Zaps - May 2011

Events

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. Events are held worldwide, such as the May Day Unity Coalition rally at noon in Union Square in NYC and a march from Judkins Park to a rally at Memorial Stadium in Seattle.

Contact: May Day United, 646-535-6291; info@maydayunited.org; www.maydayunited.org. May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights, 55 West 17 Street, #5C, NY, NY 10011; 212-633-6646; www.may1.info.

ANTINUKE - A Mother's Day Vigil & Direct Action against nukes is scheduled for all day May 7 at the Ground Zero organizing center in Kitsap, Washington and the nearby Bangor Trident Nuclear Submarine Base.

Contact: Anne Hall, 206-545-3562, annehall@familyhealing.com; or Sue Ablao, 360-930-8697, gznonviolencenews@yahoo.com; www.gzcenter.org.

PEACEFAIR - The seventh annual Brooklyn Peace Fair will be held Saturday, May 7 at Brooklyn College. This year's theme is "War, Military Budget, and the Economy" and features workshops, music, videos, art, and more.

Contact: Brooklyn For Peace, 41 Schermerhorn St., PMB 106, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 718-624-5921; bfp@brooklynforpeace.org; www.brooklynforpeace.org.

MARIJUANA MARCH - On the first Saturday of May (May 7 this year) marijuana legalization activists hold informational and educational events, rallies, and marches in cities around the world.

Contact: cannabis.wikia.com; globalcannabismarch.com.

WOMEN'S STUDIES - An international conference, Women in the 21st Century, is scheduled from May 16-20 in Havana, Cuba. Sponsored by University of Havana's Women Studies program and the Federation of Cuban Women, the conference will feature presentations in academic disciplines concerning gender, feminism, and women's studies.

Contact: Cátedra de la Mujer, Universidad de La Habana, San Rafael 1168 esq. Mazón Plaza, Ciudad Habana CP10400, Cuba; cmujer@psico.uh.cu; www.womenandcuba.org.

FOOD SECURITY - The Community Food Security Coalition is hosting a conference entitled "Food Policy from Neighborhood to Nation" from May 19-21 in Portland, Oregon. It brings together people from across North America who are working to influence food and agricultural policy and includes networking, field trips, and workshops.

Contact: CFSC, 3830 SE Division St., Portland, OR 97202; 503-954-2970; www.foodsecurity.org.

EDUCATION FORUM - The Rouge Forum 2011 conference will be held May 20-22 at Lewis University's campus in Romeoville, Illinois.

Contact: LevendPa@lewisu.edu, www.rougeforumconference.org.

MIDEAST POLICY - Women for Peace, Global Exchange, and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, together with over 80 peace and justice groups, are organizing a gathering in Washington, DC from May 21-24, called "Move Over AIPAC: Building a New US Middle East Policy," timed to coincide with the annual policy meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Contact: Shaden Dowaitt, 415-355-0300, shaden@codepink.org; www.moveoveraipac.org.

CLEMENCY RALLY - A May 21 March & Rally for Justice in Portland kicks off a new campaign for clemency for American Indian political prisoner Leonard Peltier, held for more than 35 years for a crime he did not commit and suffering declining health. Car pools are being organized and donations are needed.

Contact; Tacoma Chapter, Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee, PO Box 5464, Tacoma WA 98415; bayou@blarg.net; www.whoisleonardpeltier.info.

ANARCHY FEST - A month-long Festival of Anarchy, which includes an Anarchist Bookfair, is scheduled for May in Montreal, Canada from May 21-22.

Contact: Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, 1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, Suite 204, Montréal, Québec, H3G 1N1 Canada; 514-679-5800; info@salonanarchiste.ca; www.anarchistbookfair.ca.

GAZA FLOTILLA II - As planned at the 2011 World Social Forum, the last week of May will be a week in solidarity with the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which delivers emergency supplies to the population of the Palestinian Gaza strip suffering an illegal embargo/blockade by Israel. Informational and fundraising events are encouraged.

Contact: www.freedomflotilla.eu; gazafreedommarch.org; occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com.

FEMINIST SCI-FI - The feminist science fiction convention WisCon 35 is scheduled for May 26-30 in Madison, Wisconsin, featuring discussion and debate of sci-fi/fantasy ideas relating to feminism, gender, race, and class.

Contact: WisCon, c/o SF3, P.O. Box 1624, Madison, WI 53701; concom35@wiscon.info; www.wiscon.info.

MULTICULTURE - The National Conference for Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) holds its annual conference May 31 through June 1 in San Francisco.

Contact: Southwest Center for Human Relations Studies, 3200 Marshall Avenue, Suite 290, Norman, OK 73072; 405-325-3694; www.ncore.ou.edu.

RADIO - The 36th Annual Community Radio Conference is scheduled for June 1-4 in San Francisco 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.

ADC CONFERENCE - The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) holds its annual conference June 10-12 in Washington, DC, with panel discussions and workshops on civil rights, media, the changes in the Mideast, etc.

Contact: ADC, 1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW, Washington DC, 20007; 202-244-2990; convention@adc.org; www.adc.org/convention.

BIKING - Bikes Not Bombs is holding its 24th annual Bike-A-Thon and Green Roots Festival in Boston, Massachusetts on June 12, 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.

LABOR - The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association's 43rd annual conference, "When Unions Matter Most: Opportunities for Collaboration and Solidarity," is scheduled for June 17-19 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Contact: PNLHA, 2402-6888 Station Hill Drive, Burnaby, BC, V3N 4X5; 604-540-0245; pnlha@shaw.ca; www.pnlha.org.

SPACE WEAPONS - The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space holds its 19th annual Organizing Conference from June 17-19 in North Andover, Massachusetts, with peace activists from around the world and a low-cost sliding scale fee to attend. Additionally, a vigil will be held at a Raytheon production plant on the afternoon of June 17, and a concert with Tetsu Kitagawa, one of Japan's leading peace and justice singer/songwriters, is scheduled for the evening of June 18.

Contact: Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011; 207-443-9502; globalnet@mindspring.com; www.space4peace.org.

MEDIA - The 13th annual Allied Media Conference will be held June 23-26 in the McGregor Conference Center at Wayne State University in Detroit. 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.alliedmediaconference.org.

CARAVAN - The 22nd annual Pastors for Peace Friendship Caravan to Cuba is scheduled for July 2 through August 1. 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 17-19, followed by an educational program in Cuba July 22-30, followed by a return journey. 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.

EASTERN CO-OPS - The Eastern Conference for Workplace
Democracy, Connecting our Workplaces; Building Cooperative Economies is being held from July 8-10 at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Contact: ECWD organizers Neily Jennings or Esteban Kelly, 802-448-0972; info@east.usworker.coop; east.usworker.coop.

PROGRESSIVE SCI-FI - The Think Galacticon 3 conference from July 8-10 at Roosevelt University in Chicago is a project of the Think Galactic Reading Group and Collective. The conference offers a space where leftists and others can discuss how speculative fiction can inform ideas about social justice.

Contact: Think Galactic, 1321 N Milwaukee, PMB 420, Chicago, IL 60642; info@thinkgalactic.org; www.tgcon3.thinkgalactic.org.

LA RAZA - The annual National Council of La Raza (NCLR) Conference is scheduled for July 23-26 in Washington, DC, 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.

POPULAR ECONOMICS - The Center for Popular Economics is holding its 2011 Summer Institute July 24-30 at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. No background in economics is needed for this intensive training. This year's theme is Media, Democracy, and the Economy.

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

COMMUNITY MEDIA - The Alliance for Community Media 2011 National Conference is scheduled for July 27-30 in Tucson, Arizona. Hands-on workshops and skillshares will be offered by this grassroots coalition of community media groups.

Contact: ACM, 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, VA 22102; www.alliancecm.org.

VETERANS - Veterans for Peace is holding this year's annual convention August 3-7 at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. This year's theme is Resilience, Resistance, and Non-Violent Revolution.

Contact: 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 19-21 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.

Opportunities & Resources

ECONOMIC INFO - The State of Working America, an ongoing analysis published since 1988 by the Economic Policy Institute, includes a wide variety of data on family incomes, wages, jobs, unemployment, wealth, and poverty that allow for a clear, understanding of the economy's effect on the living standards of working Americans. Now available online.

Contact: www.stateofworkingamerica.org.

ESSAYS WANTED - The Daniel Singer Millennium Prize Foundation invites submissions to the 2011 Daniel Singer Prize competition of up to 5,000 words on the topic: "In some Western countries, right-wing populism has been able to channel much of the anger caused by the financial crisis and its effects. Why has the left been marginalized? How can this be overcome?" Deadline is July 31.

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

COLLABORATION - The online Post-Capitalist Project (or PostCap) seeks to gather and disseminate the widest range of innovative research and debate on how we can move, or may already be moving, towards socialist transformation.

Contact: www.postcapitalistproject.org.

Books

AFRICAN WOMEN - Women and Security Governance in Africa, edited by Funmi Olonisakin and Awino Okech, offers a critique of security and development policy dominated by global actors in connivance with an African elite by examining its impact on women.

Contact: Fahamu Books, 2nd floor, 51 Cornmarket Street, Oxford OX1 3HA, UK; info@fahamu.org; www.fahamubooks.org.

CHICAGO SCHOOL - In Reality Ignored: How Milton Friedman and Chicago Economics Undermined American Institutions and Endangered the Global Economy, Kenneth M. Davidson blames Milton Friedman and Chicago School Economics for damaging American society and its economy.

Contact: www.kennethdavidson.com.

COMPILATION - In The Compassionate Rebel Revolution: Ordinary People Changing the World, journalist Burt Berlowe presents 60 stories of everyday activists, making a case for transforming our culture with a grassroots global movement.

Contact: Common Good Books, 165 Western Ave. N., St. Paul, MN 55102; 651-225-8989; info@commongoodbooks.com; www.commongoodbooks.com.

DISPOSSESSION - In Pedagogy, Policy, and the Privatized City: Stories of Dispossession and Defiance from New Orleans, Kristen L. Buras, Jim Randels, Kalamu ya Salaam, and New Orleans high school students offer stories of marginalized youth and their teachers who contest the neo-conservative/new-liberal privatization assault on their communities.

Contact: Teachers College Press, PO Box 20, Williston, VT 05495; 800-575-6566; tcp.cs@aidcvt.com; www.teacherscollegepress.com

INTERNS - In Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy, Ross Perlin exposes a burgeoning new class oppression and the fundamental social inequalities that unpaid or little-paid internships exploit and intensify.

Contact: Verso Books, 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201; 718-246-8160; verso@versobooks.com; www.versobooks.com.

LABOR - Rebel Rank and File: Labor Militancy and Revolt from Below During the Long 1970s, edited by Aaron Brenner, Robert Brenner, and Cal Winslow, explores an era of sustained worker militancy involving strikes, caucuses, and democratization, rich in lessons for today's labor movement.

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

PALESTINE - In The Palestinian Right of Return Under International Law, Francis A. Boyle argues that the just resolution of the Palestinian right of return is at the very heart of the Middle East peace process and that a racist "Jewish state" of Israel is doomed to failure.

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

PSYCHOLOGY - In Get Up, Stand Up: Uniting Populists, Energizing the Defeated, and Battling the Corporate Elite, Bruce E. Levine details the inspiration, motivation, strategies, and tactics that oppressed peoples have successfully employed to gain power, arguing that people today can wrest power away from the "corporatocracy."

Contact: Chelsea Green Publishing, 85 North Main Street, Suite 120, White River Jct., Vermont 05001; 800-639-4099; www.chelseagreen.com.

RADICALS - Capital and Its Discontents: Conversations with Radical Thinkers in a Time of Tumult, edited by Sasha Lilley, offers a series of incisive conversations with some of the most eminent thinkers and political economists on the Left—including David Harvey, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Mike Davis, Leo Panitch, Tariq Ali, and Noam Chomsky.

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

TAMILS - In Posted in Colombo: A Glance at Toiling Women and the Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka, Shizue Tomoda describes her more than three years spent working in Sri Lanka as director of the International Labor Organization (ILO)'s Colombo office.

Contact: www.shizuetomoda.net.

WAR - Reasons to Kill: Why Americans Choose War, by Richard E. Rubenstein, explores both the rhetoric that sells war to the public and the underlying cultural and social factors that make it so effective in a country that is perpetually killing on a vast scale.

Contact: Bloomsbury Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010; 212-780-0115; info@bloomsburyusa.com; www.bloomsburypress.com.

WOMEN PRISONERS - In Razor Wire Women: Prisoners, Activists, Scholars, and Artists, editors Jodie Michelle Lawston and Ashley E. Lucas put incarcerated women in dialogue with scholars, artists, educators, and activists who live outside of prisons but work on issues connected to the prison industrial complex.

Contact: State University of New York Press, 22 Corporate Woods Boulevard, 3rd Floor, Albany, NY 12211; 866-430-7869; info@sunypress.edu; www.sunypress.edu.

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