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MARGARET RANDALL: KPFA’s Tribute to the great writer, poet, feminist, photographer and international activist
Hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia

This rare tribute by KPFA is presented to honor the life and work of an author who has shown exceptional creativity and a lifelong striving for justice and equality.

Margaret Randall, born in New York City, is a writer, photographer, poet, activist and academic. She lived for many years in Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua, and spent time in North Vietnam during the last months of the U.S. war in that country. She has written extensively on her experiences abroad and back in the United States, and has taught at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and several other colleges.

Randall moved to Mexico in the 1960s, married Mexican poet Sergio Mondragon and gave up her American citizenship. She moved to Cuba in 1969, where she deepened her interest in women’s issues and wrote oral histories of mainly women, “wanting to understand what a socialist revolution could mean for women.” Her 2009 memoir To Change The World: My Years in Cuba chronicles that period of her life. She lived in Managua, Nicaragua, from 1980 to 1984, writing about Nicaraguan women, before returning to the U.S. after an absence of 23 years.

Among her best-known books are Cuban Women Now, Sandino’s Daughters, and When I Look into the Mirror and See You: Women, Terror and Resistance.

Alejandro Murguia, San Francisco Poet Laureate, is the author of This War Called Love (City Lights), Southern Front, Volcan: Poems from Central America, and Stray Poems.

KPFA Radio 94.1FM presents

MARGARET RANDALL: KPFAs Tribute to the great writer,
poet, feminist, photographer and international activist
Hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguia

advance tickets: Books Inc/Berkeley,  Pegasus (3 stores), Moes, Walden Pond Bookstore, Diesel a Bookstore, Mrs. Dalloways

This rare tribute by KPFA is presented to honor the life and work of an author who has
shown exceptional creativity and a lifelong striving for justice and equality.

Margaret Randall, born in New York City, is a writer, photographer, poet, activist and academic. She lived for many years in Spain, Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua, and spent time in North Vietnam during the last months of the U.S. war in that country. She has written extensively on her experiences abroad and back in the United States, and has taught atTrinity Collegein Hartford, Connecticut, and several other colleges.

Randall moved to Mexico in the 1960s, married Mexican poetSergio Mondragonand gave up her American citizenship.She moved to Cuba in 1969, where she deepened her interest in women’s issues and wrote oral histories of mainly women, “wanting to understand what a socialist revolution could mean for women. Her 2009 memoirTo Change The World: My Years in Cubachronicles that period of her life. She lived in Managua, Nicaragua, from 1980 to 1984, writing about Nicaraguan women, before returning to the U.S. after an absence of 23 years.

Shortly afterward she was ordered deported under theMcCarran-Walter Actof 1952. The governments case rested on two arguments. First, while living in Mexico and married to a Mexican citizen, she had taken out Mexican citizenship, thereby presumably losing her U.S. citizenship.This was in 1967. In addition, under McCarran-Walter, the government claimed that the opinions Randall expressed in several of her books were “against the good order and happiness of the United States”. TheINSdistrict director gave the justification that “her writings go far beyond mere dissent. With the support of many well-known writers and others, Randall won aBoard of Immigration Appealscase in 1989, ordering the INS to reinstate full citizenship.

Among her best-known books areCuban Women Now,Sandinos Daughters, andWhen I Look into the Mirror and See You: Women, Terror and Resistance. Recent titles includeTo Change the World: My Years in Cuba, Che On My Mind, andHaydée Santamaría: She Led by Transgression, and Exporting Revolution: Cubas Global Solidarity. Among her most recent poetry collections: My Town, The Rhizome as a Field of Broken Bones, About Little Charlie Lindbergh, She Becomes Time, and The Morning After: Poetry and Prose in a Post-Truth World.

Alejandro Murguia, San Francisco Poet Laureate, is the author of This War Called Love (City Lights),  Southern Front, Volcan: Poems from Central America, and Stray Poems.

American Friends Service Committee, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Episcopal Peace Fellowship, and San Francisco Friends Meeting and suppporters observed the occasion with their weekly 12-1pm vigil rain or shine every Thursday at 450 Golden Gate, the Federal Building.

Why We Vigil

For five years we have stood on this corner every Thursday from noon to 1:00. We come because we believe that what our government is doing is wrong. The so-called war on terror is a disaster, doing more to stimulate the growth of terrorism around the world than to keep our country safe.

We believe justice is the way to a terror-free world. We urge the United States to devote our resources to things that help humanity. Rather than investing in armaments, destruction and death, this country should be working to see that nobody in the world is starving or without shelter, clothing, education and medical care.

We say: Stop the war
Stop the torture
Bring the troops home now
Defend civil liberties
PRACTICE NONVIOLENCE

We believe in the American dream. We believe that the only way to live the American dream is with nonviolence. Please join us to stand against all war and to pray for all victims of war.

Please stand with us.

We have stood on this corner every Thursday since October 2001. We come to say NO to war and to speak up for nonviolence. All in agreement are invited to vigil with us.

This vigil was started by two Quaker groups–American Friends Service Committee and San Francisco Friends Meeting. They have been joined by Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Episcopal Peace Fellowship. Participants come from a range of backgrounds. Some of us are silent, praying or meditating. Others do not keep silence and are happy to speak with you.

Please vigil with us every Thursday.

Contact information: American Friends Service Committee
65 Ninth St., San Francisco, CA 94103
415 565-0201
www.afsc.org/

Buddhist Peace Fellowship
P.O. Box 3470, Berkeley, CA 94703
www.bpf.org/

Episcopal Peace Fellowship
415 824-0288
http://www.episcopalpeacefellowship.org/

San Francisco Friends Meeting
65 Ninth St., San Francisco, CA 94103
415 431-7440
Welcome to San Francisco Friends Meeting

To contact the vigil:

Come learn about criminalization and supporting our unhoused neighbors. The Coalition on Homelessness is creating a new community program, Sweeps Watch.

We will be educating unhoused and housed people in tactics for responding to Sweeps of encampments in our neighborhoods. We hope to build a network of solidarity, where housed folks are supporting the self determination of folks in crisis, with no where to go. We are doing this by building a network of rapid community responders that will have the skills to respond to police activity in their community safely and affectively.

We will have a more complete agenda closer to the date.

Some of what we will be learning about includes:
Filing claims against the city
How to document police activity and how best to take down a statement from a witness
Your rights during a police interaction
Strategies for fighting criminalization in SF

Please direct any questions that you may have to our Human Rights Organizer:

Dayton Andrews- dandrews@cohsf.org

Who we are:The NLG is a membership organization of radical lawyers, legal workers / legal activists, law students and jailhouse lawyers, originally founded 80 years ago as the first racially integrated national bar association. Its mission is “in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.” We are active on a wide range of issues. The Bay Area Demonstrations Committee started in 1984 in order to organize legal support for protests against the Democratic Convention, and has supported most Bay Area progressive demonstrations and actions ever since, from antiwar protests to Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and anti-fascist actions. Within our capacity, we willprovidelegal support for any local progressive group that opposes racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism and transphobia. The Bay Area NLG chapter does not have any legal staff and the Demonstrations Committee is a group of volunteers – we do not have our own staff.

What we have typically done so far:The Demo Committee has a volunteer pool of criminal defense lawyers, legal observers, and legal hotline workers, as well as lawyers and legal workers with specific expertise on various issues. We train and organize lawyers, legal workers, community activists, and students as legal observers, legal hotline workers, and criminal defense attorneys for demonstrators or persons targeted by the state for political activity. We provide KYR and legal self defense education, and legal briefings and advice as part of direct action trainings and pre- and post-action meetings with organizers. By request or on our own initiative, we provide legal observers at protests, raids and actions to monitor the police, document arrests and police misconduct, and help communicate with off-scene legal support about arrests. We also train activists as legal observers. We line up lawyers to be on call to deal with jail release and to provide defense of criminal charges, as much as we are able, often in conjunction with the public defender. We often operate a legal hotline during actions and until everyone is released from custody. We can also train activist groups to do their own hotline or help staff ours. Our consistent efforts to provide aggressive criminal defense to demonstrators have resulted in thousands of charges being dismissed and significantly decreased the prosecution rate for low level demonstration-related arrests locally. We try to track each arrestee’s case through the entire process, and to provide volunteer court support in collaboration with activists’ wishes. Over the years, we have followed up on major police misconduct issues through media and policy work and advocacy, complaints with civilian review bodies, and occasionally through impact litigation, and have brought about significant reforms in police demonstrations, crowd control and mass arrest policies in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley.

Immigration Committee and crossover work:The Bay Area Chapter has a number of other committees including a very active Immigration Committee. Among other things, our Immigration Committee recently trained more than 200 people to do immigration focused KYR trainings, is coordinating many KYR requests, and is working with a number of other organizations as part of the NorCal Rapid Response Network to respond to ICE raids throughout the region.The Immigration Committee will be having its own similar meeting with stakeholders to inform its specific work.

On Sept 11, 2001, at the request of community groups, the Demonstrations and Immigration Committee members immediately formed a Post-9/11 Committee to respond to attacks on Muslims and immigrants and political repression. As the legal arm of a community coalition, we were asked to create multi-lingual KYR materials that were widely distributed in targeted communities, and a Post-9/11 Hotline for persons targeted by FBI, ICE or other government agents. The hotline was originally staffed 24/7 by activists as well as by NLG members, and would find callers lawyers for a free consultation and possible pro bono or low fee representation. We quickly obtained grants and were temporarily able to hire a staff person for the hotline and related work. Over the years since then, a number of other groups such as CAIR have hired legal staff and otherwise expanded their capacities such that there are other legal hotlines covering a large part of what the NLG post-9/11 hotline was originally set up for. However, no other local groupsprovidelawyers or legal support specifically for radical activists who are contacted or subpoenaed by FBI or other law enforcement agents. This is still an active phone number in our office but we have not been doing outreach for it and it is not currently answered live; the voicemail is checked. Nor do we have legal staff in our office. This is one example of the type of resource we would like feedback on, as to whether this type of resource is needed in the community. We would like toinviteyou to a meeting to discuss these types of questions and hear from you.

President Trump’s efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act may be dead for now, but healthcare in America still faces a host of challenges from the local to the federal level. What is the current state of American healthcare? What needs to be done? How does it impact our communities?

Join the BDC for a panel discussion on these issues and more. Featured panelists include:

Marty Lynch, Executive Director of Lifelong Medical
Lisa Edwards, Grassroots Organizer and Political Coordinator for Congresswoman Barbara Lee
Delvecchio Finley, CEO of Alameda Health Systems

This will include potential impacts on California if the Graham Cassidy proposal is passed, local and state healthcare issues, and Universal Health Care.

The event is free and open to everyone.

Asm @TonyThurmond is hosting a Disaster Preparedness Town Hall today 6-8 @ South Berkeley Senior Center. Speakers from FEMA & many others. pic.twitter.com/OPzjNZm43f

— Kate Harrison (@KateHarrisonD4) September 21, 2017

Please join AFSC and the Stop Urban Shield Coalition to participate in public comment at the Alameda County Urban Shield Task Force decision meeting.

September 22nd agenda here.

Five members of Alameda County’s Urban Shield Task Force, including AFSC, proposed the abolition of Urban Shield and other regional exercises funded from sources that require a “nexus to terrorism,” as part of recommendations that will be considered at a final meeting this Friday. They cited the “controversy, opposition, and fear” generated by the Homeland Security-funded annual event, which is centered on a massive SWAT team competition in dozens of terrorist scenarios.

In response to widespread community protest against Urban Shield, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors established a Task Force in January to review several questions about the program.

Citing Alameda County’s Emergency Operations Plan, which assesses earthquakes and six other disaster scenarios as more impactful than potential terrorist incidents, the five members called for preparedness to be led by community and non-law enforcement agencies and for a primary focus on prevention of and recovery from disasters.

The final Urban Shield Task Force meeting (agenda) will be held at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, August 25, at 125 12th Street in Oakland(at Oak St., 4 blocks from Lake Merritt BART; 6 blocks from 12th St. BART). Public comment on most proposals will likely be taken between 10:30 and 12:30.

Written public comment may also be submitted before Friday to: carol.burton@acgov.org.

Read the full list of the group’s proposals.

Upcoming:

All Out to Rally Against Urban Shield
Friday, September 8, 4:00 – 7:00 pm

Alameda County Offices, Board of Supervisors

1221 Oak St, Oakland, California 94612

Senator Bernie Sanders will be speaking at the CNA Convention in San Francisco on Friday and it’s open to the public. His speech will highlight his new Medicare for All bill (S. 1804). Please join if you can!

Bernie Sanders Speech Highlighting Medicare for All

What: Sen. Bernie Sanders, public address

The program opens at 12:30 p.m. with a special performance the John Santos Quartet, with guests Destani Wolf and Rico Pabon. Powell St. BART Station.

Please join the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America as we host Christian Parenti for a discussion on capitalism and climate change titled “From the New Mold Belt to Storm Socialism: the Perils and Possibilities of the Climate Crisis.”

Christian Parenti is associate professor in economics at John Jay College, CUNY. He is a frequent columnist at Jacobin and The Nation. His latest book is Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence.

His recent essay for Jacobin Magazine, titled “If We Fail,” lays out the stakes he foresees in the next couple decades, and offers some solutions. You can read it here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/if-we-fail

Suggested Donation $5-15 will help us cover the rental fee, no one turned away for lack of funds.

VENUE INFO:

Humanist Hall is wheelchair accessible. Wheelchair users enter from 411 28th Street. Front doors of building are 390 27th Street.

RSVP for #CARenterPower #PoderInquilinxCA 9/23-24 #Alameda: https://t.co/c9tQK4uc9j. @TenantsTogether @CalOrganize @HFA_RenterPower @OurCity pic.twitter.com/LKeG7LC20Q

— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) August 25, 2017

Register.

California Renter Power 2017 is a statewide assembly of renters and tenant’s rights organizers fighting for housing justice!

With historic fights for rent control and just cause coming from the people, we are in a movement moment. A bill to repeal Costa-Hawkins has been introduced, new local tenant protections have been passed. What many said was impossible is now possible!

This assembly is open to all tenants seeking resources to organize for housing justice in their communities and organizers looking to connect with state and local campaigns and deepen their work.

We believe the current system of for-profit exploitation of our communities by landlords, developers, and real-estate speculators, seen in rising rents, evictions, displacement, and homelessness, does not work for low-income people and therefore does not work for any Californians. Our collective work for housing justice is grounded in the principles of racial, economic, and gender justice. We believe an injury to one is an injury to all. We believe housing is a human right. We believe to make that a reality we must build the power of tenants and low-income people to shape their communities. This current movement is standing on the shoulders of previous tenant and housing movements in California and beyond, and we seek to learn from the past to build for the future.

Co-Sponsors: Tenants Together, Homes For All, Right to the City Alliance, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment

Waffles & Zapatismo Classes – The next 2 classes on Zapatismo are scheduled for September 23 and October 21, 2017.

Sept 23rd is the fifth in a series of classes and discussions that include Zapatista history, projects and thinking. This fifth class will focus on the EZLN’s re-emergence on December 21, 2012  and its subsequent re-statement of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle, the EZLN’s current political analysis.

We’ll also discuss the Escuelitas zapatistas (Little Zapatista Schools), the murder of Compañero Galeano, the “death” of SCI Marcos and his rebirth as SCI Galeano. Classes are free and open to all those interested in learning about the Zapatista movement, which governs its own territory through an anti-capitalist government parallel to that of the Mexican State.

We’ll be serving waffles and Zapatista coffee. Classes are held downstairs

Chiapas Support Committee/Comité de Apoyo a Chiapas
P.O. Box 3421, Oakland, CA  94609

Join fellow community members to let fascists, the alt-right and all white supremacists know that they are not are not welcome in the Bay Area.

Stay through the march or meet up afterward for a festival of resistance to celebrating black, POC, Muslim, immigrant, queer, trans, dis-abled, and interfaith communities!

This march was organized so that we can take the streets on our own terms – counter-demonstrations are very important, but we live here, this is our community, and every day is a good day to be united against white supremacy.

This march takes place the day before upcoming far-right, racist events set to take place on (and off) UC Berkeley campus, but it isn’t taking place at the same time as any of those events nor is it a specific response.

This is for us to come together on a day of our choosing and show unity and solidarity in the struggles against all forms of oppression!

Endorsers:

Af3irm SF/Bay Area
Anti Police-Terror Project
Berkeley Teacher’s Federation
Catalyst Project
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Left of the Dial
National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter
Oakland Brown Berets
SURJ – Oakland/Bay Area

Interested in endorsing? Follow this link! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe5l-e8AeySxoQ-0CT2DXPPdw1qSEGKb2FelQHUMhdY2lTgtg/viewform

So you’ve heard of Bobby Bowens, the Black Panther leader after which the Richmond Progressive Alliance office is named. But how much do you know about Bowens and the history of the Black Panther Party in Richmond?

Now is your chance to learn more: The Black Panther Party-inspired Project Lead pop-up event with Bill Jennings is coming. This event is in honor of the late Bobby Bowens who was a member of the Black Panther Party, a tireless activist in the Richmond community and also a member of the RPA. His family will be invited to attend.

This event will include historical photos and memorabilia of the Black Panther Party from the collection of Billy X Jennings, Black Panther Party historian and archivist of “It’s About Time.” There will be refreshments, music and  in the spirit of the BPP, a care bag giveaway for homeless persons.

Bill Jennings has lectured about the Black Panther Party and shared his exhibits at museums, galleries and other venues throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

Co-sponsored by Project Lead and Richmond Progressive Alliance Arts & Culture Action Team.

ATTENTION: DACAmented relatives in the Bay and Califaz!!!

PLZ SHARE WIDELY pic.twitter.com/px5yuwKHQs

— #DefendDACA (@JosieVF) September 12, 2017

RSVP for #CARenterPower #PoderInquilinxCA 9/23-24 #Alameda: https://t.co/c9tQK4uc9j. @TenantsTogether @CalOrganize @HFA_RenterPower @OurCity pic.twitter.com/LKeG7LC20Q

— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) August 25, 2017

Register.

California Renter Power 2017 is a statewide assembly of renters and tenant’s rights organizers fighting for housing justice!

With historic fights for rent control and just cause coming from the people, we are in a movement moment. A bill to repeal Costa-Hawkins has been introduced, new local tenant protections have been passed. What many said was impossible is now possible!

This assembly is open to all tenants seeking resources to organize for housing justice in their communities and organizers looking to connect with state and local campaigns and deepen their work.

We believe the current system of for-profit exploitation of our communities by landlords, developers, and real-estate speculators, seen in rising rents, evictions, displacement, and homelessness, does not work for low-income people and therefore does not work for any Californians. Our collective work for housing justice is grounded in the principles of racial, economic, and gender justice. We believe an injury to one is an injury to all. We believe housing is a human right. We believe to make that a reality we must build the power of tenants and low-income people to shape their communities. This current movement is standing on the shoulders of previous tenant and housing movements in California and beyond, and we seek to learn from the past to build for the future.

Co-Sponsors: Tenants Together, Homes For All, Right to the City Alliance, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment

We are excited to announce our Fall Film Series at the Ecology Center! In an effort to open up our space to the community, while providing an accessible format for fostering discussions around the various climate issues we cover, we will be hosting free monthly screenings of select films at our Ecology Center store.

Check out a new film, or one of your favorites, with other members of the community for a fun-filled and family-friendly evening. All screenings are free and open to the public (and include free popcorn!).

—
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Rated PG-13
Runtime: 2:13

Kicking off the Ecology Center film series is Princess Mononoke, from legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli team. This A classic animated film that explores the relationship between human activity and the environment through heavy symbolism to highlight the need for sustainable practices and greater consideration of the environment in day-to-day life. Miyazaki crafts a captivating tale of man vs. nature, where the exploitation of natural resources leads to the manifestation of deadly beasts that threaten an all out war between a mining village and the creatures of the forest.

Themes: Sustainability

Preview Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OiMOHRDs14

Future Showings and Event Links:

October 22nd: Chasing Ice

November 19th: King Corn

December 17th: Wall-E

Berkeley Rally Against White Supremacy
“Defend Our Campus, Reclaim Free Speech”

We are students, workers, and members of the UC Berkeley campus community, the City of Berkeley, and the larger Bay Area. We are immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, queer and trans people, liberals, leftists and others. We think it’s time to come together in a united front, celebrate our differences in solidarity, and speak out against the hateful currents in American politics while affirming our vision of a free, inclusive, and equitable society.

Since the 2016 election, white supremacists have been coming to Berkeley to intimidate, harass, and incite violence against us. This time, the UC Berkeley administration is set to spend hundreds of thousands of public education dollars and heavily militarize the campus to ensure that Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter, and Stephen Bannon speak at our university from September 24-27. We believe these speakers and their supporters are dangerous to our community. They support deportations of our undocumented friends and family and are leading figures of the white supremacist movement. They uphold the structures of power that violently police the speech and democratic rights of workers and oppressed people around the world.

But we will not be silenced or intimidated. The massive demonstrations of August 19 in Boston and August 26-27 in the Bay Area proved that when we come together, we can protect our communities and politically defeat the bigots. In that spirit, we are meeting on Crescent Lawn—away from the police militarization and the hateful provocateurs on the other side of campus—to reject white supremacy, speak to each other about the world we want, and reclaim our campus, our city, and our democratic rights Join us, bring signs, bring friends!