Events
CLIMATE – A national youth summit to strategize climate activism, Power Shift 2011, is scheduled for April 1-4 at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC with workshops and discussions about organizing and legislative campaigns.
Contact: www.energyactioncoalition.org.
AWARDS – The International Labor Rights Forum is holding an awards ceremony and reception in Washington, DC on April 6 to reflect on the 100-year anniversary (March 25) of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and to honor groups and individuals in the international anti-sweatshop movement.
Contact: International Labor Rights Forum, 1634 I St NW #1001, Washington, DC 20006; 202-347-4100; [email protected]; www.laborrights.org.
CONVERGENCE – A convergence in Washington, DC for Latin America solidarity and against U.S. militarization is planned for April 4-11, sponsored by SOA Watch and the Latin America Solidarity Coalition. Events include fasts, direct actions, a two-day conference (April 8-10), and a lobbying day (April 11).
Contact: School of the Americas Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC 20017; 202-234-3440; [email protected]; www.soaw.org. LASC5, 202-234-3440; www.lasolidarity.org.
ANTIWAR DEMOS – The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance has called for a march on the Pentagon in Washington, DC on April 8 and a coalition of groups through the United National Antiwar Committee has called for rallies and marches in San Francisco and New York on April 9.
Contact: www.iraqpledge.org/wordpress; www.nationalpeaceconference.org.
HUMAN RIGHTS – The annual Get On The Bus for Human Rights, scheduled for April 8, draws upwards of 1,200 participants riding buses, commuter trains, and carpooling to New York City to take action in front of embassies, consulates, and corporate headquarters in support of human rights. Sponsored by Amnesty International USA Local Group 133 of Somerville, Massachusetts.
Contact: [email protected], www.gotb.org.
ABORTION RIGHTS – The 30th annual CLPP conference "From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom" is scheduled for April 8-10 at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, featuring workshops and training.
Contact: Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002; 413-559-5416; [email protected]; clpp.hampshire.edu.
BOOKFAIR – The 5th Annual NYC Anarchist Bookfair is scheduled for April 9 at the Judson Memorial Church in Manhattan. Also, a film festival and additional events are scheduled for the night before.
Contact: [email protected], www.anarchistbookfair.net.
MEDIA REFORM – The 5th National Conference for Media Reform is scheduled for April 8-10 in Boston and brings together thousands of activists and media-makers to help democratize communications media.
Contact: Free Press, 40 Main St, Suite 301, Florence, MA 01062; 877-888-1533; [email protected]; conference.freepress.net.
DAY OF ACTION – Rising Tide North America has called for a Chain Reaction Day of Action Against Extraction, with various events nationwide on April 20, the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill.
Contact: www.risingtidenorthamerica.org.
EARTH DAY – April 22 is Earth Day, with diverse local actions around the world promoting a sustainable ecology. A festival is scheduled for Santa Barbara, California on Saturday and Sunday, April 16-17.
Contact: www.earthday.org; www.SBEarthDay.org.
PROTEST – A protest is being planned for Friday, April 22 at Hancock Air National Guard Base in Mattydale, near Syracuse, New York, against the widespread use of drones in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The base is a key facility in the drone system.
Contact: Brooklyn for Peace, [email protected]; www.brooklynpeace.org.
MAY DAY – May 1 is May Day, also International Workers Day. Events are being held worldwide, such as the May Day Unity Coalition rally at noon in Union Square in NYC.
Contact: May Day United, 646-535-6291; [email protected]; www.maydayunited.org. May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, 55 West 17 Street, #5C, NY, NY 10011; 212-633-6646; [email protected]; www.may1.info.
Opportunities & Resources
ESSAYS – The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation invites submissions to the 2011 Daniel Singer Prize competition of up to 5,000 words on the topic: "In some Western countries, right-wing populism has been able to channel much of the anger caused by the financial crisis and its effects. Why has the left been marginalized? How can this be overcome?" Deadline is July 31.
Contact: The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation, PO Box 2371, El Cerrito, CA 94530; [email protected]; www.danielsinger.org.
HEALTH INFO – The website Public Health and Social Justice offers slide shows, articles, syllabi, and hundreds of external links relevant to numerous social justice topics, including environmental health, women's health, drug policy and privacy, and food safety. Aimed at students, teachers, and the general public. Submissions welcome.
Contact: [email protected]; www.publichealthandsocialjustice.org; www.phsj.org.
TRAVEL – An educational Rainbow Cuba Tour is scheduled for May 7-15, a trip for lesbians, gays, and all others seeking to learn about gender and sexual equality in Cuba. Tour participants will meet Cuban activists promoting LGBT rights and join them in rallies and forums against homophobia, as well as social and educational activities.
Contact: Cuba Education and Explorer Tours, 2278 East 24th Ave., Vancouver, BC V5N 2V2, Canada; 888-965-5647; [email protected]; cubadiscovery.com.
Books
MEXICO – Mexico's Revolution Then and Now by James D. Cockcroft offers a centennial explanation of the world's first predominantly anti-capitalist revolution and describes how the revolutionary process has played out over the past ten decades.
Contact: Monthly Review Press, 146 W. 29th Street, #6W, New York, NY 10001; 800-670-9499; [email protected]; www.monthlyreview.org.
NATIVE AMERICANS – In The American Indian Intellectual Tradition: An Anthology of Writings from 1772 to 1972, editor David Martínez offers 31 essays that exemplify Native American intellectual culture across two centuries.
Contact: Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State St., Ithaca, NY 14850; 607-277-2338, ext. 251 or ext. 258; www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
PAMPHLET – When peace activists may be forced to fight back, Self-Defense for Radicals by Mickey Z offers advice from Emma Goldman, Bruce Lee, Angela Davis, and even Patrick Swayze on how to get out of a scrape.
Contact: PM Press, PO Box 23912, Oakland, CA 94623; 510-658-3906; [email protected]; www.pmpress.org.
PANTHERS – Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther by Eddie Conway, with an introduction by Mumia Abu-Jamal, is an autobiography of an American political prisoner now serving his 40th year, from an inner-city childhood to political awakening in the military, from the rise of the Black Panther Party to COINTELPRO repression and a sham trial, prison life, escape attempts, labor organizing on the inside, and beyond.
Contact: AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland, CA 94612; 510-208-1700; [email protected]; www.akpress.org.
POLITICAL PRISONER – Part memoir, part indictment of the U.S. prison system, Susan Rosenberg's An American Radical: Political Prisoner in My Own Country recounts her journey from activist to revolutionary to a prisoner who suffered the dehumanizing torture of American maximum-security confinement for 16 years before being pardoned in 2001.
Contact: Citadel Press, Kensington Publishing, 119 West 40th Street NY, NY 10018; 800-221-2647; www.kensingtonbooks.com.
PROUDHON – Property is Theft! A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Reader, edited by Iain McKay, collects works (some available In English for the first time) of this largely self-educated worker whose incendiary ideas were more influential than those of Karl Marx during his lifetime, a source of inspiration and debate since 1840.
Contact: AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland, CA 94612; 510-208-1700; [email protected]; www.akpress.org.
REBELS – In Rebel Girls: Youth Activism and Social Change Across the Americas, Jessica K. Taft describes how teenage girls are active participants and leaders in a variety of social movements, from anti-war walkouts to anarchist youth newspapers, rallies against educational privatization, and workshops on fair trade.
Contact: New York University Press, 838 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10003; 800-996-6987; [email protected]; www.nyupress.org.
QUEER HISTORY – Part of the People's History series, Queer America: A People's GLBT History of the United States by Vicki L. Eaklor provides a decade-by-decade overview of major issues and events in GLBT history.
Contact: The New Press, 38 Greene Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10013; 212-629-8802; www.thenewpress.com.
THE SIXTIES – Edward P. Morgan argues in What Really Happened to the 1960s: How Mass Media Culture Failed American Democracy that the radical ideals of participatory democracy underlying much of the 1960s activism have been buried in pop culture accounts amid sensationalism, right-wing demagoguery, and cooptation.
Contact: University Press of Kansas, 2502 Westbrooke Circle, Lawrence KS 66045; 785-864-4154; [email protected]; www.kansaspress.ku.edu.
SOCCER – In Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics, Gabriel Kuhn reflects on both the commercialism and nationalism of the world's most popular sport, as well as its working class rebelliousness.
Contact: PM Press, PO Box 23912, Oakland, CA 94623; 510-658-3906; [email protected]; www.pmpress.org.
STATE POWER – State Power and Democracy: Before and During the Presidency of George W. Bush by Andrew Kolin examines the evolution of the police state through the pinnacle of repression under the indefinable, never-ending "war on terror."
Contact: Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10010; 888-330-8477; us.macmillan.com.
TIMORESE – In Step by Step: Women of East Timor, Stories of Resistance and Survival, edited by Jude Conway, 13 outspoken East Timorese women tell their life stories, from living in a Portuguese colony through Indonesian occupation, resistance, until independence and continued struggles for equality and basic rights.
Contact: Charles Darwin University Press, Orange 10.1.01, Mail Box 6, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia; [email protected]; cdupress.cdu.edu.au.
TORTURE – The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse, edited by Marjorie Cohn, is an interdisciplinary work detailing U.S. participation in torture and cruel treatment of prisoners both at home and abroad and discusses what can be done to hold those who set the torture policy accountable.
Contact: New York University Press, 838 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10003; 800-996-6987; [email protected]; www.nyupress.org.
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