“Everything Changed”

ATRIUM BALLROOM
Session I
9:30 am America
Donna Brazile
Campaign Manager, Clinton-Gore 2000; Commentator, CNN, “Inside Politics” and “Late Edition”

Richard Bensinger
Consultant on Organizing, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agricultural Implement Workers of America International Union; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Service Employees International Union; United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America; and Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees

Session II
11:00 am Europe, the Left and Anti-Americanism

Andrei Markovits
Visiting Professor, Harvard; author, The German Left: Red, Green and Beyond; Keynote Speaker, Green Congress, Germany in 2001

Jeffrey Herf
Professor, University of Maryland; author, Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture and Politics in Weimar and the Third Republic, and “A View from the Left; Auschwitz, Munich and Iraq”

Michael Allen
Visiting Fellow, the National Endowment for Democracy; Visiting Scholar, Cornell University’s Institute of Labor Relations; contributor to Renewal, a journal aligned with the Blair wing of the British Labour Party. Session III
1:00 pm Lunch Discussion: “Neo-Social Democracy?”

Penn Kemble
Senior Scholar, Freedom House; Executive Committee, Social Democrats, USA

Session IV
2:30 pm The Middle East: “Terror and Liberalism”

Paul Berman
author, Terror and Liberalism.

“Berman’s latest book ‘Terror and Liberalism,’ is a minor masterpiece of moral seriousness and scholarly research.” --Andrew Sullivan

Saad Ibrahim
Director, Ibn Khaldun Center, Cairo; internationally renowned sociologist and advocate of democracy and human rights. 

Joshua Muravchik
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; author, Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism; Adjunct Scholar, Washington Institute on Near East Policy.

CAPITOL ROOM
4:30 pm Reception

Our reasons for organizing this institute:

• The doors are opening to democracy in the Middle East: a momentous opportunity. The road ahead is beset by terrorists, extremists, repressive governments, and an anti-Americanism that cannot be adequately explained by any of our country’s shortcomings. Nevertheless, this is a time of promise.

• The stand-off at home between those who see government as simply “the problem” and those who reflexively look to government for every solution is giving way. The public wants government to be reformed and modernized, not hacked at or starved out. A revival of creative public policy debate should be possible.

• The importance of the organized labor movement to democracy and a decent livelihood for many of our citizens is not widely understood. We need to explore new ways to strengthen the labor movement, and to win support for it in mainstream civic life.

• Finally, there is today no organizational voice in our public affairs that speaks from the perspective framed above. We need to discuss whether this is a gap that can be filled, and how that might be done. There is a place for an American voice that finds some inspiration in the New Labour of Britain's Tony Blair, some in our own tradition of Eugene Debs, Norman Thomas, Bayard Rustin, Albert Shanker and Sidney Hook.

  We welcome all who share our values and ideas to join us for a day of dialogue about these matters. Space is limited, so please register early. And—most important— do take a moment to suggest others who might contribute to this discussion whose names we may not have. We want to widen the circle.

  Space is limited. To register call: 202-467-0028 or e-mail: info@socialdemocrats.org