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SAVE the DATE
I am excited to announce a major post-election peace, justice, democracy and environmental intersectional conference: The Next Two Years and Beyond: A Movement Building Conference
It’s being organized by the American Friends Service Committee, the Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security, the Movement for Black Lives and Massachsuetts Peace Action.
Saturday, November 17, 2018, 9am-5pm • Simmons University, 300 the Fenway, Boston
Among our remarkable confirmed plenary speakers are John Nichols, the national affairs correspondent of The Nation, Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, newly elected Jamaica Plain state representative Nika Elugardo, Rev. Karlene Griffith Sekou of the Movement for Black Lives, Gabriel Camacho, AFSC’s immigrant rights organizer and AFSC’s & CPDCS’ Paul Shannon.
Following is our initial description of the conference, with information about additional speakers and our many workshops to follow. You can register and assure yourself as we make sense of the post-election challenges and opportunities at https://next-two-years.brownpapertickets.com/
Hoping we’ll see you there,
BACKGROUND
The progressive, peace, and justice movements face new and difficult conditions in the Trump presidency. Attacks on labor and working people; tax cuts for the rich, sharply increased military spending, and escalated wars and international crises; anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric and policies; escalated racism, sexism, and assaults on LGBTQ people; are among the urgent challenges we face. And as wildfires spread and glaciers melt, the Trump administration is doubling down on policies that guarantee catastrophic climate change.
The far right controls the national and most state governments and is on the offensive on every front. While Democrats may regain control of the House this November, the reactionary forces that have been unleashed and organized by Trumpism are determined to continue their offensive in the years to come, posing serious dangers to living standards and to social justice, as well as to democracy, civil liberties, and our ability to organize for social change.
Fortunately, a new emergent progressive movement is rising to resist Trumpism, exemplified by Black Lives Matter, the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign and the wave of progressive candidates running in 2018, Poor People’s Campaign, Women’s Marches, Fight for $15, March for Our Lives, and the responses to Charlottesville and to the separation of migrant families.
The resistance to the reactionaries is divided between progressives, who seek fundamental changes in the economy and social structure to the benefit of working and oppressed people, and neoliberals and centrists, who seek the stabilization of the corporate order along with continued austerity and militarism. Although we need to join with the centrists to fend off the reactionary assault, we know that they are equally responsible for the extreme income and wealth gaps as well as militarism and war — so we also need to challenge them in order to build a powerful, coherent and energetic progressive movement that will contend for national power in 2020 and in the years to come.
A major weakness of the progressive wing is a tendency to avoid confronting U.S. militarism, particularly the dangers of nuclear war and of war with Iran, Korea, and Russia.
The goal of this conference is to take stock of the political landscape after the midterm election, chart the path towards a unified progressive movement over the coming years, and educate and motivate our supporters towards more effective and more unified efforts.
This conference follows several previous AFSC and Mass. Peace Action events:
The Next Four Years: Building our Movements in Dangerous Times, December 2016, Simmons College
Building Sustainable Security, November 2015, Harvard Law School
A Foreign Policy for All, November 2014, MIT
Autumn Convergence for a New National Agenda, November 2013, SEIU 32BJ District 615
Registration: $35 general admission; $25 for member of a cosponsoring organization; $10 student or low income. Includes morning coffee and lunch. Register online at https://next-two-years.brownpapertickets.com/ or mail check to Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund, 11 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138 and write “Next Two Years” on the memo line.
Endorsers: Organizations are invited to endorse the conference. Endorsers can set up a literature table, will be acknowledged at the conference, and are requested to publicize the event to their members. A sliding scale contribution between $25-100 is requested to help offset our expenses. Endorsers can sign up at the registration link, next-two-years.brownpapertickets.com.
Sponsored by: Massachusetts Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee, Black Lives Matter Boston, Progressive Democrats of America, and the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security. We invite Massachusetts progressive organizations to cosponsor.
Questions: Joseph Gerson (JGerson@afsc.org,) or any of the sponsors, with questions or to participate in this effort |
