IAP Independent Activities Period
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IAP 2011 Activities by Sponsor

Amnesty International

Farmworker Poverty, the Campaign for Fair Food... and YOU
Meghan Cohorst
Mon Jan 24, 06-07:30pm, 1-150

No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 21-Jan-2011
Single session event

Florida tomato pickers are among the country's most exploited workers. They earn sub-poverty wages, are denied basic labor rights like overtime pay and sick days, and have no right to organize in order to change these conditions. In the most extreme conditions, workers are held in situations of modern-day slavery.

For over a decade, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers have been organizing to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers. Through their Campaign for Fair Food, they have reached agreements with nine food industry leaders who have committed to working together with workers to improve farmworkers' lives. Today, the CIW and its allies are calling on supermarket giants like Stop & Shop to take similar responsibility. Join us to learn more about farmworkers, their campaign, and how you can get involved!

Dinner provided if RSVP to azad@mit.edu by Friday, Jan 21.
Contact: Anahita Maghami, azad@mit.edu

Human Rights on the Web: dinner discussion with Ethan Zuckerman
Karen Li
Tue Jan 18, 06-07:30pm, 4-145

No limit but advance sign up required (see contact below)
Signup by: 16-Jan-2011
Single session event

Can the internet be used to promote human rights and to take down oppressive regimes around the world? Or do these technologies actually empower the authoritarian states activists seek to challenge? Journalistic accounts of the recent turmoil in Iran suggest that new media played a key role in organizing and inspiring activists, but other evidence shows that the regime used the same tools to to harass, identify, and imprison protesters. Finally, what implications does this have for the development of new web technologies for social change?

Join Amnesty International and Ethan Zuckerman, co-founder of the global citizen media network, Global Voices, and senior researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, for a theoretical and empirical discussion on the interface between the web and human rights. A recent paper, co-authored by Zuckerman, on the topic can be found here (http://www.usip.org/publications/blogs-and-bullets-new-media-in-contentious-politics).

Please RSVP to karenli@mit.edu by Sunday January 16 so I know how much food to order.
Contact: Karen Li, karenli@mit.edu

Independent Movie Nights
Anahita Maghami
No enrollment limit, no advance sign up
Participants welcome at individual sessions (series)
Prereq: None

Screening of radical documentaries and films followed by discussion in small groups. Topics include environment, gender studies, industrialization, alternative economics, labor politics, etc. The tentative schedule is:

Sunday Jan 9: What a Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire
Sunday Jan 16: Good Fortune
Sunday Jan 23: Shortbus
Sunday Jan 30: Thank You For Not Breeding

The schedule is subject to change based on audience preference. Please email your movie suggestions to azad@mit.edu.

Snacks provided.
Contact: Anahita Maghami, azad@mit.edu

Topic: Environment, Movie: What a Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire
Anahita Maghami
A middle class white guy comes to grips with Peak Oil, Climate Change, Mass Extinction, Population Overshoot and the demise of the Culture of Empire. Featuring interviews with Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen, Jerry Mander, Chellis Glendinning, Richard Heinberg, Thomas Berry, William Catton, Ran Prieur and Richard Manning.
Sun Jan 9, 05-07:00pm, 2-105

Topic: International Development, Movie: Good Fortune
Anahita Maghami
GOOD FORTUNE explores how massive, international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit. Through intimate portraits of two Kenyans battling to save their homes from large-scale development organizations, the film presents a unique opportunity to experience foreign aid through the eyes of the people it is intended to benefit.
Sun Jan 16, 05-07:00pm, 2-105

Topic: Sexuality, Movie: Shortbus
Anahita Maghami
Numerous New York City-dwellers come to the exclusive club Shortbus to work out problems in their sexual relationships. Rob and Sophia are a happily married couple, except for the fact that she has never experienced sexual climax. Two of her patients are Jamie and James, a gay couple who have been monogamous for five years and counting.
Sun Jan 23, 05-07:00pm, 2-105

Topic: Growth, Movie: Thank You For Not Breeding
Anahita Maghami
Non-procreation's most outspoken advocates are turning to humor, performance art, and and a willingness to not be taken seriously. Welcome to environmentalism's radical fringe: the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement and the Church of Euthanasia. Armed with slogans like "Thank You For Not Breeding", their ideas are usually greeted with laughter or hostility. But beneath the silliness, do they have a point?
Sun Jan 30, 05-07:00pm, 2-105

Waltz with Bashir
Nakul Vyas
Mon Jan 10, 07:30-09:00pm, 4-231

Enrollment limited: first come, first served
Single session event

Waltz with Bashir tells the story of Ari Folman, a veteran of the an Israeli Army Mission in the first Lebanon War of the 1980s, as he plumbs the depths of his memory in search of what he has forgotten. A story animated in striking style and recounted in documentary form, Waltz with Bashir embarks on journey that is half mystery-thriller and half fevered dream. Nominated for an Academy Award and winner of a Golden Globe.

Pizza from Pizza Pier and other refreshments will be served.
Contact: Nakul Vyas, vyasn@mit.edu


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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Last update: 7 Sept. 2011