EVENTS
OCCUPATION – Inspired by the courageous, nonviolent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Greece, Spain and elsewhere, over 50 populist organizations and thousands of activists have joined the October 2011 movement and are planning protests on October 6 at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC. The event will begin with a concert and rally at noon, with the stated goal “to kick off massive sustained occupation and nonviolent civil resistance to rampant corporatism and militarism.”
Contact: october2011.org.
LGBTQ/FILM – The 24th annual Out On Film Festival will take place September 29-October 6, in Atlanta, GA. Out On Film is one of the oldest LGBTQ film festivals in the country. Films include Cho Dependent and Legalize Gay.
Contact: info@outonfilm.org; http://outonfilm.org.
CLASS WAR – “The War on the Working Class” is the title of a conference scheduled for October 1 at St. Francis College, Brooklyn. Sponsored by the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE), the conference aims to bring together activists and theorists.
Contact: Union for Radical Political Economics, Gordon Hall, University of Massachusetts, 418 N. Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01002; 413-577- 0806; urpe@labornet.org; www.urpe.org.
EDUCATION – The U.S. Human Rights Network has announced this year’s Dignity in Schools Campaign National Week of Action, for October 1-8. The Week of Action will include teach-ins, workshops, rallies and town halls in more than 15 U.S. cities.
Contact: chloe@dignityin schools.org; http://www. dignityinschools.org.
OCCUPATION – United for Peace and Justice (UJP) – Boston will sponsor the “End the Endless Wars and Occupations Conference” on October 1, at Suffolk University. Speakers include Kathy Kelly and Noam Chomsky.
Contact: ujpcoalition@yahoo.com; http://justicewith peace.org.
WAR RESISTANCE – Warrior Writers are hosting the Veterans and Community Conference: Coming Home Through Art and Dialogue, in Chicago, on October 9. The conference will feature writing and art-making workshops, seminars on building healthy relationships between veterans and allies, and discussion panels exploring local support for veterans.
Contact: info@warriorwriters.org; http://www.warriorwriters.org/home.html; http://ivaw. org.
REPRESSION – For over 200 years the United States, with its military, has been interfering in the internal affairs of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) is inviting groups and organizations to participate in the Invasion Day (Columbus) Weekend, which will include education, entertainment, and protest.
Contact: lindaannie@gmail.com; http://soaw.org/call-to-action.
CLIMATE JUSTICE – Climate Justice Action is a global network of people and groups committed to taking urgent actions needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. October 12-16 is a week of actions dedicated to this end.
Contact: info@climate-justice-action.org; http://www.climate-justice-action.org.
PEACE CONFERENCE – The Peace in Asia and the Pacific conference will be held October 21 & 22 in Washington DC. Hosted by the American Friends Service Committee and other organizations, the conference brings together organizers and activists working to move money from the Pentagon to communities, to end the Central Asian wars, and for nuclear weapons abolition.
Contact: JGerson@afsc.org; http://afsc.org/peace-asia-pacific-conference.
POLICE BRUTALITY – October 22 is the National Day Against Police Brutality. The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation will have various events around the country.
Contact: october22-ny.org; www.october22.org.
GREEN FESTIVAL – Green Festivals are scheduled for New York City (October 1-2), Los Angeles (October 29-30) and San Francisco (November 12-13). Programs are oriented to fair trade and social and environmentally responsible exhibitors and include local and international speakers, as well as workshops, demonstrations, music, films, food and other activities.
Contact: http://www.greenfestivals.org.
SPACE FOR PEACE – The annual International Days of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space is scheduled for October 1-8. Resources to help plan educational events or demonstrations are available online and by request. Participants include United Against Drones (US/UK), and the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom.
Contact: globalnet@minds pring.com; http://www.space4 peace.org/; http://unitedagainst drones.wordpress.com.
TEACHERS – The 11th annual conference, “Teaching for Social Justice-The Power of Community” will be held Sunday, October 9, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Mission High School in San Francisco. The free event features workshops and resources, and offers free childcare.
Contact: Teachers for Social Justice, 542 Munich Street, San Francisco, CA 94112; 415-676-7844; http://www.t4sj.org.
FOOD – The Organic Consumers Association is organizing the March Against Monsanto, on World Food Day, October 16. Hundreds of events are scheduled throughout the U.S. and worldwide.
Contact: http://organicconsumers.org/monsanto/index.cfm.
ENVIRONMENT/FILM – The Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival is scheduled for October 20 in Burlington, VT. Films include Truck Farm and Animals Save the Planet.
Contact: 802-223-2328; notter@vnrc.org; http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org.
LABOR – United Workers, a National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) partner, has organized the first Fair Development Conference in Baltimore, October 28-30. The gathering of organizers, low-wage workers, academics, faith leaders, artists, activists, students and others aims to develop a collective vision for public participation in job creation.
Contact: conferenc@unitedworkers.org; http://www.nesri.org.
LITERACY – The School of Commoning is running a Campaign for Commons Literacy through October. The Campaign is to create awareness about the International Commons Movement and its message that there are forces besides markets and governments that need strengthening to create good governance of commons.
Contact: modernherbalmedicine@gmail.com; http://www.indiegogo.com/CommonsCampaign.
ENVIRONMENT – 1,252 people were arrested outside of the White House during The Tar Sands Action between August 22 – September 3, protesting the Keystone XL Pipeline. The group is currently raising funds for future actions.
Contact: tarsandsaction@gmail.com; http://www.tarsandsaction.org.
LABOR – The Proletarian Center for Research, Education and Culture is currently considering several calls to radical action, including encouraging workers to start or join unions; a student-loan payment strike; and other actions.
Contact: josephwaters3@gmail.com; http://prolecenter.word press.com.
MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION – The National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) will host its 21st annual conference in Chicago, November 2-5. This year’s theme, “Reworking Intersections, Reframing Debates, Restoring Hope,” will be addressed in intensive institutes, talks and workshops.
Contact: name@NAMEorg.org; http://nameorg.org.
RESISTERS – The National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee (NWTRCC) is holding the “Nuclear Weapons: Don’t Buy Them, Don’t Own Them,” conference in Kansas City, November 4-6. War tax resistance (WTR) groups and local war resisters will work together in workshops, panels and discussions.
Contact: nwtrcc@nwtrcc.org; http://www.nwtrcc.org.
DIRECT ACTION – The annual November vigil to protest the School of the Americas (referred to as the School of Assassins, but now officially WHINSEC) is scheduled for November 18-20 at Fort Benning, GA. Additional events include teach-ins and workshops.
Contact: SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC 20017; 202-234-3440; info@soaw.org; http://soaw.org/index.php.
CLASS – The Center for Study of Working Class Life has announced the “How Class Works – 2012 Conference,” to be held at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, July 7-9, 2012. Proposals for papers, presentations, and sessions are welcome until December 12, 2011.
Contact: Center for Study of Working Class Life, Dept. of Economics, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4384; 631-632-7536; workingclass@notes.cc.sunysb.edu; http://www.stonybrook.edu/workingclass.
BOOKS
WOMEN – At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance, A New History of the Civil Rights Movement; and Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC are two new books attempting to upend both traditional and radical histories of the modern civil rights movement by placing women at the center of their narrative and interpretive process.
Contact: Alfred A. Knopf, 1745 Broadway 10th floor, New York, NY 10019; 212-782-9000; http:// www.randomhouse.com. Contact: University of Illinois Press, 1325 South Oak Street, MC-566, Champaign, IL 61820-6903; uipress@uillinois.edu; http://www.press.uillinois.edu.
SOCIAL SECURITY – The People’s Pension: The Struggle to Defend Social Security from Reagan to Obama is a new book by Eric Laursen about the history of the Social Security debate. The book tries to imagine a future for Social Security that radically democratizes it and returns it to its roots in mutual aid.
Contact: AK Press, 674-A 23rd Street, Oakland, CA 94612; 510-208-1700; info@akpress.org; http://www.akpress.org.
CLASS – Chris Lehmann’s new book, Rich People Things: Real-Life Secrets of the Predator Class, addresses the various dogmas and delusions of plutocratic rule in the U.S., by cataloguing the fortifications that shelter the elite from the general population.
Contact: Haymarket Books, PO Box 180165, Chicago, IL 60618; info@haymarketbooks.org; http://www.haymarketbooks.org.
FREE SPEECH/EDUCATION – In Let the Students Speak!: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools, David L. Hudson Jr. details the history and growth of the First Amendment in public schools. Topics addressed include dress codes, cyberbullying and the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, Morse v. Frederick, among others.
Contact: Beacon Press, 25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108-2892; 617-723-3097; rmelwani@beacon.org; http://beacon.org.
FICTION – Christopher Howard’s debut novel, Tea of Ulaanbaatar, tells the story of a disaffected Peace Corps volunteer who flees life in late-capitalist America to find himself in the post-Soviet industrial life of Mongolia, where the American presence is crumbling.
Contact: Seven Stories Press, 140 Watts Street, New York, NY 10013; 212-226-8760; http://sevenstories.com.
LGBTQ – In Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, Dean Spade raises revelatory critiques of the current civil rights and “equality” strategies of mainstream gay and lesbian organizations. Going beyond just legal inclusion, the book is a call for justice and trans liberation, and the radical transformation it will require.
Contact: southend@southendpress.org; http://www.southendpress.org.
FILM
FINANCIAL CRASH – A new documentary, The Flaw, tells the story of the credit bubble that caused the financial crash of 2008, explaining how excessive income inequality leads to economic instability.
Contact: Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543- 3764; info@bullfrogfims.com; www.bullfrogfilms.com.
PALESTINE – I Want To See, blurring the lines between documentary and fiction, follows French actress Catherine Deneuve from a banquet in Beirut to South Lebanon, where she witnesses first-hand the devastation caused by Israel’s 2006 invasion.
Contact: Typecast Films, 888-591-3456; info@typecastfilms.com; http://typecast films.com.
Listings in Z are free. Send Zaps (rtf) and display ads (jpeg) to zmag@zmag.org.
