2014 Workshops

Book Fair Workshop Locations:

Judson Memorial Church
Assembly Hall
Garden Room
Balcony

Carmine Street Comics/Unoppresive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books
(Only for WW3 Illustrated Presentation @ 5PM)

Keynote (7PM – 9PM): Ashanti Alston in Main Space
Video of Keynote

Saturday, May 17, 2014

ASSEMBLY HALL

11AM – 12PM: Women’s Self-Defense Class (trans*-inclusive)

Laurel

This class will focus on avoiding or escaping violence (not ass-kicking). We’ll practice several physical techniques and engage in facilitated discussion about how to keep ourselves safe. The class is open to women and trans folks, no cis-men please.

Gendered violence is an ongoing problem inside and outside the radical community. Working with our friends and communities to unlearn abusive behavior is of utmost importance. However, I believe in a diversity of tactics when combating such a historical and insidious problem. Since we can’t wait for everyone to fully understand equality and non-oppressive behavior, it’s worth learning some self-defense!

12PM – 1PM: Native American Issues: Leonard Peltier, and Prisoner and Environmental Issues, and Native American Religious Practices

Lenny Foster, Ki’yaa’aanii (Towering House) born for Dziltl’ahnii (Mountain Cove). Maternal grandfather is Ta’baaha (Water’s Edge) and paternal grandfather is Hona’ghaa’hni (One who walks around).

Update on the situation of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier and his campaign for Executive Clemency . Also environmental issues, tribal government issues, prison system, and Native American religious practices.

1PM – 2PM: Resisting Federal Surveillance & State Repression: The Case of Leslie James Pickering, the Earth Liberation Front Press Office & Burning Books

Leslie J. Pickering and Michael Kuzma

A decade after being under heavy federal surveillance for exercising free speech in support of the underground Earth Liberation Front, Leslie James Pickering discovered that his associates are being questioned by the FBI, the US Post Office is copying his incoming mail, he was put on a secret list for maximum security screening at airports and a federal grand jury subpoena was issued for records on him, his family and his bookstore, Burning Books. Leslie has launched an extensive legal and public campaign to resist this surveillance, which he believes is aimed to repress Burning Books and the surge of activism and awareness that the bookstore generates. This multimedia presentation will open eyes to methods used by the federal government to repress activists and freedom struggles, and how they can be resisted.

2PM – 3PM: Panagacos v Towery: The Case of Port Militarization Resistance, US Army Surveillance of Activists and Anarchists, and the National Security State

Brendan M. Dunn, Heidi Boghosian, and Madeleine Brumley

Panagacos v Towery is a landmark civil liberties case currently in the US District Court in Tacoma, WA. It is a lawsuit that antiwar activists filed against the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and countless law enforcement agencies in 2010. It was filed after it was discovered that a fellow activist who went by the name “John Jacob” was actually Army intelligence agent John J Towery who worked with a Fusion Center at nearby Fort Lewis (JBLM). Towery spied on and infiltrated the antiwar group Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) which blocked military shipments en route to Iraq and Afghanistan and successfully shut down the Port of Olympia in 2007 and kicked the military out.

It was discovered that PMR was infiltrated by the Army and numerous activist groups and anarchists were targeted in this spying after local activists filed a public records request with the City of Olympia and obtained hundreds of documents detailing fragments of a surveillance program. Since that time thousands of documents have been released through records requests and discovery. Local law enforcement agencies, federal agencies such as DHS, FBI and ICE, and the military all worked together in Fusion Centers to monitor individuals and groups deemed terrorists and a threat to national security. Activists and anarchists were labeled terrorists and put on watch lists. Organizations such as PMR, Students for a Democratic Society, Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the Industrial Workers of the World as well as the anarchist community center Pitch pipe Infoshop were just a few of the organizations targeted in this surveillance. Military personnel and federal agency officers from as far away as New Jersey and Washington, DC were also spying on Northwest activists. Of particular concern of the military was anarchist activists in Tacoma and Olympia.

As Panagacos v Towery inches closer to its August 2014 trial date, more and more evidence of what appears to be a national surveillance program that heavily involves the Army is surfacing. The US government and Army are on the defensive now. Even Christopher Pyle who helped dismantle the FBI COINTELPRO program targeting Black Panthers, the Civil Rights movement, student activists and the New Left in the 1960s-70s compares PMR activists to Martin Luther King and NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Please join this exciting panel discussion of PMR activists, lawyers, and plaintiffs from the case as they discuss the significance of PMR, surveillance, Fusion Centers, and the rising national security state. In an age of increasing erosion of civil liberties and civil rights, and Army, Wikileaks and NSA whistle blowers, it is important to know what we can do to fight back. That will be a highlight of this event.

3PM – 4PM: Illegalism and Post-Left Anarchism

Paul Simmons

At the beginning of the twentieth century anarchism began to splinter into various tendencies including syndicalism, communism and individualism. This splintering also led to the emergence of various practices associated with each tendency, in the individualist milieu this included the identification of criminal activity as anarchist practice, commonly called illegalism. Paramount among the various illegalist groups was the Paris-based Bonnot Gang who invented both the car-jacking and the motorized bank robbery getaway. The activities of the Bonnot Gang will be viewed through the prism of post-left anarchist theory with a specific emphasis on how their organizational practice can inform current anarchist praxis. Included among the various topics will be the issue of the impermanent coordination of activity versus the building of an organizational structure, how the autonomy of the individual can be secured within the decision making and deployment of resources, and how this can inform both the post-left and insurrectionary anarchist tendencies. The final segment of the presentation will be a dialogue with participants regarding their various experiences in the milieu and theoretical and foundational principles that address individual concerns and preferences in terms of organizing and organizations.

4PM – 5PM: The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Global Resistance to “Free Trade”

Bill Weinberg, Bernadette Ellorin, Adam Weissman, Pete Dolack, and Hsin-Hui Hsu

The session will begin with panelists talking about the threat posed by TPP and other free trade agreements and will address resistance movements in Peru, the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea, as part of the ongoing fight against neoliberal trade policies After we hear from the panelists, we’ll talk about current efforts to fight TPP here in the US and right here in NY. Recalling the critical role anarchists played in the late nineties and early 2000s in the fight against the World Trade Organization and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, we’ll discuss ways that anarchists can contribute to the current fight to stop TPP and its European cousin, TTIP. For further information about the TPP please visit: www.tradejustice.net and/or email at .

5PM – 6PM: Punk Rock, Mental Illness and Recovery

“Crusty” Craig Lewis

As a part of the punk rock and activist communities for the majority of his life (1988 – present) “Crusty” Craig Lewis (CL) has struggled immensely with mental health, addiction and trauma issues. CL’s relationship to these communities has been rocky at best and his experience was tumultuous and devastating during the worst of times. In recent years CL has experienced a recovery journey from his decades long years of dysfunctional living and mental health struggles. In this presentation CL will be telling his life story, sharing the horrors that he experienced at the hands of the Psychiatric system and his family, 25 years of chronic dysfunction and chaos while engaging with the punk scene to the recent past in which CL started to gain control over his life and to the current in which CL has being a peer mental health counselor and generally mentally healthy person. CL’s story is tragic and horrific and also inspirational and beautiful. In this presentation, those present are taken on a journey of madness and the damage that was done to Craig, the process he endured to begin to gain control of his life and the radical human powered transformation that CL has experienced to the amazing life that he is currently living now. In the punk and activist communities, mental health is often a topic rarely discussed. In our communities exists stigma and oppression that we say we are against yet we often actively participate in. These topics must be discussed openly as there are countless amounts of people suffering on the inside who are alone and in pain and there are many people self-medicating to numb their pain and we have lost so many of our friends to suicide, overdose and reckless deaths. CL makes no secret of the fact that he havs not been treated with dignity and compassion by many of his peers in the punk scene and in particular those involved with the anarchist and activist communities in Boston. Yet, these failed relationships ultimately were the catalysts that helped him radically change his life for the better. In this presentation the strongest message conveyed is one of intense and powerful resilience, overcoming abject dysfunction and facing insurmountable odds to be able to break through the obstacles and barriers that were in his way to get to today. Inspiration, Hope and Empowerment are on the menu for anyone who wants or needs to bring it into their lives and for those who are not ready to do this, who are resistant and angry and CL is sure for good reasons, to be able to plant seeds within participants that it is possible to gain control over ones life, even it may feel like an improbable and impossible feat. Please join “Crusty” Craig Lewis in this great discussion/presentation.

6PM – 7PM: Anarchist movements in Latin America

Mariel A., Pablo S., and Court W.

In this panel we will present 1) an overview of the various anarchist currents in Latin American countries; 2) a brief history of the permeation of anarchist theory and practices in the Dominican Republic and the current state of Dominican anarchism, and 3) the development of the anarchist movement in Chile, its challenges, problems and achievements.

*The panel will be conducted in Spanish with simultaneous interpretation in English.

GARDEN ROOM

11AM – 12PM: From Cop Watch to Rent Strike and Beyond: Claiming Space in the Multiethnic New York Neighborhood

Krys M. Ramírez

In a global metropole like New York City, where immigrants from the so-called global south constitute over a third of the city population, painstaking efforts to organize within and across ethnic lines have met with mixed success. In the example of Sunset Park—a largely working-class immigrant neighborhood in southwestern Brooklyn—a long history of tenants’ rights activism and anti-police state mobilizations has long gone hand-in-hand with efforts to reclaim autonomous spaces for immigrants and the working poor outside the purview of the State. In this presentation, long-time residents and community activists will discuss recent organizing efforts in the neighborhood that go beyond prototypical “social justice” models entrenched in collaborations with the non-profit industrial complex, the terrorist police state, the electoral machine, and entrepreneurial models of community “development.” We will discuss our work and experiences with Occupy Sunset Park around the 46th St. Rent Strike, the neighborhood Cop Watch, anti-gentrification resistance, and efforts toward multilingual outreach.

1PM – 2PM: Presentation of the radical side of the post-soviet Belarus

Jury Urso

I would like you to invite to explore the radical side of the presenter’s homeland, post-soviet country Belarus, that borders in south with Ukraine and in east with Russia. I want to present the other, radical side of Belarus, that is not usually represented at all in the West, because of liberal consensus to eradicate all radicalism, or present it as negative. In particularly, I would like to speak about the resurgence of the radical energy in a post-soviet Belarus, emphasizing on some initiatives, that still exist or used to exist in Belarus, besides the Western neoliberal agenda or repressive Belarusian government, looking to ally itself with Russian imperialism. I will speak about the repression against anarchist movement that started in 2010 after series of the direct actions against government property; squat in Minsk, Belarus; Belarusian punk/hardcore scene; recent translation of one book, that was written by anarchist political prisoner, about Belarusian prison system, and some other topics.

Also I will screen some interesting videos about diy/punk scene in Belarus (new film that has been just released) and also video discussing Belarusian ideology.

2PM – 3PM: Victor Serge, Anarchism, and Revolution

Richard Greeman, Mitch Abidor, and Wayne Price

PM press has just published Greeman’s translation (with Intro) of Victor Serge’s novel MEN IN PRISON (foreword by David Gilbert political prisoner). Serge served five years in solitary for refusing to rat on his comrades, the infamous Bonnot gang of anarchist bandits. PM will soon be releasing two more Serge titles: ANARCHISTS NEVER SURRENDER (translated by Mitch Abidor with a preface by Greeman) and BIRTH OF OUR POWER (translated and introduced by Greeman).

4PM – 5PM: Twenty First Environmental Change, Colonialism and Fascism

Skanda Kadirgamar

The topic of my presentation is the development of organized violence by the state and capital against the backdrop of climate change. These maintain the historic divide between the global north and south. Climate change creates opportunities for resource extraction and hegemony based on self serving aid programs devised by the world’s richest economies. The appearance of climate refugees/migrants gives this disenfranchisement a face. Regardless of whether environmental changes force people to move, there definitely is a rising tide of nationalistic, racial and ethnic chauvinism used to justify brutality at borders across of the globe.

The Anarchist Book Fair brings together community members in order to exchange ideas and visions. Across differences of political opinion, anarchists should oppose the World Bank’s belief that water belongs to the owning class. They should see the contradictions inherent in speculating on arable soil in sub-Saharan Africa. Anarchists should see natural enemies in the security forces and mobs awaiting migrants at the borders of the US and Mexico, India and Bangladesh and across the EU. There are a multitude of movements already opposing each these tyrannies. The point of this presentation is to demonstrate how the state will fight marginalized people as it guides capital’s onslaught.

5PM – 6PM: The Anarchist movement in São Paulo and the World Cup

Members Biblioteca Terra Livre and the Comite Popular da Copa via live stream with in-person translation from Adriana Varella

The talk will be about the recent anarchist movements in São Paulo (Brazil) and the recent works about the 2014 Fifa World Cup. The idea is to present the history of the last 10 years of the anarchist groups in São Paulo and talk a little bit of the Comite Popular da Copa (Popular Committee of the World Cup and Olympics) an autonomous organization that is developing some activities that denunce the harm of the World Cup. This should be an exciting discussion with our comrades in South America!

6PM – 7PM: Confronting the Rise of Neo-Fascist Movements and Racial Separatism

Robert Jensen and additional panelists TBA

Video of Robert Jensen workshop

In a response to concerns in the Anarchist community regarding the rise of neo-fascist movements we are holding an educational forum to understand why racial separatism is a dangerous, regressive and fascistic idea. We will analyze how European and nationalist and fascist ideologies have co-opted progressive left ideas and anarchist terms to infiltrate contemporary anarchist movements. We will discuss the danger of right wing attempts to co-opt Anarchist concepts like free association, and autonomy and associate them with racially segregationist ideas. We will deconstruct the attempt to manipulate progressive concerns and language & bring fringe ideas such as racial separatism into left, ecological and radical anarchist movements. The discussion will also include a historical context of anti-racist struggle against white supremacy and racial segregation in the U.S. Our goal is to discredit ideas that associate nationalism and racial separatism with Anarchism especially in a climate of increasing racially motivated hate crimes. As anarchists, it is our duty to confront the global problem of rising neo-fascist racist movements especially when they attempt to infiltrate anarchist movements.As anti-racism is an active and not passive tradition, this workshop is an active response to ideas widely considered as unacceptable in modern times. We foremost mean to educate and create a safe community space for dialogue.

The Balcony
(All Day there will be Childcare in this location other than this workshop that can include Children and Kids)

1PM – 3PM: Bookbinding Skillshare

Michelle Harvey

Learning about paper weight and grain. Folding and sewing pages with a french link stitch before making and attaching a hard back cover.
Learning to make books is an empowering skill to know as in doing so you become your own publisher for stories, comics, recipes, art books or zines.

Workshop at Carmine Street Comics/Unoppresive Non-Imperialist Bargain Books

(Less than a 10 minute walk from Judson)

5PM: WW3 lllustrated Presents a Multi Media Presentation By World War 3 Artists

Seth Tobocman, Mac McGill, Sandy Jimenez and Paula Hewitt Amram

This is going to be an awesome presentation!