Professor Jon Zibbell

Hey look! It's an interview with our former weekend warrior, Jonny Zibbell, who has been teaching Cultural Anthropology, Urban Anthropology and a seminar class on Marx's social theory up at Skidmore College.

Best quote:

I have a fetish for graphic novels, especially stuff published by Vertigo. I'm reading DMZ and 100 Bullets right now, both of which are fantastic. But others include Watchmen, Sin City, Scalped, & Ex Machina.

Before I say too much more about my love of comics, I think it best to end the interview here.

Stop by the store this Friday the 27th or Saturday the 28th if you feel like visiting with Jonny - he's back helping out yet again with our holiday hours, giving all the rest of us a bit of a vacation break. Thanks, Jonny!

Vigil & Community Altar for Jason Mattison and Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado

Join us this Monday November 23, 6:30-8:30pm for a vigil and community altar building in honor of two young gay men of color who were brutally murdered in the last month: Jason Mattison (15 yrs old, murdered in Baltimore, Maryland on November 10, 2009) and Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado (19 yrs. old, murdered in Puerto Rico on November 14, 2009).

In solidarity with national vigils across the country, Western MA Qpocalypse and Food for Thought Books will create a community art/testimonio sharing space where all will be welcome to mourn as a community, connect with the national campaign, share stories, and create items for a community altar that holds our mission for violence-free communities for ALL. We resist Homophobia and Transphobia!

The resulting photographic and video footage will be used in efforts for full prosecution of the Jorge Mercado case. Never in Puerto Rico's history has a crime been prosecuted with hate crimes provisions attached, despite the existence of said provisions since 2002. We want to make sure this is the first case.

For information on the National Campaign organizing for justice in this case please see their recent press release

More information about Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado: Gay Puerto Rican Teen Decapitated, Dismembered, and Burned

For more information about Jason Mattison: Many unanswered questions in killing of youth

For other information please see the Oakland "More Than A Vigil" blog

Resources on Ray Luc Levasseur

Unfortunately (though predictably), the mainstream media was dominated by rightwing and reactionary voices during much of the coverage of Ray Luc Levasseur's scheduled appearance at a forum on social change at University of Massachusetts. In the hopes of providing some counter to this tide of misinformation & fearmongering, please check out the following links:

• Levasseur forum inspires police protest
  Participant report back from the forum.
  
  
• Sedition in retrospect
  Another account of the forum. Includes a brief video from outside and inside the event.
  
  
• The Great Western Massachusetts Sedition Trial: Twenty Years Later
  Whole thing on video via the Rosenberg Fund for Children Youtube channel
  
  
• Behind the Revolutionaries: The Ohio 7 Tell Their Stories
  Archived Valley Advocate article from 1987 featuring interviews with Ray Luc Levasseur and historical background on the sedition case & the United Freedom Front.
  
  
• Sanford's Son: Ray Luc Levasseur
  Interview with Levasseur from 2004.
  
  
• Letters from Exile
  A collection of Ray Luc Levasseur's prison writings.
  
  
• United Freedom Front
  Wikipedia article.
  
  
• The Ohio 7 and the United Freedom Front
  Historical background & personal profiles from Night's Lantern Political Prisoner page.
  
  
• Let Ray Have His Say
  Facebook site for supporters of Levasseur's right to speak at UMass. Links to news articles & more.
  
  
• UMass forum stirs painful memories for courthouse bomb victim
  Interesting piece, especially since the victim speaks out in favor of Levasseur's right to speak. Also, he notes the complicity & irresponsibility of the police at the time of the bombing, who did nothing to warn the people in the courthouse.
  
  
• Paroled radical glad to be back in Maine
  Archived article about Ray Luc Levasseur's return to his hometown in Maine.
  
  
• End of the line
  Article from 1995 on political prisoners in the Denver News featuring Ray Luc Levasseur (starts on page 2 - details about his imprisonment and some background on the UFF).
  

Kudos to the event organizers for keeping the peace & still providing the forum despite the immense opposition, the threats of violence, and the institutional resistance.

Let Ray Luc Levasseur Have His Say

Update: The event is still going on but in altered format & different location. Levasseur was denied travel permission by his parole officer and so will be unable to attend in person. There is some possibility of him giving his talk via video conferencing. The event will be at 7:15pm on November 12th - School of Management, Room #137, University of Massachusetts.

You probably have all heard by now but the folks at University of Massachusetts decided to cancel a talk by Ray Luc Levasseur of the Ohio 7 due to pressure from police organizations and right-wing talk show idiots.

Here's a message from one of the organizers:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Thank you to all who have emailed me in the past couple days to express your support for the lecture "Ray Luc Levasseur: Defendant in the Great Sedition Trial of Western Massachusetts Returns After 20 Years", originally scheduled for Thursday November 12, at 7pm in the UMass Campus Center. Also thank you to those who have contacted Governor Patrick, Chancellor Holub, and UMass Libraries Special Collections to voice your opposition to the event's cancellation under the pressure of police organizations and the far right. Supporters of UMass academic departments' right to hold the event have so far included leaders of the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the American Association of University Professors, and world famous historian Howard Zinn.
Amber Eastman Black, a UMass alum, has set up a facebook page entitled "Let Ray Have His Say" to protest the event's cancellation. Please join if you are interested:
Also, for your information, I have attached a letter to Chancellor Holub written by one of my mentors, Prof. George Caffentzis of the University of Southern Maine.
...
Sincerely,
Dan Chard

and here's the letter from Professor Caffentzis:

Dear Chancellor Robert Holub,
I am writing to protest the decision to cancel the lecture "Ray Luc Levasseur: Defendant in the Great Sedition Trial of Western Mass", scheduled for next Thursday November 12 in the UMass Campus Center. I understand that this cancellation was done under pressure of a variety of state police organizations and the incitement of right-wing talk show hosts.
The lecture was to deal with the crime of sedition, an issue that is important to all students of US history--especially in the Western Massachusetts area, the home of Shay’s Rebellion. It was to feature the presence of Ray Luc Levasseur, one of the defendants (who was found innocent) in the country’s last major sedition trial that took place in Springfield in 1989.
I have no doubt that the Levasseur’s lecture and the subsequent discussion would have been the source of knowledge about this trial and more general issues concerning the charge of sedition. We cannot deepen our knowledge of US history without opening the public space in academe to figures who were involved in that very history. Can we in academic life, then, afford to have speakers in practice vetted by state police organizations and right-wing talk show hosts?
I therefore urge you and the officials of the University of Massachusetts--Amherst to reverse the decision to cancel the lecture. Such a reversal would be a sign that the University of Massachusetts has the necessary autonomy to carry on its mission of providing the social space for the creation of knowledge.
Sincerely,
Prof. C. G. Caffentzis
Dept. of Philosophy
University of Southern Maine

Please contact Governor Patrick, Chancellor Holub, and UMass Libraries Special Collections and voice your opposition to this silencing of free speech and open critical debate.