[Newspoetry] [Encuentro for Popular Education Oct.13] (fwd)

[david moses fruchter]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Gomez <mpgomez at earthling.net>

Subject: Encuentro for Popular Education (EPE13), Call to Action, Please
Distribute Widely

To Student, Community and Labor Activists:
To People involved in struggles for autonomy and learning in and out of
formal school settings:
To Persons working to expose the contradictions and fallacies of the World
Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organization:
To Organizations and individuals interested in artistic expressions of
resistance:
To Civil Society in the region of the United States:

We invite you to join us for the Encuentro for Popular Education / Days of
Action October 13-15, 2000 (EPE13), in Austin, Texas. EPE13 will provide a
space for people to engage in critical dialogue in the hopes of sharing
experiences and resources, building new relationships, and developing
collective strategies for creative activism against privatization and for
autonomy.

We will converge to assess the current situation of economic restructuring
that is transforming schools into corporations and ignoring dissenting
voices, restructuring that fundamentally alters the relationship between
education, social and economic justice, and communities.

We will gather to discuss culture and difference, to join student forces
with labor and activists working to further our common goals of liberty,
justice and democracy, building ties between schools and the community to
combat the ties that so many schools are creating with multinational
corporations.

We will meet to share our strategies and victories through our work in
local communities and national networks, finding ways to continue to
communicate and organize our networks of resistance. We will gather to
participate in protests organized against the Fortune 500 Annual Forum, to
march in solidarity with the Immigrants Rights March, to march in the AIDS
awareness event, andwith the Campaign to End the Death Penalty's Millennium
March on the Mansion (MCubed) in the
death penalty capitol of the world.

This October's encuentro will coincide with mobilizations in over twenty
countries occurring during the same week, providing an opportunity for
solidarity not yet seen in this very eventful year.

EPE13 has many interconnected origins: the numerous Zapatista Encuentros
against Neoliberalism and for Humanity that have taken place since 1994;
the International Student Encuentro convened by students at the National
Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico in last April; recent activism at
the high school level to direct curricullum; recent mobilizations in
Seattle, D.C., Philly and L.A.; the recent national meeting of United
Students Against Sweatshops and 180 Movement for Democracy and Education
(180 MDE) in Eugene, Oregon; and the growth of Independent Media Centers
(IMC) worldwide that have inspired us through their commitment to community
access to information.

Our goal is weave a discussion of the roles that gender, race and sexuality
play into our workshops and discussion tables. Three general topics have
emerged as organizing tools:

1) Relationships between schools and non-corporate communities
2) Culture, Media and Education
3) Local, national and international networks of activism

These are initial guidelines to facilitate our dialogue. All non-corporate
organizations and individuals are encouraged to present more specific
topics. For example, we will facilitate collective independent media
coverage by providing workshops on media production in addition to making
editing equipment available to participants. Students from the UNAM will
attend the event to share their experiences organizing in Mexico. We hope
to provide simultaneous web-conferencing in a variety of discussions
between groups in other countries and activists in Seattle who are planning
a similar gathering. Please submit your specific proposals for workshops
and discussion tables to Alan Gomez at a.eladio at mail.utexas.edu. These will
be listed on the EPE13 website <ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/^munjak/encuentro.html>
as they become available. The final schedule will be available before the
encuentro through email only.

All meals posted on the will be provided, from two to three vegetarian
meals Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Please bring your own plate, cup and
utensils. There is some housing and campgrounds available.  Public
transportation in Austin is good and we will be centrally located for all
activities. For any other logistical question contact: Andre Lancaster
512-419-0160 and andrezra at yahoo.com.

For all other questions contact Esperanza Garza at 210-432-7924 and
zapatista999 at yahoo.com and view our webpage in progress at
ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/^munjak/encuentro.html>.

  From the hills of south central Texas,

EPE13 Organizing Collective
September 8, 2000

"Nunca jamas un mundo sin nosotros."
_____________________________________________________
Colectivo Autonomo Zapatista de Tejas
zapatista999 at yahoo.com
210.432.7924

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