PSL Public Forum:
What the political and economic reforms mean for Cuba and socialism

Discuss the latest developments in Cuba

With the announcement of the elimination of 500,000 State jobs in Cuba, there are major developments taking place in Cuba’s socialist economy. It is essential for progressives and revolutionaries to study these developments through a Marxist lens and draw the appropriate conclusions, as the bourgeois press and the White House pounces on the opportunity to discredit Cuba’s revolutionary course. Please join us for this important public forum where we will look closely at the economic reforms underway in Cuba, what they mean for Cuba’s revolution, and what they mean for socialism.

Hear analysis and discussion on:
Why is Cuba introducing pro-market reforms?
The problems and challenges of socialist construction in Cuba.
How the Obama administration has tightened the blockade on Cuba.
Cuba’s place in world politics.

PLUS: The war on Afghanistan enters its 10th year

Contact:
315-491-6987
Syracuse@PSLweb.org
www.PSLweb.org

Sascha Scott is a specialist in nineteenth- and twentieth-century American art and currently teaches at Syracuse University. Dr. Scott’s research focuses on problems at the intersection of art and politics, critically reevaluating what it means for a painting and an artist to be political. She is working on a book manuscript that explores early-twentieth-century representations of American Indians, including paintings and works on paper by John Sloan, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Ernest L. Blumenschein, and Awa Tsireh.

Free to the public

After a serious car crash, Navros Dabu spent his recovery time drawing and painting. As a thank you to the community for their support of him during this painful time, Navros will display his “One Page A Day” artwork at the ArtRage Gallery for sale. The proceeds from this sale will benefit the Northside Poverello Health Center. Join him for a celebration of healing. Complimentary finger food, music and cash bar available.

Free to the public

Annual SOA Watch Orientation for trip to vigil at Fort Benning, Georgia on 11/18-11/22

See a film- “Guns and Greed”  and hear from people about why they go each year; people who are experienced at both the travel and vigil  and will discuss the logistics of this year’s trip including transportation and Lodging schedule. Join us to plan for this important annual event.

Potluck dinner with all who attend.

For more information or if you have questions contact Ann 315-478-4571 or anntiffany@verizon.net

SYRACUSE PEACE COUNCIL PROGRAM

Autonomous Education from Chiapas to Mexico City: Urban-Zapatista Links
A talk with Patricia Hernandez

Patricia Hernandez will be speaking on popular education in Zapatista indigenous communities and the role of urban academics as resources in constructing an autonomous education system.

Patricia Hernandez, a sociologist in Mexico City specializing in education and gender, has worked since 2001 with indigenous communities to develop their schools, following a model of autonomous education. Local leaders, who oversaw the project, wanted the community’s demands for land, food, peace, justice and democracy to serve as the content for classes on history, language and mathematics.

Her organization, Organizacion Zapatista “Educacion para la Liberacion de Nuestros Pueblos” (OZELNP) formed in 1999 and is now collaborating with a community organization in the outskirts of Mexico City to build an autonomous school.

Patricia is also engaged in feminist dialogue with a diverse group of women in Mexico committed to political change.  Since October 2007 female unionists, students, housewives, teachers and indigenous migrants have come together in the “Weavers of Resistance” Women’s Meeting Space to share the challenges they face as members of a social movement that Patricia says is “still permeated by a male-centered vision.”

Both Weavers of Resistance and OZELNP are members of the Other Campaign, the network of Mexican social movements initiated by the Zapatistas, and have campaigned to stop military and paramilitary aggression toward Chiapas indigenous communities.

Patricia and a member of the Mexico Solidarity Network will discuss:
–The meaning of autonomous education and her experiences
–the role of academics and other urban activists in the Other Campaign
–The role of women in Mexican social movments

Her presentation will be in Spanish with English translation provided by an MSN facilitator also traveling on the tour.

For more info contact Carol Baum at the Peace Council: 315.472.5478, carol@peacecouncil.net FREE TO THE PUBLIC.