Pertinent agenda items:

4. 5:15pm: UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic – presentation of draft Privacy Principles; review and take possible action.
5. 5:30pm: Federal Task Force Transparency Ordinance – OPD – presentation of inaugural annual report for FBI/JTTF; review and take possible action.
6. 5:40pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – Hofer/Patterson – proposed amendment to prohibit use of facial recognition technology; review and take possible action.
7. 6:00pm: Surveillance Equipment Ordinance – OPD – Remote Camera Impact Report and draft use Policy – review and take possible action

Alan Haber is one of the creators of Students for a Democratic Society as well as a founder of the Long Haul in Berkeley in 1979.

Odile Hugonot-Haber is the co-chair of the US Middle East Committee of the Women International League for Peace and Freedom and co-operated Long Haul from 1986-1993.

This event will be a wide-ranging discussion featuring Alan, Odile and the audience on:

1. The history of the Long Haul and the history Berkeley politics in general
2. Their current peace-related and community work now
3. Activism over the long haul – from SDS in 1960 to the present.

Please join us for a presentation by Ralf Ruckus on his forthcoming book with PM Press, The Communist Road to Capitalism: Rupture and Continuity in China since 1949

“Since the reforms started in China in the 1970s, the CCP has never declared the official end of its socialist project, and its leadership still uses Mao Zedong and Marxism as ideological references. Meanwhile, Chinese labor activists use the same references today to justify their opposition against capitalist exploitation under the CCP regime. This confusion is reflected in the positions of outside observers. Some support the CCP’s ‘market socialism with Chinese characteristics’ while others criticize today’s system simply as state-controlled ‘capitalism.’ Often both positions remain blurred as central aspects of China’s socialist history and capitalist present get idealized and others diminished. Clearing up the fog and confusion is not a question of using the correct ideological terms but of following the actual historical trajectory. Ruptures and continuities define the past 70 years of CCP rule. Both were produced by social and political subversion ‘from below’ – from the protests around the ‘Hundred Flowers Movement’ in the 1950s to the strikes of migrant workers in the 2010s – and the regime’s repressive and co-opting counter measures. Thereby, the Chinese society was gradually (and in the end substantially) changed while the ‘red bourgeoisie’ of the CCP managed to stay in power to this day. How and why this happened, that is at the center of the forthcoming book (out in 2020). Its main arguments and conclusions will be presented and discussed during the event.”

Ralf Ruckus supports and analyzes social struggles in China and elsewhere. For more from him see Gongchao: https://www.gongchao.org

SURJ Bay Area is excited to invite you to a special event in Oakland, When We Fight We Win: Building Community Power to Dismantle the Prison System, featuring CURB Statewide Coordinators Amber-Rose Howard and Ivette Al, Sandra Johnson, Senior Organizer with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children / All of Us or None, and Eric Henderson, Policy Director of Initiate Justice.

These four incredible movement leaders will share insights from recent fights — and victories — in the struggle to dismantle the prison system in California, from repealing sentence enhancements, to shutting down jail expansion plans, to working to restore voting rights to folks on parole. Their stories will highlight the small and big ways you can also contribute to creating a more progressive vision of justice than mass incarceration.

All proceeds from this event will go to LSPC/AOUON, Initiate Justice, and CURB, with specific focus on supporting this year’s Quest for Democracy Day, an annual advocacy and rally day, led by formerly incarcerated people and families with incarcerated loved ones to bring their voices to elected officials in Sacramento.

Showing Up for Racial Justice- SURJ, Bay Area

A Member of Californians United for a Responsible Budget

• Follow us on social media @curbprisons FACEBOOK // INSTAGRAM // TWITTER 

Recent years have seen important fights – and important wins – in the struggle to dismantle the prison system in California. From repealing sentence enhancements, to shutting down jail expansion plans, to working to restore voting rights to folks on parole.

Come hear from four incredible movement leaders at the frontline of these struggles about victories, strategies, and the importance of campaigns and coalitions in the continuing movement to dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex. Their stories will highlight the small and big ways you can also contribute to creating a more progressive vision of justice than mass incarceration.

Featuring:
Sandra Johnson, Senior Organizer, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (LSPC)/ All of Us or None (AOUON)
Eric Henderson, Policy Director, Initiate Justice
Ivette Alé & Amber-Rose Howard, Statewide Coordinators, Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)

All proceeds from this event will go to LSPC/AOUON, Initiate Justice, and CURB, with specific focus on supporting this year’s Quest for Democracy Day, an annual advocacy and rally day led by formerly incarcerated people and families with incarcerated loved ones to bring their voices to elected officials in Sacramento. No one turned away for lack of funds.

ASL interpretation available if requested by April 30th by 5pm.

TONY PERROTTET with Steve Wasserman

CUBA LIBRE!  Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution that Changed World History

Advance tickets: $12: brownpapertickets.com :: T: 800-838-3006  or

Pegasus Books (3 sites),Books Inc (Berkeley), Moe’s, Walden Pond Bookstore, East Bay Books, Mrs. Dalloway’s Books,

$15 door, This is a KPFA benefit.

The surprising story of Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Celia Sanchez, and the scrappy band of young men and women who followed them. Cuba Libre! is an absorbing look back at a liberation movement that captured the world’s imagination with its spectacular drama, foolhardy bravery, tragedy, and, sometimes, high comedy—and that set the stage for Cold War tensions that pushed the world to the brink of nuclear war.

Most people are familiar with the basics of the Cuban Revolution of 1956–1959. It was led by two of the twentieth century’s most charismatic figures, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Their movement successfully overthrew the island nation’s US–backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista, and has remained to this day an intense socialist provocation to the massive imperial capitalist country only ninety miles north of Cuba.

Less is remembered about the stirring amateur nature of the movement or the lives of its players. In this wildly entertaining, meticulously researched account, historian and journalist Tony Perrottet unravels the human drama behind history’s most improbable revolution: a scruffy handful of self-taught revolutionaries—many of them kids just out of college, literature majors and art students, including a number of extraordinary young women—who defeated 40,000 professional soldiers to overthrow the dictatorship of Batista. Cuba Libre!’s deep dive into the revolution reveals fascinating details. He describes how Fidel’s highly organized lover Celia Sánchez kept the male guerrillas disciplined, and he portrays a few of the North American volunteers who joined the Cuban rebels. He gained access to private letters, diaries, videos, and other documents no other historian has seen. Perrottet has used these as well as countless interviews to describe the years of guerrilla fighting throughout the Sierra Maestra mountains, the final victory march into Havana, the gradual building of a socialist state, and the accompanying Cold War tensions.

“Perrottet takes us far beyond the basic facts of the Cuban Revolution to the juicy details that remind us that history is deeply human.” — Chris Ryan, NY Times bestselling author.

Tony Perrottet, author of five previous books, is a regular guest on the History Channel and a contributing writer at Smithsonian Magazine. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the London Sunday Times.

Steve Wasserman, Executive Director of Heyday Books, was formerly a deputy assistant editor of the LA Times Sunday opinion pages, after which he became editor in chief of New Republic Books. He has also served as editorial director of Times Books and publisher of Hill & Wang..He returned to the LA Times in 1996 to become editor of the book review.

East Bay DSA’s Medicare for All Committee is hosting a lakeside potluck picnic and you’re invited! Whether you have been active in our M4A work or are looking to get more involved, please bring a dish or drinks of your choice and join us!

Accessibility: Parking lot off of Bellevue Ave. Closest AC Transit stop is on Grand Avenue at Perkins Street, served by the NL, 12, and 805. Public restrooms available.

Democratic socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are calling for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal. Teachers across the country are striking for public education and winning, and tens of thousands of people across the country are getting involved in the project of building democratic socialism in the US. But what is democratic socialism?

Let’s talk about it.

Since the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign brought democratic socialism back into the mainstream, the Democratic Socialists of America went from about 6,000 members to 60,000 nationwide, making it the largest socialist organization in the US in more than 50 years.

If you’re a new DSA member or just curious about democratic socialism, come out to our What Is Democratic Socialism? picnic and find out how to get involved in DSA’s fight for democratic control of the things that matter on the job and in your community and the things we all need to lead a dignified life.

Did you see the New York Times article everyone is talking about (“When Uber and Airbnb go public, San Francisco will drown in millionaires,” March 7), on how the 2019 IPO boom in the Bay Area is going to make the housing affordability crisis even worse?

Just another reason to join us for a discussion with local author and highly successful housing activist, Randy Shaw!

We will discuss his new book: “Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America” and particularly how it relates to Richmond.

Together we will have a discussion about how to address the challenges Richmond is facing during this ongoing housing crisis, and how to fight racial and economic inequalities in our city. We need solutions to bring more affordable housing to our working- and middle-class communities, and we need local government to encourage and cultivate more inclusive neighborhoods.

This is your time to participate in this conversation. It takes a city to fix our housing crisis!

Please RSVP

More info about Randy’s work can be found at https://generationpricedout.com

Big Green Wave Headed West Headed Your Way!
BFUU will share information on the Green New Deal, host a panel of local leaders, and provide time for discussion of local strategies for educating the public and getting politicians to endorse the Green New Deal.

Sponsored by BFUU Social Justice Committee

This is a pre-publication launch for The Battle for People’s Park, due out mid-month from Berkeley’s own Heyday Books. Get an early copy, and meet author Tom Dalzell. Join us, fifty years after, for this “only in Berkeley” event!

In eyewitness testimonies and hundreds of remarkable photographs, The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969 commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most searing conflicts that closed out the tumultuous 1960s: the Battle for People’s Park. In April 1969, a few Berkeley activists planted the first tree on a University of California-owned, abandoned city block on Telegraph Avenue. Hundreds of people from all over the city helped build the park as an expression of a politics of joy. The University was appalled, and warned that unauthorized use of the land would not be tolerated; and on May 15, which would soon be known as Bloody Thursday, a violent struggle erupted, involving thousands of people. Hundreds were arrested, martial law was declared, and the National Guard was ordered by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to crush the uprising and to occupy the entire city. The police fired shotguns against unarmed students. A military helicopter gassed the campus indiscriminately, causing schoolchildren miles away to vomit. One man died from his wounds. Another was blinded. The vicious overreaction by Reagan helped catapult him into national prominence. Fifty years on, the question still lingers: Who owns the Park?

A 6-week series to help us develop a deeper analysis and to call attention to the kinds of changes needed in the City’s budget and policies.

4/15 – Housing
4/22 – Economy
4/29 – Education
5/6 – Public Health
5/13 – Neighborhood Life
5/20 – Public Safety

The first week’s workshop on the Housing Indicators is the first of a 6-week series to help us develop a deeper analysis and to call attention to the kinds of changes needed in the City’s budget and policies.

Join us for this deeper dive into the Equity Indicators Report for the City of Oakland. Released last year, it clearly shows the effects of white supremacy on our community. Oakland posted a failing score of 33.5 out of a possible 100 across all indicators. This was the lowest score of all cities that participated in this national study.

Carroll Fife, the founder of Black Women & Elected Leadership, the Executive Director of Oakland ACCE, and one of the founding members of Community READY Corps, will join us as a guest speaker to provide some deeper analysis of the report’s findings and point us to actual solutions that will advance racial justice and equity in our housing market.

Healing Justice, explores the causes and consequences of the current North American justice system and its effect on marginalized communities. The film walks back through the history of violence that has led to our current system, bringing into focus the histories of trauma – on a personal, interpersonal, community, and generational level. This powerful documentary addresses the school-to-prison pipeline, the need for comprehensive criminal justice reform, and the importance of healing and restorative practices.

Designed for dialogue, Healing Justice is meant to prompt questions and open conversations, exploring trauma, justice, and healing:
• What is justice, really?
• How do our current structures discount and dehumanize young people of color as well as our poorest and most vulnerable citizens?
• How does trauma impact us personally and interpersonally, as a community and throughout generations?
• How do these histories affect who is perceived as a ‘perpetrator’ and a ‘victim’ of violence?
• Why is healing on both individual and collective levels so important – and so often overlooked – components of justice?
• How can restorative practices, such as restorative justice, be used to shift the way we address crime and violence in our communities to produce safer, healthier, thriving communities for all?

Join us on Tuesday, May 7, 6:30 PM at the New Parkway Theater for a screening of Healing Justice! After-show discussion lead by the filmmaker Shakti Bulter and a participant in the film, Malachi Scott!

You are being watched.

Whether through your phone or your car or your credit card, caught on a CCTV camera or tracked through your online viewing history, government agencies know where you are, and are quietly collecting your most intimate, mundane, and personal information.

Is this even legal?

Habeas Data shows how the explosive growth of surveillance technology has outpaced our understanding of the ethics, mores, and laws of privacy.

Award-winning tech reporter Cyrus Farivar makes the case by taking ten historic court decisions that defined our privacy rights and matching them against the capabilities of modern technology. It’s an approach that combines the charge of a legal thriller with the shock of the daily headlines.

Join East Bay DSA on Tuesday, May 7th as we discuss imperialism in the 21st century, its roots in European colonialism, and as we set the stage for a future discussion about tearing it down.

Accessibility: Wheelchair-accessible entrance and restrooms

Required Readings

See the readings that we’ll be discussing after a brief introduction from our members.