Bringing Out the Dogs in Austin
Come as a Dog! Dress as a Dog!
Movement for a Democratic Society/Austin invites you to
BRING OUT THE DOGS!
A Street Theater Event
“Honoring” Sen. John (Corn Dog) Cornyn
“Lap Dog to the President”
5 - 6:30 pm, Friday, Feb. 15
On the street outside Senator John Cornyn’s Chase Tower office
221 W. Sixth St (between Colorado and Lavaca)
MDS Austin is sponsoring a uniquely Austin-weird opportunity for citizens to express their disgust with U.S. Senator John Cornyn, whose tail-wagging support for the administration’s policies on the war, torture, and civil liberties, and his dogged defense of President Bush’s veto of affordable health care to millions of needy children has helped to propel him to an approval rating lower than a weenie dog. “Corn Dog” – Bush’s own nickname for Texas’ junior senator! – is the president’s ever-obedient lap dog.
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Michigan State SDS Reunion: Hope And History Come Together
From NLN:
MSU SDS reunion program guide and local press coverage (Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
East Lansing, MI - December 6, 2007. Former members of MSU SDS, present day members of MDS and organizers from Ignite, the new MSU SDS chapter all came together for a counter-recruitment protest and later, a moving MSU SDS reunion. Friday, November 30, 2007 was a bitter cold day in East Lansing. A spirited demo outside a Marine Corps recruiting center, on busy Grand River Avenue, opposite the MSU campus, was abbreviated due to the frigid temperatures. But later in the day, an SDS reunion held in MSU’s South Kedzie Hall, warmed hearts and fired up the activists - young and old. Bob Meola, an MSU SDS alumnus, emceed the affair which featured speeches by Cole Smith of Ignite, Alan Haber, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and the man of the hour - Bert Garskof who had been the faculty advisor to the original MSU SDS chapter. Garskof, fired by MSU for his devotion to his students and the Movement, was described by Ayers as “a mentor, an inspiration”.
Bert Garskof: teacher, mentor and activist (Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
The event was part hope, part history and part humor - master of ceremonies Bob Meola commented on some early controversy: “There were some who said that we, meaning in 1969, were a divided chapter and they wanted to know: ‘by whose authority is this being organized?’ We didn’t look to invite a particular faction. We invited everybody…like somebody said…the same people who wanted to put us all away then would want to put us all away now and they’d put us all in the same camp together…yeah..it’s silly, we’re beyond those disputes. Welcome to all factions!”
Jax MDS Counter-Recruitment Action
From NLN:
(Photo: Danilo Quilaton / Jax MDS)
Jacksonville, FL - December 2, 2007. An anti-war and counter recruitment picket was held in four corners of a busy intersection near downtown Jacksonville. Local activists, JAX MDS, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and Grandmothers for Peace protested with signs and flyers calling for the Impeachment of Bush/Cheney, the removal of recruiters, bringing our troops home, and keeping the US out of Iran. The day started out with a Critical Mass bike ride that gave the local activists a chance to meet one and another, and was followed by a centralized protest in a congested intersection just blocks away from the Gator Bowl. The day ended with a moving speech from the 97 year old Peg McIntire of Grandmothers for Peace. All in all in it was a very successful event for two reasons. It was the first activity in Jacksonville, FL and the event served as great networking tool that brought together several individuals involved in different coalitions, and showed the people of Jacksonville that their is an alternative voice within the community that’s committed to stand for the people.
Chicago MDS Convergence
From NLN:
Chicago MDS Convergence - by Tamara Smith and Penelope Rosemont
View Photos/Videos From The MDS Convergence…
Chicago, IL - November 15, 2007. CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL! Report on the First National Convergence of the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), with the Participation of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
It was a hectic week for activists in Chicago. There was the Select Media Festival, a Teaching for Social Justice Conference, a SNCC commemoration, the Humanities festival, a National Convention to End the Death Penalty, and Bob Brown’s law-suit against the corporations. And in nearby Berwyn, 37 Morton West High School students faced expulsion for holding an antiwar sit-in.
Not least, the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) held its first national convergence at Loyola University, from November 8 through 11 with the participation of the newly inspired SDS, Students for a Democratic Society.
Bill Ayers at the Resisting Endless War panel (Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
Loyola provided fine meeting rooms in a maze-like setting on beautiful Lake Michigan. On Thursday night some eighty-plus people attended Manning Marable’s superb talk on South Africa, its increasing impoverishment and stratification caused by the demands of U.S. interests and investments. Marable spoke of the prison industry and observed that 1 in every 5 persons in the U.S. has a prison record. This has led to a mass disenfrachizment of black voters, especially in the south.
MDS Convergence Schedule Announced
Chicago - October 15, 2007. The Movement for a Democratic Society National Convergence is being held in Chicago at Loyola University, November 8 - 11, 2007. The schedule, subject to revision, is as follows:
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8 at Crown Center Auditorium (Loyola Avenue & the Lake)
Marable is a professor at Columbia University in New York and author of Living Black History: How Reimaging the African-American Past Can Remake America’s Racial Future; Black Leadership: Four Great American Leaders and The Struggle for Civil Rights and other works.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9
www.movementforademocraticsociety.org
Welcome to Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS). MDS is an education and social action organization dedicated to increasing democracy in all phases of our common life. It seeks to promote the active participation of ordinary people in the formation of a movement to build a society free from poverty, ignorance, war, exploitation, racism and sexism. This website exists to help people who desire to be a part of MDS - by connecting interested persons with a local chapter, or by helping them to create a new chapter. To become a part of MDS - submit a contact request and an organizer in your area will contact you. To start a chapter in your area submit a chapter request form and an organizer will assist you in the formation of the new chapter.
COMING TO CHICAGO IN NOVEMBER!
A Nationwide Convergence of Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS)
With Panels…Speakers…and Discussion on: War & Peace…Building a New Movement…Saving the Planet…Abolishing Prisons…Ending Racism…Building Our Own Media…Gay Rights & Human Rights…Women & Work…Comics & Popular Culture…SDS Today!!!
Featuring: Manning Marable, Kathy Kelly, Carl Davidson, Muhammad Ahmad, Peter Linebaugh, Gale Ahrens, David Roediger, Kate Khatib, Paul Buhle, Amanda Klonsky and many others!
At Loyola University’s North Shore Campus
6525 North Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626
November 10-11, 2007… Free!
For further information write: MDS, 1740 W. Greenleaf Ave, Chicago IL 60626
MDS Austin at the Hutto Prison Vigil (Photo: Nancy Simons)
MDS New York: See You In The Streets! (Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)
MDS Central Florida: “Feed The Poor, Not The War” (Photo: MDS Central Florida)
