Camden Conference -- Film Screening & Discussion: Beyond Elections

The Camden Conference and the Auburn Public Library invite you to a film screening and discussion of Beyond Elections: Redefining Democracy in the Americas.

"In 1989, the Brazilian Worker's Party altered the concept of local government when they installed participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre, allowing residents to participate directly in the allocation of city funds. Ten years later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was swept into power with the promise of granting direct participation to the Venezuelan people; who have now formed tens of thousands of self-organized communal councils. In the Southern Cone, cooperative and recuperated factory numbers have grown, and across the Americas, social movements and constitutional assemblies are taking authority away from the ruling elites and putting power into the hands of their members and citizens. Featuring interviews with Eduardo Galeano, Amy Goodman, Emir Sader, Martha Harnecker, Ward Churchill, and Leonardo Avritzer as well as cooperative and community members, elected representatives, academics, and activists from Brazil, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, United States, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and more." (from Kanopy.com)

This program will take place in person, in the Androscoggin Community Room.  For our planning purposes, registration is requested.  Register below or call the Reference Desk at 207-333-6640, ext. 4.

The Camden Conference was founded in 1987 as a nonprofit, non-partisan educational organization whose mission is to foster informed discourse on world issues.

The 2025 conference, "Democracy Under Threat:  A Global Perspective" will take place on February 21-23, 2025, and will be in person in Camden, Maine.  This year's conference "...will look at some of the specific drivers that challenge democracies around the world and some of the underlying contributing factors, including mass immigration and the failure of progressive reforms to remedy economic inequality." For more details on this Conference, visit their website at camdenconference.org.