Socialism and Environmental Justice

Solidarity Summer School July 20-22, 2007

FRIDAY, JULY 20th

9-11 am

Plenary: Socialism and the Struggle for Environmental Justice

Joel Kovel – Capitalism, Socialism, and the Environment
Heather Rogers – Corporate Green-Washing
Kizzy Charles-Guzman – Environmental Justice Movement

11:30-12:30 pm
Group Projects

Each person will be assigned to a project group. Each group will be given a set of questions from which they can choose one or more questions to work on. Their goal will be to present ideas and information around these topics/questions to the entire collective of people attending the school. We will provide some resources and bios of “resource people” who will be available to help with these projects.

In the first hour, groups will go over the questions and discuss which one or ones they want to work on. They will have available packets of reading material and/or web addresses where material can be found to learn more about their questions. They will also think about how they want to use the resource people, go over their various assignments, talk about how to organize themselves and work together. They will continue to discuss these issues over lunch

12:30-1:30 pm
Lunch

Eat lunch with group members for an opportunity to continue conversation, consult with resource people, etc.

1:30-2:00 pm
Reports on Project Topics

Convene all attendees so that groups can report about what they are planning to explore and people can ask any questions they may have about the projects, the resources available to them, using the internet, etc.

2:00-6:00 pm
Group Projects

Groups may organize their own time to accomplish the goals of the afternoon activity. They should plan their work in such a way that they have time for breaks for exercise/naps or other “down time”.

During this time, resource people will be available for consultation. There will be two consultation sessions: 2:00-3:15 and 3:30-4:45.

In this first project segment, the group will need to get an overview all of the resources and materials that are available for them to use to explore their questions. They may want to assign some individuals to meet with resource person(s) and some to read packet materials. They could schedule a report back time for later in the afternoon.
We would hope that by the end of this project time, the group would have an outline of how they are organizing their work and initial ideas about what the presentation will be like.

6:00-6:45 pm Dinner

7:15-9:00 pm

Reproductive Rights, Population, and the Environment

Marsha J. Tyson Darling – Bio-technology and the Appropriation of Women of Color’s Bodies
Giovanne Di Chiro – Linking Environmental Justice and Social Reproduction

SATURDAY, JULY 21st

9:30-11:30 am

The Uneasy Alliances of Labor and the Environmental Justice Movements
Valorie Caffee – building a labor-environment coalition
David Pratt – occupational health and safety as an environmental issue
Saladin Mohammed – worker organizing and environmental justice movements in North Carolina

12:00- 1:00 Lunch

Group members can lunch with the plenary speakers and resource people for consultation; other group members can meet over lunch to plan their afternoon activity

1:00-6:00 Group projects

Groups may organize their own time to accomplish the goals of the afternoon activity. They will be expected to have a presentation ready for Sunday morning. They should plan their work in such a way that they have time for breaks for exercise/naps or other “down time”.

During this time, resource people will be available for consultation. There will be two consultation sessions: 1:00-2:30 and 2:45-4:15

6:00pm-7:00 Dinner

7:15-9:00 Film: Water Wars

Discussion with the filmmaker: rachel parsons

SUNDAY, JULY 22nd

9:00- 12:00
Group Project Presentations

Each group gets a half hour with a break in between.

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:00
Follow up discussion on presentations. Inevitably discussions following the presentations will have to be cut short to get through all the presentations on time. This will be an opportunity to recap and come back to some of the discussions that most interest participants.

2:00-3:00 Evaluation

Ten groups of five people each, one from each of the activity groups—discuss and evaluate the program.
We will give them an evaluation questionnaire to fill out.