[Imc] John Ross visit, Normal IMC

[john karl wilson]

It looks like those of us in Bloomington-Normal will be trying to form an
IMC sometime soon. Anyone with advice for us can get in touch; we're
mostly looking to set up a website, to supplement the Indy newspaper. We
don't have any plans for a physical location. I've toyed with the idea of
trying to set up a resource center in a library or the Coffeehouse, but I
don't think that's a priority.

One of our tech people has an early sample of the website,
http://www.ilstu.edu/~gdower/demos/indy/index.html

I'm also trying to arrange a speech by John Ross about the Zapatistas, at
ISU and the U of I, on Nov. 12, 13, 15, or 16. We'd need to get a few
hundred dollars, and arrange transit to/from Chicago.

[Sorry to send this out to the whole list, but I don't know who the right
contacts are in C-U anymore.]

[Incidentally, I've been trying to arrange a Columbus Day visit by James
Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, so if anybody in Urbana has
some money--he usually gets 2500, but would be flexible--to work on that,
get in touch with me ASAP.]

Thanks,
John Wilson
309-452-2006

P.S. Here's the info on John Ross:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 19:07:55 +0000
From: johnross <johnross at igc.org>
To: jkw3 at midway.uchicago.edu
Subject: Oblivion - UChicago

	This Fall, I will be on the road with my latest work, “The War Against
Oblivion - Zapatista Chronicles”, the amazing, season by season, seven
year saga of the Mayan Indian uprising in Chiapas that I have been
covering from its earliest hours, and the sequel to my “Rebellion From
the Roots” (American Book Award 1995) - the salient details are included
in the attached press bulletin.
	Do hope that you will be interested in setting up a presentation.
						Un abrazo,
						John Ross in Mexico City
*******************************************
FROM: JOHN ROSS
		011-525-510-3376
		johnross at igc.org

PRIZE-WINNING MEXICO AUTHOR OFF ON  COAST-TO-COAST ZAPATISTA TEACH-IN
TOUR - LATE DATES STILL OPEN FOR “NEW JOHN REED”

	MEXICO CITY - Mexico author John Ross, dubbed the “new John Reed” by
the Mexican daily La Jornada, will hit the road this Autumn on a
coast-to-coast Zapatista teach-in tour featuring his latest work, “The
War Against Oblivion - Zapatista Chronicles” (Common Courage 2001), the
amazing, seven year saga of the Mayan Indian uprising in Chiapas. Stops
will include northern California (October 15-31), Minnesota (Nov 1-7),
Chicago Illinois-Madison Wisconsin (Nov. 8-17), Cincinnati (Nov. 17-20)
New York City, and New England (Nov 25-Dec. 12.)  
	The Mexico City-based Ross will also be presenting his latest volume of
poetry “Against Amnesia”, featuring new works drawn from the Zapatista
experience.  John Ross was one of the first correspondents on the ground
in Chiapas following the Zapatistas’ New Year’s 1994 rebellion.
	Author-correspondent- activist-poet John Ross has logged over 20,000
miles in the past year bringing the story of the Zapatista struggle to
North American audiences from Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for
Latin American Studies to the Narciso Martinez Cultural Center in the
Rio Grande Valley of Texas. 
	“The War Against Oblivion” speaks to the reader through the voices of
the Zapatistas’ charismatic Subcomandante Marcos, the Mayan villagers of
Chiapas, and Ross’s own ineffable gift of gab.
	John Ross is a long-time Mexico correspondent for Noticias Aliadas
(Lima), Gemini News Service (London), the Texas Observer. the LA Weekly,
and Sierra Magazine among other publications.  “The War Against
Oblivion” is his third volume of writings on the Zapatista uprising -
“Rebellion From the Roots” won a 1995 American Book Award and “The
Annexation of Mexico - From the Aztecs to the IMF”, a post-Zapatista
encounter with Mexican history, is extensively read on U.S. college
campuses.  
	Ross is also the author of “In Focus Mexico”, a political guidebook to
be re-released next year, and “Tonatiuh’s People”, a novel of the
Mexican cataclysm, which is fast achieving cult status amongst
Mexicophiles. Ross will be featured in The Nation Books’ upcoming
“Zapatista Reader” out in November.  He also publishes a weekly on-line
newsletter “Mexico Barbaro”, a mordant view of political outrages south
of the border reported from the grassroots.
	Identified as a younger Beat poet, John Ross is the author of eight
chapbooks of poetry including “Whose Bones”, “JazzMexico”, and the
hot-off-the-press “Against Amnesia” (Calaca de Pelon, Mexico City) from
which he will read on the upcoming tour.
	Besides presenting the two new volumes, John Ross will lecture on
“Fixing the Zapatistas In history - How the EZLN Has Changed the Face of
Mexico”; “Killing Hope - Denying Indian Rights”, detailing the fall-out
from the gutting of an Indian Rights law by the Mexican congress; “Fox
Incorporated - Selling Off Mexico”, an evaluation of Vicente Fox’s first
year as president; and “Globalization or Gobblezation” - How the
globalization of resource exploitation is driving human rights,
environmental, and agrarian struggles together in Mexico. 
	John Ross is also offering “The War Against Oblivion”, a ten session
seminar guiding students and scholars through seven years of the
Zapatista rebellion. The syllabus is available upon request.
*****************************************
for booking information write johnross at igc.org or call 011-525-510-3376
in Mexico City.