[PEN-L:4612] [Fwd: [BRC-NEWS] Ethnic Studies and Radical Politics Conference] boundary="------------66F1647FD36C2704381EEBD7"

[Gar Lipow <lipowg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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--
Gar W. Lipow
815 Dundee RD NW
Olympia, WA 98502
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	Sun, 28 Mar 1999 00:47:31 -0800 (PST)
	Sun, 28 Mar 1999 00:45:32 -0800 (PST)
	Sun, 28 Mar 1999 00:31:02 -0800 (PST)
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 00:31:01 -0800 (PST)
From: crossover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sender: owner-brc-news@xxxxxxx
Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Ethnic Studies and Radical Politics Conference
To: brc-news@xxxxxxx
X-WWW-Site: http://www.blackradicalcongress.com/

A Strategy Session and 30 Year Commemoration of the
U. C. Berkeley Third World Strike:
April 9-10, 1999

CROSSING OVER 1969-1999:
Ethnic Studies and Radical Politics
Beyond the Schooling Industrial Complex

        This spring marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Third World
Strike at the University of California, Berkeley.  As a collective action
initiated by students of color on January 22, 1969, the strike posed a
sustained and far-reaching challenge to the conservative university
administration and state government. The enduring effects of that campaign
included the establishment of an Ethnic Studies program, the (temporary)
construction of institutional links between campus and community, and the
formation of an unprecedented solidarity among radical youth of color.
This historic anniversary of the Third World Strike provides an
opportunity to commemorate the movement and to critically revisit the
principles that informed it: self-determination, educational relevancy,
cross-disciplinary collaboration and multiethnic political solidarity.

        CROSSING OVER considers Ethnic Studies to be a vital site of
political resistance, even as it is housed within the corporate
university. Our task is to deepen and extend the Third World Strike
platform as it characterized schools as "racist institutions within the
system of global capitalism," taking into account the massive
transformations that have taken place in the last three decades. In this
spirit, the student organizers of this event invite activists, educators,
scholars, students, artists, and movement veterans to convene on April 9th
and 10th, 1999 to reflect on the historic struggle for Ethnic Studies and
to strategize about contemporary radicalism in and beyond the university.

        A guiding principle of this gathering will be that challenging the
exclusionary and discriminatory practices of educational institutions is
necessary but ultimately insufficient as a radical alternative to the
current situation.  A narrow focus on increased "access" to these
institutions simply will not produce sustainable, viable social change.
While efforts to secure equal opportunity, equal access, and equitable
funding must continue, it is imperative to develop a fundamental critique
of schools as sites of oppression-even as they function under ideal
conditions.

        Recent right-wing assaults on affirmative action and Ethnic
Studies in the state of California have converged with broader, bipartisan
efforts to further marginalize the working poor, to criminalize immigrants
and youth of color, and to reaffirm incarceration as a convenient
"solution" for poverty.  In the face of this crisis, CROSSING OVER
encourages participants from across the country to gather and coordinate
their efforts to create, expand, and support Ethnic Studies programs while
strategizing new ways to make these programs relevant and useful to
existing community struggles.

        We firmly believe that political, intellectual, and cultural work
of all kinds must be valued and developed in concert with one another.
Not only do we hope to challenge conventional divisions between academy
and community, but we also hope to counter the on-going marginalization of
cultural work (art, music, performance, etc.) within various struggles.
We thus seek a wide cross-section of people to participate in workshops,
roundtables, panels, and performances devoted to building radical
movements across communities, schools, and other institutions.  In
addition, we hope that CROSSING OVER can help foster momentum for similar
conferences and strategy sessions in the near future.  Guiding themes for
CROSSING OVER include but are not limited to the following:

Supporting, Critiquing, and Promoting Ethnic Studies:

· Current struggles for Ethnic Studies: Activism, Resistance, and Solidarity
· Community Based Organizations and Ethnic Studies: Making/Sustaining Links
· K-12 education and Ethnic Studies: Paradigms, Problems, and Practices
· Regional Differences in Ethnic Studies: Conflict and Creativity
· Marginalization within Ethnic Studies

Radical Critiques of Schooling in the United States:

· Schooling and Capitalism: Work, Profit, and Privatization
· Prisons and Schools: Institutions, Disciplines, and Industries
· Racism, White Supremacy, and the Distribution of Privilege
· Sexism and Heterosexism in the School
· Domesticated University: Containing Free Speech, Repressing Radicalism

Cultural Work as Political Resistance:

· Politics of Popular Culture Research
· Hip Hop and Social Change
· Visual Culture and Histories of Radical Struggle
· Poetry and Spoken Word: Power, Ritual, and Insight
· Bodies in Motion: Dance and/as Political Transformation

Radical Politics: Past, Present, and Future:

· Campus Activism since the Third World Liberation Front
· Current and Historic Role of Students in Social Movements
· Feminist and Queer Organizing Efforts On and Off Campus
· Student Movements in International Context
· Intergenerational Dialogues on Radical Politics and Possibilities
· Multiracial/Cross-Racial Politics: Solidarity, Coalition, and Alliance

CROSSING OVER into what?  Where do we go from here?

· Future Conferences and Strategy Sessions
· Organizing a Third World Strike in 2000
· Fighting State and Corporate Repression and Co-optation
· Strategizing Radical Collective Action

	The organizing committee envisions CROSSING OVER as an opportunity
to build meaningful relationships among activists of all kinds from across
the country. In particular, we hope that attendees will utilize this 2-day
session to conceive new and concrete struggles, campaigns, and organizing
strategies.  Please join us in this difficult and vital endeavor.


CROSSING OVER
Dept. of Comparative Ethnic Studies
506 Barrows Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
(510) 642-6456 (FAX)
Email: crossover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Website: http://www.ethnicstudies.com


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