Junemanuelint

ZSVS, June 2006: Interviews

ZSVS Participant Interview with…

Manuel Rozental

(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 Cali, Colombia. I stay in Toronto as a base as I am in exile from Colombia. I am a practicing general and colorectal surgeon, but spend and have spent most of my time in political activism and practice. I studied medicine, specialized in surgery, family medicine, colorectal surgery as well as International Health at WHO, Masters in Education at the University of Toronto and began a PhD at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, which I abandoned to assume political responsibilities. I feel my family and home are in Colombia, particularly with the Nasa people in northern Cauca, although there are people in Colombia, Canada and throughout the Americas that are my family. I would bore you by naming them here, but I remember them vividly as I write this note. Home and family is around them and our common search.

(2) What have been your main political involvements in the past? Are you involved with particular movements, projects, or organizations now? If so, which?

1970 and 1971 were key years for me. I was confronted with witnessing massive social and university mobilizations in Colombia, which were crushed brutally by the Government and then denied by the mainstream media. The electoral process was manipulated and Misael Pastrana was imposed as a President against popular decision and this was imposed through a permanent State of Siege and repression. I had been reading and learning political theory and discussing these texts with classmates at school and had the privilege to visit indigenous communities, peasant and union movements, as well as university student’s organizations, witnessing key moments in struggles for agrarian reform, land recovery, mobilizations for rights and activism for social change.

As a university student I took part in diverse political and student groups and initiatives at the university and became militant in several during different periods. Eventually, together with a group of other medical students, we participated in cultural-political groups, published a magazine, I contributed to generate and participated in spaces for debate and action within the university, in different political parties of the left and with peasant organizations. In-spite of the activism, I consider these as mostly formative years in a context of growing popular resistance and government repression.

I finished Medical school in 1980 and worked in a remote area (Vichada) as a physician. Together with school teachers, local peasant community leaders and indigenous communities, we organized diverse initiatives for political awareness, social change and autonomous economic development. The local politicians repressed these initiatives brutally and most of my colleagues and I were forced to flee the region.

Between 1981-82 I joined community initiatives in diverse neighborhoods in Bogotá. Popular education was combined with recovery of land for housing and resistance against government and private-lead dispossession actions. These were years of intense direct action and horrendous repression under the "Estatuto de Seguridad" (the Colombian version of the military dictatorships of the southern cone). M-19 became a very strong presence in the country and a contending force against the establishment.

After 2 years in Canada, I returned to Colombia in 1984 and developed a proposal for Primary Health and Medical Education in Colombia. Health and Medical Education for Social Justice and Social Transformation were the heart of this initiative. I traveled throughout Colombia’s main cities and lectured on the topic, while I consulted with diverse community organizations and individuals to gather support for this initiative. I obtained support to do this work from a Private Social Security Institution called CAFAM and developed a 250 page publication on the topic. I maintained and strengthened links with diverse popular, political and community organizations during this period of time. I survived by doing emergency shifts at diverse hospitals in Bogotá. The directives of ASCOFAME, the Colombian Association of Medical Schools opposed this initiative and its political intentions. By the end of August of 1985, I could find no employment or any source of income and was dedicated completely to community work with base organizations in Bogotá, Cali and Cauca. By September I was forced to leave the country and went to Canada. It was during this period that I was appointed Associate Professor of Public Health at the National University in Bogotá.

The Community Circles for Autonomy. Ile a la Crosse Northwest Saskatchewan, 1985-1988. The North East of Saskatchewan is indigenous land inhabited by Cree, Dene and Metis peoples. Social exclusion, poverty, corporate resource exploitation and oppression characterize this territory. I joined community leaders in establishing the Community Health and Development Process for the region which grew into a political-social and economic process for autonomy, consciousness raising, resistance and mobilization. The process and the communities became strong and challenged the Canadian Government and capital from indigenous identity and perspectives. We managed to link this process to Latin American Indigenous and popular initiatives. We traveled extensively throughout the region, Canada, parts of the US and somewhat in South America. In 1988 I was obliged to leave the area by University and Governments officials who felt my presence there was the cause for indigenous mobilization. The collective decision making processes (circles) felt it wise for me to leave in order to force the Government to face the strength of the communities.

In 1990, after doing 2 years of General Surgery in Edmonton, Alberta, I did a Master’s in Education at the University of Toronto with emphasis on the history and experience of Latin American student movements for social change from the Cordoba uprising in 1918 to the reaction and US lead University reforms of the 1970’s.

Between July of 1990 and the end of December of 1993, I joined AD-M19, the former guerrilla organization turned political party at the Colombian Ministry of Health where I was assigned several responsibilities in Community Participation and overall Health Policy and planning in high positions. A proposed universal public insurance system initiative managed by community organizations was being developed, written for congressional consideration as law and funding sought from multilateral banking agencies when AD M-19 was removed from the Ministry and the portfolio transferred to a neo-liberal agent who applied a Harvard based World Bank funded and designed approach, which became Colombia’s national neoliberal health care system. My responsibilities within the Ministry allowed me to travel throughout Colombia and work with indigenous and popular movements and organizations.

Upon leaving the Ministry of Health, together with political leaders, health professionals and social movement representatives, we had designed and established an NGO called "Corporacion Salud y Desarrollo", which gathered the thinking and experience of the left in health and social development. I was appointed the Corporation’s first Executive Director and began the process of organizing teams and activities for political action, consultation, production of publications, education and proposal development. The Corporation became a voice for dissent and generation of alternatives to the neoliberal model as it was being imposed.

During this same period I spent a total of a year at the United Nation’s Pan American Health Organization in Washington DC as a fellow in International Health and a consultant in Health issues. I was involved in several initiatives that included health education and human resource development, Health Systems and Policy, Health Promotion, Violence and Health and Health of Indigenous people. I was privileged to meet and work with leaders of the left throughout the Americas on health and social justice initiatives, as well as to establish contact with social movements and organizations in several countries. The context was characterized by advancing neoliberal reform under the imposition of the World Bank report on Health. Sweeping reforms lead to a shift in funding priorities, exclusion and gradual elimination of progressive staff from decision-making roles within the organization and the closure of spaces to promote health as an essential right and an a reflection of social conflict and justice. Health products as merchandise took over and privatization under the control of corporate initiatives determined what was said and done. Most of our voices were silenced or ignored. In-spite of this SAPIA, the health initiative of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas was developed. It was the first time in the history of WHO and the UN that not only indigenous peoples were consulted to define their own approach to health but that they prepared and presented their own resolution to the General Assembly and obtained its approval by consensus. It is my pride to have taken part in every step of this process with some of the wisest indigenous leaders in the continent. The community health and development process of northern Saskatchewan was essential to this achievement.

1994-1998, Universidad del Valle, Cali. After being appointed associate professor at the School of Health I taught and practiced surgery and worked as a staff member, researcher and eventually Director of CISALVA, a United Nation’s Collaborating Centre in Violence Prevention and Conflict Resolution based at the University. This period involved intensive political activity linked to academic and research efforts. Approaches to violence as an expression of unresolved social conflict and profound social injustice were proposed and implemented. From Cali, we developed links and collective efforts with processes in other regions of the country and Latin America, that went beyond violence into its determinants through indigenous and social movements. Emphasis was placed on youth, street gangs and violence against youth. We became involved in efforts to seek political solutions to social and political conflict in Colombia, while constantly denouncing the structural causes of the Colombian armed conflict. As it grew in visibility and recognition, CISALVA became contested territory between those in the right who sought to approach violence as a behavioral problem and those of us who placed emphasis on social-political determinants and approaches. Those in the right had links to the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank, the Pan American Health Organization and several of the largest US foundations such as Carnegie and Rockefeller and managed to dismantle our approach. I was forced to leave the country once again in mid 1998.

1998-2003, while doing colorectal surgery training and part-time surgical practice surgeon, I joined and promoted solidarity with Colombian and Latin American popular movements and resistance against neoliberal globalization. I was part of the establishment of diverse solidarity initiatives such as RISC (Research and Action in Support of Colombia, LAZOS and finally the Canada-Colombia Solidarity Campaign -CCSC). The most significant of these efforts was the CCSC. It developed and acted upon a 4 point platform for solidarity, developed and approved by consensus at the Crisis in Colombia workshop held in Ottawa in December of 2000 with the participation of Colombians and Canadians involved in diverse resistance, popular and solidarity efforts. It became a direct diplomatic initiative of indigenous, women’s, peasant, unions and afro-Colombian processes. The CCSC contributed in Canada to the mobilization against the FTAA, the war in Afghanistan and the global transnational corporate project. It expanded quickly throughout Canada and to parts of the US and worked jointly with other solidarity initiatives. We organized tours of Colombian popular leaders to Canada and a tour of Canadians (The Minga for Life, Justice, Freedom and Against Violence) that brought a 30 member delegation from the most diverse regions and sectors of Canada to 6 Colombian regions where they were hosted by popular movements and organizations in Colombia. The campaign (and me personally) became a victim of systematic attacks from those who felt threatened by its growing strength in Canada and Colombia and had to be dismantled, for the safety of Colombian popular leaders whose life was under threat in 2003.

El Salvador, 2003: National Health Reform and support for FMLN’s Government Program Proposal. I moved to San Salvador where I joined Violeta Menjivar’s team with the specific responsibility to design an initiative for Health Care Reform in the country. The country had witnessed the largest social mobilization and strike since the peace agreements of 1992, against the privatization of the health care system. More than 10 proposals had been developed, from the far right to popular initiatives and the process was stalled. A popular consultation process was designed. One that would advance in stages to end with a legislative initiative that would outline a national universally covered public health system. Simultaneously, I had the privilege to take part in the team that developed the Government Proposal for the FMLN, should it gain power in the upcoming presidential elections. I left El Salvador at the request of the leadership of the Nasa indigenous movement in Northern Cauca, Colombia.

2003 to present: I returned to Colombia, Cauca and became a member of the Nasa indigenous organization. I have taken part in numerous initiatives of this exemplary process that has become an inspiration to movements for popular resistance and development of alternatives. Within the strong organization, I was given responsibilities in strategic planning, community and leadership education on context and political issues, communication and media initiatives, health, international relations and others. The Nasa were leaders in a massive march against President Uribe’s US lead war, propaganda and neoliberal reform policies in September of 2004. The Mandate, approved by the 60.000 people involved in the march proposes the establishment of the Popular and Indigenous Congress to develop an alternative country and calls upon the people of Colombia to walk the word it contains. In March of 2005, they launched a National consultation against the Free Trade Agreement negotiations with the US, in 6 municipalities and inspired nation-wide resistance process that has succeeded in challenging the FTA negotiation process. In September of 2005, the Nasa launched a comprehensive land recovery and agrarian reform process known as Freedom for Mother Earth and managed to resist government armed attempts to expel them from the recovered haciendas and to share a message which states that Mother earth is being imprisoned, tortured and killed under the private ownership imposed by Capital. Unless it is liberated for collective ownership of all living beings, it will be killed and life will be destroyed. These and other initiatives I was part of lead to threats against my life and forced me out of the country while I had been appointed Coordinator of Communications and Foreign Affairs.

(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.

Two paradigms are facing each other today:

One that is represented by transnational corporate capital (and others), based on "Ser para Tener", which considers life as a means to accumulate wealth. This prevalent approach is threatening life everywhere and is expressed by a three-prong strategy to extract wealth (nature and labor) and transfer value to private hands: terror, propaganda and policy-economic reforms.

Another one, diverse and multiple that is based on "Tener para Ser", which acknowledges the need to generate wealth but sees this as a means to an end which is the enjoyment and enhancement of life. Life is an end in itself, not a means for the accumulation of wealth.

So, I believe the Zapatistas and Marcos have expressed a principle of the struggle of our times well. One NO, to "Ser para Tener" and consequently, to corporate transnational capitalism, and many YESES, to diverse, territorial identity, cultural based alternatives that have "Ser", life as an end. One, therefore, must become involved in resisting capital and in developing alternatives (and being part of them) simultaneously.

Based on this premise, I believe there are a multitude of examples of the many yeses and their experiences with not only resisting but also with developing diverse approaches and ways of life that can be examined, promoted and learned from. No recipes. A model I have seen evolving with difficulties in Cauca and other places includes an image of two hands protecting land and the life that lives on it, linked to other hands and other lands. Symbolically, the soil is the economic-environmental component that develops and guarantees the material conditions required by communities in harmony with nature. The life on the soil, represented by a tree, is the aim of a collective process and institutionally involves structures and activities organized to enhance the quality of life and well-being of peoples within their ever-changing cultures. One hand represents the Judicial-legal institutions that regulate the life of the communities for harmony and justice and the other one represents resistance to aggression and the protection of the right to life (including but not limited to Human rights or Human life), while the threads that join the components within and between these diverse units are the communication and relations initiatives.

Institutions are, in this regard, the "rules of the game&quot mechanisms and structures, diverse and responsive to specific processes to promote well-being and life.

Having said this, I believe it is important for us to address the contradictions and tensions between specific movements and issue, territorial, sectoral, cultural-based movements and the overall resistance to capital: In other words, the NO and the many YESES and the concrete ways in which intolerance and alienation lead to fragmentation and self-destruction contributing to the advancement of the corporate project.

(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 to learn where everybody comes from and to discover and share in an open way our feelings, experiences, understandings and concerns. I hope a solid exchange can lead to a candid collective construction of an image of what we are facing; what we know and what we don’t know; what we need to learn and know and the sense of timing and prioritizing to weave reflection and action. I expect that we will be able to understand who we are and where we are, as well as who we are not and where we are not in the context of what is happening in the world today, so that we can be as clear as possible about our possibilities and limitations, while we identify those who we can convene and continue to work with. Finally, I hope that we can develop a collective contextual analysis, based on the knowledge and experience of those participating, that we can use it as a tool to share and develop for concrete action and reflection.


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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