Events
MLK DAY – The Martin Luther King Day holiday falls on Monday, January 21 this year. Diverse events are planned across the country, from volunteering in Memphis to a non-violent protest at Lockheed Martin in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Contact: Volunteer Memphis, 22 North Front Street, Suite 780, Memphis, TN 38103; 901-523- 2425; www.volunteermemphis.org/mlkday.html. Lockheed Protest – Brandywine Peace Community, 610-544-1818; www.brandywinepeace.com.
DAY OF ACTION – The World Social Forum has called for a Global Day of Mobilization and Action on January 26, to feature educational events and demonstrations against corporate oligarchy and in favor of grassroots alternatives. This day was called instead of having a central WSF in 2008.
Contact: globalaction@ wsf2008.net; www.wsf2008.net.
EXHIBIT – Through a combination of techniques such as painting, mono-printing, and sewing, Artist Annemarie Zwack began to create the series of quilted paintings against the war titled “Where the Wheel Was Born.” From February 2 through March 2, 2008 Zwack’s exhibit will find a home at the Hopper House Art Center in Nyack, New York.
Contact: Annemarie Zwack, 607-589-7649; zwack@zwack art.com; www.zwackart.com.
THEATER – The Bread and Puppet Theater will be in Boston from February 4-10 offering performances, an art exhibit on Palestinian youth, and a “Cheap Art” Sale at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama.
Contact: Bread & Puppet Theater, 753 Heights Road, Glover, VT 05839; 802-525-3031 or 802-525-1271; breadpup@together.net; www.breadandpuppet.org.
EVOLUTION – Evolution Weekend is scheduled for February 8-10 to demonstrate that religious people from many faiths and locations understand that evolution is sound science and poses no problems for their faith, affiliated with the Clergy Letter Project repudiating anti-science fundamentalism.
Contact: www.evolutionweekend.org.
FILM FESTIVAL – Amnesty International presents Justice without Borders, the 16th Annual Seattle Human Rights Film Festival from February 13-17, featuring films of social conscience with lively forums responding to the human rights issues facing contemporary residents of empire.
Contact: Amnesty International Puget Sound, PO Box 45777, Seattle, WA 98145; 206-228-8369; filmfest@aiwashington.org; www.aiwashington.org.
TEACH-IN – The 7th Annual Local to Global Justice Teach-in comes to Arizona State University in Tempe on March 1-2, 2008. Our theme this year is “Turning Walls into Bridges.” This free event will feature talks by POOR magazine founder Tiny Gray-Garcia, labor activist and muralist Mike Alewitz, and social justice educator Mara Sapon-Shevin. Also enjoy workshops from local grassroots groups, delicious food, and great music, all dedicated to forging ties across diverse struggles.
Contact: localtoglobal@riseup.net; www.localtoglobal.org.
MEDIA CONFERENCE – The 5th Annual 2008 NYC Grassroots Media Conference is scheduled for Sunday, March 2 from 9 AM to 6 PM at Hunter College. The theme is Speaking Truth to Power: Media Justice in Our Communities and will feature workshops, skills sharing, and exhibits.
Contact – NYC Grassroots Media Coalition c/o NACLA, 38 Greene St. 4th Floor, NY, NY 10013; info@nycgrassrootsmedia.org; www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org.
ACTIVIST CONFERENCE – The 11th Annual National Conference on Organized Resistance (NCOR) will be held March 7-9, 2008 in Washington, DC. This weekend of learning and discussing local and international social justice issues through workshops, panel discussions, and skillshares is held on the main campus of American University.
CONTACT: NCOR, Mary Graydon 271, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016; ncor@riseup.net; www.ncor2008.org.
WOMEN’S STRIKE – International Women’s Day, March 8, has also been a day of protest, education, and direct action to redress the ongoing oppression of women who do two-thirds of all the world’s work—most of it without pay or formal benefits and often in slave conditions.
Contact: www.globalwomenstrike.net.
WINTER SOLDIER – From March 13-16, 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) will gather in Washington, DC to give first-hand testimony to the brutality, criminality, and stupidity of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Winter Soldiers, according to founding father Thomas Paine, are those who stand up for the soul of their country, even in its darkest hours. The event also honors the influential Winter Soldier campaign of Vietnam Veterans in 1971.
Contact: IVAW, PO Box 8296, Philadelphia, PA 19101; 215-241-7123; wintersoldier@ivaw.org; www.ivaw.org.
EDUCATION – The 2008 Rouge Forum Conference, “Education: Reform or Revolution?” will be hosted by Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, March 14-16. The Rouge Forum is a group of educators, students, and parents seeking a democratic society.
Contact: Adam Renner, 502-452-8135; arenner@belarmine.edu; www.rougeforum.org.
LEFT FORUM – The 2008 Left Forum is scheduled for March 14-16 at the Cooper Union in NYC. Discussion panels, workshops, info tables, and more are offered at this largest gathering in North America of the U.S. and international Left. Participants include: Naomi Klein, Grace Lee Boggs, Tariq Ali, Staughton Lynd, Billionaires for Bush, Mahmood Mamdani, Adam Hochschild, Jeremy Scahill, David Harvey, Max Elbaum, Stanley Aronowitz, Frances Fox Piven, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Patricia McFadden, Patrick Bond, John Bellamy Foster, Michael Albert, Carlos Vilas, Dennis Brutus, Deepa Fernandes, and many more.
Contact: Left Forum, c/o PhD Program in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016; 212-817-2003; leftforum@leftforum.org; www.leftforum.org.
PEACE DEMOS – March 19 is the five-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Demonstrations and marches will occur around the country in commemoration and to pressure the U.S. government to stop its ongoing criminal occupation, with a large gathering for nonviolent civil disobedience planned in Washington, DC.
Contact: UFPJ, PO Box 607, Times Square Station, NY, NY 10108; 212-868-5545; www.unitedforpeace.org; www.5yearstoomany.org.
BOOKFAIR – The 2008 Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair will take place on March 22-23 at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.
Contact: Anarchist Bookfair c/o Bound Together, 1369 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117; info@bayareaanarchistbookfair.org; www.sfbookfair.wordpress.com.
LABOR CONFERENCE – Calling all troublemakers. The annual Labor Notes conference is scheduled for April 11-13 in Dearborn, Michigan. Young and old will come together for workshops and strategy in fighting back and taking what’s ours from the corporate oligarchy. This year’s theme: Rebuilding Labor’s Power.
Contact: Labor Notes, 7435 Michigan Ave., Detroit, MI 4821; 313-842-6262; conference@labornotes.org; www.labornotes.org.PEACE CONFERENCE – War and Its Discontents: Understanding Iraq and the U.S. Empire is a conference for historians and activists, co-sponsored by the Peace History Society. The conference will take place April 11-13, 2008, in Atlanta, GA.
Contact: www.historiansagainstwar.org.
LA FORUM – The Los Angeles Social Forum is scheduled for April 25-27, with planning still underway and opportunities available for organizations and individuals to help.
Contact: LA Social Forum, PO Box 50359, Los Angeles, CA 90050; 213-596-8226; info@lasocialforum.org; www.lasocialforum.org.
CLASS STUDY – The Center for Study of Working Class Life will have its annual conference, “How Class Works” at the State University of New York at Stony Brook June 5-7.
Contact: Michael Zweig, Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of Economics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794; 631-632-7536; michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu; www.workingclass.sunysb.edu.
PEACE – Table/booth reservations are filling up for the 18th Annual A Call to Peace Festival, August 9 at the World Peace Sanctuary in Amenia, New York.
Contact: 845-877-6093; info@worldpeace.org; worldpeace.org.
Audio/Video
RADIO – Non-corporate radio news and music available in Boston and on the web from WZBC.
Contact: WZBC 90.3 FM, Boston College, McElroy Commons 107, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467; 617-552-3511; www.wzbc.org.
BOLIVIA – A documentary of geopolitics, people’s movements, indigenous culture, Cocalero is “a luminous portrait of working people in rare triumph against U.S. imperialism.”
Contact: First Run Features, The Film Center Building, 630 Ninth Avenue, Suite 1213, New York, NY 10036; 212-243-0600; info@firstrunfeatures.com; www.firstrunfeatures.com.
SOUTH AFRICA – Angels in the Dust is the story of Marion Cloete who—with her husband and two daughters—abandoned a privileged life in a wealthy Johannesburg suburb to establish Boikarabelo, a village and school providing shelter, food and education to more than 550 South African children orphaned by AIDS.
Contact: Cinema Libre Studio, 8328 De Soto Ave, Canoga Park, CA 91304; 818-349-8822; info@cinemalibrestudio.com; www.cinemalibrestudio.com.
Books
BOLIVIA – Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics by Forrest Hylton and Sinclair Thomson chronicles the roots and results of Bolivia’s revolutionary moment.
Contact: Verso, 180 Varick St, New York, NY 10014; 212-807- 9680; versony@versobooks.com; www.versobooks.com.
CHINA – In Adam Smith in Beijing: Lineages of the 21st Century, Giovanni Arrighi argues that the United States’ disastrous failure in Iraq has made China the true winner of the War on Terror.
Contact: Verso, 180 Varick St, New York, NY 10014; 212-807- 9680; versony@versobooks.com; www.versobooks.com.
COLLECTION – Breakfast for Anarchists is the newest collection of rebel verse, urban tall tales, “news” poems, short fiction and anarcho-agitprop recipes from Montreal cabaret artist Norman Nawrocki.
Contact: info@nobarcodepress.org; www.nobarcodepress.com.
COMMUNITIES – Communities Directory is a comprehensive guide to intentional communities and cooperative living with up-to-date information on over 900 intentional communities in North America.
Contact: Fellowship for Intentional Community, 138 Twin Oaks Road, Louisa, VA 23093; 660-883-5545; www.ic.org.
DATEBOOK – The Women Artists Datebook is a collection of artwork and poetry created by women. Also included are unique annotations, lunar cycles and menstrual calendars.
Contact: Syracuse Cultural Workers, 800-949-5139; www.syracuseculturalworkers.com.
EDUCATION – Please Stop Laughing at Us: One Survivor’s Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying is an intimate exposé of vulnerabilities in the American educational system, providing realistic solutions and advice.
Contact: Independent Publishers Group, 814 North Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60610; 800-888- 4741; www.ipgbook.com.
HAITI – Damming the Flood analyzes how and why Aristide’s enemies in Haiti, the United States, and France made sure that his second government, popularly elected with an overwhelming majority in 2000, was toppled by a further coup in 2004.
Contact: Verso, 180 Varick St, New York, NY 10014; 212-807- 9680; versony@versobooks.com; www.versobooks.com.
SATIRE – In As the World Burns: 50 Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, two of America’s most talented activists—author Derrick Jensen and artist Stephanie McMillan—team up to deliver a bold and hilarious satire of modern environmental policy.
Contact: Seven Stories, 140 Watts St., New York, NY 10013; www.sevenstories.com.
SPOOF – The graphic novel Shooting War by Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman is an irreverent spoof of the network news, the war in Iraq and the burgeoning “citizen journalist” movement, set in the near future.
Contact: Grand Central Publishing, 237 Park Ave., New York, NY 10017; www.hachettebookgroupusa.com.
ZIONISM – Combining family memoir with an account of the trajectory of Zionism during the 20th century, If I Am Not For Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew by peace activist Mike Marqusee offers a complex personal and historical quest to understanding the Israel/Palestine debate.
Contact: Verso, 180 Varick St, New York, NY 10014; 212-807- 9680; versony@versobooks.com; www.versobooks.com.
