The Left Forum is one of the largest annual conferences touching on a wide range of issues and convening left and progressive intellectuals, activists, academics, organizations and the interested public to discuss, debate, and share work on these issues. Conference participants discuss differences, commonalities, and alternatives to current strategies, and to share ideas for understanding and transforming current structures.
The conference is held each year in New York City and draws thousands of participants, over a thousand speakers and holds hundreds of panels, workshops, and events. This year KGNU provides coverage from the forum and KGNU’s Cecelia Kluding brings us presentations from Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Cornel West.
Los Seis de Boulder, 40 years later
On May 25th and then again on May 27th of 1974, 6 activists who were University of Colorado students or alumni who were also Chicano activists were killed in 2 separate bombs that exploded in their cars. No official explanation was given for their deaths.
Forty years later, the local community gathered to commemorate their lives. El Centro Su Teatro was packed with participants on Saturday to hear from CU alumni and other fellow activists. Three other activists, Ricardo Falcon who was killed in 1972, Luis Martinez who was killed in 1973, and Carlos Zapata who was killed in 1978 were also honored to make up the “Symbols of Resistance,” the theme of the commemoration.
Yesterday, about 100 participants marched from CU to Chataqua Park, the scene of the first bombing in 1974. Before they took off, KGNU spoke to Ray Luc Lavsseur, a Vietname Vet turned activist who spent time in prison, some in solitary confinement who spoke at the Saturday event and then joined the march. He works for prison abolition with the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. In later broadcasts we will bring you more reports from that event.
