I’ll be speaking at the National Conference on Organized Resistance again this year. It’s in Washington, DC, March 7-9. Keep you posted as it gets closer and I find out more details. There’s talk of doing something similar to the recent event in DC with Ashanti Alston, where we talked about how this “Green Scare” relates to other social movements. Anyone already planning on going?
UPDATE:
Here’s info on the two workshops:
Building Solidarity Between Communities Facing State Repression
Saturday, Ward 1, 11:10 – 12:40
Description: Throughout American history, liberation movements were the result of people tired of being marginalized and treated unjustly. The state has always reacted to liberation movements with severe repression. In the face of such tyranny, it is important to build solidarity between communities facing state repression and work together to prevent further government intervention in our movements. Panelists will discuss the repression of Xicano and immigrant communities, victims of islamophobia in the “War on Terror,” the black liberation movement, and the repression facing the radical environmental movement, to synthesize common cause against violent state repression.This panel is a two-part workshop that will be two sessions in length.
Suha Dabbouseh is a Palestinian American social justice activist for the last 10 years in human rights, including six with AIUSA’s Southern Region as a Field Organizer and Acting Deputy Director for two regional field offices. Suha served at the lead organizer in developing events and campaigns on human rights issues such as racial/ethnic profiling, violence against women, police brutality and “war on terror”, and is currently the National Organizer for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
Ashanti Alston Omowali is an anarchist activist, speaker, and writer, and former member of the Black Panther Party, the Black Liberation Army, and spent more than a decade in prison after government forces captured him and the official court system convicted him of armed robbery. Alston is the former northeast coordinator for Critical Resistance, a current co-chair of the National Jericho Movement (to free U.S. political prisoners), a member of pro-Zapatista people-of-color U.S.-based Estación Libre, and is on the board of the Institute for Anarchist Studies.
Will Potter is an award-winning independent journalist based in Washington, D.C. He has written for publications including The Chicago Tribune and Legal Affairs, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. He frequently speaks in public forums on “eco-terrorism,†such as the New York City Bar Association and Yale Law School. He is the creator of GreenIsTheNewRed.com, where he blogs about the Green Scare and history repeating itself.
And here’s the other:
How Corporations Constructed the Eco-Terrorist Menace
Sunday, Ward 101, 3:40 – 5:10
Description: Corporations and the politicians that represent them have been advancing a coordinated campaign to label animal rights and environmental activists as “eco-terrorists.” They’ve taken a few pages from the Red Scare playbook and a few from the “with us or against us” playbook of the War on Terror. The New McCarthyists are building a “Green Scare” upon a foundation of fear. This multimedia presentation will examine the roots of this government crackdown, and the mentality behind it. We’ll talk about “Operation Backfire,” the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and the SHAC 7, and what the T-word means for activists of all social movements.Will Potter is an award-winning independent journalist based in Washington, D.C. He has written for publications including The Chicago Tribune and Legal Affairs, and has testified before the U.S. Congress on the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. He frequently speaks in public forums on “eco-terrorism,†such as the New York City Bar Association and Yale Law School. He is the creator of GreenIsTheNewRed.com, where he blogs about the Green Scare and history repeating itself.