Calendar

The membership of DSA, the largest socialist organization in the United States, is rapidly growing by the thousands. Democratic Socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush are raising the expectations of millions of people across the United States and bringing them into a political awakening. Millions of working-class Americans are calling for Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, universal rent control, and more.

But what is democratic socialism? What does it mean to be a member of DSA? How do socialists look at the crises of police brutality, economic precarity, and COVID-19? And what is the best course of action during the Biden administration?

Let’s get into it!

Join us to discuss what our political moment calls for, meet new people, and get plugged into our fight for democratic control of the things that we need for all of us to live a dignified life.

RSVP here

Join Zoom Meeting

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Watch film for FREE here: https://vimeo.com/505335690

Register for Q&A w/ director at 3 PM PT here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/call-center-blues-live-qa-with-the-director

This year at the 93rd Academy Awards there’s only one film that focuses on immigration:

“Call Center Blues”. Directed by an immigrant woman filmmaker, Geeta Gandbhir,

it depicts deportees grappling with loss, love and the rebuilding of their lives and community in Tijuana, Mexico.

Many times, the stories of those who’ve been detained or deported are framed in a negative way to scare the public. This leads to policies that abandon much of our immigrant community and prevent policies that would otherwise protect people or reunite families.

The film “Call Center Blues” shows an honest portrayal of life after deportation and the cruelty of the deportation force without ever showing ICE’s side of the story, and it is one that is particularly important and must be heard — both at the Oscars and by President Biden and Congress.

Capitalist & Ecological Crises & Socialism

Check here for Zoom info near to date 

Forest fires in California, thawing of ice in the arctic, Glacier melting in The Himalayas, floods and bitter cold in Texas; and the Covid pandemic are all tied to the global warming from cumulative effects of capitalist commodity production over the past 200 years. Air pollution in much of world has worsened. Since the collapse of the USSR in 1991, and China taking the role of a biggest commodity producer for the world; other than tiny Cuba, there is no model of development that does not contribute to worsening of the ecological crisis all over the world. Class differentiation is leading to right-wing populism, threatening social peace in many countries. The internal contradictions of capital are extreme. To survive, capitalism requires even more exploitation of natural resources and human beings of the world, witness the farmers fighting capitalist predation laws in India. Result of all this is more pollution of air, sea and land on a scale that is undermining the very basis of healthy human existence on earth. Can the alienated individualism and consumerist way of life created by late stage capitalism be ended by a new socialist revolution? Can a new socialism build a healthy materially adequate society for all human beings which lives in balance with Nature?
Our Spesker, ICSS Member Raj Sahai will explore ideas and invite discussion with the participants, in a work in-progress.

March 7th Event

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There are many discussions today about the nature of the working class and their capacity to fight for their own interests. Usually, we look at history to learn about the workers’ movement, but what potential exists in the modern international working class? What does a modern workers’ struggle really look like? What recent examples are there of workers organizing against the conditions they face and exerting their power? Join us in this movie series as we explore these questions by looking at workers’ struggles that happened in our lifetime.

Worker’s Republic

For six days in December of 2008 during the financial collapse, laid-off Chicago factory workers took over their closing workplace, declaring they would not leave until the owners and creditors agreed to pay them the severance they were promised. Republic’s credit line had been cut off by Bank of America, despite receiving billions of dollars in federal bank bailout money.
Succeed or fail, these 260 workers decided, “If I don’t fight, I know I’ll lose. If I do fight, at least I stand a chance of winning.”
Workers Republic shows how everyday people may be the most qualified to forge a better world. And in the struggle to save their jobs they were a beacon of hope and optimism for others to look to.

Friendly reminder this is a series occurring every two weeks

Where: Please join us at 6pm for a brief presentation and to watch via shared screen, and look for zoom and movie link upon RSVP if you prefer to watch on your own. Discussion will start at 7pm

March 21st event:

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There are many discussions today about the nature of the working class and their capacity to fight for their own interests. Usually, we look at history to learn about the workers’ movement, but what potential exists in the modern international working class? What does a modern workers’ struggle really look like? What recent examples are there of workers organizing against the conditions they face and exerting their power? Join us in this movie series as we explore these questions by looking at workers’ struggles that happened in our lifetime.

Coming for A Visit

Undocumented migrants win the battle to get their papers. A historic strike filmed from within.Paris, 2009. More than 6000 undocumented migrants (sans-papiers) go on strike to demand their legalization. These are restaurant, construction, and janitorial workers who pay taxes and are all exploited by staffing companies who refuse to help them get their papers!
Coming for a Visit, shows the hard day-to-day work of organizing, the challenges of dealing with unions, and the key role that revolutionaries can play. Oh, and did we say these workers won?! This is an inspiring movie with lessons to learn.

Register in advance (click here)

with David Cobb and Debbie Notkin

The AFJM Communications and Website Committee is pleased to welcome David and Debbie to share about their legislative successes as it pertains to Public Banking in California.  Although PBI and AFJM have very different approaches to democratize the money system, we are natural allies and we can learn from each other, especially around effective public education strategies and grassroots organizing.  There will be a short 30 min. presentation, and then most of the time will be for open discussion.

Public Banking is one way to  democratize economic decisions, and the movement is  growing across the country. California is at the cutting edge of this effort. AB 857 passed last year, which allows for the creation of 10 local/regional public banks. This legislative session AB310 is being introduced, which would create a statewide Public Bank for California.

The CA Public Banking Alliance has been the driving force behind this movement. They will share details about public banking generally, and what they have learned in the process of building a grassroots movement and successfully engaging in the legislative process.

About the Speakers:

David Cobb is a “people’s lawyer” who has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office himself, and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He ran for Attorney General in Texas, pledging to use the office to revoke the charters of corporations that violate the law. He was the Green Party nominee for President in 2004, and managed the Jill Stein Presidential campaign in 2016. He is active with the CA Public Banking Alliance, and  Cooperation Humboldt.

Debbie Notkin is Chair of the Board of Directors of Public Bank East Bay, and is an active member of Strike Debt Bay Area (SDBA). She was one of two people who led SDBA’s successful effort to erase $1.6 million in unpaid medical debt for East Bay residents in 2019, following in the footsteps of the national Rolling Jubilee. She believes that economic justice work is a comparatively clean way for white people to advance racial justice. She was a founding member of science fiction’s James Tiptree Jr. Award (now the Otherwise Award) for works of science fiction and fantasy that explore and expand gender, and was deeply involved for many years with WisCon, the world’s first feminist science fiction convention. She blogs regularly (yes, still!) on a wide variety of body image and political topics with Laurie Toby Edison at www.laurietobyedison.com/body-impolitic-blog.

Register Here

The Everett Program presents a two week webinar series: “Re Imagine Everything: Leveraging Transformative Justice Theory to Advance a World Beyond Incarceration”. Executive Director of Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Zach Norris, and Underground Scholar, Steven Czifra join us to discuss transformative solutions to stop the school to prison pipeline on March 10th.

Website:https://ucsc.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0ucuyvrDgvHdRffC-KtNL6lc8UmKhKb3IL%20

Join us for a 90 minute virtual discussion about safety in Oakland from a youth perspective on what really keeps us safe. Register here: http://bit.ly/investOak

While the nation was taking to the streets for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the Bay Area was rocked by the murders of Steven Taylor, Sean Monterrosa, and Erik Salgado by law enforcement. Oakland youth and community took to the streets to demand police accountability and that we #DefundOPD to #ReinvestInCommunity.

Oakland Police Department takes almost half of our city’s budget. There isn’t enough money for services that create peace in our community like education, housing, health services, and youth programming. Last summer’s youth-led activism led to the creation of the Reimagining Public Safety Task Force, which was tasked with figuring out how to take 50% of OPD’s budget to invest in community.

It is time for the Task Force to deliver its recommendations to the Oakland City Council to impact the City Budget. Join us for this community dialogue to discuss what really keeps us safe. Share your experiences and perspective to end criminalization of Black and Brown communities and #InvestInCommunity.

Hosted by Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice