Calendar

9896
Jul
20
Sun
AFL-CIO: It’s Time to End Its Government-funded Foreign Operations @ Online
Jul 20 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Speaker: Kim Scipes

To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87388824824?pwd=QTWNvr8cGeGo1ZDW7x9Y8W0sDaNxRc.1

Meeting ID: 873 8882 4824
Passcode:  042428

• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 669 444 9171 US

 

 

The AFL and then the AFL-CIO have had an imperialist foreign policy program where they have operated in other countries around the world for over 100 years, beginning in the late 1890s.  They have never given an honest report of these operations to their members that can be independently verified.  Activists and scholars have discovered they have supported military coups that overthrew democratically elected governments, supported dictators, and right-wing labor movements operating against progressive ones, etc.  In ALL cases, with the arguable exception of their work in Poland in the 1980s, these have only hurt workers, their families, and destroyed their unions.

These operations have received over 90 percent of their funding from the US Government, reaching approximately $1 BILLION just since 1983!  Again, unreported to members.

From his own perspective—not progressive—Donald Trump has cut off funding to US AID (Agency for International Development) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), each major funders of AFL-CIO foreign operations.

It is time for US trade unionists to recognize the interconnection between failure of domestic operations and offensive operations overseas, and work to force the AFL-CIO to end all US Government-funded operations overseas.

Kim Scipes is a former factory worker, a printer, who later returned to academia and taught at Purdue University Northwest in Westville, Indiana from 2004-2022.  Among other things, he’s worked to build global labor solidarity since 1983.  He has concentrated his studies mostly on the KMU Labor Center of the Philippines, and the AFL-CIO’s foreign operations. Altogether, he’s published four books, with another one in press, and over 280 articles and book reviews in the US and 11 different countries. His website can be accessed for free at https://www.pnw.edu/personal-faculty-pages/kim-scipes-ph-d/publications.

 

78301
Jul
23
Wed
Stop Billionaires Summer: Protest Wells Fargo @ Wells Fargo Global Headquarters
Jul 23 @ 8:30 am – 12:00 pm

“No bank has bent to the knee to Trump as dramatically as Wells Fargo,

  • the only bank to have dropped its climate commitments,
  • funds Palantir, a company that works with ICE to target and deport immigrants,
  • funds Elbit Systems, a provider of weapons and technologies to the Israeli military, which is committing genocide in Palestine,
  • engaging in full-throated union busting,
  • planning to privatize the post office and sell it off for parts.”

RSVP here

THIS ACTION IS PART OF  “STOP BILLIONAIRES SUMMER, an eight-week campaign focused on mass action, civil disobedience, and movement-building targeting the billionaire and corporate elites fueling the crises we’re living through.”

“From Elon Musk’s techno-fascist empire to fossil fuel financiers and real estate tycoons, we’re coming for the billionaires who are attacking our communities and stealing our future. And we’re organizing to win.”

From mid-July to September, actions will especially target the tech oligarchy and other billionaire backers of fossil fuel and Trump’s programs.

Organizers describe how previous actions have demonstrated the power of prolonged, disruptive protest. In last summer’s Summer of Heat on Wall Street, more than 5,000 people converged on New York to disrupt the financial backers of fossil fuels, with a special focus on blockading Citibank, a key investor.

The following December, Citi announced a major improvement in its climate policies,  promising to step down fossil fuel investments more quickly than any other bank’s plans.

You can sign up on this Stop Billionaires Summer Interest Form https://actionnetwork.org/forms/stop-billionaires-summer to stay informed about what’s happening and how you can participate.

Join Stop Billionaires Summer and fight back against the rising threats to democracy, our climate, and our communities.

78291
Jul
31
Thu
Planning for Refinery Closures that Benefit Workers, Communities, and the Environment @ Online
Jul 31 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Valero Refinery, Benicia

In the Bay Area, the Valero refinery in Benecia has announced that it’s going to close in 2026 — and other refineries seem to be on the brink. Refineries pollute local communities and add to the climate crisis. But closing them suddenly leaves their workers without jobs, their communities without a major source of tax revenue — and their toxic legacy in the environment.

Join The Climate Center in a webinar on Planning for Refinery Closures that Benefit Workers, Communities, and the Environment.

Speakers
Connie Cho, Asian Pacific Environmental Network
Steve Young, Mayor of Benicia
Josh Anijar, executive director, Contra Costa Labor Councill;l
Theresa Keates, special advisor to the vice-chair of the California Energy Commission

More info and register here

78292
Aug
2
Sat
Strike Debt Bay Area Book Group: “Stellar: A world beyond limits, and how to get there.” @ Online
Aug 2 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.  All are welcome!

For our July, 2025 meeting we will be reading the first two sections (approximately 115 pages) of Stellar, A World Beyond Limits and How to Get There (Amazon), (Goodreads) For our August meeting, we will finish the book.

A bold re-examination of the past, present, and future of humanity, Stellar challenges conventional thinking and offers a vision of hope and optimism – a necessary antidote to the fear and despair that define our times.

Stellar uncovers the root causes of today’s biggest challenges, from war and economic instability to inequality and environmental collapse. It reveals why solutions to these issues are little more than band-aids, why our political and economic structures are failing, and how to unlock humanity’s full potential.

Stellar reimagines what’s possible – a world that gives rather than takes from both people and planet. A Stellar World where today’s pressing issues simply dissolve, where humanity can thrive, free from fear, scarcity, and despair.

This book will transform how you see the world, and your place in it.

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 EconomicsLimitsBanking on the PeopleCapital 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 TelescopeMission 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 FutureSolidarity,  Mutual Aid, Breaking Together, Making Sense of Chaos and TechnoFeudalism.

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