WHEN AND WHERE:

NYU’s Kimmel Center (60 Washington Square South), room 405. Monday, December 8, 7-9 p.m.

WHO:

Monica Hunken (clown brigade/reverend billy)
Ben Shephard (wrote a book on creative street activism)
Andrew Flowers (queer fist!)
Anonymous Panda from Panadmonium

WHAT:

The overarching theme for the evening should be about ‘What makes an effective action?’. More specifically:

• When is it most appropriate to use what kinds of tactics; i.e. when is direct action appropriate versus a protest/picketing strategy?
• How should these different tactics be used to create escalating pressure on a target?
• What is the role of humor or ridicule in designing an action?
• How do you think student activists can best use the resources they have (as university students with the cultural baggage that entails, some access to $, etc) to create effective actions?
• How should activists respond to questions about the legitimacy of their tactics?

READING PACKET:

You don’t have to read it, but it will be good follow up for your brainstorming and thinking. It’s pretty big but full of lots of good stuff: link for reading/downloading. In this you will find:

• The first Chapter from NYU Prof. Stephen Duncombe’s Dream
• Two articles from the Smartmeme project on direct action
• Article from Rolling Thunder on the SHAC (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty) Organizing Model
• The first Chapter from Piven and Cloward’s Poor People’s Movements: Why they Succeed, Why they Fail
• Two articles from the Situationist Internationale on Detournement
• “The Four-Fold Path to Student Liberation” by Jerry Farber

Other things you might want to read that aren’t included in the above link:

• Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs by Mark Dery (There are a few pages of this in the packet… I messed up the scanning process so yr going to have to find this yourself)
• SDS Port Huron Statement

Organized by Take Back NYU! and Students Creating Radical Change. If you have questions, email takebacknyu AT gmail DOT com and scrcdiscuss AT lists DOT riseup DOT net