February 2009 Strategy and Tactics Conference

Feb 13

Strategy and Tactics for Movement Building and Progressive Social Change Screening of film Battle in Seattle with responses from Tim DeChristopher, Diana Lee Hirschi, Terry Porter, Michael Mielke. Watch these comments on YouTube. Film Screening in partnership with the SLC Film Center. 7 pm Orson Spencer Hall Auditorium.

Feb 14

Strategy and Tactics for Movement Building and Progressive Social Change Many Discussions, Presentations, Film Screenings throughout the day Location: Orson Spencer Hall and the adjacent University Union Building at the University of Utah Campus.

Change is in the Air: How to Re-Kindle the Mass Movement

Download poster in color or black and white, and quarter-page handbills in color or black and white, PLEASE print and distribute widely!

For the detailed conference schedule with all times and locations click here.

  • 7pm Friday evening screening of the new film Battle in Seattle about the famous 1999 WTO protest co-sponsored with the SLC Film Center, after-film comments from Terry Porter, Tim DeChristopher, Diana Lee Hirschi, and Michael Mielke.
  • Saturday screening of documentary on 1999 Seattle protest This Is What Democracy Looks Like! followed by panel discussion on strategy and tactics with Tim DeChristopher, Paul Bigman (Seattle labor activist who helped organize 1999 protest), Dayne Goodwin and Ashley Sanders, with Josh Gold as moderator.
  • Saturday 3pm presentation on the Common Ground Initiative by Mike Thompson, executive director of Equality Utah.
  • Saturday 11am session on Environmental Crisis and Movement Building with Rocky Anderson, past SLC Mayor and principal of High Road for Human Rights, Paul Bigman, Christopher Thomas from HEAL Utah, Joan Gregory of the First Unitarian Church's Environmental Ministry, and Law Professor and anti-nuclear activist Rebecca Hall.

  • A session on "Urban Sprawl and the Environment" with Ashley Sanders and Steven Goldsmith, urban planner.
  • Saturday 1pm session on "Organizing Civil Resistance" lead by Diana Lee Hirschi, Diana is co-founder of Circle Dynamics which does non-violence trainings, Diana is a veteran civil resistance activist and won a 1988 civil disobedience case against a Utah weapons manufacturer.
  • A session on "Defending Democratic Rights and Civil Liberties," with presentation from Marc Hoenig, ACLU, with Naomi Wolf film "The End of Democracy" — this issue is fundamental for political activism.
  • A session on activism in the LDS community with Tristan Call and Will Van Wagenen of The Mormon Worker.
  • Utahns for a Just Peace in the Holy Land will do sessions on Gaza and Palestine/Israel.
  • Brenda Chung of American Friends Service Committee will set up Eyes Wide Open exhibit and do Cost of War presentations in the Union Den.
  • The Brown Berets will do a session on Immigrant Rights and the new Utah state law on immigration law enforcement S.B. 81.
  • Attorney Clark Newhall, M.D. speaking on single-payer universal health care, with film Health, Money, and Fear.
  • Session led by Pakistani grad student Fahd Ali about war in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region.
  • A session on the current economic crisis and 'what is to be done?'
  • A session on labor organizing with Linda Parsons, Paul Bigman, Kyle Wulle, Warren Brodhead moderator.
  • "The Central Front in the War on Terror" by Andy Figorski, Iraq Veterans Against the War 10am OSH 234.
  • A final plenary session to decide on actions for the coming months.

We will be using a number of excellent documentary films: This is what Democracy Looks Like; The Power of Community; Gaza Strip; The Unforeseen; Health, Money and Fear; The Times of Harvey Milk; The End of America; Jerusalem: East Side Story; Breaking the Silence; The Take.

The conference is co-sponsored by Utah Jobs with Justice, Wasatch Coalition for Peace and Justice, the Campus Committee for Peace and Justice at the U., and the Department of Economics at the U.