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Peoples' Summit List of Speakers

Jim Ferlo

A member of the Pennsylvania State Senate who has represented the 38th Senatorial District since 2003, Ferlo was born to Italian immigrant parents in the small upstate town of Rome, and credits part of his legislative effectiveness as being one of ten siblings.

Jihan Gearon

Diné (Navajo) and African American, Gearon is Tódích'ií'nii (Bitter Water) clan, and her maternal grandfather is Tl'ashchí'í (Red Bottom People) clan. Jihan's family is from the community of Old Sawmill and she grew up and went to high school close by in Fort Defiance, located on the eastern part of the Navajo reservation in Arizona.

Jeremy Scahill

An American investigative journalist with expertise on a number of global issues, reporting from post-invasion Iraq; the former Yugoslavia, where he covered the 1999 NATO bombing; and from post-Katrina Louisiana.

James Quilligan

An analyst and administrator in the field of international development since 1975, Quilligan served as policy advisor and writer for many international politicians & leaders, such as Pierre Trudeau, François Mitterrand, Edward Heath, Julius Nyerere, Lopez Portillo Olaf Palme, & others.

Howard Zinn

Zinn is an internationally renowned U.S. historian, political scientist, social critic and playwright, most well known for his best-selling A People's History of the United States oritinally published in 1980 (which, according to the New York Times, "routinely sells more than 100,000 copies a year”).

Carl Redwood

Carl Redwood, Jr. currently serves as convener of the Hill District Consensus Group and was Chairperson of the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement Coalition. Carl is a social worker and has participated in various community organizing efforts on the local, national and international levels.

Benedicto Martínez Orozco

Benedicto Martinez Orozco is a nationally elected co-president of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT). One of the only independent labor federations in Mexico, the FAT is composed of labor unions, worker owned cooperatives, and farmworker and community organizations.

Anthony Arnove

Author of Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal (2006), and co-editor with Howard Zinn of Voices of a People’s History of the United States (2004).

Anna Pinto

Secretary and Program Director of CORE (Center for Organization, Research and Education), an indigenous peoples' policy research and advocacy organization based in the North East of India, Pinto has also been an active member of the Indian Women's Movement for over two decades. She has contributed to the establishment, initiation and work of many women's groups in New Delhi.