Event: How to build an activist coalition

I have been pondering activist coalitions at Brandeis for a while, so it’s with great anticipation that I pass on the info for this event:

Spend some time with Nobel Peace Prize nominee and leading African American, lesbian social justice activists as she is at Brandeis this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Carter will be giving a keynote speech and workshop on Wednesday from 6:30-8 in the ICC Swig Lounge on the topic of creating coalitions to achieve progressive change and developing transformative models of organizing that connect race, class, culture, gender, and sexuality identity.

Outside of the speech and workshop, she is available for coffee or food dates, group lectures, club meetings, or question and answer sessions. To schedule time while she is on campus, please contact Scott Frost (sfrost@brandeis.edu)

Where: Swig Lounge
When: 6:30-8pm

Many people have a habit of comparing any activism today to that of the Sixties, and finding our generation lacking. Yet, as Danny the Red tried to tell us, forget 1968: it was wonderful, but it’s over.Conditions are very different today, and trying to use the organizing models and tactics of the earlier age only plays into the hands of the establishment, which by now has figured out how to deal with 60’s -era protests. I believe, but cannot prove, that one reason that campus activism today is dissimilar to that of the past is due to the great fragmentation on campus. We have so many activist clubs that even dedicated members of the activist community, such as myself, can be caught unawares by stellar work done by other student organizers. Yet that’s the problem – there is no real activist community. Hopefully this talk will help us learn how to start fixing that.

That’s right. You can even schedule time with Mandy Carter(!) for your club. FMLA has already gotten into the act (7pm Thurs).

Thanks to Jessica Stearns for the tip.