Calendar

The tech industry has been shaken by calls from workers at companies including Microsoft, Amazon, and Salesforce to stop collaborating with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The outrage, sparked by stories of children being brutally separated from their parents, led many to call for the abolition of ICE.

What would it take to abolish ICE? What is leading so many people to seek refuge in the US in the first place? In solidarity with those impacted by the actions of this agency, we must not only call to abolish ICE but also ask why people are leaving their homes, risking their lives, in search of refuge.

No Wall They Can Build, written by a former desert aid worker, collects the stories of those who make the journey and outlines the forces driving people to the border.

Readings + materials
https://sites.google.com/view/tech-workers-coalition/topics/no-wall-they-can-build?authuser=0

In October, Berkeley may become the 2nd city, following Richmond, to cut municipal contracts with ICE data brokers. The Sanctuary City Contracting ordinance, which ends city business with companies that send information to ICE, will be in front of the City Council in the town where sanctuary was born. Berkeley’s Federation of Unitarian Universalists will talk about it, along with many other social justice efforts, at Active Hope.

Talks:

Action Updates
Tracy Rosenberg/ Sanctuary City ordinance
Shahid Buttar/Kavanaugh
Susan Harman/ Public Bank
David Peattie, Steve Murphy/ Indivisible Berkeley Economic Justice Team: Break Up With Your Bank
Sandy Emerson/ Fossil Free California
Kelly Curry/ Peace Economy and Planting Justice
Ann Symens-Bucher/ Canticle Farm
Janet Scholl Johnson/ Sunflower Alliance
Virginia Hollins-Davidson/ Poor People’s Campaign

Wrap up, Thank yous
Book signing and sales
Pie extravaganza (selling slices to benefit CODEPINK)

Celebrate 52 years of the Black Panther Party with a concert & rally featuring X Clan and more! Hosted by Gina Madrid + Saturu Ned. FREE EVENT, call for unity and solutions!

Our October Green Sunday program will focus on the upcoming November 6 elections: the various measures and offices which will be on the ballot in Alameda County, and the written analyses and recommendations in our Voter Guide.

Join a discussion about state and local tax measures, as well as candidates for various local races: mayors, city councils, school boards, special districts, etc.

We will have short presentations by Laura Wells (Green candidate for Congress, CA-D13), Saied Karamooz (Green candidate for Oakland Mayor), James Vann (about housing issues on the ballot), and Mike Hutchinson (No on Measure AA, the Oakland Children Initiative of 2018).  [See bios below]

Bring your sample ballot, questions, and opinions.  This is an opportunity to ask about — and comment about — items on the November ballot.

SPONSOR: Green Sundays are a series of free programs & discussions sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County. They are usually held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party of Alameda County follows at 6:45 pm.  Council meetings are always open to anyone who is interested.

Hundreds of Green Voter Guides will be available, for those of you who can distribute them around town at cafes, bookstores, laundromats, libraries, and the like, or by passing them out at BART stations, farmers markets, grocery stores, or anywhere else where there’s a lot of foot traffic.

An electronic version of the Guide is now available at our blog website here: http://acgreens.wordpress.com/voter-guides

Bios of presenters:

Laura Wells has been a Green Party activist since 1992, when the Green Party was first on the ballot in California. She has been very active within the party at local and state levels, and has run as our candidate for state Controller and for Governor. This year, we called for a Green to run for Congress since Barbara Lee was running unopposed in the primary.  Laura stepped up as a write-in candidate, and won. She faced Barbara Lee at a League of Women Voters candidate forum on October 5.  With Top 2, they will be the only two candidates for Congress, District 13, on the ballot in November.   https://laurawells.org/

Saied Karamooz is running for Mayor of Oakland.  Saied has been involved in a number of progressive campaigns over the years.  Most notably, he has been serving as an active member of the Coalition for Police Accountability that spearheaded Measure LL, resulting in the establishment of a Police Commission in Oakland.  Currently he is a commissioner on Oakland’s Privacy Advisory Commission and President of the Jack London Improvement District.  Over the past few years, Saied has supported initiatives such as the Fight for 15, Stop Urban Shield, the Public Bank of Oakland, and No Coal in Oakland.  Saied’s campaign website (everyonesmayor.org) provides a clear outline of how to make Oakland an equitable city for all.

James Vann, a recently retired architect, is a long-time community, political, and housing activist in Oakland.  He co-founded the Oakland Tenants Union, and continues to fight for justice and equality in the policies and laws of Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program toward the benefit of tenants.  As an original member of East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), James works for funding and construction of housing that is affordable to Oakland workers and households throughout the flatlands.  Politically, James was a organizer in 1967 of the Peace & Freedom Party, where he forged an alliance between Peace & Freedom and the Black Panther Party. P&F qualified for the ballot in 1968.  James was elected that same year to chair the opening session of the founding convention of the P&F Party. www.oaklandtenantsunion.org/

Mike Hutchinson was born and raised in Oakland and is a proud graduate of the Oakland Public Schools. After working in our schools for 20 years, in 2012 he became a public education advocate. Since then he has been working to save and fix public education in Oakland by any means necessary.  He is currently working to build the organization he co-founded, OPEN: the Oakland Public Education Network, which is a founding member of the Journey For Justice national alliance, and the west coast anchor organization for the #WeChoose national campaign.

Movie Trailer: https://youtu.be/lXyMwgGT6yg

6:30 PM – Introduction
6:40 PM – Film Screening
7:40 PM – Discussion
8:30 PM – Closing

Please bring snacks and other things to share if you can!!!

The economic system of capitalism has undermined democracies throughout the world, created huge income disparities, wrecked our ecosystem and isolated us from our own communities. Yet very few people truly understand its roots.

This six-part documentary series from Icarus Films is an ambitious but accessible series that looks at both the history of ideas and the social forces that have shaped the capitalist world. Featuring interviews with some of the world’s great historians, economist, anthropologists and social critics (including Noam Chomsky, Thomas Piketty and more), CAPITALISM questions the myth of the unfettered free market, explores the nature of debt and commodities, and retraces some of the great economic debates of the last 200 years.

If we are going to challenge our current system, we first need to understand it. Join us, each Monday for a FREE screening and informal discussion. Please bring food to share for a collective potluck meal!!

All screenings will be inside Shelton Hall at the Oakland Peace Center, 111 Fairmount Ave.

Monday, 9/17 – Episode One: Adam Smith, The Birth of the Free Market – Capitalism is much more complex than the vision Adam Smith laid out in The Wealth of Nations. Indeed, it predates Smith by centuries, and is rooted in the predatory practices of colonialism and the slave trade.

Monday, 9/24 – Episode Two: The Wealth of Nations: A New Gospel? – Adam Smith was both economist and moral philosopher. But his work on morality is largely forgotten, leading to tragic distortions that have shaped our global economic system.

Monday, 10/1 – Episode Three: Ricardo and Malthus: Did You Say Freedom? – The roots of today’s global trade agreements lie in the work of stockbroker David Ricardo and demographer Thomas Malthus. Together, they would restructure society in the image of the market.

Monday, 10/8 – Episode Four: What If Marx Was Right? – Have we gotten Marx wrong by focusing on the Communist Manifesto instead of his critique of how capitalism works – a critique that is as relevant and penetrating as ever?

Monday, 10/15 – Episode Five: Keynes vs. Hayek: A Fake Debate? – The ideological divide between the philosophies of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek has dominated economics for nearly a century. Is it time for the pendulum to swing back to Keynes? Or do we need a whole new approach that goes beyond this simple dualism?

Monday, 10/22 – Episode Six: Karl Polanyi, The Human Factor – An exploration of the life and work of Karl Polanyi, who sought to reintegrate society and economy. Could the commodification of labour and money ultimately be as disastrous as floods, drought and earthquakes?

In May of 2018, Richmond became the first city in the country to prevent municipal contracts with companies that sell data to ICE. Now it is Berkeley’s turn as we try to build a region-wide resistance that will change the business decisions of companies. Using public money to subsidize the high-tech hunting of immigrants is a choice and we can make another, better choice here in Northern California. Sanctuary is not just a slogan.

The good news is that the contracting restriction is, currently, on the consent calender and we hope that means no opposition and a quick vote of approval. And an early night. But assumptions make a fool out of everyone, so community members speaking in support is important and we need to be prepared for a lengthier process in case one ensues.

Required Readings

Additional details and readings will be added shortly.

KPFA Radio 94.1FM presents

D.D. Guttenplan & Michael Lerner
The Next Republic: The Rise of a Radical New Majority

advance tickets: $12 Books Inc/Berkeley, Pegasus (3 sites), Moes, Walden Pond Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloways. East Bay Books   $15 door, KPFA benefit

Exactly who are the new progressive leaders emerging to lead the post-Trump return to democracy in America?  National political correspondent D.D. Guttenplans The Next Republic is an extraordinarily intense and wide-ranging history of the recent fall and incipient rise of democracy in America. Here youll meet some of the individuals who are changing the course of American history  such as new labor activist Jane McAlevey, racial justice campaigner Chokwe Antar Lumumba, environmental activist Jane Kleeb, Sanders campaign veterans Zack Exley, Waleed Shahid and Corbin Trent, as well as anti-corruption crusader Zephyr Teachout.

Its high time that someone resurrected authentic populism  activism from below, and showed how it can be the path to a better future. Thats done very convincingly in D.D. Guttenplans fine book, The Next Republic: The Rise of a New Radical Majority.     Noam Chomsky

D.D. Guttenplan has written a profoundly subversive book. At a moment when Trumpism, cynicism and corruption seem to reign supreme in our politics, he has made a compelling case for hope and optimism about the future of our democracy, and has put the meaning of our republic in its historical context.    Victor Navasky

At a moment when history and truth are under attack, and the survival of our republic is once again in doubt, The Next Republic is a timely, humane, forceful narrative of our insurgent political momentand a deeply reported contribution to the fight for a progressive future in America.     Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor & publisher of The Nation

D.D. Guttenplan, London correspondent for The Nation, is the author of The Holocaust on Trial,  a book about the Irving v Penguin Books and Lipstadt libel case. In 2009 Guttenplan completed a biography of I. F. Stone titled American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone.
Michael Lerner is an American political activist, the editor of Tikkun, a progressive Jewish interfaith magazine , and the rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in Berkeley. He is the author of` Numerous books including Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin (with Cornel West), and
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country From the Religious Right.

Join this conversation with Michael Leon Guerrero. Learn about the Labor Network for Sustainability, the only national membership organization building support in the labor movement for a just transition to a sustainable, renewable energy economy, and its Labor Climate Convergence taking place in CA next year.

This will also be an opportunity to discuss next steps for Labor Rise for Climate, Jobs & Justice following the hugely successful Labor Contingent in the September 8th march in SF.

Pot-luck dinner: We’ll provide food. Any dish you would like to bring to share is welcome but not required.

**Please RSVP** on the Face Book Event page (https://www.facebook.com/events/1026883824160478/) to be sure there is enough food for everyone.

Come find out why public banking is suddenly making national news: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and other cities and states are considering changing finance to finance change!

Join the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS) for a rally and courtroom presence in opposition to the relentless practice of sleep deprivation torture in CA solitary confinement cells. Please show solidarity with imprisoned civil rights Plaintiff, Jorge Rico, and with people locked in solitary throughout CA suffering severe sleep deprivation due to guards’ loud and disturbing “security/welfare checks.”

After the hearing, Jorge’s attorney, Kate Falkenstien, will be available briefly outside the courthouse to speak with community supporters and media.

Note: You must show ID and pass through a metal detector to get inside the Courthouse.

For rideshare to Sac & other info:
call 510-426-5322 or email phssreachingout@gmail.com

Background
In prison isolation units throughout California, guards jar prisoners EVERY 30 MINUTES with loud and disruptive “security/welfare checks” causing ongoing sleep deprivation.

Every half hour, 24/7 guards subject prisoners to shrill beeping, banging of metal on metal with a Guard One wand, stomping through the pods, talking loudly, and at times, shining flashlights in their faces. The California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation (CDCr) began this Guard One “security/welfare check” system in early 2014 in women’s and men’s prisons under the guise of suicide prevention. In conducting these automated “checks,” the guards aren’t actually checking to see if people are okay; but they wake and disturb prisoners night and day, inflicting serious sleep deprivation. These checks, in addition to the harm of extreme isolation, cause severe physical and mental injury, increase suicidal ideation, and are described by people forced to endure them as TORTURE.

Sleep deprivation is internationally defined – by experts inn human rights, sleep, and mental health – as a form of torture.

What’s the Oct 19 court hearing about?
CDCr is trying (again) to get Jorge Rico’s case dismissed. Currently, there are at least seven federal civil rights lawsuits by CA prisoners against these checks that charge CDCr administration, and specific wardens and guards, with violating prisoners’ constitutional protection from cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners are suing for money damages for serious physical and psychological injury caused by being jarred every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. Perhaps most important, they are suing for declarative and injunctive relief- for the court to declare that the CDCr Guard One security/ welfare checks violate people’s civil rights and must stop. One of these lawsuits, brought by Christopher Lipsey (Lipsey v. Barnes), began in June 2014, over 4 years ago, and is still in initial court proceedings. Prisoner civil rights cases often take years to conclude, and only begin after a person in prison exhausts all of the avenues asking prison administration to deal with the problem, to no avail. With the so-called security/welfare checks, people in prison who have experienced them for months or years on end and who mustered the courage, paperwork, and fortitude to bring lawsuits, have been moved by CDCr in and out of solitary (where the checks occur) since the time they began their lawsuits.

Jorge Rico filed his lawsuit on August 2, 2016. Currently, Jorge is not in solitary experiencing the checks; he’s been in prison General Population since April 2018. CDCr is trying to get rid of significant parts of Jorge’s lawsuit- his request that the court declare the checks violate the Eighth Amendment constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment, and his request that the court order an end to the harmful, noisy, and useless Guard One checks that cause serious sleep disruption and deprivation. CDCr argues that those parts of Jorge’s lawsuit are “moot” because Jorge is not, at this time, enduring the checks. We believe Jorge’s claims are not moot because he is likely to experience the checks again. CDCr should not be allowed to evade his constitutional challenge.

CDCr tries every which way to get the civil rights case against the checks dismissed by the court.

The Legal Problem
How will anyone ever be able to successfully challenge the checks if their lawsuit goes away when CDCr decides to temporarily move them out of solitary? It is well known, and asserted by CDCr, that being put in Administrative Segregation (ASU solitary) at various times for various reasons should be expected by a person incarcerated in California. Indeed, Jorge has been in SHU solitary, then General Population, then Administrative Segregation solitary, then General Population – all since he began his lawsuit. If lawsuits take years, and people are in and out of solitary at CDCr’s discretion, and thus CDCr can get the lawsuits dismissed, this cruel sleep deprivation policy can continue on forever!

Jorge Rico’s lawsuit should not be dismissed because he gets some time out of solitary.

SF Rally & March For Marriott Hotel Strikers “One Job Is Enough”
http://sflaborcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/10-20-18-OneJobRallyFlier.pdf

One Job Should be Enough!

For more information on the strike check out https://onejob.org/. OPEIU 29 AFL-CIO 11

https://onejob.org

SF Marriott Workers Strike: A Class Battle For All Workers
https://youtu.be/R8M0mrxJpxA
Twenty five hundred Marriott workers went on strike in San Francisco on October 4, 2018 at 7 Marriott owned hotels in the city. This is part of a national strike of United HERE at Marriotts in Boston, Chicago, Oakland, Hawaii, San Francisco and other cities.
San Francisco members of Unite Here Local 2 at the Marriott talked about why they are on strike and the effect of the strike on their convention hotel which is usually 100% full because of convention business.
Last year, Marriott made $1.37 billion and they are the largest hotel chain in the world after they bought the Starwood group. Workers at the Marriott hotel spent 5 years trying to organize the union against the union busting tactics of the corporation but we eventually successful.
Many of these workers have to work two and three jobs to survive in the Bay Area and this has effects on their families and health and safety. They also face long hours commuting to their jobs.

Join us as we work together to set  EBC’s policy agenda for our local and state work in 2019. We hope that we can build stronger relationships across the membership, discuss our campaign work and identify important roles for members in 2019. In order to attend, we kindly ask that you RSVP here, by October 15th.

Benefit Film Showing for #MeToo Behind Bars Lawsuit
Screening of the film “Southwest of Salem,” about four Latina lesbians who were wrongfully convicted in the early 1990’s. After the screening, Maria Moore, sister of Kayla Moore, will speak on a panel about the extreme levels of violence that LGBTQ – GNC people face from the legal injustice system.

Four plaintiffs who have been incarcerated at the women’s prison in Chowchilla, CCWF, have filed the #MeToo Behind Bars lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDC(r). The plaintiffs all identify as transgender, gender non-conforming (GNC) or queer. The lawsuit denounces physical assaults, sexual harassment and homophobic/ transphobic insults by correctional officers against them. Rojas, one of the plaintiffs in the case, will be part of a panel discussion after the film.

Southwest of Salem tells the story of four Latina lesbians who were wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two young girls in the early 1990’s in San Antonio, Texas. They spent decades in prison before finally being exonerated. Their prosecution and conviction was the product of a homophobic culture and criminal legal system. Now trans, GNC and queer people are facing persecution in California’s women’s prisons as a result of similar attitudes and a prison power structure that condones targeted violence against LGBTQ and gender nonconforming prisoners.

Southwest of Salem tells the story of four Latina lesbians who were wrongfully convicted of gang-raping two young girls in the early 1990’s in San Antonio, Texas. They spent decades in prison before finally being exonerated. Their prosecution and conviction was the product of a homophobic culture and criminal legal system. Now trans, GNC and queer people are facing persecution in California’s women’s prisons as a result of similar attitudes and a prison power structure that condones targeted violence against LGBTQ and gender nonconforming prisoners.

Our philosophy:
We are more interconnected and interdependent in our world than we think. Our ecosystem is built on the principle of interconnectedness. While science allows us to understand few of the interactions in ecosystem, the entire image of our interconnectedness with other individuals, species and environment is still beyond our intellectual grasp. But we certainly understood the importance of having a system built on the principle of interconnection. As a result, we developed our social, economic and political systems that rely on our interconnectedness. The ability to see the entire system with its interacting parts is called System Thinking. Nature has given us a tool in order to successfully coexist in perfect harmony with our interconnected surrounding. This precious gift is our ability to empathize with others. Empathy comes from the Greek empatheia—em (into) and pathos (feeling)—a penetration, a kind of travel. Empathy is our ability to connect with others physically, psychologically and emotionally. But the misconception that the greater fulfillment lies within hoarding more “toys” has deteriorated the truth of interconnection from our awareness. The resultant individualism born out of greed gives rise to our social, economic and environmental issues and injustice

Our approach:
Cultivate Empathy for All is a volunteer group of empathy enthusiasts who are bringing back the culture of empathy in government, business and social work sectors through system thinking. We reach out to various groups, companies and organizations in the community and provide free presentations on ways in which empathy could be applied in their context and setting.
Volunteers also experience benefits. Through this work, volunteers grow their skillset, deepen their practice of empathy for all, and develop a culture of empathy in our community. It is a win-win for both presenters and audience members.
But this is only one of the ways to address the issue of limited Empathy. Therefore, we invite all social innovative thinkers to come together on this platform and create various ways of cultivating Empathy for all in our world.

About the launch event:
At our event, we will provide a presentation on Empathy Through System Thinking in Government. It will include 1) summary of the biggest consequences faced by humankind due to short sighted government regulations 2) System thinking-ability to see the interconnected nature of our social, economic and environmental systems 3) Empathy-a gift to co-exist in perfect harmony with our interconnected surrounding 4) Empathy through system thinking in Berkeley council to develop a healthier community for all.
At Cultivate Empathy for All, we understand corpocracy is an obstacle for a local government to be solely run for community interest. Election campaign is one of the doors through which corporate money enters in the government. As a result, we are providing a free platform for Berkeley council candidates to reach the hearts of community residents.
At this event, we will also have community leaders (chief guests) who will speak about their work in cultivating empathy for all.