---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 14:18:26 -0700
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: FROM PORT HURON TO KENT STATE
FROM PORT HURON* TO KENT STATE
*Port Huron was the meeting place at which a statement of vision and
program was created in 1962 by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
Dear Friends,
Like you, we work at the things we do because we believe a better world is
possible. Moved by the urgencies of the global situation some of us have
come together in exploratory gatherings, held in Ohio, Michigan and
Pennsylvania, during which we shared experiences as members of a
multiplicity of movements. We are anti-globalization activists,
rank-and-file union members, students, anti-death penalty activists, peace
movement activists, members of past and present movements for social and
economic justice and civil rights, labor movement organizers and officials,
and many others. We are people of different ages and backgrounds who come
from varied Rust Belt locations, such as Toledo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati,
Detroit, Ann Arbor, East Lansing, Chicago, Youngstown and Philadelphia. We
share common traditions of participatory democracy and self-activity.
Encouraged by what we have learned about each other, and by the sense of
community we have created, we are determined to broaden the scope of our
solidarity with others who work to make the planet a better place. WE ARE
NOT CREATING A NEW ORGANIZATION.
A HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT
We invite you to participate in a movement-building conference at Kent
State University, May 31-June 2, 2002. We envision a movement in which we
organize and support one another by reaching out to each other horizontally,
rather than indirectly through representatives and policy-makers of
centralized bodies or hierarchies. As members of diverse movements, our
beliefs regarding methods for achieving change may often differ, but surely,
because we share core values, ideals, and hopes for a better world, we can
find ways to address issues that are important to us all. We share a
collective interest in the welfare of future generations and the welfare of
the planet that can transcend and transform our differences. Like you, we
seek a politics that touches the heart and turns the heart. We believe in
accompanying one another, in resisting the tendency to make our ideals into
dogmas, as we struggle to change the world.
Help us move toward a convergence of our separated movements and struggles,
and possibly, toward a new document similar to the Port Huron Statement
created by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) forty years ago. Bring
your needs to the conference: what do you need to learn from others in
other movements that you can take back to enrich your daily work? Bring to
the conference what you can contribute: what are your stories, your
experience, and your knowledge?
CREATING AN AGENDA FROM BELOW
We have all been to innumerable conferences the agendas for which were
fixed far in advance. Speakers whom we did not select made 55-minute
presentations followed by five minutes for us to "discuss" what we had
heard.
We wish to attempt something different. As you will gather from the
registration form that follows, the conference at Kent State will begin with
supper on Friday May 31 and end with lunch on Sunday June 2. Friday evening
and Sunday morning will be "plenaries": times when we will all be together.
During the day Saturday we want to have workshops, but as the second form of
the registration form makes clear, workshops that you will help to define.
Saturday evening we'll have a party, when Mike Stout, former grievance
committee chairman at the U.S. Steel Homestead Works and singer/songwriter,
will lead us in singing and celebration. Please bring your posters, button
collections, and art work to decorate the space in which we will gather.
Please bring your instruments and songs you can perform (and may have
composed!).
We envision the conference workshops as times when smaller groups can
clarify particular themes of our common struggle, and form mini-networks of
folks who will want to work together in the future. Here are some of the
questions that we believe are on many of our minds:
How can we resist the war system that surrounds us?
What have we learned in the past forty years about building a movement
made up of persons of different races and genders?
When we say "another world is possible," what do we mean?
How can we begin, now, to create an alternative to capitalism?
How should we be preparing for the meeting of capitalist leaders
in western Canada late in June?
Are demonstrators at big anti-globalization events burning out?
Are the authorities becoming more sophisticated and
effective in their response?
What do demonstrators do between demonstrations?
What strategy should underlie our labor work?
What do we visualize as the role of independent local unions,
of local unions that are part of existing national unions,
of ad hoc central labor bodies?
How can the 90 per cent of workers not in unions take collective action
and establish their rights?
A number of resource people are available to help with the workshops,
such as Alexis Buss of the Industrial Workers of the World;
Peter Linebaugh, co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra;
Tom Laney, who works for Ford in the Twin Cities; and a representative
of the Charleston Five.
SO HERE ARE THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:
1. Fill out the registration form, and send it to the Lynds together
with your check made out to Kent State University, being sure to
fill out the questions about workshops thoughtfully.
2. Plan to attend a final planning meeting at 12 noon on
Sunday, May 19, 2002, at 310 South Ashley Street in Ann Arbor.
This meeting will finalize the agenda for the conference.
3. Remember that a process of this kind can only succeed if
"every one is an organizer." Make copies of this letter and the
registration form that accompanies it, and circulate them to your
friends and colleagues with a note as to why you think they
should be at Kent State.
Many thanks,
Tony Budak, Dominic Caruso, Alan Haber, Staughton and Alice Lynd, Mike Stout
Website: http://porthurontokentstate.tripod.com
Snail mail: the Lynds, 1694 Timbers Court, Niles OH 44446
E-mail: abudak@neo.rr.com (Budak),
dconebigunion@hotmail.com (Caruso),
megiddo@umich.edu (Haber),
salynd@aol.com (Lynds),
steel.printers@verizon.net (Stout)
>>>>>>PRINT and FILL OUT THE FOLLOWING FORM
>>>>>>CUT HERE and MAIL TO LYND'S ADDRESS
===================================================
BUILDING A NEW MOVEMENT
held at Kent State University May 31 June 2, 2002
Friday, May 31, 2002
1:00 - 5:00 pm Check-in at Tri Towers Lobby
5:00 - 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 -10:00 pm Plenary
Saturday, June 1, 2002
8:00 - 9:00 am Breakfast
9:00 Noon Workshops
Noon - 1:00 pm Lunch
1:00 5:00 pm Workshops
5:00 - 7:00 pm Dinner
7:00 - 10:00 pm Party
Sunday, June 2, 2002
8:00 - 9:00 Breakfast
9:00 - Noon Plenary
Noon - 1:00 pm Lunch (check-out by 1 pm)
WORKSHOPS:
What are you working on that you would like to discuss
with others in a workshop?
What other workshops would you attend if others
would like them too?
>>>>>>2002 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM
Please complete and return this registration
form by Wednesday, May 15, 2002.
Name: __________________________________________
Mailing Address: __________________________________
_______________________________________________
E-mail Address: ___________________________________
Phone: _________________________
>>>>>>CONFERENCE INFORMATION:
Housing Costs:
$19 each night/Friday & Saturday night total $38.00
(Leebrick Hall, check-in time 1 pm 5 pm)
Food, Conference Room Rental and Parking Pass: $57.00
(Includes Friday dinner, 3 meals on Saturday,
and Sunday breakfast and lunch)
Total Conference Cost (if registered by May 15th): $95.00
On site conference registration: $100.00
___Yes, I will be attending the conference and will need lodging.
___Yes, Single room preferred
___Yes, Share room with ____________________
___Yes, I will be attending the conference, but will not need lodging.
___Yes, I will need a parking pass.
___Yes,I will need financial aid $25___$50___Other $____
Please make checks payable to:
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
Please mail check and registration form to:
STAUGHTON and ALICE LYND
1694 Timbers Court
Niles, OH 44446-3941
For information about accommodations, you may contact:
MARK WEBER at (330-672-2962) or
e-mail: markw@lms.kent.edu
=====================================================
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