Alternative Careers Fair: Appendix J

ALTERNATIVE CAREERS FAIR: STUDENT ORGANIZING GUIDE

APPENDIX J: POTENTIAL KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Speakers' Bureaus

Speak Out! South End Press, 116 St. Botolph Street, Boston, MA 02115; (617) 266-0629.
A new political speakers' bureau which includes U.S. foreign policy critics Noam Chomsky and Edward Hemman, Native American activists Ward Churchill and Winona LaDuke, peace organizers Daniel Ellsberg and Leslie Cagan, African-American activist Stokely Carmichael, labor leaders and labor writers, poets, citizen organizers, professors, economists and environmentalists.

Jodi F. Solomon Speakers Bureau, 281 Huntington Avenue, Suite 112, Boston, MA 02115, (617) 227-1600, or 1-800-669-2857.
Speakers on cultural awareness, economics, education, the environment, current issues, political issues, social focus, journalism and more.

K & S Speakers, 875 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, (617) 876-8090, or 1-800-762-4234.
Speakers include Dr. Helen Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility and founder of Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament, on "Environmentalism, Global Harmony and Citizen Action!;" Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, on "Current Events and Foreign Affairs;" Noam Chomsky on "Politics and Linguistics;" Howard Zinn, historian and author of A People's History of the United States, a chronicle of America's grassroots movements and of the political lives of ordinary people; and more.

Committee on Common Security, Institute for Peace and International Security, 91 Harvey Street, Cambridge, MA 02140-1718, (617) 547-3338.
The Committee's 120+ members form an informal speakers' bureau. Members include Heather Booth, founder of Citizen Action; Bella Abwg; Richard Barnet and Marcus Raskin of the Institute for Policy Studies; Gloria Steinem; Joseph Lowery of the Southem Christian Leadership Conference; Alice Tepper Marlin of the Council on Economic Priorities; and Victor Navasky of The Nation. Contact the Committee for full members list and contact information.

The following are well-known progressives who would be excellent speakers at social change career days.

Ralph Nader - consumer advocate.
Contact: Katie Desmond, American Program Bureau, Riverbend Office Park, 9 Galen Street, Watertown, MA 02172; 1-800 2254575 or (617) 926 0600. Speaks on college campuses regularly.

Barry Commoner - scientist and environmentalist who advocates renewable energies. His books include The Closing Circle, The Poverty of Power, and most recently, Making Peace with the Planet.
Contact: Sharon Peyser, Council for the Biology of Natural Systems (CBNS), Queens College, Flushing, NY 11367; (718) 6704182. Regular speaking fee is $5,000, negotiable. Speaks on college campuses frequently.

Jesse Jackson - president and founder of the National Rainbow Coalition; progressive politician.
Contact: Lorraine Westbrook or Myra Outlaw, National Rainbow Coalition, 1110 Vermont Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 728-1180. Regular speaking fee ranges $10-20,000, negotiable. Send request in writing. Works with students regularly.

Frances Moore Lappe - director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First; works through her writing and activism to dispel popular myths about the causes of hunger, poverty and environmental degradation. She is the author of many books, including Diet for a Small Planet and, most recently, Rediscovering America's Values, about deepening democratic values and institutions.
Contact: Frances Moore Lappe, 5934 Ayala Street, Oakland, CA 94610; (415) 453-3333.

Lois Gibbs - citizen organizer at Love Canal; founder and director of the Citizens' Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes (CCHW) to help form and strengthen grassroots groups to fight toxic polluters.
Contact: Deborah Carpenter, CCHW, P.O. Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040; (703) 237-2249. Usually speaks for free; you must pay any travel and accomodation expenses involved.

Peter Bahouth - director of Greenpeace.
Contact: Peter Bahouth, Greenpeace, 1436 U Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009; (202) 462-1177. His schedule only permits a few speaking engagements a year. Greenpeace associates are often recommended to speak in his stead. Speakers are usually free.

Faye Wattleton - president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Contact: Send a letter of invitation to Faye Wattleton, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 810 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10019; (212) 541-7800. State the type of event Quncheon, evening lecture, etc.), date, time and place, the anticipated size of the audience and whether the event is open to the public. Regular speaking fee is $5,000 negotiable.

Alexander Cockburn - columnist and writer for The Nation, In These Times, New Statesman and Society, the L.A. Weekly, the Wall Street Journal and Interview; author of Corruptions of Empire and co-author of The Fate of the Forest.
Contact: Richard McKerrow, The Nation, 72 fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011, (212) 242-8400. Speaking fees negotiable.

Gail Cincotta - director of National People's Action and community activist working against the discriminatory practices of banks, insurance companies and real estate agents in low-income, racially diverse neighborhoods and for equal access to quality education and housing.
Contact: National Training and Information Center, 810 North Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago, IL 606224103, (312) 243-3035.

Jeremy Rifkin - grassroots activist, economist and critic of the genetic engineering and other synthetic technologies.
Contact: Jennifer Beck, The Foundation on Economic Trends, 1130 17th Street, NW, Suite 630, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 466-2823. Regular speaking fee is S5,000 negotiable.

Fred Wertheimer - director of Common Cause, the national citizens lobby that works to make government at the national and state levels more open and accountable to citizens.
Contact: Colleen O'Day, Common Cause, 2030 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 8331200. Speaking engagements are infrequent; no charge.

Timothy Smith - executive director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), which works to reform corporate conduct on issues such as toxic waste disposal, employment discrimination, investments in South Africa and Chile, redlining and urban reinvestment.
Contact: ICCR, 475 Riverside Drive, #566, New York, NY 10115, (212) 870-2316.

Marcus Raskin - co-founder, Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal center for research, education and social invendon, sponsoring analysis of U.S. policy and proposing alternative strategies.
Contact: Joan Drake, IPS, 1601 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009, (202) 234-9382. Speaking fee is $2,000 negodable.

Eleanor Smeal - founder and president, the Fund for the Feminist Majority, a national organization dedicated to eliminating sex discrimination and to the promotion of equality, women's rights and a feminist agenda.
Contact: Charlie Smeal, Fund for the Feminist Majority, 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 704, Arlington, VA 22209, (703) 522-2214. Speaking fee is $5,000 plus expenses, negodable.

Cesar Chavez - president of United Farm Workers of America, which works to end exploitation of farm workers. Mr. Chavez began the ongoing boycott of California table grapes to reestablish free and fair elections and good faith bargaining for grape workers and to call for a ban on cancer-causing pesticides used on the grapes.
Contact: Public Action Speaking Tour, c/o District Council 1707, 75 Barick Street, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10013, (212) 219 0022; or Roberto de la Cruz, 15 Woodside Avenue, Cranford, NJ 07016, (201) 272-6977. Speaking fee is $5,000 plus expenses for two people. Mr. Chavez speaks frequently on campuses, and helps students organize this and further campus activities around the boycott.

Joseph Lowery - president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization that aims to provide moral and spiritual leadership and stimulate mass involvement of people in the struggle against racial oppression.
Contact: Reverend Osbome, Southem Christian T Eldership Conference, 334 Auburne Avenue. Atlanta, GA 30303. Speaking fee is $3500 negodable.

Sayre Sheldon - president emeritus, Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament; author, lecturer and activist.
Contact: Sayre P. Sheldon, 14 Fayette Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, (617) 492-1697. Travel expenses; no speaking fee. ~

Heather Booth - director, the Coalition for Democratic Values; president, Midwest Academy, a training school for organizers and activists; and past president of Citizen Action.
Contact: Heather Booth, Coalition for Democratic Values, 1007 Ripley Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910, (301) 589-6082. Regular speaking fee is $3,000, but based on the group and location, she will sometimes speak for expenses orgy.

Marian Wright Edelman - director, Children's Defense Fund, a research and advocacy organization working on behalf of poor, minority and disabled children.
Contact: Brenda Payne, Children's Defense Fund, 122 C Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; (202) 628-8787. Speaking fee is negodable, and paid as a donation to CDF.

[BACK TO CAREERS CONTENTS]