#brecht forum

I will be speaking at this event tomorrow evening, representing my wonderful home/housemates. If you're wondering how to organizing a living situation with a group of people in a meaningful way without losing your mind, this is for you!

Wednesday, April 3 @ The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street, New York, NY 7:30pm // sliding scale donation // no one will be turned away.

When: Thursday, 3/14/2013, 7:30pm 

Place: @ The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street, New York, New York 10019 (View Map · Get Directions)

All across the country, the bosses are burning our contracts. Documents that once offered a guarantee of steady if modest raises and some measure of protection against arbitrary employment policies today find better use as kindling. Only one question remains: Will we choke on the ashes or dance on the flames? As capitalism’s economic crisis continues we see increased confrontations with the police, more and more arrested and imprisoned. Increasingly, city, state, and federal governments, locally and internationally, use labor contracts as further forms of state repression. As the economic crisis continues to ripple through the public sector, Illinois and California have torched covenants with teachers and imposed unpaid furloughs. Wisconsin and Indiana singed key contract provisions like automatic dues check-off and agency fees. This crisis becomes more and more one of governance and management, as the political economy of the bourgeoisie is not just something experienced but rather enforced. Public sector workers all over the world, typically the most unionized forms of employment, and those who operate many core infrastructural and institutional jobs in society, are often the first to come under attack with austerity. As a result, their labor disputes often seem to have the most at stake, as they represent direct confrontations between workers and governments, with labor stoppages in any sector or workplace potentially shutting down the normal function of an entire city or even country. In New York City, two major unions recently resume work under concessionary contracts after protracted strikes. Meanwhile, nearly 300,000 teachers, firefighters, transit, sanitation and other municipal workers continue to labor under expired contracts. Newly added to this total are school bus drivers, who returned from a month-long strike empty-handed, disaffected, and contractless. Our present moment demands a question: “What can we do to resist the intimidation of this repressive system, to coordinate and mobilize within our existing networks, and to build new forms of solidarity strong enough to continue the struggle?” All of these conflicts lead us to a similar analysis and strategy: get organized, build a force, and develop a form of communism as the life we start to live as we resist and attack capitalism. Featuring: -- James Frey and Jocelyn Cohn of Unity and Struggle  http://gatheringforces.org/ -- John Garvey of Insurgent Notes http://insurgentnotes.com/ -- Ursula Levelt staff attorney for TWU Local 100 http://www.twulocal100.org/ Suggested Readings: -“Our Friends with Benefits: On The Union Question” – Jocelyn Cohn & James Frey, 2013: gatheringforces.org/2013/03/04/on-the-u... -“The 1% of the 99%” – Anonymous, 2011: libcom.org/news/1-99-27122011

The Brecht Forum

451 West Street, New York, New York 10019

New York, NY - July 13, 2012 Win a trip on the EIR Voices and Visions Tour this summer sponsored by Deans Beans Organic Coffee • o Friday, July 13, 2012 o 7:00pm until 10:00pm •

Brecht Forum, 451 West Street, New York, NY 10019

Sponsored by Deans Beans Organic Coffee (http://www.deansbeans.com/) Existence is Resistance will be giving one of YOU a chance to join their 2012 tour (all info on the tour is herewww.indiegogo.com/2012eirtour)

On July 13th we will be holding an open mic where artists will come together and perform one song each to an audience and three judges. Three artists will be selected by the judges for the final round. The three selected artists will be able to perform another track and say a few words about why they should go on this tour. The audiences enthusiasm/cheering will ultimately choose who will go with us.

*Judges to be announced *Live DJ *Raffles/Auctions *$10 Entry *18 and up to Enter competition

ARTISTS: For more info on registering for this event please email [email protected] with "ARTIST FOR JULY 13TH EVENT" in the subject or the email will not be read. You MUST have a valid Passport to enter this competition.

This is NOT a paid tour. Deans Beans will cover your travel, accommodations, food etc.

-- www.existenceisresistance.org

Facebook: www.tinyurl.com/existenceisresistance

June 27, 2012 ~ Happy 97th Birthday to Grace Lee Boggs!!! “We are at a stage in human history that is as monumental as changing from a hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural society and from an agricultural society to an industrial society. Where we’re headed now will be different because we have exhausted planetary space and human space for us to continue to look at things through the Cartesian measurement of material things. We need to face the way we used the world for our gains, pleasures, satisfactions. This is the way we evolve to a higher stage of humanity. And unless we want to live in terror for the rest of our lives, we need to change our view about acquiring things. We have the opportunity to take a great leap forward in these very challenging times. We need to change our institutions and ourselves. We need to seize opportunities. We need to launch our imaginations beyond the thinking of the past. We need to discern who we are and expand on our humanness and sacredness. That’s how we change the world, which happens because WE will be the change.” ~ Grace Lee Boggs