Calendar
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.
Speaker: Jack Rasmus
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
Why the real economy is stagnant and on the cusp of recession; why inflation is double what is reported and jobs are contracting; the impact of Trump’s policies on taxes and tariffs; the consequences of $2 trillion in military spending and a $1.8 trillion federal government deficit; the growing BRICS challenge and the falling U.S. dollar.
The contradictions in 21st-century US capitalism
SPEAKER BIO:
Dr. Jack Rasmus, Ph.D Political Economy, teaches economics at St. Mary’s College in California. He is the author and producer of numerous books, including The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy From Reagan to Bush (2019), Central Bankers at the End of Their Rope? (2017), and forthcoming The Twilight of American Imperialism. Jack is the host of the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network, and a journalist writing on economic, political, and labor issues for various magazines. Before his current roles as author, journalist and radio host, Jack was an economist and market analyst for several global companies, and for more than a decade, a local union president, vice-president, contract negotiator, and organizer for several labor unions, including the UAW, CWA, SEIU, and HERE. Jack’s website is www.kyklosproductions.com. He blogs at jackrasmus.com, where weekly commentaries on US and global economic matters are available. His Twitter handle is @drjackrasmus.
FOR OUR FULL SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING PROGRAMS,
AS WELL AS PAST PROGRAMS, GO TO ICSSMARX.ORG
This week, the Department of Education will start garnishing the wages of debtors in default on their student loans. This wave of garnishments is the first since 2020, and will impact millions of debtors with loans in or near default.
Just days after starting yet another unnecessary war abroad, billionaire Trump will start collecting pennies from some of the poorest debtors in the country. Two of the largest employers garnishing the wages of their workers? Walmart and Dollar Tree.
The Department of Education intentionally pushes debtors towards payment to get out of default, even though there are other options, like loan cancellation, for many debtors. They don’t want you to know that you have other options.
Join us to learn more about your options for getting out of default.
Dan Kovalik is a human and labor rights attorney and the author of a number of books, including “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US Is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil” and most recently, “Syria: Anatomy of Regime Change”, co-authored with Jeremy Kuzmarov. He is currently re presenting the family of a fisherman murdered by the US in the Caribbean as well as Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Meeting ID: 854 4920 3697
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As the political landscape in Alameda County continues to shift, we believe it is critical to come together as community members, organizers, advocates, and partners to reflect honestly on where we are and where we need to go.
This virtual gathering will create space to discuss:
- How the current District Attorney’s priorities are impacting community safety
- Where we believe the DA is falling short of what our communities actually need
- The policy priorities community wants to see centered: including rehabilitation, diversion, accountability, and investment in our neighborhoods instead of continued expansion of mass incarceration
- How we build collective power and alignment moving forward
This is not a presentation, it’s a conversation. We want to hear directly from you on Zoom on January 15th about what you’re seeing, what you’re feeling, and what you believe true community safety should look like in Alameda County.
Whether you’ve been deeply involved in accountability efforts or are just beginning to engage, your voice matters. This is an opportunity to shape shared priorities, strengthen relationships, and ensure community wisdom drives the path forward.
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Iran In The Crosshairs: Regime Change Then Invasion
Speaker: Kit Klarenberg
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87388824824?pwd=QTWNvr8cGeGo1ZDW7x9Y8W0sDaNxRc.1
Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode: 042428
Violent demonstrations have rocked Iran in recent weeks, prompting Donald Trump to promise that “help is on the way” as a US Navy carrier strike group sails to the Middle East, preparing for an attack on Iran.
According to the mainstream media and politicians, Iran is a “regime in crisis” that is murdering its citizens to put an end to a mass democratic uprising. While Trump is making threats, the Democratic Party leadership is criticizing him for not reaching out to build bipartisan support for a military strike against Iran.
What is going on in Iran? Who is in the streets, what are they doing, and why? What role do outside organizations such as Mossad, MI6, and the CIA play in the protests? How are the protests related to the threat of a military attack on Iran by the United States and Israel?
Investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg will discuss these questions and more in a Sunday Morning Marxist session:
Iran in the Crosshairs: Regime Change Then Invasion
SPEAKER BIO:
British Investigative Journalist Kit Klarenberg writes for The Grayzone and Mint Press News. He is also the co-host of Decline and Fall, a weekly video stream on YouTube and Rumble co-hosted with Alexander McKay. His work can be found on his website, Global Deliquents, at https://www.kitklarenberg.com/
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FOR OUR FULL SCHEDULE OF UPCOMING PROGRAMS,
AS WELL AS PAST PROGRAMS, GO TO ICSSMARX.ORG
This is not ceremony. This is collective action. We will be in the streets reclaiming Dr. King’s radical legacy and launching two weeks of people-led action against state violence, mass incarceration, displacement, and fascism at every level.
Oakland’s civilian oversight of the Oakland Police Department is under direct attack, and it is not accidental.
Right now, the Oakland Police Officers Association and their astroturf allies, backed by Bay Area tech billionaires, are actively working to dismantle independent oversight of OPD. Even worse, Oakland City Council leadership is allowing it to happen.
Unpaid community volunteers on the Oakland Police Commission do the hard, thankless work of holding OPD accountable to the people. Since September 2025, City Council President Kevin Jenkins, at the urging of OPOA President Hu Nguyen, has led an unprecedented and potentially illegal effort to obstruct the charter mandated selection process.
Police Commissioners Omar Farmer and Chair Roberto Garcia-Acosta:
• Passed multiple background checks
• Participated in livestreamed public interviews
• Were approved in THREE separate votes by the independent Selection Panel
That should have ended the process.
Instead, police pandering Councilmembers are attempting to block their reappointments while fast tracking Mayoral appointees chosen behind closed doors.
Let us be clear.
This is not democracy.
This is not transparency.
This is pay to play politics.
Oakland voters demanded independent civilian oversight of the Oakland Police Department. What we are witnessing now is a coordinated effort to gut that oversight and return power to police unions and corporate interests.
We cannot allow this to stand.
We need you to take action immediately.
TELL OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL:
• Respect the will of Oakland voters
• Maintain the independence of the Oakland Police Commission
• Re appoint Omar Farmer and Roberto Garcia Acosta
PUBLIC ACTION DETAILS:
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
3:30 PM
In person: Oakland City Hall, 3rd Floor
Attend online: bit.ly/oakland-cc120
Send a letter right now:
bit.ly/Restore-OPC
Scan QR code to also send a letter.
Accountability is not optional.
Oversight is non negotiable.
Oakland is watching.
In solidarity,
Cat Brooks and the APTP Crew
www.antipoliceterrorproject.
In Minneapolis right now, the working people have responded to the atrocities committed in their city by making a plan. This Friday, January 23rd, there will be no business as usual in Minneapolis—no school, no work, no shopping. The call for a general strike has been taken up by many major unions, including the educators. This is the type of bold, coordinated action that unions across the country and right here in San Francisco must strive for.”
We stand in unbreakable solidarity with Minnesota, where 3,000 ICE agents are waging a violent, state-sanctioned occupation. It is a coordinated, top-down assault designed to break our communities and test our resistance. We refuse to let it operate with impunity.
STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH MINNESOTA
What’s happening in Minnesota will shape all of our futures. That’s why we are mobilizing here in the Bay Area in direct solidarity. Join us Friday, 1/23 at 4pm outside the Target on 4th & Mission in San Francisco as we march on ICE profiteers. If we push the corporate pillars whose silence or collaboration enables the occupation of Minnesota, we can end ICE terror and topple corporate support for the MAGA regime.
THE OAKLAND GREENS invite you to the January 2026 FREE Dinner & a Movie Community Discussion Night, featuring Civil War (2024).
Dinner begins at 6:30 PM
Movie starts at 7:00 PM
These free community events are hosted in partnership with It’s Your Move Games,
Civil War is a 2024 dystopian action thriller written and directed by Alex Garland, starring Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, and Nick Offerman. Set during a civil war across the United States between a despotic federal government and secessionist movements, the film follows a group of war journalists traveling from New York City to Washington, D.C., to interview the President before rebel forces reach the capital.
This screening is part of The Oakland Greens 2026 Free Dinner & a Movie Discussion Series and will be followed by a community discussion.
Walk-ins welcome.
More information: www.theoaklandgreens.org
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Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite. All are welcome!
For our February, 2026 meeting we will be reading and discussing the first three chapters of A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit (Amazon) (Alibris). For our March meeting we will finish the book.
The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster’s grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.
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 What’s Left – 3 Paths Through the Planetary Crisis, The Age of Insecurity and Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals. For the rest of our reading list see here.