Massachusetts Global Action
33 Harrison Avenue, 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02111
www.encuentro5.org
THE
Friday E5 FORUM
An informal social-political place
for activists and progressive scholars to connect,
and discuss local and global alternatives
for social change.
Speakers present for 20-30 minutes, and then we have a discussion. We all
bring either a snack, or something to drink, and then go out for dinner together.
Previous forums have been on neo-liberalism and resistance in South Africa,
participatory democracy in Venezuela, emergence of a multi-polar world order,
the Bamako appeal & the World Social Forum, and many others.
If you would like tto
o join us, contact: thomas.ponniah@gmail.com
Plugging in…
PROGRAM
There are four upcoming events that are closely related to encuentro 5:
1. Marco Berlinguer of the Italian movement, Transform!, will address, "The
Bubbles, the Crises, and the Need for Real Economic Alternatives." Friday,
November 21, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. This talk provides an opportunity to connect with
the Labor & Globalization Network and planning for the World Social Forum in
Belem, Brazil (January 2009).
2. On Saturday, November 22, 2008, Michael Liu, of the Asian American Resource
Workshop, will talk about his new book, The Snake Dance of Asian American
Activism. It takes place at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (38 Ash
Street, Boston), from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
3. The Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition is launching this year's "First Night
Against the War" organizing on Monday, November 24, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. at
encuentro 5 in Chinatown.
4. On Sunday, December 14, 2008, starting at 4:00 p.m., the Appropriate
Infrastructure Development Group is hosting its annual holiday party at e5. They
invite you to "Come mingle and get an update on [their] work in Haiti and
Guatemala."
encuentro 5, an MGA project, is located at 33 Harrison Ave,
5th floor in Chinatown (MA 02111).
Appreciation
Massachusetts Global Action and its board (Kim Foltz, Sandra Harris, Suren Moodliar,
Jason Pramas, and Kaveri Rajaraman) are deeply indebted to a large group of organizers and
activists. They include Felix Arroyo, Eli Beckerman, Begwe Browne, Corry Blanton, Jenn
Bliss, Noam Chomsky, Pasqualino Colombaro, Brian Corr, Ben Day, Marilyn Frankenstein,
Ann Glick, David Goodman, Peter Haas, Emily Hardt, Carlos Harris, John Harris, Susie
Husted, Angela Kelly, Dan Kontoff, Richard Krushnic, Cat Laine, Janet Lee, Susan Lees,
Alisa LaSotnik, Dave Lewit, Marilyn Levin, Duncan McFarland, Dorotea Manuela, Jeff
Manzelli, Jorge Marin, Laila Murad, Brian O'Connell, Linda Pinkow, Dennis Prater,
Guillermo Quinteros, Grace Ross, Sergio Reyes, Paul Shannon, Karen Slater, Roberto
Torres, Chuck Turner, Taina Vargas, and Charlie Welch.
Jeff Manzelli,aka Freeman Z of Cafe , provided his sound engineering services. Emily Hardt
helped with registration. Brian O'Connell organized the reception. Susie Husted, Dan
Kantoff and Kim Foltz helped with outreach. Suren Moodliar coordinated the event and
website. Alisa LaSotnik designed and produced this book printed by Red Sun Press.
10
5:30 Reception
Hosted by Brian O'Connell
6:30 Main Event
Welcome by Kim Foltz &
Dorotea Manuela
Introduction by
Gabriel Camacho
CONTENTS
6:40 What's Next?
with Noam Chomsky
What Now for Capitalism?
Noam Chomsky
Page 1
7:15 Discussion
8:00 Closing Statement
A One-Party System
Noam Chomsky
Page 3
Massachusetts
Global Action
Page 6
Plugging in…
&
Appreciation
Page 10
Evening Spectacle
Spectacle,
1/29-2/1,
2/1, Thurs.
Thurs.-Sun., 7pm
Family Friendly Circus
Circus,
1/31-2/1,
2/1, Sat.
Sat.-Sun., 3 pm
Artist Talk & Reception
Reception,
1/26, Mon., 6
6-8 pm
Cheap Art Sale & more
throughout the week
Bread & Puppet
coming Jan.‘09
Boston Democratic
Socialists of America
P.O. Box 51356,
Boston MA 02205
www.dsaboston.org
617-354-5078
Held at the Boston Center for
the Arts Cyclorama
539 Tremont St.
South End,
Boston
www.breadandpuppet.org
bcaonline.org
Bread & Puppet Theater
Boston contact
contact: Mary Curtin
marycurtin@comcast.net
617-470
470-5867
SOCIALISM AND DEMOCRACY
www.sdonline.org
November 2008: Radical Perspectives on Immigration
EDITED BY MARCELLA BENCIVENNI & RON HAYDUK
July 2008: US Fascism Comes to the Surface
EDITED & INTRODUCED BY JONATHAN SCOTT
annual subscriptions (“membership” rate):
3 issues for $30
Routledge, Taylor & Francis, Inc.
325 Chestnut St., 8th floor,
Philadelphia, PA 19106
journals.orders@tandf.co.uk
for single issues
(including bulk orders & back issues),
contact 617-776-9505 or info@sdonline.org
9
About MGA (continued):
(8) Throughout the year, encuentro
ncuentro 5 has been hosting workshops, teach
teach-ins,
lectures on topics ranging from constitutional reform in the Andes to South
African social movements, to housing rights and worker struggles in Boston. See:
www.encuentro5.org
(9) We have also increased investment in our space by adding a computer lab (in
association with several other non-profits),
profits), providing a central air conditioning,
doing some build out work and are now improving the energy efficiency and
ergonomics of our lighting. All of these investments have run into the thousands
of dollars and reflect a great commitment from our community.
Setback:: This year, we also suffered a major setback when our efforts to host an
event on Palestine were defeated by opponents of free speech and rights for the
Palestinian people. See www.MassGlobalAction.org/ home/freespeech.htm
home/freespeech.htm. In
this matter, our opposition successfully wielded Palestine as a wedge issue within
the progressive movement and we were not equal to the task
ask of successfully
pushing back.
Mass Global Action is a member of the Boston May Day Coalition, the Stop
the Wars Coalition, New England United and United for Peace and Justice
Justice.
<>
Mass Global Action – Project View
Noam Chomsky, BBC News
Markets have inherent and wellknown inefficiencies. One factor is
failure to calculate the costs to those
who do not participate in transactions.
These "externalities" can be huge.
That is particularly true for financial
institutions.
Their task is to take risks, calculating
potential costs for themselves. But
they do not take into account the
consequences of their losses for the
economy as a whole.
Hence
the
financial
market
"underprices
risk"
and
is
"systematically inefficient," as John
Eatwell and Lance Taylor wrote a
decade ago, warning of the extreme
dangers of financial liberalization and
reviewing the substantial costs already
incurred - and also proposing
solutions, which have been ignored.
The threat became more severe when
the Clinton administration repealed
the Glass-Steagall
Steagall act of 1933, thus
freeing financial institutions "to
innovate in the new
ew economy," in
Clinton's words – and also "to selfdestruct, taking down with them the
general economy and international
confidence in the US banking system,"
financial analyst Nomi Prins adds.
The unprecedented intervention of the
Fed may be justified
stified or not in narrow
terms, but it reveals, once again, the
profoundly undemocratic character of
state capitalist institutions, designed in
(Continues on page 2)
Massachusetts
Jobs with Justice
thanks
Encuentro 5 for
their commitment
to
Workers’ Rights
and Social
Justice
Justice!
8
The Global Economic Alternatives Network (GEAN)
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the GEAN
proposes to analyze and monitor the emergence of
'best practice' alternative economic initiatives and
principles, with a focus on how these activities
conjugate new, egalitarian work organizations with
environmental
sustainability,
healthy/quality
production of goods and services and mutual social
and economic assistance.
The GEAN aims to map out best practices in the
cooperative, ethical, ecological, fair, equitable,
participatory, social/solidarity economy and
alternative Labor initiatives in the public and
private sector and to lay the basis for cross Europe,
US and global/local collaboration.
The GEAN seeks to establish a clearinghouse of
information and educational resources for
alternative economic initiatives.
http://openesf.net/projects/alternative-economies/home
Coordinator: Pasqualino Colombaro, pcolombaro@gmail.com
About MGA (continued):
This ambitious perspective requires that MGA (i) prioritizes strategies that
network diverse organizations and efforts and (ii) engages in carefully chosen
campaigns and projects that identify problems, their root causes, potential
solutions, and opportunities for democratic participation and redress.
Recent achievements: MGA builds on the legacy of the Boston Social Forum
(2004). In 2008, it has helped organize numerous activities and campaigns to
build the progressive movement. encuentro 5 is the movement-building space we
organize in Chinatown.
(1) In January, following the call of the World Social Forum, we helped
coordinate a “Week of Action” that included most Boston-area Global Justice
organizations:
See www.BostonDayOfAction.org.
(2) In February, we helped organize a large meeting to welcome Bolivian
President Evo Morales to our city. While the visit was postponed, we mobilized
hundreds of people, activated the media and built a great network of
organizations in solidarity with the people of the Andes.
See www.EvoInBoston.org.
(3) Over the first half of the year, we built our Color of Water campaign by
engaging scores of progressive and community-based organizations and released
a one-page account on disparities in water access across Boston's neighborhoods.
See www.ColorOfWater.org
(4) Throughout the year, we helped organize several large antiwar protests
including the October 11 antiwar action and a pro-migrant worker celebration of
May 1st on Boston Common.
(5) We also support the work of national contingent faculty list (adj-l) by hosting
and moderating the e-mail list. At a local level MGA hosts and co-moderates the
act-ma events list founded by Charlie Welch and David Sangurima.
(6) In April, we joined with New England United's antiwar conference and helped
organize a discussion, "The Majority Agenda Project". For a copy of our work,
see www.MassGlobalAction.org/home/crossmovement.htm
7) In July, we helped organize and sponsor the "Ideas & Action: Human Rights in
Boston and the United States" conference held in conjunction with the American
Sociological Association's annual meeting.
See www.BostonHumanRights.org
(Continues on next page)
What Now for Capitalism (continued):
large measure to socialize cost and risk and privatize profit, without a public voice.
That is, of course, not limited to financial markets. The advanced economy as a
whole relies heavily on the dynamic state sector, with much the same consequences
with regard to risk, cost, profit, and decisions, crucial features of the economy and
political system. <>
2
7
One-Party System (continued):
deployed, nobody cared. When
Kennedy invaded Vietnam in
1962, there was just a yawn.
Troops Home Now!
SPIEGEL: To conclude, perhaps
you can offer a conciliatory word
about the state of the nation?
Greater Boston
Stop the Wars Coalition
www.stopthewars.org
Join us at the 4th annual
First Night Against the War
Wednesday,
December 31th
1 PM – 7 PM
Copley Square,
Boston, MA
Chomsky: The American society
has become more civilized,
largely as a result of the activism
of the 1960s. Our society, and
also Europe's, became freer, more
open, more democratic, and for
many quite scary. This generation
was condemned for that. But it
had an effect.
SPIEGEL: Professor Chomsky,
we thank you for this interview.
<>
Interviewed by Gabor Steingart
October 10, 2008
A One-Party System
Noam Chomsky
Der Spiegel Online
SPIEGEL:
Professor
Chomsky,
cathedrals
of
capitalism
have
collapsed,
the
conservative
government is spending its final weeks
in office with nationalization plans.
How does that make you feel?
be more risk taken than would be
prudent for the economy. With
government deregulation and the
triumph of financial liberalization, the
dangers of systemic risks, the
possibility of a financial tsunami,
sharply increased.
Chomsky: The times are too difficult
and the crisis too severe to indulge in
schadenfreude. Looking at it in
perspective, the fact that there would
be a financial crisis was perfectly
predictable, its general nature, if not
its magnitude. Markets are always
inefficient.
SPIEGEL: But is it correct to only put
the blame on Wall Street? Doesn't
Main Street, the American middle
class, also live on borrowed money
which may or may not be paid back?
Chomsky: The debt burden of private
households is enormous. But I would
not hold the individual responsible.
This consumerism is based on the fact
that we are a society dominated by
business interests. There is massive
propaganda for everyone to consume.
Consumption is good for profits and
consumption is good for the political
establishment.
SPIEGEL: What exactly did you
anticipate?
Chomsky: In the financial industry, as
in other industries, there are risks that
are left out of the calculation. If you
sell me a car, we have perhaps made a
good bargain for ourselves. But there
are effects of this transaction on
others, which we do not take into
account. There is more pollution, the
price of gas goes up, there is more
congestion. Those are the external
costs of our transaction. In the case of
financial institutions, they are huge.
Mission: MGA is an advocacy non-profit concerned about the negative impact of
corporate globalization particularly on Massachusetts and its communities. It seeks
to deepen participation and democratic involvement in key institutions that impact
our lives, livelihoods and environment.
MGA believes that enduring positive social change is made when ordinary people
find ways to challenge and engage the public and powerful institutions with ideas
and actions. These must embrace the majority of humanity, its interests and the
global environment.
6
SPIEGEL: How does it benefit
politicians when the populace drives a
lot, eats a lot and goes shopping a lot?
Chomsky: Consumption distracts
people. You cannot control your own
population by force, but it can be
distracted by consumption. The
business press has been quite explicit
about this goal.
SPIEGEL: But isn't it the task of a
bank to take risks?
Chomsky: Yes, but if it is well
managed, like Goldman Sachs, it will
cover its own risks and absorb its own
losses. But no financial institution can
manage systemic risks. Risk is
therefore underpriced, and there will
SPIEGEL: A while ago you called
America "the greatest country on
earth." How does that fit together with
what you've been saying?
(Continues on page 4)
3
33 Harrison Avenue, 5th floor Boston, MA 02111
www.aarw.org, info@aarw.org, 617-426-5313
understanding of democracy
democracy. He was
asked why he supports a continuation
of the war in Iraq when the population
is strongly opposed. His answer was:
"So?"
A One-Party System (continued):
Chomsky: In many respects, the
United States is a great country.
Freedom of speech is protected more
than in any other country. It is also a
very free society. In America, the
professor talks to the mechanic. They
are in the same category.
SPIEGEL: "Change" is the slogan of
this year's presidential election. Do
you see any chance for an immediate,
tangible change in the United States?
Or, to use use Obama's battle cry: Are
you "fired up"?
SPIEGEL: After traveling through
the United States 170 years ago,
Alexis de Tocqueville reported, "the
people reign over the American
political world as God rules over the
universe." Was he a dreamer?
Chomsky: Not in the least. The
European reaction to Obama is a
European delusion.
Chomsky: James Madison's position at
the Constitutional Convention was
that state power should be used "to
protect the minority of the opulent
against the majority." That is why the
Senate has only a hundred members
who are mostly rich and were given a
great deal of power. The House of
Representatives, with several hundred
members, is more democratic and was
given much less power. Even liberals
like Walter Lippmann, one of the
leading intellectuals of the 20th
century, was of the opinion that in a
properly functioning democracy, the
intelligent minority, who should rule,
have to be protected from "the
trampling and the roar of the
bewildered
herd."
Among the
conservatives, Vice President Dick
Cheney just recently illustrated his
SPIEGEL: But he does say things that
Europe has long been waiting for. He
talks
about
the
trans
trans-Atlantic
partnership, the priority of diplomacy
and the reconciling of American
society.
they are. The hawks say, if we
continue we can win. The doves say, it
is costing us too much. But try to find
an American politician who says
frankly that this aggression is a crime:
the issue is not whether we win or not,
whether it is expensive or not.
Remember the Russian invasion of
Afghanistan? Did we have a debate
whether the Russians can win the war
or whether it is too expensive? This
may have been the debate at the
Kremlin, or in Pravda. But this is the
kind of debate you would expect in a
totalitarian society. If General
Petraeus could achieve in Iraq what
Putin achieved in Chechnya, he would
be crowned king. The key question
here is whether we apply the same
standards to ourselves that we apply to
others.
...
SPIEGEL: Was there not, and is there
not -- in the United States and
worldwide -- loud protest against the
Iraq war?
A One-Party System (continued):
Chomsky:
This
Sarah
Palin
phenomenon is very curious. I think
somebody watching us from Mars,
they would think the country has gone
insane.
..
SPIEGEL: So for you, Republicans
and Democrats represent just slight
variations of the same political
platform?
Chomsky: Of course there are
differences, but they are not
fundamental. Nobody should have any
illusions. The United States has
essentially a one-party system and the
ruling party is the business party.
SPIEGEL: You exaggerate. In almost
all vital questions -- from the taxation
of the rich to nuclear energy -- there
are different positions. At least on the
issues of war and peace, the parties
differ considerably. The Republicans
want to fight in Iraq until victory, even
if that takes a 100 years, according to
McCain. The Democrats demand a
withdrawal plan.
Chomsky: The protest against the war
in Iraq is far higher than against the
war in Vietnam. When there were
4,000 American deaths in Vietnam
and 150,000 troops
(Continues on page 6)
Chomsky: Let us look at the
"differences" more closely, and we
recognize how limited and cynical
Chomsky: That is all rhetoric. Who
cares about that? This whole election
campaign deals with soaring rhetoric,
hope, change, all sorts of things, but
not with issues.
SPIEGEL: Do you prefer the team on
the other side: the 72 year old Vietnam
veteran McCain and Sarah Palin,
former Alaskan beauty queen?
(Continues on next page)
4
5