All Politics Is Global: Organizing to Communicate for Global Justice
Anand Sarwate
Mon Jan 28, 02-02:45pm, Twenty Chimneys
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Suppose you and your friends would like to change some aspect of the political environment. You probably have much enthusiasm for your cause but very little money to spare. How do you organize your group to use mainstream and independent media to convince an apathetic and skeptical world that you should be taken seriously? We'll talk to Charlotte Ryan, scholar and author, who runs the Media Research and Action Project at Boston College. If she does not know how to address this question, no one does.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech-schedule.shtml
Contact: Anand Sarwate, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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Cuba & Iraq: Under the Gun of US Sanctions
Erica McEvoy
Mon Jan 28, 12-12:45pm, Twenty Chimneys
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
George Capaccio (Voices in the Wilderness) will make the case that US economic sanctions target the most vulnerable members of Cuban and Iraqi society, create unnecessary hardship and misery, and ultimately fail in their political objectives.
Drawing from personal experience, Capaccio will present evidence of the deadly impact of US sanctions on the ordinary people of Iraq. He will also compare the Cuban and Iraqi experience of sanctions in relation to the US government's interest in dominating the natural resource supplies of both the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech-schedule.shtml
Contact: Erica McEvoy, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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David Barsamian, Mike Albert, Linda Pinkow on "War, Terrorism, & Media"
Anand Sarwate
Mon Jan 28, 06:30-09:00pm, 10-250
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Why let sleeping dogs lie when you can get a newspaper to do it? Taking up where Mark Twain left off, David Barsamian (Alternative Radio), Mike Albert (Z Magazine), and Linda Pinkow (WMBR News Department) will discuss what we should keep in mind when we look at the mass media's coverage of war and terrorism. [This discussion follows and closes the all-day Forum for Independent Media, see http://student.mit.edu/searchiap/iap-4244.html]
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech.shtml
Contact: Anand Sarwate, (617) 621-6488, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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Davos/NY and Porto Alegre: Can the Media Get It Right?
Anand Sarwate
Mon Jan 28, 01-01:45pm, Twenty Chimneys
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
When the New York Times' resident expert on foreign affairs was asked about one of the largest social movements in the developing world, he claimed never to have heard of it. The evidence in his columns suggests that he may have been telling the truth. Bankers, industrialists, and politicians from the rich nations meet in Davos, Switzerland, every year to discuss how the global economy ought to be run -- and the mass media tell us all about it. Whereas when people who take an alternative approach to economic development convene every year in Porto Alegre, Brazil, we hear nothing. Kevin Murray, Executive Director of Grassroots International, will help us investigate this curious phenomenon.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech-schedule.shtml
Contact: Anand Sarwate, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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Human Rights & Civil Liberties in the Americas -- After September 11
Erica McEvoy
Mon Jan 28, 10:30-11:45am, Twenty Chimneys
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
Josh Rubenstein, director of Amnesty USA's north-east region, will survey the state of human rights and civil liberties across the Western Hemisphere, including in the USA. Both "terrorists" and "legitimate" governments often argue that "the ends justify the means" -- we will examine the consequences that innocent people endure when those who have or want power justify their actions in this way.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/freespeech-schedule.shtml
Contact: Erica McEvoy, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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Independent Media Forum: The Western Hemisphere -- History, Culture, Economics, & Politics
Anand Sarwate
Mon Jan 28, 10:30am-09:00pm, 10-250, 20 Chimneys, see url for accurate schedule
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
What is the oldest university in the Western Hemisphere? (Hint: it's not in Cambridge, Massachusetts -- it's not even in North America.) If you were a Peruvian farmer struggling to survive, would you grow coca plants or coffee? Which national government was found guilty of violating international law when it mined the harbors of Managua in the 1980s? What is the Monroe Doctrine & what role does it play today in international affairs? -- With "globalization" & increasing concentration of ownership in the mass media, people in the US who want to know about causes and effects in the Americas often find themselves limited to a narrow menu of "mainstream" information sources. Meanwhile there is an active sub-culture of independent media -- from small presses whose books are rarely seen at Barnes & Noble or Borders -- to scholars, web-sites, film-makers, & "pirate" radio stations. Come meet these independent publishers, writers, poets, & activists and find out about their work. They will be here to give presentations and address your questions.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech.shtml
Contact: Anand Sarwate, 621-6488, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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Independent Media: Independent of _What_?
Anand Sarwate
Mon Jan 28, 03-03:30pm, Twenty Chimneys
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
independent, adj. 1. Free from the influence, guidance, or control of another or others; self-reliant: an independent mind. 2. Not determined or influenced by someone or something else; not contingent: a decision independent of the outcome of the study. 3. often Independent Affiliated with or loyal to no one political party or organization. 4. Not dependent on or affiliated with a larger or controlling entity: an independent food store; an independent film. 5. Not relying on others for support, care, or funds; self-supporting.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech-schedule.shtml
Contact: Anand Sarwate, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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Terrorism and Human Rights in the Americas
Erica McEvoy
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Terrorism -- the illegitimate use of force to achieve political ends -- has a history in the Western Hemisphere that stretches back for centuries, from colonial times, through revolutions, coups, and atrocities, and down to the present day. Have you been thinking about this subject? Attend our discussion series. Using a combination of film screenings, eye-witnesses, and guest speakers who have written on the subject, we will examine domestic or international terrorism involving Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua, Brazil, and the USA.
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/terror.shtml
Contact: Erica McEvoy, 225-9695, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
What's Up With Colombia?
Erica McEvoy
Josh Rubenstein, Director of Amnesty USA's Northeast Region, will show "Colombia: Getting Away With Murder" (30 mins.), a video on the regime of violence in Colombia; and Jean Jackson, professor of Anthropology at MIT and a student of the region for more than thirty years, will discuss "Plan Colombia," a military-political program that is supported by more than a billion dollars in US military aid and weaponry. Discussion to follow. (Light refreshments provided.)
Tue Jan 8, 07-10:00pm, 3-133
Economic Development: Promise or Threat?
Erica McEvoy
Liz Canner will show her film "Deadly Embrace" (30 mins.), on the damage that World Bank & IMF policies have done to the people of Nicaragua; and Jennifer Lemire of Grassroots International will show "Strong Roots," about the MST: a social movement in Brazil that uses the country's new Constitution to pressure the government into implementing land reform. Discussion to follow. (Light refreshments provided.)
Tue Jan 15, 07-10:00pm, 2-105
Is There Justice in Peru?
Erica McEvoy
We will watch two films about how justice is too often dispatched in Peru. "Abducted" investigates the case of Hugo Munoz Sanchez, a professor kidnapped and murdered by the Peruvian government; while "Convicted By An Image" argues that Lori Berenson, a former MIT student now imprisoned in Peru for supporting terrorism, "was actually convicted twice, first by a kangaroo court in Peru and then, more effectively, in the media."
Tue Jan 22, 07-10:00pm, 3-133
A Year in the Streets: Globalization vs. Human Rights?
Erica McEvoy
"A Year in the Streets" is a film about a new generation of activists rising to expose the conflicts between human rights and neo-liberal economic globalization. From the WTO protests in Seattle to the Bush inauguration in January 2001 and beyond, the film-makers criss-crossed the United States, providing a street-level "guerilla media" view of the clash between activists who want radical change and a state apparatus that seems increasingly to be engaged in the repression of free speech and free assembly. The panel discussion after the film will include Randy Shadowalker, one of the film-makers; Sarah Babb, a professor of sociology at U. Mass. (Amherst) who studies the historical role of the IMF in Latin America; and Tiffany Dumont, a member of the video group at the Independent Media Center of Boston.
Tue Jan 29, 07-10:00pm, 3-133
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Who Cares What We Say? What Independent Media Provide That No One Else Does
Anand Sarwate
Mon Jan 28, 03:45-05:00pm, Twenty Chimneys
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Single session event
If you get your news from "mainstream" mass media sources only, what are you missing? Our panel, composed of independent journalists, will address this question by contrasting their own coverage of events with coverage provided by news outlets that must cater to the needs of advertisers and other market pressures. On the panel are: David Goodman and Linda Pinkow (WMBR/MIT); John Grebe (Sounds of Dissent/WZBC); Stephen Provizer (Allston-Brighton Free Radio); Randy Shadowalker (Cascadia Media Collective, Eugene/Oregon); and Martin Voelker (No U-Turn Radio/WMFO).
Web: http://web.mit.edu/hemisphere/events/freespeech-schedule.shtml
Contact: Anand Sarwate, hemisphere-admin@mit.edu
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