On Mon., Mar. 3, Digging Deeper XLII will examine a book on the corporate seizure of water rights:  --  Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke's Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water (New Press, 2002; paperback 2003).  --  More information about the book below.[1]  --  There is no charge for participation and anyone interested is welcome.  --  Digging Deeper meets Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café in Tacoma (but will not meet on Mar. 10 due to a UFPPC-sponsored appearance by antiglobalization author and photojournalist David Bacon at King's Books)....

David Bacon, the noted photographer, journalist, and author, will appear in the 2007-2008 UFPPC Speaker Series at 7:00 p.m. on Mon., Mar. 10, at King’s Books in Tacoma.  --  Bacon is the author of The Children of NAFTA and Communities without Borders.  --  His new book, Illegal — How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants, will be published by Beacon Press in the fall of 2008.  --  More information about David Bacon below.[1]  --  This talk is free and open to the public....

At 7:00 p.m. on Fri., Feb. 29, activist poet David Smith-Ferri will present a multimedia presentation of his encounters with the Iraqi people and the events that have shaped their lives over the past eight years.[1]  --  Last year Smith-Ferri published Battlefield without Borders: Iraq Poems, a volume now in its second edition, and he recently completed a book tour in New England and New York.  --  This event is part of UFPPC's 2007-2008 Speaker Series; it is open to the public and there is no charge for admission....

Beginning on Mon., Feb. 4, Digging Deeper XLI will undertake a four-week exploration of some recent books on sustainability:  --  David Korten's The Great Turning (Berrett-Koehler, 2007);  --  McDonough and Braungart's Cradle to Cradle (North Point, 2002);  --  Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (Penguin, 2006);  --  and Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest (Viking, 2007).  --  More information about the books below.[1]  --  There is no charge for participation and sessions are open to the public.  --  Digging Deeper meets Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café in Tacoma....

On Thurs., Jan. 24, UFPPC's 2007-2008 speaker series will present Gerri Haynes speaking on "Iraq's Refugees."[1]  --  Gerri Haynes is a past president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and has made annual trips to the Middle East since 1993.  --  She recently helped organize and was part of a delegation of eight who visited Syrian citizens and Iraqi refugees in Syria in Damascus, Saydnaya, and Aleppo.  --  POST-EVENT DEBRIEF by Kristi Nebel:   --  Fifty people were in attendance at King’s Bookstore in Tacoma on Jan. 24, 2008, for another in the free speaker series sponsored by United for Peace of Pierce County.  --  The speaker, Gerri Haynes, reported on her many visits to Iraq and most recently, Syria regarding the work of The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which protects and supports refugees and assists in their return or resettlement.  --  Her presentation showed the many nearly overwhelming obstacles in the efforts of the commission.  --  Interspersed with the factual reports were stories of compassion that were her personal rewards in interacting with individual refugees.  --  Her talk included a slide presentation.  --  Steve Nebel, the series facilitator, brought a digital recorder, and the audio recording of the event will be archived to coordinate with the visual presentation, which Gerri Haynes donated to UFPPC.  --  A number of Federal Way residents attended the event.  --  The group raised a total of $250 donated to UNHCR, as suggested by Ms. Haynes; she mentioned the group is currently in need of funds....

Joe La Sac, the UPS student videographer whose right to film Tacoma PMR became a local cause célèbre in March 2007, will speak in Tacoma on Jan. 18.  --  As has been the case for all the events UFPPC's 2007-2008 speaker series, Joe La Sac's talk on "Port Militarization Resistance: What Do These Events Have to Do with Free Speech?" will begin at 7:00 p.m., and will be held at King's Books (218 St. Helen's Ave.).[1]  --  This talk is free and is open to the public.  --  Some of Joe La Sac's videos can be viewed at links posted below....

Beginning on Mon., Jan. 8, David Gilmour (Ph.D., Classics, Univ. of Washington) will lead Digging Deeper XL in a four-week examination of some recent books that draw parallels between the Roman Empire and the United States:  --  Cullen Murphy's Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America (Houghton Mifflin, 2007);  --  Charles S. Maier, Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors (Harvard UP, 2007);  --  Terry Jones’ Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History (BBC Books, 2007);  --  and John Pilger's Freedom Next Time: Resisting the Empire (Nation Books, 2007).  --  There is no charge for participation and sessions are open to the public.  --  Digging Deeper meets Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café in Tacoma....

Digging Deeper XXXIX will examine four recent books on U.S.-Iran relations::  Trita Parsi's Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (Yale UP, 2007); Scott Ritter’s Target Iran: The Truth about the White House’s Plans for Regime Change (Nation Books, 2006); Barbara Slavin’s Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation (St. Martin’s Press, 2007); and Ray Takeyh’s Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Repubilc (Times Books, 2006).  --  Digging Deeper meets Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café in Tacoma....

UFPPC's 2007 speaker series will continue on Fri. evening, Nov. 16, at King's Books in Tacoma, with a talk on "Building an Effective Peace Movement' by Glen Anderson of Olympia.[1]  --  In addition to work with the Olympia chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation, he works with Western Washington FOR, which on Fri., Nov. 9, is holding a fall retreat on "Resisting the War Machine."  --  Glen Anderson hosts Olympia FOR's television program on Thurston Community Television (TCTV — channel 22 or 29 for subscribers, depending on neighborhood), which has been running for more than twenty years, and has also been a leader of an opposition group Thurston Jail Alternatives.  --  Anderson's UFPPC-sponsored talk at King's book on Nov. 16 is free and open to the public....