Difference between revisions of "RadFest 2002"
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A hopeful note was sounded at the second conference plenary, which concerned progressive strategy and featured [[Medea Benjamin]], [[David Newby]] of the [[South Central Wisconsin Coalition of Labor]] ([[AFL-CIO]]), Madison-based Nation columnist [[John Nichols]], Rep. [[Tammy Baldwin]] (D-Wisc.) and the [[Green Party USA]]’s [[George Martin]]. “We’re all here to see how we can make this a bigger movement when we leave here,” said Martin.<ref>http://www.peoplesworld.org/radfest-2002/, PW RadFest 2002, by: Fred Gaboury, June 14 2002]</ref> | A hopeful note was sounded at the second conference plenary, which concerned progressive strategy and featured [[Medea Benjamin]], [[David Newby]] of the [[South Central Wisconsin Coalition of Labor]] ([[AFL-CIO]]), Madison-based Nation columnist [[John Nichols]], Rep. [[Tammy Baldwin]] (D-Wisc.) and the [[Green Party USA]]’s [[George Martin]]. “We’re all here to see how we can make this a bigger movement when we leave here,” said Martin.<ref>http://www.peoplesworld.org/radfest-2002/, PW RadFest 2002, by: Fred Gaboury, June 14 2002]</ref> | ||
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Revision as of 21:12, 16 January 2013
RadFest 2002 was held May 31-June 2 at Aurora University's George Williams Lake Geneva Campus.[1]
Program
RadFest is sponsored by the A.E. Havens Center for the Study of Social Structures and Social Change. Its director, Patrick Barrett, said that “the central goal of the conference is to provide an opportunity for progressive activists, organizers and intellectuals to come together to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, strengthen networks and devise strategies for progressive social, economic and political change.”
Barrett noted that RadFest is growing. Last year’s event drew about 200 people and this year’s was the largest to date. Barrett calls it “an important annual gathering for progressives.”
The opening plenary, featured such well-known national figures as Global Exchange’s Medea Benjamin and Middle East activist Rania Masri, addressing the recent extremes of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and Central Asia, and was immediately followed by a workshop offering on the post-Sept. 11 world.
The various workshops were devoted to issues such as gay and lesbian rights, tax policy and religious freedom, as well as strategy and skill-building sessions.
But “the subtext of RadFest is the media,” said communications expert Robert McChesney, author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy. McChesney has spoken at every RadFest since 1999. The foreign policy plenary, for example, “discussed how media have given distorted impressions of events overseas,” he said.
Numerous workshops were devoted to such issues as the intrusion of corporate marketing into public education, which University of Illinois expert Dan Cook called “an aggressive commercial colonization of our children.” Others focused on the building of progressive media alternatives.
A hopeful note was sounded at the second conference plenary, which concerned progressive strategy and featured Medea Benjamin, David Newby of the South Central Wisconsin Coalition of Labor (AFL-CIO), Madison-based Nation columnist John Nichols, Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and the Green Party USA’s George Martin. “We’re all here to see how we can make this a bigger movement when we leave here,” said Martin.[2]
References
- ↑ http://www.peoplesworld.org/radfest-2002/, PW RadFest 2002, by: Fred Gaboury, June 14 2002]
- ↑ http://www.peoplesworld.org/radfest-2002/, PW RadFest 2002, by: Fred Gaboury, June 14 2002]