Tuesday Nov. 24, 2009 at 6:30pm

Teach-In: The Problems with Carbon Trading

Depaul University
Student Center, Room 325
2250 N. Sheffield Ave. (Red line to Fullerton)

Featured Speakers:
Howard Ehrman, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Kimberly Wasserman, Coordinator, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, and Abigail Singer, Mobilization for Climate Justice
 

 

Saturday Nov. 28 at 10:30am-1:30pm

Shutting Things Down to Open Things Up: Organizing for Power, Organizing for Change

Workshop by Lisa Fithian, longtime organizer and trainer

Lichen Lending Library
1921 S. Blue Island, Pilsen (Chicago)
Public transport: Pink line to 18th St. or Bus #60 to Blue Island and 18th

From corporate offices, worksites, universities, city councils and the streets and more, direct action strategies and campaigns can creatively liberate space, offer alternatives, shift the balance of power and cause your opponent to change their plans. These strategies have been the bedrock of fundamental political change throughout history.

This workshop offers you the opportunity to learn and practice the same fundamental building blocks for change used by people’s movements, including workers, youth, women, immigrants, environmentalist and lesbian and gay activists, to develop strategic campaigns, stage creative actions, and win basic rights, protections, and improvements for your community and the world. This multi-media workshop will include a review of key historic struggles as well as more contemporary campaigns through film and images, lecture, experiential training exercises, and opportunities to interact with other participants.
 

 

Sunday Nov. 29 at 11:30am

Activist Trainings, Meetings, and Presentation

Lichen Lending Library, 1921 S. Blue Island, Pilsen (Chicago)
Public transport: Pink line to 18th St. or Bus #60 to Blue Island and 18th

11:30-3:00 pm Nonviolent Direct Action Training
Prepare yourself for taking the streets and taking on power. Learn how to keep yourself grounded during chaos, think strategically and act decisively. Gain an embodied experience of escalating and de-escalating tactics and how we can move together through the streets to achieve the goals of our action. Practice various blockade techniques and quick decision-making processes. Most of all connect with others, build trust and relationship and prepare to creatively and effectively bring your message to those who have the power to make the changes that we seek.

4:00 pm N30 Orientation Meeting
Open meeting to review plans and last minute organization for Monday’s march and rally.

5:30-6:30 pm Vegan Dinner (donations appreciated!)

7:00 pm Slide Show Presentation and Discussion
Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Battle of Seattle and the Global Movement that is Building toward Copenhagen with Lisa Fithian, Rachel Smolker and Abigail Singer.
 

 

Trainer Biographies:
Lisa Fithian has worked for nonviolent social change since the mid 1970’s. Her work spans a successful struggle to save the St. Lawrence River from a billion dollar Army Corp of Engineer’s project - which has now been resurrected in the current climate bill! Resistance to the US invasion of Nicaragua in the 1980’s, numerous labor campaigns including Justice for Janitors, the WTO protest in Seattle, opposition to the US invasion of Iraq, and relief work in New Orleans post-Katrina. She is regularly invited to teach, train, speak, organize, and rabble-rouse for labor, peace, and social justice causes around the United States and the world. Lisa is part of a small training collective know at ACT, the Alliance for Community Trainers. For more information see about Lisa's bio and her website at http://organizingforpower.wordpress.com

Rachel Smolker, Ph.D., is co-director and the U.S. representative of Biofuelwatch, a nonprofit that provides analysis, educates, and campaigns against the large scale use of biofuels and biomass and their negative impacts on biodiversity, agriculture, human rights, food sovereignty and climate. She is author of the report "The Real Cost of Agrofuels: Food, Forests, People and Climate", and numerous shorter articles on these and related topics. She is also the spokesperson for Climate SOS, a coalition of lawyers, scientists and activists who have opposed the U.S. climate legislation on the basis that it is far too weak and promotes false solutions. Rachel has a scientific background in ecology and biology.

Abigail Singer is Co-Coordinator of the Mobilization for Climate Justice, an alliance of organizations that have joined together to build a North American climate justice movement that emphasizes public education, community organizing, and non-violent direct action to mobilize for effective and just solutions to the climate crisis.  She is also an organizer with Rising Tide North America, a network of local groups and activists who employ popular education and direct action to debunk false solutions and take on the root causes of climate change.  Abigail gives trainings on action and organizing skills, and has worked on several campaigns for social and environmental justice.  She currently lives in western North Carolina, where she is part of a coalition fighting Duke Energy's new Cliffside coal plant.

For more information, see http://www.howgreenischicago.org, http://www.actforclimatejustice.org, email chicago@actforclimatejustice.org, or call 773.343.2939.