Join us for the 7th Annual Radical Organizing Conference!

Saturday, March 17
9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
SEIU 1199, 150 Mt. Vernon Street in Dorchester
JFK/UMass stop on the red line

Meet with organizers across Boston for a day of movement building, skill sharing and strategy development! What is a radical outlook? What are our shared assumptions? How does it differ from a progressive or liberal outlook? The Radical Organizing Conference is a chance to talk strategy and deepen an analysis of radical organizing — an opportunity meet together and learn how, through organized resistance, we can uproot the systems that create the problems we face in our communities.

Organizing groups include City Life / Vida Urbana, Chelsea Collaborative, DARE Providence, Springfield No One Leaves, the City School, Jobs with Justice, Mass Uniting and this year, Occupy Boston! Handicap accessible. Lunch is included, suggested donations is $10, all are welcome regardless of ability to pay. Childcare and interpretation available.

For details, visit www.clvu.org/ROC

RSVP here! http://www.facebook.com/events/200338140067122/

WORKSHOPS INCLUDE:

The “Law” of supply and demand; The “Religion” of the free market
How are these ideas used to defeat progressive change? What’s wrong with the “law” of supply and demand? Why is the “free” market not quite so free? What is our response? (Steve Meacham, CLVU)

Challenging market ideology while doing practical organizing
We want to offer practical help to people who need it, but we want to organize in a way that undermines the system that caused the problem. Come learn about City Life’s organizing
model, which aims to undermine market ideology while it helps people fight for their homes. (Steve Meacham, CLVU)

Start by Telling Your Story
In this workshop, we will explore how the power of your story can support organizing. Learn how to frame your story and help others tell their stories in a way that is empowering and builds
the movement. to the person walking in the door, but organize in a way that undermines the system that caused the problem. (with UNITE HERE, the hospitality worker’s union)

Organize to Overcome Fear
Sometimes, the obstacles and opponents we face seem insurmountable. Creating real social change–from fighting eviction and foreclosure, to organizing at work, to strengthening the community in your neighborhood– IS possible. In this workshop, we will help people move from “I can’t” to “we can!” (with UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union)

New kinds of labor organizing
Learn about the campaign against WalMart. How can labor and communities target big box stores to bring justice to workers and sound policies for communities? (with Jobs with Justice)

Short-term Demands/Long-term Transformation for Our Cities
At this workshop we’ll discuss how we can fight for short-term reforms while at the same time empowering working people, people of color, queer people, immigrants, youth and all others
committed to a truly democratic society. We who live in the cities should have he power to determine the future of our cities. (with Robbie Clarke from Causa Justa and Right to the City/
Oakland, CA)

Who Broke the Economy?
Learn who really drove the economy into the ground. Participants will play Jenga and gain a hands-on understanding of what went wrong with our economy. (with Darrin Howell, MassUniting)

Theater for Social Change (2-part workshop)
Join in this participatory workshop. Learn how to use theater to educate, agitate andorganize. Create a piece of theater that showcases your issues and inspires others to action! (with Jorge Diaz, AgitArte, a non-profit organization dedicated to generating workshops and art projects in working class communities and communities of color engaged in the struggle for social justice).

Dewey Square: What worked? What didn’t?
This workshop will look at two key aspects of the Occupy movement: 1) The tactic of occupation, some history of other occupations (Tent City, Take Back the Land, factory occupations, etc.), and the specifics of Dewey Square; and 2) The slogan “We are the 99%.” What works about that call to action? What gets hidden? (Nicole Sullivan, Katie Gradowski, potentially others as well)

Youth Power and the Fight for Jobs
Young people in Boston are mobilized and fighting back against a political and social environment that discriminates against youth, leaves them with few job options, and regularly silences youth voices. Come learn about how young people are engaged in the struggle for justice in Boston (with City School youth and staff)

Radical Faith and Justice (2 part workshop)
Explore with other activists the role of spirituality in our social justice work. Mary Wright (CLVU), Annie Fox (Kavod), Stewart Lanier (Bikes Not Bombs) and rep. from Northside Islamic community

Student Immigrants Fight Back!
Come learn how immigrants in Boston are organizing to fight for the Dream Act and against unfair deportations. See their skit and discuss the connections between immigration
justice and economic justice (Student Immigration Movement)

Freedom Rides
Watch film clips from this amazing period during the civil rights movement when African Americans and white allies committed civil disobedience together by riding buses across state lines, violating segregation laws. How could lessons from that period inform our organizing today? Jim Brooks in collaboration with Mike Wolfson (former Freedom Rider)

African Americans and Immigrants of Color on the Question of Immigration
Come and discuss how African Americans and immigrants of color can resist the pressure to pit one group against the other. What do we have in common? How can we join forces? (Trina Jackson)

Intro to Cooperatives
What are housing cooperatives? What are worker cooperatives? Join us as we learn about these important aspects of solidarity economics – living together and working together in a way that puts human needs before profits (Maria Christina Blanco, CLVU)