Calendar
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.
Speaker: Laura Wells
The United States was a leading democracy two centuries ago. Now many other nations have leap-frogged over the US by developing better political/electoral systems. As a consequence, they also have better systems for healthcare, higher education, housing, and justice combined with increased personal safety.
The locked-down two-party system has joined with the vast inequality of wealth and power in the US in order to raise hurdles to block solutions that people want, create, and support. We will take a good look at those hurdles, many of which are now being highlighted during the presidential campaign of Cornel West, who is running as an independent “third party” candidate.
There are solutions, and steps we can take. We will discuss why proportional representation is key to an inclusive multi-party system, and why ranked choice voting by itself has not lived up to its expectations.
Laura Wells has been a Green Party activist since the party became ballot-qualified in California in early 1992. She is a co-coordinator of the state Coordinating Committee of the Green Party of California (GPCA). She has run for State Controller and Governor, and ran once for Congress. Laura Wells, both as a Green Party candidate and behind-the-scenes organizer, has experienced first-hand the roadblocks put up by the two Titanic parties, including being arrested outside of the gubernatorial debate in 2010 for the accurate charge of “trespassing at a private party.”
Website: https://laurawells.org/
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Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
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NOTE: Our programs are all recorded and will be placed on our website soon after they are finished.
A memorial service celebrating the legacy of Eugene Norman Newport lovingly known as Gus Newport.
Gus Newport dedicated his life to protecting the rights of all people to live in peace and realize their full potential.
Gus is best remembered for serving two terms as mayor of Berkeley, where he championed progressive causes — from police reform to rent control — that drew national attention. But Gus fought for social justice long before he was elected to office — and long after his tenure. He was a crusader, both at home and abroad.
Gus traced his lifelong commitment to social justice to his mother and grandmother. His great-grandmother had been a slave in Virginia, and his grandmother grew up in the Jim Crow South picking cotton as a child. Gus often told the story of how she got to school late from the fields one day and was slapped by a teacher. Defiant, she decided to leave and never return, seeking enrichment elsewhere. Later in life, she took Gus, as a five-year-old, to hear Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson perform; the events would leave a lasting impression.
As a young man in the 1960s, after serving in the Army, Gus chaired the largest civil rights organization in Rochester, New York, his hometown. While organizing to combat police brutality in that city, he came to the attention of Malcolm X, with whom he worked to establish the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Gus was traveling with Malcolm four days before he was assassinated.
Decades later, Gus served on the five-person advisory body whose mission was to guide the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
As a global advocate for human rights, Gus served on several United Nations committees, including the Special Committee Against Apartheid and the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and was vice president from the U.S. to the World Peace Council.
In his final years, Gus provided leadership on boards and committees for organizations whose missions he held dear, including the Center for Community Land Trust Innovation, Children’s Defense Fund, Middle East Children’s Alliance, National Council of Elders, Project South and the Urban Strategies Council. One of his last public roles was on Oakland’s Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, formed after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd at the hands of police.
As recently as May, just weeks before his death in June, Gus traveled to Alex Haley’s farm in Tennessee to meet with young organizers at a National Council of Elders gathering. He did this despite having had a leg amputated — the result of vascular disease — in his mid-80s.
“Gus was an inspiration, standing alongside civil rights giants like Malcolm X in the fight for the human rights of all African Americans,” said U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, a friend. “He has spent his life fighting for justice and liberation, and the world is a better place because of him. He is a true friend and an inspiration to us all. May he rest in peace and power.”
As mayor of Berkeley, from 1979 to 1986, Gus led innovative policy reforms and programs to address the rights of underserved residents, from working women to LGBTQ+ families and low-income renters. He spearheaded innovative programs on police reform, affordable housing, environmental protections and community development. He advocated for small businesses against rent increases, and the city succeeded in protecting rent control in a Supreme Court case argued pro bono by famed Constitutional attorney Lawrence Tribe.
Gus’ many accomplishments are a testament to his tirelessness. After his time as mayor, he directed the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, the only nonprofit organization in the country to be given the power of eminent domain to buy land for community revitalization. He also worked as an independent consultant in the area of community building, assisting several foundations and neighborhood organizations across the country, and he served on the faculties of MIT, Yale, UC Santa Cruz, UMass Boston and Portland State.
In recent years a cohort of Gus’ mentees came together to ensure that his history and social justice legacy would be remembered and sustained. They worked with Gus to create the Gus Newport Project, recording dozens of oral history interviews and conversations with people from many of the movements in which he had been so instrumental. The project continues: a documentary, archive and other programs are underway.
All those who knew Gus cherished his warmth, humor, steadfast convictions and honesty. His charisma and joyful presence transformed any room he entered, giving strength to his loved ones and allies and disarming those who might disagree with him.
Gus is survived by his wife, Kathryn Kasch; two children, Kyle and Maria; two grandchildren, Maasai and Dominic; and two brothers, Robert and John.
ACCOMMODATIONS:
If you require accommodations to attend the service, contact the Oakland Marriott City Center to receive a corporate rate. Use the link below to book a room.
Book your corporate rate for Oakland Marriott City Center Catering Rate
Sketch of Gus Newport created by local artist Jos Sances
Memorial services for #GusNewport, former #Berkeley mayor & #Oakland resident, will be held this Saturday, September 23, 1-3 pm at the #ParamountTheater. Please register: https://t.co/xS3OENN9aW…
He was a lifelong progressive, fighter for civil rights & peace.… pic.twitter.com/MMxOrkAtVC— Jean Quan (@jeanquan) September 22, 2023
In her journal Octavia E. Butler wrote “All good things must begin.” Abolitionist alternatives to police must begin somewhere, but alternatives can only be sustained when individuals like you come together to build them together.
Mental Health First (MH First) is a project of APTP and Oakland’s first and only non-police, non 9-1-1 crisis response line for mental health crises, including but not limited to psychiatric emergencies, substance use support and intimate partner violence safety planning. We are currently dispatching on a case-by-case basis, and have volunteers on the hotline Friday and Saturday from 2pm to 2am.
We have an MH First volunteer training coming up open to all community members who want to join our team.
Register to join our next virtual MH First training!
The Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition that seeks to build a replicable and sustainable model to eradicate police terror in communities of color. In addition to our MH First services, we support families surviving police terror in their fight for justice, documenting police abuses and connecting impacted families and community members with resources, legal referrals, and opportunities for healing.
Register to join this incredible crew!
Register: bit.ly/NicaSep24How do the Nicaraguan police sustain one of the lowest crime rates, and highest levels of citizen trust, in all of Latin America? A key answer is their much-heralded community-based model. Please join us for this 90-minute webinar, with Spanish – English interpretation, focused on these key topics:
- What is the Nicaraguan Community Policing
Model? - What special programs and approaches are used to protect women from violence?
- What were the experiences and activities of the police during the 2018 coup attempt?
Bring your questions! There will be time to address them, after we hear from:
- Commissioner General Jaime Vanegas Vega, Inspector General of the National Police
- Commissioner General Vilma Rosa Gonzalez, Head of Public Relations of the National Police
HOME IS A HOTEL
From a single mother trying to find her missing daughter to an elderly woman who is going blind and facing eviction, the low-income residents of San Francisco’s single room occupancy housing tell their stories.
Across America, cities are struggling with homelessness and housing affordability. How does one decades old solution – cramped Single Room Occupancy units – impact the lives of those who live in them? Home Is a Hotel takes you inside San Francisco’s SRO housing through intimate portraits of their residents filmed over five years. This character-driven, verit- documentary immerses viewers in what it means to call a single room home in the heart of one of America’s richest cities. Screening is followed by a filmmaker Q & A.
Today we highlight our affordable housing and health care activism! we do with two groups: the grassroots California Long Term Supports and Services for All Coalition and East Bay.
LONG-TERM CARE INSURANCE: PROGRESS IN CALIFORNIA
California Long Term Supports and Services Coalition (LTSS4All) – Juan Guerrero (right), Manager of Regional Organizing at Caring Across Generations, will catch us up on the coalition members progress on the designs for a long-term home care and services insurance program coming before the Legislature and the Governor in December. He aims to uplift the care agenda so that ALL families can get the support they need to live full, robust lives in this beautiful state.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/california-needs-universal-long-term-services-and-supports?source=direct_link&
AFFORDABLE HOUSING: ACTIONS & LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO) is just one of the Housing Justice coalitions we are involved with!
Megan Nguyen (left), EBHO Policy Associate, will update us on recent developments and next steps on statewide bills that can make affordable housing easier to create.
Welcome curious threads!
Only 8 seats open for this course!
Speaker: Noah Khrachvik of Midwestern Marx
Noah will discuss the issues that often arise when connecting Marxism and the working masses.
Our speaker, Noah Khrachvik, is a proud working class member of the Communist Party USA and co-director of the Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis. He is 42 years old, married to the most understanding and patient woman on planet Earth (who puts up with all his deep-theory rants when he wakes up at two in the morning and can’t get back to sleep) and has a thirteen-year-old son who is far too smart for his own good. When he isn’t busy writing, organizing the working class, or fixing rich people’s houses all day, he enjoys doing absolutely nothing on the couch, surrounded by his family and books by Henry Winston.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09
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
4. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – Automated License Plate Readers
a. Review and take possible action on a proposed use policy
Each person wishing to speak on items must fill out a speaker’s card. Persons addressing the Privacy Advisory Commission shall state their names and the organization they are representing, if any.
Members of the public can view the meeting live on KTOP or on the City’s website at https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/ktop-tv-10.
Comment in advance: To send your comment directly to the Privacy Commission and staff BEFORE the meeting starts, please send your comment, along with your full name and agenda item number you are commenting on, to Felicia Verdin at fverdin@oaklandca.gov.
The corporate press has always expressed the views of the rich and powerful. Now that giant corporations are consuming and consolidating once nominally independent news outlets, there is very little independent reporting. In order to get news about things like grassroots organizing, anti-capitalist political parties, efforts to halt state violence and anti-war viewpoints, we turn to alternative sources. At this forum we will discuss what some of these sources are and how we can access and support them.
Ann Garrison – Contributing Editor to Black Agenda Report and a contributor to The Grayzone, Pacifica Radio, and other outlets
Frank Sterling – Programmer, Full Circle KPFA radio; Producer, First Voice Media; Oscar Grant Committee and Reimagine Anitoch
Ken Epstein – Education Editor for the Oakland Post; formerly communication director for the Oakland Education Association
*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.
Please arrive early to place your order so that you do not miss any of the presentations.
An open discussion will follow the presentations.
We will be accepting donations which will be divided among the sponsoring organizations.
This event is sponsored by the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party,
the Alameda County Green Party and Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change.
For more information email <info@sudssnackssocialism.org>
Speaker: Mark Albertson
This program addresses how the Korean peninsula was tragically split, why it remains so, and its contemporary implications. Once part of the Japanese Empire, the Korean conflict degenerated into a stalemate. Most important was the admission by then US Secretary of State Dean Rusk on how the 38th Parallel was agreed to as the infamous demarcation line; why the decision was made to cross the 38th parallel; and how George Kennan urged Truman not to. This last development is most significant. And, how the stalemate in Korea impacted whether the U.S. would intervene in North Vietnam in April-May 1954 to relieve 15,000 French paratroopers surrounded by 55,000 Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu.
Our speaker, Mark Albertson, is a frequent presenter at the Library. In fact, according to his blog, in each of the last three years, he has logged 200-plus appearances. Mark is a military historian with a commanding knowledge of geo-politics. He is the historical research editor at Army Aviation magazine and is the historian for the Army Aviation Association of America. He has authored several books: USS Connecticut: Constitution State Battleship; They’ll Have to Follow You! The Triumph of the Great White Fleet; On History: A Treatise. He is at work on a two-volume history on the saga of Army aviation. Mark teaches history at Norwalk Community College in Norwalk, Connecticut:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09
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
This new documentary tells the story of young American Jews coming to question the narrative they were taught about “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Over the course of the movie, they come to realize that their Jewish values are incompatible with support for an apartheid state.
Watch the official trailer
Co-sponsored by JVP Bay Area, IfNotNow and Chavurah for a Free Palestine of Kehilla Synagogue
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274
In The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism, Carlos L. Garrido provides a comprehensive development of his concept of the purity fetish, tracing the outlook to the Eleatic school of Ancient Greek philosophy, and showing how it has appeared in 20th century Western Marxism and in contemporary U.S. socialism. In every form the purity fetish takes in Western Marxism’s politics, Garrido argues that one finds not only the failure to obtain truth, but also the inability to create a revolutionary movement. Garrido asserts that today the critique (and overcoming) of the purity fetish is an indispensable task in the fight for the development of subjective conditions for revolution.
Carlos L. Garrido is a philosophy teacher at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Director at the Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis, and author of various books including The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism (2023), Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview (2022), and Hegel, Marxism, and Dialectics (Forthcoming 2024).
October 8th, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm Via Zoom: please see the access info below
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.
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274
Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k39IUnw59