"The World After Fukushima" Event Series
New York City, October 21-26, 2011

A 4-day event series in NYC, October 21-26, 2011

The Center for Place, Culture and Politics at CUNY and Todos Somos Japon present:

1) Symposium – “The World After Fukushima 3/11”
Friday Oct. 21 6pm
@ CUNY Graduate Center (Skylight Room: #9100)
365 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Although information has been coming in from Japan since 3/11, there is a huge gap between what the people in Japan are actually experiencing, doing and thinking after the Fukushima nuclear accident, and what the people in the US know and think about it. We are inviting three intellectuals/activists from Japan to share their first hand experiences and thoughts with us here in the US, and to discuss together the significance of the situation, the question of our human survival and the global struggles for it.

We all know that 3/11 is a global event. What has already happened in Japan is and will be affecting the world over. Firstly there are effects of radiation that could expand more and more for the years to come, though they might be immediately evident. Secondly, Japan sinking into the abyss has a big impact on the global economy and power relations. Thirdly, the management of post-nuclear-disaster society is rendered as both a continuation and new phase of the capitalist regime that is global in essence. Fourthly, in the regime, being forced to live under radiation (of varied degrees, forms and extents) is a new misery imposed upon all creatures on the planet. So it is that 3/11 Fukushima must be an occasion for all of us to think over the world we have constructed – and ideas for how we will reconstruct it.

Participants:
Introduction/moderator: Marina Sitrin
Ayumi Goto: “Everyday with Radiation”
Chigaya Kinoshita: “Neoliberalism, U.S. intervention, and the Politics of 3.11”
Yoshihiko Ikegami: “People’s Movement under the Radioactive Rain”
Adrienne Hurley: “END NUKE POWER & END:CIV’: Abolitionist Solidarity After 3/11”
Silvia Federici: “Theoretical Principles of Nuclear Housework and Women’s Struggle under Radiation”

2) Discussion: “What Is Happening in Japan After 3/11”
Sun Oct. 23 3pm
@ Bluestockings 172 Allen Street, New York, NY 10002

In March 2001, amidst the blossoming of the Arab Spring, Japan encountered the nuclear catastrophe triggered by the earthquake and tsunami. Japanese society has since entered a new phase; facing the daily threats of invisible radiation, anti-nuclear protests are growing in the street and government offices throughout Japan. Women are leading autonomous movements to tackle everyday struggles under the effects of radiation. With three guest activists from Japan we will discuss how Japan is experiencing a historical opening for changing society and leading movements to abolish the global nuclear regime.

Participants:
Chris Williams
Yoshihiko Ikegami
Chigaya Kinoshita
Ayumi Goto
Sabu Kohso and Yuko Tonohira

3) Films & Discussion: ”Necro-politics of Radiation and the Struggle”
Mon. Oct. 24th 7pm
@16 Beaver – 16 Beaver Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10004

Films:

“Atomic Wounds”
Marc Petitjean | 2008 | 54min.
At 89, Doctor Hida, a survivor of the 1945 atomic bomb at Hiroshima, continues to care for some of the other quarter of a million survivors. Atomic Wounds retraces his dedicated journey and highlights how the terrible danger of radiation was concealed by successive American administrations in the 50′s – 70′s so that nuclear power could be freely developed, with no concern for public health.

“Nuclear Ginza -Hidden Labor Under Radiation”
Nicholas Röhl | 1995 | 30min.
The story follows the photojournalist/ anti-nuclear activist Kenji Higuchi as he exposes the exploitation of the “untouchables” who were pulled out of the slums of Tokyo and Osaka in order to work while exposed to radiation, often without their knowledge. Referring to the tacit cooperation and close ties between the Japanese government and the country’s nuclear industry, a man notes in one scene that “democracy has been destroyed where nuclear power stations exist.” The film shows how Japan, having suffered nuclear attacks in the past, remarkably transformed itself within a few decades into one of the most “nuclearized” nations worldwide.

Post-screening discussion, with short descriptions of the films to follow.

4) DCTV and Todos Somos Japon present:
Films & Discussion: “Life Under Radiation“
Wed. Oct. 26th 7:30pm
@DCTV – 87 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10013

“Protest in Japan Since Fukushima”
Japan/Germany | 2011 | 70 min
Two German filmmakers explore post-Fukushima activism in Japan, illuminating the backgrounds of current movements, protests and critical voices which keep getting louder, even beyond Japan.

“Nuclear Ginza -Hidden Labor Under Radiation”
See above.

Post-screening discussion, with short descriptions of the films to follow.

Tickets
$6 / DCTV Members
$8 / Shooting People, DocuClub, NYWIFT, IFP Members, and students with ID
$10 / General
http://www.dctvny.org/events/life-under-radiation

Participants

Japan:

Yoshihiko Ikegami (forrmer editor of Gendaishiso, independent writer)

Chigaya Kinoshita (political scientist, activist based in Tokyo)

Ayumi Goto (historian, activist working with day laborer struggles in Osaka)

US:

Silivia Federici (member of Committee for Academic Freedom in Africa and Midnight Notes Collective, author of Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation)
Adrienne Hurley (activist, professor of Japanese Literature at McGill University)

Chris Williams (environmental activist, adjunct professor at Pace University, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis)

Marina Sitrin (activist, lawyer, and author of Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina)

Jfissures.org Editors: Sabu Kohso and Yuko Tonohira

DOWNLOAD EVENT FLYER HERE

TODOS SOMOS JAPON is a project of network building, of creating a current in and out of Japan, to support Japanese activists and movements and for a new association of the struggling people of the world.

http://jfissures.org