1968 Revisited: Prospects for a More Coherent Left

1968 Revisited: Prospects for a More Coherent Left
13 March 2008
Brecht Forum, NYC

Autumn Brown, Max Elbaum, RJ Maccani & Ai-Jen Poo

Working through non-profits, autonomous collectives, small socialist and anarchist organizations, or as rank and file labor activists, today's generation of anti-capitalist organizers is bumping up against the limits of existing left forms--just as the 1960s generation did under different conditions 40 years ago.

Come out for a evening of dialogue and debate featuring a panel of dynamic grassroots organizers and organic intellectuals representing various tendencies along the left political spectrum, as they discuss possible new strategies for effective left organizing.

Learning from past successes and failures, can we identify fruitful approaches for making a leap toward a more coherent radical movement in the next two-to-five years?

Autumn Brown is a founding member of the Rock Dove Collective, a NYC-Based radical community health exchange, and serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Fertility Awareness Center. Autumn teaches facilitation and consensus decision making to community organizers and educators. She has taught and presented in New York, Pittsburgh, Montpelier and Tokyo.

Max Elbaum was part of the radical "generation of 1968" that, in various ways, tried to build/rebuild a coherent and durable left out of the large-scale ferment and broad radicalization of the 1960s. Max offered a history and evaluation of one strand within that effort - the "new communist movement" - in his book Revolution in the Air (Verso 2002; paperback 2006)

RJ Maccani currently works as a nanny and is a volunteer organizer with Regeneración Childcare NYC and the Men's Collaborative of Generation FIVE. RJ is an international adherent to the Zapatistas' Sixth Declaration of the Lacandon Jungle and a participant in the Another Politics is Possible study group. He writes weekly posts about "zapatista-inspired rebellion on Turtle Island and throughout the galaxy" at: http://www.zapagringo.com

Ai-jen Poo has been organizing immigrant women workers in New York City since 1996. Before that she was involved in student organizing for Ethnic Studies and domestic violence advocacy in the Asian immigrant community. She is a member of the New York City study group on left organization and movement building which has spent the last year and a half studying the role that Left organizations play in movement-building.


*intro mix w/ Sly and the Family Stone

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