to meetings here

In a related Air District process

In addition to the proposed ban on gas hookups in new buildings, the Air District has already committed to a zero-nitrous oxide (NOx) standard for home heating and hot water, “with a plan for an equitable, affordable transition.” Gas appliances could not meet that standard.

NOx is produced when fuel is burned. This is a toxic gas that  interacts with sunlight in atmosphere to produce ozone and PM2.5. This mixture causes respiratory problems (asthma, wheezing, decreased lung function), heart disease, and early death).

In the Bay Area, household appliances release nearly three times as much NOx as light-duty passenger vehicles and more than eight  times as much as power plants

letter from the Sierra Club and other groups is urging the Air District to “lead a broad, multi-stakeholder effort with two working groups to ensure an equitable transition to electric space and water heating.”

 

69699
Apr
21
Thu
Ecology Center’s 52nd Earth Day @ Online
Apr 21 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Earth Day 2022 marks the 52nd anniversary of world-wide Earth Day and of your local Ecology Center. Our history runs deep, and our commitment remains strong in 2022.

Join us for an exclusive members only gathering. We’ll celebrate our successes over the past year, share what’s coming up in 2022, and revisit the importance of Earth Day past and present. You’ll meet our staff and board members, get insider updates and information, receive digital door prizes, and more. Best of all, we will reconnect as a community behind a powerful vision—of sustainable cities; empowered, resilient communities; zero waste and zero toxics; equal access to healthy food; sustainable resource use; and a safe and stable climate.

This is a great time to become a member, renew your membership, or make an additional donation towards the important work we have ahead of us in 2022. It’s also a great opportunity to invite your friends and family members to join the Ecology Center.

This event is free to current members. When you buy a ticket for this event or make a donation, you automatically become a member. We are looking forward to seeing you and yours!

69631
Apr
22
Fri
#CancelStudentDebt: A Conversation with Organizers from the Debt Collective @ Online
Apr 22 @ 9:00 am – 10:30 am

 CancelStudentDebt: A Conversation with Organizers from the Debt Collective — A panel of organizers from the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, make the case for cancelling all student debt — THE ISSUE OF STUDENT DEBT GETS TO THE HEART of questions about inequality, democracy, and the future of the economy in the United States. It also poses a challenge to the way higher education is currently organized in the country.

Please join HANNAH APPEL and BRAXTON BREWINGTON, organizers from the Debt Collective, the nation’s first debtors’ union, as they make the case for cancelling all student debt. They will discuss what they have experienced in the course of their organizing and their evolving strategies in the face of the federal government’s shifting positions on student debt cancellation. Moderated by Mitchell Center Graduate Fellow INDIVAR JONNALAGADDA —

THE DEBT COLLECTIVE organizes debtors’ unions using an emancipatory activation of household debt under finance capitalism. Alone, our debts are a burden, but together they make us powerful. Household debt leveraged collectively in the threat of a debt strike creates the power to remake contemporary financial relationships. The Debt Collective’s first debtors’ union has won over $2 billion in debt abolition for people holding debt from for profit colleges. They have published a book entitled Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition (2020)

HANNAH APPEL is an economic anthropologist interested in transnational capitalism and finance; finance, debt and debtors’ unions; the African continent’s place in global capitalism; the economic imagination; anti-capitalist and abolitionist social movements. Her research and teaching interests are guided by the economic imagination. What does it mean to understand racial capitalism ethnographically, and to work actively to undo it? Her first book, The Licit Life of Capitalism, is both an account of a specific capitalist project – U.S. oil companies working off the shores of Equatorial Guinea – and a theorization of more general forms and processes that facilitate diverse capitalist projects around the world. She is also a co-founder and organizer with the Debt Collective and co-author of Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition

BRAXTON BREWINGTON is communications professional and electoral organizer, focused on racial, economic and democratic justice. Braxton currently works with The Debt Collective, a national debtors union fighting to cancel debts and defend millions of households. Recently, Braxton worked as a Communications Lead for the Democratic Parties of Georgia and North Carolina, and served as a Field Organizer for U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s presidential campaign. Braxton was a Democracy Fellow with Common Cause, where he worked to galvanize students to become civically engaged by registering them to vote on campus, organized marches to the polls, and lobbied Congress. Braxton was a state spokesperson in North Carolina for the Rucho case, and cites his speech at the steps of the US Supreme Court as the event that propelled him into fighting for a powerful multi-racial democracy:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cancelstudentdebt-a-conversation-with-organizers-from-the-debt-collective-tickets-309845184287?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

69704
Youth Earth Day Rally @ Civic Center Bart Station
Apr 22 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Next Friday: Earth Day Youth Rally

What: Show Up to Support the Youth Earth Day Rally

This Earth Day, join Youth Vs. Apocalypse and other allies at 10 AM at Civic Center Bart Station to demand environmental and climate justice.

Demands to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Mayor Breed, the EPA, State Department of Toxic Substances Control, the State Water Quality Control Board, and all elected officials include:

  1. Retesting with independent community oversight of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site & adjacent areas
  2. Full and comprehensive cleanup of all contamination to mitigate community vulnerability and d the threat posed by rising groundwater and sea levels.
  3. Full reparations including financial compensation and lifetime health services for all residents, ex-residents and workers exposed to and impacted by Shipyard contamination

Mark your calendars for next Friday, April 22!

Youth response to this action has been huge! If you’d like to donate to the Youth Vs. Apocalypse transportation support fund, please click here to go to their gofundme page.

RSVP and more info on the Earth Day rally here.

69695
Immigration Prison: Hard Questions About Abolition. @ Online
Apr 22 @ 12:15 pm – 2:00 pm

69666
Wild and Scenic Film Festival @ David Brower Center
Apr 22 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Celebrate Earth Week with the pick of the year’s best environmental films, in person on the big screen at the David Brower Center or live on-demand at home with your computer.

Films explore nature, community activism, adventure, conservation, water, energy and climate change, wildlife, environmental justice, agriculture and more.

Showcasing people’s ongoing heroic efforts to

  • save endangered wildlife,
  • protect frontline communities, and
  • raise awareness about local and global environmental challenges and solutions.

IN PERSON FRIDAY APRIL 22

  • Goldman Theatre, David Brower Center, Berkeley
  • Eco Fair, Silent Auction, Prizes: 6 pm
  • Films: 7 pm
  • Ticket includes on-demand access to full program for one week —  April 22 – 29

VIRTUAL-LIVE FESTIVAL, APRIL 22 – 29

with live chat:

  • Virtual doors & chat: 6:30 PM
  • Films: 7 PM
  • Full program on-demand: 7 – 10 PM

Tickets $15 – $25
$5 discount for Sunflower Alliance! Discount code WSFFSFA

Info on films and and showings and ticket purchase here.

Hosted by Citizens Climate Lobby and community partners including Sunflower Alliance

69700
Apr
23
Sat
Press Rights 101 @ Online
Apr 23 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 pm

69706
Press Rights 101: Understanding Your Newsgathering Rights and Limitations in California @ Online
Apr 23 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Join us for a comprehensive overview of legal protections and practical considerations for covering protests, filming police in the field and more.

This free webinar is presented by: Asian American Journalists Association, Los Angeles, California News Publishers Association,  Californians Aware, First Amendment Coalition, Los Angeles Press Club, Media Alliance, Media Guild of the West, National Association of Black Journalists of Los Angeles, National Association of Hispanic Journalists,  National Press Photographers Association, Pacific Media Workers Guild, NewsGuild-CWA Local 39521, SPJ/LA, SPJ NorCal

Register for the Webinar

69687