Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 10.18.05

[David Shove (shove001]

             P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    10.18.05

1. Eubanks fund        10.18 6pm

2. Kathy Kelly         10.19 12noon Marshall MN (and more)
3. Anti-torture        10.19 3pm
4. Building dreams     10.19 4:30pm
5. Colombia            10.19 7pm
6. Auschwitz/book      10.19 7pm
7. Poetry/intl jazz    10.19 7:30pm
8. Cactus/play         10.19 7:30pm
9. Policy analysis     10.19

10. Anauk/Ethiopia     10.20 12noon
11. Children/future    10.20 4:30pm
12. Eagan peace vigil  10.20 4:30pm
13. Small is beautiful 10.20 5pm
14. Green tomato cook  10.20 6pm
15. Queen's night      10.20 6pm
16. Who benefits?      10.20 6:30pm Faribault MN
17. NRP                10.20 7pm
18. Asia/Pacif/US conf 10.20-22 7pm Mankato MN
19. Transgender        10.20 7pm
20. Peacekeepers/film  10.20 7pm
21. Nonviolent revolts 10.20 7pm

22. John Pilger       - On 2005 Nobel prize winner Harold Pinter
23. William Greider   - Squeezing the have-nots
24. Mokhiber/Weissman - Who's a person? Corporation? Who isn't? Slave?
25. ed                - Personhood Declaration Center (a true story)

--------1 of 25--------

From: Michellehill64 [at] AOL.COM
Subject: Eubanks fund 10.18 6pm

On Tuesday, October 18, at 6pm, there will be a kick-off of the Evelyn
Eubanks Scholarship Fund, formed to give educational scholarships to the
children of single parents, in recognition of the work Evelyn did.

You are all invited to the Urban League at 2100 Plymouth Ave North. The
event will be from 6-8pm.


--------2 of 25--------

From: Marie Braun <braun044 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Kathy Kelly 10.19 12noon Marshall MN

This is the calendar for Kathy Kelly. This trip is sponsored by WAMM and
the Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq.

Kathy Kelly's schedule in Minnesota

Tuesday, October 18

College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN/St. Johns University,
Collegeville, MN
Contact Person: Sr. Merle Nolde
320-363-7189
MNolde [at] CSBSJU.EDU
Kathy will speak to two classes during the day
Evening Presentation: Witness to War, Witness to Peace: Reflections on
Ending the War on Iraq
Alumnae Hall, College of St. Benedict, 8:00 pm

Wednesday, October 19

Southwest Minnesota State University
Marshall, Minnesota
Contact Person: Vicky Brockmann, Associate Professor of Sociology
507-537-7012
brockman [at] SouthwestMSU.edu
12:00 presentation in BA102 at the Lecture Center
2:30 pm: Class presentation
Evening Presentation: Marshall Area Peace Seekers will host a Potluck
at 6:15 at Albright United Methodist Church, followed by a 7:00 presentation

Thursday, October 20

Minnesota State University, Mankato
Contact Person: Barbara A. Carson, Ph.D
507-389-1561
Barbara.carson [at] mnsu.edu
Kathy will speak to two classes during the day.
Evening Presentation: 7:00 p.m., Armstrong Hall 102, Minnesota State
University, Mankato, sponsored by MSU's Kessel Peace Institute.

Friday, October 21

Augsburg College
2211 Riverside Avenue
Contact Person: Mary Laurel True
612-330-1775
Truem [at] augsburg.edu
10:20 am Convocation in the Chapel

St. Martin's Table (Restaurant and Bookstore)
2100 Riverside, Minneapolis
11:00am - 1:00 pm
Lunch and book signings

Arise Bookstore
2441 Lyndale Avenue South, Minneapolis
612-871-7110
Kathy will read from and sign her book,
Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison


--------3 of 25--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Anti-torture 10.10 3pm

Wednesday, 10/19 (and every Wednesday), 3 to 4 pm, meeting of anti-torture
group Tackling Torture at the Top, St. Martin's Table, 2001, Riverside,
Minneapolis.  lynne [at] usfamily.net


--------4 of 25--------

From: Philip Schaffner <PSchaffner [at] ccht.org>
Subject: Building dreams 10.19 4:30pm

You're invited to a free, one-hour information session provided by Central
Community Housing Trust. "Building Dreams" is on hour of inspiration and
information about the Twin Cities affordable housing crisis and the
mission of Central Community Housing Trust. You'll learn how affordable
housing is defined; how hard it is for a family to get by in the Twin
Cities on a low income; and how CCHT's high-quality, long-term approach to
housing helps solve the Twin Cities' housing crisis. We've limited each
session in size so you can meet and talk with CCHT leadership and get to
know other community members who care about housing.  Wednesday, October
19, 4:30 - 5:30pm, Brownstone Bldg, 849 University Ave. Room 106, St.
Paul.  For more information, visit: www.ccht.org/bd

Philip Schaffner Fund Development Manager Central Community Housing Trust
612-341-3148 x237 pschaffner [at] ccht.org


--------5 of 25--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Colombia 10.19 7pm

Wednesday, 10/19, 7 pm, American Friends Service Committee Colombia staffers
Clemencia Carabali and Victor Hugo speak on Colombia today and U.S.'s Plan
Colombia, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 2730 E. 31st St, Minneapolis.
612-729-8358


--------6 of 25--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Auschwitz/book 10.19 7pm

October 19 - Reading of "Ave Maria in Auschwitz" by Felicia Weingarten.
7pm.  Cost: Event is free and open to the public.
Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, 1011 Washington Avenue, Minneapolis

Holocaust survivor Felicia Weingarten is doing a reading from her new
book, AVE MARIA IN AUSCHWITZ at Minnesota Center for the Book Arts.

Felicia is a survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen.
CHGS Director Stephen Feinstein wrote the introduction to her book
published by Deforest Press - http://www.deforestpress.com/

Mrs. Weingarten will be signing copies of her book.


--------7 of 25--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Poetry/intl jazz 10.19 7:30pm

The Minnesota sur Seine Music Festival presents
LEFT FOR DEAD
featuring Native American poet
BARNEY BUSH
in collaboration with Native American and European musicians

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
7:30 p.m.
McNally Smith College of Music Auditorium
19 Exchange Street East
St. Paul, MN 55101

Tickets are $15.00
$12.00 in advance

"My poetry is active resistance, and in our breaking-up world, music stays
one of the few possible connections between all of us. Tony's music is the
beautiful horse that carries the message." -Barney Bush

The 2005 Minnesota sur Seine Music Festival is thrilled to host the US
premiere of the ensemble Left for Dead on October 19 at the McNally-Smith
College of Music in St.  Paul. The ensemble features the powerful poetry
of Shawnee poet and teacher Barney Bush, blending with the drum, flute,
and singing by Native American musicians along with European jazz. The
ensemble has performed widely throughout Europe, leaving a strong
impression on European audiences.

Shawnee poet and teacher Barney Bush began collaborating with British
composer and pianist Tony Hymas in 1988, beginning with a project entitled
Oyate (The People), a double CD dedicated to 12 Native American leaders
from the second half of the 19th century. Far from being a nostalgic
project, Oyate introduced listeners to poets, musicians, and singers from
a living Native world, including John Trudell, Jim Pepper, Joanne
Shenandoah, Floyd Westerman, and Carlos Nakaï. Oyate initiated a rich and
intense collaboration with an array of versatile musicians who continued
their explorations at intersection of words and music in two double CDs:
Remake of the American Dream in 1992 and Left for Dead, (named after a
poem Bush dedicated to imprisoned American Indian Movement activist
Leonard Peltier), in 1994.

The Left for Dead ensemble features:
Barney Bush (Shawnee): Poetry/vocals
Tony Hymas (England): Keyboards
Edmond Tate Nevaquaya (Comanche): Flute, singing, drum
Evan Parker (England): Tenor and soprano saxophones
Merle Tendoy (Cree-Shoshone): Singing, drum
Jean-François Pauvros (France): Guitar
Geraldine Barney (Navajo): Singing
Mark Sanders (England): Drums

The Minnesota sur Seine Music Festival returns for a second year at
various Twin Cities locations from October 15 through 23, 2005. The
Festival celebrates a growing musical partnership between musicians from
the Twin Cities, France and this year, England. The Festival is truly an
international and multidisciplinary performance event, featuring music,
spoken word and art with an emphasis on improvisational jazz.  Each
concert and event pairs Twin Cities and French artists, often in
collaboration.

Minnesota sur Seine Music Festival Contact : Sara Remke www.surseine.org
<http://www.surseine.org> Phone : (651) 292-9746 email:
sararemke123 [at] msn.com


--------8 of 25--------

From: Pangea Public Relations <pr [at] pangeaworldtheater.org>
Subject: Cactus/play 10.19 7:30pm

Need a good, inspiring story?  Cactus in the Desert tickets-half price

Now and again, all of us could use a little rejuvenation.
Why not come join us for Cactus in the Desert, Encounters that Move and
Sustain Us, playing at the Varsity Theater in Dinkytown Oct. 19, 20, 21, and
23. Mention the price code "HC" and get half price tickets -just $6!
Feel free to contact me with any questions. Thanks!

Media Contact: Elisabeth Heinzelmann Miller 612-822-0015 612-396-3493
(cell) pr [at] pangeaworldtheater.org
<http://us.f532.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=pr [at] pangeaworldtheater.org&amp;Y
Y=31585&amp;order=down&amp;sort=date&amp;pos=4&amp;view=a&amp;head=b>

Pangea World Theater Presents:

Cactus in the Desert
Encounters that move and sustain us
Created/performed by Laurie Carlos, Bill Cottman, Rene Ford, Armando
Gutierrez G., Robert Karimi, and Roxane Wallace

October 19, 20, 21 at 7:30 pm
October 23 at 2:30 pm
Varsity Theater
1308 4th Street Southeast
Minneapolis- Dinkytown
Get half-price tickets by mentioning price code ³HC²

 All of us lifted and guided in the heart of one another
 we spoke filled with bbq and kitchen made biscuits
 as we danced on tracks a wash with agape we searched the edges
 we found a yellow rose and talked with mother cactus
 Once in the desert of our collective memory

In this multi-media performance piece, six highly accredited and acclaimed
artists collaborate using dance, photography, music, film, spoken word,
and more in the age-old quest for what sustains us. On the road of life,
who inspires vitality? What experiences do we have that rejuvenate us?
What happens when a series of seemingly unrelated moments comes together,
and what are the moments in our lives that inspire us when all we can see
is emptiness?


--------9 of 25--------

From: Todd Graham <todd.graham [at] metc.state.mn.us>
Subject: Policy analysis 10.19

21st Annual Conference on Policy Analysis
Wednesday October 19
Continuing Education and Conference Center, St. Paul, Minnesota
University of Minnesota, St. Paul Campus
Fee:  $125 (postmarked by October 5);
or $140 (postmarked after October 5)
For Further Information:
Web Site: www.cce.umn.edu/policyanalysis
E-mail:  conferences5 [at] cce.umn.edu
Telephone:  612-624-3708

The 21st Annual Conference on Policy Analysis will be held October 19,
2005, at the Continuing Education and Conference Center on the University
of Minnesota's St. Paul Campus.  The program features timely topics that
illustrate the importance of analysis in public policy decisions.
Program sessions provide an opportunity for analysts and policy makers to
gain insight into current trends and changes in the policy-making
environment; explore emerging policy issues; and share ideas with policy
analysts from around Minnesota.

This year's keynote session features Ember Reichgott Junge, Attorney, The
General Counsel, Ltd., and Radio Host, AM950/VoiceAmerica Channel sharing
her thoughts on the changes needed in Minnesota as the 21st Century
advances, followed by a panel response. The second keynote session
features a discussion by a panel of policy experts on the issue of tax
policy and its effects on Minnesota's economy.

In addition, concurrent sessions are offered on issues such as policy
research in nonprofit organizations, the role of local governments,
Minnesota's academic achievement gap, the I-394 MnPASS Corridor, the
changing news media, the St. Croix River Basin restoration, and long term
care financing.

The conference is sponsored by the Economic Resource Group (ERG), a State
of Minnesota consortium which promotes the sharing of policy information.
The registration fee is $125 (postmarked by October 5), $140 (postmarked
after October 5).  Full-time students may register for $25 with a current
class enrollment statement. For further information, visit the conference
Web site:  www.cce.umn.edu/policyanalysis or e-mail
conferences5 [at] cce.umn.edu or telephone Katie Kjeseth at 612-624-3708.

University of Minnesota, College of Continuing Education


--------10 of 25--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Anauk/Ethiopia 10.20 12noon

October 20 - Teetering on Extinction: The Anuak Genocide in Ethiopia.
12noon-1pm

Teetering on extinction, the Anuak people of western Ethiopia continue to
receive little attention from the international community.  Former New
York Times reporter and author of the McGill Report, Doug McGill will
provide a fascinating report on a genocide occurring today in western
Ethiopia that threatens to annihilate the Anuak people.  Obang Okello will
then share his own powerful and inspirational story of journeying alone at
age 11, traversing more than 1300 miles of African bush to flee from
Ethiopia s civil war.

Biographical Information Doug McGill is a journalism professor and
freelance writer based in Rochester, Minnesota, where he writes articles
from what he calls a glocal perspective.  He defines this as journalism
that illuminates the invisible strands of mutual influence connecting
every town and city to the rest of the world.  He is an adjunct professor
at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and teaches a course on the
role of the media in public affairs at the Hubert Humphrey Institute of
Public Affairs in Minneapolis. He was a reporter at The New York Times
from 1979 to 1989.


--------11 of 25--------

From: ewomenwin [at] mnwpc.org
Subject: Children/future 10.20 4:30pm

Hamline Host Panel, Our Children/Our Future

Hamline University will host a panel titled, "Our Children/Our Future," as
part of the University's 2005-2006 Dialogue Series: Thinking Forward:
Finding Future Directions for Today's Critical Issues.

The panel will be held on Thursday, October 20, 2005, in the Kay
Fredericks Room at Hamline's Klas Center.  Registration as well as a
reception begins at 4pm and the program will be held from 4:30pm to 6pm.

Panelists include Kristen Norman-Major, Assistant Professor of Hamline
University Graduate School of Management, Barbara Washington, Executive
Director of Hamline University Center for Excellence in Urban Teaching,
and Gail Chang Bohr, Executive Director of Children's Law Center of
Minnesota.

To read the panelists' biographies, visit www.hamline.edu.

The general admission for all sessions is $10.  Advanced registration is
currently available if preferred.  A limited number of seats will be
reserved for registration at the door.  Registration forms are available
online at www.hamline.edu or by calling 651-523-2814.


--------12 of 25--------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 10.20 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.


--------13 of 25--------

From: Jesse Mortenson <jmortenson [at] Macalester.edu>
Subject: Small is beautiful 10.20 5pm

10.20 5pm
Cahoots coffeehouse
Selby 1/2 block east of Snelling in StPaul

Limit bigboxes, chain stores, TIF, corporate welfare, billboards; promote
small business and co-ops, local production & self-sufficiency.


--------14 of 25--------

From: Carl Nelson <cnelson [at] greeninstitute.org>
From: 	Corrie Zoll
Subject: Green tomato cook-off 10.20 6pm

GreenSpace Partners
5th Annual
Green Tomato Cook-Off

Yes, it's the social event of the season.  Come celebrate the end of the
community gardening season with us.  Don't worry, there's no need to be a
gardener.  There are many ways to participate:

-Donate your green tomatoes
-Help out at the event
-Compete for AMAZING prizes, including a 2005 Jeep*
-Just show up and eat

*Okay, so it's a 2005 Jeep WHEELBARROW.  But it is still really cool.
And this very wheelbarrow will be featured in the December issue of
Organic Gardening magazine.

**Cook-off entries must be submitted by 6:15 pm if you are even THINKING
about winning.

To give you some idea of what you're getting yourself into, previous
award-winning recipes have included green tomato cake, green tomato chili,
green tomato mince pie, green tomato salsa, green tomato chutney, roasted
green tomatoes, green tomato jam and (of course) fried green tomatoes.
IF YOU'RE SCARED, you can bring a non-green-tomato dish (but don't expect
to win).

 Thursday, October 20, 2005
 6 - 8 pm
 St Paul's Church
 2742 15th Avenue South
 Minneapolis

GreenSpace Partners is a program of The Green Institute that is dedicated
to incorporating green space into the community development process.  We
work with community gardens, urban forestry projects, parks projects,
composting projects, rain gardens, rooftop gardens, and other typs of
urban green space.  More information at www.greeninstitute.org.

Questions? Contact Corrie Zoll at 612-278-7119 or
czoll [at] greeninstitute.org.


--------15 of 25--------

From: Eva Young <lloydletta [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Queen's night 10.20 6pm

Queen's Night at the Movies

Join OutFront Minnesota, Lavender Magazine, and all those who have already
registered at the Heights Theater for Queen's Night at the Movies, to
benefit OutFront Minnesota. The evening will begin with stand-up from
comedian Colleen Kruse, followed by a viewing of Mommie Dearest, the 1981
cult favorite about the private life of film star Joan Crawford.

Thursday, October 20, 6pm
The Heights Theater
3951 Central Avenue NE, Columbia Heights
Tickets available online or (612) 822-0127 ext 611.


--------16 of 25--------

From: Janet & Bill McGrath <mcgrath1 [at] rconnect.com>
Subject: Who benefits? 10.20 6:30pm Faribault MN

Next presentation of my talk entitled "Who Benefits" will occur at 6:30pm
Thursday, Oct 20, in Buckham Memorial library, south end of downtown
Faribault.

The same talk will also be presented at 4:30pm Saturday, Nov 5, at Oak
Center General Store near Lake City, and at 10am Saturday, Nov 12, at the
public library in Belle Plaine.

So what are these talks?

Behind the wars and cultural wedge issues, the economic security ("money")
of our middle class is being transferred rapidly to approximately 145,000
households, each of which has an average annual income of $3.2 million.

That's the common thread running through tax cuts, outsourcing of jobs,
and recent legislation regarding prescription drugs, health insurance,
Social Security, pensions, bankruptcy, class action lawsuits and labor
unions.

At each one of these talks, there will be a one-hour presentation by me,
followed by your discussion that will focus on possible solutions.

My resume: Lived 27 years in Northfield. Former newspaper reporter. For 18
years, I've owned a small business publishing & selling car repair
manuals.

These talks are not connected to any political party, candidate or
organization. They are continually being presented, especially in the
Second Congressional District. Thank you. -- Bill McGrath


--------17 of 25--------

From: Todd Heintz <proud2liveinjordan [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: NRP 10.20 7pm

The League of Women Voters of Minneapolis

The Minneapolis Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP): What it is,
what it's done, and where it's headed.

Thursday October 20, 7-9pm
Theatre at the Woman&#700;s Club of Minneapolis
407 W. 15th St

The NRP began over 15 years ago and has gained a national reputation for
successfully engaging people in our communities who otherwise might not
have become involved.

Please join Leaguers from across the city to learn about the NRP, its
successes, its challenges, and its future.

Action steps and additional resources for the forum will be available for
League members October 1 at www.lwvmpls.org or by contacting the League
office at 612.333.6319.

Contact the LWVMpls office at 612.333.6379 or Scott Marshall at
612.327.9180 for more information.


--------18 of 25--------

From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] visi.com>
Subject: Asian/Pacific/US conf 10.20-22 7pm Mankato MN

Asian Pacific American Conference is Oct. 20-22 at Minnesota State Mankato

Status of Asian-Americans 30 Years after Vietnam War is Topic of Asian
Pacific American Conference at Minnesota State Mankato

Mankato, MN - The dispersion of Asians from their homelands and the
status of Southeast Asian-Americans 30 years after the Vietnam War are
themes of this year's Asian Pacific American Conference Thursday through
Saturday, Oct. 20-22, at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

The conference will include workshops and training sessions for teachers,
community service providers and others who work with the Asian Pacific
American community, as well as keynote speakers, games, a comedy and
performance show and a talent competition. All workshop sessions will be
in Centennial Student Union.

Conference registration and kick-off is 2 p.m. Oct. 19 in the CSU. On Oct.
21, registration begins at 8 a.m., followed by a reception at 8:45 a.m.
For Minnesota State Mankato and Gustavus Adolphus students, cost is $40.

Featured conference events include:

 * Spoken Word Night Oct. 20 (7 p.m., Ostrander Auditorium), featuring
    award-winning poet and writer Ed Bok Lee, the musical group F.I.R.E.,
    poet and community activist Julieana Pegues, and Vietnamese-American
    poet Thien-bao Phi.
 * Comedy Night Oct. 21 (7 p.m., Ostrander Auditorium), featuring former
    television news anchor and stand-up comic Tina Kim.
 * The APA Games Competition Oct. 21 and 22 (CSU game room and Myers
    Fieldhouse).
 * The Mr/Ms APA Talent Contest and awards banquet Oct. 22 (6 p.m.,
    Gustavus Adolphus College Campus Center).

Conference keynote speakers include:

 * S.B. Woo, retired Chinese-American physics professor and former
    lieutenant governor of Delaware.
 * Laotian-American Ilean Her, executive director of the State Council
    on Asian-Pacific Minnesotans.
 * Loung Ung, award-winning Cambodian-American author of First They
    Killed My Father, recalling the killing-field deaths of 2 million
    Cambodians at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
 * Oanh Pham, award-winning 3M scientist and member of a number of
    Asian-American policy making boards.

Conference delegates may earn one academic credit for the conference;
those interested should contact Michael T. Fagin or Jayne Larsen at (507)
389-6125.

The conference is co-sponsored by Minnesota State Mankato's Department of
Ethnic Studies and Office of Institutional Diversity, as well as Gustavus
Adolphus, Good Thunder reading Series, First-Year Experience, Career
development Center, Center for Academic Success, Kessel Institute,
Women's Studies, LGBT Center, Colleges of Business and Education,
fraternities and sororities, the Women's Center and IMPACT.

Those who want more information or wish to register should go to
http://www2.mnsu.edu/mca/AAA/APAC2.htm or contact Penh Lo, Minnesota State
Mankato assistant director for Asian American Affairs, at
penh.lo [at] mnsu.edu.

Michael Cooper Media Relations Director Minnesota State University,
Mankato 232 Alumni Foundation Center Mankato, MN 56001
michael.cooper [at] mnsu.edu (507) 389-6838 (o) (507) 381-0855 (c) (507)
331-3734 (h)


--------19 of 25--------

From: David Strand <mncivil [at] yahoo.com>
Subject: Transgender 10.20 7pm

The genderBLUR Collective Presents A Town Hall Forum: "Transgender
History, Activism, and Today" With guest Susan Stryker

Thursday, October 20, 7-9 pm
At Patrick's Cabaret, 3010 Minnehaha Ave S (at E Lake St), Minneapolis
Admission is free

For more information:
612-823-1152 or www.genderBLUR.org


--------20 of 25--------

From: Joe Schwartzberg <schwa004 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Peacekeepers/film 10.20 7pm

THIRD THURSDAY GLOBAL ISSUES FORUM

Thursday, October 20, 7-9pm
Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, 811 GrovelandAvenue, Minneapolis
(at Lyndale & Hennepin).
Free parking in church parking lot. Free and open to the public.

Film: THE PEACEKEEPERS (83 minutes), produced by the National Film
Board of Canada, followed by round-table discussion led by Dr. Michael
Andregg.

With unprecedented access to the United Nations Dept. of Peacekeeping,
The Peacekeepers  provides an intimate and dramatic portrait of the
struggle to save a failed state.  We follow the determined and often
desperate maneuvers to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC).  We are with the peacekeepers in
the "crisis room" as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground
with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries.
 And we are with UN troops as the northeastCongoerupts and the future of
the DRC, if not all of centralAfrica, hangs in the balance.

In the background, and often impinging on peacekeeping decisions, is the
painful memory ofRwanda, the crisis inIraq, global terrorism and American
hegemony in world affairs.  But the situation demands immediate attention.

As Secretary-General Kofi Annan tells the General Assembly at the
conclusion of The Peacekeepers  "History is a harsh judge.  It will not
forgive us if we let this moment pass."

Dr. Andregg, author of a prize-winning book on The Causes of War, teaches
in the Justice and Peace Studies and Aquinas Scholars programs at the
University of St. Thomas. He also gives occasional classes at the
University of Minnesota. As founder and long-tme Director of Ground Zero
Minnesota, Michael has organized and led countless programs on global and
local issues related to peace, justice, intelligence and ways of viewing
the world.


--------21 of 25--------

From: humanrts [at] umn.edu
Subject: Nonviolent revolutions 10.20 7pm

October 20 - From Gandhi to Serbia: Passion and Power in Nonviolent
Revolutions. 7-9pm.

(Oct 20- Nov 10) From Gandhi to Serbia: Passion and Power in Nonviolent
Revolutions, Compleat Scholar class taught by Michael Bischoff.

Register online at
http://events.cce.umn.edu/events/section_detail.aspx?sect_key=178032&cluster_cd
=WB32 or by phone at 612-624-4000.  FFI Michael [at] clarityfacilitation.com
Location: UofM St. Paul campus


--------22 of 25--------

The Silence of Writers
On 2005 Nobel Prize Winner Harold Pinter
by John Pilger
www.dissidentvoice.org
October 15, 2005

In 1988, the English literary critic and novelist D.J. Taylor wrote a
seminal piece entitled "When the Pen Sleeps". He expanded this into a book
A Vain Conceit, in which he wondered why the English novel so often
denigrated into "drawing room twitter" and why the great issues of the day
were shunned by writers, unlike their counterparts in, say, Latin America,
who felt a responsibility to take on politics: the great themes of justice
and injustice, wealth and poverty, war and peace. The notion of the writer
working in splendid isolation was absurd. Where, he asked, were the George
Orwells, the Upton Sinclairs, the John Steinbecks of the modern age?

Twelve years on, Taylor was asking the same question: where was the
English Gore Vidal and John Gregory Dunne: "intellectual heavyweights
briskly at large in the political amphitheatre, while we end up with Lord
[Jeffrey] Archer..."

In the post-modern, celebrity world of writing, prizes are allotted to
those who compete for the emperor's threads; the politically unsafe need
not apply. John Keanes, the chairman of the Orwell Prize for Political
Writing, once defended the absence of great contemporary political writers
among the Orwell prizewinners not by lamenting the fact and asking why,
but by attacking those who referred back to "an imaginary golden past". He
wrote that those who "hanker" after this illusory past fail to appreciate
writers making sense of "the collapse of the old left-right divide".

What collapse? The convergence of "liberal" and "conservative" parties in
Western democracies, like the American Democrats with the Republicans,
represents a meeting of essentially like minds. Journalists work
assiduously to promote a false division between the mainstream parties and
to obfuscate the truth that Britain, for example, is now a single ideology
state with two competing, almost identical pro-business factions. The real
divisions between left and right are to be found outside Parliament and
have never been greater. They reflect the unprecedented disparity between
the poverty of the majority of humanity and the power and privilege of a
corporate and militarist minority, headquartered in Washington, who seek
to control the world's resources.

One of the reasons these mighty pirates have such a free reign is that the
Anglo-American intelligentsia, notably writers, "the people with voice" as
Lord Macauley called them, are quiet or complicit or craven or twittering,
and rich as a result. Thought-provokers pop up from time to time, but the
English establishment has always been brilliant at de-fanging and
absorbing them. Those who resist assimilation are mocked as eccentrics
until they conform to their stereotype and its authorized views.

The exception is Harold Pinter. The other day, I sat down to compile a
list of other writers remotely like him, those "with a voice" and an
understanding of their wider responsibilities as writers. I scribbled a
few names, all of them now engaged in intellectual and moral contortion,
or they are asleep. The page was blank save for Pinter. Only he is the
unquiet one, the untwitterer, the one with guts, who speaks out. Above
all, he understands the problem. Listen to this:

"We are in a terrible dip at the moment, a kind of abyss, because the
assumption is that politics are all over. That's what the propaganda says.
But I don't believe the propaganda. I believe that politics, our political
consciousness and our political intelligence are not all over, because if
they are, we are really doomed. I can't myself live like this. I've been
told so often that I live in a free country, I'm damn well going to be
free. By which I mean I'm going to retain my independence of mind and
spirit, and I think that's what's obligatory upon all of us. Most
political systems talk in such vague language, and it's our responsibility
and our duty as citizens of our various countries to exercise acts of
critical scrutiny upon that use of language. Of course, that means that
one does tend to become rather unpopular. But to hell with that."

I first met Harold when he was supporting the popularly elected government
in Nicaragua in the 1980s. I had reported from Nicaragua, and made a film
about the remarkable gains of the Sandinistas despite Ronald Regan's
attempts to crush them by illegally sending CIA-trained proxies across the
border from Honduras to slit the throats of midwives and other
anti-Americans. US foreign policy is, of course, even more rapacious under
Bush: the smaller the country, the greater the threat. By that, I mean the
threat of a good example to other small countries which might seek to
alleviate the abject poverty of their people by rejecting American
dominance. What struck me about Harold's involvement was his understanding
of this truth, which is generally a taboo in the United States and
Britain, and the eloquent "to hell with that" response in everything he
said and wrote.

Almost single-handedly, it seemed, he restored "imperialism" to the
political lexicon. Remember that no commentator used this word any more;
to utter it in a public place was like shouting "fuck" in a convent. Now
you can shout it everywhere and people will nod their agreement; the
invasion in Iraq put paid to doubts, and Harold Pinter was one of the
first to alert us. He described, correctly, the crushing of Nicaragua, the
blockage against Cuba, the wholesale killing of Iraqi and Yugoslav
civilians as imperialist atrocities.

In illustrating the American crime committed against Nicaragua, when the
United States Government dismissed an International Court of Justice
ruling that it stop breaking the law in its murderous attacks, Pinter
recalled that Washington seldom respected international law; and he was
right. He wrote, "In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson said to the Greek
Ambassador to the US, 'Fuck your Parliament and your constitution.
America is an elephant, Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two
fellows keep itching the elephant, they may just get whacked by the
elephant's trunk, whacked for good...'. He meant that. Two years later,
the Colonels took over and the Greek people spent seven years in hell. You
have to hand it to Johnson. He sometimes told the truth however brutal.
Reagan tell lies. His celebrated description of Nicaragua as a
"totalitarian dungeon" was a lie from every conceivable angle. It was an
assertion unsupported by facts; it had no basis in reality. But it's a
good vivid, resonant phrase which persuaded the unthinking..."

In his play "Ashes to Ashes," Pinter uses the images of Nazism and the
Holocaust, while interpreting them as a warning against similar
"repressive, cynical and indifferent acts of murder" by the clients of
arms-dealing imperialist states such as the United States and Britain.
"The word democracy begins to stink," he said. "So in 'Ashes to Ashes,'
I'm not simply talking about the Nazis; I'm talking about us, and our
conception of our past and our history, and what it does to us in the
present."

Pinter is not saying the democracies are totalitarian like Nazi Germany,
not at all, but that totalitarian actions are taken by impeccably polite
democrats and which, in principle and effect, are little different from
those taken by fascists. The only difference is distance. Half a millions
people were murdered by American bombers sent secretly and illegally to
skies above Cambodia by Nixon and Kissinger, igniting an Asian holocaust,
which Pol Pot completed.

Critics have hated his political work, often attacking his plays
mindlessly and patronizing his outspokenness. He, in turn, has mocked
their empty derision. He is a truth-teller. His understanding of political
language follows Orwell's. He does not, as he would say, give a shit about
the propriety of language, only its truest sense. At the end of the Cold
War in 1989, he wrote, "...for the last forty years, our thought has been
trapped in hollow structures of language, a stale, dead but immensely
successful rhetoric. This has represented, in my view, a defeat of the
intelligence and of the will."

He never accepted this, of course: "To hell with that!" Thanks in no small
measure to him, defeat is far from assured. On the contrary, while other
writers have slept or twittered, he has been aware that people are never
still, and indeed are stirring again: Harold Pinter has a place of honor
among them.

John Pilger is an internationally renowned investigative journalist and
documentary filmmaker. He is currently a visiting professor at Cornell
University, New York. His film, Stealing a Nation, about the expulsion of
the people of Diego Garcia, has won the Royal Television Society's award
for the best documentary on British television in 2004-5. His latest book
is Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs (Jonathan
Cape, 2004). Visit John Pilger's website: www.johnpilger.com. Thanks to
Michelle Hunt at Granada Media.


--------23 of 25--------

Squeezing the Have-Nots
by WILLIAM GREIDER

[from the October 31, 2005 issue of The Nation]
This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051031/greider

The country is overloaded now with explosive political preoccupations, too
many to keep straight, but there is one more potential disaster lurking
behind the headlines--the economy. Not to worry, say the newspapers. The
White House assures us the Bush economy is going great. The Federal
Reserve agrees. Notwithstanding the tempest that flattened the Gulf Coast,
the Fed is worried that the economy is expanding too strongly--it might
provoke price inflation. So, trying to slow things down, chairman
Greenspan keeps on raising interest rates. Most economic forecasters say
nothing's changed: Growth will slow down in the second half of this year
and then pick up again smartly in early 2006, as factories reopen and
reconstruction spending stimulates new production and jobs. Democrats have
little to add, beyond raging righteously as usual against the President's
tax cuts and budget deficits.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the economic news is not cooperating
with the official optimism. Folks in the bottom half of the economy are
already squeezed hard. They will be bloodied and bankrupt if economic
policy inadvertently induces a recession.

There are ominous signs. Consumer spending plunged dramatically in August
(the sharpest one-month decline since 9/11) and so did personal incomes.
The storm-driven collapse of New Orleans immediately wiped out nearly
300,000 jobs, a number likely to grow much larger as more people find
their way to the unemployment office. Even more worrisome is the negative
savings rate that emerged for American households before the big storm but
amid already soaring gasoline prices. In July families spent, at an annual
rate, $101 billion more than their disposable income. This "dissavings"
continued in August: "certainly the worst since the banking crisis of
1933," economic consultant Charles McMillion observed. If consumers now
pull back from spending to rebuild savings--many will have no choice--this
retrenchment may converge with other negative forces and could "easily
develop into a downward cycle leading to recession," McMillion warned.

Given these fragile circumstances, the prevailing currents of official
thinking are all pushing the economy in the wrong direction. Economic
policy is often decided as an unpleasant choice among various bad
outcomes--which consequence would be the worst for the country? Swelling
federal deficits can have deleterious effects on the future, but right now
America actually needs larger federal deficits to get through this
storm--government-injected economic stimulus that will quickly generate
higher incomes and more jobs. A bout of price inflation would disrupt
planning and profits for business and finance, but that is a small matter
compared with the devastation a recession would impose on wage earners and
debt-soaked families in the bottom half of the economy.

The Federal Reserve's single-minded obsession with inflation--intended to
preserve Greenspan's reputation as he approaches his retirement--is the
most wrongheaded and potentially most harmful policy. In the annals of US
monetary policy, a reliable sign of recession ahead is the central bank's
raising interest rates on short-term borrowing higher than the rates on
longer-term credit. The Fed is perilously close to creating that unnatural
condition known as the "inverted yield curve." If Greenspan persists with
two or three more rate increases, the yellow warning light will be
flashing.

Democrats, meanwhile, are still smitten with the Rubinomics they learned
in the Clinton years, and they yearn to win respectability in financial
circles by preaching fiscal rectitude. Wrong economics and bad politics
too. Repealing the Bush tax cuts is a noble (though unlikely) goal. But
under the present conditions, moving toward a balanced budget is harmful,
especially when the Federal Reserve is tightening credit. The Democrats
should concentrate instead on how to spend money--lots of it--in smart,
socially useful ways that help struggling wage earners. Rebuilding schools
and homes to "green" standards, for instance, could become a progressive
multiplier in storm-battered New Orleans--a major employer for local
residents, a dramatic reform that cleans up the notorious petrochemical
pollution, an economic anchor that raises local property values for
working-class and poor neighborhoods. With brave exceptions, though,
Democrats no longer think like this. They think like uptight bookkeepers.

George W. Bush's new rhetoric makes him sound like Mr. Born-Again Big
Spender, but predictably he intends to give the money to the wrong
people--and in ways that lack immediate economic impact. Keeping the
economy on track would be easier for the President if Greenspan were
cooperating, but Bush must prevent his frothier colleagues from making
things worse by reducing federal spending. The GOP's "deficit hawks," who
want to whack Medicare and Medicaid to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction,
are--how else to put it?--out of their minds.

In the basic design of American capitalism, recessions always deliver the
most pain and severest losses in reverse order--punishing the weak and
less affluent first. Thorstein Veblen called it "the slaughter of the
innocents," a nasty ritual that sacrifices the lambs for the benefit of
the lions. The rest of us may have to pull back a bit, but our lives are
not greatly disrupted by recession. If we have wealth, it will be
protected from inflation and possibly even enhanced in value. Businesses
typically use a recession as an opportunity to reorganize, trimming
surplus workers. If they were asked, many citizens would perhaps choose
recession as the least-bad risk. Evidently so do our current leaders. The
economy is not governed with the bottom half in mind.


--------24 of 25--------

Focus On The Corporation

by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
The Humanity of It All

Ask any person on the street: Is a corporation a person? And more likely
than not, the person will say: No, the corporation is not a person. People
work at corporations. But no, the corporation is not a person.

Ask any lawyer, or law professor, the same question, and the lawyer will
say: Of course, under the law, the corporation is a person. It is a legal
fiction, yes. But it is a person, nonetheless.

This was decreed early in our legal history. Because if a corporation was
not a legal person, it would be denied key constitutional rights and
remedies, and would be on shakier ground in claiming other legal
protections. And lawyers being guardians of the powerful, as they tend to
be, could never deny the most powerful entity in society the most basic of
protections.

We started thinking about corporate personhood the other day when we
stumbled across a law review article titled "What We Talk about When We
Talk about Persons: The Language of a Legal Fiction," 114 Harvard Law
Review 1745, April 2001.

The article looks at two primary categories: First, the non-human person.
That would be the corporation. It's not a human being. But it is treated
as a person for the purposes of the Constitution. And second, the
non-person human. This would be, for example, a slave.

You can't be a person for the purposes of the Constitution or other legal
protections if you are just a piece of property. So, the slave master
could beat his slave. And that wasn't considered "assault and battery"
because the slave was the property of the slavemaster -- not a person for
that purpose.

There wasn't uniformity in this view -- the Mississippi Supreme Court in
1820, for example, held slaves within the scope of persons protected by
that state's murder laws, emphasizing that any other result would be "a
reproach to the administration of justice," according to the law review
article.

So, you could beat the crap out of your slave, but you couldn't kill him.
But on the whole, a slave was property, not person.

Slaves tried to turn this to their advantage.

So, for example, when a young Virginia slave girl named Amy was accused in
1859 of stealing a letter from the Post Office, she argued she wasn't a
person covered by the criminal law against such theft -- she was just a
slave.

But the prosecutor shot back, "I cannot prove more plainly that the
prisoner is a person, a natural person, at least, than to ask your honors
to look at her. There she is."

The judge rejected Amy's reasoning, saying he could conceive of "no reason
why a slave, like any other person, should not be punished by the United
States for offences against its laws."

But we like the prosecutor's gut reaction in this case. "There she is."

And if we were to point to Exxon, where would we point? To the $5 a gallon
unleaded sign?

We recently interviewed John Coffee, the Columbia Law School professor.
And we asked him about the rise of deferred prosecutions for corporations.

Increasingly now, if a corporation commits a crime, and it gets caught, it
doesn't have to plead guilty to the crime.

After the demise of Arthur Andersen, there is a fear among prosecutors
that forcing a corporate criminal to plead guilty to a crime might lead to
the demise of the corporation -- throwing out of work thousands of
innocent workers and wiping out the investments of innocent shareholders.
So, the corporation's attorney teams up with the prosecutor and brings
criminal charges against the criminal executives.

We wanted to know whether Professor Coffee was concerned about this double
standard.

If you are an individual and you commit a crime, then you plead guilty and
go to jail.

But if a corporation commits a crime, then it gets a deferred prosecution
or non-prosecution agreement, pays a penalty, makes some changes -- but
suffers no fundamental loss of freedom to do business.

Professor Coffee gave a long answer. But the part that intrigued us was
this: "The corporation is after all a legal fiction," he said. "The
officers are real human beings that may merit personal criminal
responsibility."

So, the corporation benefits from its personhood, with all kinds of
Constitutional protections, but when it comes to enforcing the law -- the
corporation is after all a legal fiction and therefore doesn't merit
personal criminal responsibility?

Why not?

If a corporation is a person for the purposes of the First Amendment --
even the invocation to "Drink Coke!" gets strong First Amendment
protections -- it is a person for the purposes of the criminal law and
merits criminal responsibility if it commits a crime.

But we actually prefer a different approach.

You are a person only if you are a living, breathing human being.

Slave -- a person.

Corporation -- not.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime
Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert Weissman is editor
of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. Mokhiber and Weissman are co-authors
of On the Rampage: Corporate Predators and the Destruction of Democracy
(Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman


--------25 of 25--------

Personhood Declaration Center

Today I went down to the Personhood Declaration Center (PDC).

Each of my fingers is now a legal person, able among other things to vote,
receive Social Security, own land and property, marry, file for divorce,
borrow money, etc.

They do not of course have to pay taxes, because who ever heard of fingers
having to pay taxes? No way, Jose.

Nor, for the same reason, are they liable be sued, tried in court,
imprisoned, executed, etc. And since their welfare is intimately tied up
with mine as their steward on earth, I am also immune from being sued,
executed, etc.

Next election, I will ask for and be granted eleven ballots, one for each
finger, and one for their finger-bearer. Each finger will cast its own
ballot. The fingers on my right (writing) hand, for the service of
writing, will ask 20% of the voting power of the left hand. They could
have asked for more - my left being dolefully writing-challenged - but
they exercised restraint, for which I trust all will applaud. I of course
will close my eyes as they vote, in order to maintain their god-given
right of privacy.

As I was driving away from the PDC, a rude driver cut in front of all
eleven of us. Well, you can imagine what one finger in particular had to
"say" to that. The gorilla-sized driver managed to force my car to the
curb, and came over, madder than hell. So I showed him my PDC documents,
and how each finger, including the offending one, is a person in its own
right, but, lacking eyes is blind, and lacking a brain is only slightly
less dumb than a pronto-pup. Pretty soon he was crying along with me on
their sorry and irresponsible lot in life. I introduced him to Eeny,
Meeny, Miney (the offending finger), Moe, and Tom. He gave me some money
to send them to a sheltered workshop where they might learn how to behave
themselves and maybe be a credit to the community.

After he left the eleven of us spent some of his money on a banana split
at a nearby ice cream parlor. All the fingers wanted to get into the act,
so we threw away the spoon, and each finger helped shovel the cold sticky
ice cream into the waiting mouth of their steward. It was quite a
rewarding moment, which only a person with personhood fingers can really
know, enjoy, and treasure. Fortunately, a sidewalk photographer was on the
scene, and captured us in our delightful feeding frenzy. Of course none of
us told him there were eleven of us there, so we got the single person
rate.


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   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
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