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Following the Covid disruptions, we are seeing a new militancy among U.S. workers, with an uptick of labor organizing and activity that has not been seen in decades. President Biden was able to stop railway workers from striking last December. Now union members are choosing more progressive leadership. How can they assert themselves independently and throw off the stranglehold by the Democratic Party?

Luna Osleger – UAW* member, academic researcher at UC Santa Cruz and the shop steward at her workplace

Speaker: Sara Flounders
   President Obama famously announced the US foreign policy pivot to Asia: “To preserve US hegemony, we have to make sure that America writes the rules of the global economy or China will.” The US ruling class has pushed this topic of China to the top of our agenda.
US imperialism’s hostility to China is increasing with military threats, new rounds of sanctions, and increasingly wild fabrications. The media have been saturated with allegations of human rights abuses, forced labor, religious persecution and “genocide.” Addressing these topics from an anti-imperialist perspective will be Sara Flounders. She will comment on the recent BRICS summit, flashpoints Xinjiang and Taiwan, and the formation of an Asian NATO.
The big question for those on the side of socialist revolution is what is the class character of People’s China? Sara will discuss China’s road to building socialism and what it means to have a socialist state with “Chinese characteristics.” What is the critical role of mass mobilizations in the long struggle for communist ideals and the ideological commitment to egalitarian ideals? How does China’s international geopolitical role compare to that of the former Soviet Union?

Our speaker, Sara Flounders, recently visited China for the second time on a fact-finding tour. She is a longstanding political activist and author based in New York City. She is a contributing editor of Workers World Newspaper and a leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition, the International Action Center, and the SanctionsKill Campaign. She is the co-author and editor of numerous books, including Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China and the US and the recently released SANCTIONS � A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy.

Recently posted articles by Sara Flounders include:
BRICS for Cooperation, Camp David for Insecurity https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202308/1297122.shtml
Eyewitness Xinjiang https://www.workers.org/2023/06/71723/
Camp David summit outlines military alliance against China https://www.workers.org/2023/08/73064/
Japan rearms under Washington’s pressure https://www.workers.org/2022/12/68400/

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Join us Sunday September 10! Stop by or hang out the whole time.
Know Your Rights training 12-2pm.
Share a meal in community 2-4pm!
You are invited Sunday Sept 10!
Delicious lunch grilled and prepped by your copwatch community. A training hosted by copwatch, for first-timers and those wanting a refresher course on their rights.
All are welcome.

Let’s talk about what’s going on in Berkeley, and beyond. We’ve got updates to share, and we wanna hear what you’re seeing and what you’re working on!

RSVP!
(RSVP so we can make sure there’s enough grub to go around!)

This forum will reflect on the massive wave of current labor organizing, ranging from campaigns in major logistics (UPS) to industry (auto) to retail service (Trader Joe’s and Starbucks) to education (the University of California system, the Oakland Education Association, and United Teachers Los Angeles).

It will be lead by Barry Eidlin, activist and scholar at McGill University, who is renowned for advocacy for, and analysis of, the “rank and file” strategy for building power from the base.

Barry Eidlin is Associate Professor of Sociology at McGill University. He is a comparative historical sociologist interested in the study of class, politics, inequality, and social change and is the author of Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada (2018). He has published dozens of articles, including in Jacobin, Washington Post, and Labor Notes.

Eidlin’s research has examined diverging trajectories of working class power in the United States and Canada over the course of the twentieth century, changing party-class relations in the United States and Canada, intra-class conflict and organizational transformation in the Teamsters Union, and the effect of Walmart on retail sector wages, among other things. His major current project revisits the question of “why no workplace democracy in America?” He is also working on a series of other projects broadly aimed at re-theorizing contemporary notions of class identity, ideology, and politics.

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. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows at 7:00 pm, after a 30-minute break. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

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The Guaranteed Income Works national tour is coming to Oakland on Tuesday, September 12th, with a screening of the new film, It’s Basic. Featured in the Tribeca Film Festival, It’s Basic follows recipients of guaranteed income – monthly cash payments with no strings attached – as they experience the transformative effects of financial stabillity on their lives and families.

After the film, Former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf will participate in a roundtable discussion with Michael D. Tubbs, founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, and Alisha Roe, a recipient of Oakland’s guaranteed income program, Oakland Resilient Families.

Reserve your seat now for a thought-provoking conversation on the power of cash to end poverty.
Guaranteed Income Works: Oakland

RSVP NOW!

When: Sept. 12
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Where: 555 Santa Clara St., Vallejo
Why: City Council Meeting to Demand:

1.) Release badge bending report
2.) Pursue firing of Tonn
3.) Hire reform Police Chief
4.) Hire reform City Manager
5.) Plan for non-discriminatory & lawful recruiting.

— Melissa Nold, Esq. (@savage_esquire) September 11, 2023

Join our community to discuss the impact of Shotspotter, an audio surveillance system used to detect gunshots, which was installed in Pasadena in 2022.  We will also hear experiences and lessons learned about Shotspotter from other cities across the nation.

Speakers:
Mohammad Tajsar, ACLU, Pasadena
Ed Vogel, Lucy Parsons Labs, Chicago
Tracy Rosenberg, Oakland Privacy, Oakland
Aje “Je” Amaechi, Freedom to Thrive, Portland
Moderated by Florence Annang, POP Pasadena

Save the date for the next virtual summit from the Bay Area Climate Emergency Mobilization Task Force: Climate and Indigenous Leadership. This is the next in the series on Climate, Social Justice, and the Rights of Nature.

Save the date.  Watch for program details

Register here

Through the eyes of children, their families, and the helping industry that has developed from the housing crisis, A Rising Tide follows the strategies of families and service providers struggling with homelessness.

The film results from a conversation between the filmmaker and Dr. Christine Ma. Dr. Ma is the Medical Director of two clinics working with houseless children and their families.

Presented by The Oakland Greens

So weed is legal all over, proving again that profit wins over conservative morality. Are small independent growers, manufacturers, and dispensaries receiving a level playing field?

The Green Party has long been an advocate for ending the war on drugs. We also support and encourage from our candidates an economic equalization position when it comes to the economics of cannabis.

For September we deep dive into what solutions are out there to balance the playing fields with new systems to promote an economic lift up to the communities that have suffered most when pot was illegal. Join us Saturday September 16 with the regular cast thru Alice’s looking glass into this important issue.

Please register today (Friday), at:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/corporate-cannabis-the-economic-divide-presented-by-the-oakland-greens-tickets-559097845707?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Speaker: Raj Sahai

The Modi led BJP is in its 10th year governing India. India is 5th largest economy, has landed a mobile land rover on Moon’s South pole, improved industrial infrastructure and has reduced absolute poverty. In 2023, India also surpassed China in population, but the per capita income remained low, with unemployment rising, and widened income and wealth disparity under the neoliberal economy. Social tensions have risen with its aggressive Hindutva ideology. India is in BRICS, SCO, and G20, of which it is the president in 2023. With its strong ties with the US cemented in his visit to Washington this year, India has placed itself in the center of rising international tensions, with Russia and China emerging at the opposite pole to the US led unipolar order. National elections are due in March/April 2024. Raj Sahai will provide his assessment of the emerging economic and political picture in India.

Our speaker, Raj Sahai, is a native of India and a longtime resident/citizen of the U.S. He is a founding member of our Program Committee.

Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs

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

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdVC04xvn9

If you’re in the Bay Area, you can secure a spot in our charter bus, which will be leaving from the Ashby BART station at 8:30 AM, taking you to and from the action!

The United Nations is calling on world leaders to take real steps to lead us off fossil fuels to protect people and the planet.   On September 20th in New York, the UN Climate Ambition Summit will gather world leaders to commit to phasing out fossil fuels. 

The “ticket to entry” will be tangible action to keep fossil fuels in the ground— in the form of policies, and not just empty declarations.

Before the summit, thousands will take to the streets in New York and around the country—including Sacramento—demanding that Biden take bold action to end fossil fuels.  (Biden promised to end drilling on federal lands, yet he has approved more fossil fuel projects than Trump.)

The March to End Fossil Fuels is being organized by a coalition of local and national organizations led by the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Popular Democracy, Climate Organizing Hub, Food & Water Watch, Fridays For Future USA & NYC, Earthworks, Greenfaith, Indigenous Environmental Network, New York Communities for Change, Oil Change International, and Oil & Gas Action Network.

In California, we’ll gather in Sacramento to demand that our leaders, Biden and Newsom, stop permitting fossil fuels and make a plan to phase out oil and gas.  This family-friendly action will feature a giant puppet show, carnival games, performers and speakers who will share how you can get involved in ending the era of Fossil Fuels and building a better future together.

If you want to take on a volunteer role with outreach, making art, singing or drumming, performing or other support, sign up here.

Carpool signup sheet is here.

Oakland’s annual Art + Soul Festival is today in downtown and this year is combined with AfroComicon at City hall. Events are FREE! Enjoy music, food, vendors, and fun 12pm to 6pm.

Full lineup at : https://t.co/w7K8Z5XuGj pic.twitter.com/YSCKAAz9YN

— Allyssa Victory for Oakland (@Victory4Oakland) September 17, 2023

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

For our August and September meetings we are reading End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration by Peter Turchin.

For  our August meeting we’ll be reading the first two sections, which is about half of the book.
For  the  September  meeting  we will finish the book.

Back in 2010, when Nature magazine asked leading scientists to provide a ten-year forecast, Turchin used his models to predict that America was in a spiral of social disintegration that would lead to a breakdown in the political order circa 2020. The years since have proved his prediction more and more accurate, and End Times reveals why.

The lessons of world history are clear, Turchin argues: When the equilibrium between ruling elites and the majority tips too far in favor of elites, political instability is all but inevitable. As income inequality surges and prosperity flows disproportionately into the hands of the elites, the common people suffer, and society-wide efforts to become an elite grow ever more frenzied. He calls this process the wealth pump; it’s a world of the damned and the saved. And since the number of such positions remains relatively fixed, the overproduction of elites inevitably leads to frustrated elite aspirants, who harness popular resentment to turn against the established order. Turchin’s models show that when this state has been reached, societies become locked in a death spiral it’s very hard to exit.

In America, the wealth pump has been operating full blast for two generations. As cliodynamics shows us, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the path to violent political rupture.  That is only one possible end time, and the choice is up to us, but the hour grows late.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital 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, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Beyond Money, Less is More,  Cannibal Capitalism,  Debt, the First 5000 Years and Poverty, By America.

Bestselling author and Intercept contributing editor Naomi Klein’s new book, “Doppelganger,” dives deep into what she calls the “Mirror World”: our destabilized present rife with doubles and confusion, where far-right movements playact solidarity with the working class, AI-generated content blurs the line between genuine and spurious, and so many of us project our own carefully curated digital doubles out into the social media sphere.

Klein will be in conversation with Annalee Newitz discussing “Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World” tomorrow, September 20 at 7 p.m. PDT at the First Presbyterian Church in Oakland, California.

Tickets are limited…

Secure your tickets to join Naomi Klein

JOIN NAOMI TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 20 →

Through the eyes of children, their families, and the helping industry that has developed from the housing crisis, A Rising Tide follows the strategies of families and service providers struggling with homelessness.

The film results from a conversation between the filmmaker and Dr. Christine Ma. Dr. Ma is the Medical Director of two clinics working with houseless children and their families.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn’t go as planned.

Stanley Kubrick’s controversial adaptation of Anthony Burgess’s dystopian nightmare of youthful mayhem and madness remains just as provocative now as it did upon first release. It creates its own language both literally and cinematically, a dark satire of one possible future that seems more likely every day.