[SFGP] Greenzine - Defend Black Journalism, Online Events, Stop HR-1

Sat Mar 6 11:19:53 PST 2021

March 6, 2021
GREENZINE
SF Green Party Weekly News and Events

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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-tickets-133344333491?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

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-environmentalism-tickets-136837489615?aff=erellivmlt

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-cosmologies-ecology-tickets-138001968603?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

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-political-economy-tickets-138432269645?aff=erellivmlt&keep_tld=1

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-democracy-tickets-141499030409?aff=erelpanelorg&keep_tld=1

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?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

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-141553007857?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=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-corner-tickets-141534873617?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch&keep_tld=1

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-festival-tickets-94478727417?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

*===========================*

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-halfway-house-in-tenderloin/
  * https://48hills.org/2021/02/editor-sues-over-gag-rule-at-private-prison-in-tenderloin/
  * https://48hills.org/2021/02/bay-view-editor-wont-face-immediate-discipline-for-holding-press-conference/

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 at 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 at sfgreens.org.  Messages to a mailing list will be rejected.