The (ever fabulous) 3rd Annual Activist Collaboration Symposium:

Resistance on the Border: Globalization, Militarization, Immigration

Friday & Saturday, December 6-7, 2002

The symposium includes an evening of arts presentations (film, poetry, installation) a plenary panel and workshops. Co-sponsored by UA depts., campus organizations, and activist organizations in the Tucson area, this event will provide opportunities for building and strengthening alliances.

Planning committee members include representatives from Wingspan, BAN (Border Action Network, formerly SWARM), Derechos Humanos, Pan Left Productions, Sex and Freedom Project, American Friends Service Committee, Arizona Roofers Union, Students Against Sweatshops, Southern Arizona Alliance for Economic Justice.

 

Performing The Border: Film, Poetry, Installation Arts

Friday December 6th, 5:30-9 p.m.
Center for Creative Photography, UA Campus

Films "Performing the Border" (Ursula Biemann, 1999) and "Ni Aqui, Ni Alla" (Nora Cadena,1998), poetry by Jessica Jaramillo and Maria de los Rios (Mujeres que escriben), and an installation by local artist and Derechos Humanos member Pancho Rasquacho. Catered reception 5:30-6:30, followed by films and poetry.

 

Plenary Panel

Saturday, Dec 7, 10am-12pm (coffee at 9:30)
Integrated Learning Center, UA campus

 

Martha Ojeda is the Executive Director of the tri-national Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM) where she works in establishing relations among human rights, labor, environmental, and women's groups across Mexico, Canada and the U.S. In 1994 she led the Nuevo Laredo Sony Movement where more than a thousand female workers held a wildcat strike trying to form an independent union to improve their working and living conditions.

 

Guadalupe Castillo is a Professor of History at Pima Community College, an expert on immigrant rights and border issues, a long-time Chicano Movement activist, and a founding member of Pueblo Por La Paz, Borderlands Theatre and Derechos Humanos Coalition.

 

Sandra Soto is Assistant Professor of Women's Studies, affiliated faculty with Latin American Studies, and member of the Committee on LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona. She is also a coordinator of the Chicana Studies Concentration in the Department of Women's Studies. Her research, teaching, and political investments build anti-racist, feminist, sex-positive, and queer lenses for interrogating the politics of representation.

 

Lunch 12-1:30 (lunch provided)

 

Workshops

Saturday, December 7
Integrated Learning Center, UA Campus

 

Session I, 1:30-2:45 (two concurrent workshops)

LOCKDOWN IN THE "FREE ZONE" Organized by Critical Resistance. The criminalization of immigration is a major force driving prison expansion in the United States and around the globe. This workshop puts together radical analyses of economic globalization, the militarization of the Mexico/US border, contemporary prison expansion, and the social movements opposing these related forms of repression. Facilitated by prison abolitionists including Dr. Dylan Rodriguez (Critical Resistance Los Angeles and the UC Riverside Ethnic Studies Dept), Dr. Julia Sudbury (Critical Resistance Oakland, Prison Activist Resource Center, and Mills College Ethnic Studies Dept), Gustavo Lozano (Border Action Network and AFSC "Democratizing the Global Economy" Project), Caroline Isaacs (AFSC Criminal Justice Project and OUTMATES), and Zoe Hammer-Tomizuka (Arizona Prison Moratorium Coalition).

SEX AND FREEDOM: MEXICAN YOUTH ACTIVISM. Organized by the Sex and Freedom Project and the Red Sonorense por los Derechos Sexuales y Reproductivos (Sonoran Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights). Facilitated by Rene Amao Esquivel, this workshop will discuss youth oriented activist projects in Sonora, Mexico. Participating groups include La Fragua, Hijas de Lilith, Radio Bemba, and Grupos Contra Violencia (Groups Against Violence). Their work includes organizing leadership and empowerment workshops, and promoting the active participation of women from all spheres of public and private life in economic, social, cultural and political decision making processes.

 

Session II, 3:00-4:15 (two concurrent workshops)

CHALLENGING INSTITUTIONAL RACISM ON THE BORDER Organized by Border Action Network. This workshop will examine how the fortification of the border, the rise in Arizona's anti-immigrant movement and increasing civil liberties violations in border communities are forms of institutional racism and how community groups are organizing for change. Presenters include Dr. Jose Palafox (UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies), Amy Hagemeir and Jennifer Allen (Border Action Network).

BUILDING WORKER SOLIDARITY ACROSS BORDERS. This workshop, led by members of the Southern Arizona Alliance for Economic Justice, will discuss the importance of knowing your rights at work, through an exciting and educational Know-Your-(Worker) Rights Jeopardy game. Participants will explore the opportunities for actions and building solidarity among workers and families locally and internationally.

 

Wrap-Up and Final Discussion 4:30-5