Conference to focus on social change

Progressive social change — and the strategies necessary to accomplish it — will be the focus of an all-day conference Saturday, Feb. 14, at the University of Utah.

"Change Is in the Air: How to Re-Kindle the Mass Movement" will feature local activists including former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, environmental activist Tim DeChristopher and anti-war activist Diana Lee Hirschi.

The event begins with a screening Friday, Feb. 13, of "Battle in Seattle," about the 1999 protest at the site of the World Trade Organization ministerial meetings. Paul Bigman, one of the organizers of that protest, will attend the Salt Lake conference.

Saturday sessions will include "Activism in the Mormon Community," a panel on strategy and tactics and a Brown Berets session on immigrant rights. For a full schedule of events go to utahjwj.org/hpmc/winter-conference.html.

The screening of "Battle in Seattle" begins at 7 p.m. Friday in the Orson Spencer Hall auditorium on the U. campus. Saturday's sessions will be at OSH and at the Union Building.

The event is sponsored by Utah Jobs With Justice and other local groups that have banded together as a coalition called the Healthy Planet Mobilization Committee.

— Elaine Jarvik