Calendar
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
Please register in advance at
https://bit.ly/SSSWarMachine
to receive your personal link to participate in this event online
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.
Please arrive early to place your order so that you do not miss any of the presentations.
An open discussion will follow the presentations.
We will be accepting donations which will be divided among the sponsoring organizations.
This event is sponsored by the Alameda County Peace and Freedom Party,
the Alameda County Green Party and Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change.
For more information email <info@sudssnackssocialism.org>
🌹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
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1
Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
Speaker: Basudev Nag Chowdhury, People’s Brigade
Bangladesh has observed a students-led mass-upsurge to overthrow the Hasina government replacing it with an interim government led by Md. Yunus as the Chief Adviser, although unrest is still going on. In quick succession, Sri Lanka has experienced the electoral power capture by the communist party JVP. Pakistan is exhibiting similar unrest since the arrest of its ex-president Imran Khan. The Indian state is still managing the people’s grievances although unprecedented sparks of protests are being observed such as in Bengal. In the talk at ICSS, Com. BNC will try to explain the general characteristics and identical origin of all such political turbulences in the entire Indian subcontinent as the manifestation of the global neoliberal crisis that has now been dumped to this region. Consequently the revolutionary aspect of the situation will be elaborated in the discussion.
Alameda County Supervisors have an ethical investment policy resolution on this week’s 12/10 agenda. Let’s mobilize to demand they vote and pass this resolution that will keep our tax dollars from being invested in companies that cause harm, enable or profit from environmental derogation, occupation, war, systemic poverty, mass surveillance, immigration detention centers, genocide or apartheid!We’ll be packing the house at 9:30am and again at 4pm, as we anticipate that this motion is going to get delayed again by Supervisor Miley At this meeting, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will vote on the letter directing Alameda County’s Treasurer to divest the county from companies involved in Israeli apartheid and genocide. This letter was introduced on November 12, but Sup. Haubert moved to delay the vote until the December 10th Board meeting. At the beginning of a board meeting each supervisor can delay an item once by up to 2 meetings, and we anticipate Miley will move to delay again.
It’s important that we pack the room at the start of the meeting to show strong community support from all across Alameda County in favor of divestment and come back later at 4 to give public comment! But if you can only join one of those times, please prioritize the 4pm mobilization. We must signal to our representatives that our communities take this seriously, and that any further delay is a miscarriage of Justice
t is critical that the Board rejects this proposal for the following reasons:
- Unity and Community Needs Must Be Prioritized: In the face of rising antisemitism and significant budget challenges, divisive initiatives like BDS distract from supporting the well-being of the entire community and addressing critical issues.
- Insufficient Time for Public Input: Rushing this proposal undermines transparency and prevents thoughtful deliberation.
- Lack of Clarity: The proposal’s broad and undefined mandate leaves no room for open debate in a public forum and hinders meaningful accountability.
Provide Public Comment on Tuesday
In Person: The proposal will be considered at the Board Chambers (1221 Oak Street, 5th Floor, Oakland) at 4:00 p.m. and the public will be permitted to provide comments about this item. We encourage you to show up early, bring small signs, and prepare one-minute remarks.
Remember to fill out a digital speaker card at the front of the chambers as soon as you get there. For talking points, please refer to our guide. Given that this is a fast-moving situation, please click here to get real-time updates from JCRC Bay Area before the meeting.
On Zoom: Zoom link here. Instructions for remote participation here.
By Email: Click here to submit a personal email to the Supervisors and have your comment included in the public record. The proposal is item 51. For talking points, please refer to our guide.
Thanks for your ongoing advocacy. We are stronger together!
Mark your calendars! 🚨
Join us Tuesday, Dec. 10 at 3 PM in Room 250 at City Hall to urge the SF Board of Supervisors to overturn the RV ban. Punishing vulnerable residents isn’t the answer—the city must invest in real solutions like safe parking sites! pic.twitter.com/4QljcEDLQZ
— Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights SF (@lccrsf) November 21, 2024
We keep us safe!
Basic Self Defense training for folks on the streets – tomorrow at 10am @ 2nd and Page Street cul-de-sac, West Berkeley. Training by Balagoon Mutual Aid. pic.twitter.com/lrheo7hSIE— Mama Lisa (@LisTeague) December 13, 2024
In the aftermath of COVID-19, over 37,000 Chinese migrants fled their homeland, embarking on an extraordinary and perilous journey through South America, crossing the treacherous Darien Gap, and reaching the U.S.-Mexico border.
Walk the Line follows their fight for freedom—same-sex couples escaping discrimination, families risking it all for a better future, and individuals seeking hope amid despair.
Spanning three continents and 18 months, this powerful documentary unveils the resilience, struggles, and courage of those seeking a new life, while exploring the deeper geopolitical and humanitarian crises that drive such journeys.
Selected for the 17th Austria This Human World International Human Rights Film Festival and the 2024 Norway Crossings Film Festival, Walk the Line is a must-see story of survival and determination. The screening is presented by StarShiner and Humanitarian China.
December 14 – 29, 2024
on Z Space’s Steindler Stage
Six people, telling the story, playing all the roles, in an abandoned industrial space.
This isn’t your average, feel-good Christmas tale. But it was never supposed to be.
We all know the story: The redemption of a cranky miser at Christmas, a ghost story designed to let an audience feel good about themselves for not being heartless. But Charles Dickens wasn’t trying to make people feel good, he was trying to show them a stark reality, scaring them into being more human. He wrote “A Christmas Carol” to shake up society, and with A Red Carol we are re-establishing his story as the revolutionary call-to-action Dickens intended.
With music, joy, and plenty of harsh truths about his time and ours, A Red Carol is the demand for economic and social justice Dickens wanted then, and we need now.
Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
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.
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89531900427?pwd=mXg1rSZe3ONl4pfWlALW4ornc32Eez.1
SYRIA: What is happening and what comes next?
Speaker: Rick Sterling. Rick is an investigative journalist based in the SF Bay Area. He has written many articles about Syria, traveled there five times, and has contacts on the ground.
The CPUC is voting Thursday on a plan that might keep the dirty Aliso Canyon gas storage facility indefinitely open.
Please join us at the CPUC hearing for a rally and to make public comment demanding they delay the proceeding until March rather than approve the process that would keep Aliso Canyon open. Residents of Aliso have been dealing with the serious public health repercussions of the blowout and fighting to shut it down since 2015. They need our support!
For a quick update on Aliso Canyon, see Sammy Roth’s recent editorial in the LAT, “Gavin Newsom’s failure to close Aliso Canyon is hurting us all.”
RSVP here to help Shut Aliso Down!
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.
Sunday Morning Marxist Forum
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
Speaker: Harpal Brar
To Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85175860127?pwd=bfZRQOSMuhX9Pfm4qhPMOZMrmE9Ohm.1
Modern war is a product of imperialism and cannot be eliminated without destroying imperialism. The most important thing is the policy that the parties that led to that war were pursuing and will pursue after the end of the war. We are not opposed to all wars. There are just and unjust wars. We support just wars like the war against imperialism by the oppressed nations, the wars of the bourgeoisie against feudalism, the wars of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie and the wars of socialist countries against imperialist countries. Revisionist distortions on the question of war and the role of opportunism will be discussed in the context of the ongoing wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine.
Harpal Brar was a founding member of Communist Party of Great Britain Marxist-Leninist, known by its acronym: CPGB-ML. CPGB-ML was formed in 2004, after some of its members split from Socialist Labor Party, which itself was a party that split from the Labor Party (UK). The CPGB-ML opposes Trotskyism, social democracy, democratic socialism and all forms of revisionism. In 1995, Harpal Brar published a book titled “Social Democracy: ‘The Enemy Within’.”
CPGB-ML opposes opportunism in the working-class movement and works for the establishment of socialism in Britain. At the eighth congress of the CPGB-ML in September 2018, Brar announced that he would step down as chairman of the party, to be replaced by Ella Rule.
He has written a number of books and articles:
- Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (2020) � Latest
- Perestroika: The Complete Collapse of Revisionism (1992)
- Revisionism and the Demise of the USSR
- Trotskyism or Leninism? (1993)
- Social Democracy: The Enemy Within (1995)
- NATO’s Predatory War Against Yugoslavia
- Imperialism and War
- Imperialism � the Eve of the Social Revolution of the Proletariat
- Chimurenga! The Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe
- Imperialism � Decadent, Parasitic, Moribund Capitalism
- Bourgeois Nationalism or Proletarian Internationalism?
- The 1926 British General Strike
- Inquilab Zindabad, India’s Liberation Struggle (2014)
Right now thousands of acres are burning in one of America’s largest cities. 30,000 people have evacuated their homes. Meanwhile, oil CEOs and their politicians celebrate their ever increasing wealth.
This cycle must stop. Our generation must force a new path forward. Join this call to find your place in the fight alongside us.
Want to learn more about Sunrise before the call? Watch here: smvmt.org/welcomevideos
Speaker: Mehmet Bayram
To Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/
The Middle East is in another turmoil as borders, governments, and alliances change daily, sometimes even in hours. Unable to solve its crisis, imperialism attacks all previously drawn borders, gobbling up even the most benign or harmless enclaves, marching to its targets: Iran, Russia, and ultimately, China.
While Turkey is trying to grapple with rising workers, women, and people’s resistance to its traditional fascism and unprecedented corruption, an unyielding Kurdish challenge creates insurmountable cracks in its structure. Changing policy and tactics daily, contradicting the position it held only a few hours ago, flip-flopping continuously, Turkey is trying to navigate uncharted waters in Syria and thus fails miserably as its fascist state with corruption and subservience to imperialism, finds the only way forward is with more blood, torture, war, and fascist aggression by curbing whatever fake freedom crumbs it may have had internally.
Mehmet Bayram is a member of the ICSS program committee and is a journalist, author, and translator, and is currently working on a book project to document the memoirs of the leftists who lived through the open fascist September 12, 1980, military coup in Turkiye.
Ana Falastini (Arabic for I am Palestinian), takes audiences through a journey introducing the Palestinian diaspora community in Vancouver, Canada. The film series features interviews with three generations of displaced Palestinians, telling their stories of resistance. It is composed of six episodes, with each episode diving into how the characters use aspects of the Palestinian culture to stay connected to their heritage and roots.
Brought to you by Healthcare Workers for Palestine and the Palestinian Feminist Collective, this event will fundraise for Prosthetics for Palestine.
Jill Stein is a Harvard-educated doctor, a pioneering environmental health advocate, and an organizer for people, planet, and peace. She was the Green Party’s Presidential candidate in 2024, as well as in 2012 and 2016. She has helped win victories in campaign finance reform, racially-just redistricting, and the clean-up of incinerators, coal plants, and other toxic threats.
Jill has received several awards for health and environmental protection, including Clean Water Action’s “Not in Anyone’s Backyard” Award, the “Children’s Health Hero” Award, and the Toxic Action Center’s Citizen Award. She also served on the board of directors for Physicians for Social Responsibility.
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