AUSTIN AREA EVENTS (facebook link)

Aviva Chomsky is a history professor and coordinator of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies at Salem State College in Massachusetts. Her 2007 book “They Take Our Jobs!” And Twenty Other Myths about Immigration provides a careful analysis of the overheated rhetoric around immigration policy in the United States, debunking the 21 biggest myths and stereotypes in today’s debate. In her talk, Chomsky will sketch the outlines of a sensible immigration policy.

Her latest book, Linked Labor Histories, looks at globalization as a long historical process with labor history at its center. The book examines how employers have used regional inequalities to gain access to cheaper workers through immigration, which along with plant relocation gives companies weapons to discipline their workers.

“Much of my scholarly work can be traced back to the year I spent working for the United Farm Workers union back in 1976-77,” Chomsky said. “I credit that experience with sparking my interest in the Spanish language, in migrant workers and immigration, in labor history, in social movements and labor organizing, in multinationals and their workers, in how global economic forces affect individuals, and how people collectively organize for social change.”

The $10 donation at the door will benefit 5604 Manor, the new progressive community center launched by the Third Coast Activist Resource Center and Workers Defense Project.

This three-part documentary, which originally aired on the BBC, is subtitled “A Definitive Guide to the Global Economic Meltdown.” While not definitive, it helps explain some of the causes of the current crisis.

Part 1: The reckless greed of CEO Richard Fuld caused the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and the global paralysis of the credit markets threatened to bring economic activity to a standstill.

The Congregational Church of Austin will host the first forum in a quarterly series on social and economic justice. In September the focus will be on the Texas criminal justice system. Speakers Kristin Houlé of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Diane Claitor of Texas Jail Project, and Bob Libal of Grassroots Leadership (organizing to eliminate for-profit prisons) will talk about the work they are doing and what we can do to push for change during the next legislative session.

This three-part documentary, which originally aired on the BBC, is subtitled “A Definitive Guide to the Global Economic Meltdown.” While not definitive, it helps explain some of the causes of the current crisis.

Part 2: The misplaced faith in deregulation of Alan Greenspan and others enabled the international megabanks to become too big to govern and too big to fail.

This three-part documentary, which originally aired on the BBC, is subtitled “A Definitive Guide to the Global Economic Meltdown.” While not definitive, it helps explain some of the causes of the current crisis.

Part 3: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown countered the deregulatory delusions of US policymakers and helped establish an effective recovery policy that the US was compelled to adopt.