Junehepburnint

ZSVS, June 2006: Interviews

ZSVS Participant Interview with…

John Hepburn

(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 england in 1970 and moved to Australia at the ripe old age of seven. I didn’t even start to think about politics until I had almost completed a double degree in engineering (manufacturing systems) and business (marketing). I worked as an engineer for 3 years after graduating, learnt how to manage large projectsto tight deadlines – and then quit and went forest blockading and got heavily involved in the grassroots environmental activist movement – which I’ve now been doing for around 10 years.

I’ve been doing both oppositional campaigning work (trying to stop bad stuff) and pro-active building of alternatives (doing good stuff) and co-founded two worker managed recycling co-operatives, both of which are roughly based on a parecon operating model. So, I have a strong entreprenuerial bent, enjoy the cut and thrust of political campaigning, and have a strong commitment to grassroots, non-hierarchical organising.

(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.

Was actively involved in Friends of the Earth Australia for many years – which is basically decentralised network of volunteer run activist groups with a strong focus on environmental justice. Through FoE I was heavily involved in the global justice movement and Australia’s version of the Seattle WTO mobilisation – at the Melbourne World Economic Forum on September 11 2000. Following on from this, I co-organised the Brisbane Social Forum – the first social forum to happen in Australia.

I currently work for Greenpeace Australia, co-ordinating the campaign against genetically engineered crops.

Features of an international political organisation that would attract me would be: participative decision making, a commitment to decentralisation, clear processes to ensure that authority is clearly delegated, accountable and recallable, and realistic/pragmatic – moving forward from where people are – not from where we want them to be. It would also need to reflect the values that we are working towards in other ways – ie gender equity, ecological sensibility etc. It would reflect modern understandings of networks and this would be integrated into any strategies for achieving change. It would reward and encourage creativity and risk taking.

The things that would repel me are dogmatism, rigid thinking, centralisation and hierarchical thinking, boring meetings, male dominance and other forms of unaccountable hierarchy and elitism.

(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.

We need all kinds of institutions covering production, distribution, retail, arts, community, health, education etc…basically most of the institutions that we currently have, plus a few more and maybe minus a few others. The key thing is that we need to restructure existing institutions so that they promote and encourage democracy, solidarity and justice and so that they recognise ecological limits.

Many organisations are already finding that they function far more effectively when they abolish pyramidal hierarchies. The next logical step is to distribute ownership as well as decision making powers. So reforming existing institutions to embody real workplace democracy is a pretty good place to start. It is not realistic to have a vibrant and effective democracy when such massive concentrations of power exist. Corporate charters should be re-instated to include community and environmental values, and the size of private institutions should be limited both in terms of the number of people, and their revenue. One of the first candidates for democratisation and decentralisation should be the media.

Introducing community assemblies at a local government level, with the gradual introduction of participatory budgetting is also a potentially powerful transitional strategy. I could go on – I will at some point, but this will do for now…

(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’d like to meet others who share a similar vision and possibly find people to begin some collaborative projects with. I’d like to learn from the experience of others, so that I can continue my change work with renewed vigour and vision.

I think the likely outcome will be some stronger relationships between people with similar passions, a few collaborations – and a few more seeds planted for positive visioning of the global justice movement.

I’m interested in the radical potential that is building as a result of climate change. It creates massive and exciting opportunities and I think will be the defining issue of the next 20 years or so. The technologies that are causing the problem are inherently authoritarian in nature – their existence implies centralised systems. The technological solutions to climate change on the other hand, are inherently decentralised technologies that best suit distributed and decentralised energy systems. This creates interesting and exciting opportunites for political decentralisation. So i’m interested in talking about this, and finding others that share similar politics to explore opportunities and intersections of ideas…


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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