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 - July-August 2010

By Various Contributors

PDF Version

Printer Friendly Version

July 2010

Change Text Size a- | A+

Events

RAINBOW CAMP - The 2010 Rainbow Gathering is scheduled for July 1-7 in Pennsylvania. Advocating for a more inclusive United States National Forest, the event creates an unofficial, temporary eco-city in the wilderness, complete with kitchens, plumbing, medical care, sanitation, and childcare, and culminates with an elaborate prayer for World Peace.

Contact: www.welcomehere.org/gathering_of_the_tribes/annual.

DISARMAMENT SUMMER - Think Outside the Bomb, a youth-led network for nuclear abolition in the U.S., is conducting a national tour, with stops in cities throughout the south and west, culminating in a convergence and encampment on San Ildefonso Pueblo land near Los Alamos, New Mexico, July 30 through August 9.

Contact: www.thinkoutsidethebomb.org; www.totbtour.wordpress.com.

EXHIBIT - “Out of the Closet and Into the Street: Posters of LGBT Struggles & Celebration” will be on display at the ONE Archives Gallery & Museum in West Hollywood July 3 through September 26.

Contact: Center for the Study of Political Graphics, 8124 West Third Street, Suite 211, Los Angeles, CA 90048; 323-653-4662; cspgweb@politicalgraphics.org; www.politicalgraphics.org.

CARAVAN - The 21st annual Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba is scheduled for July 3 through August 3. 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 18-20, followed by travel to and from Cuba until August 3. People can participate by attending or hosting local events, donating materials, or traveling along.

Contact: IFCO/Pastors for Peace, 418 W. 145th St., New York, NY 10031; 212-926-5757; cucaravan@igc.org; www.pastorsforpeace.org.

TRAINING - An Earth Activist Training for “social permaculture” is scheduled for July 3-17 in Bellingham, Washington. Co-taught by Starhawk, with guest teachers Bill Aal and Margo Adair of Tools for Change, this course offers a design certificate with a focus on organizing, activism, and social justice.

Contact: Earth Activist Training, PO Box 170177, San Francisco, CA 94117; 800-381-7940; earthactivisttraining@gmail.com; www.earthactivisttraining.org.

PEACE CAMP - Peace of the Action is planning a Summer Camp OUT NOW with Cindy Sheehan from July 4-17 in Washington, DC, featuring direct action and educational events opposed to U.S. occupation and war.

Contact: cindy@peaceoftheaction.org; www.peaceoftheaction.org.

COMMUNITY MEDIA - The Alliance for Community Media 2010 National Conference is scheduled for July 7-10 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Workshops and skillshares will be offered by this grassroots coalition of community media groups.

Contact: ACM, 1100 G Street, NW, Suite 740, Washington, DC 20005; 202-393-2653; www.alliancecm.org.

LA RAZA - The annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference is scheduled for July 10-13 in San Antonio, Texas, with workshops, presentations, and panel discussions.

Contact: NCLR Headquarters Office, Raul Yzaguirre Building, 1126 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036; 202-776-1718; www.nclr.org.

DEMOCRACYFEST - The 7th Annual DemocracyFest will be held July 23-24 in Las Vegas, Nevada. DemocracyFest is a political festival for liberal and progressive activists, which features training, speakers, and entertainment.

Contact: DemocracyFest, info@democracyfest.net; www.democracyfest.net.

ANTI-WAR - A National Antiwar Conference is scheduled for July 23-25 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Albany, New York.

Contact: United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) Planning Committee, 518-227-6947 or 518-227-6947; UNAC2010@aol.com; www.nationalpeaceconference.org.

BIKE4PEACE - Former Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney will join others from Bike4Peace in a cross-country tour departing San Francisco on July 24 and arriving in Washington, DC on September 22, World Car-Free Day, for a Critical Mass bike convergence.

Contact: 541-829-9034; bike4peace@googlegroups.com; www.b4p.bbnow.org.

EDUCATION FORUM - The Rouge Forum 2010, Education in the Public Interest, will be held at George Williams College conference center in Williams Bay, Wisconsin from August 2-5.

Contact: fwilson@aurora.edu; www.rougeforumconference.org

CHIAPAS - The independent collective, Chiapas Against The Grain, is offering programs to learn Spanish and Tsotsil in a socio-cultural context, with visits to different projects, themed discussions, and videos, August 2-13 or August 16-27, with a July 15 registration deadline.

Contact: chiapasacontrapelo@cronopios.org; www.chiapas-a-contrapelo.cronopios.org/en.

CO-OPS - The 2010 National Worker Cooperative Conference is scheduled for August 6-9 at Clark Kerr Conference Center at UC Berkeley, California.

Contact: U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives; 415-379-9201; info@usworker.coop; www.usworker.coop.

COMMUNITIES - The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for anyone interested or involved in co-operative or communal lifestyles, with workshops, events, and entertainment scheduled for August 13-15 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.

URPE - The Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) 4-day workshop/retreat istitled “Capitalism and Global Climate Change” and is scheduled for August 15-18 in Camp Deer Run in Pine Bush, New York.

Contact: Union for Radical Political Economics, Gordon Hall, University of Massachusetts, 418 N. Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01002; 413-577-0806; urpe@labornet.org; www.urpe.org.

VETERANS - Veterans for Peace celebrates its 25th anniversary at this year’s annual convention August 25-29 in Portland, Maine, with workshops, talks, and strategy sessions, a final day rally and march.

Contact: Contact Veterans For Peace, 216 S. Meramec Ave., St. Louis, MO 63105; 314-725-6005; www.vfpnationalconvention.org.

ARTIVIST - The 7th Annual Artivist Film Festival & Artivist Awards, dedicated to addressing human rights, children’s advocacy, environmental preservation, and animal rights is scheduled for October 5-9 in Hollywood, California.

Contact: The Artivist Collective, Inc., PO Box 910, Hollywood, CA 90028; 310-712-1222; info@artivists.org; www.artivists.org.

Wanted

ESSAYS - The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation invites submissions to the 2010 Daniel Singer Prize competition, up to 5,000 words, on the topic: “Given the devastating effects of the present crisis on working people, what proposals for radical reform can be raised that are both practical to the vast majority while moving us towards the goal of socialism?” Deadline: July 31.

Contact: The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation, PO Box 2371, El Cerrito, CA 94530; danielsingerfdn@gmail.com; www.danielsinger.org.

SUPPORT - MediaChannel.org, founded in 2000 by Danny Schechter and Rory O’Connor to inspire debate, collaboration, action, and citizen engagement, is struggling through a financial crisis. It has been kept alive through fundraisers of late, but is now asking for creative ideas, as well as financial support to keep going in a difficult media environment.

Contact: MediaChannel, 575 8th Ave., New York, NY l0018; 212-246-0202; dissector@mediachannel.org; www.mediachannel.org.

DVDs

MIGRANTS - The documentary Which Way Home investigates the personal side of immigration as child migrants from Mexico and Central America risk everything to make it to the U.S. riding freight trains.

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

NEWS SHORTS - In Big Noise Dispatches 06, the latest installment of the Dispatches shorts news series on DVD, Jeremy Scahill investigates Blackwater’s role in the Nisur Square massacre, Greg Palast tracks American debt speculators to Liberia, and the resurgent white power movement in America, and East St. Louis de-industrialization are all explored.

Contact: Big Noise Films, PO Box 72, NY, NY 10013; noise@bignoisefilms.org; www.bignoisefilms.org.

RACE - In a lecture based on his book Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (City Lights, 2010), activist and author Tim Wise discusses the pitfalls of “colorblindness” in the Obama era and argues for deeper color-consciousness in both public and private practice.

Contact: Speak Out!, PO Box 22748, Oakland CA 94609; 510-601-0182; info@speakoutnow.org; www.speakoutnow.org.

Books

ACORN - In Seeds of Change: The Story of ACORN, America’s Most Controversial Antipoverty Community Organizing Group, John Atlas chronicles past ACORN campaigns to organize unions, fight the subprime mortgage crisis, promote living wages, struggle for affordable housing, and help Hurricane Katrina’s survivors.

Contact: Vanderbilt University Press, VU Station B 351813, Nashville, TN 37235; vupress@vanderbiltuniversitypress.com; www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com.

BODY IMAGE - Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped Women’s Health by anthropologist Wenda Trevathan explores a range of women’s health issues viewed through an evolutionary lens.

Contact: Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016; 212-726-6000; custserv.us@oup.com; www.oup.com.

CIVIL RIGHTS - In Freedom Summer: The Savage Season that Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy, Bruce Watson offers a moment-by-moment account of the historic 1964 campaign, based on letters, diaries, and interviews with participants and residents.

Contact: Penguin Group, Viking Adult, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014; 212-366-2000; www.us.penguingroup.com.

FOREIGN POLICY - Hopes and Prospects is a collection of lectures and essays from the past few years by Noam Chomsky, which survey the dangers and possibilities, from Latin American progressivism to U.S. delusions of exceptionalism.

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

GRAMSCI - The biography Antonio Gramsci by Antonio A. Santucci (preface by Eric J. Hobsbawm; translated by Graziella DiMauro with Salvatore Engel-DiMauro) offers a synthesis of the Italian philosopher/political theorist’s life and thought.

Contact: Monthly Review Press, 146 W. 29th Street, #6W, New York, NY 10001; 800-670-9499; bookorder@monthlyreview.org; www.monthlyreview.org.

MAPS - Following up on his earlier book, The Power of Maps, Denis Wood’s new Rethinking the Power of Maps describes how cartography facilitated the rise of the modern state, demystifies hidden assumptions of mapmaking, and explores the promises and limitations of diverse counter-mapping practices today.

Contact: Guilford Press, 72 Spring Street New York, NY 10012; 800-365-7006; info@guilford.com; www.guilford.com.

MINERS - In When Miners March by William C. Blizzard, the epic West Virginia Mine Wars is explored, the largest open and armed rebellion in U.S. history.

Contact: PM Press, PO Box 23912, Oakland, CA 94623; 510-658-3906; info@pmpress.org; www.pmpress.org.

NIGERIA - A Swamp Full of Dollars: Pipelines and Paramilitaries at Nigeria’s Oil Frontier by Michael Peel reveals the confrontations between oil companies, villagers, and rebels within the largest U.S. trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa.

Contact: Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago Review Press, 814 N. Franklin St., Chicago, IL 60610; 312-337-0747; www.chicagoreviewpress.com.

PAST PEACENIKS - In her new book, War No More: The Antiwar Impulse in American Literature, 1861-1914, Cynthia Wachtell reveals the buried history of prominent Americans questioning the morality of warfare, including Melville, Whitman, Hawthorne, and Twain.

Contact: Louisiana State University Press, 3990 West Lakeshore Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70808; 800-848-6224; customerservice@longleafservices.org; www.lsu.edu/lsupress; www.warnomorethebook.com.

PROTEST - Protest Nation: Words That Inspired a Century of American Radicalism, edited by Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian, brings together the historic speeches, letters, broadsides, essays, and manifestos of American dissidents.

Contact: The New Press, 38 Greene Street, 4th floor, New York, NY 10013; 212-629-8802; www.thenewpress.com.

U.S. INVASION OF IRAQ - In Blood On Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq, Nicolas J.S. Davies takes apart the wall of propaganda surrounding one of history’s most significant military disasters and most serious international crimes.

Contact: Nimble Books, 1521 Martha Ave., Ann Arbor MI 48103; www.nimblebooks.com.

Zaps are free at our discretion. Send to zmag@zmag.org.

Go to a specific issue
Z Magazine Archive

Announcements

LABOR - May 1 is May Day. Workers of the world will celebrate the 124th anniversary of International Worker’s Day. Born out of a call for an 8-hour workday in the United States, this day is an opportunity for all workers to show their solidarity with one another, as well as to renew the call for labor rights.

FARM CONFERENCE - The Farm Conference on Community and Sustainability will be held May 24-26 in Summertown, TN, in partnership with the Fellowship of Intentional Communities. Tour green homes, see sustainable food production, learn about solar installations, alternative education, midwifery, and more.

Contact: Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com; http://www.thefarmcommunity.com/.

PALESTINE - The Conference of the Palestinian Shatat in North American will be held June 3-5 in Vancouver. The conference will examine the future of the Palestinian liberation movement.

Contact: palestinianconference@gmail.com; http://www.palestinianconference.org/.

LABOR - The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association’s 45th annual conference will be held May 3-5, in Portland, OR. This year’s theme is Labor Under Attack: Learning from the Past and Preparing for the Future. A call for presentations, workshops and papers is currently underway.

Contact: PNLHA, 27920 68th Ave. East, Graham, WA 98338; 206-406-2604; PNLHA1@aol.com; http://www3.telus.net.

MARIJUANA - On the first Saturday of May marijuana legalization activists will hold informational and educational events, rallies and marches in over 300 cities around the world.

Contact:http://globalcannabismarch.com/.

ECONOMICS - The Union For Radical Political Economics will hold its 39th annual conference May 9-11 in New York City.

Contact: http://www.ramapo.edu/eea/2013/.

RECLAIM THE DREAM - The 2013 Poor People’s Campaign & March from Baltimore to Washington D.C. will be May 11. Communities, schools and unions interested in participating are encouraged to contact the Baltimore People’s Assembly.

Contact: 410-500-2168; 410-218-4835; BaltimorePeoplesAssembly@gmail.com; Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Baltimore and the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly, 2011 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218.

MOTHER’S DAY - The 17th Annual Mother’s Day Walk For Peace will be May 12th, in Dorchester, MA. The walk began in 1996 for families who had lost children to violence. The day has become a way for thousands of people to financially support the work of the Louis Brown Peace Institute.

Contact: http://www.ldbpeaceinstitute.org/; http://mothersdaywalk4peace.org/.

NATO 5 - An International Week of Solidarity with the NATO 5 has been called for May 16-21. Supports call on supporters to raise awareness of the NATO 5 and support funds for the defendants on the one-year anniversary of their preemptive arrests.

Contact: nato5solidarity@gmail.com; https://nato5support.wordpress.com.

MOUNTAINTOP - The 2013 Mountain Justice Summer Activist Training Camp will be held May 19-27 in Damascus, VA. It will be a week of workshops, field trips to view Mountain Top Removal coal mines, direct actions, and service project.

Contact: http://rampscampaign.org/.

FEMINIST SCI-FI - The feminist science fiction convention WisCon 37 is scheduled for May 24-27 in Madison, WI.

Contact: WisCon, ? SF3, PO Box 1624, Madison, WI 53701; concom37@wiscon.info; http://www.wiscon.info/.

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.anarchistbookfair.ca/; http://www.radicalmontreal.com/.

LABOR - The International Labor Rights Forum will present: Down the Supply Chain, Driving Corporate Accountability, on May 22 in Washington, DC. The Labor Rights Awards Ceremony and Reception will honor pioneers in supply chain worker organizing, working solidarity and international labor rights policy.

Contact: http://laborrights.org/.

MULTICULTURE - The 26th annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) will take place May 28-June 1, in New Orleans.

Contact: SWCHRS, 3200 Marshall Avenue, Suite 290, Norman, OK 73072; 405-325-3694; ncore@ou.edu; www.ncore.ou.edu.

MEDIA - The 2013 Alliance for Community Media Annual Conference will be held May 29-31, in San Francisco, CA. Participants will include educators, community leaders, media professionals, journalists, nonprofit leaders, policymakers and students.

Contact: http://www.allcommunitymedia.org/.

RADIO - The 38th Annual Community Radio Conference is schedule for May 29-June 1, in San Francisco, CA, with discussions and workshops.

Contact: 1101 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004; 202-756-2268; comments@nfcb.org; http://www.nfcb.org/.

BRADLEY MANNING - On June 1, a rally will be held at Fort Meade in support of Bradley Manning.

Contact: http://www.bradleymanning.org.

BIKES - 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.

LEFT FORUM - The 2013 Left Forum will be held June 7-9, at Pace University in New York City.

Contact: 365 Fifth Avenue, CUNY Graduated Center, ? Sociology Dept., New York, NY 10016; http://www.leftforum.org/.

VEGAN FEST - Mad City Vegan Fest will be held in Madison, WI, June 8. The annual event features food, speakers, and exhibitors.

Contact: 122 State Street, Suite 405 B, Madison, WI 53701; madcityveganfest@gmail.com; http://veganfest.org/.

ADC CONFERENCE - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) holds its annual conference June 13-16, in Washington, DC, with panel discussions and workshops on civil rights, media and other topics.

Contact: 1990 M Street, Suite 610, Washington, DC, 20036; 202-244-2990; convention@adc.org http://convention.adc.org/.

CUBA/SOCIALISM - A Cuban-North American Dialog on Socialist Renewal and Global Capitalist Crisis will be held in Havana, Cuba, June 16-30. There will be a 5 day Seminar at University of Havana, plus visits to a cooperative, urban garden, community development project, social research centers, and educational & medical institutions.

Contact: cuba@globaljusticecenter.org; http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/.

NETROOTS - The 8th Annual Netroots Nation conference will take place June 20-23 in San Jose, CA. The event features panels, trainings, networking, screenings, and keynotes.

Contact: 164 Robles Way, #276, Vallejo, CA 94591; registration@netrootsnation.org; http://www.netrootsnation.org/.

MEDIA - The 15th annual Allied Media Conference will be held June 20-23, in Detroit.

Contact: 4126 Third Street, Detroit, MI 48201; http://alliedmedia.org/.

GRASSROOTS - The United We Stand Festival will be hosted by Free & Equal, June 22 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The festival aims to reform the electoral process throughout the U.S.

Contact: http://freeandequal.org/.

SOCIALISM - The Socialism 2013 Conference is scheduled for June 27-30 in Chicago, featuring talks and panel discussions.

Contact: info@socialismconference.org; http://www.socialismconference.org.

LITERACY - The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) will hold its conference July 12-13 in Los Angeles under the heading, Intersections: Teaching and Learning Across Media.

Contact: 10 Laurel Hill Drive, Cherry Hill, NJ 08003; http://namle.net/conference/.

IWW - The North American Work People’s College will take place July 12-16 at Mesaba Co-op Park in northern Minnesota. The event will bring together Wobblies from branches across the continent to learn new skills and build One Big Union.

Contact: http://workpeoplescollege.org/.

PEACESTOCK - On July 13th, the 11th Annual Peacestock: A Gathering for Peace, will take place at Windbeam Farm in Hager City, WI. The event is a mixture of music, speakers and community for peace. Sponsored by Veterans for Peace.

Contact: Bill Habedank, 1913 Grandview Ave., Red Wing, MN 55066; 651-388-7733; billhabedank@yahoo.com; http://www.peacestockvfp.org.

CHILDREN’S DEFENSE - July 15-19, join clergy, seminarians, Christian educators, young adult leaders and other faith-based advocates for children at CDF Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee, for five days of spiritual renewal, networking, movement building workshops, and continuing education about the urgent needs of children at the 19th annual Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry.

Contact: cdfinfo@childrensdefense.org; http://www.childrensdefense.org.

ACTIVIST CAMP - Youth Empowered Action (YEA) Camp will have sessions in July and August in Ben Lomond, CA; Portland, OR; Charlton, MA. YEA Camp is designed for activists 12-17 years old who want to make a difference in the world.

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

LA RAZA - The annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference is scheduled for July 18-19 in New Orleans, 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.

LABOR - The Eastern Conference For Workplace Democracy: Growing Our Cooperatives, Growing Our Communities, will be held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA, July 26-28.

Contact: info@east.usworker.coop; http://east.usworker.coop/.

WOMEN/LYNNE STEWART- Radical Women is asking for support letters and cards to be sent to Lynne Stewart. Stewart is a civil rights attorney and political prisoner who is currently in jail. She has breast cancer and authorities have denied her request for transfer from her Texas prison to the New York City hospital where she received medical attention during a prior bout of breast cancer. Send messages and cards to: Lynne Stewart 53504-054, Federal Medical Center Carswell, P.O. Box 27137, Fort Worth, TX 76127.

Contact: 747 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA 94109; 415-864-1278; RadicalWomenUS@gmail.com; http://lynnestewart.org/; http://www.radicalwomen.org/.

HAITI/WOMEN - Haiti’s government is considering a legal reform measure that would prohibit and punish all sexual assault, including marital rape. MADRE and the International Campaign to Stop Rape & Gender Violence in Conflict are launching a petition to raise international support for this push to address violence against women in Haiti.

Contact: 121 West 27th Street, #301, New York, NY 10001; 212-627-0444; madre@madre.org; http://www.madre.org.

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.

FOLK FESTIVAL - The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival will be held August 2-4, in the Berkshires, NY.

Contact: http://www.falconridgefolk.com/; falcridge@aol.com.

WAR RESISTERS - The War Resisters League will hold its 90th anniversary conference, Revolutionary Nonviolence: Building Bridges Across Generations and Communities, August 1-4, at Georgetown University. The event will focus on the U.S.’ long history of antimilitarism.

Contact: 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012; 212-228-0450; wrl@warresisters.org; http://www.warresisters.org.

POPULAR ECONOMICS - The Center for Popular Economics is holding its 2013 Summer Institute August 4-9 at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA. No background in economics is needed for this intensive training. This year’s theme is, The Care Economy: Building a Just Economy with a Heart.

Contact: Center for Popular Economics, PO Box 785 Amherst, MA 01004; 413-545-0743; programs@populareconomics.org; www.populareconomics.org.

VETERANS - Veterans for Peace is holding the 28th annual convention August 6-11 in Madison, WI. This year’s theme is, Power To The Peaceful.

Contact: http://www.vfpnationalconvention.org/.

DEMOCRACY - The Democracy Convention will take place August 7-11 in Madison, WI. The convention brings together nine conferences including topics such as media, education, defense, race, environment and others.

Contact: https://democracyconvention.org/.

MEN - The 38th National Conference on Men & Masculinity: Forging Justice: Creating Safe, Equal and Accountable Communities, presented in partnership with HAVEN, will be held in Detroit, MI, August 8-10.

Contact: ccardinal@haven-oakland.org; http://www.nomas.org/.

OCCUPY - An Occupy National Gathering will be held in Kalamazoo, MI, August 21-25.

Contact: natgat2013@gmail.com; http://occupynationalgathering.net/.

COMMUNITIES - The Communities Conference is a networking and learning opportunity for co-operative or communal lifestyles, with workshops, events and entertainment; scheduled for August 30-September 2 at the Twin Oaks Community in Louisa, Virginia.

Contact: http://www.communitiesconference.org/.

LABOR DAY - The 29th annual Bread and Roses Festival, a celebration of the ethnic diversity and labor history of Lawrence, MA, will be held September 2, in honor of the 1912 Bread and Roses Strike. There will be music, dance, poetry, drama, ethnic food, historical demonstrations, walking & trolley tours.

Contact: PO Box 1137, Lawrence, MA 01842; 978-794-1655; http://www.breadandrosesheritage.org/.

OCCUPY WALL STREET - September 17 is the two-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Events are planned in New York City and worldwide.

Contact: http://occupywallst.org/.

TEACHERS - The 13th Annual Conference, “Teaching for Social Justice: The Politics of Pedagogy,” will be held October 12 in San Francisco, CA. The free event features workshops, resources, and free childcare.

Contact: 415-676-7844; teachers4socialjustice@yahoo.com; http://www.t4sj.org/.

HAITI - International Action, which brings clean water and chlorinators to Haiti, seeks office space capable of housing up to six people and their office equipment.

Contact: Zach Bremer, Zbrehmer@haitiwater.org; 202-488-0735; http://www.haitiwater.org/.

MEDIA - The Union for Democratic Communications and Project Censored are sponsoring a joint conference on media democracy, media activism and social justice to be held November 1-3 at the University of San Francisco. Proposals for presentations, workshops and panels from activists and critical scholars are invited.