Peter Bohmer's Home Page

Syllabus 

The attached letter includes information on schedule, required books, readings to complete before the first class and on a program field trip to Portland on October 2-4, Friday to Sunday. We will be attending the Econvergence: The Northwest Gathering on the Economic and Ecological Crisis. The website for it is www.econvergence.org

 

Dear Members of Venezuela: Building Economic and Social Justice
In less than a month we will begin our work together. Our class meets for the first time
on Tuesday, September 30th. Our class meetings will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday
and Friday, with one Spanish-language section scheduled on Thursday. Rooms and times
are as follows:

Tuesday 9:30-11:30 Presentation/Lecture/Film Library 1540
Tuesday 12:30-2:30 Seminar Sem 2, A-2105, A-3105
Tuesday 3-5  Spanish, Section A,  Sem 2, B-3107

Tuesday 6-8  Spanish, Section B,  Library 2708

Wednesday 9-1 Workshop (Photography…) Sem 2, A-1107

I teach political economy at the Evergreen State College. This fall I am teaching Venezuela: Building Economic and Social Justice with Anne Fischel and David Phillips.

Reflections on May Day, 2008 in Olympia

May 3, 2008

 

The planning for the Olympia May Day and the resulting rally and march were a very worthwhile effort to connect the anti-war movement and GI resistance to the immigrant rights struggle within the context of the celebration of May Day--International Worker's day. I am very appreciative and supportive that the organizers made the focus and center of the May Day rally and march the Sanctuary City proposal, probably the first proposal in the country that calls for a city to be a sanctuary for both GI's and immigrants. It calls for Olympia to not arrest or detain GI's who refuse to fight in Iraq nor question immigrants on their legal status. We need to connect issues and movements more as happened on May Day in Olympia. The rally and march were an excellent way to put this proposal for Olympia as a sanctuary city in the public consciousness; the organizers of the May Day event deserve a lot of credit for this.

I would like to expand and explain more the comments I made at the February 19^th, Noon forum called by Evergreen President Purce to discuss the  events connected to the Dead Prez concert.   Although I did not attend the concert, I have spoken to many eyewitnesses and I am also relying on the eyewitness accounts collected and posted by Tony Zaragoza, Tuesday morning on Tesc Talk. President Les Purce  in setting terms for this forum in his opening comments, focused on the overturning of the police car, not what led up to it.  This is similar to what the Olympian newspaper did in their sensationalist reporting on February 16^th. They both omitted or downplayed the context, which I am including in 1-6, which follows.

Two Weeks That Shook Olympia

by Peter Bohmer,

Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace,

November, 15, 2007,

Updated, December 9, 2007

 "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part, you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
--Mario Savio, the steps of Sproul Plaza, UC Berkeley, December 2, 1964

On Saturday,October 27th, there will be 11 major demonstrations, see United for Peace and Justice, calling for ending the war now and U.S. immediate withdrawal from Iraq. The Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace is mobilizing for the Seattle demo, which will begin at Noon at Judkins Park, just west of 23rd and Dearborn. We will march to Occidental Park (see, www.endthewarseattle.org for more details). We will carpool at 9:30 A.M. from Red Square at Evergreen; and at 10 A.M. from Division and Harrison on the west side; the Martin Way Park and Ride in Lacey; or the Artesian Well, on 4th between Adams and Jefferson, downtown Olympia. We need cars and vans so please bring one if you have one. You can call me at 360 867-6431 for more info.