To URPE Members and Friends,
Both individuals and organizations will be welcome at this founding meeting. URPE has a rep designated by the steering committee, but other URPE members are also welcome to attend. If you are a member of another organization that you feel should be part of the Alliance, please see the request for an organizational description.
************************************************************
THE FOUNDING MEETING OF THE ALLIANCE OF RADICAL ACADEMIC/INTELLECTUAL ORGANIZATIONS
The Alliance of Radical Academic/Intellectual Organizations welcomes you to its founding meeting!
DATE: NOVEMBER 1ST
TIME: 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
LOCATION:
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
SILVER BUILDING
100 WASHINGTON SQUARE EAST
ROOM 809
(see end of email for transportation info)
REGISTRATION FEE (a suggested donation payable by cash, check or money order
at the door) :
FIFTEEN DOLLARS ($15) PER ORGANIZATION (covers all attendees from an
organization)
FIVE DOLLARS ($5) FOR NON-AFFILIATED INDIVIDUALS
Until we have our own treasury/bank account, checks and money orders should
be made payable to Historians Against the War.
HOUSING INFORMATION: If you need information about housing, please contact
Glenn Kissack at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WEBSITE: FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE ALLIANCE PLEASE VISIT OUR
WEBSITE AT http://users.rcn.com/rasputnik
LISTSERV: TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE LEFTALLIANCE DISCUSSION LISTSERV PLEASE WRITE
TO: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
REGISTRATION FORM
Kindly fill out this form and submit it at the door when paying registration fee.
REGISTRATION FOR NOVEMBER 1, 2003, FOUNDING MEETING OF ALLIANCE OF RADICAL
ACADEMIC/INTELLECTUAL ORGANIZATIONS:
Name:__________________________________ Phone:____________________
Street Address:________________________________________________
City:__________________________ State:_________________ Zip:__________
Email address:______________________
Please check one of the following:
___ I am attending as a designated representative of the
following organization: __________________
___ I am attending as an individual but am affiliated with the
following organization: _____________________
___ I am attending as an individual but may be interested in
working with or helping organize a group related to my discipline.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PROPOSED AGENDA:
(Not carved in stone, suggestions welcomed).
Opening remarks: Overview of meeting (by SC members)
Keynote Address by Paul Lauter and Richard Ohmann
Selected presentations (a few organizations)
Discussion of Statement of Principles and Proposed Strategic Direction
with a special focus on the Patriot Act/Homeland Security, i.e.,
Domestic Repression and the attacks on Civil Liberties and Academic Freedom
Lunch break
Discussion of Tactics and Implementation
Breakouts in groups for interests areas or "task-forces" people indicate on
sign-up sheet at door, e.g.: website, communication, think tank/research,
grants, recruitment, speakers' bureau, campaigns, resolutions at disciplinary
meetings, etc.
LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS EXPRESSING INTEREST
IN THE FOUNDING MEETING OF THE ALLIANCE:
Adult Education Research Conference, Radical Caucus of*
Alliance in Socialism and Democracy
Anthropology for Radical Political Action**
Association of Concerned African Scholars
Black Radical Congress
Brecht Forum/New York Marxist School
Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education, Radical Caucus of
Canadian-Palestinian Network
Caucus for New Political Science
Caucus of Humanistic Sociologists,
American Sociological Association
Caucus on Academic and Community Organizing,
American Studies Association
Caucus on Class, Society of Cinema and Media Studies
Cerebration
Cineaste Magazine
Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
Feel Tank Chicago
GESO, Yale Graduate Student Union
Historians Against the War
International Critical Geography Group
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
Jump Cut Magazine
Justice Arts Movement
Latino Artists Roundtable
Left Index
Marxist Literary Group
Modern Language Association, Radical Caucus of
Monthly Review Press
Marxist Section, American Sociological Association
New Caucus of Professional Staff Congress
New Labor Forum
New Left Review
New Political Science
New Politics
New Press
North East Ohio Radical Activists Network
Ohio Progressive Scholars Organization
People's Geography Project
Pluto Press
Progressive Librarians Guild
Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice
Radical Art Caucus of College Art Association
Radical History Review
Radical Teacher
Radical Philosophy Association
Rhetoricians for Peace, Conference on College
Composition and Communication
Research Group on Socialism and Democracy***
Review of African Political Economy
Science and Society
Society for Socialist Studies-Canada
Social Welfare Action Alliance
Union for Democratic Communications
Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE)
Working Class Special Interest Group, Conference on College
Composition and Communication
* formation of caucus proposed
**proposed revival of dormant organization
*** publishes journal Socialism and Democracy
Prepared by Steering Committee:
Barbara Foley
Pat Keeton
Jesse Lemisch
Yusuf Nuruddin*
Christine Quail
Andor Skotnes
*acting secretary/correspondent: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***********************************************************
REQUEST FOR ORGANIZATIONAL DESCRIPTION
If you are a member of an organization that may want to affiliate with the
Alliance, please include a brief organizational description and email it
to the Alliance at [EMAIL PROTECTED] by October 25th to be
included in a package to be distributed at the meeting. Descriptions received
after that date may not be able to be included. A suggested template follows.
SAMPLE ORGANIZATION DESCRIPTION
Name: Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association
Contact Person: Barbara Foley, Professor of English, Rutgers-Newark;
973-313-1467; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
History: The Radical Caucus formed in the late 1960s, partly out of antiwar
activism and partly in connection with the development of NUC (New University
Conference). Early on, it began to publish Radical Teacher, first as a
newsletter and then as a magazine. (RT is still in existence, though it has
been delinked from the Radical Caucus.). In the early 1970s two Radical Caucus
members served as President of the MLA.
The Radical Caucus has since 1969 sponsored two (sometimes more) sessions at
MLA Conventions (including the first "Marxist Forum").
In the last decade or so the Radical Caucus has continued to sponsor sessions
and has also been active and visible in the MLA Delegate Assembly, effecting
the passage of resolutions around a range of issues.
Purpose of Organization: To constitute a consistent left presence in the MLA.
Our sessions have enabled progressive and radical academics to find one
another, and work together within a huge organization
We have regularly sponsored sessions on working-class culture and literary
radicalism; race, class and gender in literature and literary study; the
place of the university within capitalist society; and radical pedagogy.
Our activist campaigns within the Delegate Assembly have resulted in the
successful passage of resolutions enabling the MLA to take stands around
academic labor issues, including a stance in favor of unionization;
cuts in funding for education;
affirmative action;
prison and sweatshop labor;
welfare "reform";
the resurgence of racist ideology and campus bigotry;
attacks on immigrant students and faculty;
academic freedom in the wake of 9/11;
high stakes testing
In the past two years we have attempted to pass resolutions against the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq and the "war on terrorism." We hope this year (2003)
to be successful. Our hands are somewhat tied, however, by stipulations in
the MLA Constitution prohibiting the Association from taking stands not
directly related to academia.
Structure:
The Radical Caucus has a New York City-based steering committee which meets
every two to three months (more frequently in the pre-convention weeks), plus
a core of another couple of dozen activists around the country. The Caucus
exists mainly in cyberspace but meets each year at the MLA Convention, with
(recently) an attendance of roughly 30-40. It has a membership of about 200.
The "manifesto" of the radical caucus can be viewed at the following address:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/radcaucus
***********************************************************
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 bringing 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.
***********************************************************
LOGISTICS
NEED A MAP of the area? Go to mapquest.com and fill in the address: 100
Washington Square East.
TRANSPORTATION: NYU (New York University) is easily accessible by
the New York City Subway system. Subway lines running on the west side are
accessible from the Penn Station railroad terminal and the 42nd Street
Greyhound/Trailways Bus terminal. Lines running on the east side are
accessible from the Grand Central Station railroad terminal. You may
disembark from any of the following subway stations:
IND Lines (west side) : West 4th Street Station: A, C and E lines and F,
V, D and B lines
Walk one block east to Washington Square Park and across the park (about 5
short blocks) to Washington Square East.
IRT Lines (west side): Christopher Street Station: 1 and 9 lines
This stop is one block further west from the IND lines above
BMT Lines: 8th Street Station: N and R lines
Walk two blocks south to Waverly Place and then three blocks west to
Washington Square East.
IRT Lines (east side): Astor Place Station:
This stop is two blocks further East from the N and R lines.
