Events
G8 SUMMIT – Anti-G8 Japan actions are being planned for June and July in Japan, in conjunction with the G8 Summit which will be held from July 7-9 in Hokkaido, Japan. Actions include rallies and marches, blocking the G8, and an alternative summit.
HONDURAS – An educational and activist delegation to Honduras with Rights Action is planned for July 7-12. Participants will learn about community and Indigenous Garifuna resistance to large scale "development" projects including Goldcorp Inc.’s open pit, cyanide leeching gold mine and large scale tourist plans on Honduras’s north Caribbean shore.
GREENS – The 2008 Green National Convention: Live Green, Vote Green will take place in Chicago Thursday, July 10-13 and choose the party’s presidential nominee. The Green Party of the United States is a federation of state Green Parties committed to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice, and grassroots organizing.
LA RAZA – The Annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference is scheduled for July 12-15 in San Diego, with workshops, presentations, and panel discussions.
Contact: NCLR Headquarters Office, Raul Yzaguirre Building, 1126 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036; 202-776-1736; www.nclr.org.
INSTITUTE – The Center for Popular Economics will hold its 2008 Summer Institute July 27-August 2 at Roosevelt University in Chicago, offering training in economics for activists, educators, and anyone who wants a better understanding of economics. No background in economics is required.
ORGANIZING – Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County invites concerned citizens to "Community Organizing for Deep Democracy"—in Humboldt County, California in August and in Sonoma County in September.
COMMUNITIES – The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for anyone interested or involved in co-operative or communal lifestyles, with workshops, events, and entertainment scheduled for August 15-17 at the Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, Virginia.
RETREAT – The Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) is holding its 2008 Summer Conference/Retreat on August 15-18 at Camp Deer Run in Pine Bush, New York. This year’s theme is "Poverty and Unemployment: The Permanent Violence of Capitalism." Papers and workshops, formal and informal, will be presented.
Contact: Union for Radical Political Economics, Gordon Hall, University of Massachusetts, 418 N. Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01002; 413-577-0806; [email protected]; www.urpe.org.
ZINES – The 8th annual Portland Zine Symposium is a free two-day conference and social gathering, celebrating independent publishing at the Portland State University campus August 23-24.
Contact: Claudia McBarron at 503-249-8503 or Justin Hargesheimer at 503-975-5731; www.pdxzines.com.
DNC PROTESTS – Protests, a free health clinic, a Festival of Democracy, and other events are planned for August 22-28 in Denver, Colorado in conjunction with the Democratic National Convention. Free housing, free food, and free trainings are being offered by a local activists’ alliance called Re-Create 68 to resist a two-party system that promotes imperialism and racism. Five major protests are planned, with a large rally and march scheduled on Sunday, August 24.
RNC PROTESTS – Protests, a music festival, a parallel conference, and other events are planned for late August, and for September 1-4 in St. Paul, Minnesota in conjunction with the Republican National Convention. A People’s Networking Convention is scheduled for August 15-17, grassroots bicycle caravan is scheduled for August 17-30, protest march on September 1, and a music festival September 2. An alternative Peace Island conference at Concordia University will offer plenaries, breakout discussions, films and more September 2-3.
WOMEN IN POLITICS – The Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics and the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction are pleased to invite you to the Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance which will be held on Oct. 19-22, 2008 at the Dusit Hotel, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Contact: The Center for Asia Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP), 4229 Tomas Claudio St., Baclaran, Parañaque City, Philippines; 632-8516934; [email protected].
DRUG WAR – Four years in the making, American Drug War: The Last White Hope from Kevin Booth and Sacred Cow Productions offers an in-depth examination of the tragic and corrupt "war on drugs."
ELECTIONS – Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections is a new documentary film which can be used film as a tool to shed some much-needed light on the systemic problems inherent in our elections, including voting machines that render every vote unverifiable and un-auditable and spurious Jim Crow-like intimidation tactics.
FUNDS NEEDED – Completion and promotion funds are being raised for a Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan documentary. Donations can be made at the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) website, or through the mail.
PHARMA – The documentary Money Talks: Profits Before Patient Safety by Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau and Holly Mosher offers insight into the questionable marketing tactics of the pharmaceutical industry.
POLLUTION – The Return of the Cuyahoga covers the death and rebirth of one of America’s most emblematic waterways where we see the end of the American frontier, the growth of industry, the scourge of pollution, and the advent of a political movement that sought to end pollution.
Publications / Writing
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation invites submissions to the 2008 Daniel Singer Prize competition. The $5,000 annual prize is a tribute to the outstanding writer, lecturer and thinker, who died in December 2000. Submissions must be received by August 30, 2008.
Contact: The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation, PO Box 2371, El Cerrito, CA 94530; [email protected].
THEORY – The new issue of Upping the Anti: a Journal of Theory and Action includes interviews with M1 from Dead Prez on revolutionary hip hop, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on activism, and George Katsiaficas on the 40th anniversary of May 1968.
Books
ANTHROPOLOGY – Anthropological Intelligence by David H. Price, based on interviews, archival research, and Freedom of Information Act requests, examines specific roles played by anthropological organizations in facilitating war.
Contact: Duke University Press, PO Box 90680, Durham, NC 27708; 919-687-3600; www.dukeupress.edu.
CHICANO/A – Viva la Raza: A History of Chicano Identity and Resistance by Yolanda Alaniz and Megan Cornish chronicles of the struggle for Chicana/o liberation.
CIVIL LIBERTIES – In Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror, Steven T. Wax, federal public defender for Oregon, offers a case-study of threats to civil liberties in the war on terror.
COMMUNITY – Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It- Ourselves Guide by Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew explains how to build and grow in a variety of reclaimed spaces using cheap, salvaged, and recycled materials; illustrated by the Beehive Collective.
CONGO – Lord Leverhume’s Ghosts: Colonial Exploitation in the Congo by Jules Marchal offers an illuminating and still relevant history of a brutal colonial enterprise.
COUNTER-RECRUITIMENT – It’s My Life! A Guide to Alternatives After High School is the American Friends Service Committee’s presents alternatives for young people considering the military to young people, for activists, educators, concerned relatives, and potential "recruits."
Contact: American Service Friends Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102; www.afsc.org.
ETHICS – Does Ethics Have a Change in a World of Consumers? by Zygmunt Bauman is a reflection on basic moral struggles in a market-driven world, pointing towards alternative worldviews and challenges to the hierarchical arrangement of states and powers.
Contact: Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 800-405-1619; www.hup.harvard.edu.
HEALTHCARE – In Healthcare Guaranteed, Ezekial Emanuel proposes a voucher plan for universal healthcare.
IMMIGRATION – Dying to Live: A Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid by Joseph Nevins and Mizue Aizeki details one man’s fatal attempt to reunite with his family across the border, offering one real story—and human price—of U.S./Mexico border enforcement.
JOURNALISM – Rebel Journalism: The Writings of Wilfred Burchett traces the leftist writer’s career, from observations as the first journalist to report from Hiroshima through the front lines (NVA) of Vietnam to the latter days of the Cold War.
JUSTICE – International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States presents responses by international civil society to U.S. disregard for international law.
K CHRONICLES – Dark Horse presents The Complete K Chronicles, a comprehensive omnibus edition of political cartoonist Keith Knight, with sketches, notes, and a foreword by Kyle Baker.
Contact: Dark Horse Comics, 10956 SE Main Street, Milwaukie, OR 97222; 503-652-8815; www.darkhorse.com.
MEDIA – The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and other Writings on Media by Walter Benjamin offers a collection writings by this early 20th century Benjamin radical cultural critic.
Contact: Harvard University Press, 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; 800-405-1619; www.hup.harvard.edu.
MUMIA – The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal, by crime journalist J. Patrick O’Connor, offers new insight into the events of December 9, 1981, which left an African American activist-jo8urnalist on death row.
MUSIC – X-Ray Visions offers an in-depth account of the X-Ray Cafe, a countercultural epicenter in Portland, Oregon, that "hosted bands like Green Day, Crash Worship, Nation of Ulysses, Neurosis, Everclear, Smegma, Poison Idea, and virtually every touring act from ‘89 to ‘94."
PEACE – American Wars: Illusion & Realities by Paul Buchheit can be used as a tool for peace advocacy as contributors like Howard Zinn and Kathy Kelly respond to 19 of the most common illusions held by the American public regarding war.
POETRY – Mural Poems: Human Rights and Antiwar Poems by Laurence Ebersole, are available from Seattle’s Plateau Sigma Press, with bulk discounts for protests, classrooms, or direct actions.
POLITICS – The World According to Tomdispatch offers a collection of pieces published in the online progressive commentary website.
PRESIDENCY – In Bad for Democracy, Dana D. Nelson argues that it is the office of the presidency itself that endangers what was once called "the great American experiment."
PRISON ACTIVISM – Rags of Time by Jack Cook tells a true story of anarchist draft resisters in Allenwood Federal Prison in Pennsylvania during the Vietnam War acting in solidarity with anti-war demonstrations being held outside the gates.
RED STATES – Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank, offers vivid snapshots of grassroots resistance in the forgotten heartland of America.
SCIENCE & CULTURE – In Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture, Alan Sokal revisits his earlier successful hoax / parody of postmodern social and scientific critique, with a book about how the right is happily using similar jargon today to obscure the scientific consensus and reasoned argument.
USSR – Reinventing Collapse by Dmitry Orlov examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers insights into how we might prepare for similar events in the United States.
VIETNAM – Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost by Joe Allen examines the lessons of the 1960s both as a historian and an engaged participant in today’s antiwar movement.
VOLUNTEERING – Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Guide to Global Volunteer Opportunities, 12th Edition, edited by Caitlin Hachmeyer is now available from FoodFirst Books.
ZIONISM – The Returns of Zionism: Myths, Politics and Scholarship by Israeli scholar Gabriel Piterberg delves into the intellectual and literary sources behind the Zionist foundation myth, from the earliest works of Herzl and Lazare to the Institute for Jewish Studies and the Hebrew University.
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