>From: "Robert J. Hill" <rjhill@coe.uga.edu>
>To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
>Subject: FOUNDING MEETING Alliance of Radical
>Academic/Intellectual Organizations
>
>At the initiative of the Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Assocaition
>(MLA), a group of left academics/members of active or potential radical
>caucuses in the different professional associations as well as
>representatives from left journals has decided to try to pull together a
>coalition/communication network that will facilitate our political work.
>_________________________________________________
>
>CALL FOR FOUNDING MEETING
>Alliance of Radical Academic/Intellectual Organizations
>October 4, 2003, in New York City
>The Alliance of Radical Academic/Intellectual Organizations invites all
>collectives, caucuses, and organizations i.e., all groups working in,
>around, in spite of institutions of higher education and whose members are
>in agreement with the principles in the draft Statement of Purpose (see at
>end)--to participate in a founding meeting of the organization on October
>4, 2003, in New York City, at a location to be announced. Final decisions
>regarding the statement of purpose, name, and activities of the
>organization will be based on discussions at the founding meeting itself,
>including whether the organization is to be a loose alliance to
>communicate and coordinate activities or an organization that will
>initiate projects and actions on its own.
>
>GOALS OF THE FOUNDING MEETING
>· To create an organizational structure to facilitate the
>coordination and communication among member organizations for action
>around the following themes:
>· The Empire
>· The fiscal crisis
>· Repression of civil liberties
>· To discuss and propose strategies for the following:
>· Action in the academic arena
>· Support of research bodies and think tanks to present new
>alternatives for public debate, with an impact on policy and public opinion.
>PRELIMINARY AGENDA
>· Opening Remarks
>· Group Presentations/Reports and Discussions of Themes and
>Strategies
>· Breakout into possible Task Force groups for proposals
>· Proposals and decisions: statement of purpose, organizational
>structure, and actions
>
>PARTICIPANTS INVITED TO ATTEND
>· Delegates chosen by academic collectives, caucuses, and
>organizations in and around higher education to represent their group
>formally, including groups publishing radical scholarly academic journals,
>radical caucuses organizing and already within unions, radical caucuses
>within academic disciplinary and professional organizations, and other
>sites where political/ intellectual work takes place.
>· Individuals from such groups interested in bringing proposals back
>to their organizations
>· Individuals interested in organizing such groups in their
>academic/intellectual areas
>
>ORGANIZERS OF THE ALLIANCE
>We are radical scholars and intellectuals. Many of us are
>activist-scholars and activist-intellectuals who work in non-academic
>settings. Some of us are veterans of the sixties, and some of us are
>younger; all of us are active participants in today’s new movements. In
>2002-2003, we came together in the streets, the teach-ins, the academic
>associations and elsewhere in opposition to the “war on terrorism” and to
>the war-related fiscal crisis in higher education and across the economy;
>we oppose the governmental lies that brought the U.S. into the war, and we
>oppose U.S. imperialism and the emerging U.S. empire. We are deeply
>concerned about growing repression and, in particular, its impact on
>critical thought and expression.
>
>BACKGROUND
>An initial meeting of the Alliance, called by the Radical Caucus of the
>Modern Language Association, was held on April 19, 2003, at the City
>University of New York Graduate Center. A steering committee of volunteers
>was charged with the task of preparing a draft Statement of Purpose and of
>organizing a Founding Meeting for fall, 2003. The Steering Committee
>members participating in these tasks include the following:
> * Betsy Bowman, Radical Philosophy Association
> * Barbara Foley, Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association
> * Patricia Keeton, Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association
> * Jesse Lemisch, Historians Against the War
> * Yusuf Nuruddin, Brecht Forum, Research Group on Socialism and Democracy
> * Andor Skotnes, Radical History Review and Historians Against the War
> More than 25 people affiliated with radical academic and intellectual
> organizations attended the initial April 19 meeting, including members of
> the following groups:
>· Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association
>· Radical Philosophy Association
>· Radical History Review
>· Historians Against the War
>· New Political Science
>· Brecht Forum
>· Research Group on Socialism and Democracy
>· Latin American Studies Association
>· North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) collective and
>journal
>· Professional Staff Congress union of CUNY
>· Union of Radical Political Economics
>· Working Class special interest group, Conference on College
>Composition and Communication
>· Caucus on Class of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies
>
>REGISTRATION AND INFORMATION
>To obtain more information or to register for the meeting, please
>email the following: AllianceAcademic@hotmail.com
>
>STATEMENT OF PURPOSE (DRAFT)
>The Alliance of Radical Academic/Intellectual Organizations is a network
>of educational collectives and caucuses brought together by the
>conjuncture of the “war on terrorism”; the degradation of the economy
>exacerbated by, but not totally attributable to, the war; growing
>repression; and privatization and de-funding of higher education. The
>goals of the Alliance are to support the work of individual caucuses and
>organizations through the establishment of a national and possibly
>international organization and, through this, to facilitate and coordinate
>activities on a larger regional, national, and international basis in
>response to these developments. The types of scholarly and intellectual
>groupings in the Alliance are diverse, including radical caucuses in
>academic disciplinary and professional organizations; organizations
>publishing radical scholarly academic journals; radical caucuses of
>faculty, professionals, and graduate students both organizing and already
>within unions. The Alliance invites such organizations as well as those
>who would like to organize new groups to join this network. While member
>groups are diverse in type, all affirm the following two principles:
>First, members of the Alliance as members of scholarly and intellectual
>groups organized around radical principles recognize that social and
>economic inequalities are built into the structure of capitalist society.
>We also believe that inequalities of power come in many other forms:
>racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, bigotry, and discrimination
>based on age, ethnicity, physical ability, sexual orientation, creed, and
>native language. Alliance members oppose all these forms of oppression and
>exploitation.
>Second, members of the Alliance commit themselves to the principle of
>activism, with priority to activism within the educational sector because
>this is where Alliance members are concentrated. We are all activists, and
>we affirm the dignity and value of intellectual work. We seek to build a
>better society, free of the bigotries and inequalities mentioned above, in
>which the passion for knowledge will flourish. We believe that activism,
>as well as teaching, research and writing have an important role to play
>in ringing about a just and humane society. We want to establish
>institutional and societal conditions that will encourage analytic and
>critical thought as well as foster the full development of human potential
>and creativity. To these ends we seek to build and be part of a re-born left.
>
>
>**********************
>The Union for Democratic Communications is a group of communications
>researchers, theorists, educators, journalists, media producers, policy
>analysts, and activists. The UDC is dedicated to the critical study of
>communications establishments and its policies; the production and
>distribution of democratically controlled media; the fostering of
>alternative, oppositional, independent, and experimental production; and
>the development of democratic communications systems at local, regional,
>national and international levels.
>
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>
>
>Larry Olds
>3322 15th Ave S
>Minneapolis MN 55407 USA
>612/722-3442
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 01 2003 - 01:00:09 PDT