Calendar

Please note: Daylight Saving Time ends at 12:01 AM Nov 3

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With just a few days to go, the 2024 federal election campaign is on track to be the costliest ever, with at least $15.9 billion in total spending (OpenSecrets).

Yet for all the massive amounts of political advertising, media coverage, web and social media hype, stage-managed mainstream candidate interviews and debates, and even widespread talk of “the End of the American Dream” …

Little or nothing of real substance is being said about the unprecedented challenges facing capitalism and the US working class and small business owners in November, 2024.

Join us on November 3rd, just two days before the election, for a presentation and discussion of these issues, when we will pull back the curtain on the $16 billion circus show.

Speaker: Allan Miller is a member of the ICSS Program Committee and a long time political activist.  He has a PhD in economics from UC Riverside and teaches statistics and data science at UC Bekeley Extension.

Come join us for a special screening of Spike Lee’s powerful documentary, 4 Little Girls, presented by the Oakland Symphony. This in-person event will be held at The New Parkway Theater.

Shawn Okpebholo’s Two Black Churches memorializes the “Four Little Girls” killed in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. Spike Lee’s acclaimed 1997 documentary provides the context for the work, which the Oakland Symphony and Kedrick Armstrong will perform on Friday, November 8, at the Paramount Theatre.

Reserve your seats now!

Come out to the New Parkway from 5-11pm as we air the returns from this very important 2024 election. All seating is first-come, first-served. No outside food but we’ve got all the goodies on hand for purchase

Will it be a celebration? Will it be a wake? Or, most likely, will it be a continued counting of the votes? Regardless, we’ll open our doors for what will be a combination of election coverage, dubious and less dubious political videos, and, most importantly, a night of activism where community groups and organizers will share ways for us to get out of our political hangover/stupor and get engaged/stay involved for the next four days, four months, and four years

Voting in the 2024 election is over, but the results have yet to take effect. Join our speakers for a discussion of the outcome, from the national picture to state and local candidates and ballot measures: how it will affect our lives and shape our organizing efforts.

BK Woodson Sr. – Steering committee, Respect Our Vote (No Recalls) coalition. Director, Faith in Action East Bay. Pastor, Bay Area Christian Connection

Peter Olney – Retired Organizing Director of the ILWU. Former Associate Director of the Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California. Co-editor (with Glenn Peruek) of Labor Power and Strategy by John Womack Jr.

*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.

Speaker: Sara Flounders

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Election Postmortem � Prospects for the Working Class and Tasks Ahead>

Both parties prepare for war to stall the decay of U.S. world domination — and since 1999 alone, these parties have overseen wars of aggression in Europe, Africa and Asia and imposed coups and sanctions worldwide. Both parties support NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. Both support and arm Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon. Both back surrounding China with U.S. air and sea power as well as economic war against China. What working-class organizations must analyze and prepare for is how to confront the post-election period. Since the two parties have real differences in composition and tactics, the working class must prepare to fight them in different ways.

Speaker: Sara Flounders, is a longstanding political activist and author based in New York City. She is a contributing editor of Workers World Newspaper and a leader of the United National Antiwar Coalition, the International Action Center, and the SanctionsKill Campaign. She is the co-author and editor of numerous books, including Capitalism on a Ventilator: The Impact of COVID-19 in China and the US and the recently released SANCTIONS � A Wrecking Ball in a Global Economy<.

With the horrifying news from Gaza, many of us are asking “What can I do?” A compelling answer comes from Omar Barghouti, Palestinian co-founder of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Prioritizing the Chevron boycott, he tells us “We are building a global and intersectional movement, in partnership with Climate Justice and Indigenous People around the world who are exposing and resisting the colonial violence of Chevron’s extractionism, environmental destruction, and grave human rights violations.”

Join us to learn and exchange ideas about the #boycottchevroncampaign and how you can support local organizing.

Bonnie Lockhart works to connect Climate, Labor and Anti-militarism movements through class struggle. She is co-chair of East Bay DSA’s Climate Action Committee, a California DSA delegate, and an organizer with Labor Rise Climate Jobs Action Group. She is member of American Federation of Musicians and long-time cultural worker.

Vish Soroushian is a member of UAW Local 2320, which is committed to Palestinian liberation and has fully divested its dues accounts from Israeli apartheid, and a member of his bargaining unit’s leadership team. He also is a campaign co-lead for the East Bay Democratic Socialists of America’s Divest From Apartheid campaign and an organizer with Bay Area Divest!. Both campaigns aim to divest our county from bond holdings in companies that enable Israeli genocide and apartheid. They focus on organizing on the county and local levels, with government bodies taking divestment action, with support from community, labor and political organizations.

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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The Coastal Commission is meeting on Friday, November 15 in San Francisco to discuss the violations and unpermitted work by a Texas oil company, Sable Offshore Corp., which is charging ahead with dangerous plans to restart an old, corroded oil pipeline that ruptured off the Santa Barbara coast in 2015.  Restarting the pipeline would be a disaster for coastal communities and our climate:  it would allow Sable to bring three offshore oil platforms back online that have been shuttered for nearly ten years.

We’ll be rallying at the Coastal Commission meeting and then giving public comment to encourage the commission to stand strong and require Sable to play by the rules.  We need to ensure that this disastrous pipeline will never have a second chance to spill!

Will you join us in San Francisco and help bring a few friends and allies, too?  Sign up here.

What: Rally and Press Conference Opposing Restart of Dangerous Oil Pipeline in Santa Barbara, followed by public comment.

When: Friday, November 15 at 8am before the California Coastal Commission Meeting

Where: Hyatt Regency San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111

Who: Center for Biological Diversity, Last Chance Alliance, Extinction Rebellion SF Bay, Oil and Gas Action Network, Fearless Grandmothers, 1000 Grandmothers,  Sunflower Alliance, CalPIRG, UC Santa Barbara Environmental Affairs Board and more!

If you want to make public comment, you’ll need to sign up on this form (for General Public Comment) before 5pm on Thursday.

Thanks so much for showing up at this very critical time.  Together let’s send a strong message that drill baby drill will get no traction here.

TONIGHT — There’s still time to make it to Public Domain Movie Night at @InternetArchive⁠! 📽️ We’re screening "FEAR AND DESIRE" (1953), Stanley Kubrick’s 1st feature film, introduced by local documentarian Jason Sussberg.
🕢️ 7:30 pm
🎟️ https://t.co/Qpnvt1siZB

#PublicDomain pic.twitter.com/l6Zi2Tmgm7

— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) November 15, 2024

Agenda Items:

2. UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy – Maria Climaco – Capstone Project Proposal
a. Review and take possible action
3. OPD & Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt – Recommendation to City Council Regarding Oakland Police
Department’s Written Agreement to Share Body-Worn Camera Video with Stanford University for
Research Purposes
a. Review and take possible action
4. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – Hostage Throw Phone Proposed Use Policy and Impact
Statement
a. Review and take possible action
5. Surveillance Technology Ordinance – OPD – DGO I-32 Mobile Investigative Pan-Tilt-Zoom (MIPTZ)
Camera Systems Proposed Use Policy and Impact Statement
a. Review and take possible action

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

Planetwalker by Dominic and Nadia Gill: In 1971, John Francis embarked on a journey that would redefine environmental activism after witnessing the San Francisco Oil Spill. He took a 17-year vow of silence, renounced all motorized transportation and began walking across the United States seeking a deeper understanding of humanity’s relationship with the earth. Planetwalker re-introduces the world to the inner-magic of Dr. John Francis, a central figure in the intersectional environmental movement who’s story takes on new meaning today.

With Hosts Diane Quon and Julie Parker Benello; Filmmakers in Attendance

Come join our Comrade Crafternoon on Saturday Nov 23th 2-5pm!

🌹After a hectic election cycle, relax with EBDSA and imagine a world free of capitalism, one without imperialism and that is devoid of exploitation. https://t.co/6KGn7plrwA pic.twitter.com/6NoF3mKSwh

— East Bay DSA 🌹 (@DSAEastBay) November 18, 2024

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

For our November meeting we will be reading the first seven chapters of “Breaking Together” by Jem Bendell (Amazon, free download .epub).  For our December meeting we will finish the book.

The collapse of modern societies has begun. That is the conclusion of two years of research by the interdisciplinary team behind Breaking Together. How did it come to this? Because monetary systems caused us to harm each other & nature to such an extent it broke the foundations of our societies. So what should we do? This book describes people allowing the full pain of our predicament to liberate them into living more courageously & creatively. They demonstrate we can be breaking together, not apart, in this era of collapse. Jem Bendell argues that reclaiming our freedoms is essential to soften the fall & regenerate the natural world. Escaping the efforts of panicking elites, we can advance an ecolibertarian agenda for both politics & practical action in a broken world.

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, Wealth Supremacy, The Persuaders,  The Path to a Livable Future, Solidarity and Mutual Aid.

The opinions expressed in our Sunday morning programs are those of the speakers only and do not necessarily represent any consensus by the members of ICSS. Our general practice is to allot at least half of the time to comradely discussion of the issues including as many voices as practical.

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Imperialism & Fascism in the 21st Century

Speakers: Raj Sahai and Mehmet Bayram

What constitutes (1) Imperialism and Fascism in our time at the end of the first quarter of the 21st century? (2) How is imperialism different today than in 1916 when Lenin penned his famous booklet? (3) How is Fascism today different than in 1935 and before when Dimitrov, Palme Dutt & Trotsky wrote to define it. What to call the new forms of fascism? (4) How has the wrong interpretations of fascism developed and where has it led Marxism? (5) What do the phenomenon of MAGA on one hand and Identity Politics Liberalism of today represent? (6) How to identify the trend toward the finance-capital monopoly dictatorship we are witnessing today? Does fascism demonstrate itself in the superstructure in the Marxist sense? Why is it important to identify the changes we are observing in the governance of US? How to fight it? (7) How is fascism related to imperialism and the new forms of imperialism. (8) How does it connect with the changes we are witnessing since 2016?

How can we stop culture from disappearing down the #MemoryHole? 🕳️ Join us for the #booktalk "VANISHING CULTURE: A Report on Our Fragile Cultural Record" to learn how.
📅 Tues, Dec 3
🕙 10am PT / 1pm ET
📍 ONLINE
🎟️ https://t.co/crFSQO8B1U#VanishingCulture @Auths_Alliance pic.twitter.com/ho3GdyEqY5

— Internet Archive (@internetarchive) November 27, 2024

Please join me for a sneak peek of the documentary "Sign My Name to Freedom—The Lost Music of Betty Reid Soskin," along with a discussion of how her life can teach the history of Oakland, on Weds., Dec. 4 at 6:00 pm at Santa Fe School or on Zoom—RSVP at https://t.co/jwsYi8XdtA pic.twitter.com/GSqKdVGcGw

— Sam Davis, OUSD Board President (@samdavis510) November 24, 2024

The elections are over and have brought a change in party control, but the direction of U.S. imperial interests and international militarism moves on regardless. Come hear speakers discuss the wars in Palestine and Ukraine and the growing saber-rattling towards China.

Emer Martin – Award-winning Irish novelist; Co-founder of Saoirse Hurriya (Palestinian/Irish Solidarity Committee); member of Fremont Education Association

Bert Knorr – Co-chair, Peace in Ukraine coalition; representative, Democratic Socialists of America International committee; participant in the International Peace in Ukraine conference in Vienna, Austria in 2023

Lara Kiswani – Executive Director, Arab Resources Organizing Center

Lisa Eugene – organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation; member, Peace and Freedom Party Alameda County Central Committee

*Organizations listed for identification purposes only.

🌹Looking to get organized and don't know where to start?

Come check out "What Is DSA" and learn more about what the largest socialist organization in the country is up to! https://t.co/hJnkyTSVpm pic.twitter.com/DM9eAq01PU

— East Bay DSA 🌹 (@DSAEastBay) November 22, 2024