Calendar
US Wages War on Venezuela Venezuela Resists
Speaker: Jesús Rodriguez-Espinoza
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87388824824?pwd=QTWNvr8cGeGo1ZDW7x9Y8W0sDaNxRc.1
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
Join us for a live report from Caracas, Venezuela, on the escalating US regime-change war against the Bolivarian Revolution. Dropping any pretext of promoting democracy, the US empire � the world’s largest consumer of illegal narcotics and thee leading money launder � is using the transparent pretext of counter-narcotics to root out the hemisphere’s leading anti-imperialist challenger to US hegemony. Venezuela is resisting and represents, in fact, the hope of an alternative to a US-dominated world order.
Reporting from Venezuela will be our speaker, Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, an expert in international relations, Venezuelan politics, and communication. He served for several years as consul general of Venezuela in Chicago; before that, he was part of the foundational editorial team of Aporrea.org. He is the founder and editor of the English-language Venezuelan anti-imperialist news outlet Orinoco Tribune.
Oakland already said NO to Flock. After hours of powerful community testimony, residents made it clear: we will not accept mass surveillance in our city.
But now, Councilmembers Charlene Wang, Kevin Jenkins, and Ken Houston are attempting to override the will of the people—pushing the Flock surveillance contract forward despite its defeat. This is an outrageous overreach and a direct threat to Oakland’s sanctuary and privacy protections.
We need every single person who cares about civil rights, privacy, and democracy to show up and take a stand.
SHOW UP TOMORROW — THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20
10:30 AM | Rules & Legislation Committee
Room 3 | Oakland City Hall
Let’s make it impossible to ignore the people’s voice. Pack the room. Demand that City Council Get the Flock Out of Oakland.
If you cannot attend in person, you can still take action:
- Email the Rules Committee and City Clerk to register your opposition.
- Use our toolkit for sample emails, talking points, and details: bit.ly/NoFlock-Oakland
or scan the QR code on the flyer.
Oakland said no once. Now we have to say it louder.
In solidarity,
Cat Brooks and the APTP Crew
www.antipoliceterrorproject.
Join us for the discussion of our next film, Petra Kelly – Act Now!, which will be available to view online for one week before our discussion on Saturday, November 22, at 7:00 p.m. PT.
Petra Kelly, feminist co-founder of the German Green Party, was a pioneering advocate for peace, environmental protection, and human rights. Inspired by the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr.’s concept of civil disobedience, she championed radical social change and solidarity worldwide. Her issues are today more topical than ever before.
90 mins | 2024 | Director: Doris Metz | English, German, English Subtitles | Germany
RSVP and donate by Thursday, November 13, on our website, https://www.
* Gerlind Institute members: $10 • General Public: $20. Please donate via our website, https://www.gerlindinstitute.
* By check, payable to Gerlind Institute for Cultural Studies
* Zelle or credit card via our website. Contact info@gerlindinstitute.org for more information.
* If you are unable to donate, please get in touch with JB at info@gerlindinstitute.org, as we strive to make our events accessible to everyone
Thank you if you are a Gerlind Institute member or donor. If you are not yet a member, please consider a membership for 2026 at https://www.
Please note the following timeline:
* RSVP and donate by November 13, 2025
* On November 14, we will send out the film & Zoom links
* You have one week to watch the film before the discussion
* Saturday morning, November 22, we will resend the Zoom link as a reminder
* Saturday, November 22, join us via Zoom, at 7:00 p.m. PT for a discussion of the film
We appreciate your donation for the film and the professionally moderated discussion, which supports our behind-the-scenes work in bringing film gems to our community.
Best wishes,
The history and current aggression of the US against Colombia and Venezuela
Speaker: Dan Kovalik
To Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87388824824?pwd=QTWNvr8cGeGo1ZDW7x9Y8W0sDaNxRc.1
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Dan will be speaking about the history and current aggression of the US against Colombia and Venezuela.
Daniel Kovalik served as in-house counsel at the USW for 26 years at its headquarters in Pittsburgh. While with the USW, he served as counsel for Colombian Plaintiffs against US Corporations, including the Coca-Cola Company for alleged human and labor rights violations. He also taught International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of law for 12 years. Dan has written extensively on international human rights and US foreign policy. He has lectured throughout the world on these subjects and frequently appears on RT. He is the author of books exposing the machinations of US imperialism in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Iran, and Russia, and most recently Palestine/Israel. Other books include a progressive case against cancel culture and how the US violates international law.
In memoriam, a Thanks-Giving
Celebration of the Centennial Life of
ANN FAGAN GINGER
Champion of Peace, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law
Berkeley’s Oracle of Justice
in Music ~ Song ~ Poetry ~ Video ~ Remembrance ~ Giveaway
Ceremony 2:30 til 4:00 pm
Community Fellowship, Refreshments 4:00
All are welcome.
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome!
For our December, 2025 meeting we will be reading and discussing the first two chapters of What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis by Malcolm Harris (Amazon) (Hatchette). For our January meeting we will finish the book.
A vital guide for collective political action against the climate apocalypse, from bestselling progressive intellectual Malcolm Harris—“a brilliant thinker and writer capable of making the intricacies of economic conditions supremely readable” (Vulture).
Climate change is the unifying crisis of our time. But the scale of the problem can be paralyzing, especially when corporations are actively staving off changes that could save the planet but which might threaten their bottom lines. To quote Greta Thunberg, despite very clear science and very real devastation, the adults at the table are still saying “blah blah blah.” Something has to change—but what, and how?
In What’s Left, Malcolm Harris cuts through the noise and gets real about our remaining options for saving the world. Just as humans have caused climate change, we hold the power to avert a climate apocalypse, but that will only happen through collective political action. Harris outlines the three strategies—progressive, socialist, and revolutionary—that have any chance of succeeding, while also revealing that none of them can succeed on their own. What’s Left shows how we must combine them into a single pathway: a meta-strategy, one that will ensure we can move forward together rather than squabbling over potential solutions while the world burns.
Vital and transformative, What’s Left confirms Malcolm Harris as next-generation David Graeber or Mike Davis—a historian-activist who shows us where we stand and how we got here, while also blazing a path toward a brighter future.
Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Our first book was Doughnut Economics, and our most recent books were The Age of Insecurity and Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals”. For the rest of our reading list see here.
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