Democracy Ateneo Announcement 03-14-15

Compañer@s,

We will not be convening the Universidad de la Tierra Califas' Democracy Ateneo as regularly scheduled. This month we will be gathering as part of the Militarization People's Movement Assembly (PMA). Please see the announcement below for more information regarding the Militarization PMA and the "rolling assembly" leading to the US Social Forum in June to be held in San Jose.

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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Comrades:

As you may already be aware, the US Social Forum (USSF) will be held this year in San Jose during the month of June. The US Social Forum emerged out of the World Social Forum and alter-globalization movement as a convergence of the Left and a space to build and strengthen movements across geographies and issues. Previously convened in Atlanta (2007) and Detroit (2010), this year's social forum has been de-centralized into three locations--Philadelphia; Jackson, Mississippi; and San Jose. Drawing on the experience of Detroit, in addition to workshops the USSF is organized in large part through People's Movement Assemblies (PMA),where people can gather and share in a facilitated space organized by several groups around a specific issue or area.

As part of that effort, there have been a number of People's Movement Assemblies leading up to the larger gathering in San Jose in June. Several collectives and organizations associated with the USSF in San Jose have begun organizing spaces for a People's Movement Assembly (PMA) on militarization that will take place in San Jose as part of the larger USSF in June. Those of us who have begun work on the Militarization PMA will convene several spaces towards a kind of "rolling assembly." Our goal is to bring together organizing efforts from across different aspects of militarization --militarized policing, mass incarceration, surveillance, deportations and detentions, occupations, military adventures abroad-- and convene an on-going assembly of committed people confronting multiple forms of state violence as well as pursuing efforts at demilitarizing our communities.

As part of our effort to convene a larger assembly in June during San Jose's USSF, we have begun organizing what we are calling a Tactical Cartography workshop scheduled for March 14 from 1-5 p.m. At the Tactical Cartography workshop we intend to gather folks committed to demilitarization and to start to map out the different groups and projects confronting various aspects of militarization and militarism. Our goal is to make more visible the efforts in opposition to militarization and militarism already underway and to connect our struggles across regions and issues as we build towards the June assembly.

We are hoping that you will want to be part of the Militarization PMA and can join us on March 14. The workshop will take place from 1-5 pm at Dr. Roberto Cruz - Alum Rock Branch Library (3090 Alum Rock Ave San Jose CA 95127) Please let us know if you need more information about the workshop and if you plan to attend.

Militarization PMA collective