Calendar
Email strike.debt.bay.area@gmail.com a few days beforehand for the online invite.
For our August and September meetings we are reading End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration by Peter Turchin.
For our August meeting we’ll be reading the first two sections, which is about half of the book.
For the September meeting we will finish the book.
Back in 2010, when Nature magazine asked leading scientists to provide a ten-year forecast, Turchin used his models to predict that America was in a spiral of social disintegration that would lead to a breakdown in the political order circa 2020. The years since have proved his prediction more and more accurate, and End Times reveals why.
The lessons of world history are clear, Turchin argues: When the equilibrium between ruling elites and the majority tips too far in favor of elites, political instability is all but inevitable. As income inequality surges and prosperity flows disproportionately into the hands of the elites, the common people suffer, and society-wide efforts to become an elite grow ever more frenzied. He calls this process the wealth pump; it’s a world of the damned and the saved. And since the number of such positions remains relatively fixed, the overproduction of elites inevitably leads to frustrated elite aspirants, who harness popular resentment to turn against the established order. Turchin’s models show that when this state has been reached, societies become locked in a death spiral it’s very hard to exit.
In America, the wealth pump has been operating full blast for two generations. As cliodynamics shows us, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the path to violent political rupture. That is only one possible end time, and the choice is up to us, but the hour grows late.
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, Beyond Money, Less is More, Cannibal Capitalism, Debt, the First 5000 Years and Poverty, By America.
Non-violence: Should it be a Green Party value for the National, State, County, & City platforms? The Oakland Greens are on record saying that a large reason why we lose members is over the non-violence party platform idea. Is the idea of non-violence a turn-off to people that have been subject to institutional violence? You are invited to have this discussion with us; virtual doors open at 6 PM with the best pre-show music diversity, with the discussion beginning at 6:30 PM PDT on ZOOM
Please register by Friday, August 18, at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/non-violence-should-it-be-a-green-party-platform-position-tickets-540412216487?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Speaker: Mehmet Bayram.
Turkiye has come to the end of its rope, living the “good life” without producing but borrowing constantly and selling off its assets, pennies-to-the-dollar. Now the country is in a total collapse with the bills becoming due and nothing to show from all the years of endless wasting away of the national resources under capitalism.
Neocolonialism was created to be like this. Imperialism holds the client states in constant disequilibrium, debt, and violence, yet nurtures the hope of sitting at the table with the big boys one day. Unless there is a workers’ revolution and a planned economy to reverse the downward spin, the theater of constant hope stages plays involving elections, change, leaders, economy, crises, borrowing, paying, tight measures, ups-and-downs, yet, while everything changes, nothing changes. Exploitation and resource transfers continue to feed the imperialist centers.
Turkiye fostered the idea of a change, a post-Erdogan regime, while the elections approached last May. Elections, no surprise to revolutionaries, were yet another scheme to spread the lie that there was a democracy. Once the charade was over, establishing a full-scale Islamofascism under an extended regime of apartheid was again in full swing. Islamofascism is only the latest “fascism du jour” of the neocolonial, dependent, client, continuous fascism that is the default regime under imperialist exploitation. Its agents in Turkiye, the lumpen bourgeoisie, were born under imperialist dominance and know nothing else. All they need is to find a master that will treat them better, while they facilitate the resource transfer and labor exploitation. However, as the leash shortens, the docile lumpen bourgeoise flirts with whoever throws them a splinter of a bone, be it Russia, China, or the UAE. This only exacerbates the turbulent, violent, brutal system of theft under fascism and apartheid. Welcome to the modern Turkiye.
Mehmet Bayram, a journalist, has been visiting Turkiye for the last three months and will report on the daily life, politics, apartheid, and relations during the societal collapse of Turkiye.
Join Zoom Meeting
There is a pathway to MediCal for All.
The average California family faces $7,545 in out of pocket health care costs every year.(1) The costs are skyrocketing, and California now spends more on health care than any other state in the country.(2)
Single payer health care has never been more needed! That’s why Courage California, CARA, and Health Care for All California are partnering to give you the latest updates on California’s progress toward MediCal for All.
Join us for a virtual town hall, during which we’ll talk about the state of healthcare in California and the pathway to single payer in the state.
RSVP and submit your questions HERE for the CA Single Payer Town Hall.
RSVP
We’ll talk about efforts to get every Californian covered, including the current bill SB770. We’ll hear from healthcare advocates from the Health4All campaign and the Healthy California Now coalition, both of which Courage California is an active member of.
ASL interpretation will be provided by Pro Bono ASL, and Spanish translation will also be available.
Health care is one of the state’s biggest concerns, and we want our members to be empowered with the knowledge they need to take action. We hope you’ll join us!
One tap mobile
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kebt
A healing portal is a co-created space for communal healing intended to interrupt the impacts of state violence. This month we especially invite our youth partners to join us
Mary Louise Patterson speaking on her book, Letters from Langston: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Red Scare and Beyond
Dr. MaryLouise Patterson is a retired general pediatrician from Weill-Cornell Medical College and New York Hospital in New York City. Born in Chicago to two labor and community activists who were longtime members of the Communist Party, Louise and William Patterson, she grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her medical degree from Patrice Lumumba Friendship University in Moscow, USSR and a Master’s of Public Health, from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the first African-American woman to graduate from medical school in the USSR.
Upon returning to the US she joined the Communist Party, recruited by a childhood friend who was also a red diaper baby.
Like all of you over the many decades she’s put her shoulder to the plow and participated in hundreds of activities for freedom, justice, peace and socialism.
In 2016 a book she co-authored with Evelyn Louise Crawford, entitled “Letters from Langston: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Red Scare and Beyond” in which we attempted to show Langston’s belief that a better world was a worker’s world had never died.
She’ll start with showing a 17 minute video that introduces an audience to her parents, her co-author’s parents and their 40+ year relationship with Langston Hughes. After which she’ll discuss her upbringing in the home of African American communists and their relationship to Paul Robeson, many African American artists, the Black Panthers and more.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81133350622?pwd=dUUyUWppbWt6djVTaElISUhocXpSUT09
Meeting ID: 811 3335 0622
Passcode: ICSS2717rs
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US
+16699006833,,81133350622#,,,,*5892135124# US (San Jose)
Dial by your location
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdVC04xvn9
Our monthly free community event’ like a film book club. we will discuss all aspects of the movie and your input is welcomed — “What the Bleep Do We Know” (2004): Amanda, a divorced photographer, has a fantastic experience when life begins to unravel around her, revealing the cellular, molecular and quantum worlds that lie beneath everything — Question everything with the regular cast and our host who has been in the business since 1989 — The Oakland Greens Virtual events are designed to hear your ideas & thoughts. At these events we want to listen to you, not talk at you.
Join us for these ZOOM events with unique topics with unique discussions:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-oakland-greens-august-free-dinner-a-movie-discussion-series-tickets-541828653087?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
RSVP here (registration closes at 4PM, 2 hours prior to event)
Tonight from 6-8PM, join special guest speakers Tur-Ha Ak, Minister Cherri Murphy, and Dominique Walker, the co-founder of Moms 4 Housing, for an interactive virtual training and strategy session on Oakland’s role in the fight against the Right. This event will bring together a diverse group of organizations to unite against the corporate-funded astroturf movement seeking to scapegoat marginalized communities and progressive leadership for conditions that arose from an unprecedented global pandemic.
Gather your comrades, your affinity group, your community, your organization, and join us to defend our communities and advance our movements! RSVP soon at� bit.ly/Oakland_United, registration will close at 4PM tonight!
Learn about the impact of the Asia Pacific Economic Coordination (APEC) on our planet today, and how to get involved when APEC gathers in SF in November. APEC is the continuation of disastrous US imposed trade policies to promote corporate profit over the well being of people all over the world.
More information about the NO TO APEC campaign and how to get involved:
https://linktr.ee/no2APEC
Donations welcome and appreciated – not required!
Speaker: Eugene E Ruyle
Labor Day is more than just a holiday or a day for sales. From the first Labor Day March in 1882 in New York City to the the historic Pullman Strike of 1894, Labor Day has its roots in struggle. It was brought to you by the same folks who gave you the weekend: the Labor Movement. Labor Day is the twin of May Day! Let’s reclaim our history!
Gene Ruyle is a retired union member with the California Faculty Association, a former delegate to the LA County Federation of Labor, and President of Veterans For Peace, East bay Chapter. He is also a member of the ICSS Program Committee.
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)
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdVC04xvn9
The longest-running film festival on issues surrounding immigration, the San Francisco Immigrant Film Festival, SFImFF, is back with the selection of the best short films from all around the world that were shown during its five editions.
The event where refugees, immigrants and exiles find their own voice will be held this Sunday 3rd (September) at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, MCCLA, in San Francisco.
This edition will be a movie marathon with 18 short films divided into two screenings, at 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm and admission is $10.
Each year, from 2010 to 2014, SFImFF has offered its films/videos to the community with free screenings at their workplace and for student groups, which is a feature that makes this event a unique project, according to its founder/executive director, Romulo Hernandez. Now, after a long break, the festival will screen the best movies that have received during the first five years since its creation.
One of the missions of SFImFilmFestival is to bring the event to organizations that work with immigrants, to share with the staff and the community at large. We have had free OR low fee movie screenings with organizations such as SF Day Labor Program, City College (Ocean and Mission campus), Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, Nuestra Voz (Sonoma), SF International High School, Casa Quezada, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), Sonoma Community Center, People Organizing to Demand Environmental & Economic Rights (P.O.D.E.R.) and ATA theater.
The SFImFilmFestival is a volunteer-run organization.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100070296993555
The public safety system has enormous consequences on the quality of life for Oakland residents, but have you ever wondered why the public safety system works as it does, and who really is in charge? At this month’s Virtual Assembly, we’ll be learning about how the Oakland public safety system works, making sense of the different players, from the Oakland Police Department, the District Attorney, City Council, and more. We’ll break down who they are, their responsibilities, duties, and powers, to understand what they legally can, and cannot, do. Join us: https://volunteer.care4communityaction.org/monthly_assembly_20230906
Prominent Agenda Items:
4. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – DOT – Mobile Parking Payment System
a. Review and take possible action on the proposed use policy
5. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – Fixed Wing Aircraft (with surveillance technology)
a. Review and take possible action on a proposed use policy
https://bit.ly/LaborOnTheMove
to receive your personal link to participate in this event online
Following the Covid disruptions, we are seeing a new militancy among U.S. workers, with an uptick of labor organizing and activity that has not been seen in decades. President Biden was able to stop railway workers from striking last December. Now union members are choosing more progressive leadership. How can they assert themselves independently and throw off the stranglehold by the Democratic Party?
Luna Osleger – UAW* member, academic researcher at UC Santa Cruz and the shop steward at her workplace