Northern California CCDS

Health Care "Reform"--Obama's mortal error

By Betty Brown

This is being written as the big health care policy debate continues in Washington. It is also written from the perspective of a retired School Public Health Nurse actively engaged in the grassroots campaign for the California Universal Health Care Act (SB 810). This act has been consistently endorsed by No. CA CCDS as it is a single-payer or “Medicare for All” approach to health care reform.

The national debate has provided an opening for serious health care reform discussion, but it has taken intense grassroots lobbying efforts including threats of health professionals picketing to get single payer advocates acknowledged by the Obama Administration.

Van Jones Victimized by New Red Scare

By Jonathan Nack

In response to the red-baiting and smear attacks against ACORN and Van Jones, the CCDS organized an educational event on Nov. 5, 2009 at La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley.
Two members of Oakland ACORN, Martha Daniels and Annie McKinzie, who have both been evicted from their homes, spoke movingly how they are working with ACORN to organize community resistance to evictions. They vowed to defend ACORN against right-wing attacks and
continue their organizing.

CCDS members Jonathan Nack and Marty Price spoke, respectively,about the redbaiting attacks on Van Jones (which caused him to resign his position as Pres. Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar”) and the way to respond to such attacks against our leaders, organizations, and movements.

The article that follows is a fuller exploration of this subject.

South Africa After 25 Years of Democracy: Interview with South Africa's Chris Matlhako

 
The following interview of Chris Matlhako, Secretary of International Affairs for the South African Communist Party, took place at the 6th National Convention of the CCDS, July 2009 in San Francisco. It was conducted
by Northern California CCDS member Mel Martynn. Matlhako also spoke to the assembly several times. He discussed both the gains and problems of South African society. Matlhako, 38, became involved in mass demonstration movements in the early 80s as
he was growing up. His family was working class, his mother was a nurse, and he has three brothers. He joined the African National Congress in 1989, when it was still banned.
chrismatlhako@hotmail.com
Website: www.sacp.org.za

Thursday, 11/5--Socialists Under the Bed: SOCIALISTS UNDER THE BED: Smear Campaigns Target Van Jones and ACORN

SOCIALISTS UNDER THE BED: Smear Campaigns Target Van Jones and ACORN

a community forum and discussion
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 at 7pm
La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA (near Ashby BART)

Featuring a panel with Martha Daniels and Annie McKinzie of Oakland ACORN and veteran activist Marty Price; plus video and live music.

How can we defend ourselves, our organizations and our leaders?  What can we learn from the history of red scares, McCarthyism, and smear campaigns against social movements?  How can we respond?

Sponsored by the Northern California Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
$5-$20 sliding scale - nobody turned away for lack of funds.
(wheelchair accessible)

Printable pdf of flyer.

It's the System, Stupid (part 2)

by Alan Weinerman

Part 1 of this article appeared on 9/18/2009. You can read it here.

PART 2: Obama is a brilliant capitalist. He not only knows that starving and homeless people are not good consumers, but he seems to actually care about people. In his first address to the joint session of Congress, Obama talked about great goals, a green economy, better schools, available health care, and modernizing our economy to compete in the 21st century. Wonderful goals, but impossible to achieve without coming to grips with the fact that “we the people” and our government do not own the economy. The economy is owned by private corporations. This obvious problem is usually completely ignored. The only time nationalizing an industry or company is discussed is when that industry is going broke. What a deal. Put the money-losers in public hands, and leave the profitable businesses in private hands. Somehow I don’t think that would work. Until the commanding heights of industry and finance

Socialists Under the Bed!! Smear campaigns target ACORN, Van Jones

Catch our November 5 forum at La Peña Cultural Center— 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley,
CA. Socialists Under the Bed: Smear Campaigns Target ACORN and Van Jones. Forum and community discussion, including a speaker from Oakland ACORN. 7pm. Sliding scale $5-$20.

Building the Progressive Majority and a Socialist Future

by Cathy Hodge McCoid

The 6th national CCDS convention, titled “Building the Progressive Majority and a Socialist Future,” met in San Francisco July 24–26.  It was preceded by a symposium (“Capitalism in Crisis: Socialism for the 21st Century”) on Thursday, July 23, sponsored by the Committees of Correspondence Education Fund. 

Angela Davis was the moderator for the symposium’s evening program, with international speakers giving insight into the struggles to build progressive coalitions in their own countries and internationally.  Participants included Chris Matlhako, from the South Africa Communist Party; Marcos Garcia, Second Secretary of Labor Affairs in Venezuela; Helmut Scholz, head of international relations for Die Linke (The Left Party) of Germany; and Jackeline Rivera from El Salvador, representing the FMLN.

Honduras: Democracy in Danger

by Miles Stryker

Early Sunday morning, June 28, two hundred soldiers attacked the residence of the Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya. After his personal bodyguards waged a brief gun battle, he was arrested. He was then spirited away by plane to nearby Costa Rica. Upon landing, he gave a press conference proclaiming that a military coup by “right-wing oligarchs” had taken place, and he called on the people of Honduras to support his democratic election (in 2005) by mobilizing in the streets to prepare the way for his return to his country and office. As of late July, he has been blocked from re-entry. Negotiations between Zelaya and the leaders of the coup are currently taking place.

The Budget's In, Our Needs Are Out

  

 by Bill Balderston

On July 28, Governor Arnold Schwarz-enegger signed the “final” version of a budget which appears to resolve the $26.3 billion deficit faced by the state through a series of last-minute cuts and a number of accounting maneuvers as well as an end to the 40-year moratorium on off-shore oil drilling.

The cuts are centered in child welfare and healthcare, services for the elderly, AIDS treatment, and state parks.

The governor cut over $9 billion for kindergarten through 12th grade public education, on top of $11.6 billion in previous reductions.

It's the System, Stupid

by Alan Weinerman
The most critical issue raised by the current world capitalist meltdown has been almost totally ignored by the liberal/left media. Is the systemic crisis simply due to Republican greed and recklessness, or are we entering the final breakdown of the system of private ownership of the means of production and finance? Marx long ago predicted a terminal crisis would be inevitable due to the basic contradictions of capitalism. The crisis has of course been exacerbated by the Republicans, who represent the most divorced-from-reality sector of the “ruling class.” But their policies have often been abetted by Banker Democrats like Summers and Geithner, who are hard at work bending Obama’s ear.