Calendar

9896
May
19
Sat
2nd Amendment and the Left: panel discussion @ Berkeley City College, Rm 55
May 19 @ 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
sm_2ndamendment.jpg Panel Description:
“Recent school shootings and the ever-recurring instances of police brutality pose acutely the question of gun control today. Should the Left take up the demand for gun control, and if so, how? If not, why not? How is gun control related to the struggle for socialism?”

Panelists:
Gloria La Riva (Party of Socialism & Liberation)
Urzula Wislanka (News & Letters Committees)
K. Khan (International Marxist Tendency)

64693
The Plot to Kill Martin Luther King Jr. @ Fellowship Hall
May 19 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

 


MLK for event 180519

There’s more to history than you might think!
In two films, Prime Suspects: Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.? (Court TV, 2000, 37 min.) and Truth At Last: The Assassination of Martin Luther King (James Corbett, 2018, 51 min.), the official story of the murder is convincingly disproved – James Earl Ray did not kill King – through the decades-long work of William F. Pepper, attorney, investigator, and author, an influential friend of Martin King in the last year of his life, and attorney for the King family. Pepper, in his third and final book on King’s 1968 murder, The Plot to Kill King (2017), revealed the disturbing truth with startling and explosive conclusions largely ignored by the media.
A discussion will follow the screening of the films.
Presented by the Northern California 9/11 Truth Alliance co-sponsored by the BFUU Social Justice Committee sf911truth.org

 

64667
May
20
Sun
“And Then They Came for Us.” Film, Panel, Refreshments & Call to Action! @ Landmark Albany Twin
May 20 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Join the Albany Democratic Club for this cautionary tale: And Then They Came For Us (2017), about the fragility of our Democracy during times of crisis. Knowing our history is the first step to ensuring we do not repeat it!

Featuring George Takei and many others who were incar- cerated, and photographs by Dorothea Lange.

Directed by the Peabody Award winners, Abby Ginzberg (Albany resident) and Ken Schneider.

Former Albany Mayor and icon, Jewel Okawachi and her family will be honored during the program.

Includes informal brunch reception

Panel members:
Rev. Deborah Lee: http://www.im4humanintegrity.org/leadership/
Satsuki Ina: https://blog.manzanarcommittee.org/2015/02/22/satsuki-ina-keynote/
Abby Ginzberg: http://www.abbyginzberg.com/bio/

Trailer: http://vimeo.com/210002629

Event proceeds will be used to promote civic engagement and mobilize voters for 2018!

64705
Kurds in the Eye of the Storm @ Niebyl Proctor Library
May 20 @ 10:30 am – 2:30 pm
icss-fly-2018-05-20_-kurds1.pdf_600_.jpgSunday Morning at the Marxist Library

Kurds in the Eye of the Storm

The Kurdish people — divided among Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran — have found themselves on the frontlines of the fight against ISIS in the aftermath of still more intense wars that had raged around them in all four countries for decades. While being battered by the storm, emerging out of its eye are some pioneering social experiments and some surprising alliances.
Sharat G. Lin, who has visited all of these countries, is a political economist, expert on labor migration, and the Middle East. He is a research fellow and past president at the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, and on the Board of Advisors of the Initiative for Equality (IfE).

Seating is limited, so plan to come early. We start promptly.
FREE – but hat will be passed for donations to NPML

About Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library
A weekly discussion series inspired by our respect for the work of Karl Marx and our belief that his work will remain as important for the class struggles of the future as they have been for the past.

For our full schedule, go to icssmarx.org
Labor donated by ICSS volunteers

64694
DSA West Oakland Block Party for Housing Justice @ Bobby Hutton (Defemery) Park
May 20 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Are you excited about housing justice, connecting with neighbors, and building real people-power in West Oakland? Bring a dish or non-alcoholic beverage or just your lovely selves, and of course be sure to bring your ideas for future directions for organizing for housing justice, Medicare for All, and other DSA projects in West Oakland!

Accessibility: The park is wheelchair-accessible.

64662
May
21
Mon
Rally for Safety, Justice, & Democracy! @ Oscar Grant Plaza
May 21 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm

May 21st is the last day to register to vote for the June 5th primary election in California! Please join us for a special rally to share information and resources! Learn about Proposed New Laws that will affect you! Get information on Education and Employment, meet local Employers. Come together as a Community!!

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights | www.ellabakercenter.org | 510.428.3939

REGISTER TO VOTE! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!

May 21st is the LAST DAY TO REGISTER to vote for the June 5th primary election in California! Please join us for a special rally to share information and resources!

> Register to vote THAT DAY – We will help!
> Learn about Proposed New Laws that will AFFECT YOU!
> Get information on Education and Employment
> Meet local Employers
> Come together as a Community!!

SPONSORED BY:
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS)
Californians for Safety and Justic
ACLU
League of Women Voters
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform
Root & Rebound
All Of Us Or None Of Us
Community & Youth Outreach
Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Berkeley Women Organized for Political Action

64633
Occupy Forum Excursion: Film: Evolution of Organic by Mark Kitchell @ Roxy Theater
May 21 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Film: Evolution of Organic by Mark Kitchell
(get tickets in advance or be put on guest list!)

The San Francisco showing of Mark’s new film: Evolution of Organic will be at the Roxie this coming Monday, May 21st from 6 pm-9 pm. Rainbow Grocery is sponsoring the event. Appearing will be Bu Nygrens of Veritable Vegetable, Kim Kaput of Rainbow Grocery, and John Wick of the Marin Carbon Project. We recommend buying tickets in advance at ticketing.us.veezi.com or just go to the Roxie website.

From filmmaker Mark Kitchell (Berkeley in the Sixties, A Fierce Green Fire) comes a new film: Evolution of Organic. It’s the story of organic agriculture, told by those who built the movement. A motley crew of back-to-the-landers, spiritual seekers and farmers’ sons and daughters reject chemical farming and set out to explore organic alternatives. It’s a heartfelt journey of change, from a small band of rebels to a cultural transformation in the way we grow and eat food. By now organic has gone mainstream, split into an industry oriented toward bringing organic to all people and a movement that has realized a vision of sustainable agriculture. It’s the most popular and successful outgrowth of the environmental impulse of the last fifty years.

If you would like to be on the Guest List as OccupySF, let me (ruthiesakheim@gmail.com)  know and I’ll put your name on it.

64721
FILM SCREENING: WILDER THAN WILD: FIRE, FORESTS AND THE FUTURE @ David Brower Center
May 21 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Wilder than Wild is an hour-long documentary film about wildfires and climate change. This Bay Area premiere will be followed by a panel and Q&A with Berkeley City Councilmember Kate Harrison, UC Berkeley fire scientist Scott Stephens, Berkeley firefighter Mike Shuken, and filmmakers Kevin White and Stephen Most.

Registration required.

For more information and to register, visit their website.

Visit Event Website

64660
May
22
Tue
Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice Mass Meeting
May 22 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Join APEN, CEJA, Idle No More SF Bay, Jobs With Justice, North Bay Organizing Project, PODER, SEIU 1021, 350.org and over 50 other organizations at a meeting on May 22. We are organizing to plan a bold, visionary action during Jerry Brown’s “Global Climate Action Summit.” We demand real climate leadership that protects vulnerable communities, workers, and future generations: keep fossil fuels in the ground; develop a just, equitable, resilient 100% renewable energy economy that rapidly expands economic opportunity; create family sustaining jobs: Rise for Climate Jobs & Justice March on Saturday September 8th.

The whole world is coming to San Francisco for the Global Climate Summit from Sep 12-14.

Climate disruption is impacting all of our communities from jobs to justice and everything in between. And we want you, your organizations, friends, and family to rise up with the world on September 8th to demand real solutions.

You are invited to come to a meeting to build the movement leading up to the largest march for climate jobs & justice on the West Coast. There’s lots to do and your talents and gifts are welcomed!

Join your sisters and brothers as we look forward to creating a world of equity, justice, and a sustainable and safe future for the next seven generations to come. It’s up to us.

 

Info/RSVP

64717
Action for unjustly jailed Egyptian photojournalist, Shawkan @ McClaren Center, UCSF, Rm 252
May 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Please join Amnesty International SF Group 30 &
The Department of International & Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco

For an evening of discussion and short films about Shawkan, photojournalism, jailed journalists, and issues of press freedom.

Featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Kim Komenich in conversation with award-winning Egyptian photojournalist and filmmaker Khaled Sayed.

With a special selection of Shawkan’s photographs exhibited.

Background: Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, known as “Shawkan” was recently honored with the prestigious 2018 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on World Press Freedom Day. Shawkan is detained in Egypt’s Tora Prison Complex, where he has been held arbitrarily for nearly five years—just for working as a photojournalist. Egyptian prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Shawkan.

Photography is not a crime. Journalism is not a crime. Come partake in photography and writing actions on behalf of Shawkan and other jailed journalists.

64708
Caring for our Community – A Forum on how we can respond to the needs of those who are Houseless @ The Way Church
May 22 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm


Panelists: After introducing themselves, panelists will be asked to answer a series of three questions:
1) What are the struggles of people who are homelessness in Berkeley?
2) What are immediate things that can be done by the Community and the City to address the needs of people who are homeless?
3) What are some long-term actions that can make a difference?
4) What are the challenges and obstacles?
Big Mama, First They Came for the Homeless Encampment
Mike Zint, First They Came for the Homeless – confirmed
Representative, Youth Spirit Art Works – confirmed
Nick Houston, East Oakland Collective – confirmed
Tiny, Poor Magazine, Oakland – confirmed
Respondents:
Paul Kealoha-Blake, Mental Health Commissioner, City of Berkeley
Osha Neumann, East Bay Community Law Center
Boona Cheema, founder of BOSS & Mental Health Commissioner, City of Berkeley – confirmed
Representative, Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center -confirmed

64686
May
25
Fri
Open Discussion and Workshop on Copwatching @ Oscar Grant Plaza
May 25 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

64736
Asylum Seekers Fundraiser: Moria Art Exhibit @ Omni Commons
May 25 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

This fundraiser is a traveling art show raising money to fund the Asylum Seekers: Moria documentary while spreading awareness of the inhumanity surrounding the refugee crisis in Europe. This show will feature artists from all over the world with work focussed around asylum seekers. Pieces of the documentary will be played with Q&A following by the documentarians Anne Di Grazia and Irene Hollebrandse who recently got back to the US after shooting the documentary in one of the worst refugee camps in Greece: Moria. Each art work will be part of a rolling auction sold to the highest bidder at the end of the show tour.

Come look at art, watch some of the documentary and learn about the experience from the filmmakers.

Entrance fee: $10,-

64737
Film: The Organizer. A Documentary About ACORN, its Growth and Demise. @ New Parkway Theater
May 25 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Special Community Showing with Wade Rathke, Founder and Chief Organizer of ACORN.

The ORGANIZER is a film about people who have dedicated their lives to the hidden, usually message and always controversial job of building power for the powerless. It’s also a very human story about organizational tension, personal tragedy, betrayal and ultimately resilience. The film is about how ACORN as a political force the poor, marginalized and forgotten was built.

64448
May
27
Sun
Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library : Trotsky’s Theory of Fascism @ Niebyl Proctor Library
May 27 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

Our comrade, Elazar Friedman, will be back in town to celebrate his 85th birthday and discuss Trotsky’s theory of fascism. He will cover:

1.) The contribution of Clara Zetkin in 1923 addressed to the ECCI will be an important source that strongly influenced Trotsky. Reprising her elements of the newly evolved aspects of Fascism differing from previous right wing dictatorships will lay the foundation for Trotsky’s comprehensive model.

2.) Ernest Mandel in his intro to Trotsky’s Struggle Against Fascism in Germany posits 6 dynamically inter-related elements that compose Trotsky’s evolutionary model of Fascism. These will be summarized and compared to the models employed at the time by the Comintern and the KPD

Trotsky struggled might an main to apprise the working class movements in Germany of the deadly menace of Nazi Fascism and to correct the suicidal adventurist positions devolving from the Comintern such as SPD being the principal Social Fascist enemy and the distortions of Lenin’s position on United Front (ultimatist United Front from below) trying to bypass that most of the German working Class was in SPD led unions and organizational SPD -KPD United Front against Fascism were needed.

The Dimitrov speech in 1935 to the 7th Congress of the ECCI and his dialogue with Stalin criticizing the dictate on Social Fascism will be discussed and the flip flop to the opportunist class collaborationist Popular Fronts that paved the way to Fascist victory rather than stopping Fascism.

64744
Abolition of Policing Workshop with Critical Resistance @ Sierra Club
May 27 @ 11:00 am – 1:30 pm

This Critical Resistance workshop explores the role and history of policing in the U.S., the way it has impacted different communities, and how people have resisted and challenged its inherent violence. This workshop also goes over how we can reduce our reliance on policing by highlighting the various ways that building up community strength and practices lead to true safety that does not depend on law enforcement.

We are asking for a $5 – 20 donation, however no one will be turned away for lack of funds. 100% of donations will go to support Critical Resistance.

64713
Oakland Greens: Free Dinner and a Movie @ It's Your Move Games
May 27 @ 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Dinner: 6:30 PM

Movie: 7:30 PM

64475
Film night: The Chinese Exclusion Act @ Omni Commons ballroom
May 27 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Discussion after the screening with Cynthia Choy, Co-Executive Director of Chinese Affirmative Action, and Nancy Wong, daughter of victims of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Free snacks and popcorn.

64724
May
28
Mon
Memorial Day Interfaith Prayer Gathering
May 28 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Please join us on Memorial Day morning for an interfaith prayer gathering to honor the ancestors.

64738
People’s Park: how to save this beautiful experiment! @ Longhaul
May 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

64746