Dérive

  In the wake of a horrifying scandal last year in which 20 different cops were caught extorting sex from a teenage girl , Oakland's Democratic Mayor Libby Schaaf vowed to "root out what is clearly a toxic, macho, culture" in the Oakland Police Department (OPD). Now we know that Schaaf seems to have a different definition of cleaning house than most of us: giving promotions to the officers who worked to destroy evidence and cover up the investigation. In June 2016, DarwinBond Graham and Ali Winston of the East Bay Express exposed the trafficking of a 17-year-old sex worker who went by the name of Celeste Guap. Guap was passed between at least 14 OPD officers, three Richmond cops, four Alameda County sheriff's deputies and a federal officer. "Three Oakland police officers committed statutory rape of Guap when she was underage," reported Graham and Winston. "By the state's legal definition, they engaged in human trafficking. The vi...

Oliver Ressler, Alternative Economics, Alternative Societies, 2003-08. (Brea McAnally) "Emancipatory politics must always destroy the appearance of a 'natural order,' must reveal what is presented as necessary and inevitable to be mere contingency, just as it must make what was previously deemed to be impossible seem attainable." These words of the late author Mark Fisher, printed on parchment paper in purple ink and an eye-catching font, were handed out to visitors at the opening of the Museum of Capitalism (MoC) in Oakland, California. The museum's, whose stated mission is to "educate this generation and future generations about the ideology, history, and legacy of capitalism," opened in June with a series of multimedia exhibits created by artists, scholars and others, with more to come. It has already hosted numerous events , including a presentation by the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) and a lecture on "How to ...