In light of the amazing events in Egypt - we've changed the topic of this week's political discussion. We'll postpone discussing the ISR article Interpretations of the Economic Crisis and focus this week on Egypt instead. We'll be back in Savery this week, room 155 at 7pm
1) Political Discussion: Revolution in Egypt(40 min)
2011 will be remembered as the year of revolution in the Arab world---just as 1917 is remembered for the Russian Revolution, or 1979 for the Iranian Revolution. More dictators are falling to popular revolt in less than a month than have fallen in the Middle East in 30 years. The implications for the world are tremendous---from the position of U.S. Imperialism and its ally the State of Israel and other threatened dictatorships, to the flow of oil, to the use of modern communication in revolution, to the renewed confidence of masses of people in their own power to overthrow dictatorships and win democracy. We need to learn from and understand these revolutions! We need to figure out their lessons for our movements here. We need to discuss how we can build solidarity with these popular revolutions.
Please join us for a lively discussion on these important questions! We will focus especially on the revolution in Egypt, the most populous and strategically important country in the Middle East.
World Solidarity Protests
Coverage of some of the protests that occurred in cities all over the world (including Seattle) to show support and solidarity with the Egyptians fighting for freedom.
2) Campus Organizing
- Campus update (40 min)
We'll discuss how things have been going with the campus folks so far, and plans going forward.
- Upcoming public forums (30 min)
We're attempting to plan our big forums further ahead. To that end, the branch will ideally vote on our next 3 public forums, one more this quarter, and two in the next quarter. The dates would be: March 2, April 27 and May 25.
Some ideas are:
- A Panel on the Middle East that would include Ron Smith who traveled recently to Gaza, and hopefully also eyewitnesses from the revolts in Egypt or elsewhere. We could also include David Barsamian, the award winning founder and director of Alternative Radio and author of many book son the middle east on this panel or perhaps bring him out for a separate event sometime in Spring quarter.
- A panel on the criminal (in)justice system. There are profs at UW who would be good to speak, folks from the John T Williams organizing, maybe Michelle Alexander, etc.
- A panel on the attacks against public sector workers and how to defend them.
