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Window Room:
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12:00– 1:00
The Economic Workings of a New Society
By John A Imani (Revolutionary Autonomous Communities Los Angeles)
An overview of the workings of all societies to be followed by discussions and questions regarding the economic workings of our current capitalist society, and how the new society—that we all want and need— and how we might solve the problems left after the demise of capitalism. We will further discuss how we may chart new ways of thinking and new manners of relationships amongst ourselves. We will also chart some examples, of how RAC-L.A.’s activities could be used as examples as a transitional model.
*(see Attachment at bottom)
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1:15 – 2:15
Anarchist organizing in the University
By John Bruning/ Danielle Holmes/ Anthony Fuentes/ Jason Ball/ & others
Over the past several years, anarchists have played a prominent role in organizing on college campuses in California. From dramatic actions like occupations and street takeovers to on-the-ground campaigns to organize service workers and fight union bureaucracy, anarchists and anti-authoritarian allies have shaped the discourse and direction of these movements. A panel of students and organizers involved in campus organizing will address challenges faced, successful organizing strategies, and the continued importance of the Anarchist voice in the university.
Panelists:
Jason Ball is a graduate student at UCLA, where he has been involved in labor and student organizing, including UCLA Fights Back and the Student Worker Front. He has also been involved in organizing work as a student at Orange Coast College and as an undergraduate at UCLA.
John Bruning is a former UCI graduate student, where he started the Radical Student Union and participated in movement against the UC budget cuts. He has written for New University and Labor Notes, and is facing criminal charges as one of the UCI 19. He is currently a union organizer at UCLA.
Anthony Fuentes is an undergraduate student at Pitzer College. He has been involved in the Latino Student Union and the Pomona College Food Service Workers union.
Danielle Holmes is an undergraduate student at Pitzer College, where she has been involved in the Pomona College Food Service Workers union and the broader student movement.
Anne Kelly is a graduate student at UCI. She has been involved in Academic Workers for a Democratic Union, a reform movement within UAW Local 2865, which recently took control of the UC-wide Teaching Assistants' union.
http://disorientuci.wordpress.com
http://occupyuci.wordpress.com
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2:30 – 3:30
Crisis in California: Everything Touched by Capital Turns Toxic
By Gifford Hartman (Insane Dialectical Posse)
The global economic crisis that started in 2007 was ignited by the collapse of the housing bubble, mostly centered on the massive real-estate boom over the last decade throughout the U.S., but especially in California. California’s Central Valley was already the birthplace of industrial chemical-intensive agribusiness, but the planet’s most productive farmland began to be paved over by subprime loan-fueled housing developments – now the Valley is home to the largest collection of empty houses on earth, many sitting side-by-side with tent cities and shantytowns occupied by the unemployed workers who built them, in towns and cities with the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. Thrown into the toxic mix are ruling class schemes to privatize California’s water, while the air in the Central Valley is the dirtiest in the U.S. Gifford Hartman takes us on a road trip through California’s landscape of toxicity: of mortgages and ecosystems, houses, drugs and human relations. This multimedia presentation will be followed by a participatory discussion of possible ways of fighting back.
Gifford Hartman teaches adult education is an independent working class historian; he is a member of the Insane Dialectical Posse.
For further reading:
Crisis in California: Everything Touched by Capital Turns Toxic by Gifford Hartman: http://turbulence.org.uk/turbulence-5/california/
The Golden State Adrift by Richard Walker:
http://ucbfa.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Walker-Calif-Crisis-NLR66.pdf
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Screening Room:
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1:15 – 2:15
Atmospheric Dialectics: Reflections on Climate Catastrophe
By Javier Sethness
Unless profoundly radical action is taken immediately, it seems highly likely that this century as well as those that follow will witness very serious threats to human well-being and even survival, as well as to the existence of much of life on Earth itself, due in large part to the now well-established reality of anthropogenic climate change. This workshop would consist of two parts, other than that dedicated to general discussion: it would firstly present recent findings in climatology and a general appraisal of the climate crisis and secondly examine some of the socio-political contributions that anarchist thought and practice (particularly Murray Bookchin’s social ecology as well as the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory) could have as regards the catastrophic disruptions climate change is having and will likely continue to have on terrestrial life, both human and non-human, unless matters are made radically otherwise.
Javier Sethness is a libertarian socialist, educator, and rights-advocate. His Imperiled Life: On Climate Catastrophe, to be published in early 2012, will be the fourth installment in the Anarchist Intervention series of the Institute for Anarchist Studies and AK Press. In recent years he has been involved with such LA-based collectives as Food Not Bombs, the People's Assembly for Popular Education and Liberation (PAPEL), and the Undercurrent zine. His writings on climate change, imperialism, and Palestine have appeared in Countercurrents, MRZine, Dissident Voice, The Electronic Intifada, Climate & Capitalism, and Perspectives on Anarchist Theory.
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2:30 – 3:30
Micro FM & Radical Pedagogy: Wave Manual Project
By Steven Rodriguez & James Goebel
In the spring of 2011, we organized a discussion group that revolved around thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari with special attention paid to questions in indigenous history, art, and pedagogy. What came of these discussions, for us, was a particular interest in the practice of participatory community politics and education. In July we will be traveling to Mexico to work with and learn from various participants in the Free Radio movement, including individuals involved in the 2006 Oaxaca uprising in which 14 radio stations and 1 TV station were seized by Oaxacan teachers, students, indigenous peoples, housewives, and farmers for the purpose of organizing and defending their struggle. We intend to publish a book titled WAVE MANUAL that documents these travels and provides a community educator’s handbook for establishing and maintaining Free Radio stations that attend to the concerns of their communities.
http://www.wavemanual.com/
James Goebel - Graduated from CSU Fullerton with a BA in Philosophy. He is currently a graduate student in the Comparative Literature department at UC Irvine. His Interests lie mainly in animal and environmental studies, Indigenous histories and European philosophy. http://www.ageologyofborders.wordpress.com/
Steven Rodriguez – Is a LA based
community arts educator and philosophy student at Cal State Fullerton and operate the arts education/critical pedagogy blog
http://www.selflearnla.org/
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Gallery:
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12:00 – 1:00
Industrial Workers of the World: Organizing in the Fast Food industry
By Brittany Koppy (I.W.W.)
Worker and organizer Brittany Koppy will talk on her involvement with the I.W.W.'s unprecedented campaign to organize food service workers at the corporate sandwich chain Jimmy John's. The campaign is based on the I.W.W.'s model of solidarity unionism that emphasizes a bottom up and worker led approach that relies on solidarity and direct action. Solidarity Unionism has gained prominence in the labor movement recently with organizing efforts at Jimmy John’s and Starbucks workers nationwide. Making the audacious assertion that workers themselves have the ability to engage in effective struggle at the workplace without relying on union professionals and labor laws stacked against workers. As much of the mainstream labor movement struggles to survive or present a credible alternative for workers, Solidarity Unionism points us toward a reinvigorated labor movement from below which imagines that a world without bosses is possible.
Brittany Koppy has been working and organizing at Jimmy John's since September of last year. She is an organizer whose work focuses on women and has recently graduated from the U of Minnesota with a degree is Social Justice. As she states, “I do this work because everyone deserves a living wage and I want to make the work place a safe place for everyone”
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1:15 – 2:15
Protecting the Land - A generational Struggle: A Native Youth & Elder Panel
By Native Youth Movement
The purpose of the panel will be to connect the different land struggles from southern Cali but other regions as well. Educating all of l.a. and in particular the movement, anarchist included, about solidarity and why defending the land is important and who's land we are on.
Tongva Nation (l.a. indigenous nation)
Chumash
Glen Cove - (Sogorea Te Struggle)
PahinSinte Lakota Nation Ogala Elders and NYM Occupation in Pine Ridge Canada
Dene Suline Cold Lake Alberta, Canada
Members from the American Indian Movement andThe purpose of the panel will be to connect the different land struggles from southern Cali but other regions as well. Educating all of l.a. and in particular the movement, anarchist included, about solidarity and why defending the land is important and who's land we are on.
Tongva Nation (l.a. indigenous nation)
Chumash
Glen Cove - Sogorea Te Struggle
PahinSinte Lakota Nation Ogala Elders and NYM Occupation in Pine Ridge Canada
Dene Suline Cold Lake Alberta, Canada
Members from the American Indian Movement and others as well others as well
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2:30 – 3:30
The Assassination of Fred Hampton
By Jeffrey Haas (attorney & community activist)
The Assassination of Fred Hampton is attorney Jeff Haas’s personal account of the thirteen year legal saga in which he and People’s Law Office partner Flint Taylor pursued Hampton’s assassins, ultimately prevailing over FBI stonewalling and unlimited government resources bent on hiding the conspiracy that led to Hampton’s death. The book not only tells the story of justice delivered but also sheds light on Hampton as a dynamic community leader whose dedication to his people and to truth telling inspired the young lawyers of the People’s Law Office, solidifying their lifelong commitment to fighting injustice.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| The Economic Workings of a New Society-Outline.doc | 42 KB |