[fundraising] Joel Kovel coming to town, Jan 20--24

[Merelice]

Hi Amy,

There is one possibility if Joel can be available for Mel King's
brunch on Sunday, the 20th. (Mel says that date is open.) That isn't
the date you gave me, I realize, but the Green-Rainbow Party is
working on two or three presidential candidate events before the Feb.
5 primary, and we can't add anything that would require a lot of
organizing (even though you offered to do most of the work).

Any interest?

Merelice

On 12/14/07, Amy Hendrickson <amyh at texnology.com> wrote:
> Hi Merilice--
>
> The date he has available is Saturday, Jan 19-- either
> afternoon or evening, depending on when we can get
> the most people to come--
>
> I'd like the event to be as well attended as possible
> and would like to use it as a way to draw more people
> into the Green party-- So, it would be best if it was
> officially a Green Party event -- I was thinking that co-sponsoring
> with some of the socialist groups would be appropriate
> too-- I can handle the publicity and getting the hall so it
> wouldn't take time away from the Greens, and could be
> a rallying point to meet with someone who has been so
> active in the movement.
>
> He is working on a book on EcoSocialism and is very involved--
> here is a link if you want to read some of his ideas on ecosocialism:
> http://www.newsocialist.org/index.php?id=1321 (quote below)
>
> We have to decide where to do it-- possibly somewhere
> around Park St station? or Brookline, or Cambridge?
> Maybe J.P.?
> Where could we get the most people to attend?
> Can we have co-sponsors?
>
> The other events I'm hoping to arrange are for him to
> speak on his current book "Overcoming Zionism" and
> I'm hoping to schedule him at Harvard, MIT, and
> Coolidge Corner Cinema-- No dates are solidly established
> yet, but there are many meetings and interviews that
> I am also hoping to arrange, so he will be having a busy
> 4 days--
>
> So please let me know what you'd like to do, soon-- Is
> there a GRP person that could be the contact person?
>
> Thanks!
> Amy
>
> Here's a quote:
> "Neoliberalism is a return to the pure logic of capital; it is no passing
> storm but the true condition of the capitalist world we inhabit. It has
> effectively swept away measures which had inhibited capital's aggressivity,
> replacing them with naked exploitation of humanity and nature. The tearing
> down of boundaries and limits to accumulation is known as "globalization,"
> and is celebrated by ideologues like Thomas Friedman as a new epoch of
> universal progress borne on the wings of free trade and unfettered
> commodification. This blitzkrieg or bombardment simply overwhelmed the
> feeble liberal reforms which the environmental movements of the 1970s had
> helped put in place in order to check ecological decay. And as these
> movements have had little or no critique of capital, they drift helplessly
> in a time of accelerated breakdown.
> Thus it is time to recognize the utter inadequacy of first-wave
> environmentalism's basic premises and forms of organization. There is a
> certain urgency to this recognition, for nothing less than profound and
> indeed unprecedented changes in human existence are forewarned by the
> ecological crisis.