Please forward or repost Upcoming Brecht Forum Conference CHALLENGING THE COLOR LINE: CONFRONTING ISSUES OF RACE AND CLASS IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL CAPITAL Friday, February 22 to Sunday, February 24 *******NOTE: THIS CONFERENCE WILL BE HELD AT THE NYU LAW SCHOOL. ADDRESS BELOW************ 212.242.4201 [log in to unmask] www.brechtforum.org "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line--the relation of the darker races to the lighter races of men and women in Asia and in Africa, in America and the islands of the sea." --from The Soul of Black Folks by W.E.B. Du Bois * The Brecht Forum; * New York University's Africana Studies Program and Institute of African American Affairs; * The Walter Rodney Institute for Social Research; and * The W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation present a conference: CHALLENGING THE COLOR LINE: CONFRONTING ISSUES OF RACE AND CLASS IN THE ERA OF GLOBAL CAPITAL Friday, February 22 to Sunday, February 24 at New York University Law School Tishman Auditorium* 40 Washington Square South New York City (*and other locations to be announced) On the occasion of W.E.B. Du Bois' 134th birthday, this conference seeks to bring together progressive activists and analysts to assess the ways the issue of race and racism has changed in the last 100 years, to look at how racist ideology is ingrained in our culture, and to advance a dialogue on how we can work to solve the problem of the color line in this new century. One hundred years ago, W.E.B. Du Bois placed solving the problem of the color line on the historical agenda as central to any new vision of a just and egalitarian society. Now, we find ourselves in the era of global capital and, rather than declining, racism is on the rise. Both at home and around the world, the gap between wealth and poverty is growing rather than declining, and the suffering falls in ever higher proportions on people of color. At the dawn of the 21st century, new movements are emerging to challenge globalization with the belief that a better world is possible--from the anti-World Bank, IMF and WTO struggles that burst into the public eye in 1999 in Seattle, to the 2001 World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa that, despite a U.S. boycott, identified colonialism and the trans-Atlantic slave trade as crimes against humanity, and now to the new anti-war movement that is coming into being following the events of September 11. Yet perhaps Du Bois identified the key a century ago : if we want to build a broad-based, multi-faceted democratic movement that can confront the cultural, political and economic offensive of global capitalism, we must place the struggle for racial justice at the center of our struggles. *** Partial List of Themes and Workshop Topics *** The "racial moment"--the role and relevance of race for global capitalism in the post-apartheid/post-civil rights global racial formation and the structural and cultural forces unleashed by capitalist globalization. --The Color Line today: Retreat, retrenchment or progress? --The post-Durban global anti-racist movement --Labor, immigration, and race in the global economy --Race, ideology and media in the 21st century --Responsibilities of white people in the struggle for racial justice --Combating racial tensions among people of color --Repression and police brutality; challenging the Prison Industrial Complex --Resistance to racism in popular culture *** Partial List of Participants *** Sam Anderson Charles Barron Nellie Bailey Kai Lumumba Barrow Humberto Brown Dennis Brutus Horace Campbell Kimberly Crenshaw* Bhairavi Desai Teresa El Amin Bill Fletcher Hector Figueroa Trichur Ganesh Gerald Horne Gerald Hudson Rashidah Ismaili Maulana Karenga Robin D.G. Kelley Peter Kwong Augustin Lao* Evelyn Lynn Alfredo Lopez Sharon Maeda Biju Mathew Asha Samad Matias Muntu Matsimela Monami Maulik Tony Monteiro José Morales Yusuf Nuruddin Marie-Claire Picher Vijay Prashad Sofia Quintero Gerardo Renique Don Rojas Nan Rubin Annette T. Rubinstein Mark Toney *invited *** Schedule *** Friday, February 22 6:00 pm: The Color Line--Then and Now: A Tribute to W.E.B. Du Bois Saturday, February 23, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm 9:00 am: Registration 9:30 am: Opening Plenary: The Racial Moment--Race, Class and Global Capitalism 11:30 am: Workshops 1:30 pm: Lunch 2:20 pm: Workshops 4:30 pm: Closing Plenary: Building Bridges--Anti-racist Global-Local Solidarity Sunday, February 24, 9:30 am to 12 noon 9:30 am: Coffee and snacks 10:00 am: Reportback from workshops and discussion of next steps *** Partial List of Endorsers *** --African Poetry Theater --The Black World Today ( www.tbwt.com ) --Dennis Brutus, Professor Emeritus, Africana Studies, University of Pittsburgh/Jubilee South Africa --Center for Constitutional Rights --Center for Non-Profit Technology --Center for Third World Organizing --Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence --Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) --Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism --Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) --Forum of Indian Leftists --Freedom Road Socialist Organization--NY/NJ --Freedom Socialist Party --Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition --Harlem Tenants Council --Inang Bayan Movement (Philippines) --Institute for Mass Communication/People-link.org --The Malcolm X Museum --The Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University --Medgar Evers Center for Law and Social Justice --National Network of Indochina Activists --New York City Taxi Workers Alliance --New York University Institute for Education and Social Policy --North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) --Patrice Lumumba Coalition --Pro Libertad Freedom Campaign --Racism Abolished, Justice Established (RAJE) --Reparations Mobilization Coalition --Resistance in Brooklyn --Socialism and Democracy --The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) --Urban Justice Center, Human Rights Project --Vieques Support Campaign --Women for Justice --Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) ******************************************************************* To pre-register, please print out this form and bring in or mail to: The Brecht Forum 122 West 27 Street 10 floor New York, New York 10001-6281 Registration fee (sliding scale): $10/$15 (students, low-income: $7.50) Please make checks payable to The Brecht Forum. Name:__________________________________________________________________ Street_________________________________________________________________ City, State & Zip______________________________________________________ Email address__________________________________________________________ Telephone______________________________________________________________ ______ I have enclosed a check for $_______ to pre-register for Challenging the Color Line. ______ Please charge my pre-registration to my credit card. ______ Visa ______ Mastercard FOR YOUR SAFETY, DO NOT SEND CREDIT CARD INFORMATION BY EMAIL. Card number____________________________________________________________ Expiration date________________________________________________________ Signature______________________________________________________________ ****************************************************************** Directions to New York University Law School: NYU Law School is at 40 Washington Square South, at the southwest corner of Washington Square Park (West Fourth Street and Macdougal Street, one block east of Sixth Avenue). IND Sixth Avenue F and IND Eighth Avenue A, C and E trains to West Fourth Street IRT Seventh Avenue #1 local train to Christopher Street/Sheridan Square BMT Broadway N and R trains to 8 Street IRT Lexington Avenue #6 local train to Bleecker Street New Jersey PATH trains to 9 Street <=======> Tell no lies, claim no easy victories -Amilcar Cabral Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral -Paulo Friere I hope I never lose hope, but if that day comes and I'm sure that I have nothing to expect, nothing to believe in, and that the human condition is doomed to stupidity and crime, then I hope I will be honest enough to kill myself. -Eduardo Galeano Yesterday we bowed for kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today, we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. -Kahlil Gibran The truth is always revolutionary -Antonio Gramsci Mas vale morir de pie, que vivir de rodillas -Praxedis Guerrero My silences have not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. -Audre Lorde If you're not ready to die for it, put the word "freedom" out of your vocabulary. -Malcolm X The most important time in history is NOW, the present -Talib Kweli Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. -Benito Mussolini <=======>