Calendar
Speaker: Carlos L. Garrido
For decades American politicians, the representatives of the country’s oligarchs, have lied to the American people about their country’s relation to socialism. America has been presented as fundamentally antithetical to socialism, Marxism, and communism. shows how we have, starting in the early parts of the 19th century, a homegrown tradition of socialist thought that grounds itself in the most progressive components of American history. This is a tradition which holds that the values of 1776 can only be capable of being fully realized in a socialist society. Why We Need American Marxism develops, within the Marxist framework, upon this tradition of homegrown socialism and argues that only by developing American Marxism, and organizations of working people based on it, can we overcome the crisis we are in and establish a society that is genuinely of, by, and for the people.
Carlos L. Garrido is a Cuban American philosophy instructor at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He is the director of the Midwestern Marx Institute and the author of The Purity Fetish and the Crisis of Western Marxism (2023), Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview (2022), and the forthcoming Hegel, Marxism, and Dialectics (2024). He has written for dozens of scholarly and popular publications around the world and runs various live-broadcast shows for the Midwestern Marx Institute YouTube. Carlos runs the Philosophy in Crisis Substack.
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Contrary to recent public statements by US politicians, media and mainstream neoliberal economists, the US economy is not doing ‘great’. How accurate are official claims regarding inflation, jobs, and US GDP? The presentation will review independent data sources, and even often ignored government statistics, to show a picture different from the mainstream ‘spin’ on inflation, jobs and GDP: Why inflation is actually higher than reported in CPI and PCE indexes, why job creation is less than reported in the government’s main CES survey, and why the latest GDP trends point to a deeper recession in 2025, not a ‘soft landing’.
Related themes presented include why record US deficits, debt and interest costs will continue to surge in 2025 and after, resulting in the announcement of a major Austerity fiscal policy in 2025 regardless of who wins the election; how the recent rapid expansion of the BRICS and their alternative currency and global financial structure now emerging will further negatively impact the US domestic economy in 2025 and after; and why neither the policies of Harris or Trump will resolve the deepening problems in US economy or the accelerating decline of the US global empire.
Dr. Jack Rasmus is the author of The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump, Clarity Press, 2020, and the forthcoming The Twilight of American Imperialism, Clarity Press, 2024.
Dr. Rasmus is also author of several prior books on the USA and global economy, including Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of the Fed, 2019; Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes, 2017; Looting Greece: A New Financial Imperialism Emerges, 2016; Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy, 2015; Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression, 2010; Obama’s Economy: Recovery for the Few, 2012; and The War At Home: The Corporate Offensive From Reagan to George W. Bush, 2006.
Dr. Rasmus formerly taught economics at St. Mary’s College in Moraga. Prior to teaching and publishing, Dr. Rasmus was an economist and strategic market analyst for various global tech & market research companies for twenty years. Before that, for fourteen years, he was a local union president, contract negotiator, strike coordinator, and organizer for various unions, including the UAW, CWA, HERE, and SEIU.
Dr. Rasmus blogs at: https://jackrasmus.com/ & his twitter handle is @drjackrasmus. He hosts the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network (podcasts available at: http://alternativevisions.podbean.com and from his blog).
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.
Description: Green Sunday presentation at 5 PM
(Followed by County Council business meeting at 7:00. All are welcome to attend)
Time: August 11, 2024, 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274
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Octavia Butler Science Fiction AI Theme
This week’s theme: Print is hardware too! And what better muse can we imagine than Octavia Butler, science fiction Goddess.
We’ll have a pre-hardware hack night presentation on creative ways to mix print with electronics, use artificial intelligence in the most open source and ethical way, and work on our SudoRoom print zine! Throw in some 3D models into the mix too!
Hack on Anything and Everything
○ Projects: can range from building course materials for teaching local kids electronics to a robotic arm that draws, to light projection art, to people building their own microchip boards! We provide the space, tools and peer learning – you bring your project and enthusiasm!
○ Group Sewing: Learn to do simple mending or get help with technical fabric and textile projects. In addition to regular machines our Sewing Lab features heavy-duty industrial sewing machines and sergers. Our in house sewing guru CC has worked for Academy or Art College, Tesla, SuitX, and Zipline and has vast sewing machine repair and maintenance experience; bring your own machine to tune up for tip-top operation and sew alongside others.
○ General Repair: Fix it Clinic’s weekly Oakland residency: bring your broken, non-functioning things – electronic gadgets, appliances, computers, toys, sewing machines, fabric items, etc.– for assessment, disassembly, and possible repair. We’ll provide workspace, specialty tools, and guidance to help you disassemble and troubleshoot your item. First-time repairers and “Fixing Families” are heartily invited. Learn more at https://www.fixitclinic.or
A new grassroots coalition has formed in response to what it calls a major conservative threat to voters’ rights in Oakland and Alameda County, bluntly calling itself: “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls.”
“We already voted! We shouldn’t have to pay for another expensive election because a handful of multi-millionaires from Piedmont and San Francisco, along with a few billionaires across the country, don’t like the results of the election we already had,” said longtime Oakland activist Mariano Contreras, reflecting a sentiment of some politically aware residents from many groups and neighborhoods across Oakland.
While outside monied interests are paying for the recalls, other recall backers include supporters of those who lost the last election and those who are opposed to progressive reforms, according to anti-recall organizers. In fact, Piedmont resident and venture capitalist, Philip Dreyfuss, has provided three-quarters of the funding for one of. the recalls.
“I can disagree with some actions of an elected official, but I want them to serve out their term and carry out the programs they ran on. I can vote for someone else next time if I don’t like what they are doing,” said Servant BK Woodson.
“Time is short, and it is important to mobilize now to defend our rights to pick the leaders of our choice. Early voting starts in less than 70 days, and election day is Nov. 5,” said Pamela Drake.
“Our opponents are well funded, they utilize MAGA talking points, and have no respect for the truth. They are backed by corporate media. We have to make ourselves aware of what is really going on and mobilize with people power,” said attorney Walter Riley.
Among those throwing their energies into the coalition are representatives of labor unions, the faith community, nonprofit organizations, local Democratic clubs, African American community organizations, Asian and Pacific Islander organizations, teachers, and others.
For more information contact WalterRiley@rrrandw.com; 1-510-410-6481
Speaker: Radhika Desai.
The application of Neoliberal Economics had its beginning with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. It held its sway for almost four decades starting when China allowed G-7 capital to exploit a vast pool of labor power, but unlike in the past when it resulted in failed economics in the Third World, China rose as an economic giant in just three decades, with the Communist Party of China firmly controlling the process. The US workers largely lost good industrial wages even as they benefited from cheaper consumer products imported from China in these three decades. But lately the Chinese economy has also run into a slowdown and as shown by the recent parliamentary elections in India and Mexico, the Neoliberal Economics has lost support from the vast majority of these two countries and there appears to be opposition to it in China as well. Prof. Desai’s talk will focus on this core issue and how it is related to the decline of the G-7 group of countries, and its impact on the geopolitics and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.
Radhika Desai is the convener of the International Manifesto Group (https://internationalmanifesto.org/), which analyzes the fast-changing political and geopolitical economy of the world order. From around the world, they represent a diversity of currents of anti-imperialist socialist thought.
Dr. Desai is professor at the Department of Political Studies and director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba. Among her many publications are Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party. She is also the author of numerous articles in Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals and in edited collections on parties, political economy, culture, and nationalism. With Alan Freeman, she co-edits the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press.
Her article, “The Long Shadow of Hiroshima: Capitalism and Nuclear Weapons, International Critical Thought,” was published online: 08 Apr 2022
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21598282.2022.2051582?tab=permissions&scroll=top
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The military industrial complex and PTSD: In a country where the electorate on both sides screams “support the troops”, why haven’t we had any meaningful direct action on the lack of support for veterans?
Join the Oakland Greens & special surprise guests, Monday August 19. Discussion starts at 7 PM and will end no later than 9:30 PM.
The Oakland Greens Townhall Discussion Series is a community discussion event. Get in – persxn & virtual tickets and information thru http://www.oaklandgreens.org/events These community engagement events are held the 3rd Monday of the month January thru October.
Please register by Sunday at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-oakland-greens-hybrid-townhall-military-industrial-complex-tickets-859106088437?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Speaker: Roger Harris
The whole world was monitoring the high-stakes Venezuelan presidential election on July 28, not only because the country boasts of the planet’s largest oil reserves but also because it has been an exemplar of independent sovereignty from the US empire.
Corporate media coverage of the election and its aftermath was akin to an investigation of a homicide that is focused not with identifying the murderer but with an unpaid parking ticket of the victim.
Our speaker, Roger D. Harris, accompanied the election in Venezuela and will report back on what happened there as well as on Washington’s campaign to delegitimize the country’s Bolivarian Revolution with the ultimate aim of regime change.
Roger is on the executive committee of the US Peace Council and joined their delegation to Venezuela. He is on the ICSS program committee that has for over a decade and a half presented the weekly Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library series. He is active with the anti-imperialist human rights group Task Force on the Americas, the SanctionsKill Campaign against unilateral coercive measures, and is a founding member of the Venezuela Solidarity Network.
Recent articles by Roger on Venezuela include:
CNN’s Fraudulent Analysis of Fraud in the Venezuelan Presidential Election https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/08/15/cnns-fraudulent-analysis-of-fraud-in-the-venezuelan-presidential-election/
Media Coverage of Venezuela’s Presidential Election Normalizes US Interference https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/08/12/media-coverage-of-venezuelas-presidential-election-normalizes-us-interference/
Venezuelans to Vote on Continuing the Bolivarian Revolution https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/venezuelans-to-vote-on-continuing-the-bolivarian-revolution/
How Venezuela Is Overcoming the US Blockade https://www.pressenza.com/2024/06/how-venezuela-is-overcoming-the-us-blockade/
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We want you to join us for the 1st International Solidarity Concert benefiting the Gaza Great Minds humanitarian initiative featuring the music of the Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Jazz Sextet!
Founded just three months ago by Ahmad Abu Rizik from Gaza City, GGM is having a huge impact. Beginning with the intention of educating just 50 children, it has grown to serve close to 500 students at two tent schools operating 6 days a week.
The much needed funds raised by way of this uplifting musical experience will go directly to Ahmad and his team who have been working to provide for the whole child—educationally, psychologically, socially and spiritually.
If you own a computer, laptop, tablet or phone you can watch this concert!
This fully curated online concert will feature the band live from Lima, Peru with a live in-person audience AND YOU, sitting wherever you’d like around the world… on your computer or mobile device.
Afro-Peruvian Jazz Music is a rare combination of music that gives you something that you can feel while also giving you something that you can think about.
We will focus all of our energies in providing the best night of music you’ve ever heard online…
And if you are in a Time Zone that puts this concert at an inconvenient time, we will make a replay link available for 48 hours after the show… so even if you miss it, you can still catch it!
But most importantly, the money you contribute will be helping children continue to grow, learn, and heal.
Please know that attending this concert makes you quite literally a lifeline to education for the most vulnerable children on the planet.
Get your tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/
The Grand Advent Church will be hosting a community outreach
This event will be held at the homeless encampment located at E. 12th St. between 17th and 18th Ave. in East Oakland.Â
Services will include free medical and dental screenings, showers, laundry services, haircuts, pet medical screening, pet food, prayer booths, and hot food. We are also giving away free clothes, shoes, and personal hygiene essentials.
Homeless Advocacy Working Group for anyone who might be unhoused or needing help.
(HAWG meets by phone/zoom or an hour on the first Monday of each month at 4-5PM it’s very welcoming, informative, and well moderated! see www.shelteroak.org for vision, mission, and actions. )
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our August, 31st meeting we will be reading the first five chapters of
Solidarity is often invoked, but it is rarely analyzed and poorly understood. Here, two leading activists and thinkers survey the past, present, and future of the concept across borders of nation, identity, and class to ask: how can we build solidarity in an era of staggering inequality, polarization, violence, and ecological catastrophe? Offering a lively and lucid history of the idea—from Ancient Rome through the first European and American socialists and labor organizers, to twenty-first century social movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter—Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor trace the philosophical debates and political struggles that have shaped the modern world.
Looking forward, they argue that a clear understanding of how solidarity is built and sustained, and an awareness of how it has been suppressed, is essential to warding off the many crises of our present: right-wing backlash, irreversible climate damage, widespread alienation, loneliness, and despair. Hunt-Hendrix and Taylor insist that solidarity is both a principle and a practice, one that must be cultivated and institutionalized, so that care for the common good becomes the central aim of politics and social life.
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included (in chronological order) 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 , Poverty, By America, End Times, Jackson Rising Redux , The Feminist Subversion of the Economy, How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World, Wealth Supremacy, The Persuaders, and The Path to a Livable Future.
Speaker: João Romeiro Hermeto
ZOOM LINK
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3OelectioNl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1
The energy crisis in Europe, proxy war in Ukraine, rebellion in the Global South, and expansion of the BRICS reflect the decline of Western imperialism and growing cracks in the capitalist world system.
Based on his new book of the same name (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2024), João Romeiro Hermeto will address some historical developments of intellectual property. He asks what is ‘knowledge’ under capitalism, and how is it created and appropriated?
Developments such as digitalisation and the convergence between big pharma and tech giants are bringing about transformations in social property relations. What are the conditions of intellectual property creation today? What theoretical assumptions does it make? Under what social relations is intellectual property produced?
The emphasis will not be on individual cases or symptoms but on the overarching logic: the logic of capitalism as revealed in intellectual property.
Our speaker is João Romeiro Hermeto. Born in 1985, he originally comes from Brazil, where he studied engineering at the Universidade de São Paulo and then economics. During the upheavals of the financial crisis, he first worked there as an investment banker and then founded a company that produced and promoted art and culture. At the end of 2013 he emigrated to Germany, studied philosophy and cultural reflection and did his doctorate in philosophy. His research focus is criticism of capitalism.
Recommended:
With Western imperial decline, capitalism is in crisis – a new phase is emerging
João Romeiro Hermeto is a Brazilian-Italian scholar. In Brazil, he studied engineering and then economics at the Universidade de São Paulo. During the upheavals of the financial crisis, he worked with derivatives credit risk management for an investment bank from 2007 to 2011 and subsequently founded a company that produced and promoted art and culture. In 2013, he emigrated to Europe, studied philosophy and culture, and earned a doctorate in philosophy at the Universität Witten/Herdecke. His research focuses on Marxism and the ontology of the social being, on the critique of political economy, and on the critique of knowledge production – ideology and intellectual property.
The Green Party of California co-sponsors the Missouri Green Party’s Black & Green Wednesday Webinar Series, and we invite you to tune in to the September 4 webinar, Curing Electoral Dysfunction.
From the organizers:
- We all see it, the election process is not working. But how can we fix it?
- How can Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) remove the “spoiler effect”?
- What’s the difference between “Approval voting” and RCV?
- How could “proportional representation” give us a voice, and how could it work combined with RCV?
- What about the backroom deals and dark money?
- How can we end the silencing of progressive voices?
Speakers will address these issues and ask for questions and thoughts from the audience. Hear from:
- Philena Farley, Green Party of Ohio
- Larry Bradley, Better Ballot KC
- Mike Feinstein, Former GP Mayor, Santa Monica CA
- Michael Bagdes-Canning, Green Party of Pennsylvania
- Oliver Hall, Center for Competitive Democracy
- Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate (moderator)
The webinar is NO COST, but you need to REGISTER to attend. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information on joining the meeting.
Suds, Snacks, and Socialism
Please register in advance at
https://bit.ly/2024DownBallot
to receive your personal link to participate in this event online
Here in California, there is no question about who will get the electoral votes. But there are a lot of issues and ballot measures that could have great consequence for the lives of working people. Will we finally repeal Costa-Hawkins and get the possibility of effective rent control? Will Alameda County’s progressive D.A. keep her job and continue prosecuting killer cops and corporate criminals?
Join our speakers who will discuss some of these issues. And bring your own ideas about what measures are important on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Bill Balderston – Alameda County Green Party County Council
Marsha Feinland – Peace and Freedom Party of California
Walter Riley – Oakland Civil Rights Attorney
John Selawsky – 35-year Berkeley Resident and Activist
*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.
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>
Coming up Oct. 5: The Presidential Election
Ya'll don't want to miss this special event in Oakland September 7 featuring courageous survivors leading the work of the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition. RSVP to join us 7-9pm for community-building, storytelling & advocacy updates: https://t.co/ZaopokQzD9 pic.twitter.com/JR6CcDcXrp
— CCWP (@c_c_w_p) August 9, 2024
Speaker: Gabriel Rockhill
Western Marxism: How It Was Born, How It Died, How It Can Be Reborn, by Domenico Losurdoa, is a paradigm-shifting book that provides a trenchant critique of the Western left intelligentsia. It reveals how its dominant ideological orientation�characterized by defeatism, utopianism, and anti-commuunism�is rooted in the political economy of imperialism. Internationnally acclaimed theorist Domenico Losurdo thus provides a fresh and challenging perspective on purportedly radical thinkers who have been widely promoted in the imperial core
Our speaker, Gabriel Rockhill, is a philosopher and activist who has published nine books. He is the Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop and Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University.
Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 AM Pacific Time for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up, and say hi. The program (and recording) will begin at 10:30 AM and will end at 12:30 PM.
Join Zoom Meeting https://villanova.zoom.us/j/5056623120?omn=92842903705
Meeting ID: 505 662 3120
Join us for a A Teach-In Introducing the Debt Collective – the nation’s first union of debtors. w/ local Bay Area organizers Maddy Clifford and Emily Birnbaum. Learn how debtor’s unions are organizing alongside labor unions and tenant unions to combat the financialization of our most basic needs like housing, education and healthcare. Share your personal story, your dream for an economically just future and build solidarity with other debtors and our allies. Plus, free resources to fight your eviction in California AND free copies of Debt Collective’s In These Times takeover issue *first 50 people*
Speaker: Radhika Desai
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1
The application of Neoliberal Economics had its beginning with Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. It held its sway for almost four decades starting when China allowed G-7 capital to exploit a vast pool of labor power, but unlike in the past when it resulted in failed economics in the Third World, China rose as an economic giant in just three decades, with the Communist Party of China firmly controlling the process. The US workers largely lost good industrial wages even as they benefited from cheaper consumer products imported from China in these three decades. But lately the Chinese economy has also run into a slowdown and as shown by the recent parliamentary elections in India and Mexico, the Neoliberal Economics has lost support from the vast majority of these two countries and there appears to be opposition to it in China as well. Prof. Desai’s talk will focus on this core issue and how it is related to the decline of the G-7 group of countries, and its impact on the geopolitics and the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.
Radhika Desai is the convener of the International Manifesto Group (https://internationalmanifesto.org/), which analyzes the fast-changing political and geopolitical economy of the world order. From around the world, they represent a diversity of currents of anti-imperialist socialist thought.
Dr. Desai is professor at the Department of Political Studies and director of the Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba. Among her many publications are Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party. She is also the author of numerous articles in Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals and in edited collections on parties, political economy, culture, and nationalism. With Alan Freeman, she co-edits the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press.
Her article, “The Long Shadow of Hiroshima: Capitalism and Nuclear Weapons, International Critical Thought,” was published online: 08 Apr 2022 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21598282.2022.2051582?tab=permissions&scroll=top
Medical debt shouldn’t exist.
More than 100 million people in the U.S. are actively struggling with medical debt. It’s an injustice that’s costing us our livelihoods, economic stability, and, in far too many cases, our lives.
As election season ramps up and politicians pay lip service to the issue, we can’t make the mistake of accepting minor concessions and band-aid fixes as solutions. If we want to put an end to medical debt, we need to strike at the root of the problem – our predatory, prrofit-driven healthcare system.
That’s why we’re hosting a National Call for Medical Debt Abolition. We’ll discuss our experiences with medical debt, strategies for tackling corporate control of our healthcare, and ways to build the fight for healthcare as a reparative public good. will you join us?
The medical-industrial complex is hostile and dysfunctional, and the corporate interests invested in keeping it that way have a lot of money to throw around. But we have people, we have our anger, and we know how to organize. Together, we can fight back against industry giants and a complicit state.