North American Anarchist Gathering 2002 - June 6-9 - Lawrence, Kansas

EVENTS
The 2002 North American Anarchist Gathering

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
There will be 4 areas where most of the events will be taking place. These will be the three workshop tents and the main tent. In Tent #4, we will provide an art space and continuous movie throughout the day, and will offer this tent to people that need time to cool down or relax. Also, we will have guerilla workshops taking place in the main tent. If anyone has any interest in conducting a guerilla workshop, please sign up for a time during your registration at the Mother Earth Collective.

This is just a tentative schedule... it may change some before the actual gathering.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6

1pm-2pm
Discussion: Anarchism and White Privilege - Roo and Slip Confronting the privilege of being white is an integral part of overcoming the ghetto that is white anarchism. We must begin formulate strategies for doing so. As a movement for equality and freedom, anarchism must be an open and movement for all to which it pertains. (Workshop Tent #2)

Capitalism: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - Vishal (Workshop Tent #3)

2pm-3pm
Discussion: Examining Anarchism as a Subculture - Lizzie Many people are introduced to Anarchism through subcultures, and many people think of anarchism and punk as synonmous. We will identify the differences between subcultures and countercultures and look at the possible barriers and affects on the dominant culture each may have. We will discuss the benefits and limits that being in the realm of a subculture is having on the anarchist movement. We will look at the histroicaly revolutionary movements that have existed as sub/countercultures and examine the affects of being a sub/counter culture had on their end result. We will use this and our own experiances to question if and how the anarchist movement should relate to sub/countercultures. (Workshop Tent #2)

The Importance of the Process of Consensus - Erica I'll facilitate a conversation on how consensus works and why it's an important part of building communities that value everyone. We'll do activities to practice the process. (Workshop Tent #3)

3pm-5pm
Queer & Transgender Issues in the Anarchist Movement - Tim Allen and Rachel (Workshop Tent #1)

4pm-7pm
Meetings Suck: Non-hierarchical Facilitation Makes Them Better - Echo A three hour workshop on good facilitation; covering agendas, stacking, dissolving boredom and tension, combating internal oppression,self-facilitation, and whatever comes out of our discussion. The last hour will be a role play at facilitation. I learned how to facilitate from my buddies s'ra and doyle, in PGA, and the method developed through a homeless self-advocacy group, a militant anticapitalist campus group, and anti-oppression work with "students of under-represented communities and ethnicities" (SoURCE). (Workshop Tent #3)

5pm-6pm
Anarchism 101 - Wayne Price (Workshop Tent #2)

Listening to Ourselves and Each Other - Mark (Workshop Tent #1)

6pm-7pm
Combating Elitism within the Movement Group Discussion - Rita (Main Tent)

What the Hell do we want and how are we going to get it? - Tim Allen We all know we oppose capitalism, racism,gender oppression, authoritarianism, environmental destruction etc... but what do we want instead? This will be a discussion which examines what we want, or at least provides a dialogue on the subject, and then discuss the strategies necessary to win. (Workshop Tent #2)

7pm-9pm
DINNER and NIGHT DISCUSSION CIRCLE

9pm
Games/Group Activities

10pm
Fireside Storytelling

FRIDAY, JUNE 7

8am-11am
Serve-Yourself Breakfast

9am-Noon
Health and Safety for Protesters - Rachel and Ace This 3-hour workshop will provide practical information on taking care of yourself and your friends if you plan to attend protest events. While the focus will be on street protests (in cities), much of the material may also be applicable to backwoods situations. Material to be covered includes: preparing for actions, personal care, affinity group safety considerations, weather-related hazards, chemical weapons exposure, detox and aftercare, and your questions. If you have a squirt water bottle, please bring it - we will practice eyeflushes! (Medical Tent)

Surviving Sexual Violence: Tactics in Confronting Abuse and Healing - Nichole Faina Recovery after sexual violence: tactics in confronting perpetrators of violence and steps to healing post trauma. Survivors of all genders are invited to share experiences in an effort to shed light on our common struggles and build support networks nation wide. (Workshop Tent #1)

9am-11am
Food Preservation and Storage - Sharon Wenger In this workshop, we will explore the different methods of drying, pickling, and canning food, particularly that which can be grown in a pot or garden. This will include alternative processes, including fermentation, which is entirely natural and requires little to no equipment. We will also discuss how to make and keep a productive garden with as little waste as possible: growing, composting, harvesting, preserving, and additional factors in the promotion of sustainable living. (Workshop Tent #2)

10am-Noon
Confronting the Schoolyard Bully: a Teach-in/Discussion of the Systematic Nature of U.S. Interventions - Chris White The corporate-controlled mass of jingoists that control popular information in this country have readily-acceptable excuses as to why Islamic extremists attacked the U.S. on Sept. 11. They are fond of espousing the lie that hatred of our country's wealth and freedom have caused these reactions toward us, ignoring the genuine complaints against our hegemonic presence that have continually flowed from the entire developing world for decades. This teach-in/discussion will analyze the methods of domination the U.S. has used in the recent past in order to better understand the difficulties and possibilities for the peace movement of the present. (Workshop Tent #3)

11am-12pm
Radical Songwriting - Kelly Nightengale (Workshop Tent #2)

12pm-2pm
LUNCH

1pm-2pm
Beehive Design Collective Presentation: Plan Colombia (Main Tent)
SOCCER

2pm-4pm
Combating White Power & White Power Music - Positive Youth Foundation This workshop will cover the current trends in racist organizing today. Along with all the who, what, where, when, why, and how's of the major players and groups who are mainstreaming white nationalism today, and recruiting for it's future. Special concentration will be placed upon the white power music industry, bands, dangers, and successes as a recruiting point. Effective channels, methods, and ways of organizing against it will be provided as well. (Workshop Tent #2)

3pm-5pm
Feminism and Anarchism - Lizzie and Llowell (Workshop Tent #1)

3pm-4pm
The Mahknovist Partisans and Revolutionary Violence - Jack (Workshop Tent #3)

4pm-5pm
Anarchist Black Cross; Political Prisoner Support - Christopher Plummer Chris served nearly a decade in Texas prisons for his role in direct action anti-Nazi organizing. While in prison, he actively organized anarchist projects, including a lending library (which later faced repression from prison authorities), and continued to have run-ins with the likes of the Aryan Brotherhood. Chris survived several Aryan Brotherhood assaults as well as repeated stretches in administrative segregation for his organizing. Upon his release in January 2002, Chris became active with the Austin, Texas Anarchist Black Cross group, as well as in building the Anarchist Black Cross Network. (Workshop Tent #2)
Vegan Cooking and Nutrition - Nicole Burton, others Basic and advanced information on how to begin and build on a routinely nutritional vegan diet. We will discuss essential nutrients and the vegetarian, non-dairy/egg sources of these nutrients (most of which can be easily grown in your garden). An information pamphlet on the basics of daily nutrition will be provided. Feel free to bring favorite recipes and personal knowledge to exchange. (Workshop Tent #3)

5pm-7pm
DINNER and NIGHT DISCUSSION CIRCLE

7pm-9pm
Regional Bloc Meetings Workshop Tent #1 - Mid West Workshop Tent #2 - East Coast and Southeast Workshop Tent #3 - West Coast and North West Workshop Tent #4 - South, South West and Mexico

9pm-11pm
Open Mic and Talent Show There will be a sign-up for the talent show at the Mother Earth Collective registration table. Play, sing, dance, and speak to your heart's content. All individuals and groups are encouraged to participate.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8

8am-11am
Serve-Yourself Breakfast

9am-10am
Basic but Constructive Sewing - Lisa We're going to look as how clothes can be as easily recycled as anything else you can find. Learn basic sewing skills, including a few techniques for re-fitting and re-sizing old and dumpstered clothing. Also get patterns for turning one article of clothing into something totally different. Supplies will be provided. (Workshop Tent #2)

E-mail Privacy and Security - Nate Johnson Sending E-mail has often been compared to sending postcards. Everyone that handles the message along the way can read it. Public key encryption is a technology that puts a private envelope around E-mail. This workshop will demonstrate how to use free, open-source software to manage privacy with E-mail. (Workshop Tent #3)

10am-Noon
Grieving at the Loss of an Anarchist Hosted by the Trumbullplex Collective, Detroit. (A low-income housing collective geared towards sustainable living, community empowerment, and awareness of privilege and revolution.) We would like to discuss with as many people possible the effects of having recently lost two collective members whom were radical womyn and self identified anarchists. We feel that this has brought us together in ways that nothing else could and allowed us to take action and organize in remarkable ways, hence we feel it is important to share this and so to hear from others about their experiences, feelings or ideas, if folks are up to it. (Workshop Tent #2)

Women's Anatomy and Self Cervical Exams - Chantel Guidry A workshop for women to learn about female sexual anatomy and perform a self cervical exam. Every woman attending will receive handouts related to topics covered and a plastic speculum to keep. Each participant will have an opportunity to learn how to insert her speculum and see her cervix. The environment will be supportive and nonjudgmental and no one will be pressured to participate beyond her comfort level. Bring a flashlight, something to sit on (sleeping bag, towel, etc.), and a hand mirror if you have one. If men attending the gathering are interested in female sexual anatomy, I am into doing a second, shorter, more informal talk. I figure that can happen more spontaneously if folks are into it. (Workshop Tent #1)

11am-1pm
Tolstoy and Nonviolent Revolution - Todd Allin Morman Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) wrote what are generally considered some of the greatest Western works of fiction (War and Peace and Anna Karenina) and late in life adopted a radical Christian view embracing nonviolence and the equality of all people that led him to denounce his previous works as pointless and trivial. Tolstoy's later philosophy is grounded on a radical belief in nonviolence that denounced all government as violence. This workshop will briefly introduce the philosophy of Tolstoy's Christian nonviolence and its connections to anarchist aspirations. (Workshop Tent #2)

12pm-2pm
LUNCH

1pm-2pm
Book Reading ofYours for the Revolution - Carrissa (Main Tent)

1:30pm-4pm
Guerrilla Gardening/Permaculture - Monica Participants of this workshop will meet at Workshop Tent #1 and will go to a local farm - be prepared to get dirty!

2pm-3pm
Moving Beyond Sectarianism; Towards Buildings A Broader People's Movement Workshop/Discussion - Sage (Workshop Tent #1)

2pm-4pm
Anarchist Revolutionary Strategy - Jared James, author of Getting Free: A Sketch of an Association of Democratic, Autonomous Neighborhoods and How to Create It James will sketch out a strategy for getting out of capitalism, based on reassembling ourselves, through free association, into deliberative assemblies in our neighborhoods, as well as in workplaces and households, thus abandoning and eventually gutting ruling class institutions, by draining power, wealth, and meaning out of them, and shifting decision-making away from parliaments and corporate board rooms, into our assemblies. He will make the case for selecting new battlefields (other than streets, for example), and for shifting the main arenas of the anti-capitalist struggle into these three strategic sites (neighborhoods, workplaces, households). There will be a survey also of the many strategies that have failed to date, as well as a review of many concrete steps that could be taken now to begin gutting capitalism and building anarchism. Hopefully, the presentation will provoke a much-needed discussion about revolutionary anarchist strategy. (Workshop Tent #2)

3pm-4pm
Herbal Methods of Birth Control & Abortion - Erica We need to take care of our bodies without buying into mainstream medical propaganda, which is part of an unsustainable worldview. Herbs help us deepen our relationship with the natural world, and connect with traditional folk wisdom. I'll present research I did for a recent zine article, and we'll use that as a starting point for open conversation about sexuality and herbal medicine. (Workshop Tent #1)

4pm-6pm
Post-Left Anarchy - Jason McQuinn There remain large numbers of anarchists who continue to identify closely with the political left in one form or another. But there are increasing numbers ready to abandon much of the dead weight associated with the left tradition. We're interested in exploring what is at stake in considering whether or not identification with the political left has outworn any benefits for anarchists. The bottom-line question is, can anarchists do better outside the left-from a position of explicit and uncompromising critique, than those who have chosen to inhabit the left have done from within? Or, alternatively, could we possibly do any worse? (Workshop Tent #2)

5pm-6pm Bicycle Repair and Maintenance - John Basic and advanced bicycle repair skills will be discussed. Dumpstered bicycles will be provided and participants will be able to help fix bikes so that they are rideable. As many bike parts and tools as can be found will be provided; please feel free to bring your own parts/tools/bicycles/knowledge to share with the group. (Workshop Tent #1)

Youth Organizing and Empowerment - Flannagan and the Positive Youth Foundation This workshop is wholly aimed at emotionally lifting kids, i.e.: people like us, beyond their feelings of uselessness, and of having no real voice, by giving them the mental and physical tools to make this journey as a person as well as culture. We do this by using ourselves and other youth as examples. We also provide them with easy, attainable, and realistic ways of implementing their ideas without compromising the emotion and heart behind them. This workshop helps them answer the ever-stifling question of, "where do I go first?" It never ceases to amaze me when later talking to kids who have heard this workshop, or have worked with PYF, to how far they go beyond us. By this I mean that once they know where to go to first they have no problem finding the second, creating the third, and leading the forth. What's even more amazing is to hear and see them express the joy that a sense of worth and true empowerment has brought to their lives. (Workshop Tent #3)

6pm-8pm
DINNER and NIGHT DISCUSSION CIRLCE

8pm-11pm
Lost Film Festival Movie Screening (Main Tent)

SUNDAY, JUNE 9

8am-11am
Breakfast - Serve Yourself

8:30am-10am
The Art of Yoga and Meditation - Nate Hoffmann This morning workshop will discuss the relevance and benefits of meditation for the modern revolutionary. Beginning yoga instruction and mindful breathing will also be practiced. (Outside Main Tent)

9am-10am
Copwatch - Pheonix Copwatch (Workshop Tent #2)

Anarchism and Islam - Salim McCarron, Progressive Muslim Network A workshop exploring the common themes that exist among people of the Islamic Faith and the values held by Anarchists: 1) consensus 2) sharing wealth 3) social justice As well as exploring the challenges of working with those that hold authoritarian beliefs about institutional religion and how to overcome hurdles in a multicultural movement. How anarchists can help Muslim feminists, social activists and others through skill shares. (Workshop Tent #3)

9am-11am
Psychiatric Oppression and Alternatives - Katherine, Madlib.org I have a website, MadLib.org, and unofficial group called Mad Lib, and I'm hoping to get a group called the Chicagoland Alliance for Psychiatric Alternatives going soon. All are dedicated to opposing forced mental health treatment and the psych treatment of kids, and promoting healthy and socially conscious alternatives to the mental health industry. I've been working on this since 1999 and appreciate any chance to raise these issues since they often get overlooked among activists. The current issue of Adbusters, "Mad Pride," is a great look at the stuff the psychiatric survivor movement is working on. (Workshop Tent #1)

10am-11am
Anarchism: Why the Working Class? - Wayne Price (Workshop Tent # 3)

11am-12pm
Teachers and Educators: The Untapped Anarchist Resource - Michael Deliz There is not a more powerful ally than teachers. Teachers have the power to reach our youth better than anyone else in this country. They may be symbols of authority within the classroom, but in retrospect they are the only authority most students will listen to. Teachers are also a large educated group who for the most part are socialist and anti-capitalist in thought. They are also a group which directly feel the oppression and neglect of the government. As educated individuals they are able, better than most, to understand the anarchist cause, and their relative level of respect within local communities provides them with credibility. If we can tap the anguish and desperation of teachers across the country, we can further the cause as these teachers will provide the living embodiment of the movement to every student enrolled in schools across the nation. The sheer potential of an individual teacher is amazing, imagine millions of teachers working from their respective schools... another world is possible. (Workshop Tent #3)

Solar Power: The Importance of, and How to Establish it in your Home - Rich (Workshop Tent #2)

12pm-2pm
LUNCH

1pm-4pm
Health and Safety for Protesters - Rachel and Ace (Medical Tent)

1pm-3pm
Insurrectional Activism: History, Theory and Practice of black bloc - Bobby Sartre The phenomenon of 'black bloc' is not unique to the burgeoning anti-globalization movement, nor was it started at Seattle's N30 anti-WTO event. For over two decades now, Europe's culture of resistance has been a springboard for these more confrontational street tactics. Throughout the 80's and 90's, anarchist, anti-fascist and autonomous movements from Sweden to Greece have been 'masking up' and shaking the state down. Going beyond protest to resistance, anarchists have found a viable alternative to the token demonstration. By reviewing such broad groups as Germany's 'Autonomen' and Italy's 'Autonomia' (among others), we will trace the progress (and pitfalls) of this insurrectionist phenomenon. We will explore the motif of anonymity and solidarity that is the cornerstone of the black bloc ideas and actions. Finally, we will have an open dialogue on recent black bloc activities and the impact on the anti-globe movement. What actions were successful, and for what reasons? How can it move forward, and why the term 'black bloc' must remain a verb? (Workshop Tent #3)

2pm-3pm
Green Anarchy Panel: What is it? What ISN'T it? Workshop & Discussion - Terra, Sage, etc. (Workshop Tent #2)

3pm-5pm
Anarchism and technology, past, present and future - Panel Discussion This panel discussion will examine the classical anarchist theories on the use of technology, as well as discuss a few historical anarchist communities application of technology. We will secondly be discussing how different anarchist communities today are using different technologies to build the anarchist movement and improve their own communities. We will also be discussing how to best employ appropriate technology for a non-hierarchical world and to build dual power systems. Please note this discussion will not be questioning whether or not anarchist should use or agree with technology, but how anarchist have, do and hope to use technology. (Main Tent)
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CONTACT
The 2002 North American Anarchist Gathering

E-mail:
NAAG02-AT-hotmail.com

Mailing Address:
PO Box 297
Lawrence, KS 66044

Phone and Answering Machine:
(785) 842-5156 - note: this has changed. please do NOT call the previous number

Registration

Registration will help us figure the number of people attending..
an optional donation of $15.00 is being asked to help cover costs.
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Registration

To register, there are two options. You can fill out the form below. We now accept Pay Pal which allows you to pay your registration fee with a bank debit card (or credit card). Or you can click here for a text-only version of this form. Print it out and mail it to us with a check or concealed cash. If you cannot print out the form, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: NAAG, PO Box 297, Lawrence, KS 66044 with a request for us to send you a registration form.

When we receive your registration form and $15 registration fee (or whatever you can afford), we will email/send confirmation. Your registration includes full admission to the gathering, housing/camping, meals from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon, and evening entertainment.

North American Anarchist Gathering Registration Form

Name:
Email (if any):
Phone number:
Mailing address:
Preferred contact method (pick one): E-mail (cheapest for us!)
Snail mail (post office)
Telephone

Will you need a place to stay in town? Yes No
Do you have any allergies to animals? Which ones?
I prefer (pick one): Non-smoking housing Smoking housing No preference
Would you be willing to camp outside? Yes No
Will you need childcare? For how many children? What ages?

Will you need anyone to meet you at the Lawrence Greyhound bus station? If so, we will get in touch with you closer to the date of the gathering to work out a schedule. (Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to pick people up in Kansas City, if you want to pay for a ride from KC call Superior Shuttle at 785-838-4500. They charge about $50 for a roundtrip ride.)
Yes No
Would you like to perform at the gathering? Do you know someone who can? If so, who?
What are some workshop topics you would like to see discussed?
Any other suggestions?
To make this a collective effort, we need your help. Would you be willing to help with (check as many as you want to): Childcare
Food
Clean-up
Wherever needed

Expected method of payment: Online payment by PayPal
By mail with cash or check made out to Food Not Bombs.

After you register, if you plan to pay using PayPal, please hit the PayPal logo on the Registration-thanks page.

(Things to Bring: Mug, Bowl & Utensils for Meals & Camping Gear)
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