Calendar
This is a great chance to hear from local activists and advocates fighting for environmental justice at the frontlines, sharing powerful stories of struggle and change. And to hear their ideas about what you can do to support the movement for a clean and healthy environment for all.
Speakers:
Mari Rose Taruc, California Environmental Justice Alliance
Jessica Tovar, Local Clean Energy Alliance
Esperanza Vielma, Coalition of Environmental Equity and Economics
Allie Detrio, Reimagine Power
Hosted by Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) SF Bay Area, co-sponsored by Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Area Chapter and Northern Alameda County Group, and the United Nations East Bay Chapter.
Register here.
This event is open to everyone, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Fossil Free California has been leading a growing coalition building support to get California state pension funds — California Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) — to divest from fossil fuels.
Help them continue this invaluable leadership and show your appreciation by attending one of their 10th Anniversary parties.
Info/tickets here.
A political thriller, character drama, and a clarion call to action, this riveting documentary portraying resistance to Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orban is perfectly relevant to this political moment.
In the September 10 2024 presidential debate, Donald Trump said “Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man, he is a tough person, smart, Prime Minister of Hungary, said why is he world blowing up, three years ago it wasn’t, because you need Trump back as President.” Orban also enjoys a very close relationship to the Heritage Foundations, and his ideas are reflected in Project 2025.
Few politicians have proven as adept at undermining democracy as Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. A hero to his country’s Christian conservative population as well as an acolyte to Donald Trump and the republican party, Orban fastens methodical steps to successfully chip away at Hungarian democratic institutions.
With unparalleled access, “Democracy Noir” follows three courageous activists – Timea, Babett, and Niko – as they reveal the layers of deception embedded within Orban’s government. Wielding expertise in law, journalism and healthcare, these women organize innovative ways to take on one of the West’s most powerful demagogues. But they face an increasingly well-financed and sophisticated opposition in Orban’s Fidesz party, who control the media.
“Democracy Noir” paints a damning portrait of how Orban, over the years, systematically destabilized the country’s democratic institutions for financial gain while enjoying widespread approval from Hungarian nationalists. The film reveals an urgent cautionary tale for all democracies through the story of Orban’s relentless work to build an autocratic white Christian state. But amidst this dark, new brand of authoritarianism, vital resistance remains. Through the testimony and actions of Timea, Babett and Niko, we not only witness the terror of a democracy in free fall, we see first-hand what it takes to try and claw precious freedoms back from the abyss. “Democracy Noir” serves as a warning and a ray of hope: it reveals the undemocratic nature of Orban’s regime and the courage of three women, representing many, who will not acquiesce.
Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
Speaker: Christopher Helali
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1
Imperialism and the Split in 20th Century Socialism
Christopher’s talk will focus on the current situation in the international communist movement and the various emerging contradictions and issues. It will address ongoing issues within Solidnet, the various positions of communist parties on Russia’s ongoing Special Military Operation, and how communists should approach multipolarity.
Christopher Helali is the International Secretary of the American Communist Party (ACP) and North American chair of the DPRK International Solidarity Group. He is an educator, independent investigative journalist, researcher, and geopolitical analyst. Chris has studied at Cornell Law School, Dartmouth College, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and the University of San Diego.
Across the country, reporters, pundits, and others have referred to the current election as “The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime”. Yet here in northern Alameda County, an unprecedented election is already certain as numerous incumbents are vacating their seats, guaranteeing that newcomers will be taking office for US Congress, State Senate, County Supervisor, Berkeley Mayor, half of the Berkeley City Council and Oakland School Board seats up for election, 3 out of the 5 Oakland City Council seats on the ballot, Oakland City Attorney, and all 4 of the EBMUD and EBRPD seats we’ll be voting on in our county. Plus there will be unprecedented recall election votes on District Attorney Pamela Price and Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, as well as a significant opportunity for Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein, who is polling at 29% among Muslim voters and leading the field in several key states — ahead of both Harris and Trump.
In addition to Jill Stein and the two recall elections, we’ll also be discussing the campaigns of Jovanka Beckles for State Senate, Kate Harrison for Berkeley Mayor, Jenny Guarino for Berkeley City Council, and more. Please join us this Sunday at 5:00 pm for “The Most Important Election of Our Lifetime”.
Elana Auerbach is an activist and writer who ran in a special election for Berkeley City Council earlier this year. She has served on the Berkeley Tenants Union steering committee and was also a member of Berkeley Copwatch for many years. She wrote a Reimagining Berkeley column for the “Berkeley Times” and organized for a Berkeley Ceasefire Resolution in Gaza, as well as with the Berkeley Unified School District Jewish parents for Collective Liberation.
Sean Dougherty was the March 2024 Green Party candidate for California’s 19 Congressional District (from southern Santa Clara county to San Luis Obispo county). He has worked as an engineer for consumer products like smartphones and laptops since the late 90’s and previously was an advisory group member for Santa Cruz for Bernie. He is now a co-chair of the Membership and Outreach Committee of the California Green Party.
Negeene Mosaed is Chair of the Berkeley Tenants Union, a member of Friends of Adeline, and in 2022 was a candidate for Berkeley’s Rent Board. She also is the owner of Berkeley Community Physical Therapy, the only clinic serving Medi-Cal and Medicare, and most types of insurance, and having the lowest cash pay rate in the greater Bay Area, as a commitment to serve and provide the highest quality of care to all community members. Negeene was involved in organizing for a ceasefire resolution in Palestine, at the Berkeley city Council, and was one of the lead organizers of that movement in Berkeley.
BK Woodson, Sr. is a Steering Committee member of the “Respect Our Vote” (No Recalls) coalition. He is a director of “Faith in Action, East Bay” and pastor of the Bay Area Christian Connection. October 13th, 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm Via Zoom: please see the access info below
Topic: Green Party of Alameda County
Description: Green Sunday presentation at 5 PM
(Followed by County Council business meeting at 7:00. All are welcome to attend)
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kit Walsh will join us this month to discuss the potential risks of AI being used to automate discrimination. AI might seem like a helpful tool for processing applications, or informing people about opportunities, but the black box nature of these algorithms can result in systems with difficult to detect bias among protected classes. Kit will review EFF’s analysis of this problem and discuss our approach to policy remedies, before opening up to a discussion for EFA members.
RSVP: https://eff.org/EFA-AI-Discrimination
Notes: https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/edit/NsYN+fj3nIYarA23B-isSdwZ/
Take a deep dive into protecting your privacy while advocating for a better world. Meet our panel featuring EFF Security and Privacy Activist Thorin Klosowski, The Civil Liberties Defense Center Executive Director Lauren Regan, Greenpeace International Information Security Capacity Manager Gillo Cutrupi, and EFF Senior Staff Technologist Cooper Quintin. Learn what’s happening around the world, how you can fortify your devices, and be prepared for the next assembly.
Following the discussion, our panelists will be answering your questions. Participate in the live Q&A or reply to this message now with a question for the panelists.
We hope you and your friends can join us live! If you can’t make it, we’ll post the recording afterward on YouTube and the Internet Archive!
Exploring Regeneration in the Bay Area: A Day with Jem Bendell
Join us for an thought-provoking unconference on Saturday, October 19th, as we delve into the crucial topics surrounding relocalization and regeneration in the face of global challenges. We welcome the author of the Deep Adaptation paper and collaborator on the Breaking Together book, Jem Bendell, to kick off this transformative event.
Jem is in the Bay Area to co-lead a 4 day course Leading Through Collapse (a few places are still available).
Event Highlights:
- Welcome and Presenting (9:40 AM)
- Keynote Address by Jem Bendell (10:00 AM): From Acting Up to Digging Down: one path for change in an era of degeneration.
- Collaborative Agenda Creation (10:45 AM): Facilitated by Kaliya Young, a long-time friend of Jem’s, and internationally respected facilitator. We’ll use Open Space Technology to support those gathered to co-create the rest of the day’s agenda.
- Interactive Sessions (11:30-4:30): Engage in dynamic discussions on a range of topics you bring to discuss including:
- Local food systems and food security
- Ecovillages and sustainable community models
- Small-scale economies and alternative currencies
- Personal and community resilience strategies
- Ecological restoration and regenerative practices
- Closing (4:30-5:30): Reflection all together as a group about all the sessions.
- Networking Opportunities: Connect with like-minded individuals, activists, and professionals passionate about creating positive change in the Bay Area and beyond.
Why Attend?
This event offers a unique opportunity to:
- Learn from Jem Bendell’s extensive experience and insights on adapting to our changing world.
- Contribute your own knowledge and ideas in a collaborative, participant-driven format.
- Explore practical solutions for building resilient, regenerative communities in the Bay Area.
- Network with a diverse group of change-makers, from grassroots activists to sustainability professionals.
- Be part of a growing movement towards a more sustainable and equitable future.
Event Details:
- Date: Saturday, October 19th
- Time: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM
- Location: Nile Hall, Preservation Park 13th St and MLK in Downtown Oakland, CA
- Lunch: Included in ticket price
- Doors Open at 9am
- Keynote by Jem at 10-10:45 am
- Agenda Co-Creation at 10:45-11:30 am
- Session 1 11:30 – 12:30
- Lunch 12:30 – 1:30
- Session 2 1:30 – 2:30
- Session 3 2:30 – 3:30
- Session 4 3:30 – 4:30
- Closing 4:30 – 5:30
Attendees have shared these potential topics for the unconference so far:
- More humans gardening equates to more humans connecting to their biology which includes honoring the entire life cycle, including death.
- Bioregional Belonging Programming
- Regenerative financial system & economics
- Solar punk
- systems change
- bright mirror
- Integral Bioregions
- “Bioregional governance and coordination in the Bay Delta, watershed by watershed” (baydelta.org) a conversation about
- operationalizing bioregionalism in our home.
- collective vision building and sensing, how can we sense and see our community and participants (dreams, their projects, etc),
- ‘energy democracy
- Once you become collapse aware, what are the channels available to adapt, to change your way of life to respond?
- advancing storytelling
- Technology- what can we do with it, systems of power/ how do we stop weapons industry, fungi and fermentation
- What are the challenges in the ways in which we collaborate with others in the field of permaculture?
- cooperatives networks identity
- Bioregionalism
- Coordination Tools
- Participatory Governance
Don’t miss this chance to be part of a transformative day of learning, sharing, and action. Together, we can explore new pathways for regeneration and resilience in our local communities and beyond. Secure your spot now and join us in shaping a more sustainable future for the Bay Area!
Jem Bendell is a prescient leader who 5 years ago posted the Deep Adaptation paper and catalyzed a community to offer mutual support and community for people in a range of professions. To deeply adapt he chose to move to Indonesia and be part of founding, Bekandze Farm School. He also worked with a group of collaborators to research Breaking Together published in 2023.
Presented in partnership by Bay Area Permaculture Guild, Global Regeneration CoLab, and Identity Works, LLC.
FYI: This event is NOTAFLOF (no one turned away for lack of funds), please reach out if you want to attend but are limited monetarily. OTOH if you are well off please register at a higher price to help others attend. All money raised is going to be going to pay for the venue, food, donations to the farm and if there’s anything leftover, it’ll be a stipend for the organizers.
October 22: Tour the Physical Archive
Please join us on Tuesday, October 22 from 6-8pm as we take a peek behind the doors of the Physical Archive in Richmond, California.
We are excited to offer a behind-the-scenes tour of the physical collections of books, music, film, and video in Richmond, California.
With this special insider event we are opening the doors to an often unseen place. See the lifecycle of physical books—donation, preservation, digitization, and access. Also, samples from generous donations and acquisitions of books, records, microfiche, and more will be on display.
REGISTER NOW for the physical archive tour.
October 23: Join our annual celebration—in-person & online!
In a world where major entertainment websites vanish overnight and streaming media disappears from platforms without warning, our digital culture is at risk of being erased. What safeguards are in place to preserve our collective memory?
Join us October 23rd for the Internet Archive’s annual celebration. This year’s gathering, “Escaping the Memory Hole,” explores the vital role that libraries play in protecting our digital heritage. As corporate decision-makers increasingly control what stays online, libraries like the Internet Archive stand as guardians of our shared digital culture, ensuring that it remains preserved and accessible for future generations.
Event details
5pm: Entertainment and food trucks
7pm: Program in our Great Room
8pm: Dancing in the streets
Location: 300 Funston Ave. at Clement St., San Francisco
Register now for in-person or virtual attendance.
With the presidential election looming, the explosion of AI, and the current Supreme Court, the decisions we make about surveillance at the local level have never been more important. To prepare, we spent the last year developing a report designed to give you the tools you need to critically analyze and challenge surveillance in your community.
We’re now hosting a special briefing led by Matt Cagle, senior staff attorney with the Tech & Civil Liberties Program.
New Report Briefing: Seeing Through the Surveillance Hype
Join us and learn tools to fight for solutions instead of surveillance.
RSVP Today
During the webinar, we will explain how you can use this report to make a case for why your community should limit and dismantle local surveillance systems and instead, focus on solutions that actually make us safer.
Our report contains mountains of evidence showing that despite promises from tech companies and police, surveillance has made us less, not more, safe. This is especially true for abortion seekers, immigrants, activists, and over-policed Black and Brown communities.
Register today to learn what’s in this report, and how to use it in your activism.
The fight against surveillance is a fight for a new vision of public safety – one that uplifts people instead of policing and imprisoning them.
The story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history. (documentary)
Join us for a screening of an award-winning feature documentary, The Strike, about the Pelican Bay hunger strikes against solitary confinement.
Followed by a Q&A with the directors JoeBill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey, and the hunger strikers and solitary survivors featured in the film. Moderated by Lisa Armstrong.
The Strike is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.
Amidst the redwood trees on the California-Oregon border sits one of the most infamous prisons in US history. Pelican Bay is a labyrinthine construction of solid cement blocks – a supermax prison – opened in 1989 and designed specifically for mass-scale solitary confinement. For decades, it held men alone in tiny cells indefinitely. Then one day in 2013, 30,000 prisoners went on hunger strike.
THE STRIKE weaves together, thread-by-thread, a half century of personal and criminal justice history into a single, compelling narrative around the drama of the 2013 hunger strike to end indefinite isolation. Grounded in testimonies from the hunger strikers themselves, the film details how the protest was conceived from a whisper inside the halls of Pelican Bay to a colossal feat across California prisons. With unprecedented access to state prison officials and never-before-seen footage from inside Pelican Bay, THE STRIKE reveals the panic that gripped the highest echelons of state government.
Told through the stories of the men who bore the brunt of this practice, THE STRIKE goes beyond making a case against solitary confinement; it illuminates the power of organizing and prisoner-led resistance, and in doing so, flips the true-crime genre on its head.
Special event with Q&A
2024 CA Ballot Props & Oakland Local Measures w/ LWV Oakland
3565 Fruitvale Avenue
Oakland, CA 94602
We will welcome questions from the audience as time allows.
Come learn before you cast your vote!
Wednesday, October 23 at 7 – 9pm PT
Oakland Public Library: Dimond Branch, 3565 Fruitvale Avenue, Oakland, CA 94602
More info here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ballot-measures-forum-tickets-1022635449157
For info on attending the OCT 5 ballot information event, go here: https://www.lwvoakland.org/events-1/ballot-measures-pros-cons-presentation
An intrepid group of economists is on a mission to instigate a paradigm shift by flipping our understanding of the national debt — and the nature of money — upside down. FINDING THE MONEY follows Stephanie Kelton, former chief economist on the Senate Budget Committee, on a journey through Modern Money Theory or “MMT,” to inject new hope and empower countries around the world to tackle the biggest challenges of the 21st century: from climate change to inequality.
Free or by donation
For more information: www.FindingMoneyFilm.com
Queers for a Free Palestine meet up and march! All are welcome! Call out state senator Scott Wiener, who has been attacking Palestinian activists at UC and CSU campuses, opposes inclusion of Palestine in ethnic studies, introduced oppressive legislation to silence the voice of the Palestinian people and their comrades, and attacking houseless people. He opposed the cease fire back in January. Mask up, bring friends. Let’s San Francisco now that you oppose SF politicians who have not called out an end to the genocide in Gaza! And an end to the apartheid government of Israel!
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our October 26th meeting we will be reading “Mutual Aid” by Dean Spade. (Amazon, free PDF)
Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world.
Around the globe, people are faced with a spiralling succession of crises, from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change-induced fires, floods, and storms to the ongoing horrors of mass incarceration, racist policing, brutal immigration enforcement, endemic gender violence, and severe wealth inequality. As governments fail to respond to—or actively engineer—each crisis, ordinary people are finding bold and innovative ways to share resources and support the vulnerable.
Survival work, when done alongside social movement demands for transformative change, is called mutual aid.
This book is about mutual aid: why it is so important, what it looks like, and how to do it. It provides a grassroots theory of mutual aid, describes how mutual aid is a crucial part of powerful movements for social justice, and offers concrete tools for organizing, such as how to work in groups, how to foster a collective decision-making process, how to prevent and address conflict, and how to deal with burnout.
Writing for those new to activism as well as those who have been in social movements for a long time, Dean Spade draws on years of organizing to offer a radical vision of community mobilization, social transformation, compassionate activism, and solidarity.
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, The Path to a Livable Future. and Solidarity.
Join Street Spirit and Where Do We Go for a panel discussion on the War on the Unhoused at Berkeley City College at 1:30m on Tuesday, October 29, 2024. pic.twitter.com/pVzje3pyAl
— Mama Lisa (@LisTeague) October 20, 2024
Join Debt Collective and @tamaranopper in conversation October 29, 2024 5 – 6PM PST, 8 – 9PM EST to discuss Nopper’s groundbreaking Data & Society report: Medicalizing Inequity: The Risks of Financial Wellness for workers. RSVP here: https://t.co/w9tafvVtev
— The Debt Collective 🟥 (@StrikeDebt) October 16, 2024
It’s almost election day! But our work doesn’t end with voting. EFF organizers José and Chris will facilitate a workshop on how local advocates can put together a plan for getting the attention of newly elected officials, and engaging them on Digital Rights issues. Participants are encouraged to bring questions and personal experiences for discussion.
RSVP: https://www.eff.org/EFA-Last-Wed
Notes: https://cryptpad.fr/pad/#/2/pad/edit/lDxeNgOoQjjvILJd+0UjfKyF/
