> -------------------------------------------
> The city from below: call for participation
>
> March 27th-29th, 2009
> Baltimore
>
> http://cityfrombelow.org
>
> The city has emerged in recent years as an indispensable concept for
> many of the struggles for social justice we are all engaged in - it's
> a place where theory meets practice, where the neighborhood organizes
> against global capitalism, where unequal divisions based on race and
> class can be mapped out block by block and contested, where the
> micropolitics of gender and sexual orientation are subject to
> metropolitan rearticulation, where every corner is a potential site
> of resistance and every vacant lot a commons to be reclaimed, and,
> most importantly, a place where all our diverse struggles and
> strategies have a chance of coming together into something greater.
> In cities everywhere, new social movements are coming into being,
> hidden histories are being uncovered, and unanticipated futures are
> being imagined and built - but so much of this knowledge remains, so
> to speak, at street-level. We need a space to gather and share our
> stories, our ideas and analysis, a space to come together and rethink
> the city from below. To that end, a group of activists and
> organizers, including Red Emma's, the Indypendent Reader,
> campbaltimore, and the Campaign for a Better Baltimore are calling
> for a conference called The City From Below, to take place in
> Baltimore during the weekend of March 27,28,29, 2009 at 2640, a
> grassroots community center and events venue.
>
> Our intention to focus on the city first and foremost stems from our
> own organizing experience, and a recognition that the city is very
> often the terrain on which we fight, and which we should be fighting
> for. To take a particularly salient example from Baltimore, it is
> increasingly the case that labor struggles, especially in the service
> sector, need to confront not just unfair employers, but structurally
> disastrous municipal development policies. While the financial crisis
> plays out in the national news and in the spectacle of legislative
> action, it is at the level of the urban community where foreclosures
> can be directly challenged and the right to a non-capitalist relation
> to housing can be fought for. Our right to an autonomous culture, to
> our freedom to dissent, to public spaces and to public education all
> hinge increasingly on our relation to the cities in which we live and
> to the people and forces in control of them. And our cities offer
> some truly inspiring and creative examples of resistance - from the
> community garden to the neighborhood assembly.
>
> We are committed in organizing this conference to a horizontal
> framework of participation, one which allows us to concretely engage
> with and support ongoing social justice struggles. What we envision
> is a conference which isn't just about academics and other
> researchers talking to each other and at a passive audience, but one
> where some of the most inspiring campaigns and projects on the
> frontlines of the fight for the right to the city (community anti-
> gentrification groups, transit rights activists, tenant unions,
> alternative development advocates) will not just be represented, but
> will concretely benefit from the alliances they build and the
> knowledge they gain by attending.
>
> At the same time, we also want to productively engage those within
> the academic system, as well as artists, journalists, and other
> researchers. It is a mistake to think that people who spend their
> lives working on urban geography and sociology, in urban planning, or
> on the history of cities have nothing to offer to our struggles. At
> the same time, we recognize that too often the way in which academics
> engage activists, if they do so at all, is to talk at them. We are
> envisioning something much different, closer to the notion of
> "accompaniment". We want academics and activists to talk to each
> other, to listen to each other, and to offer what they each are best
> able to. Concretely, we're hoping to facilitate this kind of dynamic
> by planning as much of the conference as possible as panels involving
> both scholars and organizers.
>
> THEMES TO BE CONSIDERED
> 0. Gentrification/uneven development
> 0. Policing and incarceration
> 0. Tenants rights/housing as a right
> 0. Public transit
> 0. Urban worker's rights
> 0. Foreclosures/financial crisis
> 0. Public education
> 0. Slots/casionos/regressive taxation
> 0. Cultural gentrification
> 0. Underground economies
> 0. Reclaiming public space
> 0. The right to the city
> 0. Squatting
> 0. Urban sustainability
>
> PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS
>
> Please share with us your proposal for workshops or presentations. We
> hope to host 15-25 sessions with a mixture of formats and welcome
> proposals from groups and individuals. The conference is geared
> towards discussion and participation. People are welcome to bring
> papers andother resources with them, but this conference is not
> oriented to the presentation of papers. There will be 50 and 110
> minute sessions. We welcome self organized workshops but will also
> work to incorporate individual proposals into panels with others. In
> your proposal please indicate how your proposal relates to the themes
> of the conference, expected participants, organizing partners and
> session format (training, panel, open discussion, video, etc.) and
> how long the session will be. We are especially interested in
> proposals which combine critique of the urban environment with
> discussions of new strategies for its reclamation.
>
> Please send proposals to:
>
> cityfrombelow -at- redemmas.org
>
> Email is preferred, but you can also send a proposal to:
>
> City from Below
> c/o Red Emma's
> 800 St Paul St.
> Baltimore MD 21202
>
>
