Sunday 30 November 2008

Workshop report: intellectual self-defence

Intellectual self-defense means you have to develop an independent mind - and work on it. Now that's extremely hard to do alone. The beauty of our system is that it isolates everybody - each person is sitting alone in front of the tube. Now it's very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. Some people can, but it's pretty rare. The way to do it is through organization. So courses of intellectual self-defense will have to be in the context of political and other organization...”

Noam Chomsky, from the film 'Manufacturing Consent'

As an activist, or dissenter, or maybe you simply attended a street demo, it's likely that you have dealt with a barrage of political and idealogical challenges during every day life. For this reason, the organisers of Chomsky at 80 were keen that a workshop take place on "intellectual self-defence."

Andrew Bowman began by explaining why confidence and competence building for such situations is important for making the experience more bearable and fruitful. The group went on to discuss the numerous scenarios when appearing to deviate from the status quo can cause friends, colleagues, strangers and loved ones to confront your ideas as inferior. We found that similar questions and comments are often thrown at us, such as “You will never change anything”, “You're too idealistic”, “Why don't you start a political party then?”, “Well what do you propose instead?”...etc.

It was agreed that we are up against deep set indoctrination from sources such as the mainstream press, to the education system. However, in line with Chomsky, this indoctrination is not of a strictly conspiratorial nature. Then after sharing some personal experiences, the group came up with ten top tips for practising intellectual, or collective, self defence:

  1. Know your history! (not just the text book history)

  2. Learn the facts relating to your topic of concern, especially the neglected ones!

  3. Learn to explain your ideas simply, to critical, non specialist audiences.

  4. Use, support and if possible develop, sources of alternative media.

  5. Use the internet to it's full advantage: read widely, read often, and be careful with the reliability of sources.

  6. When in arguments (at least ones you wish to be productive), try to seek common ground with opponents rather than 'defeat' them.

  7. Develop listening skills

  8. Know your opposition in detail rather than simply dismissing them. Read their publications, get to know and understand their arguments properly.

  9. When forced to justify your position, do so. But don't just accept a subordinate status in the hierarchy of ideas, also go on the counterattack: make people holding mainstream positions justify themselves to the same standards of evidence that they are holding you to! Ie. Ask them questions as well.

  10. Be honest! Admit when you don't know things!

"For those who stubbornly seek freedom around the world, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the propaganda system to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling or unwitting instruments."

Noam Chomsky, 'Propaganda, American Style.'

"Great event, not enough people"

Yesterday it finally Happened.

Months of planning and liaising with various speakers, workshop-givers, finding last minute replacements when a couple of people let us down... all culminated in a day that went very well, with various workshops and discussions going off without a hitch. Thanks to all speakers, facilitators and participants.

The feedback forms were overwhelmingly positive, and a few helpful hints for any future event we did. These responses- anonymised, and the various flipcharts that participants filled in- will be posted on the Chomsky at 80 website imminently.

The only real downside of the day was simply Not Enough People. Various reasons can be mooted, but it's not easy to see what else we could have done, given our budget.

Anyway, over the coming days and even weeks, we'll be posting reports from the day, and other useful information. The first, about the Intellectual Self-Defence workshop, will be posted today.

Friday 28 November 2008

Dr Tom Hickey

Another loose end... we're happy to confirm that Dr Tom Hickey will be joining Siobhan McGuirk of Reclaim the Uni to help lead the responsibility of intellectuals and academic workshop.
Dr Hickey is principal lecturer in Philosophy and Politics at the University of Brighton, Chair of the Brighton University & College Union and a member of the National Executive Committee of the UCU. He is speaking on behalf of BRICUP, the campaign for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and will be discussing the reasons behind controversial calls for an academic boycott of Israeli universities.
We also need to confirm that Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper is unlikely to be able to attend this workshop.

Thursday 27 November 2008

Loose ends

A few more loose ends tied up.
Firstly, another stallholder to add - Manchester Solidarity Federation will also be joining us (another flavour for the political mix).
And the second speaker for the US Foreign Policy workshop, alongside Ron Senchak, will be Marc Hudson, one of the conference organisers. He studied politics at the University of California in the 1990s, before working as an aid worker in Southern Africa over the course of three years. He reviews books for Environmental Politics and Red Pepper, has co-edited two books about climate change and is one of the founders of Manchester Climate Fortnightly. He tried to appear on Mastermind with US covert and overt foreign policy operations as a specialist subject, but they wouldn't let him on the grounds that too many of the answers might be 'contentious.' So he did Tom Lehrer instead...

Siobhan McGuirk

Like a typical prying hack I've been making all the speakers for this weekend give me some kind of biography of themselves for this blog. So now I can introduce Siobhan McGuirk, who'll be helping to the lead the discussion on the responsibilities of intellectuals:
"I am a graduate in Social Anthropology and Politics at the University of Manchester and currently studying for an MA in Visual Anthropology at the same institution. I grew up on the University of Nottingham Campus. I've been involved in activism (student and otherwise) and the Students' Union for a good few years. I have written for Student Direct, The Mule and Red Pepper."
Siobhan describes her political position as "anti-capitalist."

Solidarity Movements

The loose ends have finally been tied up on another workshop (thank goodness. It's all nearly over now and the pub beckons...).
The session on solidarity movements is intended to take a critical look at some of the issues that international solidarity movements have faced over the past three decades. Why do certain solidarity groups take root strongly in certain countries (for instance, why did the East Timor movement gain more foothold in Australia than the UK?). How do solidarity movements cope when the liberation struggles they support become governments, themselves running the security forces and economic policies? How should solidarity movements react when the organisations they support overseas have sexist, homophobic or nationalist views at variance with solidarity values? And in an era whan plane travel is (hopefully) becoming ethically less acceptable and financially more difficult, how will solidarity movements adapt to a potentially less mobile international political population?
The speaker/facilitators will be:
Matt Fawcett, who has spent time in Chiapas with Zapatista solidarity groups and in Guatemala with the human rights observation organisation Peace Brigades International, and;
Sarah Irving, who visited Nicaragua with a Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign work brigade in 1996 and has remained involved with the organisation since, and whose three visits to Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement have led to 7 years of engagement with the region through fair trade and educational travel groups and journalism.

Wednesday 26 November 2008

Website updated, new Chomsky essay, tribute page

Hello all,

Firstly, the Chomsky at 80 website is looking a lot more respectable. The next time it will be updated is after the big day itself, with photos, accounts, etc.

Secondly, Chomsky has just posted a new essay on Znet, entitled "The Election, the Economy, War and Peace"

It's a corker, with observations on how electing a minority isn't such a "first"-

"The rhetoric has some justification if we keep to the West, but elsewhere matters are different. Consider the world's largest democracy, India. The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, which is larger than all but a few countries of the world and is notorious for horrifying treatment of women, is not only a woman, but a Dalit ("untouchable"), at the lowest rung of India's disgraceful caste system.

"Turning to the Western hemisphere, consider its two poorest countries: Haiti and Bolivia. In Haiti's first democratic election in 1990, grass-roots movements organized in the slums and hills, and though without resources, elected their own candidate, the populist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The results astonished observers who expected an easy victory for the candidate of the elite and the US, a former World Bank official.

True, the victory for democracy was soon overturned by a military coup, followed by years of terror and suffering to the present, with crucial participation of the two traditional torturers of Haiti, France and the US (contrary to self-serving illusions). But the victory itself was a far more "extraordinary example of democracy at work" than the miracle of 2008.

"The same is true of the 2005 election in Bolivia. The indigenous majority, the most oppressed population in the hemisphere (those who survived), elected a candidate from their own ranks, a poor peasant, Evo Morales. The electoral victory was not based on soaring rhetoric about hope and change, or body language and fluttering of eyelashes, but on crucial issues, very well known to the voters: control over resources, cultural rights, and so on. Furthermore, the election went far beyond pushing a lever or even efforts to get out the vote. It was a stage in long and intense popular struggles in the face of severe repression, which had won major victories, such as defeating the efforts to deprive poor people of water through privatization.

"These popular movements did not simply take instructions from party leaders. Rather, they formulated the policies that their candidates were chosen to implement. That is quite different from the Western model of democracy, as we see clearly in the reactions to Obama's victory."
And a host of other worthwhile observations about- as the title suggests- the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Iran.

And thirdly, Milan Rai, who is attending the Chomsky at 80 event, has created a website where you can post appreciations/birthday wishes to Noam.

Hope to see you "all" on Saturday.

Monday 24 November 2008

Dr Andy Mullen

Andy Mullen is senior lecturer in politics at Northumbria University, and will be leading the workshop on analysing the mass media.
Andy is convenor of the Chomsky Study Group and a member of the editorial board of Fifth-Estate-Online, the International Journal of Radical Mass Media Criticism. He's also a co-founder of the Northumbria UCU equality sub-committee, was elected onto the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Standing Committee of UCU and is a member of the LGBT Oral History Project.
Other research interests include international relations and international political economy, particularly the work of Noam Chomsky and Robert Cox, the geopolitics of hydrocarbons, media and communication, post-war British and US foreign policy and state terrorism. A number of his research projects, especially on homophobia and lesbian and gay issues in education and amongst young people can be found at www.andymullen.com.
Andy's publications include Anti- and Pro- European Propaganda in Britain (Continuum), The British Left's Great Debate on Europe (Continuum).
Papers which may be of particular interest to people coming to Andy's workshop on the 29th include:
- Twenty years at the margins: The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model 1998-2008. Fifth-Estate-Online
- Twenty years of propaganda: a conference report. Fifth-Estate-Online
The Fifth-Estate-Online website include many other great articles on the subject of the mass media and propaganda, including a number by Edward S Herman.

Saturday 22 November 2008

Dr Mandy Turner

Mandy Turner is a lecturer in peace & conflict in the Peace Studies department at the University of Bradford. Her specialist areas include the political economy of war, post-war reconstruction and statebuilding in Palestine. She was a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's solidarity trip to the West Bank earlier this year, and also writes for the Guardian's Comment is Free section on Palestine.
Mandy was also author of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade briefing on the Israeli arms industry and military imports into Israel from the rest of the world.
Mandy will be leading the workshop on Palestine and the issues it raises for world politics.

Swings and roundabouts...

... what goes up must come down, you win some you lose some.
The cliches come thick and fast ;-)
So, we're sad to announce that David Miller has had to drop out of the conference due to family commitments, but we're very happy to say that his place will be taken by Dr Andy Mullen of Northumbria University.
Dr Mandy Turner of Bradford University will be leading the Palestine workshop, drawing on her breadth of experience in research and writing and on the ground.
Hilary Wainwright has also had to drop out of the workshop on the responsibility of intellectuals, but we hope to announce her replacement in the next day or so when we've tied up some loose ends.
Getting a good set of speakers for an event like this - especially one organised by volunteers and on 'activist' (read minimal) budget levels is horribly akin to herding cats. But I think we'll have a quality showing on the day.

Monday 17 November 2008

US Foreign Policy

Ok, so we're happy to be able to publicly announce another of our speakers. This is Ron Senchak, who will be taking part in the discussion on US foreign policy - both its history and the question of where it will head after Barack Obama takes office next year.
Ron was in the US Navy from 1965-68, but joined the movement againts the Vietnam War afetr he left. Since then, he's been a trade union activist and a leading member of Greater Manchester Stop the War Coalition.

Sunday 16 November 2008

Workshop details: intellectuals, higher education and their responsibilities...

We can now (finally) announce the details of the workshop on the responsibility of intellectuals and 'the university,' examining why activists in the UK have been so critical of universities recently, where increasing corporate involvement in universities might take us, what intellectuals should be contributing to social and environmental struggle and why doing so is the exception amongst British academics, not the rule.
The discussion leaders will be:
Siobhan McGuirk, who has been active in the Reclaim the Uni campaign in Manchester. The campaign has staged demonstrations and building occupations, as well as engaging in debate and contributing position pieces to student publications, protesting at falling student teaching hours, poor standards of teaching and feedback, unaccountable management and disenfranchisement of the student body at a time when the university is undergoing major changes.
She'll be joined by Hilary Wainwright, the socialist-feminist scholar and editor of Red Pepper magazine. Hilary is also a Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam and a research fellow of the International Labour Studies Centre at University of Manchester and the Centre for Global Governance at the London School of Economics. Formerly on the editorial board of New Left Review, she is now on the National Council of the Catalyst thinktank, the only such body on the Left in the UK which does not accept corporate sponsorship, a position it is able to maintain thanks to sponsorship from the trade union movement.

Monday 10 November 2008

And yet more stalls...

Three more organisations have confirmed that they will be bringing stalls to ChomskyAt80, offering participants even more chances to expand their knowledge (and libraries) and maybe be even do some fair trade seasonal purchasing...
First up is Olive Co-operative, a Manchester-based fair trade co-operative which sells a range of Palestinian products, ranging from embroidery and olive oil to carved olive wood and soap.
Secondly, News From Nowhere, Liverpool's radical bookshop, will be sending a stall of political publications.
And Greater Manchester Stop The War Coalition will be bringing information on their campaigns against the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and threats against Iran.

Propaganda Model conference, December 19th

"Twenty Years at the Margins: The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model and Critical Media and Communication Studies, 1988-2008" - one-day conference on Friday 19 December 2008 (930am-530pm) at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne.
2008 marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Manufacturing Consent by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. This conference aims to celebrate the media analyses of Herman and Chomsky, to critically assess the application and ongoing relevance of the Propaganda Model in the 21st century, and to take stock of the achievements of critical media and communication studies over the past few decades.
Keynote speakers will include Alison Edgley, David Miller, Tom O'Malley and Peter Wilkin. There will also be a contribution by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. There will be panels and papers on the Propaganda Model and Marxism, the Propaganda Model and the Internet, complementary theories, the five filters and applying the Propaganda Model elsewhere. The conference is open to all and the cost is £20 (includes lunch and refreshments). For more information, email Andy Mullen (andrew.mullen[at]unn.ac.uk).

David Miller

David Miller will be leading the workshop on the mass media and how to analyse it.

David is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Geography and Sociology at Strathclyde University. He is widely known for his writings on propaganda, spin and lobbying as well as for his expertise on 'terrorism', conflict in Ireland and Iraq, global power-politics and the Scottish political scene.

His current research interests include propaganda and the 'war on terror', corporate communications, corporate power, lobbying, the strategic use of science, corporate influences on academic work, spin and the decline of democratic governance. He regularly writes for popular media outlets as well as academic publications.

David is co-founder and co-editor of Spinwatch, a website devoted to public interest reporting on spin and propaganda. He also moderates the Media Watch and Public Interest Research Network e-mail lists and is an advisor to the BRussels Tribunal on Iraq, the Centre for Investigative Journalism based at City University, London and UKWatch.

His publications include:

(2007) Thinker, Faker, Spinner, Spy: Corporate PR and the Assault on Democracy, Edited by William Dinan and David Miller;

(2005) Arguments Against G8 , London: Pluto,Hubbard, Gill and Miller, David;

(2004) Tell Me lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq , London: Pluto;

(2001) Open Scotland? Journalists, Spin Doctors and Lobbyists . Edinburgh: Polygon;

(2001) Market Killing: What Capitalism does and what Social Scientists can do about it. London: Longman.

Andy Bowman and intellectual self-defence

"For those who stubbornly seek freedom around the world, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the propaganda system to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling or unwitting instruments."
Andy Bowman of Manchester University/the Mule/OpenMedia and lots of other things will be leading a workshop looking at how indoctrination works, how we absorb ideas and prejudices even if we think we have good analyses and political positions against them, and how we can develop mental tools for defending ourselves. How can we find reliable information and help each other produce more accurate pictures of how the world really works, in the face of the onslaught of the corporate media? Please come to this workshop prepared to share your experiences, ideas and successes!
For more information on these ideas, see this review of Free to be Human by David Edwards of MediaLens and Chomsky's own piece on 'Propaganda, American Style.'

Friday 7 November 2008

Leo Murray

Leo will be leading the Chomsky@80 workshop on climate change.
Leo is a member of the anti-aviation campaign Plane Stupid and has also been involved with several UK Climate Camps, including famously being injuncted from the 2007 camp at Heathrow. He was also arrested for dropping giant anti-aviation banners off the House of Commons roof.
Leo is also an award-winning animator and worked as lead animator on The Age of Stupid with Pete Postlethwaite.

Milan Rai

Milan Rai will be leading the workshop on UK foreign policy and the British peace movement.
He's a British peace campaigner who was arrested in October 2005 on the steps of a London war memorial, the Cenotaph, for refusing to cease reading aloud the names of civilians by then killed in Iraq following its most recent war, alongside fellow activist Maya Evans. Rai, a writer and anti-war activist from Hastings, was convicted under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 for taking part in an illegal demonstration within 1 km of Parliament Square.
Milan co-founded Voices in the Wilderness and Justice Not Vengeance and is the co-editor of Peace News.
Milan Rai has authored several books, including (with Noam Chomsky) War Plan Iraq: 10 Reasons Against War with Iraq (Verso 2002), Chomsky's Politics (Verso 1995) and 7/7: The London Bombings, Islam and the Iraq War (Pluto 2006)

Thursday 6 November 2008

Intellectual self-defence

We've just received the outline for a fascinating looking workshop on intellectual self-defence by Andy Bowman of Manchester University. If this is a newish concept to you (as it was to me), it's the idea that we need to be conscious of where we get indoctrinated from, and who by, and that we can develop useful tools to help defend ourselves from absorbing the kind of stereotypes, assumptions and prejudices that we're fed by the mainstream media, political parties etc etc etc...
Also, we have yet another confirmed stall, from Manchester Climate Fortnightly/Only Planet, local publications focusing on the issue of climate change.

Tuesday 4 November 2008

More stalls!

So, we now have three stalls confirmed, and more on the way.
Those already signed up are a nice mix - the Environment Network for Manchester (EN4M), the mighty Mule newspaper and Cuba Solidarity group Rock Around the Blockade.
Watch this space for more speakers and groups...

When a plan comes together...

Okay... we're finally up and running to sell tickets. Full details of prices and how to order in advance are at http://www.chomskyat80.org.uk/contactus.html
And we've got some new confirmed speakers and facilitators for the solidarity movements and intellectual self-defence workshops.
So now we have David Miller of Strathclyde Uni speaking on the mass media; Milan Rai of Peacenews and various books (including on Chomsky himself) leading a workshop on UK foreign policy and peace activism; Leo Murray of Plane Stupid heading the session on climate change; Andy Bowman of Manchester Uni facilitating the group on intellectual self-defence. And we sort of have confirmed speakers for US foreign policy and for solidarity movements, just need to tie up them loose ends.
And we've got some stalls confirmed (we need a list of these on the website, too).
But all in all, it's coming together!
Nice one.