Total Liberation Project

April 19- Mayday 2002

The Evergreen State College

Olympia, Washington USA

Total Liberation

1. Introduction to the Total Liberation Project



The Total Liberation Project is being organized by
dozens of student groups and activists at the
Evergreen State College with the goal of exploring a
wide range of more holistic visions of resistance and
liberation; visions that do not privilege any
particular type of oppression over any other, yet
which still successfully respect and further the
autonomy of all movements within a greater context of
solidarity. For example, we want to move beyond both
the orthodox Marxist idea that class society is the
basis of all other oppression, as well as the
anarchist idea that it is the state that is the basis
of all other oppressions. Likewise we want to
transcend the somewhat newer ideas of first and
second-wave feminism that gender is the basis or the
idea that racism is what is at the basis of all other
oppressions. Rather we want to conceptualize and put
into practice visions and theories that say that ALL
of these types of oppression are of central
importance, and that these are really just the
beginning of an understanding of how our truly
multifaceted world really works.

So, the real difference between the diverse worldviews
that have motivated this project and those that would
drive a more prototypical ìactivist conferenceî is
that we think that all of these things are truly
intertwined and interrelated, they are all "base" and
they are all "superstructure," like the different
fully interconnected yet simultaneously autonomous
parts of a gigantic organism(s) of oppression. Many
have recognized the dramatic changes in worldviews
that we are focusing on as a type of ìparadigm shiftî
that has come about in the past several decades, for a
whole host of reasons that are themselves very
interconnected. Amongst the most often cited ones are
the many atrocities of the 20th century, the
globalization of the capitalist economy, the fall of
state socialism worldwide, the advent of new
understandings in the realm of physics, a marked
quickening in the pace of technological development
and the wider and quicker spread of information,
amongst many other reasons which we do not have the
space to go into here. While this is often understood
as a relatively new understanding for many people, it
should also be recognized that for many indigenous
peoples around the world, the primacy of
interconnectedness is nothing new, but is in fact a
very traditional worldview. The shift for many of the
non-indigenous worlds (which were all ìindigenousî at
one point of course) has in the past several decades
lead theorists, activists, and others to rethink how
oppression actually works; as a result they have gone
on to rethink how to organize truly liberatory
resistance movements against it.



Amongst the wide swath of those influenced by this
shift in understanding are Postmodernists,
Anarcho-holists, Complimentary Holists,
Poststructuralists, Deep Ecologists, Postmarxists,
Contingent Holists, Anticivilizationists,
Postfeminists, Social Ecologists and others (and
that's really just the beginning). With all of these
conceptions in mind, we are asking speakers to focus
on how the subject(s) that they focus on (be it
racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, environmental
degradation, etc.) are directly interrelated with
other forms of oppression in our society, and then we
are asking that they offer some visions (either
practical or theoretical) of how people might cross
boundaries for the purpose of finding common ground,
while still successfully respecting and furthering the
autonomous movements of all groups striving for
liberation. These theoretical lectures will occur an
average of twice a day over the time period between
Friday, April 19 and Friday, April 26. Immediately
following this, a major debate between advocates of
these widely varying perspectives will occur on the
evening of Friday, April 26. Then, over the weekend of
Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28 we will have a
series of workshops showing how to practically apply
these theories in both activism and everyday life. All
of this will be immediately followed on Wednesday, May
1 by the annual Olympia Mayday street party that has
consistently been one of the largest in the Northwest,
and then the Olympia Conference on Gender and
Sexuality from Friday May 3 - Sunday May 5.



Aside from the theoretical underpinnings of which we
are constituted, there are other major differences
between the Total Liberation Project and what one
would normally think of as a typical activist
conference. One is that we intend this to be more than
just a conference bound by time constraints; we intend
to carry this project out beyond April 2002 through
the proliferation of the website and the publishing of
a rather large pamphlet by the same name. Both of
these will serve as portals to a wide range of
radically holistic theories, and will include the text
from presentersí speeches and debates that occur
during the month of April. Another major difference is
in how we have organized: the policy of Total
Liberation has been to do everything we can to have an
equal number of white women, women of color, white men
and men of color both presenting the theoretical
lectures as well as doing the practical workshops. The
reasons for this should be obvious: we want our means
to be in line with the ends we propose. At the same
time, we fully recognize that even this small effort
is problematic as it does not account for a balance
between all the many types (possibly thousands) of
oppression. However, we feel that even by taking this
small step we are going far beyond what many
conferences that purport to be about "liberation" have
done in the past.



**********************************************



2. Total Liberation Tentative Schedule:



*All events are on the Evergreen State College Campus*

Friday A19

12 - 1:30) Todd May on Poststructuralist Anarchism and
Contingent Holism at
Library Lobby
4-6) Susan Parenti on theater, feminism and liberation
at Library Lobby

Saturday A20

2) G8 Teach in at Seattle Central Community College
(SCCC) with
Special Guests the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
(OCAP) the
Anti-Capitalist Convergence (le CLAC) and Lorenzo
Komboa Ervin.


4) Reclaim the Streets Action Against the World Bank /
IMF; starts at
SCCC


6) Anti-Capitalist Convergence March Against the World
Bank / IMF;
starts at SCCC

Sunday A21

12 - 6) All-Day Holistic Antioppression Workshop with
Leticia Nieto at
Evergreen.



Monday A22

12 - 1:30) Radical theories of education at Library
Lobby.


8 - 10) Michael Moore on George W. Bush and "Stupid
White Men" at
Evergreen CRC (almost confirmed).

Tuesday A23

12-1:30) Linda Hogan on the Sacred Hoop and indigenous
worldviews of
liberation at Library Lobby (unconfirmed)


7-9) Dan Chodorkoff on the theory of Social Ecology at
Library
Lobby

Wednesday A24

12-1:30) Arthur Miller on bridging environmental,
indigenous and working class
movements at Library Lobby


6 - 8) Elizabeth Martinez on "Where is the Color in
the Antiglobalization
Movement Today?" at Library Lobby

Thursday A25

12 - 1:30) Lorenzo Komboa Ervin on anarchism and
people of color at the
Library Lobby.


7-9) Michael Albert on Complimentary Holism at Lecture
Hall 1


9-12) Hardcore and Hip-Hop Show: Vitamin X, Merciful
Allah,
November Group and Higher Ground of Struggle at
Library 4300
(unconfirmed).

Friday A26

12-1:30) Aragorn! at Library Lobby


6-8) John Zerzan at Library Lobby


8-11) Anarchist "Smackdown" Debate! Featuring the
Number 3 Collective, Killing King
Abacus (unconfirmed), John Zerzan, Arthur Miller,
Aragorn! and more at
Lecture Hall 1


11-2) Party at the Beach House

Saturday A27

(times are tentative, meet at the Library Lobby for
specific room assignments)


9-10:15) Womyn's self-defense by FIST


10:15-11:30) Police Brutality and Homelessness by Pat
Tassoni


11:30-12:00) Lunch


12-1:15) Legal Self-Defense by the Midnight Legal
Collective


1:15-2:30) Street Self-Defense by Gregory C. Lewis


3:30 - 4:45) Building a nationwide anarchist
organization by No. 3
Collective


5 - 6:15) Organizing in communities of color by L.
Ervin


5-10) Breakdancing Competition (ASIA) at the Library
Lobby



Sunday A28

OMJP 10-12) War on Terrorism

12-1) Lunch

1-2:15)
workshop

2:30-3:45) work-
shop

4 - 5) workshop 5-6)

closing plenary session

6-9)
NW anarchist
potluck at the Beach House

Monday A29

8-10) Every Woman's Delegation at the Library Lobby

Tuesday A 30

7-9) Linda Evans on the Prison-Industrial Complex at
the Library
Lobby

Wednesday M1

12) Mayday Celebration and Reclaim the Streets Action
in
Olympia with the Infernal Noise Brigade and other
festitivities.

**********************************************



3. Logistics

How Can I Help to Plan and Organize It?

Come to one of our meetings: we are meeting every
Monday from 6:30-8 PM at Clancy's Pub downtown and
every Thursday from 4:30-5:30 pm at CAB 320 (Student
Activities) on the Evergreen campus in Olympia.



What If I Just Want to Participate as an Attendee?



That is fine, but remember this is not a conference
per se. Rather this is a series of events spread out
over two weeks, continuing on beyond that as well. So
you might want to pick the parts that look the most
interesting and come to those; a much more complete
schedule will be posted on the website by early April.

Contact Us!



Total Liberation Project

c/o Evergreen Political Information Center

Evergreen State College

Olympia, Washington 98502

(360)867-6144

Email: ringfingers