Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2005 11:06:06 -0500 Subject: announcement for new yorkers From: Liza Featherstone <lfeather at panix.com> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
New Yorkers on the list! Here are some great upcoming events, and classes, at the Brecht Forum's new location, at Westbeth, 451 West Street (entrance at Bank). If you've ever been to the Brecht Forum before, you will recall that its aesthetics were not the highlight of the experience...and you will be amazed and inspired by the new, beautiful space. It is still under construction but already just stunning. xoxo Liza
Monday, March 14 6:00-8:00 PM PHOTO EXHIBITION 8:00 PM FILM SCREENING//DISCUSSION The Brecht Forum 451 West Street (entrance at Bank)
Speak Out: I Had an Abortion
Gillian Aldrich, Jennifer Baumgardner Katha Pollitt, and Tara Todras-Whitehill; moderated by Liza Featherstone
Media coverage of abortion always focuses on the firestorm of passionate beliefs and politics launched by both sides of the debate. Missing are the voices of the women who have had abortions--and there are millions of them. This controversial and powerful documentary by Gillian Aldrich, a field producer for Bowling for Columbine, and Jennifer Baumgardner, co-author of Grassroots and Manifesta, as well as founder of the I Had an Abortion project, features women telling their abortion stories. A photo exhibition by Tara Todras-Whitehill and featuring the women in the film accompanies the screening. All three artists will discuss the project and what it might mean to the future of abortion rights if women speak out once again. "I had an Abortion" t-shirts--which have sparked a lively, nationwide debate even within the pro-choice movement--will be on sale at the event.
Suggested donation: $10 -$15 (proceeds to the Brecht Forum and the I Had an Abortion Project)
Wednesday, March 16 7:30 pm
Murder by the State: Implications of the Death Penalty and the Struggle to Abolish It
Silvia Federici, Rachel King, Nerissa Kunakemakorn and the Welfare Poets
Shortly before the presidential elections, the Welfare Poets and Nerissa Kunakemakorn traveled to Texas on invitation by four comrades on death row, Randy Arroyo, Tony Ford, Derrick Frazier and Kenneth Foster. The Welfare Poets performed at the Fifth Annual March to Stop Executions, and joining with Nerissa, NYU Law Student and anti-death penalty activist, are co-producing a documentary on their experience at the march, at a vigil against the execution of Dominique Greene, a visit to the Texas Prison Museum, and countless interviews with activists, Texans, politicians, judges, and lawyers. The Welfare Poets and Nerissa will preview clips from the upcoming film, talk about their experiences, and why the death penalty should be abolished. Silvia Federici, a founding member of the Radical Philosophy Anti-Death Penalty project, will give a broad overview of arguments against the death penalty, but at the same time focus on the relation between the death penalty, slavery and globalization.
Rachel King, Campaign Coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project, will discuss her new book, Capital Consequences: Families of the Condemned Tell Their Stories. Combining a narrative voice with vivid, passionate accounts of the families of death row inmates, King explores the unique nature of the grief that the families of the condemned suffer. The accounts also illustrate many of the flaws inherent in the judicial system--racial and economic bias, incompetent counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, the execution of juveniles, and wrongful convictions, some of which are only now being overturned because of recent advances in DNA technology.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15 ___________________________________________________________________________ Thursday, March 17 5:30 - 7:30 pm BOOK PARTY/FORUM
Dilemmas of Domination: The Unmaking of the American Empire
Walden Bello
When we think of empire, we think of an all-powerful, invincible nation, asserting its power over the entire world. However, in his new book, The Dilemmas of Domination The Unmaking of the American Empire, Walden Bello argues that an empire is weak precisely because of its imperial ambitions, which cause military overextension and economic stagnation.
Applying this argument to the United States, Bello dissects the strategic, economic and political dilemmas confronting the country as a consequence of its quest for global domination. For example, he shows how U.S. military and political power has undermined the economic domination that America has possessed since the end of World War II. Washington's military imperialism has eroded international economic relations with governments such as Brazil, China and India, which now defy the U.S. in multilateral economic institutions such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund. The consequences include the collapse of the WTO in Cancún in September 2003 and the failed trade negotiations in Miami that tried to create a pan-American free trade regime friendly to U.S. corporate interests.
In addition to the economic effects, Bello maintains that the American empire has destroyed the legitimacy of democracy throughout the world. As democracies have collapsed in countries such as Pakistan and Haiti, Bello points out that it has become clear that democracy has failed to deliver in terms of overcoming poverty and inequality. This has resulted in a massive disillusionment of electoral democracy throughout the world. Unless the U.S. superpower is balanced by the larger global civil society, Dilemmas of Domination argues, the empire's hidden weaknesses may ultimately cause the end of American supremacy--and not so long from now.
Walden Bello, a professor of sociology and public administration at the University of the Philippines, is the author of numerous books on globalization. Also an award-winning peace and human rights activist, he lives in Quezon City.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15 Space is limited ___________________________________________________________________________ Thursday, March 17 8:00 pm BOOK/DVD PARTY AND FORUM
Chavez, Venezuela and the New Latin America
Leonor Osorio and others TBA
In February 2004, Aleida Guevara conducted an extensive interview, lasting several days, with Hugo Chavez Frias, president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. The interview explored Venezuela's explosive revolutionary terrain post-April 2002--when Chavez survived a coup attempt instigated by the United States. In this extraordinary book, Chavez explains his vision for Venezuela and his commitment to a unified Latin America. He discusses Venezuela's new, democratic constitution and his country's relations with the United States and Cuba. Chavez also reveals his personal commitment to the politics of Che Guevara, Aleida's father.
Portions of the interview have been released by Ocean Press ( http://www.oceanbooks.com.au ) on a one-hour DVD, which will be shown this evening. Included in the DVD is an interview with General Jorge Garcia Carneiro, head of the Venezuelan armed forces, who was instrumental in encouraging the popular resistance that thwarted the 2002 coup.
Leonor Osorio is the Venezuelan Consul General in New York. She will be joined by a speaker from the Cuban Mission to the United Nations.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15 ___________________________________________________________________________ Friday, March 18 7:30 pm BOOK PARTY/FORUM
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror
Mahmood Mamdani
In his penetrating look at the rise of political Islam, Mahmood Mamdani addresses a question many have been asking since 9/11: how did this happen? He argues against the idea of "good" (secular, westernized) and "bad" (premodern, fanatical) Muslims, pointing out that these judgments refer to political rather than cultural or religious identities. The presumption that there are "good" Muslims readily available to be split off from "bad" Muslims masks a failure to make a political analysis of our times. Mamdani argues that political Islam emerged as the result of a modern encounter with Western power, and that the terrorist movement at the center of Islamist politics is an even more recent phenomenon, one that followed the United State's embrace of proxy war after its defeat in Vietnam. He also examines the Reagan years, showing America's embrace of the highly ideological politics of "good" against "evil". He contends that the era of proxy wars has come to an end with the invasion of Iraq. And there, as in Vietnam, America will need to recognize that it is not fighting terrorism but nationalism, a battle that cannot be won by occupation.
Mahmood Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda. A political scientist and anthropologist, he is Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. His previous books include Citizen and Subject and When Victims Become Killers. In 2001 he presented one of the nine papers at the Nobel Peace Prize Centennial Symposium.
Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15 ___________________________________________________________________________ Saturday, March 19 6:00 pm doors open, 7:00 pm performances begin A WOMEN AND TRANS FOLK ONLY EVENT Co-sponsor: Resistance in Brooklyn
Roses and Bread: The 10th Annual Open Poetry and Performance Benefit and International Women's Day Celebration
Featuring playrwright and poet Sonia Sanchez and author Asha Bandele
This year we will be raising money for Sista II Sista, a Brooklyn-wide community-based organization. They are a collective of working-class young and adult Black and Latina women building together to model a society based on liberation and love. They work with young women to develop personal, spiritual and collective power. They fight for justice while creating alternatives by making social, cultural and political change. They have many programs including a freedom school, a "No More Violence Against our Sistas" video project, self defense, political and holistic workshops. You can visit them at http://www.sistaiisista.org
Resistance in Brooklyn is an anti-racist, anti-imperialist affinity group. To perform or to reserve childcare, please contact Liz Roberts (212) 242-4201 or lizr at brechtforum.org by March 10. Limited spaces for performers. Light supper provided. Wine and desserts available to raise funds.
Suggested donation: $10/$15/$20 ___________________________________________________________________________