Register in advance (click here)
with David Cobb and Debbie Notkin
The AFJM Communications and Website Committee is pleased to welcome David and Debbie to share about their legislative successes as it pertains to Public Banking in California. Although PBI and AFJM have very different approaches to democratize the money system, we are natural allies and we can learn from each other, especially around effective public education strategies and grassroots organizing. There will be a short 30 min. presentation, and then most of the time will be for open discussion.
Public Banking is one way to democratize economic decisions, and the movement is growing across the country. California is at the cutting edge of this effort. AB 857 passed last year, which allows for the creation of 10 local/regional public banks. This legislative session AB310 is being introduced, which would create a statewide Public Bank for California.
The CA Public Banking Alliance has been the driving force behind this movement. They will share details about public banking generally, and what they have learned in the process of building a grassroots movement and successfully engaging in the legislative process.
About the Speakers:
David Cobb is a “people’s lawyer” who has sued corporate polluters, lobbied elected officials, run for political office himself, and been arrested for non-violent civil disobedience. He ran for Attorney General in Texas, pledging to use the office to revoke the charters of corporations that violate the law. He was the Green Party nominee for President in 2004, and managed the Jill Stein Presidential campaign in 2016. He is active with the CA Public Banking Alliance, and Cooperation Humboldt.
Debbie Notkin is Chair of the Board of Directors of Public Bank East Bay, and is an active member of Strike Debt Bay Area (SDBA). She was one of two people who led SDBA’s successful effort to erase $1.6 million in unpaid medical debt for East Bay residents in 2019, following in the footsteps of the national Rolling Jubilee. She believes that economic justice work is a comparatively clean way for white people to advance racial justice. She was a founding member of science fiction’s James Tiptree Jr. Award (now the Otherwise Award) for works of science fiction and fantasy that explore and expand gender, and was deeply involved for many years with WisCon, the world’s first feminist science fiction convention. She blogs regularly (yes, still!) on a wide variety of body image and political topics with Laurie Toby Edison at www.laurietobyedison.com/body-impolitic-blog.