A teach-in and a protest meeting have certain features in common. In each case the topic for discussion is one on which there is considerable controversy. A teach-in, however, differs from a public protest meeting in that various political viewpoints are represented both among the speakers and those attending, and the speakers may be high-level specialists on the subject or otherwise regarded as especially able to provide not only a capable presentation of their own attitude on the issue, but important factual and background information relevant to the issue. Teach-ins may thus have a larger number of speakers and extend for longer periods of time than ordinary meetings.
Their aim, also, is not simply protest--although the holding of a teach-in on a topic of important public controversy recognizes the existence of differing views on the issue and provides a platform for all of these. An important aim of a teach-in is to provide the opportunity for people to hear various viewpoints and obtain relevant information in order to be able to make up their own minds. Confrontation of opposing viewpoints, questioning of the speakers, and discussion from the floor constitute important aspects of a teach-in.
The latest application of this approach:
What is badly needed is an immediate answer to the President's Commission and the [Peter G. Peterson Foundation “Fiscal Summit”]. Our answer is entitled the Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In Counter-conference. We plan to hold it in Washington DC, on April 28, 2010, from 8:30 to 5 PM, at a venue still to be decided upon, and to make it a free event open to the public. The purpose of our conference and teach-in is to look at fiscal sustainability relative to public purpose, including full employment, and also to teach the new economic paradigm of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and its application to fiscal sustainability. We want to propagate an alternative message about what fiscal sustainability means, and to do that in the mainstream mass media, and in the blogosphere, on the same day as the Peterson Foundation Conference.
I hope somebody takes good notes. I've been meaning to address Vermont's "Challenges for Change"
and using our rainy day fund(s), amongst other things, and I'm sure
there will be some good stuff at this counter-conference that would
help me. Hinthint.
ntodd
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