When: Thursday, February 5, 6:00 pm

Where: Portland State University; Smith Memorial Student Union Building (SMSU) Multicultural Center, Room 228, 1825 SW Broadway, Portland

 

 

 

This is the little-known story of a people that has dared to fight back against the most powerful economic forces on the planet, told by writers with the courage to dig relentlessly for the truth and the humility to stand back and let their subjects speak for themselves. Enraging, unsparing, inspiring.

”Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine

 

 

As the U.S. enters a new political era, what can we learn from one nations battle to define its own way forward in a globalizing world? 

 

Dignity and Defiance is the story of one country, Bolivia, but it is representative of many countries around the world. The book tells the story of Bolivia's citizen uprisings against the privatization of its natural resources. It travels to jungles and jails to trace the human impact of the U.S. war on drugs. It pedals by bike across the Bolivian highlands to document the disaster left behind by an Enron/Shell oil spill. It digs deep to trace how IMF economic policies led to bloodshed on the steps of the Bolivian Presidential Palace.

 

Dignity and Defiance also tells the story, from the ground up, of how people have fought courageously to keep globalization from swallowing their lives and to make it work to their benefit – as activists, workers, and immigrants. Ultimately the book is a story of inspiration, and it goes to the heart of what has drawn so much global attention to Bolivia. 

Letter from the author, Jim Schulz 

The Democracy Centers new book, Dignity and Defiance, Stories from Bolivias Challenge to Globalization (University of California Press) is now for sale.  We hope that you will buy it and read it!  And the Democracy Center’s U.S. tour for the book – more than 25 events in a dozen cities “ begins next week.  Please come and join us!  Details about how to order the book and where to find us on the book tour are below.  And to our friends in the media, we are happy to do interviews anywhere along the road. 

 

Researching, writing and publishing Dignity and Defiance has been the major work of the Democracy Center for the past three years.  And now we are ready to bring it to you, our friends and readers. In San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Santa Fe, Washington, New York, Boston, Twin Cities, Chicago and other stops along the way, we hope to see many familiar faces and many new ones as well.  Most of the big public events listed below will also feature music, video, and refreshment.  A boring book tour is not what we have planned!

 

We hope to see you soon!

 

Jim Shultz

The Democracy Center