displacement

On Monday November 11th 2009, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that it will abandon its $300 million dollar world research-and-development headquarters in New London CT.  This comes only  four years after a Pfizer-inspired development plan resulted in the landmark Kelo v. New London Supreme Court ruling, which sanctioned the use of eminent domain for private development.

Dear Mandela is a film produced by Christopher Nizza and Dara Kell -- film makers of Sleeping Giant -- about the struggles against displacement by South Africans living in shack settlements. Those of us whoparticipatedin last fall's round of video making classes with Our City Our Voices learned a lot from these film makers and the beauty of this particular film. Together, we also were able to reflect on the conditions in which the shackdwellers both live and struggle and how it relates to our lives in the US.