What are the motives and likely effects of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan? We will be looking at these questions in the light of the interlocking crises of the US empire, US capitalism and the US Democratic Party. We will start the discussion with short presentations by ICSS members Gene Ruyle and Raj Sahai and other invited speakers, including David  Ewing, Chair of the US-China Friendship Society.

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Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc.. The program (and recording) will begin as close to 10:30 am as possible and will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room may remain open later for informal discussion.

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Alameda County Board of Supervisors Meeting on AB 481Find the Zoom link for the Board meeting here!

The American Friends Service Committee has let us know that next week, the Board will be reviewing a military equipment use policy from Sheriff Ahern that would continue to authorize using his arsenal of military weapons for any purpose, including future pre-dawn raids on families. The sheriff’s military equipment inventory includes over 450 assault weapons, 3 armored vehicles, 162 drones, and much more. See the full toolkit from AFSC here, and make your voice heard on the issue on Tuesday!

This coming Tuesday, Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors will be voting for the first of two times on the sheriff’s draft policy on militarized equipment. Since AB 481 passed, all law enforcement agencies in California are required to list their militarized equipment (drones, robots, “less lethal” beanbag rounds, chemical weapons like flashbangs, tear gas, and pepper spray; armored vehicles, rifles). They’re also required to write policies dictating how each piece of weaponry is to be used. These policies must be approved by a governing body (a county board of supervisors, or a city council), and they must be presented at meetings where members of the public can comment.

The sheriff’s office has done all right at listing the equipment. They’ve done remarkably poorly at writing useful, restrictive policies, even though restrictive policies save lives. (To wit, they haven’t ruled out using their tank-like BearCat as a shooting platform, even though all the uses of it they enumerate in the policy are defensive. They haven’t ruled out using flashbangs when children are likely to be present. They haven’t ruled out aiming less lethal ammunition at the parts of the body where they are likeliest to cause death or permanent injury.) And in fact, they’ve used this policy implementation process to lobby for *more* militarized equipment (four pepperball launchers, to be used in Santa Rita Jail).

On Tuesday, Aug. 9, Supervisors will be voting for the first time on the policy. American Friends Service Committee has– again!– written a helpful guide to writing a comment. You can share your comment with supervisors in writing before 3 pm Monday (send it to CBS@acgov.org), you can read it aloud during the meeting, or you can do both. All public comment at Tuesday’s meeting will come at the beginning, 9:30 am.

Zoom link for the meeting: Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting

Know your rights! Learn tips for documenting police in protest situations. Join us Wednesday, August 10 at 6:30pm to learn your rights in police interactions, strategies for documenting police, and specific tips for copwatching at protests. pic.twitter.com/aLcqZHK46M

— Berkeley Copwatch (@Copwatch411) August 5, 2022

Feed the Hood 22 + #ShockGForever 2 is fast approaching! Join us and the Digital Underground crew August 13, 9 AM @ East Oakland Collective, 7800 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland.

More info and volunteer registration – https://t.co/v9d12aDEt3. pic.twitter.com/ULdsLB13z5

— East Oakland Collective (@EOakCollective) July 27, 2022

Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the the online invite.

For August, 2022 we’re reading the first four chapters of  Beyond Money – A Postcapitalist Strategy, by Anitra Nelson. Available at Pluto Press, Amazon.  For September, we’re reading the remaining chapters.

‘A fascinating portal into arguments about why we need to get beyond money’ – Harry Cleaver

What would a world without money look like? This book is a lively thought experiment that deepens our understanding of how money is the driver of political power, environmental destruction and social inequality today, arguing that it has to be abolished rather than repurposed to achieve a postcapitalist future.

Grounded in historical debates about money, Anitra Nelson draws on a spectrum of political and economic thought and activism, including feminism, ecoanarchism, degrowth, permaculture, autonomism, Marxism and ecosocialism. Looking to Indigenous rights activism and the defence of commons, an international network of activists engaged in a fight for a money-free society emerges.

Beyond Money shows that, by organising around post-money versions of the future, activists have a hope of creating a world that embodies their radical values and visions.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth,  Revenge Capitalism, the Edge of Chaos blog symposium , Re-enchanting the World: Feminism and the Politics of the Commons, The Optimist’s Telescope, Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, Exploring Degrowth, The Origin of Wealth, Mine!, The Dawn of Everything  A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, and Beyond Money.

The México Solidarity Project, SINTTIA, and the continuing importance of international working class solidarity

The presentation will include clips from a documentary film and current footage from Labor Notes 2022 Conference with commentary. Not pedantic or dogmatic — more observational with moments of humor (sorely needed).

Our speaker, Anne Lewis, is an independent documentary-maker and professor of practice at UT-Austin. Her work reveals working class people fighting for social change. Anne was associate director/assistant camera for HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A. After the strike, she moved to the east Kentucky coalfields where she lived for 25 years. Documentaries she produced, directed, and edited include: ANNE BRADEN: SOUTHERN PATRIOT; MORRISTOWN: IN THE AIR AND SUN, a working class critique of globalization; JUSTICE IN THE COALFIELDS about the UMWA strike against Pittston; ON OUR OWN LAND about community organizing against stripmining; CHEMICAL VALLEY about environmental racism; FAST FOOD WOMEN; and A STRIKE AND AN UPRISING (IN TEXAS).

Anne recently completed a series of print and video pieces with Jennifer Harbury about the U.S./Mexico border, and RAULRSALINAS AND THE POETRY OF LIBERATION: UN TRIP. She is a proud member of the executive board of the Texas State Employees Union, TSEU-CWA 6186. www.annelewis.org

LOGIN INFORMATION

Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc.. The program (and recording) will begin as close to 10:30 am as possible and will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room may remain open later for informal discussion.

ZOOM LINK

GOOD FOR SUNDAY, August 14, 2022 ONLY
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 259 108 2607
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Maybe you’ve been getting our emails for months or years but never come to a DSA event. Maybe you’re a veteran leftist with decades of battles under your belt. Maybe you’re a new member ready to take the next step and get organized.

Wherever you’re coming from, we want to hang out with you!

🌹  Hear what we’re currently working on

💪  Get more involved in critical fights right here in the East Bay

🥨  Eat some snacks

Right now, we’re grappling with a conservative attack on our reproductive rights, a looming climate catastrophe, and a Democratic establishment unwilling to fight for working people. But at the same time, Amazon and Starbucks workers are building power in their workplaces and DSA is fighting for a Tax the Rich ballot measure in Oakland.

There’s never been a more pressing time to make the jump from socialist to *organized* socialist. And that starts with meeting your comrades and taking action. Plus, it’ll be fun, we promise. Join us!

Invite all your union friends and the socialism-curious!

Look for us at Snow Park (the corner of Harrison St and 19th Street next to Lake Merritt).

John Fisher, son of the late Donald Fisher (of The Gap and related corporate wealth), personifies the connections between these two struggles.  Not only is Fisher (the younger), principal owner of the A’s, pushing for the gentrification grab at the Howard Terminal, but he is a major force in the push for charter schools. not only in Oakland, but nationally, through the Kipp Schools network.

Given the continuing struggles on both fronts, with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) / Oakland Police Department (OPD) repressive actions at the Parker Liberation School this week, and more protest about the Howard Terminal project, despite the votes of the city council, it is important to revisit these critical issues and the broader corporate politics involved.

Jack Gerson is a retired Oakland teacher who writes on and analyzes  issues related to education, politics, public health and the pandemic.  Before retiring, he was on the executive board and bargaining team of the Oakland teachers union (OEA).  Among other things, he helped organize OEA’s campaign to bail out schools not banks and end foreclosures, and the Occupy Oakland education committee’s 18 day occupation of Lakeview Elementary in 2012 to protest school closures.

Green Sundays are a series of free public programs & discussions on topics “du jour” sponsored by the Green Party of Alameda County and held on the 2nd Sunday of each month. The monthly business meeting of the County Council of the Green Party follows at 7:00 pm, after a 30-minute break. Council meetings are open to anyone who is interested.

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Meeting ID: 895 5984 4652

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Please plan to stay all day. Bring hats, water, lunch, chair or blanket. There preps are an opportunity to lean into the long history of nonviolent direct action, working with affinity groups and Consensus Process decision-making, jail solidarity inside and outside of jail, with plenty of practice in role playing. Contact: weddress777@gmail.com

Our speaker will be Professor Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History at the University of Houston has published dozens of books.  Hear his presentation on his latest:  “The Counter-Revolution of 1836:  Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of U.S. Fascism,” 2022, which has implications for California and Indigenous History–and the prospects for a unique form of fascism.

Our Zoom room will be opened up as usual at 10:15 am for anyone to join and discuss technical matters, catch up with each other, say Hi, etc.. The program (and recording) will begin as close to 10:30 am as possible and will end at 12:30, but the Waiting Room may remain open later for informal discussion.

ZOOM LINK

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
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JOIN US FOR AN EXCITING WEBINAR ON CHEVRON v MONTEREY COUNTY, the case pending before the California Supreme Court that will determine the right of our cities and counties to regulate fossil fuel production.

Meet the Protect Monterey organizers whose successful ballot initiative to ban drilling and fracking in their county was challenged by Chevron and its army of oil industry bullies, and overturned by reactionary California Superior Court judges.

Hear from the one of the attorneys who will arguing before the state Supreme Court to defend the century-old right of local governments to ban or restrict oil and gas.

LEARN HOW THE OUTCOME OF THIS CASE WILL IMPACT FOSSIL FUEL REGULATION THROUGHOUT THE STATE – and here in the Bay Area!

RSVP TO: action@sunflower-alliance.org

for the zoom link

For more information, see the event post at sunflower-alliance.org.

Organized debtors just won big. And we’re not stopping til all the debt is ALL gone.

After months of dragging his feet, Biden has finally announced his plan of debt cancellation: up to $10,000 for borrowers with incomes under $125,000 a year and up to $20,000 of cancellation for Pell grant recipients.

We know this is far from what justice demands – to close the raccial wealth gap, to unchain generations of indebted families, to actually have a reparative higher education policy. We know the road ahead is long, with much much more work to do.

But right, now we’re celebrating. Organized debtors forced Biden – who has sided with banks over debtors his entire career – to administer debt cancelation for working-class communities. This is a testament to the power of a union of debtors banding together to exercise political and financial power.

If you came to a debtors’ assembly, this is your win. If you invited a friend to come to the action with you, if you made a sign, if you signed a petition, if you talked to a colleague about your debt, if you wore your debt to work, if you wrote an op-ed, if you pledged to strike, this is your win.

Please join our Jubilee Hour tomorrow, 7:30-8:30PM EST. We will gather to take a moment to bask in how far we’ve come, and point out the horizons we’re still marching towards. Biden didn’t do this — WE did.

Also be sure not to miss the awesome “Freedom Dreams” documentary that dropped yesterday about Black women’s leadership in the fight for debt cancellation.

AND ONE FINAL THING  – it has taken us ten yearss to get $10K of student debt canceled. Can you throw in $10 bucks so the next round of cancellation doesn’t take quite so long?

A debt-free future is on its way. We’re never going back again —

The Debt Collective

Register

Lessons From The 2022 National Protest In Ecuador. is hosted by the DSA International Committee.

For 18 days in June 2022, the people of Ecuador, led by the indigenous and poorest, fought austerity to a halt. Tens of thousands barricaded highways, paralyzed the capital and much of the nation. Eight people were killed and hundreds injured by police.

Led by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), poor and working people won major economic and political concessions, and other demands are in negotiation.

Top leaders of this “Paro Nacional” and grassroots organizers from the indigenous communities will explain how they did it and what happens next.

Dear friends,

We are inviting you and your family, co-workers, cultural and community
members, and activists to enjoy the 2022 CompArte: The Emiliano Zapata
Community Festival.

The Chiapas Support Committee in partnership with the Peralta Hacienda
Historical Park is organizing CompArte [2]: The Emiliano Zapata
Community Festival at Peralta on Saturday, August 27, 2022, from
12:00-4:00 pm.

We invite you to enjoy an afternoon of music, poetry, art, tamales,
aguas frescas, good food, and community!

CompArte Festival & Solidarity

CompArte was started in 2016 [3] by the Zapatistas (EZLN, Ejército
Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, Zapatista Army of National
Liberation) in Mexico to bring together the best of our communities’ and
movements’ art, music, poetry, stories, dance, and other cultural work
for social justice, Indigenous autonomy and liberation and in solidarity
with the Zapatistas.

The Chiapas Support Committee took up the call and has held CompArte
every year since 2016 both in-person and online during the pandemic
sheltering-in-place. This year CompArte is back in the open air at
Peralta Hacienda Park in Oakland!

CompArte 2022 is a call and a festival:
Por la vida | For life:
Contra todas las guerras | Against all wars

CompArte 2022 will bring together artists, poets, musicians, painters,
cultural workers, and the community to express solidarity with the
Zapatistas and enjoy an afternoon filled with joy and community!

Our city, our region, our state, the U.S. and the world are on the cusp
of struggles that are rocking the foundations of the capitalist system.
Through CompArte and other spaces, you are invited to dream and walk
together, to weave the world where all worlds fit, and together raise
our voices and our songs to demand peace and justice across the U.S. and
the world.

Our CompArte 2022 is dedicated to the defense of all life and against
all capitalist wars and depravations. The gathering will begin with
Danzantes making a movement-offering to the four directions, recognizing
that we are on Ohlone land. We will have tamales & aguas frescas, son
jarocho, barrio and revolutionary poets, portable mural art, live
painting, and other activities.

Program: CompArte 2022 will include the son jarocho group AntiFaSon [4],
with anti-fascist _sones_, Oakland poets, music, a DJ, arts & crafts
vendors, tasty tamales, and other good food and deep community.

Join us to celebrate the movements and struggles for justice, peace &
solidarity with the Zapatistas and Indigenous people, everywhere with
words of resistance, tenderness and community in movements for
liberation and self-determination.