[URPE] [NYC] [Brechtevents1] Anti-War/Alter-Globalization, Films on Argentina, Jewish Critics of Israel and More!

[Ruth Indeck]

  P L E A S E     F O R W A R D    W I D E L Y

The Brecht Forum
451 West St.  (Betw Bank & Bethune)
New York, NY 10014
(212) 242- 4201
www.brechtforum.org

1,2,3 A,C,E to 14th st.
14A and 14D buses to Abingdon Square/12th Street
L to 8th Ave @14th st.  
F,V to 14th St. B,D,Q to W. 4th _________________________________________________________________________
PLEASE NOTE: NOV 3 BOOK PARTY 'BLACK GIRLS LEARN LOVE HARD' WITH RAS BARAKA HAS BEEN POSTPONED. STAY POSTED FOR RESCHEDULING OF EVENT.

ALSO:
A one hour edit of last friday's (10/28) Cooper Union event celebrating our 30th 
anniversary with Tariq Ali, David Harvey, Corlita Mahr, and Bhairavi Desai
will be cablecast on Truth For A Change this coming Thursday, November 3rd, 
at 9:30 AM on MNN Channel 34 (TimeWarner) and Channel 110 (RCN) and 
simultaneously streaming over the internet at http://www.mnn.org and then 
selecting channel 34. 

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Wednesday, November 2
7:30pm
Wednesdays Against War Series
 
The Anti-war & Alter-globalization Movements: Contradictions and 
Convergences
 
Invited Panelists Include: Ayca Cubukcu, Deepa Fernandes, Francesca 
Fiorentini, David Graeber, Judith LeBlanc, Brooke Lehman, Bruce Robbins
 
In the days and months following September 11, 2001, the anti-war 
movement's emergence in the United States was significantly facilitated 
by the organizational and political infrastructures of an already 
existing alter-globalization movement that had made a dramatic 
appearance during the WTO meeting in Seattle, 1999. By the fall of 2005, 
have these two movements strengthened each other or not? To what extent 
is the anti-war movement informed by a critique of neo-liberal 
capitalism? In what ways is the alter-globalization movement equipped to 
critique global institutions of governance and international law such as 
the United Nations? What critical praxis can be forged between these two 
movements?
 
Sliding Scale $6/$10/$15
_________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 3
5-Session Seminar Begins
5:30-7:30 p.m.

International Law & Universal Rights: Critiques & New Imaginaries

Ayca Cubukcu

In the months following September 11, 2001, many anti-war activists and 
scholars alike have proposed that an alternative to the US-led wars 
could be the mobilization of international institutions of  law. But are 
international law and war really mutually exclusive, given, for example, 
the often-cited legality of the intervention in Yugoslavia and the First 
Gulf War as sanctioned by United Nations? When legal wars are waged on 
the grounds of "exceptionality," and increasingly conducted in the name 
of protecting universal rights, this seminar will explore the intimate 
relationship between law and violence and  the discourse of universal 
rights as a basis for, simultaneously, a global law and a global war.

Ayça Çubukçu, inspired by the labor of the World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), 
and drawing on her involvement with the WTI in New York and Istanbul, is 
writing a dissertation in the Department of Anthropology, Columbia 
University on war, empire and the possibilities of resistance.

Tuition $55-$75
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Friday, November 4
 7:30 pm
BOOK PARTY/FORUM 

Radicals, Rabbis and Peacemakers: Conversations With Jewish Critics Of 
Israel

Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Seth Farber, Joel Kovel, Steve Quester & Others 
TBA. Moderated by Michael Smith

 Contributors to this new book are among the leading American Jewish 
critics of Zionism and of Israel's policies towards the Palestinians: 
Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, Marc Ellis, Adam Shapiro, Phyllis 
Bennis, Rabbi Weiss of Neturei Karts and others. It is edited and 
includes a commentary by Dr Seth Farber, a psychologist and member of 
Jews Against the Occupation. In 2002 in the wake of the Israeli massacre 
in Jenin, Farber decided to make public his opposition as a Jew to 
Israel's occupation, and the subjugation of Palestinians to its reign of 
state-terrorism. At the time Farber realized that the only introduction 
for non-specialists to a Jewish critique of Israeli policies was Michael 
Lerner's Healing Israel/Palestine. Farber felt Lerner's Zionism led to 
serious flaws in his analysis. Thus Farber began puitting together the 
current book which serves as an introduction to the non-Zionist and 
anti-Zionist critique of Israel that had been elaborated over the last 
15 years (and longer) by leading American Jewish scholars, theologians 
and activists. Farber's own commentary argues that Zionism is a betrayal 
of the ideals of prophetic Judaism.

 Rev Daniel Berrigan will be in attendance and will answer questions 
people may have on his views on Israel/ Palestine.

 Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
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Saturday, November 5
7:30 pm
ANTI-WAR WEDNESDAY ON SATURDAY 

"Bring the Troops Home, Abolish the Army!"

Invited Panelists Include: Diana Dolev, Basak Ertur, Mary Nolan, Naomi 
Schiller, speakers from Critical Resistance, Iraq Veterans Against the 
War, and Military Familes Speak Out

 This roundtable discussion is an attempt to locate the U.S. anti-war 
movement within a global context of anti-militarist strategies. How do 
we resist the militarization of U.S. public life, including much of the 
discourse amongst the anti-war movement? How do we articulate 
anti-militarist positions within a mainstream left that is contaminated 
by imperial delusions? What are the implications and limitations of 
building an anti-war mobilization around military families? What are the 
difficulties that the anti-military recruitment activists face and how 
do we help strengthen their efforts?

 Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
_____________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, November 6
8:30 pm
Neues Kabarett 

Steve Dalachinsky & Matt Shipp + Barry Wallenstein & Daniel Carter

Words and music by two of New York City's finest poets, two of its best 
musicians!

Admission: $10
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Monday, November 7
6:00 - 7:00 pm

"Power-to-the-People" Yoga

Maritza Arrastia

 Yoga practices for body, breath and mind can help activists develop 
minds and bodies able to sustain a life-long commitment to revolutionary 
struggle. Workers can benefit greatly from yoga to fight stress, sustain 
energy, and combat alienation. Vinyasas, a flowing series of yoga poses, 
were developed by workers who needed a quick and powerful yoga practice 
for their work breaks. Many poses can be done on an office chair. 
Because yoga practice relies on going to the edge of each person's 
effort for that day, that moment, it is a flexible practice adaptable to 
any physical condition and age. Learn yoga practices and explore how to 
adapt them to your needs and integrate them into your daily life. Please 
wear loose comfortable clothes, bring a towel or yoga mat, and wait to 
eat until after class.

Maritza Arrastia is a certified Integral Yoga Teacher.

Single sessions: $10
4-Session Card: $35
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Wednesday, November 9
7:30 pm
ANTI-WAR WEDNESDAYS 

Bringing Guantanamo Home: The "Guantanamobile Project" & Strategies for 
Resistance to Torture

Speakers TBA

  This panel, which will center on a discussion and film screening 
related to "The Guantanamobile Project," will feature activists, 
scholars, and legal experts involved in raising awareness about, and 
resisting, policies of detention and torture that are best embodied by 
Guantanamo. "The Guantanamobile Project" (see http://guantanamobile.org) 
is a multi-media activist project designed to raise awareness about the 
continuing detentions of prisoners from the 'war on terror' at 
Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba. One component of the project is a 
documentary film, which combines interviews with many of those involved 
in the Supreme Court Case with interviews with ordinary Americans about 
their understanding of the situation in Guantanamo. Project members have 
been touring the U.S. with footage from the documentary-in-progress and 
using it as the basis for a discussion of both the Guantanamo detentions 
and of various strategies for media activism. They have also staged 
guerilla projection events, screening their film out of the back of a 
van. In each city, they were met by "ground crews" they had networked 
over the course of the spring and summer through a website that features 
information about the project along with a Guantanamo news blog. This 
event will provide a forum for discussing new strategies for activism 
and resistance against detentions and torture.

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
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Thursday, November 10
FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION 

Worker Self-Management: 2 Films on the New Labor Strategies in Argentina

Discussion with filmmaker Mare Trigona

Grupo Alavío,will talk about the history and current state of the 
Argentine working class struggle to reclaim factories and create and 
maintain worker self-management. Grupo Alavío's will also share their 
experiences in supporting the struggle through the use of video 
materials. Two of Grupo Alavío's documentaries will be shown. All films 
are in Spanish with English subtitles, and the talk will be bi-lingual.

The Films:

La Foresta Belongs to the Workers, 45min, 2005
The film tells the story of a group of workers who are fighting to 
recuperate La Foresta meatpacking plant in La Matanza, on the outskirts 
of Buenos Aires city. Most of the factory's employees have worked their 
for decades, through the good times and bad times. In 1999, the plant 
went bust, a series of businessmen rented the facilities, making quick 
profits and then abandoning the factory for greener pastures. In January 
2005, the last such renter, MEYPACAR, told the remaining 186 workers 
that the plant would be closing temporally for renovations. MEYPACAR 
never reopened the plant. Grupo Alavío's film follows the 70 workers 
who've put up a legal fight to keep their factory and start up 
production without a boss or owner, under worker-self management.

ZANON (building resistance)  18min, 2003.
In 2001 Zanon's owner fires the workers at Latin America's largest 
ceramics plant in the Southern Province of Neuquén. After resisting 
outside the plant, the group of workers decide collectively to 
recuperate and put the plant to produce. In the film, Zanon ceramists 
narrate their day-to-day work, struggles and hopes to continue 
production under worker control.

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
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Friday, November 11
7:30 pm

Novel Directions of the Chavista Movement in Venezuela

Steve Ellner

 Until 2004, the Chavista Movement was mostly defined on the basis of 
what it was not: Anti-neoliberal, anti-privatization, opposed to 'the 
old way of doing politics.' Over the last two years a new model has 
begun to emerge that includes innovative programs such as the 'Barrio 
Adentro' Mission of doctors who live and work in slum areas, televised 
meetings of authorization of credits to cooperatives, expropriation of 
factories shut down by management, and the effort to define what Chavez 
calls "twenty-first century socialism."

 Steve Ellner has lived in Venezuela for thirty years and has taught at 
the Universidad de Oriente since 1977. He is author of numerous articles 
and books on the Venezuelan left, organized labor and political parties, 
including Venezuelan Politics in the Chavez Era: Class, Polarization and 
Conflict (co-edited with Daniel Hellinger in 2003) and Venezuelan 
Exceptionalism Revisited (co-edited with Miguel Tinker Salas and 
published in two issues of Latin American Perspectives in 2005). He has 
contributed regularly to In These Times, NACLA: Report on the Americas, 
and Commonweal.

Suggested donation: $6/$10/$15
_________________________________________________________________
Saturday, November 12
9:00 am - 8:00 pm
2-DAY WORKSHOP BEGINS 

Forum Theater: An Introduction to Theater of the Oppressed

Facilitated by: Carmelina Cartei & Kelly di Bertolli

 Saturday, November 12, 9:00 am - 8:00 pm (includes group meal from 6:00 
to 8:00)
Sunday, November 13, 9:00 am - 6:00 pm

This introductory workshop is framed as a practical application of 
Education for Liberation, specifically, the Paulo Freire methodology. An 
innovative approach to public forums, Forum Theater analyzes situations 
of conflict involving oppression, in which the action to be taken is not 
immediately clear. Themes to be developed are suggested by participants 
and chosen by vote. Workshop participants (the actors) are asked to tell 
personal stories of unresolved conflicts, taken from daily life, 
stemming from political or social problems of difficult solution. Skits 
depicting those conflicts are improvised and presented. Each story 
represents the perspective of an oppressed protagonist actively engaged 
in implementing a strategy for resolving a conflict; the original 
strategy fails, however, due to at least one social or political error. 
When the skit is over, the audience discusses the proposed strategy, and 
then the scene is performed once more. But now, audience members are 
urged to intervene by stopping the action, coming on stage to replace 
actors, and enacting their own strategies for resolving the conflict. 
Thus, instead of remaining passive, the audience becomes a group of 
active "spect-actors" involved in creating alternative solutions and 
thus controlling the dramatic action. The aim of the forum is not to 
find an ideal solution, but to invent new ways of confronting 
oppression. Forum Theater is useful both as a means of preparing for 
immediate action, and as a discussion process that begins in workshop 
and continues as performance to include new people. It is particularly 
useful in the specific context of a conflict resolution process 
involving an on-going community group to the extent that it gives the 
members of the group the opportunity to run the event themselves.

What Is Specific to Forum Theater?
In Forum Theater, role-playing serves as a vehicle for analyzing power 
and stimulating public debate. Participants explore the complexity of 
the individual/group relation at a variety of levels of human exchange. 
They are invited to map out: a) the dynamics of power within and between 
groups; b) the experience and the fear of powerlessness within the 
individual; and c) rigid patterns of perception that generate 
miscommunication and conflict, as well as ways of transforming them.
Registration begins at 9:00 am on Saturday.

Sliding scale: $100-$175




 
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