Radical media, politics and culture.

Events

October 4, 2006 - 12:14pm -- autonomedia
Announcements
Events

Emilia Sixtensson writes:

"Black Gold"
Wake up and Smell the Coffee


Official Invite: Screening

Do you know where your coffee comes from?
We promise that it will never taste the same again after watching.
This documentary style film which probes into the global grind behind your indulgent Latte and asks blunt questions like:
Why does just 1 or 2 cents of the $4 we pay for designer caffeine go to the bean farmers?

The film follows Tadesse Meskela (the General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Co-operative Union in Ethiopia ) on his mission to save 74,000 struggling coffee bean farmers from bankruptcy. Against the backdrop of Tadasee's journey around the world, trying to find buyers willing to pay fair market price, the enormous power of the players that dominate the world's coffee trade becomes apparent.

At the end of this film you will have a whole new understanding of Fair Trade and you will probably view your corner coffee shop in a whole new light, but you may also see how a single consumer can help change the destiny of thousands of people.

The film is followed by an in-theater Q&A session attended by the films leading role Mr. Tadesse Meskela

We continue discussion at Smorgas Chef Restaurant & Lounge.

October 4, 2006 - 11:22am -- autonomedia
Events
Events

Support for Lynne Stewart

New York City, Oct. 15-16, 2006

Paul H. Zulkowitz

Friends & Americans

Throughout American history, a number of attorneys have placed people's needs and human rights before personal desire for wealth and position. Most toil in obscurity, defending the indigent in criminal cases that few lawyers care to touch, others support mothers and children in the least glamorous of civil cases, helping them to remain in their homes and to put food on the table.


A few, like the late Bill Kunstler, rise to fame, devote themselves to people's movements, and live their later days, with no lack of stress, but in the comfort of family and friends.


Rarely does an attorney find herself in a controversy as notorious as that of her best known clients; rarely does a grandmother, suffering from cancer, disbarred from her livelihood, ever-vigilant for the rights of all of us, face the fate of a political prisoner, face the abyss of the American (could it happen here?) gulag.

October 3, 2006 - 9:04am -- autonomedia
Events
Events

"Foucault and the Iranian Revolution"

A Talk by Kevin B. Anderson


Wednesday, October 25 at 7:00 pm

Suggested Donation: $7–$10

The New SPACE (The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education)


Beginning in 1978, Michel Foucault covered the mass unrest against the Shah in Iran as a journalist for Italian and French publications. He paid particular attention to the Islamic wing of the Iranian Revolution, which he rightly identified as a major new force in world politics. His search for an alternative to Western liberal democracy led him to favorably judge the first
major victory of radical Islam as a new "political spirituality." His support for this movement raises an important question about how Foucault, a major theorist of modern power, could have overlooked the repressive nature of Khomeini’s movement.


With Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism, Janet Afary and Kevin Anderson have written the definitive English account and analysis of this episode. They suggest some troubling connections between Foucault's political judgment and his theoretical critique of modernity. They also discuss the sharp differences between his position on the Iranian Revolution (and radical Islamism) and those of the feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir,the Marxist historian Maxime Rodinson, and the feminist writer Kate Millett. As Iran and its allies grow in prestige as a counter power to American hegemony, what relevance might the relation of this major Western critical theorist to the political Islamist movement
have for today?

Kevin B. Anderson, Associate Professor of Political Science, Sociology, and Women’s Studies at Purdue University, is author of Lenin, Hegel and Western Marxism. Anderson is co-editor of Marx on Suicide, The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, Erich Fromm and Critical Criminology, and a forthcoming volume of Marx’s writings on non-Western societies and gender.


New SPACE classes and talks meet at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center: 107 Suffolk Street, NYC (located between Rivington and Delancey Streets). F train to the Delancey Street station or J, M, Z to Essex Street station. See the New SPACE website for a map.

The New SPACE
(The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education)
http://new-space.mahost.org
new-space@mutualaid.org
Tel: 1 (800) 377-6183

September 19, 2006 - 7:45am -- autonomedia
Events
Events

Autonomous African Communities in Latin America?

New York City, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday September 24, 2006

MXGM Unity Brunch
388 Atlantic Avenue 3rd flr
Brooklyn, New York 11217

718-254-8800
A or C train to Hoyt [Hoyt-Schermerhorn]

What is the status of Latin Americas Quilombos and Palenques in the 21st century? What are their current political, cultural, and economic challenges? How can communities in the Diaspora work more effectively to achieve Pan-African and revolutionary unity?

A screening of "Quilombo Country" @ 11:30 and Unity Brunch @ 1 p.m. beginning with MXGM general updates and discussion with activists Jesus Chucho Garcia and Gilberto Leal.

"Quilombo Country," a documentary film shot in digital video, provides a portrait of rural communities in Brazil that were either founded by runaway slaves or began from abandoned plantations. This type of community is known as a quilombo, from an Angolan word that means "encampment." Contrary to Brazil's national mythology, Brazil was a brutal and deadly place for enslaved Africans. But they didn't submit willingly. Thousands escaped, while others led political and militant movements that forced white farmers to leave. As many as 2,000 quilombos exist today. "Quilombo Country" provides a glimpse into these communities, with extensive footage of ceremonies, dances and lifestyles, interwoven with discussions about their history and the issues most important to them currently.

Unity Brunch: Discussion with Guest Speakers

Working extensively in Venezuela's palenques, Jesus "Chucho" Garcia is the founder and director of the Afro-Venezuela Network (Fundacion Afroamerica), and a world expert on the impacts of globalization and militarism on Latin America.

Gilberto Leal is a geologist and founder of the Bahian NGO, NIGEROKAN, which works closely with numerous quilombo communities. Mr. Leal also works closely with the Palmares Cultural Foundation in Brasilia.


Nicole Lavonne Smith, who will be facilitating the discussion, has taught language arts, financial education, neighborhood development, urban design and capoeira from Brooklyn to Brasil. Her masters thesis is entitled "Brasil's Disenfranchised: Quilombos and Agrarian Reform Black."

September 18, 2006 - 3:43pm -- autonomedia
Events
Events

“Bolivia ­TBD”

A Speech by Evo Morales

Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006, 3:00–5:00 p.m.

Miller Theatre, Columbia University

New York City

A talk by His Excellency Evo Morales, President of Bolivia. President Morales is the first indigenous head of state elected in South America in over 500 years. His address will be followed by a question-and-answer session moderated by Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger

September 6, 2006 - 2:35pm -- stevphen
Announcements
Events

CALL FOR PAPERS, COLLABORATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS: AESTHETICS AND
RADICAL POLITICS

Fri 2nd Feb 2007, University of Manchester

There has always been a strong connection historically between
aesthetics and radical politics, and this is no less true for the
global justice movement's current preoccupation with cultural
approaches to political action. This conference seeks to bring
radical artists, activists, theorists and academics together to
discuss past and present convergences between the theories and
practices of artists and writers and the theories and practices of
movements for radical social change.

There is already a massive amount of literature on Marxist
approaches to aesthetics, art and literature, and whilst we welcome
papers engaging with such approaches, we would also encourage
presentations and discussions that address these issues from other
radical critical positions - whether they be anarchist, autonomist,
ecological or otherwise. Such perspectives have often been
overlooked historically, but it is arguable that they now more
centrally influence the activities of radical artists and
activists.

The event will be defined by those who participate. What would you
like to see happen? What kind of discussions do you think are
important? Would you like to present a paper, facilitate a
discussion, propose a panel presentation, organise a workshop or
contribute in other ways?

September 3, 2006 - 3:17pm -- stevphen
Announcements
Events

CONFLUX 2006

September 14 - 17, 2006 . Brooklyn




Conflux is the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets. At Conflux, the city becomes a playground, a nomadic laboratory and a space for the development of creative communities.

Currently in its third year, Conflux will take place September 14 - 17th in Brooklyn. Over 80 artists from across the US and countries including Canada, UK, Spain, Germany, Finland, Sweden and Australia will come to Williamsburg to present projects including experimental walking, biking, boat and public-transport tours; street games and tech workshops; mobile broadcasts, performances and temporary installations.

August 28, 2006 - 7:12pm -- stevphen
Events
Events

The Seeds of the New

A Discussion with Chris Carlsson, author of Critical Mass: Bicyclings Defiant Celebration Friday, September 1st - 7pm - $5 to $10 suggested donation

Bluestockings Books, Café, and Activism Center - 172 Allen St. Lower East Side, NYC

Beneath the visible madness and barbarism of life at the dawn of the 21st century, an invisible social transformation is underway. As capitalism continues its inexorable push to corral every square inch of the globe into its logic of money and markets, while simultaneously seeking to colonize the very essence of biological life and dominate our very thoughts - new practices are emerging that are redefining politics. In myriad behaviors, people are appropriating their time and technological know-how from the market and in small "invisible" ways, are making life better right now - but also setting the foundation, technically and socially, for a genuine movement of liberation from market life. Outlaw bicycling, urban permaculture, biofuels, free software, even the Burning Man festival are windows into these new social dynamics. Chris Carlsson, author of Critical Mass: Bicycling's Defiant Celebration, among other books. He is one of the original founders and participants in Processed World magazine, as well as the Critical Mass bicycling movement in San Francisco. His talk is based on a new book that he is currently writing.

August 8, 2006 - 1:17pm -- autonomedia
Events
Events

Will Parrish writes:

"Think Outside the Bomb" Conference
New York City, Nov. 4–5, 2006


From November 4–5, 2006, young people from throughout the Northeast will converge at PACE University to organize for a nuclear-free world.

The Think Outside the Bomb Conference is being sponsored by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Abolition 2000 NY Metro, with support from Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR) Metropolitan Area.


The conference will focus on nuclear disarmament, nuclear energy, and the hazards of the nuclear fuel cycle — as well as the connections between these issues.

Think Outside the Bomb Conference

August 3, 2006 - 11:37am -- autonomedia
Events
Events

Jessica Thrift writes:

First-Ever Festival for Gender Equality
Brooklyn, NY, Ausust 27, 2006


Brooklyn to Host First-Ever Festival for Gender Equality!
Connect! Create! Educate!
(August 27, 2006 * 11am – 4pm)

In a world where boys are still made fun of for wanting to jump double-dutch and girls are still kicked off the basketball courts because they might “break a nail” while playing, Girls for Gender Equity is proud to organize the first New York City Festival for Gender Equality on August 27th 11am – 4pm. Open to all New Yorkers, it will be held at Von King Park in Brooklyn, NY and feature entertainment by musicians, spoken word artists, and theater performers; workshops and other fun activities for children and adults; free food and giveaways; and appearances from local politicians. Over 50 community organizations will participate including Brooklyn Children's Museum, Forest Hills Community House, Global Action Project, Loisaida, New York Police Department, Planned Parenthood, Schomburg Center, Street Harassment Project, and Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls.

The Gender Equality Festival is a free public event for education, networking, resource sharing, community interaction, arts and recreation. Workshops on a wide variety of topics – responding to street harassment, media literacy, HIV/AIDS, communicating with your child, youth leadership, yoga, health care access, democratic education and more – will be offered throughout the day to children and adults. The Grand Street Campus girls’ soccer team will lead a mother-daughter soccer clinic, where girls and their sisters, mothers, cousins, friends, aunts and grandmothers are all invited to learn basic skills and then show them off in a short game.

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