The ongoing capitalist crisis generated high hopes that the parties and social movements of the Left, both in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, would be re-energized. So far this has not happened. The Left remains fractured and confused, drifting away from its labor base, while the Right seems to have emerged as the stronger or at least the more strident force. The result is that unemployment remains high, wages low, and insecurity grows. In the U.S., the Obama administration negotiates from the center, and concedes more and more to business interests and political conservatives. Can this be turned around? Can the hardships and opportunities generated by the capitalist crisis yet become the trigger for the revival of a transformative Left?

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Left Forum, March 19-21

Pace University, One Pace Plaza
New York, NY 10038

Lessons from Latin American Social Movements for a US in Crisis

Organized by Toward Freedom and Between The Lines Radio

Session 1: Saturday, March 20, 10:00 AM - 11:50 PM, Pace University, W612

Latin American social movements have resisted the harmful effects of neoliberalism for decades. Many have also built viable alternatives to this destructive economic model. This panel and discussion will focus on such resistance and alternatives in Latin America and look at what activists and leftist in the US could learn from these movements and experiences in Latin America. The panel will discuss connections between worker occupations and cooperatives in Argentina and the worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago. It will look at indigenous alternative radios and movements in Colombia and alternative media in the US, as well as water rights struggles in the North and South. Also discussed will be Bolivian social movements under President Evo Morales and how those movements have both politically radicalized the president's policies and been co-opted and demobilized by the government.

Moderator: Scott Harris: Radio Producer at Between The Lines Radio

Panelists:

Marina Sitrin: Author of "Horizontalism: Voices of Popular Power in Argentina" (AK Press)

Mario Murillo: Radio Journalist, Media Studies Professor and Author of "Voices of Resistance: Indigenous Radio and the Struggle for Social Justice in Colombia" forthcoming from South End Press.

Bejamin Dangl: Editor of TowardFreedom.com and UpsideDownWorld.org, author of "The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia" (AK Press) and "Dancing with Dynamite: Social Movements and States in Latin America" (forthcoming, AK Press).

For more details visit http://leftforum.org/