Junefranint

ZSVS, June 2006: Interviews

ZSVS Participant Interview with…

Francesca Fiorentini

(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 Bay Area, and live now in Brooklyn, NY. I came to New York city to attend NYU in 2001, where I studied an individualized major entitled "Ideas for Action: Postcolonial Feminism." After graduating in May of 2005, I became the editor of the Nonviolent Activist, the magazine of the War Resisters League, an 82-year-old antiwar organization.

(2) What have been your main political involvements 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.

Having been radicalized after 9-11, I became a major organizer in the student antiwar movement at NYU and New York City, organizing and participating walk-outs, demonstrations, and direct actions at the United Nations, Hilary Clinton’s offices, and other public venues. NYU had one of the most vibrant student antiwar movements in the country, and in 2003 was voted by Mother Jones magazine as the third most active campus next to the University of Tehran and every California Community college combined. In preparation for the Republican National Convention’s descent onto NYC, I and other local NYC activists began organizing a weekend of strategic dialogue, the Life After Capitalism conference, to be held one week before the RNC. In order to create a space for discussion and relationship building in the midst of mobilization and action, the conference hoped to network the many activist coming into the city to share their perspectives, projects, and long-term vision. I am currently an editor with Left Turn magazine, a national movement-publication that is written for and by activists on the ground that works to link the global (Palestine, the middle east, and Latin America) with local struggles (prison work, anti-racism work, antiwar movement, etc.) We specifically focus on being a tool for movements–reflecting, supporting, and cross-pollinating their work through articles as well as events. Our most recent 5-year anniversary editorial better outlines our overall political project: http://www.leftturn.org/Articles/Viewer.aspx?id=866&type=M

I have also been active with APOC (anarchist people of color) in NYC, that has been periodically meeting and working on organizing study groups, as well as Sisterfire NYC, the local chapter of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, that is trying to network the many women of color organizations in the city, and create some common work without creating MORE work for overstretched organizers. We are currently planning our second Encuentro for these organizations, to further the discussion on how we can collaborate and be mutually supportive.

I would be attracted to an international organization that did not primarily define participation by nations or national identity, but rather through communities of resistance and revolution. I would be attracted to an organization that is shaped and initiated primarily by people most adversely affected by global capitalism and empire, that centers an analysis of difference as a positive force, while also not using reductive categories of identity. I would be attracted to a horizontal organization, that promotes directly democratic decision-making, and self-determination for all involved. In many ways I see the Sixth Declaration of the Zapatistas, and the "Other Campaign" as an amazing example of what an international movement or organization could look like–a movement outside of electoral politics, that listens first and foremost, and while does not seek to impose a particular model or ideology, does assert uncontested truths about capitalism, neoliberalism, and oppression.

I would be repelled by an organization that modeled itself on or subtly accepted the abusive hierarchies of government, armies, and oppressive interpersonal relationships—and reduced the problems of the world to only one particular oppression or system. I would be repelled from an organization that saw revolution as something that was separable from every other part of life–that can be applied externally and scientifically, rather than be an organic process–from the bottom-up and from the inside out.

(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, stretch a bit in the directions ZSVS seeks to emphasize.

I think the hardest part of this question is the larger coherent framework or "model" of a new society, within which all these self-sustaining institutions would fit. This is the part that I am not so sure of, and would find it hard to divorce myself from the dismal conditions for the birth of such a comprehensive structural model in the US. But another question is whether or not this overall comprehensive model is even desirable at this point, and if it makes sense to really hammer all of that out rather than make the road by walking.

Having said that, on the smaller-scale, in the past couple of years I have witnessed the rise of a few alternative institutions in communities–mostly structures that have been initiated by working-class women of color in people of color communities. Here in Brooklyn, in Bushwick, a group of women of color associated with the organization Sista II Sista began a childcare cooperative called Pachamama. This coop has been hugely inspiring not only in the way it has materially provided for working-class Black and Latina women with children, and its "division of labor" based on need and time and ability to pay, but also in the way it has re-envisioned childcare, and intergenerational movement-building. The coop has both enabled mothers to do the many other things they need to do to get through the week, but through given them a space of political discussion and growth—through looking at the way the coop is run, to how the coop understands safe collective and (in many ways what would be considered "radical") childcare, but also a space to talk about larger things like war and empire. (The Pachamama childcare coop is organizing an intergenerational kid-friendly antiwar contingent for the demo on April 29th) So not only are they creating a self-sustaining institution within the status quo, but they are creating future institutions through the alternative education and lessons and treatment of the kids.

In the real world, these are the institutions that are not being provided by the state, that are tiresome to rally and lobby for, but can be built on the faith and creativity and commitment of those involved. There are other examples–one of the things that Sistefire NYC, the local chapter of INCITE! Women of color against violence that I have been working with, hopes to do is create some kind of bartering network between the different women of color organizations in the city—asking what groups need and can offer, and then arranging some system of sharing those tools and not relying solely on grants or money. That raises another interesting point is the critique of the "non-profit industrial complex" (that INCITE! has helped to start and Left Turn magazine has continued) and the prospects for collective fundraising between groups, devising creative ways or systems to ween people off of grant money, and out of the often corporate and confining non-profit model. I am very much interested in continuing this conversation with folks at ZSVS.

 

(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 guess for me, I’m not necessarily one who is eager to rush toward forming any organization or network, but feel like simply getting through listening and discussing everyone’s work, perspective, and vision, is achievement enough and incredibly satisfying. I think it would be important to have some, perhaps contested, ideas of the
*process* toward building an international organization, and what that would look like, but whether we have a platform (!) or not, it will be impossible to walk away from this event without having one’s work enriched and challenged.


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 PappeIsrael 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.

 

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