Chicago Indymedia : http://chicago.indymedia.org/archive
Chicago Indymedia

LOCAL News :: Labor

Labor and Neighborhoods: Organizing in Theory and Practice in Rogers Park, Chicago

This Thursday Presentation:
creating an association of democratic autonomous neighborhoods.
Organized by:
Members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW.org), The messhall (messhall.org), 49th street underground (www.49underground.org/), and finding our Roots www.mayfirst.wordpress.com have organized 4 months of community events as a part of an organizing drive in Rogers Park.
Click on image for a larger version

event poster copy.jpg
All events are free, with free food and are at the Messhall from 7:30-10:00. (www.messhall.org)

Mess Hall
6932 North Glenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60626
'Morse' stop on the Redline
Email: messhall8(at)yahoo.com
Tel: 773-465-4033

2d session, Sept. 27 - Presentation: "Creating Autonomous Neighborhood Associations"

The main purpose of this presentation is to try to persuade revolutionaries to shift the sites of the anticapitalist struggle and to select new battlefields. I identify three strategic sites for fighting -- neighborhoods, workplaces, and households -- that I believe will not only enable us to defeat capitalists but also to build a new society in the process. The advantage of this shift is that if offers an offensive strategy, not merely a defensive one. That is, it is not merely about resisting what they are doing to us, but rather about defending what we are doing to them through our new social creations. It means that we would begin to take the initiative to build the life we want, and then fight to defend this life from attacks by the ruling class

3d session, Oct. 11 - Film: Recuperada and Recuperada dos
2004 and 2006, Julie Lastmann (85 minutes together)

Julie Lastmann went to Argentina to film workers at the factories "recuperated" (taken over) after the political crisis in 2001. The result is a testament to workers' ingenuity and resolve. No bells or whistles, this film is primarily devoted to interviews with workers at four factories: two printing presses, a breadstick plant, and Zanon Tile (at 350 workers, the largest of the occupied plants). They describe how they restarted the factories, and the issues that face them -- both inside the plant and in connecting with the larger society. Interviews with a movement lawyer, the head of the association of workers cooperatives, and a Galeano-style economist add some commentary and context. The movie's sequel is a short recap filmed after a two year interval (with a couple new faces): there are new issues, there are old issues, but all the factories from the first film remain under worker control.

4th session, Oct. 27 (tentative) - Presentation: "An Introduction to the I.W.W."

5th session, Nov. 8 - Film: Five Factories
2006, Dario Azzelini (90 minutes) Workers in some shuttered factories in Venezuela, inspired by the cooperatively run factories in Argentina, took over and reopened their workplaces. This being Chavez's Bolivarian Republic, the takeover had a different character, which is evident both from the stories the workers tell and Azzelini's narrative style. The titular five factories were reactivated with the government's permission and involvement. Still, the film provides a window onto this interesting phenomenon.

6th session, Dec. 13 - Discussion: "Workers Councils and Radical Social Change"
Co-organized with members of the Industrial Workers of the World in Rogers Park, and with the Mess Hall
 
 

Donate

Views

Account Login

Media Centers

 

This site made manifest by dadaIMC software