Last night (Nov. 27) Oakland City Council had an “emergency” meeting to consider a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. About 3-400 people turned out, and many of them spoke. The speakers were about three or four to one in favor, with the supporters of Israel mainly calling for an amendment to condemn Hamas to be added. These types are usually undying defenders of everything Israel does, but the fact that all they could do was call for such an amendment shows what weak ground they feel they are on. I distributed about 75 copies of this leaflet and also spoke. Speakers were allowd 60 seconds, and I went about 30 seconds over my time. Below is my speech. (Apologies for the fact that my camera wasn’t really aimed at me.) It’s not easy to say anything much in that limited time, especially when you have a security guard standing there telling you to stop, which is what happened the last 30 seconds, but I raised as much as I could. (I wanted to raise the point that if we oppose one invasion/occupation we should oppose them all, including Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine.) For those who are interested in knowing more about my working class socialist campaign for Oakland mayor last years, see this short video.