3Cs’ Maribel Casas-Cortés on Against the Grain talking about precarity
From the show’s description:
To many people and activist networks in Europe, “precarity” denotes the insecurity and vulnerability experienced by workers, immigrants, tenants, unemployed people, and others as attacks on labor protections and welfare supports continue. Maribel Casas-Cortés views precarity as a toolbox concept capable of uniting diverse struggles.
And, check out Maribel’s article “A Genealogy of Precarity” here
On May 2, 2014, in the Zapatista territory of La Realidad, Chiapas, Mexico, the group CIOAC-Histórica [with the participation of the Green Ecological Party and the National Action Party (PAN)], planned and executed a paramilitary attack on unarmed Zapatista civilians. An autonomous Zapatista school and clinic was destroyed, 15 people were ambushed and injured and Jose Luis Solis Lopez (Galeano), teacher at the Zapatista Little School, was murdered. The mainstream media is falsely reporting this attack on the Zapatistas as an intra-community confrontation, but in fact this attack is the result of a long-term counterinsurgency strategy promoted by the Mexican government.
Given the experience of the 1997 massacre at Acteal, we are concerned about the mounting paramilitary activity against Zapatista bases of support. It is clear that if we do not take action now, the current situation in Chiapas may also lead to an even more tragic end.
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3Cs was invited to guest lecture/prepare a mapping activity for the Comparative Approaches to Global Issues course at Duke in April. After lecturing about countermapping in general and going over how to use some simple web mapping tools, students were divided into groups to research specific questions about Duke and make their own maps. Read more about the activity we prepared and see pictures below!
Where is Duke? While Duke’s campus may seem to have clearly delimited spatial boundaries, Duke’s influence extends well beyond these limits: Duke’s students and employees live throughout Durham with consequent effects on the urban landscape, students travel, volunteer and study abroad around the world, Duke partners with a wide range of businesses taking part in different commodity chains.
This activity is designed to explore and map out the different practices and institutions that make up Duke and Duke’s connections and effects on its local as well as global surroundings. There are seven themes each addressing a specific aspect of these overarching questions. Each group will be assigned one of these themes and will be responsible for gathering data on their topic by using all or some of the research methodologies described in detail under each theme.
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