Drug War Capitalism Portland Book Launch

Drug War CapitalismPORTLAND NOV 17th @ 5pm: Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 296 – and – NOV 18th 7pm: Reading Frenzy, 3628 N Mississippi Ave

Join journalist Dawn Paley on tour with her new AK Press book Drug War Capitalism that explores and exposes many myths and realities of people facing the violence from increasing corporate, government and cartel collusion.

 

Synopsis:

Drug wars are good business.

Though pillage, profit, and plunder have been a mainstay of war since precolonial times, there is little contemporary focus on the role of finance and economics in today’s “Drug Wars”—despite the fact that they boost US banks and fill prisons with poor people. They feed political campaigns, increase the arms trade, and function as long-term fixes to capitalism’s woes, cracking open new territories to privatization and foreign direct investment.

Combining on-the-ground reporting with extensive research, Dawn Paley moves beyond the usual horror stories, beyond journalistic rubbernecking and hand-wringing, to follow the thread of the Drug War story throughout the entire region of Latin America and all the way back to US boardrooms and political offices. This unprecedented book chronicles how terror is used against the population at large in cities and rural areas, generating panic and facilitating policy changes that benefit the international private sector, particularly extractive industries like petroleum and mining. This is what is really going on. This is drug war capitalism.

Dawn Paley is a freelance journalist who has been reporting from South America, Central America, and Mexico for over ten years. Her writing has been published in the Nation, the Guardian, Vancouver Sun , Globe and Mail, Ms. Magazine, the Tyee, Georgia Straight, and NACLA, among others.

Tour dates:

SAN FRANCISCO
November 15 at 11am: Howard Zinn Bookfair @ Mission High School, 3750 18th Street, San Francisco
More info at http://howardzinnbookfair.com/

PORTLAND
November 17 at 5pm: Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union (SMSU) 296
http://www.facebook.com/events/543086809160084/

November 18 at 7pm: Reading Frenzy, 3628 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR
Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/688662534581314/

OLYMPIA
November 20 at 7pm: Orca Books, 509 W. 4th Street, Olympia, WA
More info at http://www.orcabooks.com/…/thursday-november-20th-700pm-daw…

SEATTLE
November 23 at 6:30pm: Left Bank Books, 92 Pike St., Seattle, WA
Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/1559096520969217/

VANCOUVER
November 25 at 7pm: 38 Blood Alley Square, Vancouver, BC
Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/837201479665137/

November 26 at 7pm (with Julián Cardona): SFU, Harbour Centre RM 7000, Vancouver, BC

November 27 at 4pm (with Julián Cardona): UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues, Case Room, Vancouver, BC
More information at http://juanitasundberg.wordpress.com/november-workshop-on-…/