2012 Students for a Democratic Society National Convention @ UF - Gainesville PARTIAL AGENDA NOW UP!

Submitted by steph on September 5, 2012 - 9:50am

Speakers: Noor Elashi, journalist and award winning author, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from The New School. Currently living in New York City, Noor is a longtime advocate for her father Ghassan Elashi, an American Palestinian political prisoner and one of the Holy Land Five charity leaders. Among her many ongoing projects are: writing a father-daughter memoir, honing her pilates skills, maintaing freedomtogive.com and baking artisan gluten-free sweets.

Tom Burke, is spokesperson for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. A leader with the Progressive Student Network in college, he became a labor and international solidarity activist, launching the Coca-Cola boycott to support Colombian unions in 2003. Subpoenaed to a Grand Jury in Chicago in 2010, he refused to speak, and continues to organize against war and oppression.

Workshop topics include: Radical Environmentalism for a Democratic Society, Statewide Student Association Building, Dealing with Opposition, How to Build a Campaign and Win, Revolutionary Organizing in the American Heartland, Coalition Building Across Sectors. MORE TBA

WORKSHOP REGISTRATION: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9QVPH2Y

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/events/423410731050310/

LOCATION: J. Wayne Reitz Union | 686 Museum Road | Gainesville, FL 32603

DONATE: Please Donate Here: http://www.newsds.org/?q=node/13

Or mail a check to our fiscal sponser, ACT. Please follow these steps: :

Mail check to: ACT/ PO Box 1286/ Austin TX 78767-1286

Check payable to: ACT

Memo line: SDS, National Convention

Beginning on October 27th, 2012, Students for a Democratic Society will be hosting our annual national convention in Gainesville, FL. We want to spread the word far and wide so that SDSers across the nation and progressive students can begin making plans to attend this exciting and important convention the weekend of October 27th & 28th

****Times and line-up subject to change!!****

Saturday, October 27th
Registration - 8:00 - 8:30 -

Opening Plenary - 8:30 - 9:30 -
Welcome Presentation - What is SDS, what do we do, and how do we function? What the weekend will look like.

Workshop Section 1 - 9:40- 10:40

Radical Environmentalism for a Democratic Society -Rachel Walsh, Tallahassee, FL- We will discuss the intersection between environmental issues and myriad other social issues, and formation of a cohesive radical ideology and resistance movement that incorporates all of these issues. We will start by giving an overview of radical environmental theories and a few of the most pressing ecological problems of our day. We will talk about how these ecological problems affect issues of class, race, sex, and gender, how they are related to capitalism and global imperialism, and how the various movements working on these issues can come together.

Statewide Student Association Building- Lisa Grab, Montclair State University- This is a workshop on the statewide student association model that we have been using in NJ for organizing on the statewide level. We will discuss how to organize social justice oriented organizations and coalitions across the state and how to coordinate actions. This workshop also stresses the importance of broad recruitment based on student issues and the need for accessible education. It relates to collective liberation because it stresses recruitment and coalition building, and an approach that utilizes a variety of tactics.

Farmworker Rights and the School to Prison Pipeline - Victor Yengle, University of FL - Gainesville, Sol Marquez, University of S. FL - Tampa

Collective Breakout - 10:50 - 11:50 - Gender & Sexuality: Further Than the Binary - Grace Kelley, University of MN SDS and Kait McIntyre, Unversity of IL - Chicago SDS

Workshop Section 2 - 12:00 - 1:00

Turning the Red States Red: Revolutionary Organizing in the American Heart Land - Gregory Lucero, Salt Lake City Revolutionary Student Union - There will be a brief discussion about the Revolutionary Students Union followed by a description of our tactics and mass campaigns. It will then be open to discussion both for the discussion of the benefits and draw backs of assuming a Revolutionary mantle, and discussion on how those experiences can be applied to struggles across the country.

Combating Male Chauvinism Within Your SDS Chapter - Chrisley Carpio and Pam Maldonado

Organizing a Rally as an Effect for Change - Preston Gilmore - Austin Peay State University - This workshop invites participants to play out different aspects of the necessary organizing leading up to a rally. There will be a period after to discuss and reflect on what can be learned from the different aspects of the exercise and what role a rally might play in an overall campaign or how it might be used to jumpstart a campaign. Whether it is a rally to end FBI repression, for education rights, etc the skills taught here will be transferrable to other organizing work on campus and off.

Activism After College: Reviving Trade Unionism - Dave Schneider, Corey Uhl, Sol Marquez - University of S. FL - Tampa- This workshop is aimed at student activists and organizers who plan on continuing to build the people's movements after college and discusses the role that graduated students can play in the labor movement. With many students graduating and unable to find jobs after college, this workshop gives suggestions for post-college jobs that give ex-students the opportunity to continue organizing in trade unions.

Free Lunch - 1:10 - 2:15

Chapter Reportbacks happen concurrently here

PLENARY 1: Fighting Back Against Political Repression - 2:30 - 3:30

Noor Elashi, journalist and award winning author, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from The New School. Currently living in New York City, Noor is a longtime advocate for her father Ghassan Elashi, an American Palestinian political prisoner and one of the Holy Land Five charity leaders. Among her many ongoing projects are: writing a father-daughter memoir, honing her pilates skills, maintaing freedomtogive.com and baking artisan gluten-free sweets.

Tom Burke is spokesperson for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. A leader with the Progressive Student Network in college, he became a labor and international solidarity activist, launching the Coca-Cola boycott to support Colombian unions in 2003. Subpoenaed to a Grand Jury in Chicago in 2010, he refused to speak, and continues to organize against war and oppression.

Workshop Section 3 - 3:40 - 4:40

Dealing with Opposition/Opposition Research - Mark Ludas. Montclair State University - Dealing with Opposition involves learning how to understand your adversary, its motivations, its thought processes, its character, and how best to gird your organization against its power by understanding how to quantify that power as well as its corresponding amount of weakness.

How to Build a Campaign on Your Campus and Win - Mia Overly & Kelly O'Brien, University of MN - Twin Cities - Want to learn how to build a sustainable radical movement on your campus? Come learn how to build a campaign! Campaigns tie together events & actions on campus in a way that pushes movements forward. Learn how to implement a campaign on your campus (at this workshop).

Student Movements, Past & Present - Tom Burke, past PSN and CSFR

Collective Breakout- 4:50 - 5:30 - Organizing Against Racism & National Oppression Within and Outside of SDS

PLENARY 2: Voices from the Left Student Movement and Continuing the Fight for Education Rights - 5:40-7:00

Featuring: Students for Justice in Palestine, Ryan Thomson - Occupy Colleges/SDS, Gainesville SDS

Free Dinner - 7:00

After-Party - 8:30 -

Sunday, October 28th

Reading and Passing Statements- 9:45 - 11:00

Workshop Section 4 - 11:10 - 12:10

Modern History of Kurdistan and the PKK - Gregory Tuttle, Montclair State University- We will be exploring a Communist struggle that most people are not familiar with, look at parallels to movements we are familiar with, and have fun in the process.

Reproductive Justice - Jessica Schwartz, Florida State University - Examples will be provided of how reproductive justice is crucial to all of our struggles, as well as open up the discussion for people to say how it relates to their cause(s). Reproductive justice is an important issue for radical activists to understand and discuss. In order to fight for the causes we care about, we must think about them in an intersectional manner, and thinking about how reproductive justice affects or is affected by the SDS campaigns across the country will help us have a wider perspective on our issues.

Closing Goodbyes - 12:20-1:20

OTHER INFO: For Gainesville and other FL chapters of SDS, a lot of logistics and money go into making sure that people are housed and fed. If your in a chapter and have the ability to bring food for either yourselves or non-perishables that can feed approximately 150 people, please indicate that on the registration form! This will help us cut costs and and will allow us to focus more on making this convention a success!

If you are not in a chapter but would like to support our efforts, SDS on a national level is ALWAYS looking for charitable donations. Your contribution can help raise scholarship money for SDSers who are lacking travel funds. Please consider donating here: http://www.newsds.org/?q=node%2F13

The national convention has consistently been a space that youth and students throughout the country gather to share progressive ideologies, ideas for action, and methods of organizing. We have done this in the past through plenaries, inviting speakers and hosting a variety of workshops taught by and for SDSers and other progressive youth. Workshop topics have included everything from how to make a flyer, how to run successful campaigns on your campus, and Mud-Stenciling. These skill shares are a part of what makes our conventions memorable and our movements stronger.
While we do have limited space for what we can accomplish over the weekend of the convention, we encourage everyone to submit workshop proposals that they might be willing to teach. You can do this on the registration form below.

Lastly, this year we are really encouraging all chapters to fundraise locally to contribute to their own methods of transportation. While SDS on a national level has some money we are asking local chapters to attempt to cover most of their own expenses. Hosting a hang out or a party with a $5 cover at the door is an easy way for friends and supporters to invest in your activities. Sending letters to supportive faculty or staff on your campuses that ask for a donation is another easy way to raise money for your chapter. Need other ideas? Email us at students4ademocraticsociety@gmail.com or start a thread on the SDS facebook page.

If you are planning to come to the convention, please fill out the registration form as soon as possible. This will help us with planning when it comes to housing, food, reserving rooms, and allocating funds. In addition, there are limited funds available for travel stipends if you and/or your chapter needs financial help in getting to Gainesville. These funds are limited, and we encourage chapters to look primarily at fundraising locally or getting your school to sponsor you - if you are interested in getting a stipend, keep all receipts and we will try to retroactively reimburse you for part of your travel!

We look forward to an exciting convention. Everyone's involvement is what will really make it great!

steph's blog

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UPDATED INFO FOR INCOMING PEOPLE

Submitted by steph on October 25, 2012 - 7:33pm.

INFORMATION FOR WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN GAINESVILLE:

We will have two places that you can go to register and receive your housing information. If you arrive Friday evening, please go to this address:

432 SW 5th Street
Gainesville, FL 32601

You will be able to check-in, register, and receive your housing information. If you arrive on Saturday morning before the convention, please go straight to the location of the convention (the Reitz Union) that's listed on this event page. I'll update the official information later.

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