Democracy Ateneo Announcement 11-8-14

Compañer@s

We will convene the Universidad de la Tierra Califas' Democracy Ateneo, Saturday, November 8, from 2 - 5 p.m. at Casa de Vicky (792 E. Julian St., San Jose) to resume our regularly scheduled reflection and action space and to explore some of the questions and struggles mentioned below. In addition to the ateneo, in a matter of weeks Universidad de la Tierra Califas, in collaboration with other organizations, will extend the scope of its autonomous learning circles to include a tianguis as a critical space of learning and community regeneration. Specifically, Uni-Tierra Califas joins Somos Mayfair, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, San Jose State University's Mexican American Studies Department, and Lee Mathson Middle School to host a Community ActionTianguis to be held at the Lee Mathson middle school campus on November 15th from 10a.m. to 2p.m.

A well-known cultural practice throughout Mexico, a tianguis refers to a small open-air market, or bazaar, where local community vendors and folks from the neighborhood gather to trade or sell goods and services. On Saturday, November 15 we will converge to host a community action tianguis –a community space for local organizations, projects, and grassroots groups working in the areas of health, learning, labor, food safety, and legal defense to share community action skills, resources, and information as well as build networks and solidify relationships with families from the Mayfair community and folks from the South Bay as a whole. It is hoped that the event on November 15 will be one in a series of Community ActionTianguis following what organizers and community members anticipate will be a successful convergence on the Lee Mathson campus in the historic Mayfair community. In selecting Mayfair we note the community's many struggles, including the current effort to join with parents to facilitate a dialogue about several local issues.

For example, families from Lee Mathson and surrounding schools must increasingly manage the privatization of public spaces and reduction of services. Cut backs and limited access make it difficult for local community members to use local services and facilities to insure their children receive a quality education while families make use of their neighborhoods. Moreover, the restriction of community spaces and reduction of state services makes it much more difficult for families to work together as a community. For instance, several families have organized a community soccer league while insisting that local soccer fields (football pitch) be available for play without costing community members extra fees to use what should be recognized as public space. Soccer leagues have become well known networks of support for families struggling in low income areas. Yet, local families are prohibited from using local fields due to excessive fees. Similarly, despite Lee Mathson's success in converting the campus into a technological hub to serve local students with the latest high-tech teaching tools and instruction, prompting a name change to Mathson Institute of Technology (MIT), it must struggle with reduced state funding and the increased competition of charter schools. Not surprisingly, privatization of education creates divisions within the community, forcing parents to compete for limited resources.

Community ActionTianguis will provide a space to address these and many more issues while also recognizing the numerous resources available in the community. Throughout the day there will be time slots for organizations and projects to present their work and make any announcements of upcoming events or issues that impact the community on a daily basis. In addition, organizations and grassroots groups will have tables and interactive installations to share information and engage other projects as well as folks from the community.

Finally, we must interrogate the tianguis as something more than a bazaar or community fair, but rather as a strategy of autonomous community regeneration. The tianguis invites grassroots groups and local organizations as well as local hard-working non-profits to gather and build together rather than in competition. As a "space of encounter" the community action tianguis creates a political ferment for a number of possible actions to emerge through dialogue and collaboration. While the tianguis can be an important moment to increase the already very active community participation familiar to Mayfair, we must also imagine the tianguis as a prefigurative space --a gathering that has the potential to convert into a consistent community-wide assembly. As an assembly that meets on a regular basis and for a specific purpose, it can provide information, coordinate resources, and facilitate decisions in service of the local community. Thus, the community action tianguis works as a site of knowledge production --it can/will celebrate the knowledges already present in the community as well as generate additional information that will be provided by participants eager to share struggle.

More information about the community action tianguis is available online in English at <http://utc.mitotedigital.org/tianguis> and Spanish <http://utc.mitotedigital.org/tianguis_es>.

South Bay and North Bay Crew

NB: If you are not already signed-up and would like to stay connected with the emerging Universidad de la Tierra Califas community please feel free to subscribe to the Universidad de la Tierra Califas listserve at the following url <https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/unitierracalifas>. Also, if you would like to review previous Democracy Ateneo and Social Factory Ateneo announcements and summaries as well as additional information on the ateneo in general please see <http://ccra.mitotedigital.org/ateneo>. Please note we have altered the schedule of the Democracy Ateneo so that it falls on the second Saturday of the month.

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