Monthly Archives: June 2015

“How Can We Stop the Violence?” Andy Thayer

The YouTube video of Saturday, June 13, 2015 is now up and available for viewing on the YouTube channel of The Open University of the Left.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7HIdcyYAM

Join Open University of the Left on Saturday June 13th at 2:30 pm

 A presentation by Andy Thayer

“How Can We Stop the Violence?”

Open University of the Left
Lincoln Park Public Library
1150 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago (corner Racine)
across from DePaul University
free parking, (Red Line: Fullerton)

The Black Lives Matter protests are among the most dynamic protest movements of the current century. But, with police seemingly acting with impunity in murder after murder, and U.S. violence rates much higher than those of any other wealthy nation, it is not enough for us to simply protest the violence. We need to propose and advocate for specific programs and policies that will no longer allow business as usual. In a world with economic austerity and a near-bankrupt city and state, our advocacy will require specific proposals, and also a power to overcome wealthy opposition that we’ve not seen in this country in generations.

 

Open University of the Left welcomes back Andy Thayer who is a co-founder of the multi-issue Gay Liberation Network. As a long-time anti war and anti-police misconduct activist, despite police interference, he has helped organize many large protests, including the largest march on the NATO summit and a march of 15,000 on Lake Shore Drive when the U.S. invaded Iraq. Described as “a gigantic pain in the butt for law enforcement” by a retired Chicago Police Commander, Andy has been arrested numerous times in various protests, including twice in Moscow, Russia for protesting against that government’s bans on gay rights demonstrations. Among his recent writings is a piece for In These Times, titled “All the Chicago Mayoral Candidates Are getting It Wrong: We Don’t Need More Cops.”
Visit our website at:

https://openuniversityoftheleft.com/

All prior video programs are viewable on our archive YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft/

Open University of the Left
Lincoln Park Public Library
1150 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago (corner Racine)
across from DePaul University
free parking, (Red Line: Fullerton)

 

The Left Forum 2015 — “NO JUSTICE NO PEACE”

The YouTube videos of The Left Forum 2015 are up and available for viewing on the YouTube channel of The Open University of the Left.

https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft/

The weekend of May 29th through May 31st saw the reconvening of the Left Forum. This years event was titled NO JUSTICE NO PEACE – Confronting the crises of capitalism and democracy. The event was held at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York in New York City. This event is the largest annual gathering in North America of the US and international Left. Nearly 5,000 people were said to be in attendance. The Left Forum brings together activists, intellectuals and academics to share their perspectives, experiences, strategies and visions.

 

For your consideration, what follows are videos from seven sessions as well as the closing plenary conducted at the conference out of a total of over 400 scheduled events. While this is a small sample, it does represent a broad perspective of current left political thinking. We know that the global economic and political system is exacerbating savage conflicts. Liberal democratic solutions have failed utterly to remedy these seemingly intractable problems. Radical solutions that include a total re-evaluation of capitalism itself are what is called for. It is becoming increasing obvious to anyone with a clear mind that this destructive system, capitalism, is broken and they can’t fix it. What type of movement(s) will it take to overcome these daunting problems? Some of the analysis and strategies you will hear presented in these recorded sessions might offer a road map for us to move forward.

https://openuniversityoftheleft.com/

All prior video programs are viewable on our archive YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenUnivoftheLeft/

Open University of the Left
Lincoln Park Public Library
1150 W. Fullerton Ave, Chicago (corner Racine)
across from DePaul University
free parking, (Red Line: Fullerton)