7th annual Radical Organizing Conference

March 17, 2012 from 9:30 to 6:00, SEIU/1199, 150 Mt. Vernon St., Dorchester (near the JFK/UMASS stop on the Red line)

We are pleased to announce the 7th annual Radical Organizing Conference (ROC), where participants will once again have the opportunity to discuss how we can do our work in a way that brings about radical change (gets to the root causes of problems). The 2012 ROC offers workshops to build understanding and skills, theater to help explore issues, and good food, song, and opportunities to connect with other organizers. It will be a day of fun, learning, sharing, and building relationships across our various movements and struggles. Please come!

Handicap accessible. Childcare and Spanish interpretation provided. Delicious lunch and snacks served.

Write to us at r call 617-524-3541 (ext. 313) and tell us which workshops you want to take. Registration not required but we would like to hear from you if possible.

Sign Up Sheet for ROC 2012 Workshops

Check the workshops you would like to take, fill out the form below, and turn this page in or send it to

City Life, 284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, MA 02130!

Morning Workshops / Afternoon Workshops
□ The "Law" of supply and demand; The "Religion" of the free market
How are these ideas used to defeat progressive change? What's wrong with the "law" of supply and demand? Why is the "free" market not quite so free? What is our response?
Steve Meacham, CLVU / □ Challenging market ideology while doing practical organizing.
The ROCs have always proposed that we offer practical help to the person walking in the door, but organize in a way that undermines the system that caused the problem. We will look at City Life's tenant organizing and bank tenant campaigns as examples of undermining market ideology in different ways.
Steve Meacham, CLVU
□ Start by Telling Your Story
In this workshop, we will explore how the power of your story can support organizing. Learn how…
Leaders from UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union / □ Organize to Overcome Fear
Sometimes, the obstacles and opponents we face seem insurmountable. Creating real social change--from fighting eviction and foreclosure, to organizing at work, to strengthening the community in your neighborhood-- IS possible. In this workshop, we will help people move from "I can't" to "we can!"
Leaders from UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union
□Who Broke the Economy?
Learn who really drove the economy into the ground. Participants will play Jenga and gain a hands-on understanding of what went wrong with our economy.
Darrin Howell, MassUniting / □ New kinds of labor organizing
Jobs with Justice
□What’s Happening to our Cities?
Robbie Clarke from Causa Justa and Right to the City/Oakland, CA) / □ Short-term Demands/Long-term Transformation for Our Cities
Robbie Clarke from Causa Justa and Right to the City/Oakland, CA)
□Theater for Social Change (part 1) □ Theater for Social Change (part 2)
Jorge
□Youth Power and the Fight for Jobs
City School youth and staff / □ Creative, energetic strategy and tactics
City School youth and staff
□Radical Faith and Justice (part 1) □ Radical Faith and Justice (part 2)
Mary Wright (CLVU), Annie Fox (Kavod), Stewart Lanier (from?) and representative from Northside Islamic community
□Occupy: What worked? What didn’t?
Nicole Sullivan + Katie Gradowski
This workshop will look at the occupation of Dewey Square as part of a history of physical occupations (Tent City, Take Back the Land, factory occupations and others), focusing on the general case - occupation as a tactic - as well as the specific case of Dewey Square. What made Dewey unique? What are the next steps? / □ Prison-Industrial Complex
Gunner Scott? Jason Lydon?
□African Americans and immigrants of color on the question of immigration
Trina Jackson / □ workshop on how immigration is used as a wedge issue in the economic attacks on working people
Student Immigration Movement
□Freedom Rides
Jim Brooks in collaboration with Mike Wolfson (former Freedom Rider) / □ USSF Rides??
REEP youth
□Intro to Cooperatives (workers' and housing)
Maria / □ Intro to Cooperatives (workers' and housing) Part 2?