Manitoba Activist School and Youth Retreat
Manitoba, August 17–21, 2005

The Youth Activist Retreat and the Activist School is now accepting registrations for their joint event being held in Manitoba this summer.

The event is a 5-day retreat for 75 youth (16–30ish) interested in learning, sharing, and discussing ideas about social justice and progressive social/political change.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Envisioning Peoples' Struggles" Conference

Vancouver, June 24–26, 2005

We are organizing the Envisioning People's Struggles Conference to Bring together issues and analysis from the many struggles against war,
capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism. The conference will also explore and discuss the history of resistance movements locally and around the world to broaden and contextualize our understanding of current struggles, while emphasizing the need for long-term strategy and vision through open dialogue that builds solidarity between diverse organizing communities.

Artist Fernando Botero on Abu Graib

Botero on Abu Graib

This has been given yesterday to the EU embassies
in Sofia. The initiative is of the
(Free Software Society)

The "Bulgarian Declaration" of IT

We, Bulgarian IT companies, declare:

In the near future, The European Parliament will vote on a
directive that will, in fact, legalize the patents in the
software.

As citizens of a state that soon will be an EU member, we are very embarrassed by this development. It contradicts directly with the interests of EU and the European IT business. And, since these interests are ours, too, we are concerned.

"Exploiting Potential" Conference

Bristol, July 1, 2005

i-DAT/Submerge would like to invite you to EXPLOITING POTENTIAL, a free
symposium on intellectual property and digital production, taking place on
1st July 2005, 10am – 4pm, at Submerge, L Shed, Industrial Museum, Bristol,
BS1 4RN, UK.

Issues around intellectual property are a key concern for digital artists
and designers. They reveal a range of tensions between the idealism of work
entering the public domain and the pragmatics of making a living. On the one
hand, there is the principle that creativity and innovation thrives from the
sharing of ideas and material, and on the other, that laws are necessary to
protect individual and collective interests.

This informal symposium aims to examine these ideas and to challenge
existing structures and practices for those working at the intersections of
commerce, research and independent production.

Presentations by Prodromos Tsiavos (Creative Commons), Margaret Briffa
(Own-it), Ian ‘Cutswift’ Edgar (Eclectic Method), Hugo de Rijke (i-DAT),
George Grinsted, Chris O'Shea, Dominica Williamson, Grzesiek Sedek, Daniel
James, Ulrike Brückner & Sabine Meyer.

For more information, see
Submerge

For free entry, please contact Submerge: b@submerge.org.uk
or book at the Submerge events reception: L Shed, Industrial Museum, Bristol
Harbourside.

Exploiting Potential is an i-DAT/Submerge initiative in partnership with the
Arts Council England, UWE and Watershed. Thanks also to Piet Zwart
Institute, Rotterdam.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Project Xixax

Project Xixax is using the walls of New York City and is headed to Amsterdam and Berlin for exploration of the grey area of what constitutes public space. There is no destruction of property, no trespass, just using the walls of the city for something other than advertising.

Have you ever wondered why the technology we built is used by and large to sell us more crap we don't need instead of using the technology for something entirely different?

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Call for Applicants

Faculty for Radical Aesthetics

In the context of two research projects starting in autumn 2005 the eipcp
will organize a transnational pilot course for Radical Aesthetics. The
components of this one-year course will take place in different European
cities (Barcelona, Linz, Lüneburg, Napoli, Paris, Vienna). Aimed at
fostering the transnational exchange and discourse on art and activism,
they will reflect on concrete activist and critical projects, accompanying
them with discursive events and theoretical workshops.

Turkish Socialist Economics Congress, Istanbul, Dec. 17–18, 2005

The working groups of the Socialist Economics Congress in Turkey are being
formed The first SEC meets in December.

The Socialist Economics Congress in Turkey (SEC) is going to be held in
Istanbul, on December 17 and 18.

SEC is aiming at bringing socialist economists and intellectuals together in
order to analyze the current problems of world economy in general, and of
Turkish economy in particular so as to discuss alternative policies and to
make the socialist alternative concrete.

John Bissett writes:

“Capitalism and Other Kids’ Stuff”

“Capitalism and Other Kids’ Stuff” – a popular new film, which argues the anti-capitalist case in simple language, and which has won much acclaim in recent months — is now re-edited and can be viewed and downloaded as a BitTorrent at www.socialist-tv.com

The film, made by 4 members of the Socialist Party in the UK, is 52 minutes in duration and, beginning with a look at how we treat our children, explains in non-jargonised terms, the insanity of a system that places profit before human need.

This version of the film is a re-edited version of the original that was produced in March, and contains a lot of imagery not seen in the first version.

Aarnoud Rommens writes
"I would like to invite you to look at my new production made at the Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht (The Netherlands; I am Belgian myself) entitled “Camouflage Comics: Dirty War Images,” in cooperation with Rekall Design (Ingrid Stojnic + Bert Balcaen):