But I highlight it here, because it is a rare opportunity, especially for young people, to learn about and discuss the right. But it also  offers a model for how other organizations could and should include such information and analyses in their conferences. Something that is rarely done.

Here is how they described last year's event:

From Abortion Rights to Social Justice was a great success! Over 700 students and activists came together at Hampshire College the weekend of April 1-3, 2005, to share their ideas, strategies and passion for building the movement for reproductive freedom at home and abroad. The conference offered over 30 workshops on reproductive rights, abortion access, barriers to health care, LGBTQ rights, anti-violence work, economic and environmental justice, militarism, alternatives to incarceration and other pressing social justice issues. We also presented sessions on youth activism, using the media, international women's health and human rights, community organizing and sexuality education. Speakers came from across the U.S. and from Mexico, Pakistan, India and Nigeria.

The closing plenary "Reclaiming Morality" addressed the Right's strategic use of the language of morality to attack reproductive and civil rights. Six panelists working on reproductive justice, human rights, religious fundamentalism and LGBTQ issues spoke about how they are confronting this challenge and shaping their activism in the face of President Bush's re-election and the influence of powerful conservative political forces

Here is the description of the 2005 workshop on the Right.

Resisting the Right looks at the anti-abortion movement in the U.S. in the context of the broader Right-wing movement and politics. Speakers will give an overview of the Right and address a range of issues including: African Americans and women in the anti-abortion movement; efforts to find "common ground" between abortion rights supporters and their opponents; conservative attacks on LGBTQ communities; and the movement for abstinence-only sex education.

Conference organizer Marlene Gerber Fried told me for an article I wrote about the conference a few years ago:

There are very few places where a young person might get a broad vision of reproductive rights," Fried explains. "If you just focus on abortion, it not only seems so beleaguered, but it is so separated, that you feel you will never win."

Fried says that one of the conference goals is that participants come away "feeling inspired by understanding the need for allies and to create a movement that is capable of winning and expanding women's rights."

The 2006 conference details will be published soon.

[Crossposted at Political Cortex]