The New SPACE (The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education) Presents "No! G8 Action" The Japanese Left Organizes for the 2008 Anti-G8 Protest Speakers: Go Hirasawa and Sabu Kohso Wednesday, October 31st at 7:30 PM The Group of Eight (G8) Summit, a forum for eight of the world's richest and most powerful nations, will next meet in July of 2008 in the Lake Toya area of Hokkaido in northern Japan. “No! G8 Action” is a decentralized collective of anti-authoritarian activists based in Japan that aims to disrupt and shutdown the 2008 Summit. Two members of the collective, Go Hirasawa and Sabu Kohso, will report on current organizing for the 2008 protest and discuss the influence of political and generational differences within the Japanese Left on coalition building. Go Hirasawa is a film critic who teaches at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo. He is the author of a number of books on cinema and radical politics and is active in Japan’s anti-fascist movement. Sabu Kohso is a Japanese immigrant residing in New York City. A member of the IWW, he has published two books, in Japan, on radical culture and politics in New York and has translated works of theorists such as David Graeber and Kojin Karatani. $7 -$10, suggested donation This talk will be held at TRS INC. Professional Suite44 East 32nd Street,11th floor (between Park and Madison Avenues)New York, NY 10016. ______________________________________________________ Building Solidarity with Iraq’s Civil Resistance A Report-Back from the Zenko Conference by Bill Weinberg Thursday October 4th at 7:00 PM Award-winning journalist Bill Weinberg will give a report-back from an international conference on building solidarity with the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC) held in Tokyo this past summer. The IFC is a coalition of trade unions, women's organizations, neighborhood assemblies and other civil society groups which have come together to oppose the U.S.-led occupation and demand a secular government in Iraq. The IFC is leading a campaign against the pending law that would privatize Iraq's oil, and has established self-governing zones, which both occupation forces and sectarian militias are barred from accessing, in neighborhoods in Baghdad and Kirkuk. Recently, their leaders have been targeted for attack by U.S. forces. The Japanese anti-war group Zenko last year raised $400,000 for the IFC to start its own satellite television station, Sana TV, which began broadcasting in April. Can anti-war forces in the U.S. similarly organize effective political and material support for Iraq's civil resistance? Bill Weinberg is, author of _Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico_ (Verso 2000), and editor of the on-line World War 4 Report (http://ww4report.com). He also co-hosts the weekly Moorish Orthodox Radio Crusade (http://www.morc.info), an anarchist variety show, Tuesdays at midnight on WBAI, 99.5 FM in New York City. Sponsored by The National Organization for the Iraqi FreedomStruggles (www.no-ifs.org). The National Organization for the Iraqi Freedom Struggles (NO-IFS) is a coalition of individuals who have come together to oppose the U.S. war against Iraq by supporting the secular, democratic, and progressive movements in Iraq that are struggling for freedom against the occupation and against the Ba'athists and the political Islamists, who aim to impose a theocratic state on the Iraqi people. NO-IFS supports Iraq’s civil resistance, which champions the rights of women, workers, national minorities, and GLBT people and fights for a non-sectarian and multi-ethnic society. NO-IFS advocates that the antiwar movement as a whole adopt this approach to ending the war and occupation – active support for Iraq’s secular and democratic freedom struggles against both the U.S. occupation and terrorist reaction. This type of solidarity is a central way to build and sustain our movements here. It is only with a principled commitment to human freedom and to people struggling for freedom – not by explicitly or tacitly supporting a supposedly "lesser evil" – that the antiwar movement will flourish. Suggested Donation: $7 - $10 This talk will be held at TRS INC. Professional Suite44 East 32nd Street, 11th floor (between Park and Madison Avenues) New York, NY 10016. ________________________________________________ Reading Hegel's Preface to the _Phenomenology of Spirit_ Alex Steinberg Tuesdays, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. 7 Sessions: October 30 – December 18 (no class November 20) Tuition: $120 - $150, sliding scale Hegel's Preface to the _Phenomenology of Spirit_ is a brilliant and concise statement of his revolution in philosophy. While it was written after he finished the _Phenomenology_, it stands as an introduction to his entire system of thought and can be read as a separate piece. A close reading of this text can provide insights into some of the most famous, and mostly misunderstood, statements attributed to Hegel. What did Hegel mean when he said "The True is the Whole"? What is the “Dialectic”? What is “Spirit”? What is the “Absolute”? What is “Freedom”? What is “Alienation”? It has been said that one cannot understand much of what has transpired in terms of art, culture, politics or philosophy in the last 200 years without having read Hegel's _Phenomenology of Spirit_. For good reason, many have considered this work to be the culmination of the Western philosophical tradition that began in ancient Greece. In our study of the Preface, we will consider Hegel's relationship to the Enlightenment, Romanticism, the French Revolution, and to his student, Karl Marx. Our text will be A.V. Miller's translation of the _Phenomenology of Spirit_ (widely available in paperback). There is a new translation by Yirmiyahu Yovel of the Preface with a good commentary, _Hegel's Preface to the "Phenomenology of Spirit"_ (Princeton University Press, 2005), which students may wish to consult. Alex Steinberg has taught courses on Hegel’s _Phenomenology of Spirit_ and _Encyclopedia Logic_ at the New SPACE. He is facilitator of a philosophy and literature discussion group in Brooklyn and author of several essays, including "From Alienation to Revolution: A Defense of Marx's Theory of Alienation." Steinberg is also a member of the WBAI Local Station Board. Pre-registration is strongly advised. Please call or visit our website for more information. This class will meet at TRS INC. Professional Suite44 East 32nd Street, 11th floor (between Park and Madison Avenues) New York, NY 10016. ______________________________________________________ New SPACE teachers, speakers, and organizers include:Stanley Aronowitz, Erika Biddle, Roz Bologh, Jack Z. Bratich, Stephen Eric Bronner, Crystal DeBoise, Andrea Fishman, Jeannette Gabriel, Loren Goldner, David Graeber, Andrej Grubacic, Robin Hahnel, Charles Herr, Joshua Howard, Anne Jaclard, Andrew Kliman, Louis Kontos, Joel Kovel, Eric Laursen, Houzan Mahmoud, Len Mell, Alan W. Moore, Bertell Ollman, Howard Seligman, Stevphen Shukaitis, Marina Sitrin, Tom Smith, Alex Steinberg, Bill Weinberg, Seth G. Weiss______________________________________________________The New SPACE (The New School for Pluralistic Anti-Capitalist Education) http://new-space.mahost.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 1 (800) 377-6183 _________________________________________________________________ Can you find the hidden words? Take a break and play Seekadoo! http://club.live.com/seekadoo.aspx?icid=seek_wlmailtextlink
