Calendar

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Nov
17
Thu
Reclaiming the Digital Square – User and Tech Worker Town Hall
Nov 17 all-day

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An EMERGENCY TOWN HALL on the status of debt cancellation and how to get involved @ Online
Nov 17 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm


This week, a federal judge sided with political groups and blocked President Biden’s debt cancellation plan. This is not the end. The Biden administration has appealed the decision and advocates are fighting to protect borrowers.

That is why we’re hosting an EMERGENCY TOWN HALL online to explain the status of debt cancellation, where we go from here, and how to get involved!

Student Debt Cancellation: Where We Stand and What is Next

We know this is a very confusing, frustrating, and uncertain time for you all. We understand, hear, and empathize with you. But, we need your voice and strength now more than ever.

It took millions of Americans pushing for debt cancellation to get to this point. It will take us coming together to protect it. If you want to learn about the newest updates and how to get involved, click here to RSVP for Thursday’s town hall.

Can’t make it? You can take action right now.

Sign the petition calling on President Biden to extend the pause on federal student loan payments here.

Together, our movement cannot be defeated!

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Nov
18
Fri
Occupella Sing-A-Long Strike Support @ UC Berkeley, Sproul Plaza
Nov 18 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Dear Singers,

Let’s sing on the picket line!


WHERE:
UC Berkeley Campus
We may move into Sproul Plaza if the sidewalk at Bancroft & Tele isn’t accommodating.

WHY
University of California student workers are striking for livable wages and conditions. They’re demanding free transit, disability justice, childcare support, and more.
Our songs can help them win!

WHO
Occupella, you and anyone you want to invite.

We’ll bring some songsheets, you can print one out or view on your phone here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ODB7ZsjgHhYhYwWeNj8Ws4S5y8-0qme67I8mgdAORTY/edit
Looking forward to singing with you on Friday!

You can check this web calendar for any updates�if the strike settles or picket line iis called off, we’ll cancel on the calendar.

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Nov
20
Sun
The Comprehensive Crisis in the U.S. and the Revolutionary Way Forward @ Online
Nov 20 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

In line with the tradition of Marxism-Leninism, this presentation argues that the elements constitutive of objectively revolutionary conditions are all present in the U.S.; what is missing for a successful revolutionary movement is the subjective factor. The presenter will argue that the purity fetish which predominates the outlook of modern American communism has presented a fundamental fetter for the development of the subjective factor in the American working masses; the development of a consistent dialectical materialist worldview, it will be argued, is the precondition for the advancement of the subjective conditions.

Speaker Bio:

Carlos L. Garrido is a Cuban American PhD student and instructor in philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (with an M.A. in philosophy from the same institution). His research focuses include Marxism, Hegel, early 19th century American socialism, and socialism with Chinese characteristics. He is an editor in Midwestern Marx Institute for Marxist Theory and Political Analysis and in the Journal of American Socialist Studies. His popular writings have appeared in dozens of socialist magazines in various languages. As a political analyst with a focus on Latin America (esp. Cuba), he has appeared in dozens of radio and video interviews around the world. He also edited and introduced Marxism and the Dialectical Materialist Worldview: An Anthology of Classical Marxist Texts on Dialectical Materialism (Midwestern Marx Publishing Press, 2022).

Zoom Link:

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

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
One tap mobile
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Dial by your location
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+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

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Nov
24
Thu
Thanksgiving Day Celebration – Free Dinner
Nov 24 @ 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

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Nov
27
Sun
@ Online
Nov 27 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm

SPECIAL SESSION JUST ADDED
The Biggest Academic Workers Strike in California History!

A huge, unprecedented strike of academic workers started on November 14th, hitting all ten University of California campuses like a ton of bricks.  The 48,000 striking workers perform the majority of the teaching and research at UC, yet the pay and benefits for these workers, members of the United Auto Workers union, is way too low especially for high-cost-of-living areas like Berkeley, California.

The UC Regents, who run the university and represent the most powerful business interests in the state, have so far refused to bargain over wages.

Come to an special session of Sunday Morning at the Marxist Library to hear the latest about this historic academic workers strike.

Speaker: Dave Welsh is a writer, musician, retired letter carrier, Labor Council delegate, member of Veterans For Peace, and lifelong fighter for people’s power. Whether it was the civil rights movement in Mississippi, support for the Black Panther Party, solidarity with the grassroots movement in Haiti, or breaking the blockade of Cuba at the border with the Pastors for Peace caravans, or holding down Oscar Grant Plaza with Occupy Oakland or the ongoing fight to jail killer cops � he’s been a part of it.

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

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

74376
Nov
29
Tue
Free Covid Testing @ Allan Temple Baptist Church
Nov 29 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

74131
Nov
30
Wed
Free Covid Testing @ Allan Temple Baptist Church
Nov 30 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

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Dec
1
Thu
Free Covid Testing @ Allan Temple Baptist Church
Dec 1 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

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Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission @ Online
Dec 1 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

 Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85817209915

Agenda Packet: https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Privacy-Commission-Agenda-Packet-12-1-22.pdf

4. Federal Task Force Transparency Ordinance: OPD – US Marshals Services (USMS), Alcohol Tobacco Firearms (ATF)
a. Review and take possible action on the draft memoranda of understanding with federal partners (MOU)

5. Surveillance Technology Ordinance: DOT – Mobile Parking Payment Proposal
a. Informational Report by CSU Law Clinic – no action will be taken at this meeting

74383
Medea Benjamin, The War in Ukraine; Making Sense of a Senseless War @ Hillside Club
Dec 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Tickets are still available for Medea’s KPFA event at the Hillside Club Thursday evening. KPFA just added a number of “student/financially challenged” tickets, available at this Eventbrite link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/medea-benjamin-war-in-ukraine-making-sense-of-a-senseless-conflict-tickets-462001277257

I cannot recommend strongly enough attending the event. As you likely know, Medea is an expert–  knowledgeable, straightforward, correct and convincing about the war in Ukraine and what we in the U.S. need to do to end it. If you’re concerned about the conflict, and fearful as many are about the consequences of it continuing and escalating, please consider coming on Thursday night both to hear Medea and ask questions. Mickey Huff, the terrific host of Project Censored on KPFA and professor at Diablo Valley College is hosting the discussion with Medea. We love Mickey.

Eleanor and I went out to Rossmoor in Walnut Creek today for Medea’s book event, sponsored by the Friends of the Diablo Valley Peace and Justice Center. They expected maybe 20 people; instead there were at least 90 people and more chairs had to be brought in. So many people bought books and contributed for Medea’s travel expenses. The presentation was riveting, followed by a great discussion. Very worthwhile for thinking about and hearing about the path to peace in Ukraine.

74384
The Howard Zinn Book Fair Presents: For Anti-Fascist Futures @ Medicine for Nightmares
Dec 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
PANEL DISCUSSION WITH
FOR ANTI-FASCIST FUTURES
CONTRIBUTORS
Attendees are asked to please wear a mask while inside the bookstore.
Elspeth Iralu, Dian Million, Nicole Nguyen, Yazan Zahzah, Alyosha Goldstein
Explores the significance of fascism for understanding authoritarianism today and centers anti-imperialist movements of Black, Indigenous, and colonized peoples.
We must, as For Antifascist Futures urges, take antifascism as a major imperative of movements for social change. But we must not limit our analysis or historical understanding of the rise of the right-wing authoritarianism in our times by rooting it in mid-twentieth century Europe. Instead we turn to a collection of powerful BIPOC voices who offer a range of anticolonial, Indigenous, and Black Radical traditions to think with.
74389
Dec
4
Sun
Racism, Anti-Communism and the CPUSA’s Struggle Against Both in U.S. History @ Online
Dec 4 @ 10:30 am – 12:30 pm


“Every Liberal is a Socialist.  Every Socialist is a Communist.  Every Communist is Moscow’s Spy.”  So went a poster used  in an anti-May Day “Loyalty Day” march in the high cold war period after WWII.

But anti-Communism went far beyond traditional conservative and reactionary groups and became the foundation of a “cold war consensus” for U.S. domestic and foreign policy in the post WWII period. In my presentation I will examine the relationship between color racism as the model for anti-radicalism at home and in U.S. imperialism abroad, and the role of the Communist Party USA in its struggle against both.

Our speker, Norman Markowitz, was born in 1943 and grew up in the South Bronx in a poor predominantly Jewish neighborhood that became a poorer predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood.  He developed an interest in socialism as a teenager, given the conditions in which he and his friends and neighbors lived.

He attended the then free tuition City College of New York (1962-1966) and the University of Michigan on a “National Defense Act” Fellowship  and  received his PhD in 1970. He taught history at Northern Illinois University (1969-1971) and at Rutgers University/New Brunswick (1971-present).

His doctoral dissertation, The Rise and Fall of the Peoples CenturyHenry A. Wallace and American Liberalism, 1941-1948 was published as a book in 1973. He has  written numerous articles  for various  print and internet publications, scholarly journals, encyclopedia, and Marxist and Communist  publications and websites on topics which include the history of the Communist movement in the U.S. and its activists, and  the role of anti-Communism in U.S. history.

He served on the editorial board of Political Affairs, the theoretical journal of the CPUSA for many years and is currently a member of the International Department of the CPUSA.

ZOOM LINK

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

Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs

Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)

74390
AIDS Day Block Party @ Verdese Carter Park
Dec 4 @ 11:00 am – 4:00 pm

74378
Dec
6
Tue
Free Covid Testing @ Allan Temple Baptist Church
Dec 6 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

74131
UC and Railroad Worker Solidarity Rally @ Upper Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley
Dec 6 @ 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm

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Dec
7
Wed
Building a Resilient and Equitable Grid @ Online
Dec 7 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 pm

Online. Register here

Retiring fossil fuels means we’ll need more and more electricity—so it’s crucial that the electric grid be not only clean, but reliable and just.  Join The Climate Center for Building a Resilient and Equitable Grid for the Future, the second in their series, Envisioning a Climate-Safe California: Stories and Solutions.

The webinar will lay out a vision for the future of California’s electricity system and highlight the people and organizations working to create it.  It will explore the role of local governments, Community Choice Agencies (CCAs), and others in helping to plan for the use of clean, distributed energy in a way that maximizes benefits to the community and provides reliable, affordable electricity for all.

Speakers:

Jesse Hernandez, urban sociologist
Alexandra McGee, director of strategic initiatives, MCE
Lorenzo Kristov, energy systems consultant

 

74394
Free Covid Testing @ Allan Temple Baptist Church
Dec 7 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

74131
Dec
8
Thu
Free Covid Testing @ Allan Temple Baptist Church
Dec 8 @ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

74131
Bill of Rights Day – ACLU of Northern California @ Online
Dec 8 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

BILL OF RIGHTS DAY 2022

Despite the many setbacks for civil liberties and justice that 2022 brought, California continues to lead the way. We have much to celebrate about the golden state, including leaders like Janette Robinson Flint, the Executive Director of Black Women for Wellness who has led innovate strategies for Reproductive Justice in California. We honor her work this year with the Chief Justice Earl Warren Award. We also celebrate and thank longtime ACLU advocate from Monterey County, Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, with the Lola Hanzel Courageous Advocacy Award.
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