March 6, 2021 GREENZINE SF Green Party Weekly News and Events www.sfgreenparty.org twitter.com/sfgreenparty instagram.com/sfgreenparty mastodon.sfgreens.org/@sfgreenparty www.facebook.com/groups/SFGreenParty/ Dear Greens, Join us outside tomorrow for a socially distanced rally to free SF Bay View Editor Malik Washington! More details are listed below the list of upcoming online events. In national news, the US House of Representatives recently passed HR 1, which unfortunately contains a "poison pill" which will greatly hurt the Green Party. So please read the article below from the national Green Party (after the list of upcoming online events), and follow the link in it to sign the petition to get HR 1 amended. Here are a number of online lectures and events in the next month or so that will be of interest to Greens: Wed, 3/10, 4 pm -- A Conversation with Naomi Klein -- What needs to happen to bring about transformative, systemic change at this critical time? -- University of Michigan: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/18th-peter-m-wege-lecture-featuring-naomi-klein... Fri, 3/12, 1 pm -- Rising from the Ashes: The Resurgence of Environmentalism -- With Patrick A. Parenteau, Professor of Law and Senior Counsel in the Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law School: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rising-from-the-ashes-the-resurgence-of-environ... Mon, 3/15, 4 pm through Fri, 3/19, 6 pm -- Religion & Ecology Summit --Indigenous Lifeways, Cosmologies & Ecology: Connecting to the Past, Restor(y)ing the Present and Future, with over 15 speakers -- A California Institute of Integral Studies event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/religion-ecology-summit-indigenous-lifeways-cos... Thu, 3/18, 7 am -- The Climate Emergency: Do We Need a Whole New Political Economy? (A "King’s Great Debate") -- Organized by the School of Politics & Economics, King's College London -- Speakers include: Professor Rebecca Willis, from Lancaster University, and Professor Sam Fankhauser, from the London School of Economics: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-climate-emergency-do-we-need-a-whole-new-po... Mon, 3/22, 1 pm -- Noam Chomksy: Reflections on the Future of Democracy -- The celebrated linguist, philosopher, and political activist discusses the current threats to democracy. Noam will be interviewed by William Crawley, a journalist and broadcaster with the BBC: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/noam-chomksy-reflections-on-the-future-of-democ... Tue, 3/23, 12:30 am -- Capital and Ideology, with Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century -- Piketty’s latest book, Capital and Ideology, examines inequality as a political phenomenon, shaped by ideology and social institutions. What would need to happen for change to occur? Organized by the UNSW Centre for Ideas, Sydney, Australia: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/capital-and-ideology-registration-139599121731?... Tue, 3/23, 4 pm -- Holey Safety Net or Basic Income? Learn more about the benefits of Basic Income and why support is growing. With poverty law lawyer Kristen Thompson, family therapist Andrea Kauppinen, and business manager Rob Evans: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/holey-safety-net-or-basic-income-registration-1... Thu, 3/25, 1 pm -- Bill McKibben, on "Climate Change: Have We Turned a Corner?" -- What have we already locked in and how we can keep it from getting more traumatic than it must? -- Organized by Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bill-mckibben-climate-change-have-we-turned-a-c... Sat, 4/24, all day -- 2nd Annual National Antiracist Book Festival -- including Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Dave Zirin, Benjamin Crump, Albert Woodfox, and dozens of others -- Boston University Center for Antiracist Research: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-2nd-annual-national-antiracist-book-festiva... *===========================* What: Defend Black Journalism - Rally to Free SF Bay View Editor Malik Washington and Get GEO Out of California! When: Sun, March 7, 12-2 pm Where: 111 Taylor Street, SF SF Bay View National Black Newspaper Editor Malik Washington is being severely retaliated against for releasing a public memo documenting a preventable COVID-19 outbreak at 111 Taylor, an enormous GEO Group-owned halfway house in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. The $2B+ for-profit prison company stole his phone and put a gag order on him in what is the most egregious attack on journalism and Malik's constitutional right to freedom of speech. They are now threatening to send him back to jail, and Malik has sued. For more information, see these articles in 48 Hills: * https://48hills.org/2021/01/covid-outbreak-and-media-crackdown-at-private-ha... * https://48hills.org/2021/02/editor-sues-over-gag-rule-at-private-prison-in-t... * https://48hills.org/2021/02/bay-view-editor-wont-face-immediate-discipline-f... For an excellent documentary expose on the atrocious, dehumanizing conditions at 111 Taylor St, please view the 11 minute documentary put forth by SF Public Defender's The Adachi Project here: https://wearedefender.com/111-taylor/ GEO Group is fighting Malik, but they are also currently litigating against AB 32, which would ban private detention facilities in California, arguing that they would lose $15M per year in revenue, with a large portion coming from caging our siblings in abusive ICE Detention Facilities across the state. Join the Malik Washington Defense Committee for a masked up, socially distanced rally at 111 Taylor Street, SF from 12:00 - 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 7 to demand Malik Washington's freedom, to stop the attack on Black journalism, and to shout to the rooftops: GEO Group - get out of California! More details: https://www.facebook.com/events/3787568457993790 *===========================* What: Stop HR 1 When: Now Where: Online Dear Greens, HR 1 is sold as a way to get money out of politics and to protect voters, but it contains a poison pill fordemocracy and opposition parties like the Green Party. HR1 quintuples the amount of money Green presidential campaigns will be required to raise to qualify for federal matching funds: from $5,000 in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state. The Green Party stands opposed to this bait-and-switch legislation that claims to improve access to voting while actually dismantling everyone's right to organize electorally against the parties of War and Wall Street. In a recent Gallup poll, a record 62% of US voters said we need a new major party. HR 1 is just the latest example of how the parties of War and Wall Street have no shame about strangling democracy to preserve their duopoly, even while pretending they're doing exactly the opposite. Please donate to the Green Party today so we can fight back. No doubt you've heard from "progressive" groups about how HR 1 contains much-needed voter protections. And it's true, HR1 contains some badly needed reforms. That makes it all the more shameful for the Democrats to use those reforms as cover to eliminate competition from alternative parties. Goto our Action Page (https://www.gp.org/hr_1) and Tell Congress: Stop HR 1, the "Voting Rights Bill" That Restricts Voter Choice! And make sure you tell your family and communities how HR 1 will: - Eliminate the limits on donations and expenditures candidates can receive and make — what kind of campaign finance reform is that? - Inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to candidates from $5000 to $100 million, an astonishing increase of 1999900% that would give party bosses virtually unlimited power to flood elections with big money. - Abolish the general election campaign block grants that parties can access by winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election. HR1 will eliminate this provision that was created to give a fair shot to alternative parties that demonstrate significant public support. - Replace the general election block grants (where each qualified candidate receives a set, lump sum of public funding for campaign expenses) with matching funds through Election Day — a huge step backwards for public campaign finance reform — using the above-mentioned criteria designed to squeeze out alternative parties and independent candidates. Instead of trying to fool American voters and eliminating minor party voices, the Green Party calls for real reforms to democratize elections: - The Fair Representation Act, introduced in 2018 and 2019, would enact Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) and multi-member districts for Congressional elections, giving voters more power and more choice. - Individual state governments should enact RCV for their elections, including the presidential election. - Fully-public campaign finance for every federal, state and local office through the Clean Money/Clean Elections model now used in Arizona and Maine. For more info about how you can help, see: https://www.gp.org/hr_1 *===========================* What: SF Green Party Organizing When: All the time Where: Online Until the pandemic is under control, we will not be holding in-person meetings. Government will need to implement a widespread testing and contact tracing program in order to safely open things up. Unfortunately, a number of our active members do not have reliable internet access (especially with our public libraries closed), so holding general monthly meetings over Zoom is not an option. Instead, we have an email list for discussions between active members, and our county council (CC) meets by Zoom on the 3rd Wednesdays of every month. If you'd like to join our conversation online, or our CC meetings, please email cc@sfgreens.org with your name and contact info, and also please remind us if you've been to a meeting before. If you are unable to join us but still want to follow what's going on, you can call Barry Hermanson at 415-255-9494. *===========================* To submit events for our newsletter, please email a short blurb to news@sfgreens.org. Messages to a mailing list will be rejected.