24/7 SOLIDARITY VIGIL – Labor Film Festival @the University YMCA February 22, 2011

As part of the GEO’s 24/7 Solidarity Vigil for workers in Wisconsin, History graduate student Jason Koslowski will be showing a series of films addressing important themes in labor and working-class history.

Please join us, TONIGHT at 7PM for a showing of MATEWAN (1987) directed by John Sayles.

All are welcome, and bring your sleeping bags!

24/7 SOLIDARITY VIGIL February 22, 2011

December 15, 2010

Hi all,

During last night’s session we opened up a brief dialogue about the utility of occupations as a tactic. Yesterday, the following article was published in the UK Socialist Worker regarding occupations currently taking place across Britain. Please take a look and, if you are interested, maybe we can continue this dialogue remotely through the listserve or on the blog. If you find similar materials, feel free to post.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=23386

Peace–

Kerry

Winter Break 2010/11 December 15, 2010

Greetings all,

Just a quick thank you to those of you that came out and participated in the GEO CRAAC! Radical Reading Circle last night. It was great to have so many representatives from different campus and community groups join a shared dialogue of our goals, vision, and methods. Especially in the context of finals!

Last night’s session was the last of 2010. However, over the winter break I hope that some of you will join me in reading Myles Hortons, The Long Haul: An Autobiography (NY: Teacher’s College, 1998) and in mid-January we will get together to discuss the book in detail.

If you would like to be added to the CRAAC email list, please let me know. And, if you would be interested in facilitating a reading circle session on any topic, just shoot me an email.

Many thanks,
Kerry

Next CRAAC! Meeting Focuses on Tactics December 1, 2010

Hi all,

The Critical Research and Action Caucus (CRAAC!) will meet next on Tuesday, December 14th at 5:15pm in the Chapel at the University YMCA.

This reading circle session will focus on a discussion of tactics, an issue of critical important to the current student-labor movement on this campus and beyond. Careful deployment of innovative and well-organized tactical campaigns is critical to, amongst other things, securing a tuition freeze, ensuring tuition waiver security, and ensuring that the campus remains accessible to working people and people of color.

Collectively we will address some of the following questions:

• What are tactics?
  
• How can specific tactics assist us in reaching our larger goals?
  
• What tactics have we used in the past?
  
• Which tactics are best in the current climate?
  
• Do tactics need to be tied to demands?

To better facilitate our discussion, I have selected three brief readings for us to collectively read. Before performing these readings, I would suggest that you also (re-)read Roberta Garner’s brief section on “Tactics” in Contemporary Social Movements available for download on the CRAAC website (http://craac.wordpress.com/). Garner’s definition of tactics will provide us with a common language with which to approach the other three readings.

Selected Readings:

1. Doug McAdam, “Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency” in American Sociological Review (Dec. 1983)v Available for download here: McAdam_Tactical Innovation

2. Joe Burn’s, “Secondary Strikes are Primary to Labor’s Revival” in Labor Notes (Nov. 4, 2010). Available online at: http://labornotes.org/2010/10/secondary-strikes-are-primary-labor-revival.

3. “The New School Occupation: Perspectives on the Takeover of a Building or, Why Do Student Organizers Bother to Get Out of Bed in the Morning?” (2009) Available online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/11562065/The-New-School-Occupation-Perspectives-on-the-Takeover-of-a-Building. Pay particular attention to the final section entitled “Seven Points on Occupation”.

If anyone has additional readings that they think would be useful, please post them on the website or send them out to the list via email.

Peace–

Get on the Bus! November 13, 2010

I am writing to ask you to join me in attending the Board of Trustees meeting in Chicago THIS Thursday (11/18).

Last May, the Board of Trustees hiked tuition 9.5%. Only a few days ago, the News Gazette reported that the UofI administration hopes “to have trustees act on tuition, room and board, and other student fees at their January board meeting.” This means that the meeting in Chicago on Thursday is one of the last opportunities for students and workers to speak out and demand a tuition freeze!

As a result, the Undergraduate-Graduate Alliance (UGA) and a coalition of other student and worker groups from UIUC and UIC will be meeting in Chicago for a noontime rally and to make public comments at the meeting itself. UGA will provide transportation from UIUC around 9am and will return in the late afternoon. If you have to teach class during that time, consider canceling your class and giving your students permission to miss class and join the protest in the name of an accessible and affordable University!

If you would like a seat on the bus, please click here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGxUUEJWQVR1ZlBmQ0xIYjVkMkdqMHc6MQ

October 11, 2010

Hi all,

After our last CRAAC meeting there was a lot of interest in circulating the Social Movement Theory article that we read. Please find that document attached below.

Garner 1996 – Contemporary Social Movements

Readings on October 7th Actions September 25, 2010

Roberta Garner, “Concepts and Definitions” in Contemporary Social Movements (1996)

International Student Movement, “Global Wave of Action for Education” (2010) GlobalWaveLeaflet2.0

International Student Movement, “Joint Statement Global Wave of Action for Education” (2010) ism_globalwave

“October 7th National Call and California Call” (2010) http://www.defendeducation.org/

Meeting Rescheduled! June 22, 2010

The Radical Reading Circle is moving its next regularly scheduled meeting to Thursday July 1st at 5pm at Cafe Paradiso. All are welcome to join us to discuss George Lakoff’s, Don’t Think of an Elephant.

June 13, 2010

The CRAAC! Radical Reading Circle will meet again on Friday June 25th from 3-4:30pm at Cafe Paradiso in Urbana. We will be reading George Lakoff’s, Don’t Think of an Elephant! (2004).