Events, Campaigns, Books, & Films

Events

ENVIRONMENT - On December 1 the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) will visit PNC Banks throughout the West Virginia region, with samples of drinking water taken from a contaminated well. The group will challenge PNC on their record as a “Green Bank.”

Contact: eqateam@gmail.com; http://eqat.wordpress.com/.

UNITED WORKERS - United Workers will celebrate ten years of movement building in Baltimore and across Maryland, December 1-3.  

Contact: 90 John Street, Suite 308, New York, NY 10038; 212-253-1710; info@nesri.org.; www.nesri.org/.

GUANTANAMO - “Why Remember Guantanamo?: GTMO before 9-11, What Now, and What’s Next,” will bring together an international group of diverse scholars and stakeholders to launch the Guantanamo Public Memory Project’s traveling exhibit. The Project explores the long history and contested memory of the U.S. Naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from 1898 to the present through a traveling exhibition, web platform, mobile engagement strategy, archive, and curriculum. The conference will be held December 13-14 at NYU and Columbia University.

Contact: http://heymancenter.org/events/why-rememberguantanamo/. 
 

SOCIAL JUSTICE - Cultures Connecting & CourageWork are offering a workshop/training session, Strengthening and Sustaining Your Social Justice Activism: Powerful Strategies for Getting Out of Your Own Way, on December 4, in Seattle. Designed for activists, the workshop will explore tools to sustain work for social justice.

Contact: yarrow@couragework.com; 206-568-8556; www.courage work.com.

LEONARD PELTIER - The Leonard Peltier Clemency Gathering will be December 8 in Tacoma, WA, following over a year of marches, rallies and educational work by the Leonard Peltier Clemency Campaign. The group is urging supporters to join the event, and to call and e-mail the White House
in support of clemency.

Contact: http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/.

FUTURES - Angela Y. Davis and Noam Chomsky will appear in conversation, moderated by Vijay Prashad, on December 8 in Boston. Groups sponsoring the event include Critical Resistance, City School, Black and Pink, and Project Hip Hop.

Contact: Critical Resistance, 510-444-0484.

RACISM/MIGRANTS - December 18 is the Global Day of Action Against Racism and for the Rights of Refugees, Migrants and Displaced People, as ratified at the 2011 World Social Forum. Actions are planned worldwide.

Contact: info@globalmigrantsaction.org; http://globalmigrantsaction.org/.

AFRICA - The Priority Africa Network (PAN) will host the Third Annual Ubuntu Awards Ceremony, February 16. PAN’s mission is to inform, educate and mobilize people in support of the people of Africa for sustained peace, economic, political, and social justice and democratic development.

Contact: PO Box 2528, Berkeley, CA 94702; 510-652-1493; http:// PriorityAfrica@priorityafrica.org; www.priorityafrica.org/.

MEDIA - The sixth National Conference for Media Reform will be held April 5-7, in Denver. The conference is the country’s largest conference devoted to media, technology and democracy issues.

Contact: http://www.freepress.net/.

SYRIA/MIDDLE EAST - The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) is currently seeking funds to assist more than 200,000 refugees fleeing violence in Syria.

Contact: https://www.mecaforpeace.org.

PALESTINE - Palestinian students have called for all U.S. students to put boycotts, divestments and sanctions at the heart of University action.

Contact: http://pacbi.org/; http:// www.bdsmovement.net/; http:// www.boycottisraelnetwork.net/.

IRAN/WAR - United For Peace and Justice has initiated and launched the Iran Pledge of Resistance with numerous member groups and other peace and social justice organizations. The pledge is to take action against war with Iran.

Contact: http://www.iranpledge.org; http://www.unitedforpeace.org.

Miscellaneous

OCCUCARDS - Occucards is a collective of Occupy activists who produce educational outreach literature for the movement, offering free cards for download and print, or purchase. Prices are below what the cards cost to produce, and the group relies on donations to continue.

Contact: Occucards.com, 604-A Freeman Ln, PMB 304, Grass Valley, CA 95949; 530-378-4489; occucards@gmail.com; www.occucards.com.

Books

IRAQ - Genocide in Iraq: The Case Against the UN Security Council and Member States, by Abdul-Haq al-Ani and Tarik al-Ani, is a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the illegality of the sanctions regime imposed on Iraq by the UN Security Council, leading to the deaths of over 500,000 children. 

Contact: Clarity Press, Inc., Ste. 469, 3277 Roswell Rd. NE, Atlanta, GE 30305; 404-647-6501; claritypress@usa.net; http://www.clarity press.com/.

PEOPLE’S HISTORY - In the tradition of Howard Zinn, 101 Changemakers offers a “people’s history” version of individuals who have shaped our country, written for middle school students. People written about include Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Malcolm X, Bob Dylan and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

Contact: Haymarket Books, PO Box 180165, Chicago, IL 60618; 773-583-7884;  http://www.haymarketbooks.org/.

DAKOTA - Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota, is an intricate narrative of the Dakota people over the centuries in their traditional homelands, by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White.

Contact: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 651-259-3203; alison.aten@mnhs.org; www.mhspress.org.

PRISON - Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis offers scholarly and activist perspectives on prison issues and explores how the international community can move toward a more humane future.

Contact: The University of Georgia Press, Main Library, Third Floor, 320 South Jackson Street, Athens, GA 30602; 706-542-4145; asharp@ugapress.uga.edu; www.ugapress.org.

ELECTIONS - Journalist Greg Palast’s new book, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, explains that the unprecedented levels of money rushing into this election is being spent to suppress the vote in geographical areas and along racial and class lines.

Contact: Seven Stories Press, 140 Watts Street, New York, NY 10013; 212-226-8760; info@sevenstories.com; http://www.sevenstories.com.

HAITI - Paramilitarism & The Assault on Democracy in Haiti, by Jeb Sprague, investigates the dangerous world of right-wing paramilitarism in Haiti and its role in undermining the democratic aspirations of the Haitian people.

Contact: Monthly Review Press, 146 W 29th St, Suite 6W, New York, NY 10001; 212-691-2555; scott@monthlyreview.org; www.monthlyreview.org.

CHILD ABUSE - Every Child Matters and its partners in the National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths has released the third edition of its report, “We Can Do Better: Child Abuse and Neglect Deaths in America.” The book describes the magnitude of child abuse deaths in the U.S. using up-to-date statistics and information.

Contact: 1023 15th St. NW, Suite 401, Washington, DC 20005; www.everychildmatters.org.

SOCIAL JUSTICE - Professor Donald Gutierrez’s extensive writings on social justice have been collected in Feeling the Unthinkable: Essays on Social Justice, an appeal for sensitivity, change, and action in confronting government abuses and social inequity at home and abroad.

Contact: Amador Publishing, 611 Delamar NW, Albuquerque, NM 87107; 505-344-6102; info@amadorbooks.com; www.amadorbooks.com.

SUICIDE BOMBING - Challenging the commonly held idea that “suicide bombings” are motivated by a nihilistic hatred of life, Melissa Finn’s Al-Qaeda and Sacrifice: Martyrdom, War and Politics is a critical intervention into the study of terrorism. Finn offers insights into jihadi thought on its own terms, arguing that it constitutes a political theory.

Contact: Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010-7848; 646-307-5151; www.palgrave-usa.com.

CENSORED - The Media Freedom Foundation has released its annual book, Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution. The book addresses crucial news ignored by the corporate media, including drones, corporate education “reform,” the status of Iraqi refugees, the 1970 Kent State massacre, and the global network of the ruling 1%.

Contact: Media Freedom Foundation, PO Box 571, Cotati, CA 94931; www.projectcensored.org.

Film

LABOR - The documentary As Goes Janesville reports from ground zero of the recession-ridden heartland town of Janesville, Wisconsin. When General Motors shut down the community’s century-old plant in 2008, thousands of jobs were lost. New companies were lured in with the promise of lower wages, reduced regulation, and tax breaks, forming a powerful alliance with Governor Scott Walker.

Contact: http://www.dctvny.org/.

ENVIRONMENT - A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is a new documentary on the environmental movement from grassroots and global activism spanning 50 years, and from conservation to climate change. 

Contact: Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543-3764; http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/.

Music/Media

ROCK - Psychedelic folk rock musician Anya Skidan has released a new EP, Indigo Child, and is playing shows through the winter in New York City and elsewhere.

Contact: http://anyaskidan.com.

HIP-HOP - Independent rapper and activist Immortal Technique has released a new DVD, The (R)evolution of Immortal Technique. The documentary is an exploration of one man’s global journey to fight injustice through music.

Contact: http://viperrecords.com/.

COMEDY - Jamie Kilstein, a radical comedian and co-host of the political comedy podcast Citizen Radio, is currently touring in select cities, including  Portland, OR; Austin, TX; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; and England and Scotland.

Contact: http://jamiekilstein.com/; http://wearecitizenradio.com.