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    ZSVS, June 2006: Interviews

    ZSVS Participant Interview with…

    Ezekiel Adamovsky

    (1) Where were you born, where do you now live, what has been your main schooling, employment, family life, etc.? In short, introduce yourself personally.

    I was born in the city of Buenos Aires, where I still live. I grew up in the outskirts, but now I live within the city itself. I went to state primary and high school, before taking History at the University of Buenos Aires. Later, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to complete my education at University College London, where I did my PhD. in Russian history. Don’t ask why Russia, I have no reasonable answers. No, there aren’t close family connections (although part of my family originally came from the Russian Empire, back in 1904; but other ancestors came from Italy, France, Spain and Austria, and I am not interested in the history of those countries…). My choice was mainly due to political interests, I think.

    At the age of 18 years old I started to live on my own, and for eight years, I worked at a shop, doing different things. Mainly delivering furniture, but also selling it, collecting debts for the firm, installing curtains, and all sorts of boring stuff. For the past seven years I have been earning a living through academic activities. I teach at the University of Buenos Aires, and I also do historical research at CONICET (Argentina’s main scientific research body).

     (2) What have been your main political involvement in the past? Are you involved with particular movements, projects, or organizations now? If so, which? What features would an International Political Organization have to embody to attract you? What features would repel you? In short, introduce yourself politically.

    My first intense political involvement was when I was a teenager. When I was 14 and started high school, it was 1984, the year democracy was re-established in Argentina. It was a time of intense political enthusiasm and there was activism all over the place. One of the movements that was very active (and new) was the high school student’s unions. I became a delegate of my class in 1984, and remained very active in the student’s union for five years (I even became President of it at some point). We did many important things with the union, including some pretty radical stuff in the field of human rights and also in the struggle for reduced transport fees for students.

    As part of that I developed a taste for publishing journals and to some extent also for direct action. I also started to read political stuff on my own, mainly the Marxism-Leninism classics. Yes, I became a Marxist, and I even joined the Communist party for some fifteen days. But that was because there was this girl I liked…

    Soon after I started my university course, my political certainties collapsed. At some point I discovered all the truths I thought I knew didn’t really work. For few years I devoted myself to reading and studying, without political commitments. The neo-liberal 1990’s in Argentina were pessimistic times and no hope for radicals. At some point in 1996 I started to feel the urge to become politically active again. But I didn’t find the right place for me. I strongly disliked left-wing parties, even when I still didn’t know exactly why.

    I joined the editorial committee of the journal El Rodaballo, which is one of the leading journals of radical culture and politics in Argentina. That was very important for my political education, as it was with those people that we started to explore and spread ideas of a new type of radical politics.

    After 2000 I became interested in the global resistance movement. I was lucky enough to be in Europe at the time of the huge Genoa demonstration, which renewed my enthusiasm for political action. Back in Argentina, I actively participated in the rebellion of 19th/20th December 2001, and then joined one of the neighbours’ assemblies that self-organised after the rebellion. I am still part of that movement, and I couldn’t even start to explain how much I learnt and how many different political experiences we participated in in the past few years.

    At the same time, together with some friends we set up a collective of global resistance, called "Intergalactika". We organised some direct actions and published brochures of popular education. We also made a documentary video on the Argentinean rebellion (which you can get with English subtitles from Z Video). Together with Intergalactika we were very much involved in the process of the World Social Forum.

    (3) Imagine you are giving a public talk The question and answer period arrives. Someone says, "I know you are against capitalism, anti-racist, and anti-sexist. I know you believe in participation, want solidarity, require sustainability, and seek justice. Me too. But in a real world society, what institutions do you seek so as to fulfill those aims? What are your structural goals?" How do you answer? In short, explore a bit in the directions ZSVS seeks to emphasize.

    I am more focused on strategy than on vision at the time. Regarding vision, I agree that whatever institutions we develop, they must be in accord with our main values. My main values are co-operation, solidarity, freedom, equality, autonomy. I do not believe in institutions that, for the sake of effectiveness, produce social relations which are exactly the opposite to those values. But likewise, I do not believe in institutions that, for the sake of political purity, are completely ineffective when it comes to changing the world.

    (4) What do you hope to get out of ZSVS, personally, for your self and for your work? For us all, what do you think will most likely come out of ZSVS? Also, what do you hope, in your most optimistic moment, will come out of it? In short, affect what we all plan and undertake and the tone we do it with.

    I hope ZSVS will help me develop new ideas on the issues of political strategy I am working on at the moment. I think we need to invent and explore institutions of a new type. I believe we need new political institutions if we want to reach a higher level of human co-operation (and we are definitely going to need a much higher level if we are to defeat capitalism and replace it with a post-capitalist society).

    By “institutions” I do not mean a hierarchy of authorities, or a building full of bureaucrats. I simply refer to a basic set of rules and procedures that everybody knows and accepts, plus a reasonable, non-hierarchical division of tasks that formally distributes duties and responsibilities while ensuring accountability. Political parties, at least as we know them, are no longer an option. My aim at ZSVS will be to explore political strategy and organising in relation to horizontal principles.


    Purpose

    The goals of ZSVS will be:

    • To explore ideas about long
      term vision and related long and short term strategy and program, to reach
      agreements and clarify persisting differences

    • To facilitate people laying a basis for working together
    • To facilitate people
      establishing joint projects

    • To generate enough agreement to initiate some
      joint or collective work

    • To generate enough agreement to initiate continuing and/or
      enlarging group connections

    • Additionally, Z will video,
      record, and otherwise keep transcripts. Some material will  appear
      in Z, on ZNet, and/or in book form – with permissions, of course.

    Attendees

     

    Name
    Country
    EMail
    Interview
    		 Presentation
    Click for person’s page
    Origin/home
    Click to email person
    Click to read
    Click to read – will become links as the
    articles arrive…
    Yugoslavia 

    [email protected] 
    Andrea Schmidt
    Canada
    		  
    US
    Chantel Santerre
    Canada 
    US
    US
    Evan Henshaw Plath
    U.S.
    		 
    Argentina 
    Felipe Pérez Martí
    Venezuela
    Venezuela
    Harsha Walia
    India
    The Apartheid of Migration
    Irina Ceric
    Serbia/Canada
    		  
    Jamie LeJeune
    U.S./Thailand
    		  
    US
    US
    Jonah Gindin
    Canada
    		  
    Canada 
    Kendra Fehrer
    US
    		  
    US
    Argentina 
    Marina Sitrin
    US
    Mark
    Evans
    UK
    		  
    US
    Britain 
    Canada 
    US
    Internationalism
    Ria Julien
    Trinidad/US
    		  
    France 
    Sean Gonsalves
    US
    		  
    US
    Rawa and Feminist Strategy
    US
    France 
    Tamara Vukov
    		   
    Thomas Ponniah
    U.S.
    		  
    US


    A number of people at one time or another during the preparations for ZSVS 2006 indicated
    a desire to attend, but were later unable to do so. These included:

    America Vera Zavala – Sweden Anthony Arnove – U.S. Barbara Ehrenreich – U.S. Betsy Hartman – U.S. Bill Fletcher – U.S.
    Boris Kagarlitsky – Russia Bridgit Anderson – Great Britain Carol Delgado – Venezuela Carola Reintjes- Spain Charlotte Ryan – U.S.
    Christophe Aguiton – Italy Daniel Chavez – Neth Dennis Brutus Devinder Sharma – India Elaine Bernard – U.S.
    Hector Mondragon – Colombia Hilary Wainwright – Great Britain Ilan Pappe – Israel John Hepburn – Australia John Pilger – Great Britain
    Katha Pollitt – U.S. Laura Flanders – U.S. Leslie Cagan – U.S. Mandisi Majavu – South Africa Manuel Rozental – Colombia
    Manning Marable – U.S. Pablo Ortellado – Brazil Pervez Hoodhboy – Pakistan Peter Bohmer – U.S. Robert Jensen – U.S.
    Robin Kelley – U.S. Ron Daniels – U.S. Sudhanva Deshpande – India Tanya Reinhart – Israel Tim Wise – U.S.
    Trevor Ngwane – South Africa Vandana Shiva – India Vijay Prashad – U.S.

    A number of other folks either said no to coming, or didn’t respond at all

    Tariq Ali – Great Britain Arundhati Roy – India Sheila Rowbotham – Great Britain Naomi Klein – Can Amy Goodman – U.S.
    Juliet Shor – U.S. Luca Cassarini – Italy Howard Zinn – U.S. Walden Bello (Phil) Virginia Setshedi (SoAfr)
    Vittorio Agnoletto – Italy Adele Oliveri – Italy Atilo Boron – Arg

    Interviews

    Click the following names for their ZSVS introductory interview…
    Each participant has been sent the same series of questions to answer.
    When the answers arrive they are linked here.

    Ezekiel Adamovsky Michael Albert Jessica Azulay Normand Baillargeon Jeremy Brecher
    Denis Brutus Irina Ceric Brian Dominick Mark Evans Kendra Fehrer
    Susan George Jonah Gindin Sean Gonzalves Andrej Grubacic Ria Julien
    Sonali Kolhatkar Jamie LeJeune Rahul Mahajan Mandisi Majavu Felipe
    Pérez Martí
    Hector Mondragon Cynthia Peters Evan Henshaw Plath Justin
    Podur     		Thomas Ponniah
    Milan Rai Manuel Rozental Chantal Santerre Lydia Sargent Andrea Schmidt
    Stephen Shalom Devinder Sharma Chris Spannos Marina Sitrin Marie Trigona
    America
    Vera Zavala     		Tamara Vukov Harsha Walia Tom Wetzel Greg Wilpert

     

    Submitted Interviews But Could Not Attend….

    Bridget
    Anderson    		 Sudhanva Deshpande  Francesca Fiorentini John Hepburn Pervez Hoodbhoy
    Robert Jensen Mandisi
    Majavu         		Chhandasi Pandya Ilan Pappe Vijay Prashad
    Carola Reintjes Max
    Uhlenbeck

     

    Agenda

    ZSVS Agenda
    This agenda is in process of formation
    in light of proposed papers, some guesses, etc.
    Things will change, somewhat…no
    doubt.



    Schedule
    Please see immediately below the timetable for information
    on the format of presentations and questions…

    June 1 / Thursday

    Anytime All Day
    Arrive Logan Airport in Boston, take hour and a
    half Bonanza bus ride, arrive Woods Hole. Also possible, arrive Providence, Rhode
    Island, but Bonanza bus trip to Woods Hole is longer and somewhat more compilcated.
    Check-in at Motel, etc.

    Dinner and Socializing at Swope Hall: 6:00 – 7:30 PM

    Official Welcome, Introductions, and Orientation 8:30 – 10:00 PM

     

    June 2 / Friday – Economic/Social Vision and Strategy

    Breakfast and Socializing at Swope Hall: 7:00 – 8:30 AM

    Morning Session: 9:00 – 10:30 AM
    —
    Trigona:
    Self-Management in Argentina
    Questions: Spannos, Baillargeon

    Small Group Discussions: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

    Lunch and Socializing at Swope Hall: 12:00 – 1:15 PM

    Afternoon Session One: 1:30 – 3:00 PM
    — Wilpert:
    Linking Post-Capitalist Alternatives
    Questions: Julien, Gindin

    Afternoon Session Two: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
    —Wetzel:
    Workers’ Liberation
    Questions: Peters, Ceric

    Small Group Discussions 5:10 – 6:00 PM

    Dinner and Socializing at Swope Hall: 6:15 – 7:15 PM

    Evening Session: 8:00 – 9:30 PM
    — Albert:
    Building A Pareconish Movement
    Questions: Pérez-Martí, George

    Whole Group Sum Up, Socializing, Filmed Interviews: 9:30 – 11:00 PM

     

    June 3 / Saturday – Political Vision
    and Strategy

    Breakfast and Socializing at Swope: 7:00 – 8:30 AM

    Morning Session: 9:00 – 10:30 AM
    — Grubacic:
    Power and Revolution
    Questions: Baillargeon, Julien

    Small Group Discussions: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

    Lunch and Socializing at Swope: 12:00 – 1:15 PM

    Afternoon Session One: 1:30 – 3:00 PM
    — Martí:
    Free Information, Free Software & Revolution
    Questions: Plath, Azulay

    Afternoon Session Two: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
    — Adamovsky: Autonomous Politics
    Questions: Dominick, Wetzel

    Small Group Discussions 5:10 – 6:00 PM

    Dinner and Socializing at Swope Hall: 6:15 – 7:15 PM

    Evening Session: 8:00 – 9:30 PM
    — Shalom:
    Visionary Politics
    Questions: Schmidt, Albert

    Whole Group Sum Up, Socializing, Filmed Interviews 9:30 – 11:00 PM…

    June 4 / Sunday – Gender Vision and Strategy

    Breakfast and Socializing at Z House: 7:00 – 8:30 AM

    Morning Session: 9:00 -10:30 AM
    —
    Peters: Kinship Vision
    Questions: Sitrin, Fehrer

    Small Group Discussions: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

    Lunch and Socializing at Z House: 12:00 – 1:15 PM

    Afternoon Session One: 1:30 – 3:00 PM

    — Kolhatkar: RAWA and Feminist Strategy
    Questions:
    Evans, George

    Afternoon Session Two: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
    Where
    Are We Going With These Sessions – Discussing Outcomes, etc.

    Free Time 5:10 – 6:00 PM

    Dinner and Socializing at Z: 6:15 – 7:15 PM

    Party at Z 8:00 – 10:30 PM…

    June 5 / Monday – Race and Community Vision and Strategy

    Breakfast and Socializing at Swope Hall: 7:00 – 8:30 AM

    Morning Session: 9:00 – 10:30 AM
    —
    Podur:
    Race, Culture, & Leftists
    Questions: Gonsalves, Ponniah

    Small Group Discussions: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

    Lunch and Socializing at Swope Hall: 12:00 – 1:15 PM

    Afternoon Session Two: 1:30 – 3:00 PM
    —     Walia: The Apartheid of Migration
    Questions: Shalom, Plath

    Afternoon Session One: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
    Where Are We Going With These Sessions – Discussing Outcomes, etc.

    Small Group Discussions 5:15 – 6:15 PM

    Dinner and Socializing at Swope Hall: 6:30 – 7:30 PM

    Evening: Where Are We Going With These Sessions – Discussing Outcomes, etc.
    / Socializing – 8:00 –     11:00 PM…

    June 6 / Tuesday – International Relations
    Vision and Strategy

    Breakfast and Socializing at Swope Hall: 7:00 – 8:30 AM

    Morning Session: 9:00 – 10:30 AM
    — Rai:
    World Upside Down
    Questions: Spannos, Gindin

    Small Group Discussions: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

    Lunch and Socializing at Swope Hall: 12:00 – 1:15

    Afternoon Session One: 1:30 – 3:00 PM
    — Brecher:
    Global People’s Law?
    Questions: Halimi, Sitrin

    Afternoon Session Two: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
    — Mahajan: Internationalism…
    Questions: Vukov, Podur

    Small Group Discussions 5:10 – 6:00 PM

    Dinner and Socializing at Swope Hall: 6:15 – 7:15 PM

    Lasting Outcomes of ZSVS: 8:00 – 11:00

    June 7 / Wednesday

    Checkout: Roughly 10:00 AM
    Flights out from Logan Airport (or, via more difficult bus connections from Providence)
    all day as arranged.

    Proposed Format
    (Please send requests for either general changes,
    or changes in your own sessions.)

    Presentation Sessions

    • Presentations will be chaired by the presenter.
    • All papers will be available online to participants a month in advance.
    • Presentations will summarize papers for at most thirty minutes.
    • Presentations will offer claims about vision and or strategy, or about tasks
      regarding vision and or strategy.
    • Named questioners will ask questions they and perhaps others have about how
      to understand or expand on the presenter’s points seeking to provoke discussion and
      exploration.
    • Named questioners will be limited to four minutes each.
    • Anyone who wants to present more in-depth comments in advance, for posting,
      or debate, etc., should do so.
    • After initial questions are asked, the presenter will answer for at most twenty
      minutes, and then take further questions and comments from all attending.
    • Toward the close of the session the presenter will get a sense of the room regarding
      his or her claims – do people agree with them, disagree with them, or are they unclear
      about them – to provide grist for small group explorations.

    Small Group Discussions

    • Each day everyone will randomly get a colored slip before sessions – red, yellow,
      blue, green – and there will be four groups based on all members having the same
      color slip.
    • Morning and afternoon small group discussions will be in these groups to facilitate
      that everyone spends time with everyone else and that there are small sessions for
      sharing ideas, etc.
    • We considered a proposal that people have meals with their small groups, but
      decided we might get burned in oil for micro-managing.

    Papers

    Adamovsky: Autonomous Politics Albert: Building A Pareconish Movement
    Brecher: Global People’s Law? Grubacic: Power and Revolution
    Martí: Free Information, Free Software & Revolution Peters: Kinship Vision
    Podur: Race, Culture, & Leftists Rai: World Upside Down
    Shalom: Visionary Politics Spannos: World Without War
    Trigona: Self-Management in Argentina Wetzel: Workers’ Liberation
    Wilpert: Linking Post-Capitalist Alternatives

    Housing, Food, etc.

    The Nautilous Motel

    Harsha Walia / Ria Julien Andrea Schmidt / Cynthia Peters Susan George
    Marie Trigona / Sonali Kolhatkar Tamara Vukov / Irina Ceric Andrej Grubacic / Marina Sitrin
    Justin Podur / Greg Wilpert Jessica Azulay / Brian Dominick  Kendra Fehrer / Thomas Ponniah
    Normand Baillargeon / Chantel Santerre Milan Rai / Mark Evans Steve Shalom / Jonah Gindin
    Ezequiel Adamovsky / Rahul Mahajan  Felipe Pérez Martí / Chris Spannos Jeremy Brecher / Serge Halimi
    Evan Henshaw Plath Jamie LeJeune / Tom Wetzel
    Lydia Sargent and Michael Albert (Z House)
    Sean Gonsalves and Andy Dunn (commute)

    Food

    Z pre-paid meals will be at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s Swope Hall.
    Swope is a large University type dining hall, for marine biology students and faculty
    – world famous and teeming with international students and scientist/professors.

    The meals are all you can eat, with diverse selections.
    It isn’t gourmet, but it is quite good, and they have ample vegetarian selections
    and even make a credible stab at Vegan offerings.

    It is also possible to eat at any of numerous local restaurants for breakfast,
    lunch, or dinner,for those who want to escape the larger venue at some point, though
    this is on your own tab.

    Sunday meals will be catered at the Z House, as Swope Hall is closed. Excellent
    food.

     

    Weather

    Early June in Wood Holes is volatle. It will be mostly long pants and reasonably
    warm clothing, especially for the evening or if there is a cold rainy day – but also
    bring summer weight shorts and, if you would like to swim at a nearby beach, a swimming
    suit.

    There are times when people, especially from hot climates, will want sweaters,
    etc. Other times, most everyone would have short sleeves. In short, come diversely
    prepared, depending on your needs. An umbrella is likely to prove useful once or
    twice. Our real summar weather starts a couple to three weeks later…which is why
    we get good prices on motel rooms, etc., in early June.

    Temperatures can range from 50F to 80F but are likely to be in the 58F to 68F
    range, most often, unless we get an early warm spell.

     

     

    Tactics, Strategy, Etc. …

    Conspiracy Theory
    Various essays critical of conspiracy theory, with some debate.

    Consensus?
    Primarily Albert and ZNeter Brian Dominick debate the merits of consensus decision making.

    “Feminism”
    Lydia Sargent satire essays critiquing confused feminisms.

    Pollitt/Media
    Albert and Katha Pollit debate media, the Nation, etc.

     

    Topic

    Place

    Type

    About

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