Volume 21, Number 4
War on Housing
Andrew Mindszenthy
80s Movements
Zoltan Grossman
Commentary
Cartoonerama
Jen Sorensen
Outside the (Ballot) Box
Aurora Levins morales
Serving Elites
Lydia Sargent
A Woman President
Lydia Sargent
Signing Statements
Anthony Dimaggio
Immigration Reform Now
César cuauhtémoc garcía Hernández
Culture
Review: Challenging Authority
Edgey Wildchild
Review: Subcommander Marcos
Robert Ovetz
Features
Iraq's "Good News"
Noam Chomsky
Safari Journalism
Edward Herman
After Suharto
Andre Vltchek
Recession Pt. 2
Jack Rasmus
NYT & Trade
Roger Bybee
U.S. & Kenya
Anne Holmes
Iran Deals
Tom Odonnell
Zaps
Zaps
Various submissions
NOTE: Z Magazine subscribers and sustainers have access to all Z Magazine articles here and in the archive. The latest Z Magazine articles available to everyone are listed in the Free Articles box at the top of the table of contents, and are starred in the list below. Questions? e-mail Z Magazine Online.
Zaps - April 2008
Contact: Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program, Hampshire College, 893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002; 413-559- 5416; clpp@hampshire.edu; clpp.hampshire.edu.
Contact: Adler School of Professional Psychology, 65 East Wacker Place, Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60601; 312-201-5900; www.adler.edu.
LABOR CONFERENCE - The annual Labor Notes conference is scheduled for April 11-13 in Dearborn, Michigan. Young and old will come together for workshops and strategy in fighting back and taking what's ours from the corporate oligarchy. This year's theme: "Rebuilding Labor's Power."
Contact: Labor Notes, 7435 Michigan Ave., Detroit, MI 48210; 313-842-6262; conference@labornotes.org; www. labornotes.org.
HISTORY CONFERENCE - "War and Its Discontents: Understanding Iraq and the U.S. Empire" is a conference for historians and activists, co-sponsored by the Peace History Society. The conference will take place April 11-13, 2008, in Atlanta, Georgia.
Contact: www.historiansagainst war.org.
EDUCATION CONFERENCE - "Social Justice in Education" is the theme of a conference at Lincoln High School in San Diego on April 12. Organized by the Association of Raza Educators (ARE), the conference will explore the role of teachers and students in struggling, inside and outside the classroom, against oppression and marginalization within the educational system.
Contact: Association of Raza Educators, PO Box 740337, San Diego, CA 92114; info@associationofrazaeducators.org; www.associationofrazaeducators.org.
LA FORUM - Planning is still underway for the Los Angeles Social Forum in late April; check the website or call for more details.
Contact: LA Social Forum, PO Box 50359, Los Angeles, CA 90050; 213-596-8226; info@lasocialforum.org; www.lasocialforum.org.
CLASS STUDY - The Center for Study of Working Class Life will have its annual conference, "How Class Works" at the State University of New York at Stony Brook June 5-7.
Contact: Michael Zweig, Director, Center for Study of Working Class Life, Department of Economics, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794; 631-632-7536; michael.zweig@stonybrook.edu; www.workingclass.sunysb.edu.
MEDIA - The 2008 National Conference for Media Reform is scheduled for June 6-8 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Thousands of activists, journalists, and policymakers will hold discussions, workshops, and skillshares. Scholarships and work exchanges available.
WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY - The 2008 National Conference of Democratic Workplaces will be held this June 19-22 in New Orleans. Proposals for conference workshops, speakers, and events are now being accepted.
Contact: US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, PO Box 170701, San Francisco, CA 94117; 415-379-9201; info@usworker.coop; www.usworker.coop/conference2008.
HONDURAS - An educational and activist delegation to Honduras with Rights Action is planned for July 7-12. Participants will learn about community and Indigenous Garifuna resistance to large scale "development" projects (including Goldcorp Inc.'s open pit, cyanide leeching gold mine and large scale tourist plans on Honduras's north Caribbean shore) and about community development alternatives.
Contact: Rights Action, PO Box 50887, Washington DC 20091; 860-352- 2448; info@rightsaction.org; www.rightsaction.org.
ISRAEL - United for Peace and Justice, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Peace Action, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Council for the National Interest are calling on the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees to end military aid to Israel as the first step towards Middle East peace. Sign-on letters for congress are available from the campaign organizers.
Contact: US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, PO Box 21539, Washington, DC 20009; 202-332-0994; office@endtheoccupation.org; www.endtheoccupation.org.
MEDIA - The Center for Media Justice's upgraded website is now live. Be assured, CMJ is the same bold, brown and visionary organization previously known as the Youth Media Council, though now with national outreach, while keeping our focus on community organizing and youth rights in the Bay Area.
Contact: Center for Media Justice (CMJ), 1611 Telegraph Ave. suite 510, Oakland, CA, 94612; 510-444-0640; info@centerformediajustice.org; www.centerformediajustice.org.
POLITICAL MONEY - The Center for Responsive Politics is a non-partisan organization tracking money in U.S. politics, its effect on elections and public policy. The CRP website, OpenSecrets.org, offers a resource for campaign contributions, lobbying data, and analysis.
Contact: The Center for Responsive Politics, 1101 14th St., NW, Suite 1030, Washington, DC 20005; 202-857-0044; info@crp.org; www.opensecrets.org.
TRADE - Bilaterals.org, GRAIN, and BIOTHAI have launched a collaborative publication, Fighting FTAs: The growing resistance to bilateral free trade and investment agreements. It is available online in multiple formats and languages, including multimedia and printable PDF files, open to all as copyleft media. Fighting FTAs looks in-depth at so called Free Trade Agreements and how social movements are fighting back.
Contact: www.fightingftas.org.
HUMAN RIGHTS - The annual report of Human Rights Watch, World Report 2008, is now available.
LABOR - The University Against Itself provides a brief history of labor organizing on American campuses, analyzes the state of academic labor today, and speculates about how the university workplace may evolve for employees.
Contact: Temple University Press, 306 University Services Building (083-41), Philadelphia, PA 19122; 800-621-2736; www.temple.edu/tempress.
MOON - New research into the bizarre world of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and ultra-conservative owner of the Washington Times and United Press International, is revealed in John Gorenfeld's Bad Moon Rising.
Contact: PoliPointPress LLC, 80 Liberty Ship Way, Suite 22, Sausalito, CA 94965; 415-339- 4100; info@p3books.com; www.p3books.com.
ARAB-AMERICANS - Race and Arab Americans Before and After 9/11 edited by Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber brings the varied terrain of Arab American histories to bear on conceptualizations of race in United States.
Contact: Syracuse University Press, 621 Skytop Road, Suite 110, Syracuse, NY 13244; 315-443-5534; supress@syr.edu; syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu.
TRAVEL - Progressive Nation: A Travel Guide with 400+ Left Turns and Inspiring Landmarks by travel writer and political activist Jerome Pohlen puts progressive milestones on the map, celebrating men and women who made revolutionary changes in America.
Contact: Independent Publishers Group, 814 North Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60610; 800-888- 4741; www.ipgbook.com.
WAR CRIMES - World Tribunal on Iraq: Making the Case Against War is a damning indictment that examines every aspect of the Iraq war and occupation—including its legality, its environmental impact, the use of torture, and the role of the media.
Contact: Interlink Publishing Group, Inc., 46 Crosby Street, Northampton, MA 01060; 1-800-238-LINK; info@interlinkbooks.com; www.interlinkbooks.com.
PROFITEERING - War on Terror, Inc.: Corporate Profiteering from the Politics of Fear by Solomon Hughes examines the crucial debate on the role of corporations in warfare and national security.
Contact: Verso, 180 Varick St, New York, NY 10014; 212- 807-9680; versony@versobooks.com; www.versobooks.com.
MISOGYNY - At a time when the outcry is minimal and the voices are tragically few, Ewuare Osayande's Misogyny & the Emcee challenges all forms of inter and intra-racial violence perpetuated against Black women and girls.
Contact: Talking Drum Communications, PO Box 42634, Philadelphia, PA 19101; www.osayande.org.
CASTRO - Fidel Castro Reader edited by David Deutschmann and Deborah Shnooka is the first selection of Fidel Castro's speeches to be published since the 1960s.
Contact: Ocean Press, 511 Avenue of the Americas, #96, New York, NY 10011; info@oceanbooks.com.au; www.oceanbooks.com.au.
GUN CULTURE - Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Virginia Tech Massacre by Douglas Kellner connects each case with male socialization and a search for identity in a culture obsessed with guns and militarism.
Contact: Paradigm Publishers, 3360 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO 80301; 303-245- 9054; www.paradigmpublishers.com.
SUBMITTING ZAPS: Send information on your activist activities, books, resources, and other items to aluker@riseup.net or zmag@zmag.org. We welcome your ads, as well. All ads and listings in Z are free, at our discretion. We feature worthy projects, especially those that can't afford advertising rates in other media.
Z Magazine Archive
Announcements
OCCUPY TOGETHER - Occupy Together is the unofficial hub for the various occupations springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. Towns and cities worldwide are participating.
Contact: http://www.occupytogether.org/.
MAY DAY - May 1 is May Day, also International Workers Day, celebrating the successful fight of workers for rights such as the eight-hour workday. A General Strike is called for May Day by many groups, and events are planned worldwide.
Contact: http://maydayunited.org/; http://www.may1.info/; info@maydayunited.org.
LABOR - The 2012 Labor Notes Conference, themed Solidarity for the 99%, will be held May 4-6, in Chicago. Thousands of union members, officers, and grassroots labor activists will attend the event, which features workshops, meetings and organizing opportunities.
Contact: 313-842-6262; http:// labornotes.org/conference.
MARIJUANA MARCH - On the first Saturday of May (this year: May 5) marijuana legalization activists will hold informational and educational events, rallies and marches in over 300 cities around the world.
Contact: http://globalcannabismarch.com; http://cannabis.wikia.com.
AMERICAN MUSLIMS - KinderUSA will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with a Fundraising Banquet Dinner in Los Angeles on May 5. The keynote speaker will be Norman Finkelstein. KinderUSA was founded as a group of concerned humanitarians and physicians, and has become a leading American Muslim charity organization helping families through health development and emergency relief.
Contact: http://www.kinder usa.org/.
SEXUAL VIOLENCE - SWAN (Service Women’s Action Network) will present Truth and Justice: The 2012 Summit on Military Sexual Violence in Washington, D.C. on May 8. The conferences will give survivors the opportunity to share their stories with congressmembers, policy experts and the general public; with key panels by military law and policy experts on major topics involving military sexual violence and survivors’ access to justice.
Contact: http://truthandjustice summit.org/.
MEDIA - The Alliance for Community Media Youth Summit 2012 will be held May 8 at Pierce College in Philadelphia, PA. The summit will consist of four one-day symposia that provide a public forum for discussion about media and news literacy in America. Participants will include educators, community leaders, media professionals, journalists, nonprofit leaders, policymakers and students.
Contact: http://www.allcommunitymedia.org.
MOMS/BOMBS - Moms Against Bombs and the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action will honor the long history of women’s resistance to injustice, war and nuclear weapons on May 12. A full day of activities is planned, including Orientation to the Trident Nuclear Weapons System, Nonviolence Training, Action Planning and Preparation, Mother’s Day Proclamation for Peace, and a Vigil and Nonviolent Direct Action at the Bangor Trident Submarine Base.
Contact: Anne Hall, 206- 545-3562, annehall@familyhealing.com; gznonviolencenews@yahoo.com; www.gzcenter.org.
MOTHER’S DAY/PEACE - The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace began in 1996 for families who had lost their children to violence. On a day that celebrates mothers and children, the Walk became a place for families and friends to feel support and love with thousands of others who pledge their commitment to peace.
The day has also become a way for thousands of people to financially support the work of the Louis Brown Peace Institute. Mother’s Day is May 13.
Contact: http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/; http://www.ldb peaceinstitute.org/.
BRECHT FORUM - The Beginning Is Near: An Evening with Michael Moore & Cornel West, a special benefit for the Brecht Forum, will be held May 18 at Hunter College in New York City.
Contact: https://brechtforum.org.
LABOR - The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association’s 44th annual conference, A Century of Bread and Roses, is scheduled for May 18-20 in Tacoma, WA.
Contact: PNLHA, 2402-6888 Station Hill Drive, Burnaby, BC, V3N 4X5; 604-540-0245; pnlha@shaw.ca; www.pnlha.org.
HOMELESSNESS - PM Press and First Presbyterian Church will host author Summer Brenner at the Conference on Homelessness on May 19 in Palo Alto, CA.
Contact: First Presbyterian Church, 1140 Cowper Street, Palo Alto, VA 94301; http://www.pmpress.org/.
NATO/G8 - The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda is organizing protests at the NATO and G8 meetings being held in Chicago, May 19-21. A legal, permitted, family-friendly march and rally are planned for May 19. An Occupy Chicago month-long occupation is being planned to begin May 1. The Network for a Nato-Free Future and American Friends Service Committee will also be hosting a Counter-Summit for Peace and Economic Justice May 18-19 at People’s Church in Chicago.
Contact: http://cang8.wordpress.com/about/; http://www.natofreefuture.org/.
ANARCHY FEST - A month-long Festival of Anarchy is scheduled for May in Montreal. The festival includes The Montreal Anarchist Bookfair (May 19-20).
Contact: http://www.radical montreal.com/;http://www.anarchist bookfair.ca/.
TRUTHDIG - Truthdig.com will be gathering May 20-25 in New Mexico with other concerned people to assess current prospects for progressive change. Speakers include Dennis Kucinich and Chris Hedges.
Contact: http://www.truthdig.com/event/santafe.
FEMINIST SCI-FI - The feminist science fiction convention WisCon 36 is scheduled for May 25-28 in Madison, Wisconsin, featuring discussion and debate of sci-fi/fantasy ideas relating to feminism, gender, race and class.
Contact: WisCon, c/o SF3, PO Box 1624, Madison, WI 53701; concom35@wiscon.info; www.wiscon.info.
MULTICULTURE - The 25th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) holds its annual conference May 29 -June 2 in New York City.
Contact: Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies, 3200 Marshall Avenue, Suite 290, Norman, OK 73072; 405- 325-3694; www.ncore.ou.edu.
BIKING - Bikes Not Bombs is holding its 24th annual Bike-A-Thon and Green Roots Festival in Boston, MA on June 3, with several bike rides scheduled, music, exhibitors and more.
Contact: Bikes Not Bombs, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130; 617-522-0222; mail@bikesnotbombs.org; www.bikesnotbombs.org.
RADIO - The 37th Annual Community Radio Conference is scheduled for June 13-16 in Houston, TX with discussions and workshops.
Contact: National Federation of Community Broadcasters, 1970 Broadway, Suite 1000, Oakland, CA 94612; 510-451 -8200; conference@nfcb.org; www.nfcb.org.
PEOPLE’S SUMMIT - The People’s Summit for Social and Environmental Justice during Rio+20 is an event by global civil society that will take place between the 15 and the 23 of June at Flamengo, in Rio de Janeiro—alongside the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), Rio+20.
Contact: contato@rio2012. org.br; http://cupuladospovos.org.br/en/.
ADC CONFERENCE - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ACD) holds its annual conference June 21-24 in Washington, DC, with panel discussions and workshops on civil rights, media, the Mideast, etc.
Contact: ADC, 1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington DC, 20007; 202-244-2990; convention@adc.org; www.adc.org/convention.
MEDIA - The 14th annual Allied Media Conference will be held June 28-July 1 at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. Participatory workshops and skillshares will emphasize DIY alternative media to advance visions of a just and creative world.
Contact: Allied Media Projects, 4126 Third St., Detroit, MI 48201; www.alliedmediacon ference.org.
LA RAZA - The annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference is scheduled for July 7-10 in Las Vegas, with workshops, presentations and panel discussions.
Contact: NCLR Headquarters Office, Raul Yzaguirre Building, 1126 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036; 202-785-1670; www.nclr.org.
PEACESTOCK - On July 14 the 10th Annual Peace- stock: A Gathering for Peace will take place at Windbeam Farm in Hager City, WI. Peacestock (formerly “Pigstock”) is a mixture of music, speakers, and community for peace. The event is sponsored by Veterans for Peace, Chapter 115 and has a peace-themed agenda.
Contact: Bill Habedank, 1913 Grandview Ave., Red Wing, MN 55066; 651-388-7733; billhabedank@yahoo.com; http://www.peacestockvfp.org.
POPULAR ECONOMICS - The Center for Popular Economics is holding its 2012 Summer Institute July 23-27 at Columbia University in New York City. No background in economics is needed for this intensive training. This year’s theme is Economics for the 99%.
Contact: Center for Popular Economics, PO Box 785 Amherst, MA 01004; 413-545-0743; programs@populareconomics.org; www.populareconomics.org.
CUBA/PASTORS - The 23rd annual Pastors for Peace Friendship Caravan to Cuba is scheduled for
July1-July 31. Volunteers will travel across the U.S and Canada collecting aid and educating about the unjust blockade against Cuba, before an orientation in Texas July 15-18, followed by an education program in Cuba July 21-29, and finally a return back to the U.S. People can participate by attending or hosting local events, donating materials, or sponsoring a traveler.
Contact: IFCO/Pastors for Peace, 418 W. 145th St., New York, NY 10031; 212-926- 5757; cucaravan@igc.org; www.pastorsforpeace.org.
COMMUNITY MEDIA - The Alliance for Community Media 2012 National Conference is scheduled for July 31-August 2 in Chicago. Hands-on workshops and skillshares will be offered by this grassroots coalition of community media groups. This year’s theme is Collaborate!
Contact: ACM, 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, VA 22102; www.alliancecm.org.
VETERANS - Veterans for Peace is holding the 27th annual convention August 8-12 in Miami, FL. This year’s theme is, Liberating the Americas: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Contact: Veterans For Peace, 216 S. Meramec Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105; 314-725-6005; www.vfpnationalconvention.org
COMMUNITIES - The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for co-operative or communal lifestyles, with workshops, events and entertainment; scheduled for August 31-September 3 at the Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, Virginia.
Contact: Twin Oaks Communities Conference, 138 Twin Oaks Road, Louisa, VA 23093; 540-894-5126; conference@ twinoaks.org; www.communitiesconference.org.
