FORWARDED:

The following is the most recent draft of our letter describing the 6-hour Berenson/Chomsky/Caldicott/Dugger video, Democracy University Volume 1, available for a donation of $10 or more. Please contact Justicevision at (213) 747-6345 or by e-mail at [log in to unmask] to obtain a copy of this video, to be notified about videos available now or in the future, and if  there is interest, to be part of a Democracy University planning group. Please duplicate and circulate this flier.
Dec.22, 1997

Dear Justicevision Supporter or Other Person of Conscience -
Season's Greetings! Hope all is well. The following message is about a tape we have put together which has Noam Chomsky, Helen Caldicott, Ramsey Clark, Maxine Waters, Ronnie Dugger (founder of the Alliance for Democracy), and the parents of prisoner of conscience Lori Berenson (see below) for a minimum donation of only $10. Let me know if I can put you down for one:
We have had the opportunity to videotape a number of exceptional inter-related events lately, and are making four of them available together on one 6-hour videotape for a minimum pledge of only $10; the sound and picture quality are suitable for showing to groups, for public access programs, and for radio broadcast. The video includes a complete Dec. 5th lecture by Noam Chomsky entitled "Democracy and Markets in the Evolving World Order", a Nov. 18th talk given by Helen Caldicott at the UCLA Medical Center on "The Medical Implications of the Consumption Economy" (our title), and a Nov. 15th program about Lori Berenson, a journalist that while writing about Peru's poor, was accused of sedition, convicted in a closed trial, and given a life sentence, which she is serving in an Andean prison in near freezing conditions. Lori's story is told by former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Congressperson Maxine Waters, and by her parents, Mark and Rhoda Berenson. I'm also including an Oct. 31 interview with Ronnie Dugger, founder of the Alliance for Democracy (a growing grassroots effort to end the domination of the political process by corporations, now with 55 chapters across the country), done at their 2nd Annual National Convention in Atchison, Kansas, along with 20 minutes of performances from that convention by protest singers Jim Bush and Native American Victor McManamy. The music may be worth the $10 by itself.
Dr. Chomsky's lecture took place at the World History Center at Northeastern University in Boston. There were about 75 present, primarily students. His announced topic was "Democracy and Markets in the Evolving World Order", although he touched on a wide range of interesting and current topics, not only during his talk, but also during Q&A and in a followup discussion with one of the seminar's attendees, which is included. The Chomsky portion is 2 hrs. 24 mins. Dr. Helen Caldicott, in addition to discussing the medical effects of consumer goods, discusses the U.S.'s use of depleted uranium artillery weapons in the Gulf War, the sale of 60 nuclear reactors by GE to China, the continuing threat posed by nuclear waste, and the genetic consequences of rising levels of atmosphericly borne plutonium.
We will send a copy of the above described 6-hour video to anyone who pledges to either view and return the videetape or send us a donation  of $10 or more in the envelope we will send along. It is our hope that we can get enough $10 orders to sustain  our effort, because $10 is all many people can afford, and we feel change is only possible democratically if enough people have access to good information. You can help us avoid having to ask more for our tapes by telling others about this effort. 
We do not require a royalty for permission to edit and tapes for use on public access, radio, or etc., and programmers who do may take credit for co-production, but we request fair compensation for our efforts if such funding is available. Please acknowledge us if  you can and provide your audience with a means of contacting us if possible, since our family has no other income besides from the tapes we make. We love to get feedback... please let us know how our tapes are being used.
If you need multiple copies of our tapes, we will make them for you as affordably as we can. We can also make copies in 2-hour mode, S-VHS, or Hi-8; possibly in 3/4 inch as well. Please order by phone or email and send your donation to Justicevision after you receive your videotape, in the envelope we will provide with the tape for that purpose. We will send along our list of available videos, a photocopy of the poster from the Chomsky event, and also printed information about Lori Berenson and how you can get involved in the effort to save her life.
The tape can be requested by calling me at (213) 747-6345 or by e-mail at [log in to unmask] . Be sure to leave a phone number, and your snail mail address where you would like the tape sent. Please forward this message to any friends that may be interested, either in this particular tape or in future announcements. In requesting this tape, you can refer to it as "Democracy University, vol.1", or simply, DU-1. Also, please tell us how our announcements could be made more effective, who we can e-mail announcements to, and where we can post them, and tell us which speakers or which previous events from our list you would like to see in the Democracy University series.
Best Holiday Wishes to your family from ours.
Ralph Cole
Justicevision
P.S.: If this message has reached you via a friend and you have e-mail, please make sure we get your email address so we can contact you directly with future announcements. Also, if you would like to be taken off our email list please let me know.
P.P.S.: I'm hoping that this tape will be the first in a series of tapes of lectures and events on social justice issues from all over, capturing the best of progressive thought, and that in turn it will either inspire or become a real Democracy University. I hope you will help by ordering tape 1, by passing the word along, and by keeping an eye open for events we should cover. Thanks!