New NYCLAW antiwar buttons now available in black, white and red:
No Blood For Oil
New York City Labor Against the War
To order, use form below:
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State/Prov._________________ Zip______________
Enclosed is $___________ for________ buttons (USD $2/ea.)
Send check (payable to NYCLAW) to:
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Categories: Uncategorized
http://nyc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=37285&group=webcast
Labor’s Opportunity
by IMC Staff
8:40am Tue Oct 29 ‘02
From the October Indypendent
Organized labor, with its 13 million members, has the potential to become one of the most powerful voices for peace and justice.
Though AFL-CIO, hasn’t taken a stance for or against a unilateral invasion of Iraq, it has allowed room for local and regional affiliates to take independent stances.
Most rank-and-file union members don’t think Bush has justified the need for an attack. Like most Americans, they are taking the middle road. While they may not like Saddam Hussein many do not see enough reason to intervene in the affairs of a sovereign nation.
That very few unions have taken a stance in support of the Bush administration is also important. Even among those unions that have, there isn’t a vocal, pro-war section of organized labor, as there was during the Vietnam War.
Many union members are waiting to see how the next few months play out. But in an encouraging trend, some have come out against the war.
An example of a labor-led initiative to oppose war came from the Washington State Central Labor Council (CLC) AFL-CIO. The Washington State CLC, representing close to half a million trade unionists, held its convention August 19 – 22, in Spokane, Washington.
At that convention it was resolved that the Washington State CLC “opposes the U.S. government’s open-ended “war on terrorism” and [urges all its affiliates] to pressure Bush and Congress to stop the war,” assist laid-off workers, restore and expand services, and promote global justice by providing humanitarian and economic aid.”
The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) at a recent State Council meeting passed a resolution against war on Iraq. The resolution said, “the CFT goes on record as strenuously opposing the Bush administration’s march toward war with Iraq. . .” The resolution also urged all affiliates to encourage their members to do the same.
The CFT, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), represents over 100,000 teachers and school employees and has a history of being involved in social, political and economic struggles.
In a phone interview Margaret Shelleda, Assistant to the President of CFT, said, “Bush has shown no evidence that Iraq posses a threat to the U.S. And a war would only exacerbate the situation in the Middle East.” She added, “unilateral action is a violation of international standards.”
On the top of Shelleda’s priorities list were domestic issues. “Twenty five percent of California’s budget is in deficit,” she said. “Education isn’t getting enough money. Hardly any schools have nurses. And Bush is on the brink of committing billions of dollars and thousands of lives without attempting a diplomatic approach.”
And most recently on October 1, the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO Pride at Work, a constituency group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender union members, passed a resolution against “pre-emptive war strikes on Iraq or any other country.”
The list of official AFL-CIO bodies openly taking a stance against war is small now. But the list is growing.
Independent bodies, comprised of union officers and rank-and-file union members, seeking official recognition from their local, regional and national unions, are forming much more quickly.
New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) is a perfect example. The peace movement has found an important ally in NYCLAW, which formed weeks after the attacks of September 11. According to Michel Letwin, President of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW 2325, it has been “both an anti-war pole within labor and a labor pole in the anti-war movement.”
Detroit Labor for Peace and Justice (DLPJ) is another example. Originally formed in response to the bombing of Afghanistan, DLPJ issued a Labor Day statement in the Metro Detroit Labor News. It said, “We condemn the horrific terrorist attack on September 11. Yet the war in Afghanistan has brought further suffering… We therefore oppose the expansion of the War on Terror to include military action in Iraq… or any other country.”
In a phone interview Paul Felton, of DLPJ, said, “Bush’s foreign policy has little to do with helping the American people. It is designed to further corporate interests.”
Felton, a 22-year member of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) area local 480-481, suggested that the labor movement as a whole has been “cautious” and added, “This is the perfect opportunity for labor to break from the legacy of un-critically supporting U.S. foreign policy.” He continued, “Sometimes labor participation in the peace movement seems too small,” but the growing response many unions and union members have shown is “certainly a healthy beginning.
Categories: Uncategorized
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/2219/
Anti-war movement grows in labor ranks
Author: Tony Pecinovsky
People’s Weekly World Newspaper, 10/26/02 00:00
Growing sections of organized labor are making the connection between U.S. military aggression abroad and cuts in social programs at home. Also, many in the labor movement are openly opposing the curtailment of civil liberties.
Some are also opposing an attack on Iraq. Today, when local, regional and national unions encourage their membership to oppose war with Iraq they are setting an example for the broader labor movement.
This isn’t to imply that there is now a broad-based peace movement in organized labor. Many trade unionists are cautious on this issue. But while they may not like Saddam Hussein many do not see enough reason to intervene in the affairs of a sovereign nation.
It is significant that very few unions have taken a stand supporting the Bush administration, and there isn’t a vocal pro-war section in organized labor, as there was during the Vietnam War.
Many union members are waiting to see how the next few months play out. But some have come out against war, and the speed at which this is happening is almost unprecedented.
Even though the national AFL-CIO hasn’t taken a position for or against war on Iraq, it has allowed room for local and regional affiliates to take independent stances.
An important labor initiative opposing war came from the Washington State Central Labor Council (CLC), representing close to half a million trade unionists.
Its Aug. 19-22 convention resolved that the Washington State CLC “opposes the U.S. government’s open-ended ‘war on terrorism’ and [urges all its affiliates] to pressure Bush and Congress to stop the war … assist laid-off workers, restore and expand services, and promote global justice by providing humanitarian and economic aid …”
The California Federation of Teachers (CFT), representing over 100,000 teachers and school employees, at a recent State Council meeting passed a resolution saying, “the CFT goes on record as strenuously opposing the Bush administration’s march toward war with Iraq …” The resolution urged all affiliates to encourage their members to do the same.
Margaret Shelleda, assistant to the president of CFT, told the World Bush has shown no evidence that Iraq poses a threat to the U.S. and war would only exacerbate the situation in the Middle East. “Unilateral action is a violation of international standards,” she said.
“Twenty-five percent of California’s budget is in deficit,” Shellada commented. “Education isn’t getting enough money. Hardly any schools have nurses. And Bush is on the brink of committing billions of dollars and thousands of lives without attempting a diplomatic approach.”
Most recently, on Oct. 1, the Executive Committee of AFL-CIO Pride at Work, a constituency group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender union members, passed a resolution opposing “pre-emptive war strikes on Iraq or any other country.”
The list of official AFL-CIO bodies openly taking a stance against war is small now. But it is growing.
Independent groups of union officers and rank-and-file union members are forming and seeking official recognition by local, regional and national unions.
New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW), a coalition formed weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is one example. The peace movement has found an important ally in NYCLAW. According to Michael Letwin, president of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW 2325, it has been “both an anti-war pole within labor and a labor pole in the anti-war movement.”
Detroit Labor for Peace and Justice (DLPJ), originally formed in response to the bombing of Afghanistan, is another example. DLPJ issued a Labor Day statement in the Metro Detroit Labor News saying, “We condemn the horrific terrorist attack on Sept. 11. Yet the war in Afghanistan has brought further suffering … We therefore oppose the expansion of the War on Terror to include military action in Iraq … or any other country.”
In an interview, Paul Felton of DLPJ said, “Bush’s foreign policy has little to do with helping the American people. It is designed to further corporate interests.”
Felton, a 22-year member of the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 480-481, said, “This is the perfect opportunity for labor to break from the legacy of uncritically supporting U.S. foreign policy.” Observing that “sometimes labor participation in the peace movement seems too small,” he said the quick response many unions and union members have shown is “a healthy beginning.”
The backing of the labor movement, with its potential to mobilize its 13 million members, would greatly increase the influence of the peace movement. Organized labor is the only mass group that can mobilize enough votes to defeat the Republicans in November, elect a pro-peace majority, and put the Bush administration on the defensive. By sheer numbers alone, labor, in coalition with progressive, environmental, community, peace and student organizations, can shift the balance of political forces.
Labor can make or break Bush’s war.
Tony Pecinovsky is a frequent contributor in New York. He can be reached at tonypec@pww.org
Categories: Uncategorized
[DUE TO NEW INFORMATION, THE 10/26 LABOR CONTINGENT WILL BE LOCATED AS DISCUSSED BELOW, RATHER THAN AT THE WOMEN VETERANS MEMORIAL. Apologies for any confusion]
New Location for Trade Union Contingent to Stop the War on Iraq–Defend Labor at Home
Washington, DC Sat., October 26, 2002
New Location: 11 am–Trade union contingent will assemble on the Mall on the south side Constitution Ave. NW @ 21 St., just NE of the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial (see X on map)
Labor endorsers include: SEIU Local 1199; ILWU Local 10 Exec. Bd.; ILWU Local 400; San Francisco Central Labor Council; Albany NY Central Labor Federation; Troy NY Area Labor Council; Rochester NY Labor Council; New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW); DC Labor for Peace & Justice; PSSU/SEIU Local 668 (Phila.); NALC Local 214; Sign Display Union Local 510; Oakland
(CA) Education Assn.; United University Professions Delegate Assembly, SUNY; Typographical Sector, N. CA Media Workers Union/CWA; Sacramento Valley Labor Comm. for Peace & Justice; Kenneth Lerch, Pres., NALC Local 3825*; Filipino Workers Association (FWA); Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates; Sally Davies, Pres., AFSCME Council 92*; Ray Markey, Pres. AFSCME Local
1930, DC 37*; Sally Davis, Pres., AFSCME Council 92*; Ken Lerch, Pres., NALC Local 3825*; David Sole, Pres. Local 2334, UAW*; Paramedics for Peace, NC; Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
*denotes organization listed for identification purposes only.
Info: NYCLAW01@excite.com; NYC Bus Tickets: 212.633.6646; www.InternationalANSWER.org.
Union Labor Donated–October 23, 2002
Categories: Uncategorized
http://www.c-span.org/international/
Watch – Rally Against War in Iraq Saturday, October 26, 2002 – Washington, DC
Labor speakers include:
**Gene Bruskin, Secy-Treasurer, Food and Allied Service Trades (AFL-CIO)
**Clarence Thomas, Secy-Treasurer, ILWU Local 10
**Michael Letwin, Pres., Co-Convener, NYC Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)
Categories: Uncategorized
http://www.nobloodforoil.org/DCRally.htm
Labor at October 26 DC Antiwar Rally
Clarence Thomas, ILWU Secretary-Treasurer, Local 10 of the Longshoreman’s union in San Francisco provided a further perspective. “You are the true fighters for social justice and peace,” he said, noting in addition that his union was one of the first to come out in opposition against war with Iraq. “Let the Iraqis make regime change, not Bush,” he continued. He reminded us that his union’s refusal to unload cargo from South Africa had been an initial provocation that led to the end of Apartheid there. Additional support had been offered in 1999 when his union shut down in support of the WTO and also supported the freeing of the political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. He referred further to Bush’s threat to use the military to unload cargo if the current alleged slowdown in cargo unloading persists. “Hands off the dock! Stay out of Iraq!” he warned. . . .
Close to two hundred different labor organizations so far have endorsed the protest marches on October 26. Michael Letwin, president of UAW Local 2325 in New York and also Legal Aid Attorneys, representing the organization NYC Labor against War, spoke next. “So many workers died in the illegal, immoral war in Vietnam,” he said. 1200 unionists signed a petition opposed to terror wars in Africa, Iraq, and anywhere else, he continued. “In recent weeks alone, other unions are protesting the war all over the country.” He referred to 400,000 workers who protested in England recently and said that we can make this country work as they did.
Categories: Uncategorized
Regime Change, Begins at Home Drop Bush, Not Bombs
Hundreds of Thousands March Against War In Washington, San Francisco and Cities Around the World
In the largest anti-war demonstration since the Vietnam War era, more than a quarter of a million people took to the streets in Washington, DC and San Francisco. Other demonstrations took place in cities around the world.
Organizers for the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition announced the peoples anti-war referendum: a nationwide grassroots campaign in which people will vote no on war. The results will be announced at national demonstrations on January 18-19, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday celebration weekend http://www.votenowar.org
The largest demonstration took place in Washington D.C., where tens of thousands of people participated in a rally that began adjacent to the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial. While the Washington Post and police put the figure at above 100,000, news anchors on Pacifica radio, which broadcast the event live, put the figure at over 200,000.
The San Francisco march of 100,000 filled the entire 1.7-mile march route from Justin Herman Plaza to Civic Center. The march took three hours and people were still in Justin Herman Plaza as the march reached Civic Center.
The march in Washington D.C. was so large that when marchers at the front of the procession returned to Constitution Avenue on their way back, they had to wait to allow demonstrators at the tail of the march to pass.
Organizers say a demonstration of this magnitude had not happened since 1969, five years after Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin authorizing President Johnson to launch a war on Vietnam. Last week Congress passed a similar resolution giving Bush a blank check to wage war on Iraq.
The more well known speakers included Susan Sarandon, Al Sharpton, Congressmember Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark, and singer Patti Smith, who performed with a guitarist.
Also speaking was Clarence Thomas, Secretary-General of the International Longshore Workers Union Local 10; Mahdi Bray, Muslim American Freedom Foundation; attorneys Leonard Weinglass and Lynne Stewart; Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s; Ahmed Al-Awazza of the Muslim Students Association; Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against the War; Peta Lindsay, youth organizer for A.N.S.W.E.R., and author Leslie Feinberg.
“The huge outpouring on October 26 far exceeded our expectations, when we initiated this demonstration six weeks ago,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. “The massive turnout is a clear indication of the frustration and anger people feel about Congress rubber stamping Bush’s war drive. People are going into the streets again as they have in the past in a classic grassroots organizing strategy that we feel can be decisive in stopping the war.”
Categories: Uncategorized
[The following was included in the packet of materials distributed at the October 19 NYCLAW Organizing Conference, which was attended by more than 100 people; additional conference materials are forthcoming]
Year One of New York City Labor Against the War
October 25, 2002
New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) was begun in first days after September 11 by a small, interracial group of elected local union officers and rank-and-file union members. Its dual purpose has been to serve as an antiwar pole within labor, and as a labor pole within the antiwar movement.
NYCLAW was founded on the premise that, much as Vietnam Veterans Against the War had a particular credibility and obligation in the 1960s and ’70s, trade unionists who have directly witnessed and suffered from September 11 have a special role to play in dissenting from enthusiastic support for Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” voiced by most of U.S. labor officialdom.
On September 27, therefore, NYCLAW issued a written statement arguing that workers in the United States should oppose the war-both abroad and at home.
Unlike either the pacifism or generalized anti-imperialism which characterizes many antiwar statements, NYCLAW is a conscious attempt to outline, without lapsing into left sloganeering, why the war undermines with the collective interest of workers in New York and beyond.
Within days, the statement had been signed by scores of New York metro area trade unionists, including a small, but significant number of elected union officers. All but one of these officers spoke in an individual capacity.
The early exceptions were officers of AFSCME DC 1707, which represents some
25,000 workers at non-profits with city contracts, and which is the only union body in New York City to have officially endorsed NYCLAW.
(Antiwar statements have been subsequently adopted by PSC-CUNY/AFT Local
2334 and by SEIU Local 1199, the largest union in the state of New York.)
In the subsequent year, NYCLAW’s statement has been endorsed by some 1,200 trade unionists and labor bodies, from New York City and across the globe.
NYCLAW participants are, by any standard, few in number, and the organization has been virtually ignored by the mass media.
Yet, by voicing a labor antiwar position from the moral high-ground of “Ground-Zero,” the group has faced surprisingly little hostility from workers or even labor officials.
Just a month after 9/11, for example, the New York City Central Labor Council president told the press that NYCLAW signers were “entitled to express their own views.”
Similarly, in November, the International UAW’s magazine reported that “[d]espite his proximity to the [September 11] attack, [a UAW local president active in NYCLAW] is opposed to a military response or an ethnic response, or to have the disaster turned into a pretext for an assault on civil rights.”
Shortly thereafter, the UAW summarily rejected a demand for removal of this local president for his antiwar activity.
In the subsequent year, NYCLAW and its members have continued to play a modest, but important role, as reflected in:
*Wide circulation of the NYCLAW statement via hard-copy and the internet, including spontaneous translation into Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Turkish, and other languages;
*Listserv of 1,200-subscribers;
*Initiation of proposed antiwar resolutions within AFSCME DC 1707, PSC-CUNY, SEI; Local 1199, and at international conventions of the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME);
*Role in helping to create an informal labor antiwar network of labor antiwar committees in the San Francisco Bay Area, D.C., Albany, Detroit, Toronto and elsewhere;
*Affiliation with the New York Coalition for Peace and Justice, which sponsored a 10,000-strong protest on October 7 in New York City.
*December 12 labor forum on civil liberties and immigrant rights attended by about 100 people;
*Days of NYC Labor Solidarity with Immigrant Detainees in Brooklyn, in March and September 2002, endorsed by some sixteen labor bodies and attended by nearly 400 people.
*May 21 protest against trade union investments in State of Israel bonds.
More broadly, NYCLAW representatives have spoken at numerous antiwar events, including the 100,000-strong London antiwar demonstration on November 18, and at the 25,000-strong February 2 Counter-WEF protest in New York City.
In an effort to unite broad antiwar forces nationally, NYCLAW was one of four host organizations for national antiwar protests in D.C. on April 20, and is an initiating endorser of the upcoming national :Stop the War on Iraq” demonstration on October 26.
On October 19, NYCLAW held its first one-day organizing conference, attended by more than 100 trade unionists from NYC and beyond.
NYCLAW’s modest work from Ground Zero demonstrates the great need and potential for a labor antiwar voice even–and perhaps because of–the trauma of 9/11 and subsequent events. The Bush administration’s impending war on Iraq is likely to generate a much broader level of working class antiwar sentiment.
NYCLAW’s statement and signatories thereto are available on-line at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaborAgainstWar/files/ .
To endorse, write to nyclaw01@excite.com or NYCLAW, PO Box 233, Prince Street Station, New York, NY 10012.
To subscribe to the NYCLAW listserv, send an e-mail to: <LaborAgainstWar?subscribe@yahoogroups.com>,or visit <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LaborAgainstWar/>.
[*Affiliation for identification only and does not imply organizational endorsement.]
Categories: Uncategorized
http://socialistworker.org/2002-2/427/427_15_LaborAgainstWar.shtml
Stop the U.S. war drive at home and abroad
Antiwar unionists meet in NYC
By Thomas Barton, trustee, AFSCME Local 768 | October 25, 2002 | Page 15
NEW YORK–Union members, their allies and supporters gathered here October 19 to plan more union organizing against Bush’s war on Iraq. The New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW) organizing conference drew 110 participants, reflecting growing union opposition to the war threat.
In opening the day, Michael Letwin, co-convenor of NYCLAW and president of the Alliance of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325, pointed to the “sharply increasing” antiwar mood among workers to challenge the “nothing-can-be-done crowd.”
While the conference was primarily aimed at the New York City area, some participants traveled from upstate New York, the Boston area, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. Michael Eisenscher of San Francisco Labor for Peace and Justice read from a recent statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney critical of George W. Bush’s drive to war, pointing out that the shift by Sweeney and other top union officials reflected both a growing antiwar mood in the rank and file and the work of grassroots labor antiwar efforts.
Ray LaForest–NYCLAW co-convenor and a staff representative for District Council (DC) 1707, AFSCME–joined in to remind the conference that “our future depends on us, our willingness to organize ourselves to resist the enemy and stop the war.”
Meeting 15 blocks from Ground Zero at the headquarters of DC 1707, there were emergency medical workers who lost people closest to them when the World Trade Center collapsed, communications workers who put in endless hours after September 11 to repair damaged phone lines, and hospital workers who had treated the injured and comforted survivors.
In the session “Workers Under Attack at Home,” Dennis O’Neil, legislative director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, spoke of postal workers sickened and killed by anthrax while the government ignored them.
Jon Flanders, a railroad worker and president of International Association of Machinists Local 1145, reported on the recent adoption of resolutions condemning an attack on Iraq and support for October 26 and other antiwar rallies by central labor councils in Rochester, Albany and Troy, N.Y.
Half the meeting was set aside for discussions of how to do workplace and union antiwar organizing. Barbara Bowen, president of the City University-based Professional Staff Congress/American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 2334, spoke of a two-month debate anti-war teachers in her local launched that led to the adoption of an antiwar position–and how her union then forced a debate on Iraq at the recent AFT convention.
NYCLAW began work a year ago to challenge the notion that all union members in New York and across the U.S. supported the U.S. war on Afghanistan. “To hear other stories about organizing against the war in unions helps give you a sense that it can be done,” a worker at Verizon, a member of Communication Workers of America, told Socialist Worker.
Kevin Fitzpatrick, a cab driver with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said that he was impressed by the dedication he saw at the conference. “This is a good crowd willing to do work,” he told Socialist Worker. “No hot-air artists.”
LaForest summed up the conference with these words. “This was a success because it brought together organizers from throughout the country and laid the basis for us to move forward.”
Chicago Teamsters pass antiwar motion
By Donny Schraffenberger, steward, Teamsters Local 705
CHICAGO–Teamsters Local 705 overwhelmingly approved two resolutions at their October 20 meeting with more than 200 members in attendance. A resolution against the war was carried by a majority voice vote with one lone vote against.
Numerous speakers for the resolution were Vietnam War veterans. One vet was visibly shaking while he gave his account of the horrors he witnessed. He went on to say that today’s youth think war is like a video game, but it’s more horrible than you can imagine. He and other speakers also told of the personal toll on their lives and family members.
The sentiment in the room was markedly different from the post-September 11 mood. Secretary-Treasurer Jerry Zero also spoke on behalf of the anti-war resolution. Bush’s war drive and his attack on the West Coast dockworkers have led many Teamsters to make the connection between the war on workers at home and the war abroad.
The meeting also passed a resolution unanimously in support of the West Coast dockworkers. The resolution stated that the Bush administration’s imposition of Taft-Hartley on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is an attack on the entire labor movement.
Local 705 pledged to support the ILWU in its struggle against the Pacific Maritime Association and its close ally, the Bush administration–just as the ILWU supported the 1997 Teamsters strike at UPS by snarling the West Coast docks.
An excerpt from Local 705’s antiwar resolution:
Whereas, we value the lives of our sons and daughters, of our brothers and sisters more than Bush’s control of Middle East oil profits,
Whereas, we have no quarrel with the ordinary working class men, women, and children in Iraq who will suffer the most in any war,
Whereas, the billions of dollars being spent to stage and execute this invasion, means billions taken away from our schools, hospitals, housing, and social security…
Be it Resolved that Teamsters Local 705 stands firmly against Bush’s drive for war.
Categories: Uncategorized
http://www.ashp.cuny.edu/nowar/program.htm
Teach-Out on the Prospects of War
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2002 Noon to 9 P.M.
The City University of New York Graduate Center
34th Street and Fifth Avenue, Proshansky Auditorium
PROGRAM IN FORMATION
NOON Welcome – Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center Setting the Context – Beth Baron, Graduate Center
12:30 Blanche Wiesen Cook, Graduate Center
12:45 Playback Theater performance
1:00 Labor Against War Steve Brier, Graduate Center (moderator) Barbara Bowen, Professional Staff Congress Michael Letwin, Legal Aid Attorneys union Bill Henning, Communication Workers of America Local 1180
2:00 Open microphone
2:15 Poems Aoibheann Sweeney, Graduate Center (moderator) Read by Ammiel Alcalay, Donna Masini, Leila Ortiz, and Anne Waldman
2:40 Playback Theater performance
3:00 Destabilizing a Region I Tom Weiss, Graduate Center (moderator) Beth Baron, Graduate Center – Setting the Regional Context Magnus Bernhardsson, Hofstra University – Whither Iraq? Ervand Abrahamian, Graduate Center – What Next for Iran? Aviam (Avi) Bornstein, John Jay College – Different Historical Lenses, Arab and Jewish Views Ghassan Shabaneh, Graduate Center – Impact on the Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process
Leith Mullings, Graduate Center (introduction) Councilman Bill Perkins
4:00 Music: Chris Rael, Church of Betty
4:15 Destabilizing a Region II Talal Asad, Graduate Center (moderator) Zachary Lockman, New York University Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia University David Harvey, Graduate Center Saskia Sassen, London School of Economics
5:30 Civil Liberties Under Attack Michelle Fine, Graduate Center (moderator) Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights Claudia Slovinsky, immigration and nationality lawyer Rachel Coen, FAIR Amit Rai, New School University Eric Foner, Columbia University Richard Sennett, London School of Economics
6:45 New Imperialism Cindi Katz, Graduate Center (moderator) Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia University Robert Jay Lifton – America’s Military Fundamentalism Susan Woodward, Graduate Center Omar Dahbour, Hunter College
7:45 David Harvey, Graduate Center (introduction) C. Clark Kissinger
8:00 Leith Mullings, Graduate Center (introduction) Robin Kelley, New York University
8:15 Going to Iraq (reading) – Karen Malpede
8:30 David Savran, Graduate Center (introduction) Tony Kushner
9:00 Conclusion – Blanche Wiesen Cook, Graduate Center
Screenings of 30-minute documentary Iraq: Sanctions and the Politics of Weapons Inspections, produced by John Miglietta – Room C205 (adjacent to auditorium) – 1:00, 1:45, 2:30, 3:15, 4:00, 4:45, 5:30, 6:15, 7:00.
Categories: Uncategorized
