Free School University (FSU): Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 10:22, 13 March 2012

Free School University (FSU) is a learning community of Occupy Boston. Topics vary from fun-and-games to politics and revolution. Our goal is to form an autonomous zone to entertain educate and enliven Occupiers and the general public, and to share skills needed to maintain it. The FSU has provided support and created the space for skill sharing, self-organization, teaching, and more than 150 learning opportunities so far.

FSU Working Group Meetings take place every Friday from 5:30 - 7:30pm at the Harvest Food Coop Community Room (581 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge - near Central Square T stop). Note: We do not meet in the cafe. Go all the way to the rear of the store, behind the display case and up the stairs. The conference room will be on your left. It is not handicap accessible. Please let us know if this is a problem for you. For general inquiries or to join the FSU Working Group, please email: fsu@occupyboston.org.

To schedule a teach-in, please submit the following information to fsu@occupyboston.org. If you know the exact date and time and have all of the information below ready, please include POST: (date / time) in the Subject of your email.

Date & Time
Location
Title & Brief Description
Short Biography
Working Group Association
Sponsors (if any)

After everything is confirmed, you can use the Occupy Boston Event Submission Form to expedite posting to the occupyboston.org event calendar.

CURRENT TEACH-INS

FSU-RADIO

FSU-RADIO is an educational series by the Free School University at Occupy Boston that streams live on OB Radio every Wednesday night at 7pm. Our goal is to maintain an autonomous zone to entertain educate and enliven Occupiers and the general public. Our purpose is to provide support and space for skill sharing and sharing basic info regarding Occupy Boston and to encourage self-organization, teaching, and learning opportunities.Call 617-506-9726 with questions or comments during the show, or join the IRC chat at occupyboston.org/radio.

Gordon Fellman

Wednesday, March 14, 2012: Gordon Fellman (PhD), Professor of Sociology at Brandeis, will be talking with us about Marxism and its ongoing relevance to understanding how Occupy helps clarify the meaning of central Marxian concepts like alienation, ruling ideas, false consciousness, genuine consciousness, and social class. He will reason that one's understanding of Occupy is greatly enhanced by applying Marx to it.

Climate Action, Sustainability & Environmental Justice Forum

The Principle of Carbon Fee & Dividend and the Save Our Climate Act

Thursday, March 15, 2012 (7:00pm @ Emanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston, near the Arlington T Stop): At Occupy Boston's General Assembly, Gary Rucinski of Citizens Climate Lobby will present the principle of Carbon & Fee Dividend and describe Pete Stark's Save Our Climate Act. The presentation is sponsored by the Occupy Boston Climate Action, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice (CASEJ) Working Group. There will be a 15 minute presentation followed by a 15 minute discussion. A longer presentation is currently being organized that will include a broader comparative discussion of strategies for carbon emission reduction in response to resolutions passed by Occupy Boston General Assembly acknowledging the increasingly destructive impact of the accumulation of atmospheric carbon emissions, and the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions as quickly as possible. Occupy Boston highlighted the contribution of corporate abuse to climate change and supports fossil fuel nuclear subsidies. For further information on fee and dividend, please see the following links, provided by Gary Rucinski:

The Case for Carbon Fee and Dividend: The economic rationale for taxing the carbon in fossil fuels (Carbon Fee and Dividend) to avoid the worst effects of climate change, which would gradually increase the cost of fossil fuels while shielding low income households from the resultant rise of energy costs. Implementation of this policy would stimulate economic growth to help undo the effects of the Great Recession.

CCL Boston Resource Library: A collection of useful links to articles that explain different dimensions of the climate change problem focusing primarily on economic and policy issues rather than the science.

Peace & Justice Forum

OBRadio: Veterans for Peace

This weekly radio broadcast organized by members of the Smedley D. Butler Brigade of Veterans For Peace streams live on OB Radio every Monday night at 6:00pm. Call 617-506-9726 with questions or comments during the show, or join the IRC chat at occupyboston.org/radio.

Monday, March 19, 2012 (6:00pm): Hosted by Bob Funke, member of the Peace Action Working Group at Occupy Boston and Vietnam Veteran For Peace. Veterans For Peace is a non-profit educational and humanitarian organization dedicated to the abolishment of war employing the motto "De Oppresso Liber" (Liberate the Oppressed).

The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series

From the Organizers of The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series: We, as citizens, academics, and members of the 99%, would like to contribute to the conversation taking place at Occupy Boston about how to make a better, more equitable world for all of us. In the radical and participatory spirit of Occupy Boston and similar radical movements of the past, we see our role, as Giovanni Arrighi once argued, as helping the movement to develop its "own autonomy through an understanding of the broader processes, both national and global, in which their struggles [are] taking place" (The Winding Paths of Capital, New Left Review, Mar-Apr 2009). We wish to participate in the movement not from a position of authority, but one of mutual dialogue. While people know their situation much better than we ever will, as academics we are better positioned "to understand the wider context in which it develops" (Ibid). For this reason we have created a series of lectures in which academics lead a dialogue with Occupy Boston participants on issues of economic, political, and social justice. We call these lectures The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series at Occupy Boston in honor of the late, great Boston Historian. More programming to be announced! For an archive of past lectures, click here.

Carl Finamore: On the Egyptian Revolution

'Friday, March 23, 2012 '(6:00pm - 8:00pm, Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor, Boston): Carl Finamore was a first-hand witness to the Egyptian Revolution last year that toppled Hosni Mubarak. Finamore has been back several times to Egypt and will speak on the dynamics and impact of the Revolution.

Community Gathering | Peace & Economic Justice

Monday, April 9, 2012 (6:00pm): Occupy Boston Community Gatherings are held weekly on Monday evenings at St Paul's Cathedral on Tremont Street, from 6:00 to 8:30 PM. The first half hour of the Community Gatherings are set aside for socializing or mini working group meetings. Free School University will host a Community Gathering based on the theme of Peace and Economic Justice and will include educational programming. Programming is to be determined, and anyone interested in helping to build the event is welcome to attend our Working Group meetings on Fridays from 5:30pm to 7:00pm at the Harvest Co-Op in Central Square.

RESOURCES