Friday, November 14, 2008

Guest Speaker Brian Becker Motivates UW20 Students to Activism


UW20 Students in Prof. Zachary Wolfe's "Progressive Movements: (Re)writing History" learn how ordinary people instigate social change.

Prof. Wolfe says: "About this time in my classes, people are thinking quite seriously about advocacy and the role of students and scholars in taking on some of the demands of our times. This usually results in tremendous frustration at the apathy of those around them and the government's apparent invulnerability to public demands. This past Monday, I invited Brian Becker (National Coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition and a life-long political organizer) to speak to my classes (See the "Rosa Parks" excerpt; view the full hour). He has particularly interesting things to say about the promise of the coming administration and the need for continued social activism given the properly understood roles of leaders versus the people, as well as some inspiration to frustrated organizers. I particularly like the bit about the women who were organizing with Rosa Parks being fewer in number than a UW20 section and more frustrated than any of us can reasonably be."

1 comment:

  1. He was really interesting.

    It made me a lot more optimistic about what students can do to bring real change.

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