<html>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>From: "Sergio Mojarro"
<jaguar83@email.com><br>
To: <peterm@shout.net><br>
Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2002 15:15:03 +0800<br>
<br>
Sorry About that.. I just thought it would be a little lame cause there's
a lot of information...but here it is:<br>
<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><b>Saturday April 27<sup>th<br>
</sup></b></div>
<br>
<div align="center"><b>MAYDAY REGIONAL CONFERENCE<br>
</b></div>
<br>
<h1><b>From Local to Global: the Midwest on Fire</b></h1><br><br>
<h2><b>A forum for organizing and strategizing</b></h2><br>
<br>
<i>“Welcome to a space to educate ourselves about realities and flash
point struggles in the Midwest, to get involved, to coordinate, to
network, to design common strategies, and finally to link our activism to
the global level”<br>
</i><br>
<b>UIC CAMPUS<br>
</b><br>
Welcome to the MAYDAY organizing workshops. During this conference, there
will be workshop sessions during the morning and they will be repeated
during the afternoon.<br><br>
Here you will find 3 items:<br>
<br>
<b>I. Goals of the workshops<br>
</b><br>
<b>II. How can we accomplish these
goals??<br>
</b><br>
<b>III. Suggested Workshop’s Outline <br>
</b><br>
<b>IV.
List of workshop topics <br>
</b><br>
<b> <br>
</b><br>
<b> <br>
</b><br>
<b>I. <u>GOALS:<br>
</u></b><br>
<br>
The thrust of this conference is <b><i>Organizational.</i></b> Although
there will be an educational component, it would be awesome trying to
facilitate network building and strategizing sessions. <br><br>
Explicitly the conference will be a serious attempt:<br>
<b>a)~ To facilitate and build ties amongst
activists/organizers in the Midwest with the long-term goal of
establishing a functional “social response” network in the region.<br>
<br>
b)~ To learn about regional flashpoint
struggles/campaigns, what’s burning in our communities and how to support
each other.<br>
</b><br>
<b>c)~ To connect our local struggles to global
resistance movements and vice-versa.<br>
</b><br>
You can meet other people working on the same or related issues that you
are working on or interested in! <br><br>
You can begin to coordinate with these people in order to work together
in the future!<br>
<br>
<b>II.
<u>HOW CAN WE START TO ACCOMPLISH THESE GOALS? <br>
</u></b><br>
<b>*Workshops are based on actual struggles/campaigns currently going on
in the MidWest.</b> These could be community-based struggles directly
affecting neighborhoods and towns throughout the region. Also, current
regional work being done on national/global issues (ie. anti-war work).
<br>
<br>
Come to share your actual lived organizing experience! <br><br>
This is not about academic stuff or discussion just for its own
sake!<br>
<br>
<b>**Workshops combine an informative part & organizational part.
<br>
</b><br>
<b>Time for educating + Time for </b>networking, discussing strategies,
campaigns, actions. . . towards furthering activist contact in the region
around the workshop’s topic.<br>
<br>
Everybody can be a speaker!<br><br>
The workshops can serve as mini-forums for your struggle!<br>
<br>
<b>***Workshops can facilitate the “plugging-in” of new people interested
in the topics and the movement.<br>
</b><br>
Get in on the organizing!<br><br>
<b>III.
<u>SUGGESTED OUTLINE:<br>
</u></b><br>
<b>1. EDUCATIONAL PART:<br>
</b><br>
<b>-Presentation about the topic in general & local work being
done<br>
</b><br>
<b>by some key activists from the region (Q&A)<br>
</b><br>
<b>2. ORGANIZATIONAL SESSION with a
<i>Facilitator:<br>
</i></b><br>
<b>-Collective Brainstorm: Looking for common strategies<br>
</b><br>
<b>And finally…<br>
</b><br>
<b>3. **FRIENDLY REQUIREMENT**<br>
</b><br>
<font color="#FF0000"><b>Come up with an Action Proposal!</font><br>
</b><br>
<b>This could be a protest, a campaign, a conference, or anything that
could use serious support from others in the region.<br>
</b><br>
<b><i>[Every workshop would come up with something in order to make it
part of the “COLLECTIVE ACTION TIMELINE for the MIDWEST” to be presented
at the end of the last Panel of the day.<br>
</i></b><br>
<b>IV.
<u>List of workshop topics and Contact Persons: <br>
</u></b><br>
<b>1. FIGHTING FOR A ROOF: Affordable
Housing & the struggle against gentrification in the Midwest [
Tobe- ]<br>
</b><br>
<b>2. WINING PEOPLE’S CONTROL over HIGHER
EDUCATION: Stopping Corporatization! Democratizing our Colleges and
Universities! [Earl ]<br>
</b><br>
<b>3. EDUCATION FOR ALL: Reclaiming
opportunities in targeted communities [ ? ] <br>
</b><br>
<b>4. “THIS IS OUR NEIBORHOOD!”: Keeping
our streets safe from POLICE BRUTALITY & RACIAL PROFILING in
the MIDWEST [Ted]<br>
</b><br>
<b>5. PAPELES PARA TODOS-No human is
illegal: Immigrant Rights and Amnesty [Aasia?]<br>
</b><br>
<b>6. BRINGING THE INTIFADAH to the
MIDWEST: the struggle for Palestinian Liberation & How to build more
solidarity in this region [Stephanie and Hakim]<br>
</b><br>
<b>7. MAYDAY: HISTORY & FUTURE
[ ]<br>
</b><br>
<b>8. PATRIARCHY IN THE BARRICADES:
Building egalitarian movements, organizations, meetings, …!
[Tanuja]<br>
</b><br>
<b>9. ECOLOGY in the MIDWEST: defending our
survival & sustaining our future (antinuclear, community gardens and
farms, community eco-education, etc) [Tom]<br>
</b><br>
<b>10. DEFENDING THE AGRO in the MIDWEST: Family Farms, Rights and
Justice for Farmworkers, and Food Sovereignty [Mari & Seb]<br>
</b><br>
<b>11. THE CORPORATE AGENDA FOR MENTAL HEALTH [Catheline]<br>
</b><br>
<b>12. A SUCCESFUL CAMPAIGN: the struggle against Corporate Animal
Cruelty [Mike]<br>
</b><br>
<b>13. STOPPING THE “ENDLESS WAR” AT HOME and ABROAD: Efforts by
the anti-war movement in the Midwest [? ]<br>
</b><br>
<b>14. WORKERS OF THE MIDWEST UNITE!! Labor Struggles in the
Region: Building Rank and File Control & Solidarity for and amongst
Workers [Clif???????] <br>
</b><br>
<b>…<br>
</b><br>
<b> #####SOME TIPS FOR “CONTACT PERSONS”#####<br>
</b><br>
<b>These are some current workshop themes. <br>
</b><br>
<b>(Please, rename your workshop if you feel it necessary, current titles
are tentative and add your contact info in the parenthesis)<br>
</b><br>
<b> There is need for some contact persons in some of the themes.
Please, get excited about one of them!<br>
</b><br>
<b>There is the possibility to add a new one (until 18 or 20)<br>
</b><br>
<b>As a “contact person” your role would be to invite activists from the
region (for the moment the workshops are a bit Chicago heavy) working on
your workshop issue: <br>
</b><br>
<b>Try pitching the workshop as a network and outreach opportunity!
<br>
</b><br>
<b>Maintain contact with them to make sure that they are coming.<br>
</b><br>
<b>Keep in mind, that all the contacts that you are doing now are very
valuable for building an effective DATA BASE for future long-term work in
the region: please compile them having complete information including:
NAME, ORG, PLACE, CONTACT, CURRENT CAMPAIGN, NOTES, etc.<br>
</b><br>
The workshops require <b><i>facilitators</i>:</b> please, think about who
it could be. Maybe yourself or another person (friendliness,
assertiveness, brevity, and focus are good to keep in mind). A “Guide for
Facilitators” is coming soon, so please, let us know who is going to be
the facilitator.<br>
<br><br>
<b>You can use this DOCUMENT when you are inviting people to join the
workshop to clarify what they can expect from the workshops. This would
also ideally empower workshop participants since it would help put people
on more or less the same page, so they can guide and focus the workshop’s
direction.<br>
</b>-- <br>
<font face="Courier New, Courier"></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Peter D. Miller, Ph.D., Organizer<br>
Illinois Education Association/NEA<br>
809 S. Fifth Street<br>
Champaign, IL 61820<br>
(217) 337-5174<br>
(217) 384-7763 (fax)</font></html>