Calendar of Past Events – 2013

Wednesday, November 20, 2013 – 7:00-8:30PM

350 Marin Presents:
Climate Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here?

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Peter Joseph of Citizens Climate Lobby, Climate Reality Project and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Original music by Lucia Comnes including her new song: “Burning Eden”.

7:00PM
First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
72 Kensington Road
San Anselmo, CA 94960
Google Maps

Please feel free to distribute the event flyer or call (415) 388-2018 for more information. The event is wheelchair accessible.

Learn — Imagine — Act

Sunday, November 17, 2013 – 4:00PM

Steve Bingham, a Life Story

You are cordially invited to hear renowned lawyer and activist Steve Bingham tell the story of his life. Bingham was falsely accused of smuggling a gun into San Quentin prison that allegedly resulted in a prison riot in August 1971 that left six people dead, including George Jackson, member of the Black Panther Party. He subsequently spent 13 years on the run from the FBI, finally returning to the USA when the political climate against left wing activists had eased and was acquitted of all charges in 1986.

We are also proud to have Greta Berlin, co-author of Freedom Sailors, speak about her new project, Freedom Stitchers and Jane Jewell will talk about Gaza's Ark.

Bingham's presentation will be at 4:00PM. Admission will be free. However, donations in aid of Gaza's Ark and Freedom Stitchers will be much appreciated.

The presentation will be followed by a catered reception at 6:00PM for 21-28 people who will have the opportunity to get to know Steve Bingham, his wife and Greta Berlin personally and ask questions. The meal will cost $40 and the proceeds will support our sponsored child in Gaza, Khitam Mazen Kanou, a 14-year-old girl who attends the Atfaluna School for the Deaf. If you would like to join the reception, catered by The West End Delicatessen, please email us at [email protected] by November 15th.

4:00PM
First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
72 Kensington Road
San Anselmo, CA 94960
Google Maps

Free admission, but donations in the name Gaza's Ark and Freedom Stitchers will be gratefully accepted. This event is sponsored by Keep Hope Alive and 14 Friends of Palestine, Marin.

Saturday, November 9, 6:00PM

Jazz for Palestine

The NorCal Friends of Sabeel invites you to Jazz for Palestine with music by Destiny Muhammad, the “harpist from the 'hood”, and the One World Jazz Band. Khalil Bendib, host of KPFA's Voices of the Middle East, a well-known political cartoonist and commentator, will MC an evening of good food, good music and good fun.

The evening will feature awards to local activists who have worked tirelessly for Palestinian rights: Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children's Alliance, and Jean Pauline of Bay Area Women in Black, together with local Women in Black groups. It will also include a silent auction and wine raffle. Funds will benefit a Palestinian-themed mural by local youth, a joint project with the Estria Foundation, and scholarships for travel.

6:00PM
Uptown Body and Fender
401 26th Street
Oakland, CA 94612
Google Maps

Tickets are $30 before November 2nd and $35 at the door. Register at www.fosna.org/jazzforpalestine/, or call (510) 542-4630 for more information. The event is wheelchair accessible.

Wednesday, November 6, 7:30 pm

An Evening with Bill Ayers: “Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident”

Bill Ayers will discuss his new book, “Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident”.

Ayers charts his life after the Weather Underground, when he becomes the GOP's favorite “public enemy”. Labeled a “domestic terrorist” by the McCain campaign in 2008 and used by the Radical Right to castigate Barack Obama for “palling around with terrorists”, Bill Ayers is in fact a dedicated teacher, father, and social justice advocate with a sharp memory and even sharper wit. He and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, are both celebrated for their community work and hated by the Radical Right. Hosted by Max Pringle

7:30PM
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA 94709
Google Maps

Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. To purchase advance tickets please go to brownpapertickets.com or call (800) 838-3006. Proceeds from this event benefit KPFA. For more information please see the event page. Max Pringle is a veteran KPFA Public Affairs Producer.

Friday, October 25, 7:00 PM

Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas Presents:

On October 25 Gold Fever will screen in Marin as part of a worldwide discussion on mining devastation. This eye-opening and inspiring documentary is about the arrival of Goldcorp Inc. in a remote Guatemalan village.

Winner of the Rigoberta Menchu Grand Prix at the 2013 Montreal First Peoples Festival, Gold Fever is a hard-hitting documentary about three women resisting a transnational gold mine in their community. Viewing the film, as part of Global Screening Event, is an opportunity to both learn about and discuss the issues, and to show solidarity with people experiencing global resource extraction.

Following the screening of the film Carissa Brands will host a discussion of the film. “We believe that resource extraction is an under-reported issue. By hosting a screening of Gold Fever we hope to shine a light on the harm to health, community and environment brought by transnational industrial mining and the connections to our own communities. As part of a global action, we hope to raise visibility of these issues in Marin.”

7:00PM
Basement, First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Road (at Fourth Street)
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

$5.00 Donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds. For more information please call (415) 924-3277 or see the event flyer. Sponsored by Marin Interfaith Task Force on the Americas. Cosponsored by Marin Peace & Justice Coalition.

Saturday, October 19, 10:45AM — 12:15PM

FUKUSHIMA IS HERE

On October 19th, thousands of people will use their bodies to create a human mural spelling out “FUKUSHIMA IS HERE” and then be photographed from the air. We want you with us.

Please arrive in the vicinity by 10:45AM Helicopter overhead at noon sharp. Event finished by approx 12:15PM.

We will arrange ourselves in 100–foot tall lettering. Our aim is to bring awareness to the continuing damage and mismanagement of Fukushima nuclear power plant. The message will be centered approximately 200 yards north of the intersection of Fulton and the Great Highway, halfway between the Cliff House and the Beach Chalet restaurant (public bathroom in the Beach Chalet's public lobby). A concrete sea wall runs along the beach, with short, numbered stairways leading down to the sand. The event will be centered near Stairway 12, and will stretch out from there, both north and south.

10:45AM
Ocean Beach
San Francisco, CA
Google Maps

Ocean Beach is a one-mile stretch of sand located at the west end of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The closest intersection is Fulton Street and The Great Highway.

Please Sign Up at Fukishima is HERE! and view the Video!

Wednesday, October 16, 7:00 PM

San Rafael City Council Candidates Forum and Debate
Looking through the Lens of Sustainability

This year we have a hotly contested race for San Rafael City Council, with four candidates vying for two open seats. Join us on Wednesday October 16, when all four candidates will be with us specifically addressing sustainability topics, like climate change action, future development planning and the infamous PDAs, the SMART train and much, much more. Plus, there will be lots of time for audience questions. It promises to be an interesting evening.

San Rafael Community Center
618 B Street
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

Sponsored by Sustainable San Rafael

Monday, October 14, 7:15 PM

Marin Peace & Justice Coalition Presents:
The Struggle for Free Speech at the City College of New York 1931–42

will show Marin a Power Point Presentation using police surveillance photographs, cartoons and graphics to document student and faculty activism at the City College of New York. Spawned by the Great Depression and the rise of fascism in Europe, this activism brought repeated crackdowns by the administration and culminated in the dismissal of 50 CCNY faculty and staff, the largest academic purge in US history.

7:15PM — Power Point Presentation
Basement, First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Road (at Fourth Street)
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

Sponsored by Marin Peace & Justice Coalition For more information please call (415) 388 2018 Free and open to the public.

Monday, October 7, 7:00 PM

Speak up for CMCM at the San Rafael City Council!

We are scheduled to appear before several councils to discuss their possible temporary support of the media center. We would like people to come and speak in support of CMCM during the public comment period. If you can not attend, please consider sending an email to your local council member.

7:00PM
San Rafael City Council Chambers
1400 5th Avenue
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

Please help keep this valuable community resource alive!

Sunday, October 6, 7:00PM

Where Should The Birds Fly?

Followed by Questions and answers with Film Maker Fida Qishta. Hosted by Annie Robbins Mondoweiss

The first film on Gaza by Palestinians living in Gaza. In 2004, Fida Qishta, a novice wedding videographer, filmed the Israeli bulldozing of her own neighborhood, 60 homes in 6 hours, yet didn't look at the film until years later. She went on to document the daily struggles of Palestinians living under siege and military strikes. She films Operation Cast Lead (2008-09) and then is led to a stoic 10-year-old girl, Mona, who lost 21 members of her family including her parents in a missile attack. In subsequent visits, we see Mona working out her grief through drawings and by talking about more and more details of that traumatic event. She is not vindictive. She wants to become a doctor. This film shows not only the reality of Gaza but the incredible spirit of the people of Gaza.

This film won the Indie Film Festival and was shown at 8 Film Festivals in 2013. Read more about the film at the film's website: Where Should the Birds Fly?

7:00PM
First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
72 Kensington Road
San Anselmo, CA 94960
Google Maps

Free and open to the Public. All donations will be gratefully accepted. There will b a Reception following the film. This event is sponsored by Keep Hope Alive, 14 Friends of Palestine, Gaza's Ark, Marin Peace & Justice Coalition and The Social Justice Center of Marin.

Sunday, October 6, 5:00PM

Ghost Town to Havana

Since the summer of 2007, we've followed the lives of Afro Cuban boys growing up in Centro Habana, Cuba playing baseball for Coach Nicolas Reyes, and African-American boys growing up in a neighborhood in West Oakland called “Ghost Town”, playing for Coach Roscoe Bryant. ....

A portrait of the coaches and the boys emerges, along with a strong sense of their neighborhoods, families, schools and cultures. We witness the enormous obstacles the Ghost Town boys face in their lives yet the story of Roscoe and his players is positive, even inspiring. The Centro Habana boys and their Afro-Cuban coach, Nicolas, live in material poverty yet their daily lives are surprisingly more carefree, with safer streets, far less racial prejudice and segregation, better schools, stronger family and community ties, plus more organized sports opportunities. Life for the boys' parents is harder. The economy is bureaucratic, centralized (though this is changing), and inefficient. Yet, compared to West Oakland, it's paradise for poor kids. It sometimes it seems as if the biggest mistake a child in Cuba can make is to grow up.

5:00PM
Throckmorton Theatre
142 Throckmorten
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Google Maps

For tickets or more information please see www.mvff.com/buy-tickets or call (877) 874-6833.

Wednesday, September 25, 7:00 PM

Bill McKibben — Oil and Honey

Priority seating with purchase of Oil and Honey from Book Passage Bill McKibben is not a person you'd expect to find handcuffed and behind bars, but that's where he found himself in the summer of 2011 after leading the largest civil disobedience in thirty years, protesting the Keystone XL pipeline in front of the White House. With the Arctic melting, the Midwest in drought, and Irene scouring the Atlantic, McKibben recognized that action was needed if solutions were to be found. Some of those would come at the local level, where McKibben joins forces with a Vermont beekeeper raising his hives as part of the growing trend toward local food. Other solutions would come from a much larger fight against the fossil-fuel industry as a whole.

Oil and Honey is McKibben's account of these two necessary and mutually reinforcing sides of the global climate fight—from the center of the maelstrom and from the growing hive of small–scale local answers. With empathy and passion he makes the case for a renewed commitment on both levels, telling the story of raising one year's honey crop and building a social movement that's still cresting.

Bill McKibben is the author of more than a dozen books, including The End of Nature, Earth, and Deep Economy. He is the founder of the environmental organization 350.org and was among the first to warn of the dangers of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 2013 winner of the Gandhi Prize. He lives in Vermont.

Wednesday, September 25, 7:00 PM
Angelico Hall
50 Acacia Avenue, San Rafael
Dominican University of California
Google Maps

Saturday, September 21, 1:00PM – 2:00PM

Draw the Line on Keystone XL

Will Marin, will you, show up locally to support this 350.org national day of action to “draw the line” and say NO to the Keystone XL Pipeline, slated to bring more tar sands oil to the United States, and instead say YES to renewable energies? Come march and demonstrate with us for one hour!

1:00PM
Redhill Shopping Center
838 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
San Anselmo, CA 94960
Google Maps

We will meet at Redhill Shopping Center Parking Lot in San Anselmo and walk to the Transit Hub. Please bring banners, posters and signs.

Friday, September 20, 7:00PM

Marin Peace & Justice Coalition Presents:
LOCAL PUBLIC BANKING

We know the Hollywood version of the Wizard of OZ, written by Frank Baum in 1900, but what is the secret of OZ metaphor behind it, and what it brought? Answer: Public Banking, successfully operating for all of North Dakota as The Bank of North Dakota, BND. only state owned bank in the nation. In 2008 when all the banks were failing, The Bank of North Dakota had a surplus.

Marc Armstrong and Leah Klerr (Sonoma) from the Public Banking Institute will explain how public banks keep our money local and safe, working for the local economies. Question and Answers to follow regarding, unsecured depositors; who is holding your taxpayer money; and what are Federal Reserve notes?.

This is an evening you don't want to miss. “You have to understand that Wall Street is leveraging our money and not to our benefit, lending it back to us. When you realize that we could do that in–house, keep it all local, leverage our money for our own purposes, when you understand that is the point here, why not do it?” — Ellen Brown, President of the Public Banking Institute

7:00PM Presentation
Basement, First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Road (at Fourth Street)
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

This event, is FREE and open to the public. Sponsored by Marin Peace & Justice Coalition, cosponsored by First United Methodist Church. Refreshments will be served. For more information, please call: (415) 459-7210

Friday, September 20, 4:30PM

Vigil Against War in Syria

Diplomacy, not devastation in Syria. President Obama, please send diplomacy experts to Syria namely, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and High Commissioner for Human Rights with the UN, and Medea Benjamin from Global Exchange.

War today is endless. Let us commit to endless diplomacy for a new fresh solution.

4:30PM
East Blithdale at Camino Alto
Mill Valley, CA 94960
Google Maps

Vigil at the corner of E. Blithedale and Camino Alto, in Mill Valley

Saturday, August 3rd, 2013 – 10:00AM

RALLY & MARCH to the Chevron Refinery

On August 3rd, the one year anniversary of the Richmond Chevron refinery explosion and fire, two powerful forces, 350bayarea.org and the environmental justice groups organizing in Richmond, California, are coming together and taking action in Northern California to stop climate chaos and move towards a just, renewable region and world.

10:00AM
The Richmond BART Station
1700 Nevin Avenue
Richmond, CA 94801
Google Maps

This event has incredible potential to bring together thousands on the doorstep of the largest climate polluter in the state, and to build the movement to stop climate chaos. To realize that potential we need you. You can participate in the march and rally with no risk of arrest, or for those who choose to, there will an option of nonviolent direct action or civil disobedience. Please RSVP or download one of the Event Flyers or Posters.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013 – 6:30PM

The San Francisco Mime Troupe!

The SF Mime Troupe returns to the back lawn of the Mill Valley Community Center for their 2013 show, “Oil and Water”, about the dangerous energy practices of both corporations and the rest of us.

6:30PM
Mill Valley Community Center
180 Camino Alto
Mill Valley, CA 94941
Google Maps

The music starts at 6:30; the show at 7:00! Come early and bring a picnic dinner to enjoy on the lawn!

Monday, July 22, 2013 – 6:15PM

The Marin Peace and Justice Coalition hosts a 6:15PM Potluck Supper and 7:15 Presentation by Roger Harris: The Climate Solutions Debate: An Opportunity for Conservation

Roger Harris will give the following Power Point presentation: The Climate Solutions Debate: An Opportunity for Conservation

The climate solutions debate has been hijacked by the energy corporations who profit from their concessions, the politicians who serve the corporations, and the major environmental organizations who legitimize the whole show. The debate has been framed by the corporate interests to be a debate about alternative technologies—which portion of their portfolio will receive the latest and greatest public subsidies? Should we have more "green energy" or should we invest in "clean coal?" Is wind better than solar? Can nuclear be made safe? How long will it take and how much of a "commitment" (read—public paying private corporations to make a profit) will it take to bring these new technologies on line?

Progressives need to promote a program now to:

1. Raise conservation as the key and immediate demand in regards to climate change, and let the energy corporations duke it out among themselves over who gets the biggest public subsidies;
2. Raise the environmental consequences of the US wars of aggression as a climate change issue;
3. Forget about arguing with the Neanderthals about climate realities, but focus on holding the politicians' feet to the fire on getting them to enact real climate solutions;
4. Work to unite rather than counterpose the jobs vs. environment conundrum.

Conservation biologist Roger Harris will examine the science behind the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and raise some political questions on how to respond to the challenge. Please join us for a robust discussion.

6:15PM Dinner
7:15PM Presentation
Basement, First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Road (at Fourth Street)
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

Please come to our potluck supper at 6:15pm this evening. Of course donations are always appreciated but never required. For more information please call (415) 388-2018.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013 — 7:00–8:30PM

The First Public Meeting of 350.org, Marin

There's a valuable and important addition to the Marin activist landscape — 350.org, Marin, part of the global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis by linking local actions to planetary solutions. (350 is the number leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide measured in parts per million in our atmosphere. We're in the danger zone now, and we need to scramble back — quickly.)

7:00PM
First Presbyterian Church of San Anselmo
72 Kensington Road
San Anselmo, CA 94960
Google Maps

Attend the very first and very important public outreach meeting of this group and find out how you can be part of this movement!

Saturday, July 13, 2013 – 1:00PM

Grassroots Action Against NSA Surveillance in the North Bay!

If you've seen the news about NSA surveillance, you know that our precious civil liberties are under threat.

We have an opportunity in the North Bay this coming Saturday to tell the entire country that it's unacceptable to violate the requirements of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments for a free press, privacy and due process.

The most powerful supporter of the NSA surveillance program among House Democrats is the House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi. As the Associated Press reported in late June, Pelosi “has disappointed some of her liberal base with her defense of the Obama administration's classified surveillance of U.S. residents' phone and Internet records.”

1:00PM
The Corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Eucalyptus Road
Belvedere, CA 94920
Google Maps

You're invited to our gathering on the afternoon of July 13 in the Marin County town of Belvedere (not far off 101), near a $2,000–to–$32,400 per couple Democratic Party special reception fundraiser where Pelosi will be the honored guest.

Monday, July 8, 2013

The Marin Peace and Justice Coalition hosts a 6:15 potluck supper and 7:15 film screening and conversation

Marin Peace & Justice Coalition will present Robert Greenwald's new documentary "War On Whistleblowers." A very timely film — considering recent revelations about NSA surveillance programs. Interviewed in the film are 3 whistle blowers doing their country a great service. Interspersed are comments and experiences of 12 journalists. Movie followed by a discussion and Q&A led by BORDC attorney and activist Nadia Kayyali, with updates on Bradly Manning and Edward Snowden.

6:15PM Dinner
7:15PM Presentation
Basement, First United Methodist Church
9 Ross Valley Road (at Fourth Street)
San Rafael, CA 94901
Google Maps

Please come to our potluck supper at 6:15pm, The film will start at 7:15pm. Of course donations are always appreciated but never required. For more information please call (415) 388-2018.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

8:00AM—The Novato 4th of July Parade, March with the Peace Cranes!

Since 2005, the Peace Cranes have been a fixture in the Novato Fourth of July Parade. Every year, as the number of Memorial Cranes grows, so does the need for more marchers. Every year but one, we have been able to fly all of the Cranes. For those of you who have marched with us before—and there is a solid core that returns every year—we thank you for your commitment to our vision, namely that the spirit of the Peace Cranes sends an energy far beyond the Grant Avenue parade route. For those of you who haven't marched with us yet, imagine, in this severely troubled world where it is so hard to know how to make a difference, that you can, in a couple of hours on a summer day, march for something in which you believe. Novato, it is true, regarded our early efforts with some skepticism. No more. Peace Novato's Parade entry is one of the most popular and has earned several official awards. Perhaps one of its most significant unofficial "awards": During one parade as we marched past an intersection, a solitary man in military uniform, stood at attention and saluted.

Do you want to make a difference? Come march with us. This year we will need 50 marchers, and we are asking for a firm commitment by June 28, so we will know that we can bring out all of the Peace Cranes. If you can march with us please email Don Foster at [email protected] or call or text him at (415) 419-7323. PeaceNovato is supported entirely by donations, and we would ask marchers, in addition to joining us, for a donation of $1 to offset our parade fee. You don't need to make any Donation, beyond your time, in order to march with us!!!

8:00AM
Reichert and Grant Avenue
Novato, CA 94901
Google Maps

If you can't march, give us a hand as we go by!