Friday, March 13th, 7pm at Bluestockings Books: 172 Allen St, Manhattan, New York City (F Train to Delancey --- www.hopstop.com for exact directions).
About the Event:
In 1974 New York City went full force into a fiscal crisis that culminated in a drastically different set of power relations than had existed just prior. The crisis saw many thousands of city jobs cut and the end of free education at CUNY, amongst other important attacks on the city's working class and poor. The city's declaration of austerity was an important step in the development of the neoliberal system that became generalized over ensuing decades.
With the set of current international,national and state crises, NYC is again facing a crisis. What can we learn from the fiscal crisis of the 1970s for struggles that benefit the city's working class and poor today? Eric Lichten will discuss class struggle and the development of NYC’s 1970s fiscal crisis. His presentation will address lessons we can learn from the past crisis for organizing today. Discussion to follow presentation.
Organized by Team Colors Collective -- www.warmachines.info
About the Speaker:
Eric Lichten is chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus. In 1986 he published an analysis of crisis and class struggle entitled Class, Power & Austerity: The New York City Fiscal Crisis. In articles, on television and radio, he has discussed diverse issues relating to the human cost of economic and social injustice and personal and structural crises. He has spoken or written on the bombing of African-American churches, bias crime, orphans and parental death, and power, class and crisis. His community work has impacted the care of chronically ill children. For years he has been active in union struggles and faculty rights at Long Island University. Currently, he serves on The Nassau County Police Commissioner's Anti-Bias Crime Task Force.
About Team Colors Collective:
Team Colors is a collective engaged in 'militant research' to provide 'strategic analysis for the intervention in everyday life.' Our purpose is to explore questions of everyday resistance, mutual aid, the imposition of work, social reproduction, class composition, community participation and the commons - by creating engaging workshops and the producing provocative written documents and articles. Currently Team Colors is based Brooklyn; Portland, OR; Tucson, AZ; and the Twin Cities. During the summer of 2008 Team Colors published, with the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, In the Middle of a Whirlwind: 2008 Convention Protests, Movement and Movements (www.inthemiddleofawhirlwind.info