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The
U.S. Left, After Introductory Remarks: Angela Davis & Christopher Connery PANELISTS: SEPTEMBER 11 was a shock to the U.S. left: patriotism broke out in surprising places, and the government and mainstream media crackdown on critique reached even to a voice as sensible and harmless as Susan Sontag’s. There were several highly placed defections from the left, as the U.S. government took full advantage of its new status as victim. Before the full extent of the administration’s aims in the Middle East became clear, there was even fairly wide support among some sectors of the left for the Afghanistan action. For awhile, it seemed that September 11 really had changed everything, even though, as many have argued, the underlying character of post-1989 U.S. global designs has remained consistent. The resistance to the war in Iraq, to the domestic repressions attendant to the "war on terrorism," and to the Bush administration’s program in general, has given the left a new sense of unity and purpose. The outlook for broad-based resistance since the war’s outbreak has returned some of the sense of possibility that dawned after Genoa, Seattle, and the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, which were not, after all, so long ago. Much of that earlier agenda remains pressing: anti-racism, and the struggles against global powers accountable to no one, have not dimmed in urgency, and it is important to resist the rhetoric casting September 11 as the dawn of a fundamentally new situation. The Center for Cultural Studies and the Ad Hoc Committee on Current Events, following on two years of post-September 11 teach-ins and colloquia, plan a public discussion of the contemporary left and its prospects, encompassing the analytical, the positional, and questions of history and strategy. What has changed since September 11? What has been occluded? What positions, concerns, and strategies are most adequate to the current period? Our panel is composed of left scholars, activists, and journalists with a range of commitments and expertise. We expect a lively exchange of views that will help us navigate through what promises to be a difficult period. Conference Organizers: Angela Davis, History of Consciousness and Christopher Connery, Literature, UC Santa Cruz
This event was originally scheduled for the Spring 2003, and unfortunately had to be postponed. |
NOTES ON PARTICIPANTS
LAURA FLANDERS
is a radio and print journalist whose broadcasts are heard on Working
Assets Radio, and whose writing appears in a wide range of venues.
Real Majority, Media Minority: The Costs of Sidelining Women in Reporting,
a collection of her essays and interviews, was published by Common Courage
Press in 1997. Bushwomen: MAKANI THEMBA-NIXON, an internationally recognized organizer and trainer, is currently executive director of The Praxis Project, a health justice advocacy organization. She was a participant in the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001. Her books include the co-edited Media Advocacy and Public health: Power for Prevention (Sage, 1993) and Making Politcy, Making Change (Chardon, 1999). ERIC TANG
is Associate Director of CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities in New
York City. CAAAV's mission is to build the collective power of Asian
immigrant communities, particularly those that are impacted by the many
forms of violence under globalization. He also serves on the National
Steering Committee of Racial Justice 9-11, a national coalition of racial
justice groups against the war. STEPHEN ZUNES is an Associate Professor of Politics and Chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco. He has published widely on Middle Eastern politics, U.S. foreign policy, social movements, and human rights. In 2002, he was recognized as Peace Scholar of the Year by the Peace and Justice Studies Association. |
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