There are reports from many activist organizations that indicate both snail mail
and e-mail are continually late, often arriving after the planned meeting or rally.
A good alternative is to have a calendar on the web so those wanting to participate
in the political process may do so without Cointelpro interference....

This page is updated continually, so be sure to click the RELOAD button
on your browser.
 

Tuesday, April 03, 7:00 to 10:00 PM
"The Hatfields and McCoys R Fudin' Wile the Revnurs R Comin!"
Reinforcing OUR American Liberty by looking at where we go from here.
We must understand that God did not make us perfect and must respect
individual differences.
If time permits viewing a Michel Coffman DVD, "World Events and Prophecy."
Location:  Brave New Books, 1904 Guadalupe, just North of MLK
in the Chase Bldg.
Parking Garage behind DOLBY Theater-$2.50/hour
Contact (512) 577-5394

Wednesday, April 4, 7:30 p.m.
Racism, White Privilege and Coalition Politics: A Transnational
Dialogue with João Costa Vargas and Charles R. Hale
        Charles R. Hale, professor of anthropology at the UT-Austin and
author of Más Que Un Indio (more Than An Indian): Racial Ambivalence
and the Paradox of Neoliberal Multiculturalism in Guatemala, will
begin by  reflecting on his work on race and ethnicity in Guatemala
and Nicaragua.
        João Costa Vargas, assistant professor of Anthropology at UT-Austin
and author of Catching Hell in the City of Angels: Life and Meanings
of Blackness in South Central Los Angeles will talk about the
organized efforts of African-diasporic anti-racists in Los Angeles
and Rio de Janeiro.
Location: MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North Loop.

Wednesday, April 4, 11:30 a.m., City Hall
MLK Memorial March
Citizen activists involved with Austin NAACP, Black Press, PODER,
Inter-religious ministries, labor and peace groups are hosting a
memorial march on the 39th anniversary of the assassination of Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Participants will gather at 11:30 am at City
Hall (Lavaca and Cesar Chavez) for a 12pm march to the State Capitol,
where there will be speakers and music.
Location: Participants will gather at Austin City Hall, Lavaca and
Cesar Chavez.
Information: Akwasi Evans (NOKOA Newspaper), 499-8713, and Nelson
Linder (NAACP), 482-3300.
 

Wednesday, April 4th, 2pm 
Texas House Committee on Elections hearing:
Bruce O'Dell, an award-winning software designer specializing
in software security forAmerican Express, General Motors, and
other Fortune 100 companies, willdeliver a 20 minute presentation
to the Committee on why electronicvoting is neither secure
nor reliable and should be banned for use inTexas.
Location:  Austin Capitol, Rm. E2.028

Thursday, April 5th, 11:15 am
 Vote Rescue:  Press Conference:
* Rep Lon Burnam, Texas House District 90,will make the announcement
of new HB 3894, mandating paper ballots,hand-counted in public view with
citizen oversight, with totals posted atthe precinct level.

* David Rogers, assistant general counsel of the Texas Legal Foundation
and formercampaign manager for Republican Texas Supreme Court Justice
CandidateSteve Smith, will make a statement about his experience in the Texas
2006primary regarding e-voting disaster and huge cost of recounts that do not
even reflect voter intent. Rogers is a longtime conservative Republic anactivist.

* Bruce O'Dell,(mentioned above), will give a statement about why
electronic voting isunsafe and can not technically be made "easier, faster, nor
secure"

* Sputnik,Founder and State Chairman of the Texas Motorcycle Bikers'
Association,member of the National Legislation Task Force and a member
of the TexasChapter of the Lawmakers Club. Sputnik will speak in support
of HB 3894.

* Vickie Karp,PR Director, Vote Rescue and Board Member, Black Box Voting,
will address why "voter verifiable paper audit trails" won't solve e-voting fraud,
and introduce Vote Rescue's Cost Analysis of E-Voting Elections vs.Hand-Counted
Paper Ballots. Joni Ashbrook of VoteRescue will present a short summary
of the astronomical costs of electronically held electionsas reported through
interviews with Texas county election officials.

* Karen Renick, Founder and Director of VoteRescue, Austin election integrity
group supporting HB 3894, will introduce the "Vote-PAD",    the non-electronic
voting system which allows the disabled to vote without assistance, fulfilling the
mandate of the Help America Vote    Act of 2002.
Location:  Capitol, Legislative ConferenceRoom E2.002

Thursday, April 5th, noon, 1:30pm
A video presentation of a hacking of real Diebold electronic voting equipment
(a vendor used in Texas), and a presentation by Bruce O'Dell on the acute security
issues with electronic voting in Texas. Lunch, plus three repeat presentations:
All Texas Representatives, Senators, and their Legislative Staff have been personally
invited. The media is welcome to attend.
Location:  Capitol, Legislative ConferenceRoom E2.002

Tuesday, April 10 - Thursday, April 12
Documentary film and the women's movements in India and Pakistan with
filmmakers Beena Sarwar and Madhusree Dutta

The University of Texas South Asia Institute is hosting three days of
film screenings and workshops involving two leading South Asian
documentary filmmakers, Madhusree Dutta and Beena Sarwar.
Tuesday, April 10, 7:30 p.m.: Screening - "Seven Islands and a Metro"
- The multilingual Bombay, the Bombay of closed mills, of popular
culture, sprawling slums and real estate onslaughts, the metropolis
of numerous ghettos, the El Dorado.  A tale of the city through a
tapestry of fiction, cinema verite, art objects, found footage, sound
installation and literary texts.
Wednesday, April 11, 2:30 - 5 p.m.: Workshop with Dr. Shanti Kumar
(RTF), Dr. Kamran Ali, Dr. Kamala Visweswaran (Anthropology), and
filmmakers Madhusree Dutta and Beena Sarwar.
Wednesday, April 11, 7 - 9 p.m.: Screenings - "Memories of
Fear" (1994), "Muktar Mai: The Struggle for Justice" (2006), and
"Forced Marriage Abroad" (2003).
Thursday, April 12, 3:00 p.m.: South Asia Seminar - "Re-claiming
Spaces: A Personal Political View of Media, Politics and the Women's
Movement in Pakistan" with Beena Sarwar, Carr Center for Human Rights
Policy, Harvard University.
Location: Films and workshops will be in Avaya Auditorium, ACES
2.302, on UT campus.
Thursday's seminar will be in Meyerson Conference Room, WCH 4.118, on
UT campus.

Wednesday April 11 at 7PM
"Within These Walls".
For most people, what happens in the execution chamber is an unknown.
But for many who have witnessed or participated in an execution, it is
a inhumane and unforgivable act that they can never forget.  Come hear
their stories at this panel event.
Featuring:
  *Reverend Caroll Pickett – former prison chaplain who ministered to
  over a hundred men executed in Texas, and author of the book "Within
  These Walls".
  *Jewel Nelms – Mother of Frances Newton, the first black woman to be
  executed in Texas since the civil war.  At the time she was executed
  in 2005, there were serious questions of innocence in her case.
  *Lily Mae Hughes – Member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty,
  who witnessed the execution of her close friend Justin Fuller this last year.
Location:  On UT Campus, Room TBA

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30 p.m.
Panel, "Witness to an Execution"
Campaign to End the Death Penalty is hosting a panel including: Rev.
Caroll Pickett (former prison chaplain who ministered to over a
hundred men executed in Texas, and author of the book "Within These
Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain"); Jewel Nelms (Mother of
Frances Newton, the first Black woman to be executed in Texas since
the Civil War); and Lily Mae Hughes (member of the Campaign to End
the Death Penalty, and witness to the execution of her close friend
Justin Fuller last August).
Location: UT Campus, NOA building, room 1.126, map at http://
www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/noa.html

Thursday, April 12, 7 p.m.
"... but we must speak" -
Remembering MLK, Jr.'s Beyond Vietnam Speech
Austin Center for Peace and Justice -
www.austinpeacecenter.org - hosts a celebration of the 40th
anniversary of Dr. King's April 4, 1967 speech - "Beyond Vietnam: A
Time to Break the Silence" - delivered to a meeting of Clergy and
Laymen Concerned about Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City.
The event will feature readings from the speech, music, commentary,
and community sharing.
Read and listen to the speech at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/
speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
Location: St. James Episcopal Church, 3707 E. MLK, Jr. Blvd.

Saturday, April 14, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
SafePlace 20th Anniversary Fundraiser Walk
Join Central Texas Muslimaat in supporting SafePlace -
www.austin-safeplace.org/ - marking their 20th anniversary of serving
women and families in the Austin area. Funds raised will support
Muslimaat's Family Matters program. Register online at
www.ctmuslimaat.org/walk.html
Location: Waterloo Park, 403 East 15th Street.

Sunday, April 15, 2 p.m.
The Trajectory of Change
        The Austin Project for a Participatory Society's first book of the
month is Michael Albert's The Trajectory of Change: Activist
Strategies for Social Transformation (South End Press). This concise,
accessible collection of essays analyzes movement strategy and deals
with issues and obstacles to building a mass Left movement that can
achieve fundamental social changes.
        "It's clear, useful, and short... this book will start you thinking:
what would work? how do we solve the real problems of our movement?"
- Mike Prokosch, United for a Fair Economy
Location: All interested persons are welcome. Discussion will take
place at a member's house; please email Marcus Denton
(mdenton0@yahoo.com) for location and to RSVP.

Monday, April 16, 8 p.m.
The Dissent! G8 Infotour
        The Dissent! crew - http://dissentnetzwerk.org/node/49 - have done
over 200 presentations in 25+ countries since November 2005. They
start off with a short video and presentation on the history of the
G8 including a recap of past anti-G8 demonstrations. The second part
is all about the current organizing against the upcoming G8 summit in
Heiligendamm, Germany this June.
        After the presentation, there will be an open discussion on any
number of topics: Why protest the G8? Would the resources for such a
big mobilization not be better used for local projects? Coalitions?
Concrete action plans and ideas? Possibilities to work together from
across the pond? How to build/support Austin's anti capitalist
structures?
Location: MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North Loop.

Tuesday, April 17, 7 p.m.
St. Andrews Video Night, "Reel Bad Arabs"
"Reel Bad Arabs" dissects a slanderous aspect of cinematic history
that has run virtually unchallenged form the earliest days of silent
film to today's biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Featuring author Jack
Shaheen, the film explores a long line of degrading images of Arabs--
from Bedouin bandits and submissive maidens to sinister sheikhs and
gun-wielding "terrorists" -- along the way offering devastating
insights into the origin of these stereotypic images, their
development at key points in US history, and why they matter so much
today. Shaheen shows how the persistence of these images over time
has served to naturalize prejudicial attitudes toward Arabs and Arab
culture, in the process reinforcing a narrow view of individual Arabs
and the effects of specific US domestic and internationl policies on
their lives. By inspiring critical thinking about the social,
political, and basic human consequences of leaving these Hollywood
caricatures unexamined, the film challenges viewers to recognize the
urgent need for counter-narratives that do justice to the diversity
and humanity of Arab people and the reality and richness of Arab
history and culture.
Location: St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, 14311 Wells Port Drive,
west of I-35 off Wells Branch Parkway.

Wednesday, April 18th, 6:30-8:30 pm
Austin Area Independent Voters Unite!
Join Independent Texans and help take back Texas!
Location:  University Hills  Library, on t 4721 Loyola Ln. Austin.
Guest speakers are Linda Curtis and Brian Rodgers, a local businessman
who successfully sued the city of Austin for giving $25 (really a
$65!) million in tax breaks to the Domain retail (and high end)
shopping mall!  Here's a flier about the event you can print out and
share with friends.  Hope to see you all there!

Wednesday, April 18, 7 p.m.
Third Coast Film Night at Alamo Drafthouse
        "Our Daily Bread" reveals the little-known world of high-tech
agriculture. In a series of visually stunning, continuously tracking,
wide-screen images that seem right out of a science-fiction movie, we
see the places where food is cultivated and processed: surreal
landscapes optimized for agricultural machinery, clean rooms in cool
industrial buildings designed for maximum efficiency, and elaborate
machines that operate on a 'disassembly line' basis.
        There's little space for humans here. They almost seem like flaws in
this system: undersized and vulnerable, though they adapt as best
they can, with chemical suits, respirators, ear protectors, and
helmets. They do the jobs for which machines have not yet been invented.
Dispensing entirely with explanatory commentary or 'talking-head'
interviews, "Our Daily Bread" unfolds on the screen like a disturbing
dream: an endlessly fascinating flow of images, an insistent gaze,
accompanied only by the persistent industrial soundtrack--whirring,
clattering, booming, slurping--of the ingenious marvels of
mechanization employed by agri-business.
        "Devastating! A Must-See!"  -- New York Times
        "Outstanding! Provocative! Eccentrically lovely and frequently
horrifying."  -- Premiere
Location: Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown, 4th and Colorado.
Tickets - $7 general / $5.50 student, senior - are available at the
event or online at drafthouse.com.

Apr 21 - 22, 9:00am-6:00pm
SAXET GUN SHOW!
Your one-stop shop for guns, ammo, knives, books,
hunting, fishing, & camping gear, water filters, soap, vitamins,
motor oil, survival tools and info, security cameras, alarms,
western collectables, and lots more!  Shop 'til 6:00 on Saturday.
Come on out for a look-see, and network with some interesting folks.
Location: NEW Crocket Center
10601 North Lamar (between Rundberg and Braker)
More info: http://saxetshows.com/
For additional information contact SAXET.
Phone: 361-289-2256, Fax: 361-289-2359

Monday, April 23, 7 p.m.
"When 'Fun' Isn't Funny:
Dr. D. Anthony Tyeeme Clark (Meskwaki),
Racist Entertainment, from Ghetto Parties to American Indian Mascots"
        Debates on university campuses have raged in recent years about the
political and moral issues arising from white people's use of images
or symbols from communities of color for entertainment. D. Anthony
Tyeeme Clark, an American Indian Studies professor at the University
of Illinois, will explain that for many American Indian peoples,
racist entertainment opens and reopens the grief -- the
intergenerational post-traumatic stress -- of historical oppression
that stretches back to the birth of the United States. From
children's literature and school-sponsored activities such as
"sitting like an Indian" to Scouting and Y-Indian Guides and
Princesses, the dominant culture conceals complicity in the ongoing
colonization of Indian peoples. In his talk, Dr. Clark shows how
popular culture shapes this process starting in childhood and how
adults refashion, disseminate, and reinforce it through experience
and hearsay in day-to-day conversation and in mass media
communications. Using the athletic cheerleader Chief Illiniwek as an
example, he shows how this is embodied in symbols of institutional
history and values, as well as embedded in everything ranging from
school and university curricula to law.
Location: UT campus, Thompson Conference Center auditorium (TCC 1.100).
TCC is next to the LBJ School at Red River and Dean Keeton. Plenty of
free convenient parking in the large lots along Red River.
Map online at http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/tcc.html
The program, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by
the Senior Fellows Honors Program and Diversity Issues Committee of
the College of Communication; and the Centers for African and African
American, Asian American, and Mexican American Studies at the
University of Texas at Austin.

Tuesday, April 24, 7 pm
Robert Jensen, "Pornography and the Threat to Intimacy"
In the past two decades, pornography has become increasingly
normalized and mainstream in U.S. culture, while at the same time the
content of the material has become more and more cruel and degrading
to women. What are the effects of this on the men who use pornography
and their partners? In this talk, Jensen will discuss the
consequences of an increasingly pornographic culture on our intimate
lives, drawing on material from his new book, Getting Off:
Pornography and the End of Masculinity, just released from South End
Press.
Location: UT campus, Thompson Conference Center auditorium (TCC 1.100).
TCC is next to the LBJ School at Red River and Dean Keeton. Plenty of
free convenient parking in the large lots along Red River.
Map online at http://www.utexas.edu/maps/main/buildings/tcc.html

Sunday, April 29, 4 p.m.
Rally for Universal Health Care
Health Care for All Texans (HCFAT) and Physicians for Social
Responsibility (PSR) are hosting a rally on the steps of the Texas
State Capitol in support of a single-payer system for universal
health care. Over 50 million Americans (including 1 in 4 Texans)
don't have health insurance. State Senator Shapleigh (D-El Paso) has
sponsored the first ever single payer universal health care bill in
Texas. In Washington, Rep. John Conyers (D-OH) has sponsored House
Resolution 676, a single-payer universal health care bill, with now
72 legislators, the AFL-CIO, and many others signed on.
Location: Texas State Capitol, 11th and Congress Avenue.
Information: Amina Haji, akh2341@medicine.tamu.edu, 512-494-0673.

Sunday, April 29, 6-8 p.m.
Last Sunday
        The final "Last Sunday" gathering of the season will focus on
economic justice, from the local to the global. For this final
effort, the three original co-conveners -- Eliza Gilkyson, Jim Rigby,
and Robert Jensen -- will be back together to work through difficult
questions about the economic injustice that structures the world in
which we live and the economic crises that we face today and the ones
we will face in the near future.
        Jensen will weigh in with "how to explain to your friends in five
minutes and three easy steps why capitalism is headed for the dustbin
of history" (yes, it can be done). Rigby will ask the question that
this society is hesitant to face: Is our economic system compatible
with our ethical and theological principles? (a complex question with
a simple answer). And Gilkyson will perform some of her newest songs
that challenge us all to go deeper in understanding ourselves and our
place in a scary world.
        Our special guests -- Cristina Tzintzún (project director of the
Workers Defense Project/Proyecto Defensa Laboral) and Louis Malfaro
(president of both Education Austin and the Central Labor Council) --
are important voices in a society that demonizes immigrants and
dismisses the value of labor unions. Tzintzún will discuss the
routine discrimination that Austin's most vulnerable workers face,
reminding us that exploitation goes on not only in sweatshops in the
developing world but also in our own city and describing how PDL has
successfully fought back. Malfaro will describe some of the ways some
employers try to evade labor law and what steps we can take here in
Austin to protect the rights of worker to organize and exercise
collective action. Both presentations will include the voices of
workers who are facing the discrimination and fighting back, and both
will talk about the role of the Religion and Labor Network in the
struggle for economic justice in Austin.
        As always, the "Last Sunday" gathering is free and open to the
public, with light refreshments and child care available. We will
continue to pass the hat to cover the costs of the event (we're a few
hundred dollars in the hole right now).
Location: Saengerrunde Hall, 1607 San Jacinto, next door to Scholz
Garten.
More information at http://thirdcoastactivist.org/lastsunday.html

Mar  2007
Feb   2007
Jan   2007
Dec  2006
Nov  2006
Oct   2006
Sep   2006
Aug  2006
Jul    2006
Jun   2006
May 2006
Apr   2006