There are reports from many activist organizations that indicate both snail mail
and e-mail are continually late, often arriving after the planned meeting or rally.
A good alternative is to have a calendar on the web so those wanting to participate
in the political process may do so without Cointelpro interference....

This page is updated continually, so be sure to click the RELOAD button
on your browser.

Wednesday, September 11, 8 p.m.
"Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters"
Irwin Tang  will lead a discussion on his new book, Gook: John McCain's
Racism and Why It  Matters. The book offers a detailed history of Senator John
McCain's racial  bias, including his habit of using the racial slur "gook." Tang
links racism  with warmongering and examines McCain's consistent advocacy of
shooting wars in  foreign countries.
Location: MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North  Loop.

Thursday, September 11, 7pm
 "Arrogance, ignorance, and cowardice: What we should learn from 9/11"
Robert Jensen, UT journalism professor and author of Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, will deliver a lecture on "Arrogance, ignorance, and cowardice: What we should learn from 9/11." The talk will be followed by a screening of the film War Made Easy. Jensen was widely criticized for his anti-war writings after 9/11, which led many to call for his dismissal from his teaching job. Jensen's talk is the opening event of a four day series, "Struggle for Global Justice: Screenings in Solidarity with Dr. Binayak Sen," details below.
Location: UT - Austin, Welch Hall, Room 2.246, map at http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/wel.html

Thursday, September 11 - Sunday, September 14
Struggle for Global Justice: Screenings in Solidarity with Dr. Binayak Sen
This 4 day series is in solidarity with Dr. Binayak Sen, a well-known health and human-rights activist from the state of Chhattisgarh (India), imprisoned on charges of alleged sedition by the Indian Government, for speaking out against the barbarity of counter-insurgency operations by security forces in the tribal "heartland" of India.
The schedule - also available at http://www.freewebs.com/azaadforum/eventsactivities.htm - is:
Thursday, 9/11:
7 pm - Robert Jensen, "Arrogance, ignorance, and cowardice: What we should learn from 9/11" and War Made Easy. (see above)
Friday, 9/12:
7 pm - Documentary: "Blood and Oil"
Saturday, 9/13:
10 am - Talk: On the Movie (Prof. Kaushik Ghosh)
11 am - Documentary: "Development Flows from the Barrel of the Gun"
1 pm - Documentary: "Tales from the Margin"
3 pm - Documentary: "The Take"
Sunday, 9/14:
5 pm - Documentary: "It's a Boy"
6 pm - Talk: On the Movie (Prof. Kamala Visweswaran)
7 pm - Documentary: "Secrets and Lies"
Location: UT - Austin, Welch Hall, Room 2.246, map at http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/wel.html

Tuesday, September 16, 6:00p.m.
YES....YOUR VOTE COUNTS!
Preview Screening & Discussion - 6:30 p.m.

Just as Americans prepare to go to the polls again to elect a President,
the film Election Day offers a vivid and sometimes unsettling account of
the last presidential election, when America's voting practices, once
taken for granted, came under new and intense observation and challenge.
The film takes viewers around the country to capture the drama unfolding
on November. 2, 2004. It's as fast-paced and suspenseful as a thriller,
with vote counts and political activism substituting for shootouts and
car chases. The good news in Election Day is that more and more
Americans are bringing their passion for democracy to the polls. The bad
news is that close scrutiny of American elections finds a surprisingly
antiquated system, which often works as much to frustrate voter
participation as to encourage it and which harbors wide disparities in
access between rich and poor neighborhoods.

Following the film screening, you'll meet local election officials and
learn how the Austin area is meeting the challenge of updating its
election system and addressing the disparities in access to the polls.
Find out where your neighbors get information about the candidates and
issues. Share how your voting experience can be improved.

This series is presented by partners: KLRU, Hands On Central Texas,
United Way Capital Area, The George Washington Carver Museum and
Cultural Center, and the Heritage Council.

Register to vote at this event!
Location: Carver Museum 1165 Angelina St.
Light Refreshments served at 6:00p.m.

Thursday, September 18, 7 pm
P. Sainath, "Inequality: The Global Economy and Local Realities"
Beyond the rhetoric about the wonders of globalization is the reality of ordinary people's lives. How do the decisions made by the powerful in government and business affect those lives? Why is the inequality gap around the world widening? After two decades of reporting on the false promises of the global economy and painful local realities, India's leading journalist P. Sainath is uniquely qualified to help us understand these issues.
P. Sainath is the pre-eminent chronicler of rural life in India, logging thousands of kilometers of travel each year to villages in the countryside. Sainath is currently the Mumbai bureau chief and rural affairs editor of The Hindu newspaper. His classic 1996 book, Everybody Loves A Good Drought, was based on his reporting from the 10 poorest districts of five states in India while on a Times of India fellowship. In 2007 Sainath received the Ramon Magsaysay Award (often referred to as the Asian Nobel Prize) for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts. He has also received the A.H. Boerma Award in 2001 and the Prem Bhatia Award for excellence in political reporting and analysis for 2003-04 in recognition of his "outstanding, indeed exceptional, work on the problems of the poorest of the poor."
Location: UT - Austin, Thompson Conference Center (TCC 1.110), map at http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/tcc.html
There is free convenient parking for motorists in the large lots along Red River, http://www.utexas.edu/cee/tcc/img/maps/TCCparkingmMap.pdf
The conference center is on Bicycle Route 42, http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/bicycle/downloads/bicycle%20map_07.pdf
For bus routes, use the trip planner at capmetro.org.

Wednesday, September 24, 7 p.m.
Third Coast Film Night at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz: "FLOW: For the Love of Water"
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what some would label the most important political and
environmental issue of the 21st Century: the global water crisis.
Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on
politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.
Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the
film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "can anyone
really own water?"
Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to
the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and
economic turnaround.
Film website - http://flowthefilm.com/
Location: Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 320 E. 6th Street
Tickets - $8.50 general / $6.50 student, senior.

Wednesday, September 24, 7 pm
Forum on the T. Don Hutto Detention Center
Immigration Reform Effort sponsors this forum on the controversial T. Don Hutto Family Residential Facility in Taylor, run by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America. Panelists include Barbara Hines, clinical professor of law and director of the Immigration Clinic at UT School of Law and co-counsel in the lawsuits challenging conditions at T. Don Hutto; Scott Medlock, Attorney; Prisoners' Rights Advocate in the Austin office for the Texas Civil Rights Project; Bob Libal, Texas Coordinator, Grassroots Leadership, which works to abolish for-profit private prisons; and Jose Orta, President, LULAC Council 4721, longtime Taylor resident, and critic of the Hutto Detention Center.
Location: Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. 8th St.

October 21, 22, 29 at 7 pm
Third Coast Film Night at Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, "Secrecy"
Secrecy, a new film by Harvard professors Peter Galison and Robb Moss about government classification debates, debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008. Historian Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, played a featured role in the film and the discussion following it at Sundance. The film examines "the hidden world of national security policy by examining the many implications of secrecy, both for government and individuals."
"We live in a world where the production of secret knowledge dwarfs the production of open knowledge," the filmmakers say. "Depending on whom you ask, government secrecy is either the key to victory in our struggle against terrorism, or our Achilles heel." The film explores the various ways "secrecy saves" lives by keeping volatile information out of the hands of dangerous people, and how "secrecy corrupts" governments by shielding them from public accountability. The film interviews former military and intelligence service personnel, historians, scientists, and lawyers on both sides of the open access divide. The film covers "the vast, invisible world of government secrecy. By focusing on classified secrets, the government's ability to put information out of sight if it would harm national security, Secrecy explores the tensions between our safety as a nation, and our ability to function as a democracy."
The October 29 screening will be followed by a Q&A with ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who is interviewed in the film about the ACLU's handling of the case of Khaled El-Masri, who was kidnapped and detained for five months in a secret CIA prison.
Location: Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, 320 E. 6th Street.
Tickets - $8.50 general / $6.50 student, senior.
These screenings are presented in conjunction with ACLU - Texas.

Aug  2008
Jul   2008
Jun   2008
May 2008
Apr   2008
Mar  2008
Feb  2008
Jan   2008
Dec  2007
Nov  2007
Oct   2007
Sep   2007