The conference is timely indeed. As William Ayers and Mike Ferner remind us, the No Child Left Behind Act, as well as chronic unequal school funding and high youth unemployment, has made schools "a battlefield for hearts and minds."

Other speakers at the conference include Michael Zweig, David Bacon, and Vickie Castro (whose only child, Cpl. Jonathan Castro, age 21, was killed in Mosul, Iraq on December 21, 2004).

Bacon will give a PowerPoint presentation on the state of Iraqi labor.

Workers at the State Leather Industry Factory, the largest shoe factory in the Middle East. Photo by David Bacon. A worker on an injection molding machine for plastic bottles, in the Mamoun Vegetable Oil Factory. Photo by David Bacon.

The furnace tender in front of the furnaces for the boilers of the power plant in the Al Daura refinery. Photo by David Bacon. Unemployed men demonstrate outside the office of a contractor who had promised them work. Photo by David Bacon.

At the conference, you'll also have a chance to see Barbara Trent's work in progress Soldiers Speak Out, as well as Arlington West (Dirs. Sally Marr and Peter Dudar), Sir! No Sir! (Dir. David Zeiger) , and The Oil Factor (Dirs. Gerard Ungerman and Audrey Brohy).

Soldiers Speak Out Sir! No Sir! The Oil Factor

Soldiers Speak Out Arlington West The Oil Factor

There is no registration fee -- attend the conference, network with other activists, and consider making a donation to Students and Educators to Stop the War.