Calendar

June 6th marks 4 years since CHP murdered Erik Salgado. Join his family to honor his life on his angelversary at 96th and Cherry in East Oakland. Please bring altar items/offerings and wear purple, white or black. Follow @/justice4eriksalgado on Instagram for updates.

https://twitter.com/APTPaction/status/1798067172402704514

Speaker: Mathew Ehret

Mathew Ehret will recall the  Gouzenko Hoax of 1945 that started the Cold War against socialism and tie it to the current anti-Communist psyop propaganda blitzkrieg.

Our speaker, Matthew Ehret, is a journalist and co-founder of the Rising Tide Foundation. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Patriot Review, Senior Fellow at the American University of Moscow and co-host of The Great Game on Rogue News and Breaking History on Badlands Media. He has authored the book series “The Untold History of Canada”, the four volume “Clash of the Two Americas” and the most recent book “Science Unshackled”.​

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1

Speaker: Raj Sahai

General elections were held in India from 19 April to 1 June 2024 in seven phases, to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s bicameral Parliament.

The results, announced on 4 June 2024, gave incumbent Prime Minister Narendrea Modi, a third consecutive term.

Our speaker, Raj Sahai, is a native of India who has lived in the US for over 50 years and is an American citizen. He is a member of the ICSS Planning Committee.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1

Education: What is the current system teaching us? Join the Oakland Greens & special surprise guests, Monday, June 17. Discussion starts at 7:00 pm and will end no later than 9:30 pm.

The Oakland Greens Townhall Discussion Series is a community discussion event. Get virtual tickets and information thru www.oaklandgreens.org/events

These community engagement events are held the 3rd Monday of the month, January thru October. All Oakland Greens events are held in community partnership with It’s Your Move Games & Hobbies, 4920 Telegraph Ave., Suite B, Oakland.

Please register by this coming Sunday at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/5th-annal-oakland-greens-education-townhall-tickets-858400728687?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

with
Jovanka Beckles  CA State Senate Candidate
Margot Smith CA State Asssembly Candidate
Moni Law Affordable Housing and Police Accountability Activist
Joe Liesner People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group

People’s Park supporters cry “Foul!” in response to the California State Supreme Court’s recent ruling to allow the University of California (UC) to destroy the park. We pledge to continue the fight to save it.

Native American site of significance: People’s Park sits in Huichin, the name given the land by indigenous inhabitants of the Confederated Villages of Lisjan (local Ohlone nation). Derby Creek, which ran through the Park site, was filled in and culverted about 1901. The creek’s location suggests that an indigenous village was located in this area, and that significantly more recent remains or artifacts could be found during excavation. This would be grounds for another California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) challenge to UC’s construction plan.

Many have suggested UC cede the Park to the Sogorea Te Land Trust as part of rematriation of lands lost to settler colonialism. UC “owns” the most real estate in California, all stolen from indigenous peoples. Adding insult to injury, after decades of struggling to fulfill commitments to more easterly native peoples, the US government refused to recognize any tribes in California so it would not have to provide any previously promised benefits, minimal as they were.

Desperately needed open space: Although the park has served as a place of last resort for unhoused and poor people, what the community desperately needs is open park space. Reducing People’s Park violates Berkeley’s Measure L, passed in 1986, which requires preservation and maintenance of the public parks and open space which exist in Berkeley, and acquisition of more open space in neighborhoods having less than the minimum amount of open space relative to population. People’s Park is the only public green space in the densely populated Council District 7, often referred to as Southside. It has served as refuge for many immigrants, starting with African-Americans in the 60’s and 70’s.

Historical Legacy: People’s Park was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 24, 2022, recognized in the letter of designation “as nationally significant for its association with student protests and countercultural activities during the 1960s.” In addition to this over half-century legacy of political and cultural events, the historical, architectural and environmental assets of this irreplaceable open space include a bio system of flora and fauna and a surround of highly significant architecture. Despite this, the current University administration remains intent on destroying the Park as one more part of making Berkeley unlivable for most.

Corrupt decision: UC has tried to avoid or undermine the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) process for its proposed People’s Park housing project. When noise impact was identified as a likely disqualifier, it sought and won a special exception via having the Legislature amend CEQA to allow UC to proceed. UC is making profit from student housing while there is NO actual low-income housing to help the displaced people. There are over 3,000 vacant units in Berkeley, many held off-market for speculation. And hundreds of dorm rooms are vacant due to the high price. UC plans to increase enrollment by 20,000 students over the next decade, with no agreement from the City or its residents, who will suffer most.

People’s Park Community
We Ain’t Going Anywhere!

Join our next student debt cancellation strategy call on June 20 at 7:30 PM ET.

Until all the debts are cancelled, we have our marching orders: keep making our movement irresistible.

We’re still glowing from our action two weeks ago, when we told the President to use his executive orders to liberate students debtors, not accelerate genocide in Gaza. We also told the Department of Ed to fire MOHELA, the multibillion-dollar loan servicing company that steals from student debtors and has blocked debt relief for all (we even crashed their damn conference.)

The vibes were on point, the debtors were courageous, and the comradeship was contagious. It wouldn’t have happened without you. Thank you.

But until all the debts – and we do mean ALL thee debts – are cancelled, our work continues.

Biden says he’s doing everything he can to cancel student debt, but more than 90% of us are still being buried under payments due. Time is running out.

Will you join us for our next Higher Ed National Strategy Call

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

For our May meeting we will be reading The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy by Anand Giridharadas  (Amazon, Penguin).  For our June meeting we will finish the book.

An insider account of activists, politicians, educators, and everyday citizens working to change minds, bridge divisions, and fight for democracy—from disinformation fighters to a leader of Black Lives Matter to Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and more—by the best-selling author of Winners Take All and award-winning former New York Times columnist

“Anand Giridharadas shows the way we get real progressive change in America—by refusing to write others off, building more welcoming movements, and rededicating ourselves to the work of changing minds.” —Robert B. Reich, best-selling author of The System

The lifeblood of any free society is persuasion: changing other people’s minds in order to change things. But America is suffering a crisis of faith in persuasion that is putting its democracy and the planet itself at risk. Americans increasingly write one another off instead of seeking to win one another over. Debates are framed in moralistic terms, with enemies battling the righteous. Movements for justice build barriers to entry, instead of on-ramps. Political parties focus on mobilizing the faithful rather than wooing the skeptical. And leaders who seek to forge coalitions are labeled sellouts.

In The Persuaders, Anand Giridharadas takes us inside these movements and battles, seeking out the dissenters who continue to champion persuasion in an age of polarization. We meet a leader of Black Lives Matter; a trailblazer in the feminist resistance to Trumpism; white parents at a seminar on raising adopted children of color; Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; a team of door knockers with an uncanny formula for changing minds on immigration; an ex-cult member turned QAnon deprogrammer; and, hovering menacingly offstage, Russian operatives clandestinely stoking Americans’ fatalism about one another.

As the book’s subjects grapple with how to call out threats and injustices while calling in those who don’t agree with them but just might one day, they point a way to healing, and changing, a fracturing country.

Strike Debt Bay Area hosts this non-technical book group discussion monthly on new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included (in chronological order) 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 , Poverty, By America, End Times, Jackson Rising Redux , The Feminist Subversion of the Economy, How Infrastructure Works, Inside the Systems that Shape our World, and Wealth Supremacy.

Speaker: Grahmn Harrington of the CP of Ireland

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic came into being in 1975, after a decade of relentless US bombing. Laos is per capita the most bombed country in the world. 10% of its population were killed directly by US bombs and a similar number left the country. US-financed opium traffickers and terrorist attacks continued up to the end of 20th century. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA cut-out, still maintains a presence in Laos.

Building socialism in this context was, and is, not an easy task. With close relationships to Vietnam and China, the ruling the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party considers Laos to be still in the national democratic phase of its revolution.

Our speaker, Graham Harrington, will describe the challenges and processes of socialist transformation in Laos. As the international secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland, he recently visited Laos, where the Irish and Lao communist parties pledged continued struggle against imperialism and for peace. Noting recent achievements in Laos regarding healthcare, education, and literacy, Harrington commented, “imperialism destroys, socialism builds.”

Also see:
Graham Harrington, https://socialistvoice.ie/2024/04/laos-and-the-building-of-socialism/
Michael Christopher, https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/laos-building-socialism-from-scratch-after-colonialism-and-imperialist-war/
Socialist Voice, https://socialistvoice.ie/2018/05/laos-building-the-foundations-of-socialism/

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1

jJoin local climate heroes, community members, and supporters for the launch of Drawdown’s Neighborhood: San Francisco Bay Area, a climate solutions short documentary series (premiering at drawdown.org/neighborhood in late August 2024) passing the mic to voices that often go unheard in global climate solutions conversations. The series is presented by Project Drawdown.

This event is hosted by Project Drawdown’s Stories team and Matt Scott, Director of Storytelling & Engagement and the host of Drawdown’s Neighborhood. The event will serve as a sneak peek screening of the series (showing clips from the 7 full episodes), before the global virtual launch in late August, and celebrate some of the unsung and undersung local climate solutions heroes making the the Bay Area area a better place. With it being San Francisco Pride Week and the series featuring a number of queer Black people, Indigenous people, and people of color in the climate space, the theme of this event is “Pride.”

Doors open at 6:30pm, giving you a chance to find your seat and settle in for an exciting night.

A t 7:00pm, the program begins on-stage, with short clips from the 7 episodes of Drawdown’s Neighborhood: San Francisco Bay Area, live performances, and a program led by Matt Scott. The celebration will conclude between 8:30 and 9:00pm.

Drawdown’s Neighborhood: San Francisco Bay Area features people helping the world reach “drawdown” — the future point in time when greenhouse gases start to steadily decline — from:

• Acterra (Irvin Rivero)
• Business Council on Climate Change (BC3) (Lauren Wan)
• CalWave (César Córdova)
• The Lupine Collaborative (Grace Anderson)
• Mycelium Youth Network (Ashia Ajani)
• Shelterwood Collective (Layel Camargo)
• Sonoma County Transportation Authority, Regional Climate Protection Authority (SCTA/RCPA) (Anna Oliva)

Learn more about Project Drawdown, the nonprofit climate solutions resource, at drawdown.org.

Discover solutions and take action with Drawdown’s Neighborhood at drawdown.org/neighborhood.

“Where Olive Trees Weep” is a powerful documentary about the brutal conditions in Gaza pre-2022.
If you want to catch it on the big screen, the Grand Lake has scheduled another showing tomorrow, June 26, at 7pm.

The central character of the film, Ashira Darwish, will participate in a Q&A after the film.

Speaker: Bahman Azad

Since the election of the late President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, in 2021, Iran has adopted an active pro-east foreign policy and has become a key player, along with China and Russia, in the global struggle of the countries of the South for building a multipolar world. This active redirection of Iran’s foreign policy is considered by the U.S. imperialism as a serious obstacle to its continued domination of the unraveling unipolar world and an existential threat to its closest ally, Israel, in West Asia.

With the tragic death of President Raisi and Iran’s Foreign Minister, Amir-Abdollahian, a new round of uncertainty has begun both both in Iran and around the world about continuity of Iran’s present foreign policy. Although both Iran’s Supreme Leader and the new Acting President have insisted that “nothing will change,” the complexity of the Iranian domestic situation still leaves a number of important questions unanswered.

Bahman Azad is a retired professor of Economics and Sociology. His area of research includes the political economy of Capitalism and Socialism, and his articles on this subject have appeared in such journals as Political Affairs and Nature, Society and Thought. He is the author of the book: Heroic Struggle, Bitter Defeat: Factors Contributing to the Dismantling of the Socialist State in the USSR, published by International Publishers, New York.

Bahman is currently the President of the U.S. Peace Council; a member of the Secretariat of the World Peace Council; and representative of the World Peace Council at the United Nations. He is also a member of the Administrative Committee of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC).

Bahman Azad was Co-Chair of Venezuelan Embassy Protectors Defense Committee (Washington DC) and is currently serving as the Coordinator of the Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases; the Global Campaign Against US/NATO Military Bases; and Co-Coordinator of the Hands-Off Syria Coalition.

Join Zoom Meeting
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Event info & registration: click here (please register so we can plan the space accordingly)
You are invited to join Transition Berkeley at the Ecology Center, for this inspiring & interactive event to learn how to powerfully activate yourself and your community in these complex times!

The Regeneration Handbook offers an abundance of insights, stories, tools, practices, and resources for experienced and aspiring changemakers to step into their full power at this time of unprecedented global crisis.

By introducing readers to a different kind of activism – based on universal patterns of Transformation, Expansion, Wholeness, and Balance – it points the way to a truly just and regenerative future.

Drawing on author Don Hall’s experience as a leader in the international Transition Towns Movement – as well as the work of dozens of regenerative thinkers and doers across many fields, including ecology, psychology, sociology, organizational development, and systems thinking – this book will help you:\

• Better understand our current environmental, economic, and social polycrisis
• Develop a holistic and inspiring vision for the future
• Cultivate the confidence to lead and strengthen inner resilience
• Work effectively in collaborative groups and organizations
• Reach beyond the choir to engage people from all walks of life
• Design and implement practical projects that foster sustainability and justice

While none of us can change the world alone, we all have an important part to play in the Great Transition. By starting wherever we are and leaning into this historic challenge, we’ll discover our deepest purpose, realize our highest potential, and learn how to harness the power of regeneration to radically transform our lives, our communities, and our world.

Sponsored by: Transition Berkeley and the Berkeley Ecology Center

Cost: FREE, (Donations of $5-$20 gratefully accepted to support the author & supporting orgs – click here)

Speaker: Greg Godels

Greg Godels returns to the Marxist Library to speak on the threat of fascism currently in the US and the uses to which that threat is put. Where do the threat(s) of fascism exist in light of the upcoming US presidential election?

Our speaker, Greg Godels, grew up in a working-class family in a rural coal mining community. He joined the Communist Party in 1975 and served on the party’s Economics Commission until Vic Perlo’s death. He wrote frequently for the Daily World and other party papers as well as Political Affairs and Nature, Society and Thought. Articles by him have also appeared in numerous publications, including Communist Review (London), People’s Voice (Vancouver), and Socialist Voice (Dublin). He is a joint founder of the website Marxism-Leninism Today and writes a highly regarded blog under the pen name Zoltan Zigedy.

See:
https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2023/07/election-fever-fever-dream.html
https://www.midwesternmarx.com/articles/fascism-after-a-hundred-years-by-greg-godels
https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2020/10/setting-record-straight.html
https://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/2019/08/lets-get-clear-about-fascism.html

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1

Relevant Agenda Items:

5. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – Automatic Resource Locator (CAD GPS) Impact
Statement and Proposed Use Policy

6. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD –
1) Amended Automated License Plate Reader Use Policy,
2) Memorandum of Understanding For Automated License Plate Readers (Flock), 3)
Memorandum of Understanding For Automated License Plate Readers (CA Highway Patrol)

7. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPW – Report on OPD Request for Video Footage from Illegal
Dumping Cameras

8. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPW – Illegal Dumping Camera Program Annual report

Members of the public can view the meeting live on KTOP or on the City’s website at
https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/ktop-tv-10

Comment in advance. To send your comment directly to the Privacy Commission and staff BEFORE the meeting starts, please send your comment, along with your full name and agenda item number you are commenting on, to Felicia Verdin at fverdin@oaklandca.gov. Please note that eComment submissions close one (1) hour before posted meeting time. All submitted public comment will be provided to the Privacy Commission prior to the meeting.

Via Zoom: To receive the Zoom info, please register on the LaborFest website, here:  https://laborfest.net/event/the-fight-to-save-peoples-park/  

The ongoing battle to prevent the development by UC of People’s Park in Berkeley continues. The park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and an important Court of Appeal victory was won. However, UC appealed the court decision to the State Supreme Court and simultaneously subverted the court victory by getting the legislature to pass a bill to undermine it. Construction is halted until the court issues its decision. Organizing strategies are still being pursued to protect the park from destruction by a huge student housing project and the paving over with hardscape, despite the need for open space in the densest part of Berkeley. This Zoom panel will also talk about how privatization is pushing the monetization of the public assets of the University and how this process has become a national trend.

Speakers:
Harvey Smith � Peoplle’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group
Charles Wollenberg � former Chair of Social Sciences and Professor of Hiistory, Berkeley City College
Joe Liesner � Foodd Not Bombs

Speaker, Jose Luis Granados Ceja

General elections were held in Mexico on June 2, 2024. Claudia Sheinbaum, a member of the left-wing political party Morena, won a majority with over 60% of the vote. She is the first woman and the first person of Jewish descent to be elected president of Mexico.

The presentation will focus on the role that public policies favoring the interests of the working class played in the landslide victory for Morena and its allies that resulted in the election of Mexico’s first woman president and supermajority in Congress. The presentation will also look at what we can expect from Sheinbaum’s government. What does she mean when she talks about building the “second floor” of Mexico’s Fourth Transformation?

Finally, we will discuss, given the rout of the country’s opposition and their marginalization from public life, where we might expect opposition to come from and what anti-imperialist activists can do to resist US interference.

José Luis Granados Ceja is an anti-imperialist journalist and political analyst based in Mexico City, with 20 years of experience covering social movements, democracy, elections, and human rights. He is a staff writer with Venezuelanalysis, covering regional and international issues, and is the host of their podcast. He also serves as editor of the Mexico Solidarity Media website and writes a monthly opinion column for the Mexico Solidarity Project Bulletin. Together with Kurt Hackbarth, he co-hosts the Soberanía podcast, which provides English-language analysis of politics in Mexico.

See our speaker’s article in The Nation: “Claudia Sheinbaum’s Election in Mexico Shows How the Left Can Win. Sheinbaum’s landslide victory is thanks to her commitment to continue policies that put the interests of the working class first. (June 21, 2024)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1

It’s not too late, if we act fast enough now! Even as emissions increase and treaties collapse, we can still stop these twin existential crises from becoming catastrophic. We already have all the solutions we need to stop burning fossil fuels and to abolish nuclear weapons once and for all.

How can environmentalists and peace activists work together to overcome propaganda, problematic “solutions,” and political agendas that threaten our very survival? Author Timmon Wallis will share new insights and fresh strategies. The corporate profiteers who corrupt our legislators are surprisingly vulnerable to legal threats from the Nuclear Ban Treaty and from the global movement for a Fossil Fuel Treaty.

Timmon Wallis, PhD is the National Coordinator of the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. He has spent his life teaching, writing, directing organizations, and campaigning on peace and environmental issues in colleges, war zones, and with governments around the world. With his colleagues at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, he shares the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Vicki Elson, MA is the Creative Director of NuclearBan.US, which facilitates the Warheads to Windmills Coalition. After a long career in childbirth education and labor support, she has shifted her focus to supporting human well-being with total nuclear abolition and converting the resources wasted on WMD’s to science-based climate solutions.

(Followed by County Council business meeting at 7:00. All are welcome to attend)

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88083342274
Meeting ID: 880 8334 2274

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k39IUnw59

The California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA) and Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) are co-sponsoring an important webinar about the potentially negative cumulative health concerns of hydrogen infrastructure, and the environmental justice solutions.

While the state of California plans to expand its use of hydrogen as fuel, each stage of its life cycle—production, delivery, storage, and end use—presents a unique risk to environmental justice communities.  CEJA and CBE will deconstruct the greenwashing of hydrogen and its impacts, which include air pollution, pipe embrittlement, and gas line leaks and explosions.   Join this webinar to learn more about how you can demand transparent participation in the state’s energy infrastructure.  It’s not too late to create a truly equitable clean energy future for all Californians.

This event will happen in both English and Spanish.  Please reach with any questions to Mia Lopez-Zubiri at mia@ceja.org .