April 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, We will be making endorsements in the upcoming membership votes at KPFA radio. The KPFA station board currently includes three Alameda county Greens, Don Macleay, Daniel Borgstrom, and James McFadden, as well as Santa Clara county Green Christine Pepin. If you don't have a subscription, or your previous subscription has expired, please contribute $25 for a year's subscription (membership) at: https://secure.kpfa.org/support/ by this Wednesday (4/7) in order to be able to vote in upcoming elections. Although Republican voter supression in Georgia has been getting well-deserved focus recently, little attention is being paid to voter supression by the Democratic Party. Mike Feinstein, from the Santa Monica Greens, has written a good article about the problems with HR-1 and efforts to block Greens from the ballot in Nevada: https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/commentary-democrats-have-their-own-vo... SF Green Party member Barry Hermanson also wrote a nice article about COVID vaccines, Big Pharma, and Medicare for All: https://sfbayview.com/2021/03/big-pharma/ Here are a number of online lectures and events in the next month or so that will be of interest to Greens: Tue, 4/6, 2:30 pm -- Cultivating Fear: Anti-Muslim Bias in the Media and Society -- With Rowaida Abdelaziz, a national reporter at HuffPost, Malika Bilal, senior presenter at The Take, an interview-driven news podcast, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, a civil rights attorney and Deputy Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Saif Shahin, Assistant Professor at American University, whose current research looks at artificial intelligence and big data as a sociopolitical phenomena, and online identity construction as a sociotechnical practice -- Organized the American University School Of Communication: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cultivating-fear-anti-muslim-bias-in-the-media-... Wed, 4/7, 3:30 pm -- A discussion of Kurt Vonnegut's, “Man Without a Country" -- Presented by the "Radical Reading Circle", and hosted by the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library and Lasana Kazembe and Jason Kelly, with Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/radical-reading-circle-with-the-kurt-vonnegut-m... Wed, 4/7, 5 pm -- In Conversation: Jeff Chang, Dave Cook, and Tina Bell Wright -- Professors Cook and Wright join author Chang to discuss his book about Hip Hop, "Can't Stop Won't Stop" -- Organized by the California African American Museum: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-conversation-jeff-chang-dave-cook-and-tina-b... Thu, 4/8, 12 Noon -- Antiracism and Environmental Justice: Latinx Imperatives -- Ramón Cruz, president of the Sierra Club, and David Vazquez, co-editor of "Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial", and a professor at American University, will discuss environmental justice in Latinx communities and the prospects for antiracist environmentalism: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/antiracism-and-environmental-justice-latinx-imp... Thu, 4/8, 4 pm -- Religious Communities and the Planetary Crisis -- This webinar will examine the response of the faith communities to the climate crisis from the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Christian perspectives -- Sponsored by the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network, the Hartford Seminary, and CT Interfaith Power & Light: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/religious-communities-and-the-planetary-crisis-... Sat, 4/10, 4 pm -- Frida Berrigan on Martin Luther King's Triad: Racism Militarism & Excessive Materialism -- Organized by the Cleveland Nonviolence Network: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/frida-berrigan-on-ml-kings-triad-racism-milit... Sun, 4/11, 10 am -- Visionary Virtual Conference: Bigger Love -- With economist Hazel Henderson, European Union Ambassador to the United States Stavros Lambrinidis, and two others -- Organized by the American Visionary Art Museum: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/logan-visionary-virtual-conference-bigger-lov... Mon, 4/12, 2 pm -- Conformity, Propaganda, and the Fight for a Left Future with Noam Chomsky -- A critical discussion on a plethora of issues with world (in)famous dissident, public intellectual, and author Noam Chomsky: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/conformity-propaganda-and-the-fight-for-a-left-... Tue, 4/13, 4 pm -- Freedom-Making in an Age of Mass Incarceration -- With Toussaint Losier, UMass-Amherst; editor, Rethinking the American Prison Movement; Beth Richie, University of Illinois-Chicago; author, Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation; and 3 others -- Organized by the Pozen Center Human Rights Lab: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/freedom-making-in-an-age-of-mass-incarceratio... Wed, 4/14, 10 am -- The Arab Spring: 10 Years On -- Five panelists from King's College London (KCL) will discuss protests and protest movements in Egypt and Lebanon, media and the Arab Spring in north Africa, Syria, Palestine, and the Gulf -- Organized by the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies, KCL: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-arab-spring-10-years-on-tickets-14635631868... Wed, 4/14, 11 am -- Anarchist in The UK - Louise Michel, heroine of the Paris Commune -- To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, Naomi Clifford explores the life of Louise Michel, feminist, anarchist, poet, playwright and journalist, who survived the bloody end of the 1871 Paris Commune -- Organized by Lambeth Libraries: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anarchist-in-the-uk-louise-michel-heroine-of-th... Mon, 4/19, 4:30 pm -- DearTomorrow: Envisioning a sustainable future in a time of climate change -- An experiential climate change workshop -- Participants will break into smaller conversation groups -- Organized by Long Now Boston: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/deartomorrow-envisioning-a-sustainable-future-i... 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... Thu, 4/29, 8 am -- As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock -- Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes), Lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, discusses some of the main themes of her book "As Long As Grass Grows" -- Organized by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/as-long-as-grass-grows-the-indigenous-fight-for... *===========================* 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.