Calendar

9896
Aug
21
Sun
Sunflower Alliance: AT STAKE: OUR RIGHT TO BAN OIL AND GAS DRILLING @ Online
Aug 21 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

JOIN US FOR AN EXCITING WEBINAR ON CHEVRON v MONTEREY COUNTY, the case pending before the California Supreme Court that will determine the right of our cities and counties to regulate fossil fuel production.

Meet the Protect Monterey organizers whose successful ballot initiative to ban drilling and fracking in their county was challenged by Chevron and its army of oil industry bullies, and overturned by reactionary California Superior Court judges.

Hear from the one of the attorneys who will arguing before the state Supreme Court to defend the century-old right of local governments to ban or restrict oil and gas.

LEARN HOW THE OUTCOME OF THIS CASE WILL IMPACT FOSSIL FUEL REGULATION THROUGHOUT THE STATE – and here in the Bay Area!

RSVP TO: action@sunflower-alliance.org

for the zoom link

For more information, see the event post at sunflower-alliance.org.

70179
Slingshot new volunteer meeting / article brainstorm for issue #136 @ Longhaul
Aug 21 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Kick-off meeting to create Slingshot issue #136. Slingshot is an independent radical newspaper published in Berkeley since 1988.

* Brainstorm articles for next issue
* Discussion forum for your article ideas
* Orientation on how you can submit articles, art, photographs
* Help us discuss our audience and themes for the next issue
* Discuss fundraising and distribution
* Your chance to comment on Slingshot

Everyone is welcome.
Issue #136 is due out Fall 2022
Deadline for Issue #136 is September 24, 2022

This is an in-person meeting. Masks are optional.

70182
Aug
24
Wed
SAFEGUARDING YOUR DATA IN THE DIGITAL SPHERE @ Online
Aug 24 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Are you an organizer looking to shrink your digital fingerprint in the surveillance state? Get equipped with tools to combat digital surveillance and gain skills to understand digital privacy in our one-hour workshop with Adamma Izuegbunam Chau, Director at Cyber Collective.

70188
Aug
25
Thu
Debt Collective Jubilee Hour – Celebrate the Win! @ Online
Aug 25 @ 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm


Organized debtors just won big. And we’re not stopping til all the debt is ALL gone.

After months of dragging his feet, Biden has finally announced his plan of debt cancellation: up to $10,000 for borrowers with incomes under $125,000 a year and up to $20,000 of cancellation for Pell grant recipients.

We know this is far from what justice demands – to close the raccial wealth gap, to unchain generations of indebted families, to actually have a reparative higher education policy. We know the road ahead is long, with much much more work to do.

But right, now we’re celebrating. Organized debtors forced Biden – who has sided with banks over debtors his entire career – to administer debt cancelation for working-class communities. This is a testament to the power of a union of debtors banding together to exercise political and financial power.

If you came to a debtors’ assembly, this is your win. If you invited a friend to come to the action with you, if you made a sign, if you signed a petition, if you talked to a colleague about your debt, if you wore your debt to work, if you wrote an op-ed, if you pledged to strike, this is your win.

Please join our Jubilee Hour tomorrow, 7:30-8:30PM EST. We will gather to take a moment to bask in how far we’ve come, and point out the horizons we’re still marching towards. Biden didn’t do this — WE did.

Also be sure not to miss the awesome “Freedom Dreams” documentary that dropped yesterday about Black women’s leadership in the fight for debt cancellation.

AND ONE FINAL THING  – it has taken us ten yearss to get $10K of student debt canceled. Can you throw in $10 bucks so the next round of cancellation doesn’t take quite so long?

A debt-free future is on its way. We’re never going back again

The Debt Collective

70202
🌹Lessons From The 2022 National Protest In Ecuador @ Online
Aug 25 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Register

Lessons From The 2022 National Protest In Ecuador. is hosted by the DSA International Committee.

For 18 days in June 2022, the people of Ecuador, led by the indigenous and poorest, fought austerity to a halt. Tens of thousands barricaded highways, paralyzed the capital and much of the nation. Eight people were killed and hundreds injured by police.

Led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), poor and working people won major economic and political concessions, and other demands are in negotiation.

Top leaders of this “Paro Nacional” and grassroots organizers from the indigenous communities will explain how they did it and what happens next.

70185
Aug
27
Sat
The Emiliano Zapata Community Festival. @ Peralta Hacienda Historical Park
Aug 27 @ 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Dear friends,

We are inviting you and your family, co-workers, cultural and community
members, and activists to enjoy the 2022 CompArte: The Emiliano Zapata
Community Festival.

The Chiapas Support Committee in partnership with the Peralta Hacienda
Historical Park is organizing CompArte [2]: The Emiliano Zapata
Community Festival at Peralta on Saturday, August 27, 2022, from
12:00-4:00 pm.

We invite you to enjoy an afternoon of music, poetry, art, tamales,
aguas frescas, good food, and community!

CompArte Festival & Solidarity

CompArte was started in 2016 [3] by the Zapatistas (EZLN, Ejército
Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, Zapatista Army of National
Liberation) in Mexico to bring together the best of our communities’ and
movements’ art, music, poetry, stories, dance, and other cultural work
for social justice, Indigenous autonomy and liberation and in solidarity
with the Zapatistas.

The Chiapas Support Committee took up the call and has held CompArte
every year since 2016 both in-person and online during the pandemic
sheltering-in-place. This year CompArte is back in the open air at
Peralta Hacienda Park in Oakland!

CompArte 2022 is a call and a festival:
Por la vida | For life:
Contra todas las guerras | Against all wars

CompArte 2022 will bring together artists, poets, musicians, painters,
cultural workers, and the community to express solidarity with the
Zapatistas and enjoy an afternoon filled with joy and community!

Our city, our region, our state, the U.S. and the world are on the cusp
of struggles that are rocking the foundations of the capitalist system.
Through CompArte and other spaces, you are invited to dream and walk
together, to weave the world where all worlds fit, and together raise
our voices and our songs to demand peace and justice across the U.S. and
the world.

Our CompArte 2022 is dedicated to the defense of all life and against
all capitalist wars and depravations. The gathering will begin with
Danzantes making a movement-offering to the four directions, recognizing
that we are on Ohlone land. We will have tamales & aguas frescas, son
jarocho, barrio and revolutionary poets, portable mural art, live
painting, and other activities.

Program: CompArte 2022 will include the son jarocho group AntiFaSon [4],
with anti-fascist _sones_, Oakland poets, music, a DJ, arts & crafts
vendors, tasty tamales, and other good food and deep community.

Join us to celebrate the movements and struggles for justice, peace &
solidarity with the Zapatistas and Indigenous people, everywhere with
words of resistance, tenderness and community in movements for
liberation and self-determination.

 

70169
Aug
28
Sun
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library: LEPAIO: Labor Education Project on the AFL-CIO International Operations. @ Online
Aug 28 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library

LEPAIO: Labor Education Project on the AFL-CIO International Operations.

The AFL-CIO has since its existence been involved in taking money from the CIA and other government agencies for international operations around the world  It has supported coups in Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Ukraine, and attempted coups in Venezuela, Cuba. It now operates in over 60 countries without real transparency and reports to the membership of the AFL-CIO members. Most workers in the AFL-CIO do not know about this history or the fact that the AFL-CIO “Solidarity Center” gets $75 million a year from the National Endowment for Democracy which is directly from the US government.

This panel of Professor Kim Scipes and labor journalist Steve Zeltzer are members of the newly formed organization Labor Education Project On AFL-CIO International Operations LEPAIO.

Home

Our speakers, Steve Zeltzer and Kim Scipes, are labor activists.

Background: Reckoning with the AFL-CIO’s Imperialist History. https://jacobin.com/2020/01/afl-cio-cold-war-imperialism-solidarit

ZOOM LINK
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US
+16699006833,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US (San Jose)

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

70205
Aug
30
Tue
Parker School Community Pot Luck @ Parker School
Aug 30 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

70214
Sep
1
Thu
Private Student Debt Debtors’ Assembly @ Online
Sep 1 @ 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Most folks think that last week Biden canceled student debt. But the truth is that last week, Biden announced a cancellation plan that most people will have to APPLY for before their debts are canceled. All that Biden’s pledge has yielded so far is crashed government website and promises from the Dept of Ed that they are “working” on the application that the whole cancellation program rests on. Pretty great system.

Still. Some relief is coming, even if it’s going to be a set of hoops to jump through to get it.

There’s still a lot of missing information, but we want to make sure to share the most up-to-date information we’ve seen so far: https://forgivemystudentdebt.org/faq/. This website is the best guide that that currently exists to explain the Who, What and How of Biden’s limited cancellation. Please take a look.

One thing we DO know is that private student loans are NOT included in Biden’s cancellation plan. Even though the paperwork on these loans is signed by a different creditor (a private company, instead of the federal government), they’re still unjust loans that are just as crushing as federal loans. That’s why we’re having our first PRIVATE STUDENT DEBTORS’ ASSEMBLY on Sept. 20 at 7:30PM EST. Sign-up here.

Finally, we’re having our first welcome meeting tonight for the 50 OVER 50 STRIKE **tonight** at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT. You can register to join the call here (you’ll receive a Zoom link by email after you RSVP.) � The 50/50 Strike is a pop-out from our broader student debt strike, designed specifically for student debtors over age 50 who are committed to striking payments when they turn back on.

The tables ‘bout to turn,

The Debt Collective: a debtors’ union fighting to cancel debts and defend millions of households. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You can send us a letter at: Debt Collective, PO Box 285, Canton, NY 13617.

70239
Sep
2
Fri
Screening at Parker School: Let the Fire Burn @ Parker School
Sep 2 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

70238
Sep
4
Sun
Imperialism and the Class Struggle Revisited @ Online
Sep 4 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm


We will address  the relationship between the class struggle at home and anti-impeeriism abroad. Speaker(s) TBA

Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am 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 may remain open later for informal discussion.

ZOOM LINK

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US
+16699006833,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US (San Jose)

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

70240
Sep
8
Thu
HOW HAS REDLINING PERSISTED INTO THE MODERN DAY? @ Online
Sep 8 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

GI_NowNext_Faceboook-event-cover-banner1

We think of redlining as a past practice. But in reality, the shameful legacy of redlining lives on today. It’s embedded into our data –our health outcomes, education, zip codes, wealth –and increasingly, into new technology.

Zeroing in algorithmic bias, speakers will discuss how modern redlining affects people of color today, and how we can leverage technology as a positive force for equity and economic opportunity for formerly redlined communities. This session is designed for anyone with an interest in understanding the changing landscape of structural racism and the creative solutions advocates are advancing.

eaturing:

  • Debra Gore-Mann, President & CEO, The Greenlining Institute
  • Vinhcent Le, Senior Legal Counsel of Tech Equity, The Greenlining Institute
  • Yeshimabeit Milner, Founder & Executive Director, Data for Black Lives
70189
Sep
10
Sat
Teach-in People’s Assembly (focus climate crisis) @ Online
Sep 10 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
online, please register at: https://bit.ly/3QfEm8l
Are you concerned about the future of the planet and all life on it? are you concerned about the IRA? you are invited to a free Teach-in on People’s Assembly Saturday September 10th, from 1 to 3pm PST on zoom. Local Celebrities, Alycee Lane, & Jeremy Lent (authors) will be presenting as well as Yusra Bitar & Derek Seidman of littlesis. This Teach-in is free and open to the public.
70241
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: Beyond Money – A Postcapitalist Strategy @ Online
Sep 10 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

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

For August, 2022 we’re reading the first four chapters of  Beyond Money – A Postcapitalist Strategy, by Anitra Nelson. Available at Pluto Press, Amazon.  For September, we’re reading the remaining chapters.

‘A fascinating portal into arguments about why we need to get beyond money’ – Harry Cleaver

What would a world without money look like? This book is a lively thought experiment that deepens our understanding of how money is the driver of political power, environmental destruction and social inequality today, arguing that it has to be abolished rather than repurposed to achieve a postcapitalist future.

Grounded in historical debates about money, Anitra Nelson draws on a spectrum of political and economic thought and activism, including feminism, ecoanarchism, degrowth, permaculture, autonomism, Marxism and ecosocialism. Looking to Indigenous rights activism and the defence of commons, an international network of activists engaged in a fight for a money-free society emerges.

Beyond Money shows that, by organising around post-money versions of the future, activists have a hope of creating a world that embodies their radical values and visions.

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 TelescopeMission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and Beyond Money.

70008
Sep
11
Sun
The Midterm Elections and the State of Bourgeois Politics @ Online
Sep 11 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library

ICSS Sunday Mornings at the Marxist Library info@icssmarx.org via mitalumprod.onmicrosoft.com 

 

 

Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library

 

The opinions expressed in our Sunday morning programs are those of the speakers only and do not represent any kind of group consensus by the members of ICSS. Programs are scheduled on a “first come first served” basis. Our general practice is to allot at least half of the time to comradely discussion of the issues including as many voices as practical.

NOTE: The Library will be CLOSED for the duration of the coronavirus crisis. We expect that for the foreseeable future all our meetings will be ZOOM meetings.

 

The midterm congressional elections will soon be upon us. We will again be told, as we are every two years, that the most important election of our lifetimes is impending. Meanwhile the super-rich take recreational flights into outer space, and neoliberalism – the contemporary form of capitalism – is not meeting working people’s needs.

Was Biden’s primetime lecture from Liberty Hall on September 1 a democracy speech or a demonization speech against half of our fellow citizens? Was it a needed prop to “our democracy” or another slide down the path of a heightened security state lurching in the direction of fascism? How does the circus of the two-party system function to serve class interests?

   Roger Harris, who is on the program committee for the ICSS and the state central committee of the Peace and Freedom Party, will kick off the discussion, based on his recent Counterpunch article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/02/the-politics-of-anti-trumpism/

Other panelists and participants will be invited to join in a robust discussion of political response to the failures of neoliberalism and dangers ahead.

 

LOGIN INFORMATION

Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am 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 may remain open later for informal discussion.

 

ZOOM LINK

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US
+16699006833,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
        +1 669 444 9171 US
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
70254
H2O 101: Sunflower Alliance Monthly Webinar – Delta-Conveyance Project
Sep 11 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Save the date for a lively panel discussion!  This time we’re focusing on water issues and the SF Bay-Delta.  (Yes, when it comes to California politics, oil and water do mix.)  What exactly is the Delta-Conveyance Project and why is it important that we get involved?  Why do Indigenous and environmental groups contest the state’s claim that it will protect our infrastructure and water supply from “disruptions caused by sea level rise, climate change and seismic threats”?

Paul Seger, President of the Delta Water Board and head of the Delta Group Sierra Club, will provide background and prepare us for submitting commits on the project’s DEIR before the October 27th deadline.

Other speakers TBA.

RSVP to action@sunflower-alliance.org for the Zoom link.

 

70210
Sep
13
Tue
Panel: How does nonprofit journalism work? @ SF Public Library
Sep 13 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

The nonprofit news model is growing nationwide, giving rise to local and national coverage from newsrooms that are independent of the motivations of shareholders and advertisers. A panel of journalists from nonprofit news group El Timpano, Mission Local and San Jose Spotlight will describe their goals, successes, and challenges.

A staffperson will moderate the discussion, and there will be a question and answer period.

El Timpano works in collaboration with residents and community partners to create empowering, two-way channels of information that inform and engage the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrants.

Since 2008, Mission Local, an independent news site based in the Mission District, has been focused on high-impact, enterprise reporting on everything from police reform to corruption at City Hall, housing, education and now the pandemic.

San Jose Spotlight is San Jose’s first nonprofit news organization dedicated to independent political and business reporting. Their mission is to change the face of local journalism by building a community-supported newsroom that ignites civic engagement, educates citizens and strengthens our democracy.

This program is sponsored by Friends of the San Francisco Public Library.
For accommodations (such as ASL interpretation or captioning), call (415) 557-4557 or contact accessibility [at] sfpl.org. Requesting at least 72 hours in advance will help ensure availability.

70242
Day of Reparations to African People @ Uhuru House
Sep 13 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
On September 13, 2022, Chairman Omali Yeshitela returns to Oakland’s Uhuru House, headquarters of the African People’s Socialist Party in the 1980s from where he rebuilt the Black Power Movement out of the ashes of COINTELPRO. Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton made his last public appearances at the Uhuru House shortly before his assassination in 1989.

In Oakland, Yeshitela led campaigns that put a Community Control of Housing initiative on the ballot, took over parks and an abandoned building to serve those without homes and built black community economic institutions including Uhuru Foods & Pies and Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles.

He’ll be back in Oakland to speak at the September 13th “Day of Reparations to African People – Oakland”, an annual Uhuru Solidarity Movement event to raise reparations from the white community for Uhuru Movement programs around the U.S. and the world, including community gardens, an African women’s health center, “One Africa, One Nation Marketplaces”, a community basketball court and outdoor event venues, workforce training and housing for African people coming out of prison, along with a community radio station and licensed community kitchens.

At 5am CDT on Friday, July 29, 2022, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), aided by local police, raided the offices and homes of members of the Uhuru Movement in St. Petersburg, Florida and St. Louis, Missouri, including Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s home.

They broke down doors, broke windows, used flashbang devices and drones and threatened residents with automatic weapons, handcuffing them and temporarily detaining them. They stole computers, hard drives, phones, office equipment and files—both business and personal.

According to Yeshitela, “This is an attempt by the U.S. government to attack, discredit and isolate the African Revolution at a time when it is growing in strength and winning on so many fronts. One of the aims of this attack is to cut off the resources, and that is why reparations is more important than ever.”

Another speaker at the event will be Penny Hess, Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee and author of “Overturning the Culture of Violence”, who states,

“White people have a responsibility to prevent the state from moving to attack the African People’s Socialist Party in the same way that they have attacked African leaders in the past such as Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba, Marcus Garvey and others.”

Yeshitela is the creator of the theory of African Internationalism and author of several books including “Vanguard” and “One Africa! One Nation!”. He has provided over 50 years of bold and relentless leadership to the struggle for the self-determination of the African community, including as founder of the African Socialist International and leader of the Black is Back Coalition.

Donations raised through this speaking tour benefit the Uhuru Wa Kulea Health Center.

The Uhuru Wa Kulea African Women’s Health Center is specifically designed to alleviate the trauma women and children face in our community due to lack of healthcare and inability to control our healthcare choices. Traditionally, the Black community values collective prosperity, a value we trace back to Africa. The African Women’s Health Program addresses the mental and physical health of Black girls and women by providing prenatal, birthing, and post-natal care, trauma-informed yoga, an annual African Girl’s Day event, a medicinal herb treatment program and more!

Black Power Blueprint is a black-led self-determination project of the Uhuru Movement building economic institutions for the black community of St. Louis to feed, clothe, and house themselves. To learn more go to blackpowerblueprint.org

Uhuru Solidarity Movement is an organization created by the African People’s Socialist Party USA as a strategy to win white solidarity with black power and white reparations to African people.

drep_banner.jpg

70243
KPFA: Brad DeLong: Slouching Towards Utopia. @ The Back Room
Sep 13 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm


Please join KPFA Radio when we welcome UC Berkeley professor Brad DeLong to celebrate the release of his most recent book, Slouching Towards Utopia. This live, in-person event will feature Brad DeLong in conversation with Michael Mechanic, author of Jackpot and senior editor at Mother Jones.

“The author conveys a wealth of information in elegant, accessible prose, combining grand, epochal perspectives with fascinating discursions on everything from alternating-current electricity to the gender wage gap. The result is a cogent interpretation of economic modernity that illuminates both its nigh-miraculous achievements and its seething discontents.” Publishers Weekly, starred review

TICKETS / INFO AVAILABLE HERE

70211
Sep
17
Sat
People’s Park Equinox Ceremony @ People's Park
Sep 17 @ 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm

People’s Park Autumn Equinox ceremony Sat. 9/17
for Protection, Justice and Balance

Gather on Sat. September 17 at 4 pm
Ceremony at 5pm.
(Bring a hat, your own food and water)

At about 4pm music with Hali Hammer on stage
Also free tarot readings before and after the event.
Literature tables encouraged.

Afterwards the circle opens onto the Stage in the west for an open mike.
Eat and drink your own food, and enjoy music, songs and voices
for Protection, Justice and Balance for the Park.

70267