I am posting this conference announcement for a friend.
Anyone interested in speaking or attending should contact Daraka
Larimore-Hall directly.
_________________________________________
>From Chicago to Chiapas
A Conference to Build A Progressive Student Movement
August 17-20, 1995
The US Left faces some hard questions in the coming months. With
the Contract with America rapidly losing salience as a political topic,
many of us will lose and important target for our activism. The challenge
for activists across the country will be to go beyond the defensive
posture of "anti-Contract" organizing and begin to forge our movement on
the basis of genuine and meaningful alternatives. Urgent issues like
health care education, employment policy, civil rights, and ecological
sanity demand a common language from students and young people working
toward real social change. And throughout the Democratic Left -- in
unions, community organizations, and households -- activists face that
same challenge. Question around race, gender, class, and sexuality only
begin to map the dramatic changes at work on the face of our nation.
The Democratic Socialists of America Youth Section announces this
call to conference for August 17-21 at the University of Chicago. The DSA
Youth Section is a network of over two hundred campus activists committed
to a democratic politics of equality, pluralism, and freedom. Our
socialism links us to a broad tradition of movements for solidarity and
emancipation, while also emphasizing our commitment to the interdependence
of contemporary struggles for global justice. We are in harmony with the
current openness to debate and re- thinking within the Left, and we look
forward to the upcoming possibilities for cooperation, coalition, and
collective action among progressive students and youth. With the current
wave of progressive student and youth activists searching for strategies
to embody our hopes, the DSA Youth Section extends this invitation for
dialogue and coalition. We look forward to building upon the spectacular
possibilities for a renewed movement towards justice, equality, and
diversity.
DATE: August 17-20
PLACE: University of Chicago
SPEAKERS INCLUDE: Joe Schwartz, Ron Blackwell, Eric Vega, Michael Dyson,
Lauren Berlant, Stanley Aronowitz, David Moberg, David Belkin, Alan
Charney, Paul Loeb, Kay Pranis, Dana Seitler, JoAnn Landy, Adolf Reid, and
many more.
INVITED ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDE: National Organization of Women, Student
Environmental Action Coalition, United States Student Association, Center
for Third World Organizing, The NATION magazine, PRD Youth, University
Conversion Project, NAACP, ACT UP, College Democrats of America,
US/Guatemala Labor Education Project, National Association of Graduate and
Professional Students, DISSENT magazine, Physicians for Social
Responsibility Chicago, LIBIDO magazine, Coalition for New Priorities
Chicago.
The three day conference will include both skills-building and political
discussion. Much time will be devoted to interaction between represented
student organizations, hopefully leading towards eventual coordinated
strategies. We all have a lot to learn from one another, and our strength
is bolstered by our unity.
For more information contact:
Daraka Larimore-Hall
DSA-YS
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 727-8610
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
