Spring 2004 Speakers

Tue., June 1, 7:30 pm - Suzanne York & Shannon Biggs who were both at the World Social Forum, in Porto Alegre, Brazil will give a joint presentation and lead a discussion after the films "Doing the Right Thing" and "Another World is Possible". 

Suzanne York is the Research Director at the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and has been with IFG since 2000.   She researches globalization issues, ranging from trade agreements and poverty to indigenous peoples and human rights.  She was primary researcher on the Indigenous Peoples and Globalization map, and also worked on producing the map depicting the genetically free areas of the world.  Suzanne provided research on the following IFG publications:  Alternatives to Economic Globalization (2002, 2004), Globalization and the Environment (2002), Globalization and Poverty (2001) and Indigenous Peoples and Globalization (Summer 2004);  she also wrote several articles for the aforementioned Indigenous Peoples publication and for the IFG website.  Suzanne helped organize the Peoples¹ Global Seed 2000 in India, which brought farmers, scientists, and researchers to meet with their counterparts in India and IFG¹s "Youth and Globalization" meeting in 2001, which brought youth leaders and activists to a meeting with IFG Associates on each group¹s perspectives on globalization.  Suzanne has a Master¹s degree in Public Policy from American University and an undergraduate degree in Business Administration from Portland State University.

Shannon Biggs holds a Masters in Economics/Post Colonial Development from the London School of Economics, and a BS in International Relations from San Francisco State University (SFSU).  Since 2002 she has been at Global Exchange, where she works on their Democracy International initiative, is co-authoring a book with Global Exchange founder, Kevin Danaher entitled, "The Rise of the Green Economy Movement," and directs their fundraising efforts. Previously, she was the Director of Operations and Development at International Forum on Globalization and the editor of the IFG Bulletin, and was a lecturer of international relations at SFSU.

Tue., May 25, 7:30 pm - Jason Mark will speak and lead a discussion after the film "No Logo: Brands, Globalization & Resistance".   Jason Mark is the co-author (with Kevin Danaher), of the new book Insurrection: Citizen Challenges to Corporate Power. Insurrection traces the recent growth of the corporate accountability movement in the United States by telling, in vivid detail, the stories of the grassroots activists who struggled to eliminate sweatshops, challenged Big Tobacco, demanded dolphin-safe tuna, and fought against the World Trade Organization.  Mark is also Global Exchange's communications director, and has helped develop campaign strategies to stop Nike and Gap sweatshops, transform the IMF and WTO, and pressure Starbucks to offer Fair Trade certified coffee. Mark currently directs Global Exchange's "Jumpstart Ford" campaign, which is demanding that Ford Motor Company and the other auto manufacturers do everything they can to break America's addiction to oil.

Tue., May 18, 7:30 pm - Jutta Meier-Wiedenbach - , will speak after the film "Plan Colombia: Cashing in On the Drug War Failure".  Jutta has been coordinating the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Task Force on Latin America and the Caribbean Colombia Program since January 2002.  Jutta has been to Colombia 5 times, visiting Bogota, Medellin and the Uraba region in Northern Colombia where FOR accompanies the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado and most recently visited the region for two weeks in January of this year. She speaks on Colombia and Colombian grassroots peace initiatives before different audiences, translates for speakers from Colombia on tours through the US and gives media interviews on the subject.  Jutta has many years of experience working for peace and justice, including more than four years in Chiapas, Mexico, where she coordinated civilian peace camps, and worked on media, outreach and analysis for the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Human Rights Center. She published two collections of photographs from Mexico, and went on an extensive speaking tour through Europe talking about the human rights situation of the indigenous communities in Chiapas. In 2001 she coordinated the Peace Brigades International Mexico Project.  

Tue., May 11, 7:30 pm - Carmencita "Chie" Abad will speak and lead a discussion after the films "Deadly Embrace: Nicaragua, World Bank & IMF" & "Global Village or Global Pillage".   Chie Abad speaks from personal experience about the hardships endured by millions of workers in sweatshops around the world. Chie spent six years as a garment worker on the Pacific island of Saipan, a U.S. territory. She endured wretched working conditions, frequently working 14-hour shifts in order to meet arbitrary production quotas for her employer, the Sako Corporation, which makes clothes for the Gap and other U.S. retailers. When she tried to organize a union, Chie was met by fierce resistance from management and eventually lost her job. She now lives in the U.S., where she works to educate Americans about the inhumane factory conditions occurring worldwide, including on U.S. soil. Chie was instrumental in forcing 26 major retailers to settle a lawsuit in Septmber 2002 to improve conditions in Saipan. Her story is an inspiring example of how people can win if they stand up for their rights.

Tue., May 4, 7:30 pm - Rush Rehm will speak and lead a discussion after the films "Arms for the Poor" and "In Whose Interest".  Rush Rehm is a professor of Classics and Drama at Stanford, author of many books and articles and an activist in the peace and justice movement, particularly in US relations with Nicaragua and Cuba.  He teaches courses on Antigone & Contemporary Dissent, Performance & Politics, and a seminar titled "Noam Chomsky: The Drama of Résistance" which presets information and analysis to encourage action and activism.  Last year, he directed the play "Sex for Peace: Lysistrata" - the world's best antiwar comedy in which the women are antiwar activists who achieve peace by offering the combatants, their husbands, an ultimatum: Put down your arms or no more sex.  Rush also spent a week in jail, last spring for anti-war protests at Lockheed Martin. 

Tue., May 4, 7:30 pm - Terry Bradford is widely recognized as Celine Dion's duet partner for 5 years, will sing a couple of songs celebrating peace, life, unity and inclusivity before and after the showings.  Terry has an impressive range of other performance, recording, video, movie, television, and songwriting credits to his name. He performed duets with Linda Ronstadt during her Millenium Tour, and has sung with Whitney Houston, Elton John, Patti LaBelle, Teddy Pendergrass, Lionel Ritchie, and Bruce Willis. Terry’s also recorded with Celine Dion, Ricky Martin, Annie Lennox, and Cher among others, and worked on movie soundtracks such as “The Lion King”, “What’s Love Got to Do With It”, “Mystery Men”, “200 Cigarettes”, and “Amistad”. More info on Terry Bradford. 

Wed., April 28, 7:30 pm - Randy Ghent will give a slide presentation/talk on "Medieval Urbanism in Morocco: Lessons for the Modern World".   Donation of $5-$10 benefits the World Carfree Network.  The presentation is co-sponsored by Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition and the Peninsula Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition.

Experience Carfree Morocco. Getting lost in the maze of Morocco's medinas (medieval pedestrian cities) offers us a rare opportunity to immerse ourselves in the history of urban form, experiencing the past first-hand in the present. Through this visual exercise, we temporarily distance ourselves from contemporary urban design, giving us the perspective to recognize its many failings. In the process, we learn how a dense, compact urban habitat can be built without dependence on motorized or mechanized transport, while providing the necessary preconditions for a rich and vibrant public life.  [Full Transcript] 

Randy Ghent co-founded Car Busters in 1997 in Lyon, France, while working as a coordinator of the Towards Car-Free Cities I conference. Since 1997, he has been based in Lyon, Melbourne and Prague as a full-time staff member of the Car Busters collective, with a diverse range of roles and projects. From 1998-2000, he was European Correspondent for Adbusters magazine. From 1992-1997 he was office manager of the Alliance for a Paving Moratorium/Fossil Fuels Policy Action Institute in California, where he served as editor of the Auto-Free Times. Randy gave the same presentation at the III World Carfree Conference in Prague, 2003.

April 21, 7:30 pm - Shashi Tyagi is the co-founder of GRAVIS an NGO in India, working by Gandhian principles on rural reconstruction in desert villages of Rajasthan and a partner organization of IDEX, will speak on Women Empowerment.  This is a fund raiser for GRAVIS, donations of any amount accepted.

Women empowerment
One of its accomplishments that GRAVIS takes most pride is in the marked  improvement in the status of women living in the rural community. Women are more self-assured than they ever were, participate in discussions with men, and take the initiative to gain greater independence.  GRAVIS over the years has invested in basic education for girls and provided health and nutritional support to women. However, GRAVIS realized that social ills were at the root of problems faced by women and there was the need to change the relationship between woman and their households. This involved raising their self-esteem and creating outlets for creativity and self-reliance.

Shashi Tyagi has particular interest in the economic empowerment of women, their health, education, training, and income generating potential. She was recently instrumental in founding a community hospital, which serves 200,000 people, particularly women in pregnancy and childbirth.

Gramin Vikas Vigyan Samiti (GRAVIS)
GRAVIS was founded in 1983 to promote self-reliance and to improve the social, economic and political situation of desert communities in Rajasthan. The Thar Desert is characterized by a host of environmental and social problems. The subsistence farming is affected by erosion, drought and erratic rainfall leading to low productivity, degradation of grazing lands and livelihood insecurity. The poor social status is reflected in high rate of illiteracy, high infant and child mortality, poor reproductive health status, low life expectancy, poor nutrition and poverty.

GRAVIS follows the Mahatma Gandhi vision for India, which is one of community self-reliance and dignity for labor. GRAVIS has developed a very interesting village development model through which they promote leadership at the grassroots. In each of the communities where they work, GRAVIS helps to form Village Development Committees (VDCs) that represent different groups of the village. Through the VDC, GRAVIS implements programs like water resource development, agriculture and forestry, women empowerment, health and education. GRAVIS works in about 400 villages in 6 districts of Rajasthan in the areas of sustainable development, natural resource management, women's empowerment, health care, capacity building of communities and child education. 

International Development Exchange (IDEX) 
IDEX  is a San Francisco based non-profit organization that partners with grassroots organizations in seven countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, while actively engaging and educating North Americans in the challenges facing communities in these regions. Since 1985, IDEX has channeled over $2.4 million to fund more than 500 self-help community projects working for social change and economic independence for people, particularly women, indigenous peoples and youth, who earn less than $1 a day.

April 20, 7:30 pm - Alison Weir will present the film "Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land" and also speak and lead a discussion after the film.

Journalist Alison Weir is the founder of "If Americans Knew," an organization dedicated to providing Americans with information on topics of importance that are misreported or under-reported in the American media. She has been a journalist off and on for many years and spent a month traveling alone throughout Gaza and the West Bank as a freelance journalist, and now speaks throughout the country on the issue of Palestine. In her presentation, she describes her experiences in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, shows her slides of the area, gives a brief sketch of the history, and discusses American press coverage of the region.  Weir has spoken extensively throughout the country at universities, colleges, Rotary Clubs, churches, as well as on Capitol Hill. A speech she  gave in Washington D.C. at the Center for Policy Analysis was broadcast extensively on C-Span. Most frequently she speaks at universities and colleges, among these are Columbia, Stanford, Berkeley, Vassar, Purdue, Bard, NYU, Northwestern, the University of Wisconsin, the Fletcher School of  Law and Diplomacy and the Naval Postgraduate Institute.

April 13, 7:30 pm - Pierre LaBoissiere will present the film "Haiti:Harvest of Hope" and also speak and lead a discussion after the film.

Pierre is a Haitian himself and a long term activist and a founding member of Haiti Action Committee.  Pierre attended the bicentennial activities in both Port-au-Prince and Gonaïves and will provide a first-hand account and analysis of what is really happening in Haiti.

April 6, 7:30 pm - Dawn Gable will present the film "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" and also speak and lead a discussion after the film.

Dawn Gable holds a double BA in Environmental Studies and Biology from UCSC. She spent 2+ years living and working as a field ornithologist in Venezuela from 2000-2003. During which time she became acquainted with the Bolivarian Revolution and the Chavez program as well as with Venezuelan culture. The coup attempt of April 11, 2002 that mobilized the Chavez supporting majority, catalyzed her involvement in the movement as well. Dawn is the founder of the International Bolivarian Circle: Cyber-Solidarity, the co-creator and co-manager of the Bolivarian Circles official website, she works closely with Sucre en Comunidad and community media of barrio "23 de Enero" Caracas and with ANROS, the (national association of networks of social organizations). She has been instrumental in organizing internships with Venezuela NGOs for US university students and cooperates with Global Exchange Venezuela programs. She is a contributing writer on www.venezuelanalysis.com and guest writer on www.vheadline.com , both English language on-line news sources. She continues to travel frequently to Venezuela and Cuba and is a member of the Santa Cruz Cuba Study Group.