https://antiracist.org/the-mid-term-elections-will-not-save-us-from-fascism/

The so-called “mid-term” elections are less than a month away. Yet the very name underscores the centrality and primacy of executive power and the imperial presidency within the US political system.

The election is “mid-term” only in reference to the four-year term of whoever is in the White House. The representatives and senators seeking re-election are at the END of their own terms. Relative to the US Congress, the House of Representatives is elected in its entirety every two years, and the same is true of a third of the (essentially undemocratic) Senate. Whether or not the Supreme Court further upholds Trump’s bizarre theory of the “unitary executive”, the presidency, embodied in a single individual, holds more power than any member of the other branches or, has been made evident, than the entire legislature combined. We may chant, “No Kings!” but the president of the US is an emperor.

At the state level, when there are bicameral legislatures, both the upper chamber, usually also called a state Senate, and the lower chamber, commonly an Assembly or House of Representatives are both apportioned in districts with roughly equal populations, with larger populations and geographic reach typically for the smaller senate than for the more numerous representatives. But in the US federal system, the Senate is based on two Senators for each state, regardless of population, flying in the face of the essential democratic rubric of “one person, one vote”. Los Angeles County alone, with 17,000,000 inhabitants, has a larger population than 40 of the fifty United States, yet California as a whole gets only two Senators, the same as Montana, Wyoming or Rhode Island.

So the entire “mid-term” election, with 34 Senate seats at stake, is a set-up from the beginning. The Constitutional system was designed to limit or prevent popular sentiment and opinion from having effective control over the entire government, and to protect the system of racial chattel slavery. There is no need to “rig” the election when the entire political and electoral system is rigged from the foundation to favor moneyed interests and scattered rural populations. It intentionally discounts the numerical majority of poor people, especially people of color, in urban areas.

The electoral college system which has named the loser of the popular vote the winner of the presidential election twice in this century is based on the equal representation of less populous states with more populous ones in the US Senate. The mistrust of urban populations of poor and working class people is also manifest in almost every state, where the state capital and seat of government is in a small city as far as possible from the largest city in the state — Albany, not New York City; Springfield, not Chicago; Sacramento, not Los Angeles; Tallahassee, not Miami or even Jacksonville.

Nonetheless, despite all these utterly undemocratic features of the federal/imperial electoral and governmental system, a lot of people are pinning their hopes, perhaps understandably, on the mid-term elections to “correct course” and check the increasingly untrammeled power of DJ Chump. Although the Democrats are often referred to as spineless, hope springs eternal that once in the majority in the House and/or Senate, they would counter Trump with more backbone than the jellyfish GOP majority, which has enabled all his depradations and protected him from removal from office for his crimes.

Despite hopes for a so-called ‘blue wave’ or even a ‘blue tsunami’, Trump’s MAGA super-pac, the Republican Senatorial and House Campaign Committees, the RNC, and individual techno-fascist and energy mega-donors are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into advertising and get-out-the-vote operations for threatened Republicans in House and especially Senate races. Elon Musk alone has already pumped nearly $400 million dollars and counting for the last few weeks into efforts to maintain the GOP Senate majority. Not to mention gerrymandering and voter suppression in so-called “red” states.

Electoral politics aside, CA Gov. Newsom and AG Rob Bonta caved in and settled a lawsuit seeking to prevent the merger and takeover of Warner-Discovery (which runs CNN and the HBO cable and streaming service) by the Ellisons’ Skydance/Paramount, which has already taken control of CBS and its fabled news division, putting it under the control of the rabid Zionist and reactionary Bari Weiss. Further broadcast media monopolization in the hands of the techno-fascists who already run most of the social media platforms bodes ill for the possibility of the so-called “Fourth Estate” of the press operating as much of a check on the political and economic powers-that-be.

France and India are aflame with militant youth-led protests over austerity measures and unresponsive political parties unwilling to meet the demands for change. Indian youth created the Cockroach Janata party overnight to oppose Modi’s repressive Hindu nationalism. Yet here in the US, where autocratic measures and the deprivation of social services may be even worse, and Christian nationalists hold sway in Congress, the White House and the Pentagon, all we see is a reliance on electoral politics and polite, ritualistic protest rallies designed to advance the Democrats’ electoral agenda.

Groups like Indivisible and the No Kings rally organizers need to recognize that far more is needed than the election of Democrats in place of Republicans in so-called “swing states” or districts.

The best defense against neo-fascism is a good offense against imperialism, colonialism, racism and war. This requires far more than electoral opposition. Whatever the outcome of the “mid-term” elections, we must struggle to demand a reversal of the NDAA that has integrated the Israeli military and surveillance apparatus into the US military and strategic planning.

We must demand, not just a denial of Trump’s and ‘Secretary of War’ Hegseth’s request for a half-trillion dollar increase in the military budget, but a massive reduction in US weapons spending, particularly the elimination of A-I surveillance and autonomous tanks and vessels, of nuclear weapons and of the militarization of space. We must call for the closing of US military bases — not just confinement to quarters as occurred recently in Okinawa after a US service member killed a local woman — and an immediate end to the US war on Iran and the US-financed Israeli war on Palestine and Lebanon, and the Saudi war on Yemen.

If the Democrats regain control of the House and Senate, will they do any better than they did when they had both houses of Congress and the White House and the presidency under Obama and later Biden? Will they end the war on Iran and the attacks and blockade on Cuba?  Will they stop arming Israel’s genocide?

Will they adopt single-payer healthcare, and reverse the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that robbed the social safety net to finance further tax cuts for the super-rich? Will they enact labor legislation that eases the path to organizing workplaces to build rank-and-file union power? Will they build social housing, abolish the federal death penalty, adopt reparations, or pass federal legislation guaranteeing reproductive rights?

Will they scrap the Foreign Agents Registration Act that hangs like a sword of Damocles over non-profit organizations, lawyers, and political activists? [See sidebar on FARA.] Will they break up media monopolies, join with China in regulation of A-I, or end the use of fossil fuels like coal and methane (AKA “natural gas”)?

Not likely, nor would they be able to override Trump’s veto of such legislation, or Supreme Court rulings against them. Even Trump’s impeachment and removal from office is insufficient. If enacted, those measures would be at best “non-reformist reforms.”

Our goal must be a revolutionary transformation of US society and its political and economic system, based on decolonization, recognition of Indigenous sovereignty, reparations, and the establishment of social control of production and distribution on the basis of ecological consciousness, environmental restoration, and human need, not corporate profit.

Anything less will condemn future generations to environmental devastation, economic privation, and police-state political repression.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)

by the US Center for Non-Profit Law [Excerpts]

https://www.icnl.org/post/analysis/reforming-the-foreign-agents-registration-act-to-protect-u-s-nonprofits

FARA is a World War II era anti-propaganda statute that requires an “agent of a foreign principal” engaged in covered activity to register with the Department of Justice unless they meet an exemption. Its provisions are famously sweeping and vague. This provides the federal government wide discretion for enforcement, creating uncertainty for nonprofits and others in navigating the Act. It also creates the danger that FARA will be used in a politicized manner by the government to target voices it disfavors.

Some observers believe that FARA is only covers the agents of foreign governments. However, a “foreign principal” under the Act includes not only foreign governments, but also foreign individuals, foundations, nonprofits, companies, and other entities.

The Act covers a broad range of …activities [besides lobbying and electioneering]. This includes …attempts to influence “any section of the public within the US” on domestic or foreign policy[, which] can cover a wide range of public advocacy. [It] also includes a “political consultant”, …someone who simply “inform[s]” a foreign principal “with reference to the domestic or foreign policies of the US”. Covered activities do not even need to involve politics. For example, an “agent” that “solicits” or “disburses” “things of value” on behalf of a foreign principal is also covered by the Act.

The agency relationship can be far more informal than many appreciate. An entity can be considered an “agent” under FARA even if they act at the mere “request” of a foreign principal or they are financed by a foreign principal “in major part” ([Neither] “request” [nor] “major part” [is] …defined in the Act).

During the McCarthy era, W.E.B. Du Bois was prosecuted under FARA for circulating an anti-nuclear petition at the “request” of a French nonprofit. Since 2020, over 20 Congressional investigations have claimed dozens of nonprofits may be violating the Act – often focusing on whether the nonprofit ever acted at the “request” of a foreign principal in a covered activity. …These accusations often fail to address potential exemptions for registration in the Act, but these exemptions are also vague, frequently leaving nonprofits on uncertain legal ground.

More information about the Foreign Agents Registration Act and how to navigate it is available here:

Note: FARA was used extensively under the Biden administration. In 2024, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was charged by the DOJ with taking bribes and acting as a foreign agent of Azerbaijan. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was convicted of bribery and acting as a foreign agent of Egypt. The DOJ also charged two employees of RT with conspiring to violate FARA by paying right-wing media influencers to spread Kremlin talking points in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. But the biggest attack, which was turned back, was against the anti-colonial Black left.

Victory over FARA for the Uhuru 3

In 2022, the FBI carried out pre-dawn, military-style raids on seven homes and offices of the Uhuru (“Freedom”) Movement and the African People’s Socialist Party in St. Louis, MO and St. Petersburg, FL. In 2023, the Uhuru 3 were indicted under FARA on bogus charges of failing to register as “agents of a foreign government” or “Russian agents” for exercising their right to advocate for the liberation of African people, as the Uhuru Movement had been doing for 50 years. In September, 2024 the trial took place in federal court in Tampa, FL. The jury found the Uhuru 3 not guilty of being Russian agents. They were convicted of a lesser charge of conspiracy, a thought crime, but in the penalty phase, the judge refused to impose prison time or even a fine. The APSP and APSC used the trial to campaign vigorously for their right to advocate for the liberation of African people everywhere, and are appealing the conviction, about to file a writ to the US Supreme Court. More about the Uhuru Movement here: https://handsoffuhuru.org/about-the-uhuru-3/

The House Ways and Means Committee, citing concerns about “gaps” in government regulation of entities acting as agents of foreign principals, has issued sweeping subpoenas for internal records of the Peoples Forum in NYC, which TPF is resisting. You can learn about that effort here: https://peoplesforum.org/blog_post/the-peoples-forum-responds-to-congressional-subpoena/

Earlier this year, Montana’s AG Austin Knudsen led an attack under FARA against environmental non-profits. According to his press release, he led a coalition of 19 attorneys general asking the USDOJ to investigate over 150 U.S.-based climate activist groups allegedly taking money from foreign entities to influence energy policy in the US.  “Foreign actors are attempting to sabotage our nation’s energy sector by funneling dark money to their climate activist cronies in the U.S. The law is clear – if U.S.-based nonprofits take money to lobby and influence policy on behalf of a foreign principal, they need to register under FARA,” Knudsen said. “I urge Attorney General [Pam] Bondi to open an investigation into this matter immediately.”

https://resumen-english.org/2026/10/lula-wins-in-brazil-but-the-far-right-wont-back-down/

Brazil held its ground, one of the last bulwarks against the advance of the far right in Latin America. The veteran Lula pulled it off, winning the runoff with 64,256,232 votes against the 59,826,041 cast for the far right, represented by Flávio Bolsonaro: 51.79% versus 48.21%.

It was a hard-fought victory contested down to the last vote, achieved at the end of a toxic election campaign that saw an extraordinary level of democratic participation. Compared to the first round on October 4—marked by a record abstention rate of 21.08%, equivalent to more than 33.4 million absent voters—the runoff saw a significant drop in abstentions, which fell to the lowest figure in the last twenty years. At the same time, blank and invalid votes accounted for just 3.23%, reaching a historic low for the century. Nearly three million voters returned to the polls, producing an unprecedented turnaround: Lula, who in the first round trailed the reactionary candidate, [won by] more than four million votes across the country thanks to the extraordinary popular mobilization and the momentum generated by the collective slogan Bora Virar (the rallying cry meaning “Let’s turn it around”).

An analysis of the vote reveals a deep territorial and class divide: on one side, the Southeast, the South, and the agribusiness sector of the Midwest, aligned with Bolsonaro’s bloc of reactionary interests; on the other, the Northeast—an impregnable stronghold and bastion of the left—where Lula crushed his opponent by overwhelming margins.

In this landscape of polarization, the key to the turnaround was the public’s response to voter abstention: in the Southeast—the country’s economic heartland and most populous region—voter abstention fell by more than two percentage points compared to the first round, while the Northeast recorded the highest turnout and lowest abstention rate in the entire nation, guaranteeing the Workers’ Party the decisive pool of votes needed for the “sorpasso.”

An analysis of the votes cast by the 918,876 Brazilians registered to vote abroad in 134 countries—an electorate equivalent to just over 0.5 percent of the national voter registry—showed the Workers’ Party leader prevailing in five of the nine nations monitored across Asia and Oceania, accompanied by strong support in Europe in Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, and the Netherlands. In contrast, the PL’s far right prevailed in symbolic strongholds such as Japan, and, most notably, in Israel, where Flávio Bolsonaro swept the vote, obtaining 80.8 percent of the valid votes—equivalent to 699 votes: a vivid reflection of the ideological and organizational fusion with political Zionism and the integralist right.

What was at stake transcended national borders. Brazil is not only a continental economic power but also possesses the world’s second-largest reserves of rare earth minerals, the planet’s largest source of freshwater, and immense offshore oil fields in the Pré-Sal: a tempting prize for extractive multinationals and the international financial plutocracy.

Flávio Bolsonaro embodied the agenda of reaction and supremacism, epitomized by the chauvinistic and racist image circulated during the campaign that showed him leading a chained Black man on a leash. His platform combined savage neoliberalism with the promise of a heavy-handed approach modeled on Nayib Bukele’s punitive regime in El Salvador, unconditional realignment with the doctrine of the U.S. Southern Command through the Shield of the Americas, the relocation of Brazil’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, and adherence to the Isaac Agreements.

This reactionary offensive was accompanied by sophisticated engineering of hybrid warfare and social fascistization, in a climate of confrontation characterized by personal attacks and propagandistic slander. The far right took the demonization of its adversary to the extreme, dusting off physical denigration directed at Lula—derisively nicknamed “nine fingers” because of the mutilation he suffered as a young factory worker—and flooding rallies and social media with insults about prisoners, criminals, and the alleged communist threat.

But the violence was not limited to verbal attacks: during the election campaign, Lula supporters were murdered by fanatical Bolsonaro supporters in Mato Grosso do Sul, and other PT leaders—such as a city councilwoman in Minas Gerais—were injured in ambushes carried out by paramilitary squads. This political aggression is part of a long history of corporate and paramilitary terrorism in rural areas, symbolized by the murder of the landless peasant and agroecological activist Valmir Mota de Oliveira—known as Keno—who was killed in 2007 by a private militia hired by the transnational corporation Syngenta Seeds to suppress protests against illegal GMO experiments. It was not until 2026 that the Superior Court of Justice definitively upheld the conviction and civil liability of the multinational for the use of illegal armed surveillance.

The interference by the multinational Meta and the Silicon Valley tech giants—integrated into the strategies of the Deep State and Trumpism—manipulated algorithmic feeds on Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp to favor Flávio Bolsonaro and penalize Lula’s campaign, forcing the PT’s lawyers to file a complaint regarding electoral abuse with the Superior Electoral Court.

At the same time, the reactionary bloc relied on the ideological alliance between the patrimonial empire of evangelical neo-Pentecostalism—endowed with media conglomerates such as Record TV, hardline parliamentary caucuses, and pervasive WhatsApp networks—and transnational political Zionism, transforming the Prosperity Gospel into a cultural algorithm for the fascistization of consciousness and colonial subordination.

In this context, the threat of a coup and the Bolsonarists’ systemic refusal to recognize the election results—already announced by the losing candidate—do not represent mere propaganda tantrums, but rather the desperate reflection of a chain of extremely serious legal liabilities. Crucial investigations and legal proceedings weigh heavily on Flávio Bolsonaro and the entire family clan (some of whose members have already been elected).

These range from direct involvement in the planning and cover-up of the 2022 coup attempt to overthrow democratic institutions, to the scandal involving the theft and resale of state jewels gifted by foreign monarchies; from the falsification of vaccination records during the pandemic to the misuse and illegal use of state intelligence apparatus through the so-called “parallel ABIN,” not to mention the ironclad ties to urban paramilitary militias and the masterminds behind political crimes.

The strategy of chaos, the a priori delegitimization of the vote, and the constant threat of a coup are organically embedded in the process of internal fascistization and in the global counterrevolution promoted by the radical right to shield its gang leaders from the courts and neutralize social conflict.

Faced with the mortal risk of a defeat that would have consolidated a reactionary belt alongside the ultra-reactionary turn taken by Javier Milei in Argentina and Daniel Noboa in Ecuador—thereby destroying any remnant of continental sovereign integration—Lula made a decisive social shift. In the final days leading up to the vote, the leftist leader gave new impetus to the reduced workweek with full pay, increased direct subsidies, the strengthening of the Unified Health System, the extension of the full school day in high schools, and the creation of a university version of the Pé-de-Meia program.

On a strategic level, Lula championed technological sovereignty to create a national artificial intelligence system and break free from U.S. dominance, reaffirming the protection of strategic resources in the service of the people.

This concrete platform reignited grassroots activism. More than the support of international cultural figures, it was the self-organized digital popular army rallying around the slogan Bora Virar that shook up the campaign, mobilizing more than ten million contacts to break through media isolation and defeat the logic of algorithmic censorship.

Lula now faces a hostile institutional environment, with a Congress dominated by conservatives and the persistent threat of ongoing lawfare fueled by major media conglomerates such as O Globo and Folha de S.Paulo. However, the president has confirmed that he will govern without bowing to Washington’s dictates or the oligarchy’s blackmail, promoting multilateralism, the expansion of the BRICS, and South-South cooperation.

It is within this context of necessary pressure from below that the “BRICS of the Peoples” meeting is taking place, scheduled for November 11 and 12 in Brasília, running parallel to and engaging in critical dialogue with the intergovernmental summit on November 13 and 14. Not as an act of fruitless opposition, but as a parallel forum for genuine convergence where popular movements, class-based labor unions such as South Africa’s NUMSA metalworkers, India’s Dalit movements, the World March of Women, the MST, and international vanguards will come together to integrate the governments’ economic and trade agendas with the material demands of the people: to denounce the imperialism of the dollar and the IMF, to defeat neo-fascism and extractivism, and to build an anti-capitalist, anti-patriarchal, and anti-colonialist alternative capable of uniting organized communities in the real transformation of the future.

Source: Resumen Latinoamericano – Argentina

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Please contact the event by phone, email or website for updates.

Other Calendars:

The Big List of Protests (national): https://theblop.org/

https://experism.com/los-angeles

https://timeout.com/los-angeles/movies/all-of-las-outdoor-movies-in-one-calendar

https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/things-to-do/

https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/events; https://www.lapl.org/events

https://www.discoverlosangeles.com/events

https://caamuseum.org/programs

https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events

https://thelaccc.org/calendar-page/ Group cycling events in L.A.

Also, please check recurring events below the regular monthly Calendar. Check out late changes and additions on the website:  https://change-links.org/

I.C.E. Watch:

Report ICE or other federal enforcement activity, raids, etc.

Union del Barrio/Community Self Defense Coalition: 213-444-6562, call or text 24 hours

Others: NDLON (Day Laborers): 626-799-3566; CHIRLA: 888-624-4752 (m-f/9-5)

IMM-DEF: 213-833-8283 (M-F, 9A-4P)

Calendar of Resistance for Palestine! Events and actions around the world:

C-L Note: The Canadian and US governments have targeted and attempted to criminalize Samidoun, labeling it a terrorist organization. This is a gross violation of freedom of speech & human rights.

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all Palestinian, Arab and international supporters of Palestine to escalate their organizing and struggle to stand with the heroic Palestinian resistance and confront colonial Zionist violence and imperialist complicity.

Please note: this list is for action-oriented/ outdoor/protest actions specifically. However, direct actions like those by Palestine Action (palestineaction.org) are some of the most important events taking place — but they are typically not announced in advance! ANSWER Coalition is also maintaining a list of US based protests (answercoalition.org/join_a_protest_near_you_free_palestine). Check out our events listings for webinars,discussions and meetings we’re involved in (http://samidoun.net/category/events)!.

TO ADD YOUR EVENT TO THE PALESTINE RESISTANCE CALENDAR: Send info by email to samidoun@samidoun.net or tag us on social media! We know that these events are mainly international and that the Arab people are marching everywhere for Palestine — we will be honored to add Arab events. PLEASE NOTE: Times and details may change. Wherever we have it, we have linked to the original organizers’ accounts, posters and pages. Please follow these for the latest info – and don’t hesitate to send updates! https://samidoun.net/

Nov 1 – Sun

Global Week of Action Against US Imperialism & Genocide, thru Nov. 7. See https://globalresistancenow.org/ for potential So Cal actions

Daylight Saving Time ends – change the clock BACK on hour when you go to bed the night before (Oct. 31)

National report back from African participants of the “Centenary of Fidel” Venceremos Brigade. Via zoom, 12n Pacific. Hear about what we learned and experienced in Cuba, conditions on the ground in Cuba under the escalation of the US blockade, and our participation in activities marking the 100th birthday of Fidel Castro. Also hear about how you can take direct action in solidarity with the Cuban people to oppose genocidal US government attacks on Cuba. Register: https://tinyurl.com/cofreportback

Envisioning the Future of Peoples’ Media, 4p via zoom. virtual national action oriented meeting. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/z9q3F3wERgiHJkgud8VIyQ

NELA Día de los Muertos Festival,  Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St., LA 90031, https://www.instagram.com/p/DXDpW7QDz6u/

Dia de los Muertos: Family Friendly Printmaking, 2-4p, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Blvd.,  LA 90041

Nov 2  –  Mon    Dia de los Muertos

Film Screening: The Devil Wears Prada 2, 12n- 2p, Granada Hills branch LA Public Library, Community Room, 10640 Petit Ave, Granada Hills 91344, (818) 368-5687

Nov 3 – Tues   

Election Day for LA municipal offices (mayor, etc.), CA state offices (Governor, legislators, etc.) and Congressional representative

Día de los Muertos: Days of Remembrance 2026, 10a-5p, Lincoln Heights Youth Art Center, 2911 Altura St., LA 90031.

Nov 4 – Wed

Disability Compliance at Places of Business to Improve Access for All, 10a-12n, Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. 5th St., LA 90071. (213) 228-7000; also online. Join the California Commission on Disability Access (CCDA) Commission at the Community Event in Los Angeles for a discussion on disability access and resources to ensure businesses are accessible and can serve all customers.  In collaboration with the City of Los Angeles Department on Disability and the Los Angeles Public Library, this hybrid event with both in-person and virtual participation, will bring together small business owners, people with disabilities, and community members for a meaningful conversation about advancing access and inclusion across LA. Livestream on LAPL YouTube channel. https://www.lapl.org/events/disability-compliance-places-business-improve-access-all

Nov 5 – Thu

LA Made: Ancient Homelands: Indigenous Music of North, Central and South America, 4-5p, LA Public Library Northridge branch, 9051 Darby Ave, Northridge 91325. (818) 886-3640. https://www.lapl.org/events/la-made-ancient-homelands-indigenous-music-north-central-and-south-america-0

Screening: I Want Your Sex,  Part of the series MoMA Contenders 2026; 7:30p, UCLA Hammer Museum. Followed by a conversation with writer-director Gregg Araki. $10 Hammer members, $20 general. Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde) is LA’s hottest artist—her erotic art is more popular than ever, and her reputation for sleeping with her studio assistants is an open secret. Enter Elliot (Cooper Hoffman), a dopey 20-something desperate for a job in the arts and, namely, to pay his rent. Soon after Erika hires Elliot, she propositions him for sex and introduces him to BDSM, catapulting him into a dizzying labyrinth of power dynamics in the bedroom and at the studio. https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/i-want-your-sex

Nov 6 – Fri

Book talk: “Poisoning the Well” with author Sharon Udasin, 2-3p, Central Library, Meeting Room B; 630 W. 5th St., LA 90071; (213) 228-7000. Sharon Udasin is a journalist and author who has long been delving into complex water contamination and conservation issues. Sharon was a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at Univ of Colorado Boulder in 2019-2020 and received a SEAL Environmental Journalism Award in 2023. A graduate of both the Univ of PA and Columbia Journalism School, she has reported for numerous publications over the past two decades. She exposes how “forever chemicals”have contaminated the US, especially its water supply. For disability-related accommodations, please call (213) 228-7430 at least five business days prior

Ida B Wells Media Defense Network planning and working meeting,online, https://idabwellsmediadefense.org/

Nov 7 – Sat  

Sacred Path x The Autry Pow Wow, 10a–8p; Grand Entry 1p, Autry Museum of the American West, in Griffith Park just off I-5.

Día de Los Muertos 2026 LA City Arts in Partnership with Archdiocese of Los Angeles, 1-6p, San Fernando Mission Cemetery and Mortuary,11160 Stranwood Ave. Mission Hills 91345.

Korea is Not a War Base: Dispatches from the Jaju Solidarity Brigade, 2p, discussion and organizing meeting, sponsored by Nodutdol, anti-imperialist Korean-American organization working to get US occupational military forces out of Korea. Likely location, Midnight Books, 941 E. 2nd St., LA 90012. Details TBA. Check nodutdol.org for late information.

After the Vote: What the 2026 Midterms Tell Us, 2p, Hammer Forum (made possible by the Rosenbloom Family) Co-presented with the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law. Free panel discussion exploring what the 2026 midterms mean for the country and for California. What do the results reveal about the last two years of President Trump’s term, and about the country’s direction in 2028 and beyond? What can November’s vote teach us about California voters? Moderated by Rick Hasen, director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law, with Christian Grose, professor of political science and public policy at USC; Sara Sadhwani, award-winning political scientist and professor of politics at Pomona College; and Chris Tausanovitch, professor of political science at UCLA. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., LA 90024; (310) 443-7000; info@hammer.ucla.edu

“A Place to Grow: Affordable Housing, Stronger Families, Thriving Communities” at the First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, 8th anniv. benefit for Making Housing & Community Happen.

Forum on the Future of Pacifica, 4:30 via zoom, monthly on the first Saturday, sponsored by the Pacifica Mission Coalition, not Pacifica Foundation Inc. or any of its radio stations. Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/8L7CtR8zQyyAPExt8cvIvA

25th Annual Fiesta del Día de Los Muertos, 8p, also Sun Nov 8, 8p. The Floricanto Center for the Performing Arts,2900 Calle Pedro Infante, LA 90023

Nov 8 – Sun

25th Annual Fiesta del Día de Los Muertos, see Nov 7 – Sat.

Cuba, the African Liberation Struggle, & the Leadership of Amilcar Cabral, 2p, panel discussion at Strategy & Soul Book Center, 3542 MLK Jr. Blvd, near Crenshaw, LA 90008. Speakers: Catherine Silva Walker, Cape Verdeans of So Cal, Eric Mann of LCSC, Norton Sandler of Pathfinder Books, Michael Vera of Inland Boatmen’s local of ILWU & LA US Hands Off Cuba Committee will discuss a new book by Victor Dreke Cruz, “The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa: Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde”.

Nov 9 – Mon

Decoding the Midterms, 11a-4p, in DC or zoom, Brennan Center discussions about the 2026 midterms. Just days after polls close, we will host two conversations on what the electorate said and how it will influence lawmaking over the next two years. The first panel will break down everything we learned from voters on Election Day, and the second will look ahead to the new Congress and ask what can get done in light of the results. Register: https://brennan.swoogo.com/decodingthemidterms/begin

Nov 10 – Tue

Will the Midterm Elections Advance or Betray the Black Agenda? 4p Pacific. The Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW21) and the Black World Media Network (BWMN) will convene a virtual town hall of Black scholars, activists and leaders to examine the implications of the 2026 midterm elections for the Black Agenda. Participants will represent civil and human rights, reparations, politics, labor, business and professional communities, faith, women and emerging leadership. Speakers include Marc Morial, National Urban League; Dr. Julianne Malveaux; Jennifer Jones Austin, Esq.; Dr. Amara Enyia, Movement for Black Lives; Tara Murray; Mel Foote, Constituency for Africa; Dr. E. Faye Williams, Dick Gregory Society; Kamm Howard, Reparations United; Dr. Melina Abdullah, Black Lives Matter Grassroots; Earl Ofari Hutchinson; Faya Rose Toure, Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee; Dr. George Fraser;  N’nanba aka Robin Rue Simmons; Dr. Michael Roberts; Milton Allimadi, Black Star News; Bill Fletcher; Kassandra Frederique, Drug Policy Alliance; Ron Hampton, IBW Police Justice and Accountability Task Force; Pastor Michael McBride; Special Invited Guests Rep. Jonathan Jackson and Mayor Ras J. Baraka. Livestreamed via https://ibw21.org or IBW21 YouTube channel.

We Make the World: Guided Aesthetics Practices for Art, Power, and Healing with Patrisse Cullors. 7p, Skirball Cultural Center. This transformative guide features unique practices to harness creativity as a tool for healing, justice, and liberation from visionary artist, activist, and NY Times bestselling author Patrisse Cullors, joined in conversation with advocate Ashley Jackson. Doors open at 6:00 pm. $20 General; $15 Seniors, Full-Time Students, and Children 2–17; $10 Members. https://www.skirball.org/programs/we-make-world-guided-aesthetics-practices-art-power-and-healing

Nov 11 – Wed   Armistice Day (AKA Veterans’ Day)National holiday, schools, banks, government offices closed.

Probable day of action by Veterans for Peace.

Nov 12 – Thu

Tech Help, Weekly on Tues & Thurs, 10a-3:30p until Thu, Dec 31. Arroyo Seco branch, LAPL, 6145 N. Figueroa St., LA 90042; (323) 255-0537. Our Cybernaut is available to assist you in learning basic computer skills, using the library databases, setting up email, operating your laptop, tablet or smartphone, copying, printing, scanning services and more. This service is free and open to the public. Available on a first-come, first-served basis. For disability-related accommodations, please call (213) 228-7430 at least five business days prior

Nov 13 – Fri    “Friday the Thirteenth”

Screenings: All of a Sudden, Part of the series MoMA Contenders 2026, UCLA Hammer Museum, 7:30p. Followed by a conversation with writer-director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. $10 Hammer members, $20 general. Based on an exchange of letters between philosopher Makiko Miyano and anthropologist Maho Isono, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi beautifully depicts the remarkable chance encounter in Paris of Marie-Lou, a French nursing home director and caregiver, and Mari, a Japanese theater director facing terminal cancer. As they spend time together after a performance of one of Mari’s plays and at the nursing home where Marie-Lou implements a new program of radical empathy for the patients’ bodies and souls against skeptical colleagues, both connect over longing, sentimental aspirations, and the sociopolitical strains that have driven their life choices and shaped their communities. All of a Sudden is a moving testimony to the power of human empathy in an era that may make you think there is none. https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/all-sudden

Nov 14 – Sat 

HMOC & RedBoy Productions Pow Wow, 10a–6p, Heritage Museum of Orange County, Santa Ana.

Next Chapter Writers’ Summit: Celebrating the Art of the Story, & Book Fair, a free daylong celebration of books, storytelling, and belonging. 10a, West Hollywood Library and Park. Hear from headliners Roxane Gay and Taylor Jenkins Reid in live conversations with Dr. Skye Patrick.

Ancient Homelands: Indigenous Music of North America, 12n-1p, LAPL, 20939 Sherman Way

Canoga Park 91303, (818) 887-0320. An interactive program for all ages, in English and in Spanish. Martin Espino will invite you to sing in Native Languages of indigenous peoples as well as play authentic ancient percussion instruments. https://www.lapl.org/events/ancient-homelands-indigenous-music-north-america

Author talk: Chris Hedges, Requiem for Gaza, his new book with Joe Sacco. A KPFK 90.7 fundraiser. 12:30p, First Unitarian Church of LA. $20+. https://events.kpfk.org/series/hedges-26

Nov 15 – Sun

Author talk: Chris Hedges, Requiem for Gaza, his new book with Joe Sacco. A KPFK 90.7 fundraiser 1p, First Congregational Church, Santa Barbara CA. $20+. https://events.kpfk.org/series/hedges-26

Screenings  UCLA Film & TV Archive: Archive Talks: Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds, 7p, Presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive at the Hammer Museum. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu. In person: Pre-screening talk by Laura Horak, author of Trans Cinema: Making Communities, Identities, and Worlds. Post-screening Q&A. Horak will sign copies of the book in the lobby beginning at 6 p.m. Books will be available for purchase thanks to Larry Edmunds Bookshop. The Archive first worked with archivist and scholar Laura Horak in 2022 when we presented a series of films unearthed by Horak and her collaborators, Maggie Hennefeld and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi. Their archival project Cinema’s First Nasty Women celebrated the work of silent comedians who brought an anarchic brand of gender non-conformity to slapstick. Alongside that work, Horak is also the director of the Transgender Media Lab at Carleton University, which created the Transgender Media Portal, a database of trans creators, including links to where their work can be seen. The Archive is pleased to welcome Horak back to the Billy Wilder Theater for a brief talk about her work followed by a selection of works by trans artists and an on-stage conversation, with more special guests to be announced soon! A Thousand Cuts (2018) Director B. G-Osborne’s three-channel experimental film juxtaposes scenes of trans representation from popular film and TV.. Behind Every Good Man (1967) A Black trans woman talks about what she wants from life in this groundbreaking UCLA student film. For Nonna Anna (2017) Director Luis De Filippis explores the quiet relationship between a Canadian Italian trans girl in her early 20s and her Italian grandmother. Honor Black Trans Womxn! (2019) This experimental documentary presents Black trans women and their communities fighting back against the violence they face. Plus more. https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/archive-talks-trans-cinema-making-communities-identities-and-worlds

Nov 16 – Mon

Film: A War on Women, UCLA Hammer Museum, 7:30p, presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu. In person: director Raha Shirazi. Shirazi tells of the generational struggle of Iranian women to achieve basic human rights, from the suffrage movement under the Shah in the 1960s to the Women, Life, Freedom Movement sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. While a group of high profile activists speak on camera, including Mahnaz Afkhami, Asieh Amini, Masih Alinejad and Shaparak Shajarzadeh, it’s the anonymous girls and women demonstrating in classrooms, homes, offices and on the streets, as seen in archival news footage and more recent TikTok videos, that are the film’s real focus. As each generation has evolved new strategies to advance the cause, their unwavering commitment to freedom remains an inspiring constant.

Nov 17 – Tue

Q.Me Free Legal Clinic, Daily Mon-Fri, 9a-5p until Thu, Dec 31. (310) 840-2142. Providers are available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, for 10-minute conversations. Participants will need to have their description and a clear question prepared in advance. Log in to qme.io during these hours to join. If a Qme Place staff member is not available, participants will be redirected to a signup form and called back.

More Than Just Talk with Jessie Kornberg, featuring Kurt Petersen, 9:45 a, Skirball Cultural Center Magnin Auditorium, free. Longtime union activist Kurt Petersen joins us to discuss how he finds common ground, the values that guide him, and his perspective on the LA of the future. More Than Just Talk is a new dialogue series at the Skirball Cultural Center featuring President and CEO Jessie Kornberg in candid, action-oriented conversation with some of Los Angeles’ most compelling and innovative thought leaders. Kurt Petersen is a Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11, which represents 35,000 hotel and food service workers in Southern California and Arizona. 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., LA 90049; (310) 440-4500; info@skirball.org

East West Players Present: When Yuri Met Malcolm, 4-5p, Westwood Branch Library, Community Rm., 1246 Glendon Ave., LA 90024; (310) 474-1739. Told through the prism of her unlikely friendship with Malcolm X, this play explores Yuri Kochiyama’s legacy. The narrative follows Yuri’s life, from her “red, white, and blue” days in the Japanese American internment camps to her rapid radicalization during the civil rights movement to all the activism that followed over the decades. What does it mean to be a citizen of our flawed country? And how much can a single person do to change it? This play lasts approximately 38 minutes and is suitable for audiences ages 12 and up. RSVPs are recommended but not mandatory.

About Theatre For Youth: As part of its mission to create educational programs that explore Asian Pacific American experiences, East West Players is committed to sharing multi-ethnic perspectives and stories with youth in the Los Angeles area. Created in the early 1970s, Theatre for Youth was designed to promote cultural understanding and racial tolerance among youth. https://www.lapl.org/events/east-west-players-present-when-yuri-met-malcolm

Nov 18 – Wed

Nov 19 – Thu

Strike Authorization Vote deadline, CFA California Faculty Association members at the CSU system (Cal State LA, CSUN, etc) will wrap up a strike authorization vote as they press for a new contract that deals  with the affordability crisis and loss of real purchasing power, as well as demands over how A-I is used by the Cal State system.

Nov 20 – Fri

Nov 21 – Sat 

Uncanny Valley: Colonial Myths, Ugly Trees, and Hidden LA Histories with Barret Baumgart, 11a-12:30p, Campo de Cahuenga, 3919 Lankershim Blvd, Studio City 91604. Barret Baumgart shares the unlikely origin story of his book YUCK: The Birth & Death of the Weird & Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia. The Joshua tree, which was once systematically chopped down to fuel LA’s promotional boom. Baumgart traces how early promotional efforts—spearheaded by writers like Charles Nordhoff, namesake of the Valley’s own Nordhoff Street—helped drive the settlement of SoCal while consuming its desert landscape.  https://culture.lacity.gov/event/uncanny-valley-colonial-myths-ugly-trees-and-hidden-la-histories-with-barret-baumgart

Nov 22 – Sun    Anniversary of JFK Assassination in 1963

Tōhoku Documentary Trilogy, UCLA Hammer Museum, 11a, presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Ryusuke Hamaguchi: Early Works. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu. In March 2011, the largest earthquake ever recorded in Japan rocked the northern coastal Tōhoku region followed soon after by a devastating tsunami. The dual natural disaster triggered the Fukushima nuclear accident and left almost 20,000 people dead, caused billions of dollars in damage and disrupted lives and communities forever. Just six months later, directors Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Ko Sakai began a two-year project to create an oral history of the disaster. Eschewing footage of the events, Hamaguchi and Sakai spoke with dozens of survivors, young and old, first responders, politicians and everyday citizens. They recount stories from the day but also reflect on the ethical concerns it raised, the responsibility of the individual in moments of crisis to themselves, their loved ones and their community. The Tōhoku Documentary Trilogy will include intermission and meal breaks between films. The Sound of Waves (Nami no Oto) (2012); Voices From the Waves – Kesennuma (2013); Voices From the Waves – Shinchimachi (2013); Storytellers (2013) https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2026/tohoku-documentary-trilogy

Nov 23 – Mon

Nov 24 – Tue

Native American Heritage Month: Migration and Family History, 5:30-6:30p Gardena Mayme Dear Library Meeting Room. Registration required: https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17751100 Due to cultural traditions of honoring ancestors and the complex histories with colonial powers and the United States federal and state governments, Native American communities have one of the most highly documented genealogical lineages. For adults. Join us to create your own family history project after learning about the importance of genealogy and stories of migration within Native American communities. Participants are encouraged to bring photos and family information.

Nov 25 – WedBook Club: Poverty, By America, 5-6p, El Monte LA County Library Study Room. Bibliophiles are welcomed! Join us each month for a facilitated discussion of fiction and non-fiction titles. A limited number of copies are available for book club attendees at the library. Light refreshments will be served. For adults. Our Book Club meets on the last Wednesday of every month.  November’s Book Pick is Poverty, By America by Mathhew Desmond. The US, richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages? In this landmark book, sociologist Matthew Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor. Elegantly written and fiercely argued, this compassionate book gives us new ways of thinking about a morally urgent problem. It also helps us imagine solutions. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. https://visit.lacountylibrary.org/event/17400362

Nov 26 – Thu  No Thanks for Settler Colonialism

National holiday, banks, schools, government offices closed.

Nov 27 – Fri  “Black Friday” Buy Nothing Day

Nov 28 – Sat 

Nov 29 – Sun

Leimert Park Art Walk, last Sunday each month. https://www.facebook.com/leimertparkartwalk/ 3333 43rd Place, LA 90008; (323) 371-2172.

Nov 30 – Mon

UPCOMING & ONGOING ACTIVITIES

Dec 5 – Sat: What Is the Price of Free Speech on Campus? 12n-2p, Zocalo Public Square, in person or virtual. Moderated by Mi-Ai Parrish, Managing Director, ASU Media Enterprise. Depending on whom you ask, universities are free-thinking bastions of the First Amendment, or stifling, politically correct echo chambers. How have events such as political violence, expanding hostilities in the Middle East, and the ascent of AI further shaped civil discourse on campus? Should government, and government funding, play a role in shaping academic debate? Will free speech in 2030 look anything like free speech in 2020, and if not, could that be a good thing? Zócalo hosts UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk and Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth for a spirited discussion about how people on US campuses interact today, and what, if anything, must change for U.S. intellectual life to flourish. ASU California Center, 1111 S Broadway, LA 90015. Streaming live on YouTube. https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/what-is-the-price-of-free-speech-on-campus/

Every Sunday (except 2nd Sun of month) Brad Kay jazz merriment, 12n–4:30p, Unurban Cafe, 3301 Pico Blvd (with Suzy Williams, Mews Small, Ginger Smith, and more. FREE Jazz Cabaret Folk Popular Music Live!!!  https://sundaysongbirds.com/ Gerry Fialka pfsuzy@aol.com 310-306-7330

3rd Sunday, SoCal350 monthly meeting, 3-5p, Physical meeting canceled, virtual “meeting” scheduled. bit.ly/SoCal350Updates;  facebook.com/SoCal350 Climate Action.

Mondays: JusticeLA Virtual Actions, 10:30a every Monday via zoom. JusticeLA Virtual Actions is an accessible way for folks to support the JusticeLA coalition by joining together (virtually) to take action towards decarceration and to promote care first, jails NEVER in LA. Also Weds. at 6:30p. Orientation on JusticeLA Virtual Actions and political education on the day’s action are all included during the action session. Join us! https://dignityandpowernow.org/events

Mondays: Support Honduran Refugees, 6-8p, Central American Resource Center (CARECEN-LA), 2845 W 7th St,, LA. call for details: (213)-385-7800. In the San Fernando Valley: 213-385-7800 ext. 122

Mondays: James Joyce Reading Group. Laughtears Zoomin’ Salon1:30p, 40 minutes. Gerry Fialka, pfsuzy@aol.com, 310-306-7330, http://laughtears.com

First Tuesday, 7-9p, Recovering from Religion LA Support Group Hosted by Atheists United. RSVP at: https://www.meetup.com/rfr-los-angeles-ca/ This group meets the 1st Tues ach month virtually via Zoom. RSVP to view the Zoom link to the meeting at: https://www.meetup.com/california-chapter/events/calendar/   The primary focus of a Recovering From Religion support group is to provide ongoing and personal support to individuals as they let go of their religious beliefs. This transitional period is an ongoing process that can result in a range of emotions, as well as a ripple effect of consequences throughout an individual’s life. As such, the support meetings are safe and anonymous places to express these doubts, fears, and experiences without biased feedback or proselytizing. Attendees are encouraged to share, when they are comfortable doing so. We are here to help each other through this journey. There is no cost to attend this support group but, if you feel so inclined, donations can be made at www.recoveringfromreligion.org/donate

First Tuesday: Marshall McLuhan-Finnegans Wake Reading Club online, Gerry Fialka, pfsuzy@aol.com, 310-306-7330, See http://laughtears.com for event details.

Third Tuesdays: Protect, Resist and Build with AFSC.  5– 6:30pm PDT. Location: Virtual event Join from anywhere at: https://www.mobilize.us/afsc/event/746944/   Monthly webinar series that brings together AFSC constituents to learn about how to protect, resist, and build just peace, just migration, and just economies.  About this event: Monthly webinar series that brings together AFSC constituents to learn about how to protect, resist, and build just peace, just migration, and just economies. If you are registering from outside the US please use the zip code 19102.  Learn more about the American Friends Service Committee and find more ways to support at: https://afsc.org/get–involved

Tuesdays, 12n-1p, Prayer Vigil for those Disappeared by ICE, by godmothers of the disappeared (CLUE, SEIU, CHIRLA). LA Fedl. Bldg, 300 N. Los Angeles St, 90012 – march to the Metro Detention Center on Alameda.

Tuesdays: Join Black Lives Matter, Stop LAPD Spying and allies 9a at LA Police Commission meeting via zoom and in person at LA Police Administration Building across from City Hall to speak out against racist police murders with impunity. In response to increased public scrutiny, they changed their rules and only allow public comments of 1 minute each on two specific items and general public comment as the first agenda item, so call in promptly to get on the stack. lapd.zoom.us/s/289225944

Tuesday eves, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition meetings have been changed to teleconferences. LA CAN, 838  E. 6th St. LA, CA 90021. https://stoplapdspying.org – see website for meeting topics. facebook.com/stoplapdspying

First Tuesday 2-4p. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits Free Admission, La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum, 5801 Wilshire Blvd., LA.

Tuesdays: 6-8p. Tenant Rights and Eviction Advice. Conducted in Spanish, translated into English. calorganize-org.zoom.us/j/88324434157 -or- Call: +16699006833,,88324434157# Also Thursdays, 5-7p. Conducted in English, translated into Spanish. calorganize-org.zoom.us/j/84489 313723 -or- Call: +16699006833,,84489313723# Also, statewide, outside LA: acceaction.org/dyh Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).

Tuesdays: 8:30-10p, Second Draft LA, open mic cold read of writing and acting (virtual, may not be at Art Share-LA, 801 E 4th Pl, LA 90013). artsharela.org (213) 687-4278. zoom.us/j/9103444651 Pwd: artshare

Wednesdays: 4-6p, Fund Services Not Police, #EndPoliceAssociations BLM-LA and allies. Vigil/Protest has moved to the Hall of Injustice, Spring & Temple Sts. in DTLA.

Wednesdays: 6:30p, JusticeLA Virtual Actions, via zoom. JusticeLA Virtual Actions is an accessible way for folks to support the JusticeLA coalition by joining together (virtually) to take action towards decarceration and to promote care first, jails NEVER in LA. Also Mons. at 10:30a. Orientation on JusticeLA Virtual Actions and political education on the day’s action are all included during the action session. Join us! https://dignityandpowernow.org/events

Every Thursday night Hosted by Atheists United, we meetup in the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater and play games, host workshops, watch movies, plan adventures, and explore the universe one question at a time. Any youth ages 13-18 are welcome to attend. Our group creates a safe space for curious teens to explore ethics, science, nature, and social justice in community.Each meeting combines a fun activity with a challenging discussion topic: All activities and discussion topics are picked by youth participants / Guest experts are sometimes invited to lead workshops/activities. RSVP by text before attending to confirm we’re meeting. Meetings are always free and include snacks and drinks. Free car and bike parking on site. Where curiosity is celebrated: At Atheists United, we understand better than anyone the importance of creating a safe, secular space for people to explore their ideas, identities, and values. Youth should be celebrated, not shamed, for asking honest questions. https://www.atheistsunited.org/events/ssr7grh9c8uzfyh7o64xcutyzg4mkg-d2ayr-zrep3-37pkx-wzlp3-yr2j7-a82jr-fe3ch-clk73-kp5gt-y2y59

Thursdays: 3-5p, Venice/Santa Monica Take Back Our Streets Weekly Protest, No I.C.E.Corner of Lincoln & Rose; bring signs and noise-makers. https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblewestsidela/event/893106/

1st Thursday, 6-8p, Justice Not Jails, has switched to a virtual meeting. zoom.us/j/529548178 You can also call in by dialing: 301 715 8592 US Meeting ID: 529 548 17. RSVP to Larry Foy at: Lfoy@im4humanintegrity.org.

Thursdays: 5:30-7p, Operation Ally Weekly Social Justice Conference Call, fb.com/justadvocacy  advocacyproject.org (888) 407-4101 Join the Operation Ally weekly zoom conference call to gain insight into the issues of systemic oppression, organize into collaborative efforts and strategize the dismantling of these systems. Be a part of a community that supports you as we mobilize for change. facebook.com/events/200763851083819/

Every other Thursday, 6:30-8p, Looking At Masculinity And Patriarchy (LAMP) LAMP is an affinity space offered by AWARE-LA of white, male-presenting folks (however anyone is invited) where we discuss how your male-presenting gender role and socialization impacts the ways you are showing up (or not showing up) in the fight for an abolitionist future. Via zoom:  For more information and to register, email: lampteam@tutanota.com.

Every Friday, 9a: Action Hour for Palestine.  https://afsc.org/events/action-hour-palestine

First Fridays: A City Lights Reading Series. 5p. Admission is free. City Lights and Beyond Baroque co-present. Check the website for event details. https://citylights.com/events/first-fridays-a-city-lights- reading-series-2/  Beyond Baroque is a leading independent Literary Arts Center dedicated to expanding the public’s knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Through the years, Beyond Baroque has played muse to the Venice Beats, the burgeoning Punk movement and visiting scholars. Beyond Baroque, 681 N. Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291, Ph: 310-822-3006, Fax: 310-821-0256, info@beyondbaroque.org Made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation

Fridays: Interfaith Communities United for Justice & Peace forum, 7:30-9:30a, virtual meeting on zoom. For details and to prevent zoom-bombing, contact communications@icujp.org for an invitation and instructions.

Fridays 5p, Vigil for Palestine, San Pedro CA. Join CODEPINK at the corner of 13th and Gaffey St., in front of Vons.

Saturdays: Crenshaw Farmers Market, 10a-3p, 3650 Martin Luther King Blvd. offers fresh produce and artisan goods. Ties into the mall’s health initiative promoting wellness in the Crenshaw community. This farmers’ market has re-opened!  Contact Sustainable Economic Enterprises: www.seela.org for other farmer’s markets that are also continuing with physical distancing (in Echo Park, Hollywood, Atwater Village and on Central Avenue in South LA).

Saturdays: KEEP SHOWING UP, in front of Culver City City Hall, 11a-12:30p. Sign up and/or invite friends here: https://mobilize.us/s/d0VMtk.

Saturdays: Public Speaker meeting Series 10a, Hosted by the Chicago Chapter of the International Marxist-Humanist Organization; join via Zoom.  Email for details: Sponsored by the Chicago Chapter of The International Marxist-Humanist Organization Email: arise@imhojournal.org

Saturdays: LA Ecovillage Tours: Usually twice monthly, 10:30a-1p. Our regular in-person tours are 75% outside within LAEV. Reservations required: 213-738-1254 or crsp@igc.org. Tour only:  $15 to $25 (self-selected sliding scale ok; cash or checks made out to “CRSP” accepted at the door. Time dollars 2.5 hours accepted. Local currency?). Vaccinated people only please. Masks encouraged during indoor tour stops. More info and LAEV events: laecovillage.org/home/tours/ and laecovillage.org/category/events/.

Saturday dialogues, AWARE-LA White anti-racist gathering. Saturday Dialogue is a gathering for white anti-racists who want to discuss issues of identity, community, privilege and racism in our lives with the intention to strengthen our practice as anti-racists in alliances, relationships, and interactions with people of color. Regular, recurring dialogues throughout the year focus on the intersections of multiple identities, including Race and Class, Sexuality and Race, and Gender and Race. We strongly encourage you to attend a Saturday Dialogue Orientation before attending a Saturday Dialogue. You must register for each space each time you want to attend. First Saturday Dialogue – 10:30a – 12:45p, Third Sunday Dialogue – 3-5p, Register online via https://www.awarela.org/saturday-dialogue

On October 9, the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to avi Pillay, the South African international lawyer who defended Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid political prisoners on Robben Island. Pillay went on to serve as a judge on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court (ICC), then as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2025, Navi Pillay led the UN Commission of Inquiry that confirmed that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

With the world in the grip of seemingly intractable war and chaos, the Nobel Committee clearly wanted to honor someone who has worked against the tide of militarism and violence to uphold international law. And yet, on the same day, the United States unveiled unilateral, illegal coercive measures or “sanctions” against the ICC, where Navi Pillay served as a judge from 2003 to 2008.

The UN General Assembly’s 2026 general debate in September also set out to uphold the UN Charter and international law, and to confront the reality that the UN system is failing in its most basic responsibility, to maintain international peace and security.

The foundational rules of the UN Charter are that countries must resolve disputes peacefully and refrain from the threat or use of force. But in the General Assembly debate, even as leaders recognized the urgent need to finally enforce the UN Charter, after decades of impunity for aggression and war crimes, they were reluctant to explicitly address the central role of the United States in undermining the rule of international law.

Many US allies loyally condemned Russia’s violation of the UN Charter against Ukraine. But none of them even tried to square their singular focus on Russia with the inconvenient truth that their own ally, the United States, has systematically violated the UN Charter for decades, against Grenada, Nicaragua, Panama, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and other countries.

While US allies remain silent, US officials accept no responsibility or accountability for the violence and chaos they unleash, and instead keep doubling down on their failed imperial ambitions and military approach to international disputes, the very antithesis of what the UN Charter requires.

Many other leaders spoke out, but without explicitly naming the United States. Algeria’s foreign minister, the veteran diplomat Ahmed Attaf, pointedly asked,  “What sort of international order can function properly when principles are selected according to the identity of those who violate them? What confidence can remain in international law when the aggressor is granted the right to self-defense, while the victim is required to justify even the right to survive?”

So it is left to the officials of the countries the United States threatens or attacks to remind the world which country is illegally threatening them, as Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian did clearly and accurately at the General Assembly.

Many other leaders made strong statements condemning Israel’s war crimes and genocide in Gaza, even as they neglected to condemn the essential US military and diplomatic role in them. King Abdullah of Jordan described Israel’s objective as “to make a viable Palestinian state impossible,” through “a system of subjugation… de facto annexation… forced displacement… (and) war crimes.”

“We have tools,” he reminded his colleagues, “Sanctions, asset freezes, embargoes, diplomatic isolation. And we have a record of using them elsewhere… The question now is: Will we act?”

Another of the UN’s tools is the power of the president of the UN General Assembly to convene Emergency Special Sessions (ESS) that can pass “uniting for peace” resolutions. This allows the General Assembly to act decisively on international problems when the Security Council fails to do so, wielding the kind of tools that King Abdullah outlined.

The General Assembly’s 10th Emergency Special Session on “Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the Rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory” began in 1997, and has been reconvened more than twenty times.

In 2022, the 10th Emergency Special Session voted to ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) some legal questions about the Israeli occupation, which the court answered in 2024, in a finding that the Israeli occupation is illegal and that Israel must “end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible,” and “evacuate all settlers.”

The next meeting of the 10th ESS in September 2024 passed a resolution demanding that Israel comply with the ICJ ruling and withdraw from the occupied territories within a year.

However, the 2025-6 General Assembly president, Annalena Baerbock of Germany, allowed her entire year as president to pass without reconvening the 10th ESS even once.

This allowed Trump and Netanyahu to seize the initiative and subject the people of Gaza to a new phase of the genocide under Trump’s Orwellian “board of peace,” a smokescreen for a war of attrition to keep killing civilians and making life intolerable for the people of Gaza, as they struggle to survive in the rubble of their bombed and bulldozed homes.

Many leaders at the General Assembly spoke of the urgency of reforming the Security Council, but the greatest leverage they have to achieve that is the General Assembly’s ability to act in an Emergency Special Session when the dysfunctional, corrupted Security Council fails to do so. Nowhere in the world is such action more urgently needed than in Palestine. And yet the 10th Emergency Special Session has not met since June 2025.

Now that Bangladesh’s Dr. Khalilur Rahman has taken Baerbock’s place as President of the General Assembly, he should reconvene the 10th Emergency Special Session to take the concrete actions for Palestine that people all over the world are calling for.

South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ is also important, but South Africa has slowed down the already tortuous pace of international justice by requesting 18 months to respond to Israel’s defense against genocide charges. Surely South Africa and the court can find a way to move faster, with the fate of an entire people in the balance. The Genocide Convention was intended to prevent and stop genocide, not just to pass judgment over mass graves and scattered refugee camps.

Many people justifiably fear that the United Nations and its institutions are simply too weak to enforce the laws of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions and hold the United States and Israel accountable for their crimes. But there was another event on September 16, 2026, which suggests that Benjamin Netanyahu and other US-allied war criminals might want to think twice before assuming that the United States will always shield them from accountability.

The week before the General Assembly met in New York, an international war crimes court in The Hague sentenced former Kosovo president Hashim Thaçi to 25 years in prison. The court found Thaçi and three other former leaders of the US-backed Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guilty of 96 murders, 303 charges of torture, 49 charges of criminal cruelty and 385 cases of arbitrary detention, committed during the US-NATO war on Yugoslavia in 1999.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the court that tried Thaçi, was established in 2011, in response to a Council of Europe Parliamentary Report titled “Inhuman Treatment of People and Illicit Trafficking in Human Organs in Kosovo.”

That report detailed extraordinary allegations unearthed by Carla Del Ponte, who was the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which were then investigated for the Council of Europe by Swiss state prosecutor and member of parliament Dick Marty.

The report substantiated allegations that the KLA transported civilian prisoners from Kosovo to Albania and imprisoned them in a clinic known as the “Yellow House,” where they murdered them and extracted their internal organs to sell on the illicit organ transplant market.

As the court records show, these were only the most startling of Thaçi and the KLA’s crimes. The KLA also shot, tortured or beat to death dozens, or maybe hundreds, of civilian prisoners whom it labelled as “traitors” or “collaborators,” during and immediately after NATO’s illegal war to detach Kosovo from the remaining territory of Yugoslavia.

While no Americans were charged in these crimes, the CIA and other Western intelligence agencies had worked with the KLA since at least 1996, as it terrorized Serb civilians and attacked and killed Yugoslav police to provoke repression against the Kosovar Albanian population.

The escalating violence in Kosovo provided the pretext for a war in which the United States and NATO dropped 23,000 bombs and missiles on Yugoslavia, targeting and destroying vital civilian infrastructure as well as military targets. Then they invaded and occupied Kosovo and built a huge US military base, Camp Bondsteel, which the US also used as a secret prison during its “war on terror.”

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was so personally invested in the march to war in Kosovo that Time dubbed it “Madeleine’s War.” Albright shunned the traditional political leaders of Kosovo’s independence movement, and instead embraced Hashim Thaçi and the KLA as the United States’ and NATO’s main allies in Kosovo, despite their well-known links to organized crime and heroin smuggling.

With Thaçi at her side at the Rambouillet conference in France, Albright delivered her coup de grace to Yugoslav President Milosevich: an ultimatum that would have given NATO the right to militarily occupy all the remaining territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Milosevich’s refusal to surrender his country’s sovereignty served as the final pretext for the US and NATO to violate the UN Charter in an illegal war that set a precedent for US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the endless wars and chaos that have followed.

At the UN General Assembly on September 23rd, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić thanked the 107 countries that still refuse to recognize Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, and he placed NATO’s war on the remains of Yugoslavia in 1999 squarely at the root of the violence and chaos afflicting the UN and the world.

“…the order based on respect for the UN Charter and the law founded upon it no longer exists,” Vučić said. “It was destroyed by those who tore apart the territories of other countries for the sake of their own political and economic interests. They did so unscrupulously, recklessly, and shamelessly.”

So is it already too late to try to enforce the rules of the UN Charter? Has the world simply failed to learn the lesson of 1945 that “might makes right,” coupled with the destructive power of modern weapons, can only create a world plagued by endless war and chaos? Or, now that we are staring that world in the face, will we finally heed that lesson and make different choices?

It has taken 27 years for justice to catch up with Hashim Thaçi, but, as King Abdullah said, the world’s governments have the tools to enforce the rules of international law if and when they choose, and that is true even in the case of US allies like Thaçi and Netanyahu.

But Abdullah’s question remains: will the world’s leaders choose to use the tools at their disposal? First to free Palestine, but also to give our own children and grandchildren the chance to build a peaceful, sustainable world out of the militarism, war and chaos that is the global legacy of a generation of American leaders.

Nicolas J. S. Davies is an independent journalist, a researcher for CODEPINK and the author of Blood on Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq and, with Medea Benjamin, of War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, now in a revised, updated 2nd edition.