3rd Annual Finding Our Roots
CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS
April 24-26 2009, Chicago
At Roosevelt University
The theme of this year’s conference is SPACE.
Why and how is space important to anarchists, and so often central to our struggles? What do we mean when we talk about “anarchist space”? What different spaces have anarchists created and struggled to keep and maintain; how have these spaces functioned and thrived, or failed to do so? What kinds of anarchist spaces exist currently, and how are they serving anarchist community as well as contributing to larger struggles for liberation and against capitalism? Examples could include infoshops, multiuse spaces, housing collectives, squats, farms, gardens, parks, free schools, workers’ collectives, or any other space dedicated to radical purpose and used by anarchists as a focal point or staging ground of struggle.
How are anarchists involved in struggles around space, both within and beyond our community? What kinds of spaces exist (or attempt to) within larger radical spaces: Why, for instance, are queer space, women’s space, or space by and for people of color important; how do these and other marginalized/oppressed groups use space as part of their struggles and organizing?
How does space operate within the social landscape and the machinations of capitalism? How can anarchists support and join poor and disenfranchised peoples’ struggles around space, such as fights against gentrification and displacement?
Potential workshop topics include but are not limited to: Gentrification and anti-gentrification struggles, squatting, community, Europe’s autonomous radical communities and their role in popular uprisings (ie, the recent events in Greece), self-sustainability in urban or rural environments, decolonization and resisting the police state, the relationship of anarchists to anti-imperialist/nationalist struggles for autonomy, Queer space, safe space, space as a human right, the use of autonomous spaces by oppressed groups, “spiritual space” – anarchism and non-hierarchical spirituality, the history and practice of anarchist spaces, problems of unity vs. fragmentation within anarchist space, collective living, workers’ collectives and non-hierarchical workplaces, reclaiming the commons, democratizing/infiltrating media space, the “infoshop movement,” reclaiming corporate and governmental spaces, “anarchist space” and its intersection with other spaces of resistance.
Proposals should be NO MORE THAN ONE PAGE in length and should include:
Proposal deadline: March 15
Submit proposals to: findingourroots (at) riseup (dot) net
1. Workshop title
2. Your name and contact info (and those of workshop presenter(s) if this isn’t you – though please make sure you have confirmed with all presenters BEFORE you volunteer them)
3. Detailed workshop description, including an explanation of how your workshop fits into the conference theme
4. Questions to be posed/answered in the workshop
5. Main workshop goals
6. Workshop format (Will it be an open discussion? Panel/roundtable? Lecture followed by Q&A?)
7. BRIEF reading list [optional]
8. Any special materials or equipment (ex: audiovisual) you will need
Workshops are one hour and fifteen minutes (75 minutes) long. If you feel you need more time for your workshop, please explain why, and we will consider allotting a longer slot.
Proposal for workshop on “Prison as a Liberated Space: Anarchism and The Revolutionary Prison Movement of the 1970’s”. This workshop will recount the rise of the radical prisoners movement of the 1970’s, (including my own role as an Anarchist political prisoner for 15 years and becoming the first North American prisoner “adopted” by the Anarchist Black Cross based in the UK}, and working to build the Anarchist Black Cross as an international movement in the 1970’s and beyond. A large part of the discussion talks about how the prison movement subverted the prison regime, took over the prisons as autonomous spaces for a brief period, and politically educated thousands of prisoners, spurring further resistance.
The workshop gives living history of U.S. government repression of the outside social movements of this period resulting in massive imprisonment of political prisoners in America’s prisons and the radicalization of large segments of the prison population.
A thorough first-hand recitation by an actual veteran and “leader” of this movement at that historical moment can explain how any activist can become a victim of state terrorism, but that there are ways to survive and come out alive, stronger and more committed. If we look at todays massive prison population of millions, then we know we cannot wait to build a mass movement of resistance inside the prisons and on the streets, or risk being smashed by the state.
45 minutes presentation, 30 minutes discussion.
*I only need a microphone, space, and conference participants to put on this presentation. For information: (615) 327-3143 email: street_consultants@yahoo.com
This is a followup to my workshop proposal. “Prison As A Liberated Space” is an unorthodox item for a conference looking at autonomous movements, yet has to be a part of it. First, because there are more people in prison today in the USA alone than in the entire Anarchis movement worldwide, and then because it is the primary instrument to ensure class rule and oppression. Even with so many new social tendencoies with contemporary Anarchism, it must be made a primary issue.
We cannot ignore the role of prison as a repressive tool of the state and structural racism, and more important, cannot ignore the history of prison struggles against it, including by Anarchist anti-prison movements like the Anarchist Black Cross. Further, collectively, the Anarchist Black Cross is one of the oldest and largest tendencies of the Anarchist scene, even in this period.
The workshop will be a lecture w/ Q & A.
Questions:
1. How did the prisoner support movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s develop?
2. How can be build a mass, decentralized movement of millions against prison-industrial complex? {A general discussion of the ABC and other Anarchist anti-prison groups).
3. Why should Anarchists build an anti-prison movement like the Anarchist Black Cross?
4. If you are labeled a “terrorist” or made a political prisoner by the government, how do you survive and fight back?
5. How do we help those inside or in danger of government repression?
6. How do we make prisoner support work an intrinsic part of all social tendencies within Anarchism?
7. How do we convince so many today who favor operating prisons for “protection of society” to instead favor the abolition of prisons and an Anarchist society?
8. How can prisoners organize themsselves for power and to defect government repression?