Political and Social Movements

People Organizing P.E.A.C.E Systems, P.O.P.S Movement, is a grassroot organization created within the prisons of Georgia. P.O.P.S Movement is comprised of a diversity of individuals across the nation who stive for the betterment of poverty stricken america.
We present to individuals and the public the 6 Steps to P.E.A.C.E (Preparing Everyone As Change Evolves), which is the ideology of this movement which has successfully brought bonding and unity among street tribes around the country, inside and outside of prisons.

The 6 Steps include:
1. Bonding
2. Identifying the problems
3. Expressing the Importance of Unity
4. Seeking solutions
5. Strategizing
6. Taking on Responsibility

We recognize along with the rest of the world due to the consistent events that continue to occur almost on a daily basis. The events of law enforcement brutalizing, dehumanizing and murdering people across the country, mainly people of color, Black Men! We as the people of the poverty stricken communities have incorporated effective and productive systems aimed at combating how the people of the communities under seige of a military state view themselves and others to build a stonger bond to stand strong in unison against oppression.

What has been the impact of patriarchy, as a system of oppression, on attempts at social revolution in the 20th century and on the revolutionary left?

The win of SYRIZA in the Greek elections is in the centre of interest of social movements, trade unions and progressive political forces in Europe. SYRIZA has announced to cancel the Memorandum and replace it through a program for a Productive Reconstruction as early as it will be in power. The vicory of SYRIZA has inspired similar movements in other European countries. In Spain a new political formation emerged from the social movements. Together with the "Left Unity" the traditional party of the radical Left has attained more than 20 percent of the votes at the European elections. It took many of its inspirations from SYRIZA. This opens not only for Greece and Spain, but for the whole of Europe a new perspective. What conclusions do different social and political actors draw? What new possiblities for achange in Europe does this offer? These are two the main research questions of the network transform! europe which is the political foundation of the Party of the European Left.

The Missile Dick Chicks were a satirical political street performance group that spent the Bush years singing and dancing across America wearing strap-on patriot missiles and a lot of red, white and blue. Veteran activists and artists, their improvised characters were the wealthy wives of businessmen friendly with the Bush administration. From rest stops to The Republican National Convention, to Halliburton's headquarters in Houston, the chicks used their banter and charm to shine a light on war profiteering and the age of big oil. The film was shot from 2003-2008, and premiered at the International Women's Film Festival in Soul, Korea in 2009. Join film director Randi Cecchine and former Missile Dick Chicks to discuss creative activism, theatrical interventions, women and street performance, and more.

In order to increase the effectiveness of social activism it is necessary to imagine new forms of public engagement that mobilize society, enable collective forms of action and have a transformative impact on our lives and our environment. Can cooperatives be new models for developing embodied knowledge and become alternatives for neoliberal think tanks and traditional institutions? We will delve into the idea of transforming cooperative structures and commons into hubs that culminate creativity and transformative action.

Memory studies address the interplay between the past and the present within multilayered contextual perspectives. Thus, collective memory is an arena of struggle. Radically commonizing memory enables us to draw connections between seemingly unrelated historical events. After all, a transformative struggle can only emerge from a collective memory. In this panel we will focus how we can register the continuities and discontinuities of the existing narratives and contribute to the development of alternatives; ones that register and reveal the experience and memory of social segments that are not in power. We will address how we can create a collective memory that opens new paths to the unspoken or ideologically censored areas of history.