The Next Two Years and Beyond: A Movement Building Conference

Confirmed Speakers:

John Nichols is national affairs correspondent of The Nation. His most recent book is Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse: A Field Guide to the Most Dangerous People in America

Rev. Karlene Griffiths Sekou organizes with Black Lives Matter Boston

Phyllis Bennis is director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. The seventh edition of her Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict : A Primer was just published

Nika Elugardo defeated a powerful incumbent to become State Representative- Elect from Jamaica Plain and nearby areas of Boston

Gabe Camacho directs Project Voice at American Friends Service Committee

Paul Shannon is active with AFSC and MAPA and organizes the Raytheon Antiwar Campaign

Michele Brooks is Community Outreach Coordinator with the Massachusetts Sierra Club

Tarso Ramos (invited) is Executive Director of Political Research Associates, which investigates the far right to support movements for social justice

The progressive, peace, and justice movements face new and difficult conditions in the Trump presidency. Attacks on labor and working people; tax cuts for the rich, sharply increased military spending, and escalated wars and international crises; anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric and policies; escalated racism, sexism, and assaults on LGBTQ people; are among the urgent challenges we face. And as wildfires spread and glaciers melt, the Trump administration is doubling down on policies that guarantee catastrophic climate change.

The far right controls the national and most state governments and is on the offensive on every front. While Democrats may regain control of the House this November, the reactionary forces that have been unleashed and organized by Trumpism are determined to continue their offensive in the years to come, posing serious dangers to living standards and to social justice, as well as to democracy, civil liberties, and our ability to organize for social change.

Fortunately, a new progressive movement has risen to resist Trumpism, exemplified by Black Lives Matter, the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign and wave of progressive candidates running in 2018, Poor People’s Campaign, Women’s Marches, Fight for $15, March for Our Lives, and the responses to Charlottesville and to the separation of migrant families.

The resistance to the reactionaries is divided between progressives, who seek fundamental changes in the economy and social structure to the benefit of working and oppressed people, and neoliberals and centrists, who seek the stabilization of the corporate order along with continued austerity and militarism. Although we need to join with the centrists to fend off the reactionary assault, we know that they are equally responsible for the extreme income and wealth gaps as well as militarism and war — so we also need to challenge them in order to build a powerful, coherent and energetic progressive movement that will contend for national power in 2020 and in the years to come.

A major weakness of the progressive wing is a tendency to avoid confronting U.S. militarism, particularly the dangers of nuclear war and of war with Iran, Korea, and Russia.

The goal of this conference is to take stock of the political landscape after the midterm election, chart the path towards a unified progressive movement over the coming years, and educate and motivate our supporters towards more effective and more unified efforts.

Preliminary List of Breakouts:

Two Minutes to Midnight: Campaigning to Reverse the Growing Nuclear Dangers
Middle East Wars: New Dangers, New Opportunities
State Legislature Agenda
Electoral strategies
Climate, Environmental Justice and the Road Map to Renewables
From Explosions to Solutions in Merrimack Valley
Anti-Racism for activists
Black Lives Matter
Justice System Crisis
Right Wing
K-12 Education
Higher education/ Student Debt
Labor, Economic Justice
Building the Movement for Healthcare Justice
Housing – Displacement
Immigrant Rights
Women’s march, supreme court, #MeToo
Poor People’s Campaign
Faith and the progressive movement

Registration: $35 general admission; $25 for member of a cosponsoring organization; $10 student or low income. Includes morning coffee, lunch, and post-conference reception. Register online at next-two-years.brownpapertickets.com, or mail check to Massachusetts Peace Action Education Fund, 11 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138 and write “Next Two Years” on the memo line.

Transportation: Park in the Simmons School of Management garage; enter from Ave. Louis Pasteur. Pick up yellow ticket at conference registration desk to receive discounted parking rate. Simmons parking info.

Endorsers: Organizations are invited to endorse the conference. Endorsers can set up a literature table, will be acknowledged at the conference, and are encouraged to publicize the event to their members. A sliding scale contribution between $25-100 is requested to help offset our expenses. Endorsers can sign up at next2yrs-endorse.bpt.me/.

Sponsored by: Massachusetts Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee, Black Lives Matter Boston, Progressive Democrats of America, Campaign for Peace, Disarmament, and Common Security, Progressive Massachusetts, and Our Revolution Massachusetts.

Questions: Cole Harrison, cole@maspeaceaction.org, 617-354-2169, or any of the sponsors, with questions or to participate in this effort.