Here we share audio recordings of the presentations we had permission and capacity to record. The voices of audience members have been re-recorded where we didn’t have consent to use them. Check the download links below, or visit Archive.Org to play them.
“A Halfway Concise History of Anarchism”
-Margaret Killjoy
Time: Sat Aug 12 3-4pm
Location: W AVL Library
A speed run through the history of anarchism, from its precursors to its present, with an emphasis on deeds rather than words.
Direct action abortion services in Latin America
Time: Friday Aug 11, 330-5pm
Location: Firestorm
I am part of a clandestine group that offers services to interrupt pregnancies up to 12 weeks in a central american country where abortion has always been a criminal offense. We are linked to other similar groups in different parts of latin america as well as anarchist-minded organizations that support us with security, finances and medication.
Direct Democracy throughout Human History
-Modibo Kadalie
Time: Saturday Aug 12 430-530pm
Location: W AVL Library
A scholar-activist with over 60 years of experience in the Civil Rights, Black Power, Pan-African, and Social Ecology movements will discuss the role of critical historiography in the study and documentation of directly democratic communities across human history. Modibo Kadalie’s presentation will touch on ideas discussed in his two most recent books, “Pan-African Social Ecology” and “Intimate Direct Democracy.” Dr. Kadalie will also discuss his upcoming book, tentstively titled “State Creep: A Critical Historiography.”
Jane, the underground abortion service
-Diane Stevens
Time: Friday Aug 11, 7-8pm
Location: DifferentWrld
The Abortion Counseling Service, now better known as Jane, started out as a referral service in Chicago in the late 1960s, providing counseling and support to women before and after their procedures. Members of the group learned to do the abortions and then were able to do the procedures for whatever the women could afford to pay. Seven women were arrested and charged with the felonies of abortion and conspiracy to commit abortion. These charges were ultimately dismissed. It is estimated that about 11 thousand abortions were preformed before the group disbanded in 1973.
Diane Stevens was born in Chicago. She went to school in the suburbs before moving back into the city where she joined the Abortion Counseling Service.
Following the Roe v Wade decision and dismissal of all the criminal charges, Diane went on to have a career in health care and worked as a nurse practitioner in a variety of settings. Her work for reproductive justice has resumed with joining the Reproductive Rights Coalition in Charlotte and being a clinic escort.
Reportback: Migrant Solidarity in the Mediterranean Sea
-Quoyle
Time: Sunday Aug 13, 3-5pm
Location: DifferentWrld Green Room
The Mediterranean Sea is Europe’s deadliest border. For years, non-state actors like Sea-Watch and other NGO’s have played a part in humanitarian search-and-rescue operations. In spite of legal repression and the technical challenges of maintaining a “civil fleet”, anarchists, anti-fascists, and other activists try to stop needless death at sea.
Hear a report back from a wayward American yacht-punk who spent the summer doing rotations on two different SAR (Search And Rescue) ships. We’ll discuss the general political situation, the reality of everyday operations and how you could get involved.
The Breakup Theory of Anarchism
-Scott Branson
Time: Saturday Aug 12, 1-230pm
Location: Firestorm
I want to talk about anarchism in our daily lives, shifting focus to how we form and end relationships as a place of collective struggle to build better worlds. Often, we emphasize other aspects of struggle, which causes us to overlook the actual material life we live. I want to propose a way to think about how we can stop reproducing the same dismal life and open up our lives to more generative relationships.
Ungovernable: Fighting Fascism
– JoNina Abron-Ervin, Lorenzo Ervin & William C Anderson
Time: Saturday Aug 12, 6-8pm
Location: DifferentWrld
A discussion of using dual power to engage in widespread sabotage against the corporate state in order to fight fascism.
JoNina and Lorenzo are two anarchist ex-Black Panthers. Between them they have 70 years of political activity spanning lives that have included everything from teaching at a revolutionary community school to hijacking a plane and taking it to Cuba. Both are now involved in the Black Autonomy Network of Community Organizers.