Free School University (FSU)

 FREE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY at Occupy Boston 

The 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 and share skills needed to maintain that, 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. 

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

• Date / Time:
• Location:
• Title:
• Brief Description:
• Short Biography:  

For all other inquiries, to volunteer as site-assistants, or to jion the FSU-Woring Group, please email: fsu@occupyboston.org. FSU Working Group Meetings take place every Friday from 3:00pm - 5:00pm at 470 Atlantic Ave in Boston (red brick building, two blocks from Dewey Square; enter Independence Wharf Public Accommodations Room in the back of the building, by the waterfront). In addition to our regular offererings, FSU will broadcast live discussions on Wednesdays from 7-8pm on Occupy Boston Radio.

 RESOURCES ON THE WEB                                                                      

Free School University

• Website, students and teachers can build a free page here
• List Serve, sign up for our email list
• Facebook, group page
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Audre Lorde to Howard Zinn (A-Z) Library

Working Group Information

Use the back button on your browser return to this wiki page from the working group website.

• Working Group, register and login to participate. You do not have to login to view the FSU files on our working groups page.
• Information for Volunteers
• Information for Teachers
• Information for Site-Assistants
• Living Agenda for Working Group Meetings

Meeting Notes

• January 6, 2012
• December 26, 2011
• December 23, 2011
• December 16, 2011
• December 7, 2011
• December 2, 2011
• October - November 2011

The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series

• Website, WordPress
• Updates, keep up with the lecture series at OccupyBoston.org
• Facebook, group page
• Video Archive, playlist of past lectures on YouTube
• Past Lectures

The Boston Occupier Coverage

• Criticizing the Critique of Representation: Bruno Bosteels at Occupy Boston, by J.E. Hamilton (12.6.2011)
• Zinn Series Brings Academia to Occupy Boston, by Doug Enaa Greene (12.6.2011)
• Their Crisis and Our Response, by Victor Wallis (12.6.2011)

 VIDEO ARCHIVE                                                                                          

For archived video of past teach-ins, click here.

 PAST TEACH-INS                                                                                         

For a list of past teach-ins, click here.

 CURRENT TEACH-INS                                                                               

FRIDAY, January 13

3:00 - 4:00 pm (Saint Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont St, Boston, MA)

Starting a Non-Profit: The Nuts and Bolts, this teach-in will consider the various types of non-profits, including public lobbies, foundations, and charities, as well as nuts-and-bolts non-profits that provide direct services to the public (such as affordable housing, alternative medicine, and ground-up job training). It will also focus on how the formation of non-profits helps the public lobby and protest movements. The program will include a discussion of what it's like to be developing and working for a non-profit that provides open-structured learning environments for adults. Lachlan Youngs is a volunteer peer worker who teaches ceramics, beaded jewelry, and modern music in an open-structured learning environment for adults.  He directs a federal non-profit charity, "The Cape Workshop Collaborative."

SATURDAY, January 14

12:00 - 3:00 pm (Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston, MA)

Collective Visioning Workshop with Linda Stout (organized by the Anti-Oppression and Nonviolence and Civil Disobedience Working Groups), for more information about Linda and the visioning idea, visit powerupnetworks.org. Mostly, this is an opportunity for the OB community to breathe, reflect, and envision together where we want to be and how to get there.

3:15 - 3:45 pm (Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston, MA)

Train the Trainers' Session with Linda Stout (organized by the Anti-Oppression and Nonviolence and Civil Disobedience Working Groups), to share ideas about strategy, movement-building, and etcetera. 

SUNDAY, January 15

1:00 - 2:00 pm (Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor, Boston, MA)

Getting Things Straight on Iraq: A Peace Movement Briefing with Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi-Palestinian architect, blogger and political analyst who was in Iraq during the U.S. invasion in 2003 and has recently returned from another trip. He is a former AFSC and Peace Action staff person who provided constant briefings to peace activists throughout the war as well as working with Congressman Delahunt's office to develop opposition to the war in Congress. He collected his and his family's blog posts into "The Iraq War Blog, An Iraqi Family's Inside View of the First Year of the Occupation," published as a book in 2008.

WEDNESDAY, January 18

FSU Radio

7:00pm - 8:00pm (streaming live at Occupy Boston Radio)

Jerry Friedman (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) will be on OB Radio with David from FSU to talk about the economy as part of our new weekly broadcast. Call 617-506-9726 with questions or comments, or join the IRC chat at occupyboston.org/radio.

FRIDAY, January 20

The Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series

6:00pm - 8:00pm (Encuentro 5, 33 Harrison Ave, 5th Floor, Boston, MA)

Panel: From Occupy to Workers Control, with Immanuel Ness and Elaine Bernard - What would it mean to really take the Occupy Movement into the workplace? Into the heart of the economic system itself? And how to do it?