MondaysFebruary 06, 2006Monday Night -- 02.06.06 -- state of the unions -- for more years seriesMonday Night -- 02.06.06 -- state of the unions -- for more years series
_____________________________________________ What: Discussion 1. What is the present state of New York City? 2. What can we do about it? We would like to take the occasion of Bloomberg's speech last week, and Bush's this week to assess our present. Whether it is a mayor easily buying his way to a second term (with little public outcry), failures to stop the green tides of gentrification in any number of neighborhoods, the NYU's aggressive handling of the GSOC strike, or the tabloid vilification of TWU workers. New York is not alright. As it increasingly becomes a playground for primarily the rich (rich artists among them), we would ask our friends jetting back from Davos for a mini-forum on the city without invoking it in isolation. Instead, how might artists and other cultural producers involved in an increasingly professionalized global art circuit engage the concept of locality in a productive or positive manner? It seems especially apparent following the RNC in 2004 there is a great degree of politicized desire on the part of many, but an equal degree of disorganization. At the same time activism has a thematic foothold in many gallery practices, grassroots organizing is most often rehearsed cynically as a symbolic gesture. What do we (who read these emails) really want and what would it mean to formulate those demands, to really ask for them? How might artists/cultural workers/your term here plug-in to other struggles at a moment when art is a major component of the urban redevelopment scheme of "open for business" New York? The discussion could take a number of turns. Since New York presents itself as "the world's second home" this is obviously a global conversation. This Monday is organized together with CAMEL.
It's got some great sound from the Jan 24th rally in support of the strike we will hopefully have some guests from the NYU/GSOC. http://archive.wbai.org/files/mp3/060131_100003gmus.MP3 _____________________________________________________ CAMEL is a collective whose members are drawn from across the American and European Continents whose activities focus on the interrelations, including the tensions, between art and activism, autonomy and social intervention. Maintaining an interest in a broad range of international movements, our primary focus is the exploration of organizing artists politically on the municipal level, taking New York City as a starting point. http://www.thewatercarriers.org/ _____________________________________________________ History teacher at Jonathan Levin High School in the Bronx, anti-war
_____________________________________________________ http://www.aporrea.org/ http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/ some specific articles: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1796 http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1801
http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-2/554/554_04_GonzaloGomez.shtml _____________________________________________________ New York City Transit Workers' Strike and Continued Contract Negotiations: 2 Articles from the magazine Labor Notes regarding the Strike: 2. A Transit Worker’s Perspective on the Strike and ‘No’ Vote Labor Notes is a non-profit organization based in Detroit and Brooklyn which publishes a magazine and engages in other advocacy and education for labor activists and pro-democracy movements within labor unions. More reading regarding the strike: The Revolutionary Transit Worker is a newsletter from within TWU 100 providing news and analysis of contract negotiations and criticism of the union's leadership. _____________________________________________________ What is meant by the injunction, "Four More Years"? 4 more years of what? 4 years for whom? Why not 10 or 16 more years? And what of the 4 or 12 years which just passed? The series will address what we or our invited guests deem to be critical questions confronting cultural activists today. |
