The Vortex: The Concentrated Racial Impact of Drug Imprisonment and the Characteristics ofPunitive Counties

Justice Policy Institute has issued a report on racial disparities for drug offenses (Dec. 2007).

My Way News - FBI Reviewing Anti-Jena 6 Web Page

Building the Freedom School

From Becca Reily, Augsburg Student and TCUSSF member:

BUILDING THE FREEDOM SCHOOL

To make a space for tolerant, uncriticizing political exploration, to open up to totally new ideas and concerns that would not be heard in anun-egalitarian setting, to connect people to resources and events that could help them act towards their political ideal, to energize and appreciate everyone who hopes that their ideals are just several possible steps away, and to help and inspire everyone without that hope,
Coalition for Student Activism (CSA) will host at least one large, open, egalitarian discussion on the Augsburg
campus.

This is partly modeled after the US social Forum, which had no agenda but a schedule with time slots. The 10,000+ people who came, brought their own activist agendas to fill the time slots of those 5 days, in which they found their own space in Atlanta and their own workshop resources. (http://ussf2007.org)

But CSA will reserve a space at Augsburg, fill it with tables and refreshments, and post a few rules for discussion at the tables, and bring moderation to the discussion after 45 minutes or so of unmoderated mingling. (More than mingling,
surely!) CSA also encourages radical self-expression here.

The loose focus of the first discussion is very relevant to both college and lifelong learners: What would the ideal school or college be like? How can individuals, schools, and society move towards that?

If this interests you at all, please come envision the new Freedom School with us!
If you are part of anything that's already moving toward your ideal school, feel
free to bring publicity materials to the Resource Table at the discussion! Bring
your whole group, if you have one, and all your friends! But, whether coming
alone or with others, please be ready to meet and sit with strangers, who may be
very different from you, but are all coming to our tables in peace.
Below you will find the rules that CSA and other organizers are working on, to
ensure peaceful talking circles. Anyone interested can help organize this. We
welcome your input on the rules before the big meeting we're hosting-- so you
can revise them with us-- but we hope that everyone who comes can abide by the
rules in their latest revision.
We look forward to hearing your views on freedom, peace, and the ideal School!

Rules so far:
Start discussion yourself
Be inclusive, open to other's points
Question points, don't attack people or push them into idealogical categories
Respectfully answer or decline others' questions
Make sure everyone at your table gets to speak

Local Artist/Activist Potluck

LOCAL ARTIST/ACTIVIST POTLUCK
Saturday Sept. 22nd 5:30pm-9:30pm
Kuftinec/Arsham home 3426 Grand Ave. S. Minneaoplis (612-870-4736)
(Come anytime. Please bring food/beverage if you can.)

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (www.ptoweb.org) will be having a board retreat in Minneapolis Sept. 21-23rd. The Board will be discussing, in part, the possibility of relocating the organization to the Twin Cities. PTO would like local input and to meet with area activists and artists focused on social justice. This is an open invitation to bring a dish and/or beverage to the home of Sonja Kuftinec and Andy Arsham to meet with board members and with each other. The evening will include some low-impact relation-building activities / documents such as a networking map, but mostly time to meet with the board and others focused on social justice arts and education, and share your thoughts and ideas informally. Those who will be honoring Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, are welcome to break fast with us after sunset.

Please bring flyers and information about organizations and upcoming events and spread the word to others you think might be interested.

Potluck for anti-racist white folks

hello friends,

potluck dinner - mon. . sept 10 - 6 -8 pm - PROMPT
home of lisa albrecht and pat rouse
4721 14 ave. s., mpls.
home phone - 612 824 6261
meeting faciliated by Emily Lindell & Lisa Albrecht

in conjunction with the twin cities USSF group, a group of white
antiracist activists/organizers are meeting to discuss how best to work
for racial justice while being accountable to people of color and each
other.

this is an open potluck, however, our goal is to engage seriously and
constructively with each other about our work with our white brothers and
sisters and with communities of color. please join us if you are interested
in: **building our local capacity to resist racism/white supremacy and
**increasing our effectiveness as allies and organizers in movements to
transform the twin cities and the world.

Please bring a dish to share and RSVP to lisa - lalbrech@umn.edu.



Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D.
Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Distinguished Professor of Teaching
School of Social Work
193 Peters Hall
St. Paul, MN. 55108
612 624 3669

Social Justice Minor - http://ssw.che.umn.edu/Programs/socialjustice.html

Book reveals Bush's bouts of crying, ghostly visions

Book reveals Bush's bouts of crying, ghostly visions

Local Food Access Tues.

Common Roots Cafe is teaming up with IATP to host a series of Local Food Access Discussions. Along with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy we will address some concerns within our diverse communities, including:

The lack of EBT/WIC at farmers markets (only one in the state of MN-Midtown Farmers Market on Lake St), how to increase awareness and participation from communities of color, and communities not traditionally at the table on food issues, what do we want/need more of in our community and of course- increase awareness of local food system in regards to health/wellness.

Community activists, community or organization leaders, those working with food and health issues, and people directly related to food accessibility issues are invited to join in the discussion. There is no long-term commitment to this group, but we hope that we can start a public dialogue that will influence positive changes in our community.


We are scheduled to hold our first meeting Tuesday, September 4th at 4pm at Common Roots Cafe.


You do not need to prepare anything, just show up! We'll be discussing your observations, concerns, and hopes for food access and local foods in relation to your community. A few appetizers will be available. Please forward this to people you know who may be interested, but RSVP so we can look for you!

Together we can strengthen our communities and implement a healthier food system.
We hope to see you on Tuesday!



Monique Askew, Common Roots Café

Carla Kaiser, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

If you have questions or ideas, you can reach Monique Askew at monique@commonrootscafe.com (612-871-2360), or Carla Kaiser at ckaiser@iatp.org (612-870-3432)

I look forward to seeing you soon!

Please support UM workers strike -- events Weds & Thurs!

Sisters and Brothers:

I am glad to have reconnected with some of you and to have met some of you for the first time. There are others of you, obviously, whom I look forward to meeting. I wanted to encourage you to get involved in solidarity work on behalf of the University of Minnesota workers who are on the verge of an historic strike. For the first time, all four AFSCME locals are standing strong together. They are demanding wage and benefit increases that would enable them to maintain their standard of living,in the face of University management offers of a 2.5% increase. These workers, more than three quarters of whom are women, have been falling behind the cost of living, on the one hand, and well behind the compensation provided for administrators and faculty, on the other, despite their unionized status, since the early 1990s. They could well be poster children for the impact of neoliberalism, yet they are standing up now as poster children of the resistance to neoliberalism.

This struggle is an important opportunity for all of us to say NO! to further cuts in higher education, NO! to the corporatization and privatization of higher education, NO! to the protection of privilege which has shaped institutions like the University of Minnesota (and my own Macalester College) for far too long. It is important for a broad-based movement to cohere around these workers who are prepared to strike. Please come to this rally, come to the solidarity committee meetings on Saturday mornings (which are very action-oriented), and hit the uworkers website for more info. Thanks.

Love and Solidarity,
Peter Rachleff

Countdown to Strike

SUPPORT U of M WORKERS BANNERING IN SOLIDARITY!

Wednesday August 29, 2007 4:30–6 pm

Washington Ave. & Union St.
University of Minnesota, East Bank Campus, Minneapolis

Four AFSCME Locals (3260, 3800, 3801, 3937) representing 3,500 campus workers in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Crookston and Duluth voted last Thursday to authorize a strike. Come to the Wednesday, August 29 bannering to show campus and community solidarity with the AFSCME workers and to call on the University administration to offer them a fair contract.

Initiated by the U of M Strike Support Committee www.uworkers.org (612) 234-8774

Join us on Saturdays at 10 am at Strike Support Headquarters in the University Baptist Church,1219 University Avenue SE

PLEASE ALSO ATTEND:
Solidarity Rally will be held at Noon on Thursday, August 30, 2007 on the front steps of Morrill Hall on the U of M East Bank Campus.

Court of Women website is up

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to let you know that the Court of Women website is up and
the web address is http://courtofwomen.bravehost.com

We also have a Court of Women email address courtofwomen@gmail.com

The website will be maintained and we intend to add subsequent testimonies and other documents as they come in. We will be adding links to other websites such as the ACLU Women's Rights Project testimonies on the incarcerated girls in Texas prisons and more on Jessica Lenahan [Gonzales].

We will be linking to the "Feminism: Gender, Race and Class workshop without walls" that was organized by Theresa El Amin at the USSF and also the Women's Working Group website when they are both up.

If you have ideas of other links that you think the Court of Women should have please let me know. (Also, if you notice any mistakes please let me know as well. The texts have been proofread several times but mistakes seem to have resilience.)

There were no written testimonies furnished for the Gulf Coast Crisis session so we are impeded here but I have some to add that were sent to me recently from people who did not testify at the Court but which are still important to document on the website. I am expecting Loretta's Concluding Statement soon and will add that as soon as I receive it. You may notice that there are no written statements from Margaret on the Criminal [In]Justice System session so we will have a gap here. We are continuing to work on the site and if you have any questions or comments please let me know either at courtofwomen@gmail.com

We are also continuing work on the Court of Women documentary video and will let you know when this is ready, but that will be a while yet.

Pat

World March of Women USA

Hello World March of Women USA,

We are starting to organize the World March of Women in the U.S. This email list comes from the World March of Women workshops at the USSF on "Change Women's Lives, Change the World", and the Women's Introduction to the USSF. If you do not want to be on this list please let me know and I will remove you.

Being connected to the World March of Women connects us to women in 163 countries and over 5000 other feminist organizations and individuals around the world. This is a connection we sorely need in the U.S. as we must be in solidarity with our sisters around the world if we are to change the world for the betterment of all of us, but especially women.

One of the first things we need to think about is what will our WMW-USA action for 2010 be. While this is a good way off still, we need to think about it so that we can begin planning. We are spread across the U.S. and so we have to consider how we will do this and what. Nkenge Toure has made two suggestions which are a Court of Women and efforts directed toward the ratification of CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women). She also suggested that we could combine these efforts, that is have the Court sessions directed toward the discriminations the treaty addresses. The action[s] need to take place between March and October 2010 so we have a good six month period for either multiple actions on the part of the entire WMW-USA (depending on our energy) and/or individual organizations affiliated with the March, which all of your organizations should be as well as individuals and you can do this at http://www.worldmarchofwomen.org/membres/devenez_membre/cmicarticle.2005-12-16.3499609806/en
or go to http://www.worldmarchofwomen.org/index_html/en?set_language=en and scroll down on the left to Become a Member.

We also need to create a WMW-USA Coordinating Body. We will be deciding on what this body will do and this will become evident as we proceed with creating our WMW presence in the U.S. Those of you who would like to be part of this in some way please email me and we can start the processes. A great deal of interest in the March was expressed during the workshop and there are many different levels of participation, so you and your organizations can engage as you see fit. Your ideas and activism are what will make the March in the U.S. a vital part of the World March of Women.

We have an email address which is WMW.USA@gmail.com (caps not necessary). This will soon be posted on the WMW website.

Pat Willis

Navy Divers Describe Dangers at Bridge - washingtonpost.com

Navy Divers Describe Dangers at Bridge - washingtonpost.com

Minneapolis Police Department:Blacks need not apply, by Ron Edwards

Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

Private contractors nearly outnumber soldiers in Iraq War

Washington Post: Private military contractors a US 'crutch' in Iraq

Padilla conviction bad omen for justice in America

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18208.htm.

Convicting Padilla: Bad News for All Americans

By Dave Lindorff

08/18/07 "ICH" -- - With habeas corpus a thing of the past, with arrest and detention without charge permitted, with torture and spying without court oversight all the rage, with prosecutors free to tape conversations between lawyers and their clients, and with the judicial branch now infested by rightwing judges who would have been at home in courtrooms of the Soviet Union or Hitler's Germany, for all they seem to care about common law tradition, the only real thing holding the line against absolute tyranny in the U.S. has been the jury.

Now, with Jose Padilla--a US citizen who was originally picked up and held incommunicado on a military base for three and a half years, publicly accused (though never charged) with planning to construct and detonate a so-called "dirty" nuclear device (this a guy without a high school education!), all based upon hearsay, evidence elicited by torture, and a few overheard wiretapped conversations where prosecutors claimed words like "zucchini" were code for explosive devices-convicted on a charge of "planning to murder," we see that juries in this era of a bogus "war on terror" are ready to believe anything.

That last line of defense-the common sense or ordinary citizens in a jury box-is gone too.

The jury in this case apparently accepted the government's contention that Padilla was a member of Al Qaeda, and had returned from a trip to Pakistan full of plans to wreak mayhem on his own country. They cared not a whit for the fact that the government had used methods against Padilla (three years of isolation and total sensory deprivation that had driven him insane) which would have made medieval torturers green with envy. They cared not a whit that there was no real evidence against Padilla.

This was, in the end, a case that most closely resembled the famous Saturday Night Live skit in which witches were dunked underwater to "prove" whether they were in fact witches, and where if they drowned, they were found to be innocent. In the end, Padilla's jury simply bought the government's wild and wild-eyed story. They decided he hadn't drowned, so he must be guilty.

Padilla can now expect to spend what's left of his life in prison. Since the government has already driven him insane, he will have the added burden of being mentally unbalanced from the outset of his incarceration. His survival prospects are not good.

The president promptly thanked the jury for their "good judgment."

We can no doubt expect many more Padillas now that the way has been paved for this kind of totalitarian approach to law enforcement.

Beginning today, we can expect the government to begin arresting people on an array of trumped-up charges, locking them away in black sites, on military bases, or maybe even overseas, subjecting them to all manner of torture, and then finally bringing them to trial on trumped-up charges. We can also expect juries, made fearful by breathless warnings that "evil ones" mean us and our nation harm, to buy the government's stories.

Who is at risk? That's hard to say, but it's clear that it won't just be hardened terrorist types. A presidential executive order signed by Bush on July 17 declares that anything that "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction (sic) and political reform (sic) in Iraq" could be deemed a crime making the perpetrator subject to arrest. Would writing essays critical of the president, the war in Iraq, or the "reconstruction" effort in Iraq meet that standard? Who knows? Would being interviewed for commentary as part of a news story on English-language Al Jezeera TV (which Bush and Cheney have declared to be supportive of the Iraqi insurgency, and which Bush reportedly at one point considered bombing!)?

And how about anti-war protesters? We already have Washington, DC, under pressure from Homeland Security, threatening the organization World Can't Wait with multiple $10,000 fines for posting flyers around the city announcing an anti-war march and rally on September 15. If they go ahead with the protest, will they be joining Padilla?

I have little doubt that this administration would love to lock up journalistic critics and protesters in military brigs, so the question is: how would juries respond to charges that American journalists and protesters against the war were treacherously undermining the Bush war effort?

I used to be confident that most juries would laugh such cases out of court. After the Padilla decision, I'm not so sure.

You want to think that your fellow citizens have at least some measure of common sense, but this case suggests otherwise--that they are easily frightened, gullible, and willing to believe the most fantastic claims of the government.

The future does not look good for freedom in America.

Dave Lindorff's newest book is "The Case for Impeachment", co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.

Mpls to Host 2008 National Conference for Media Reform

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
AUGUST 17, 2007
9:51 AM

CONTACT: Free Press
Jen Howard, press@freepress.net, (202) 265-1490, x22


Minneapolis to Host 2008 National Conference for Media Reform
June 6-8 Event to Focus National Spotlight on Media Reform Movement

WASHINGTON - AUGUST 17 - Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform
group, today announced that the fourth National Conference for Media Reform
will be held on June 6-8, 2008, in Minneapolis. Thousands of activists,
artists, policymakers, journalists and concerned citizens from all 50 states
are expected to attend the conference -- the only national event devoted
exclusively to reforming the media.

"Through the tremendous activism of millions of everyday citizens, media is
rapidly becoming an unavoidable political issue," said Robert W. McChesney,
president and co-founder of Free Press. "The National Conference for Media
Reform is about harnessing this expanding movement and going on offense to
create a better media system."

The National Conference for Media Reform will focus the national spotlight
on issues like media consolidation, public media, quality journalism and the
future of the Internet.

The Minneapolis event will build on the success of last year's conference in
Memphis, which was attended by nearly 3,500 media reformers who participated
in more than 100 interactive panels and workshops. They drew inspiration
from rousing speeches by headliners Bill Moyers, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jane
Fonda, Geena Davis and Danny Glover. Previous conferences were held in St.
Louis and Madison, Wis.

"People from all walks of life understand that fixing the problems of the
media is the first step toward progress on any issue we care about," said
Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press. "After years of fighting to
prevent a bad system from getting worse, this conference can focus on
pushing reforms that will create the kind of open and democratic media this
country needs."

For more information, visit www.freepress.net/conference.

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the
media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and
independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to
communications. Learn more at www.freepress.net

Black Power, Black Feminism: Call for Proposals

Call for Proposals
Tenth Annual Women’s History Month Conference
Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY
Friday–Saturday March 7-8, 2008

Black Power, Black Feminism: Black Women’s Activism and Development of Womanist/Feminist Consciousness in the Era Black Power.

Keynote Speaker: Chana Kai Lee, author of For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer

Traditionally scholarship on the Black Power era has characterized this time of renewed cultural and political nationalism and activism as an almost exclusively male domain.

This has begun to change. Not only have scholars uncovered a long tradition of black women’s activism before and during the Black Power era, but they have begun reevaluating the entire era as a result. Part and parcel with this period of activism has been the development of a Black feminist consciousness. If scholars have seen the seeds of this consciousness far earlier, the sixties and seventies were notable for organizing that recognized inextricable and complicated ties between categories of race class and gender.

This conference seeks to sustain and enhance new scholarship that redefines the era, bringing the work and effort of women to the center.

We invite scholars, artists, writers, and activists to submit proposals for papers, readings, workshops, and performances. Proposals for full panels are especially welcomed.

Topics may include but are not limited to:
Women’s local and national grassroots organizing
Women in the Black Arts Movement
Women and Nationalism
Women’s participation in Black Power organizations
Revolutionary Black Feminism
Coalition building amongst women of color
Legacies of Black feminist organizing: third wave and hip hop feminism

Please send a brief abstract and c.v./resume to:
Tara James
Women’s History Graduate Program
Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, NY 10708
Phone: 914-395-2405 Fax: 914-395-2663
Email: tjames@mail.slc.edu
(email submissions are preferred)

Deadline: December 1, 2007

Submissions needed for new RJ Briefing Book

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As many of you are aware, the Reproductive Justice Briefing Book has been an invaluable resource for activists and other allies. Thanks to the support of the Third Wave Foundation and Ms. Foundation for Women, we are accepting new submissions for inclusion in the newest online version to launch in the fall. You can access the current version at: http://www.sistersong.net/documents/RJBriefingBook.pdf

If you would like to contribute to this amazing resource, please forward a brief (300-500 word) essay about the particular issue you are focusing on (making sure that you connect it to reproductive justice). Please include resources such as books, organizations, websites, etc. that activists can refer to if they would like more information on your issue area.

Please forward your submissions to aimeet@protectchoice.org by September 15th.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In solidarity,
Aimee
Aimee R. Thorne-Thomsen, MPA
Executive Director
Pro-Choice Public Education Project
PO Box 3952
New York, NY 10163
aimeet@protectchoic e.org
212-397-8769

He wasn't my king | | Guardian Unlimited Arts

Shreveport weather stormtracker KSLA News 12 ArkLaTex Ark-La-Tex Doppler Texarkana Bossier MarshallHomeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Un

Homeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever Declared

From the National Planning Committee of the USSF 2007

Dear USSF 2007 Participant:

Thank you for making the United States Social Forum a huge success! It was thousands of people from all different communities that made possible the historic, first-ever US Social Forum, in Atlanta, GA!!

At least 12,000 of us registered for the Forum, and up to 15,000 participated throughout the five days. Over 1,000 organizations mobilized their constituents. We filled over 2,000 four-hour volunteer shifts. We held more than 1,000 plenaries, workshops and cultural events over the five days. We were joined with representatives from every single state as well as delegations from Guam, Puerto Rico and 64 other countries. We received some media coverage for all of our work. To see who covered the USSF, visit: http://ussf2007.org/news.

We marched, debated, strategized, volunteered, and now its time for each of us to take the Social Forum home! Please help us continue the Social Forum process:

Fill out an evaluation form online at:
https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/add/content_evaluation
Organize or attend a social forum report-back in your community!
Help us collect pictures and video clips – they can be uploaded online at: http://media.ussf2007.org/
Submit a resolution or declaration for the People’s Movement Assembly by September 20, 2007 – See below!

With your help we showed the U.S. and the World that – “Another World is Possible. Another U.S. is Necessary!”

Many of us will be continuing the USSF spirit by participating in the World Social Forum's Day of Action on January 26, 2008. For more information on this, please visit: http://www.wsf2008.net/. Until then, the National Planning Committee plans for following up from the USSF include an evaluation meeting in September, where we will also be looking into ways in which folks who attended the USSF can remain
connected with each other after returning home. So much to look forward to!

Thanks to your efforts the first-ever US Social Forum was significant in its own right. By continuing to work together we can continue to make the connections and build power for our communities!

In solidarity,

National Planning Committee of the USSF 2007


USSF LOST AND FOUND PROCESS

As you can imagine, many things were lost during the entire 5 days of the USSF. Luckily, many of these items were turned in to some of the people who were working and volunteering for the USSF. For instructions on how to reclaim any item that you may have lost, please read and follow these instructions immediately:

1.Inquiries for lost items should be sent to ussf2007@gmail.com or by phone at 404-586-0460 ext. 11.
2.Postage of $4.50 in the form of check or money order, for item(s) to be returned should be made payable to: Project South/USSF and sent to the main office: US Social Forum, 92 Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303. Please include correspondence that includes address/phone number where item(s) should be sent.
3.All items not retrieved by August 30, 2007 will be donated to The Task Force for the Homeless.

A list of Lost and Found items will be available on the USSF website ASAP! Please continue to check for it, www.ussf2007.org. THANKS!


The Peoples Movements Assembly Continues

During the last day of the first-ever US Social Forum, the Peoples Movements Assembly (PMA) was held. Because the US Social Forum as an “open space” does not take positions or formally endorse actions, the PMA is a process designed to gather the visions and initiations of different regions and sectors and to collectively examine new frameworks of social change in the United States at this critical stage. This initial convergence and integration of movements, networks, alliances and organizations begins to articulate what we want for our movements in the next 10 to 20 years.

Regional and sectoral assemblies met on Saturday, June 30 and reported back on July 1, 2007. Assemblies identified a person or persons to report back a summary (if agreement was reached). Some 45 organizational and movement resolutions and declarations were presented to the PMA plenary of approximately 4,500 participating USSF delegates. Particular attention by the assemblies was focused on the action days being called for by the World Social Forum process and the groups that work on it, as part of the proposed “week of action” to coincide with the World Economic Forum. The world wide day of action will be held on January 26, 2008.

Call for Resolutions/Declarations
All organizations registered and participating in the US Social Forum are invited to submit written resolutions, declarations and days of action for the Action Plan 2010 in a form established for this purpose on the website and included here.

Process
A working group of the National Planning Committee has been established to collect, organize, categorize and summarize the resolutions that come out of the PMA and that were turned in during the USSF in Atlanta. This working group will compile the final report of the resolutions and declarations of the PMA. The report will come out in the late fall of 2007.

Deadline time limit: September 20, 2007
Send resolutions and declarations to:
PMA@ussf2007.org c/o (Ruben Solis)

Note on the USSF
The USSF does not endorse, either officially or unofficially, any one position or statement, however, it does provide the space for and encourage the many different voices at the USSF to come together and develop something in common ­ whether it be a position, statement, action, goal, alternative, campaign, and so on ­ that will lead them to another world.


En Espanol:

Querid@ Participante en el FSEU:

¡Gracias por hacer que el Foro Social Estadounidénse sea un gran éxito!
¡¡Fueron miles de personas de todo tipo de comunidades diferentes que
hicieron posible el primer e histórico Foro Social EEUU en Atlanta,
Georgia!!

Por lo menos 12,000 de nosotros nos inscribimos en el Foro y hasta
15,000 participaron durante los cinco días. Mas de 1,000 organizaciones
movilizaron sus constituyentes. Llenamos mas de 2,000 turnos de
voluntarios de 4 horas. Celebramos mas de 1,000 plenarios, talleres y
actividades culturales a lo largo de los cinco días. Nos reunimos con
representantes de todo y cada estado al igual que delegaciones de Guam,
Puerto Rico, y 64 otros países. Recibimos cobertura por medio de la
prensa de todo nuestro trabajo. Vea quien reporto del FSEU, visitando
al: http://ussf2007.org/news.

¡Marchamos, debatimos, formamos estrategias, servimos de voluntari@s, y
ahora es la hora de que cada un@ de nosotr@s traigamos el Foro Social a
nuestros hogares! Por favor ayudenos a continuar el proceso del Foro
Social:

Rellene una evaluación en línea en:
https://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/add/content_evaluation
¡Organize o participe en un reporte del foro social en su comunidad!
Ayúdenos a recopilar fotos y extractos de video – puede
subirlas/cargarlas en linea en: http://media.ussf2007.org/
Mande un resolucion o declaracion para el Asamblea de Movimientos
Populares por el 20 de septiembre, 2007 – Vea abajo!

Con su ayuda mostramos a los EEUU y al Mundo que – “Otro Mundo es
Posible. ¡Otro EEUU es Necesario!”

Much@s de nosotr@s continuaremos con el espírituo del FSEU al participar
en el Día de Acción del Foro Social Mundial, el 26 de enero, 2008. Para
conseguir mas información sobre esto, por favor visite:
http://www.wsf2008.net/. Hasta entonces, el Comité Nacional de
Planificación tiene planes de seguimiento al FSEU que incluyen una
reunión de evaluación en Septiembre, donde tambien estaremos
investigando formas de mantener conectádas a las personas que
participaron en el FSEU despues de regresar a nuestros hogares. ¡Tantas
actividades emocionantes!

Gracias a sus esfuerzos, el primer Foro Social Estadounidénse fue
significativo en sí. ¡Al continuar trabajando juntos podemos contribuír
a crear las conexiones y crear poder para nuestras comunidades!

Con solidaridad,

Comité Nacional de Planficación del FSEU 2007


PROCESO DEL FSEU SOBRE OBJETOS PERDIDOS

Como se podría imaginar, muchas cosas se perdieron durante los 5 días
del FSEU. Por suerte, muchos de estos objetos fueron entregados a
algunas de las personas quienes estaban trabajando y sirviendo como
voluntarios del FSEU. Para conseguir instrucciones sobre como reclamar
cualquier pertenencia que haya perdido, por favor lea y siga las
siguientes instrucciones inmediatamente:

4.Preguntas sobre pertenencias perdidas se deben mandar a
ussf2007@gmail.com o por teléfono al 404-586-0460 ext. 11.
5.Se debe pagar $4.50 por cheque o giro postal escrito a nombre de
Project South/USSF y mandado a la oficina central: US Social Forum, 92
Piedmont Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30303, para pagar el envío de pertenencias
que se devuelvan. Por favor incluya correspondencia que incluya la
dirección/teléfono de donde se deberían mandar las pertenencias.
6.Cualquier pertenencia no recuperada para el 30 de agosto, 2007 será
donada a la organización de desamparados The Task Force for the Homeless.
¡Una lista de Objetos Perdidos estará disponsible en el sitio de
internet del FSEU lo mas pronto posible! Por favor continue fijandose
para ver cuando aparece, en , www.ussf2007.org. ¡Gracias!

Continua la Asamblea de Movimientos Populares

Durante el ultimo día del primer Foro Social EEUU, se celebró la
Asamblea de los Movimientos Populares (AMP). A causa de que el Foro
Social EEUU es un “espacio abierto,” no toma posiciones politicas ni
endosa accciones, la AMP está diseñada para juntar las visiones e
iniciativas de diversas regiones y sectores y para examinar
colectivamente nuevas estructuras del cambio social en los Estados
Unidos durante esta etapa tan clave. Esta inicial convergencia e
integración de movimientos, redes, alianzas y organizaciones comienza a
articular lo que queremos para nuestros movimientos en los próximos 10 a
20 años.

Se reunieron asambleas regionales y de sector el sábado 30 de junio y
dieron reporte sobre aquello el 1 de julio, 2007. Las asambleas
identificaron una persona o personas para reportar un resumen (si es que
se llego a un acuerdo). Se presentaron unas 45 resoluciones y
declaraciones por organizaciones y movimientos al plenario del AMP de
aproximadamente 4,500 delegados participantes en el FSEU. La asamblea
enfocó atención particular en los días de acción convocados por el
proceso del Foro Social Mundial y los grupos que trabajan como parte de
tal, como parte de la propuesta “semana de acción” que coincidirá con el
Foro Social Económico. El día mundial de acción se celebrará el 26 de
enero, 2008.

Convocatoria para la Presentación de Resoluciones/Declaraciones
Se invita a todas las organizaciones registradas y participantes en el
Foro Social EEUU a que sometan resoluciones escritas, declaraciones y
días de acción para el Plan de Acción 2010 en una manera establecida
para este propósito en el sitio de red e incluido aquí.

Proceso
Un grupo de trabajo del Comité Nacional de Planificación ha sido
establecido para recolectar, organizar y categorizar las resoluciones
que surgan de la AMP y que fueron entregadas durante el FSEU en Atlanta.
Este grupo de trabajo recopliará el reporte final sobre las
resoluciones y declaraciones de la AMP. El reporte se lanzará a fines
del otoño de 2007.

Fecha límite: 20 de septiembre, 2007
Mande resoluciones y declaraciones a
PMA@ussf2007.org (al cuidado de Ruben Solis)

Nota sobre el FSEU
El FSEU no endorsa, oficialmente o extraoficialmente, ninguna posición o
declaración, sin embargo si promovemos y proveemos el espacio para que
las muchas y diversas voces en el FSEU se unan y desarollen algo en
común, sea un posición, una declaración, una acción, una meta, una
alternativa, una campaña, etc que pueda impulsárlos hacia otro mundo.


--
Josué Guillén, Technology Manager
josue@thepraxisproject.org
The Praxis Project
1750 Columbia Road, NW
Second Floor
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 292-4252
Fax: (718) 770-7699
www.thepraxisproject.org

Praxis prak’ sis 1. exercise or practice of an art, science or skill. 2.
The practical application of theory; action informed by theory. 3. The
synergy between theory and action; the highest form of practice.
The Praxis Project 1. An innovative not for profit institution dedicated
to capacity building, technical assistance, research, and training for
community-based policy change.

Twin Cities U.S. Social Forum Mobilization Meeting

WHERE: Intermedia Arts, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S., Minneapolis

WHEN: Sunday, August 26, 2-6 pm

BRING: Yourself, people from your organization and community, any materials you would like to share that help explain your work and/or will facilitate coalition-building, and a dish or drink to share.

DETAILS: A group of folks who went to the U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta this summer, as well as those who could not make it but who are doing the work at home, have been meeting to discuss possibilities for cross-movement building in the Twin Cities. To this end, the Twin Cities U.S. Social Forum group is committed to exploring the question, "Is another Twin Cities possible, and if so, what might it look like?"

At our last meeting, the small group assembled decided that one of the problems with organizing in the Twin Cities is that the people who are most affected by harmful neoliberal, racist, sexist, homophobic, classist policies are never at the center of the discussion. Indeed, they are often completely left out of it.

To this end, we determined that our first course of action should be to invite as many people and organizations that we know to have a community discussion about what work is being done, how people can support it, where the power really is in the Twin Cities, and how we can go about advocating to distribute it more equally. We are therefore most interested in bringing people of color, immigrants, working people, women, and GLBT folks to the table at this gathering.

Please spread this message to all individuals, communities and organizations who might be interested in participating. This is an opportunity to share, critique and strategize. Bring any and all materials you would like to distribute, but please be ready to share the stage with many others.

DEDICATION Page for Edward Wilmot Blyden, Father of Pan-African Thought

Please support Pipaashaa!

Pipaashaa: extreme thirst

A new evening-length work by the award-winning Ananya Dance Theatre

The award-winning Ananya Dance Theatre and its Artistic Director Ananya Chatterjea (City Pages' Best Choreographer 2007) have teamed with the Women's Environmental Institute and other partners to explore the impact of environmental damage and loss on women and children from around the globe in "Pipaashaa."


We hope that you and other colleagues in the environmental justice field will join us during the run of this new work at the Southern Theater September 6-9, 2007.

"Pipaashaa" was created in response to the steady drying up of the world's resources, specifically through environmental damage, which heightens the vulnerable position in which much of the world's women and children are forced to live. It tells the stories of women and children who are forced to live in the most difficult of circumstances—somehow pulling together an existence by scavenging through dirt piles collecting recyclable materials, for instance, in dense urban areas. More generally, "Pipaashaa" explores ideas of loss and struggle, the desire to live, and the relationship of these ideas to femininity.

For more information, please visit www.ananyadancetheatre.org .

Pipaashaa: extreme thirst
September 6-9, 2007, all at 8 pm except 7 pm on Sunday, September 9
The Southern Theater , 1420 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis
Post-show discussions on Friday & Saturday, September 7th & 8th
All shows feature an interactive lobby display based upon themes in "Pipaashaa"

Tickets: $16 + $2 Southern Theater building fee
Call 612.340.1725 or visit the Southern Theater box office

2007 MNC Conference

Join us in october for the MNC’s annual conference!

Please join us for this wonderful opportunity to connect with other social justice advocates and service providers and learn about detention and deportation of immigrants, unaccompanied minors, workers' rights, welcoming immigrant initiatives from the Center for New North Carolinians and Welcoming Tennessee, environmental racism and organizing faith communities for social justice. The work is far from over but it starts NOW. And it starts with YOU



This year's Featured Speakers include:


David Bacon, an associate editor for Pacific News Service, covering labor, immigration and international politics. He is an internationally-exhibited documentary photographer.


Luisanna Santibanez, Luisanna Santibanez is an immigrant rights advocate, student at the University of Texas, and community organizer with Grassroots Leadership, a 25 year-old Southern-based organization that works to stop the expansion of the private prison industry.


Living Voices, Through the magic of video and an interactive performer, Living Voices presents unique and stirring presentations that capture the minds and hearts of today's audiences.


Christopher Nugent has advocated for the rights of immigrant children for nearly a decade and is one of the nation's leading experts on the topic.


Interfaith Worker Justice is a network of people of faith that calls upon our religious values to educate, organize and mobilize the religious community in the United States on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits and conditions for workers, and give voice to workers, especially low-wage workers.


Welcoming Tennessee -The Welcoming Tennessee Initiative is the voice of concerned Tennesseans from all walks of life who are proud that Tennessee is a welcoming state and are eager to uphold that noble tradition.


Center for New North Carolinians -The CNNC operates to help refugees and immigrants in the area adjust to U.S. culture. The CNNC builds bridges between the immigrant populations and existing communities by providing research, outreach, and training.


Eboni Cochran-Eboni has been with REACT (Rubbertown Emergency ACTion) since 2003. When asked about herself, she says, “I love my neighborhood and want to do my part in helping to raise the quality of life for everyone living in it.”


WHAT: THE MNC'S 3RD ANNUAL KEEPING PERSPECTIVE AND CHALLENGING PERCEPTIONS CONFERENCE
WHEN: OCTOBER 25TH AND 26TH
WHERE: THE LEXINGTON CENTRAL PUBLIC LIBRARY






Isela Arras
Immigration Project Coordinator
Kentucky Domestic Violence Association
PO Box 356
Frankfort, KY 40602
T: 502.209.5382
F: 502.226.5382
Internet: www.kdva.org
Email: iarras@kdva.org


“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” ~ Audre Lorde

RFQ to assist the USSF evaluation

Request for Quotations (RFQ) to Assist the US Social Forum Evaluation

Timeframe: Now until October 31, 2007

Expectations: There are two phases to the evaluation

Phase One: Preparation for, facilitation of and follow-up to the Sept 23-26 meeting of the national Planning committee

Phase Two: Implementation of the evaluation plan overseeing of deliverables

We are looking for one proposal that includes (with breakout) phase one and phase two. We are looking for a strong lead consultant to oversee both phases of this project working with one or more other consultants to provide needed services or expertise. It is our expectation that the lead consultant will include and name additional consultants they would work with to complete the evaluation

Deadline: Your response to the RFQ is due by end of day Friday August 17, 2007. Your RFQ will be considered an all-inclusive quote covering all direct and in-direct cost. Please include cost such as supplies, travel, etc.

Submit to: George Friday via email at ippn@igc.org

Essential Skills: Strong facilitation and excellent writing skills
Flexible and open to chaos
Able to work within a team structure
Strong interviewing skills

Tasks: Work with team to create agenda for Sept. Mtg.
Work with team to design instruments related to outcomes
Assist in writing deliverables

Outcome: Antidotal—stories from the social forum during and after
Deliverable: DVD

Outcome: Analytical—research based, demographics and political analysis
Deliverable: Summation Report

Outcome: Process and Procedures
Deliverable: Publication

Background and Purpose
The National Planning Committee (NPC) of the US Social Forum (USSF, the Forum) is conducting a comprehensive evaluation of its planning and implementation process and is seeking consulting services to assist with the evaluation and facilitate the 3 day NPC evaluation meeting beginning September 24th 2007. We are seeking a team of 1) a lead facilitator and 2) a co-facilitator for face to face meeting(s).

Successful applicants will have skills in providing assessment, evaluation, and facilitation in addition to a keen understanding of the political values of the USSF and group dynamics.

Plan of Action
the USSF evaluation consultant(s) will perform or cause to be performed the following duties:
1) Communicate with the Evaluation Team to create a structure to support the NPC and related sub-groups (as needed) through the evaluation process – this includes setting goals, objectives, and deliverables for each respondent segment. Stakeholders include (but are not limited to) a) the Local Organizing Committee, b) NPC working groups, c) plenary working groups, d) staff, and e) regional committees. This includes interviews with focus group to be identified by the NPC.
2) Compile and summarize data collected from sources named in 1) a-d at the September evaluation meeting and help team to determine how it will be used in the overall evaluation process.

3) Assist the NPC evaluation work team to design the evaluation process and meeting agendas.

4) Facilitate the 3-day meeting to yield recommendations and/or action plans for building needed capacity and sustaining effective support for future Social Forums.

5) Develop an analysis and report that can help move us towards 2010.
Criteria for facilitators:
· Be objective
· Familiarity with social justice movement building work.
· Political alignment with the National Planning Committee and familiarity with social forum process
· Have strong facilitation skills.
· Ability to provide tools and methodology to conduct committee, working group, staff and team evaluations
· Ability to navigate and lead through large group dynamics
· Ability to recognize and walk a group or individual through issues of gender, age, class, race, sexuality, ability, and political alignment.
· Ability to deal and respect strong personalities and strong opinions
· Ability to identify, name and sift through what is political and what is personal.
· Knowing when to intervene and when not to.
· Conflict resolution skills
· Strive for a balance of qualitative and quantitative measurables
· Rigorous follow through
· Sense of humor
· Flexibility and ability to redirect quickly
· Good at summing up and pushing for lessons
Deadline: Your response to the RFQ is due by end of day Friday August 17, 2007. Your RFQ will be considered an all-inclusive quote covering all direct and in-direct cost. Please include cost such as supplies, travel, etc.

Submit to: George Friday via email at ippn@igc.org



We will reply to all who submit a RFQ’s by August 30, 2007

Africa's Ancient Kingdoms and Empires :: View topic - The Cheikh Anta Diop Video

Africa's Ancient Kingdoms and Empires :: The Cheikh Anta Diop Video

Study: Murder victims disproportionately black - Race & Ethnicity - MSNBC.com

Study: Murder victims disproportionately black - Race & Ethnicity - MSNBC.com

The F-word

By FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour
Radio Internacional Feminista

July 7, 2007

Women at US Social Forum Name Feminism as Key to
Making Connections and Building Alliances

By Margaret Thompson
Producer, FIRE (www.radiofeminista.net)

The “F” word made it to the US Social Forum by way of the Latina, African American, Native American, and lesbian women, and women with disabilities who recognize the urgency of connecting all issues and forms of discrimination and naming feminism as a critical approach to making these connections.

“Feminism is about power and it is about the power to control your own life, your own body and resist what [has been called] hetero-patriarchy,” declared Loretta Ross, of longtime feminist and human rights activist and scholar of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. “If you agree with that, then you’re a feminist. Feminism is about the power to question what gender, race and class means to you, and to decide when and if you want to fit into the boxes others have prepared for you.”

Ruby Beth Buitekant, a young African American university student from Atlanta, echoed Ross’ perspective, noting that “feminism is changing by becoming more inclusive and real for all different kinds of women who are affected and identify in different ways. That is why I use that identity (feminism) to talk about racism, about classism and all kinds of issues that are so interconnected. What empowers me to speak about all these issues is being a woman. Feminism is hopefully taking a new turn by becoming more transnational also... “

Throughout the USSF, women were a strong presence in most of the 960+ workshops and plenaries, which were organized around six main themes, including war and militarism, immigrants’ rights, Gulf Coast reconstruction, energy exploitation, women’s and GLBT (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered) rights, indigenous sovereignty, and workers’ rights.

Other issues addressed by the 9,000 participants at the USSF included free trade and globalization, the criminal “injustice” system, and poverty including the human right to housing and food. The event took place June 27-July 1, 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia.

“For me it’s been interesting to be here to see so many women put themselves out there in workshops and conversations…on a broad array of issues including many that don’t get a lot of attention,” said Cindy Clark of Just Associates (JASS) of the Women’s Transformation Watch (Observatorio de la Transgresion Feminista).

The Watch, organized by Just Associates (JASS) and FIRE (Feminist International Radio Endeavour) at the Forum, is an initiative created in 2006 by Meso-American feminists and US human rights activists, and was designed in this event to observe women’s participation and influence at the USSF, as it has in other events in Central America during the past year. Based on a popular education approach, the Watch organizers hope to contribute to building and strengthening of feminist and women’s social and political movements in the Americas and around the world.

As part of the Women’s Transformative Watch, Clark reflected about the strong presence of young women at the Social Forum. “I have attended lots of sessions organized by young women, young people, and to me it’s more than saying ‘aren’t these young women so capable to organize these sessions’, but the fact that they are where they should be by coming and participating actively at this event.”

FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour – worked with the Watch to look at how women are “crossing the line” and what it means to them. Buitekant told FIRE, “To me, crossing the line as feminists means playing the specific roles that women have in society but then using this politically to [achieve] positions of power. I learned feminism from my mother and in school, but also building community with women in college.”

María Suárez of FIRE recalled, “One woman I interviewed said crossing the line in this moment for women and feminists is about looking for ways to integrate agendas and stop this dichotomous fragmentation of women’s rights on one side, and “stop the war” and so on with the other. So that means making connections among different constituencies or groups to build social movements. A migrant woman said that crossing the line for her was about crossing the borders, linking the borders, so she had a very concrete interpretation,” noted Suárez.

Andrea Smith of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence spoke of these connections when she described how “hetereo [sexual] patriarchy is fundamental to empire because patriarchy is what naturalizes social hierarchy, the idea that men naturally rule over women, that elites naturally rule over everyone else. In the history of Indian genocide, the first task that colonists took on was to integrate patriarchy into native communities who wouldn’t accept colonial domination until native men started treating native women the way that white men treat women.” Smith noted that sexual violence against native women served as a “primary tool” for colonialism and white supremacy “by rendering women inherently rapable, our land inherently invadable and our resources inherently extractable.”

In an interview with FIRE, Miriam Nobre, an Afro-Brazilian feminist and Secretary-General of the World March of Women said she believes that “crossing the line in communications is everything that is outside the control and agenda of corporate power in media because they control most media to impose an agenda that is corporate. That is why I like to see expression through art, alternative media and exchange.”

Cindy Domingo, a US immigrant, told FIRE that “crossing the line by women here means learning from women in other parts of the world.” Nobre said that “in order to confront the power of the transnational corporations that use women’s bodies as terrain for experimentation, and also do the same with land and seeds, we need to develop further the relationship among us in Latin America and feminists in the USA that do not necessarily come from [middle class] liberal agendas, but are part of immigrant movements, indigenous, farmers, and workers, [among others]...”

Valerie Miller, also of JASS noted, “To me what is important in these observations of the WATCH are the processes and experiences that women are talking about that help build strong connections.”

Suárez noted that she had heard women comment about the theme of the USSF “One world is possible,” which is based on the World Social Forum theme of 2004. “To say that one world is possible, we have to make sure that doesn’t mean substituting one world with one other single perspective, but a world where many perspectives can have a place.”
###

For more information, contact María Suárez Toro of FIRE at maria@radiofeminista.net or Cindy Clark of Just Associates, Inc. at cac@justassociates.org.

This article is posted in the FIRE webpage at:
http://www.radiofeminista.net/julio07/notas/ussf_4_ingles.htm
To see FIRE’s coverage of the USSF 2007, go to www.radiofeminista.org/ (Spanish) or www.radiofeminista.org/indexeng.htm (English).

You may use the information from FIRE (www.radiofeminista.net ) citing FIRE as the source.

FIRE is an international women's internet radio produced in Spanish & English by Latin American & Caribbean women in Costa Rica, focusing on women's perspectives worldwide on all issues.

Listen NOW (or later in the archives): Rose Brewer on economics and race

LISTEN WEDNESDAY, August 8 @ 11:00 AM:

KFAI, FM 90.3 in Minneapolis, 106.7 in St. Paul, streaming live at
(Call in with questions and comments: 612-341-0980).

This show will be available for listening at .

TTT’s Andy Driscoll and guest co-host KFAI News Director Lauretta Dawolo talk with

• Author and Prof. Rose Brewer
• Vic Rosenthal of the Equal Access Working Project and Jewish Community Action
• St. Paul Council President Kathy Lantry

...about the history, the missing and present economic trends, issues, and opportunities in and for communities of color. Dr. Brewer is co-author of The Color of Wealth, addressing the historic disparities of economic security between whites and communities of color here and across the country. Vic Rosenthal is embroiled in reform of public agencies letting contracts to various small business enterprises and pressing for equal and representative access to underrepresented minority contractors. Council President Lantry will discuss the City’s audit of its contracting practices then and now.

Note from Lisa to White Folks: Mtg. to discuss your role in TC USSF

hey white folks,
just a reminder that we set up a meeting/pot luck to discuss our role
working with the twin cities USSF group. we are meeting: sunday, 5-7
pm, at liz's home: 1367 edmunds ave #2, st paul.
liz, can you send us directions? thanks all, lisa
>
>


--
Lisa Albrecht, Ph.D.
Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Distinguished Professor of Teaching
Director of Undergraduate Studies
School of Social Work
193 Peters Hall
St. Paul, MN. 55108
612 624 3669

Social Justice Minor - http://ssw.che.umn.edu/Programs/socialjustice.html

Be wary of surveillance during RNC '08

Today's New York Times has a story that should give local folks planning on demonstrating during the Twin Cities' RNC convention in 2008 pause. According to the article, the NYPD was doing extensive surveillance on people who were planning on attending to do the same thing prior to the RNC convention in NYC in 2004:

...beyond potential troublemakers, those placed under surveillance included
street theater companies, church groups, antiwar activists, environmentalists,
and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government
policies.

The demonstrators describe

...wrongful detentions of up to two days and other violations by the police to
keep protesters off the streets...

At the center of the issue is a federal judge's rejection today of City efforts to prevent the release of about 2,000 pages of intelligence documents that detail the NYPD's surveillance of the demonstrators. The ACLU is trying to get these documents released, in some degree of detail, because it holds that the details in the documents will disprove a NYPD claim, which is that the demonstrators planned to engage in violence during the convention.

Man, with the legalization of wiretapping this week (the gutting of the FISA law), and now this, there is a good chance that if you are mobilizing to demonstrate (probably anything more than an SUV that drives by your house), you'll be getting a few more "bugs" on you soon.

Watch your back!

Bridges Not Bombs

A request from Rashard Zanders to post this on the TC USSF blog. The upshot is that there is another demonstration scheduled for TOMORROW, Wednesday, Aug. 8, 5-6 pm on the Lake St./Marshall Bridge.

Shannon
---------

Dear Rashard,
There were about 35 on the Lake Street/Marshall Bridge on Sat. and two other protests sprang up elsewhere. We have 40 signs for the August 8, Wednesday 5-6 p.m. vigil. Please come to the east or Marshall Ave. side so that we can greet you. Gathering in a circle afterwards east of bridge. Hope to see you on Wednesday!
Mary




That was quick notice. Would you consider re-demonstrating in about a week for those of us who take two days to open emails....

How was the turnout?

Rashard,

On 8/3/07, wamm@mtn.org < wamm@mtn.org> wrote:

Emergency Demonstration: "Bridges Not Bombs!"

Saturday, August 4, 11:00 a.m. Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul. Like the I-35 bridge, the empire is falling and failing. Instead of destroying the infrastructure of Iraq, waging a secret war against Somalia, supplying weaponry to isolate and destroy Gaza in Palestine, and threatening Iran with bombs, we want the infrastructure of the U.S. maintained and reparations made to those here and abroad for damage done. Sponsored by: WAMM. FFI: Call WAMM, 612-827-5364 or Connie Fuller, 651-245-2741 .
--

Future of the Forum: More Open Space, or Concrete Political Action?

http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/noticias_textos.php?cd_news=405

The Contribution of the U.S. Social Forum: a reply to Whitaker and Bello’s debate on the Open Space
Thomas Ponniah

Introduction
The achievements of the U.S. Social Forum experience contributes a great deal to debates concerning the future of the overall World Social Forum (WSF) process. In a recent set of interventions Walden Bello and Chico Whitaker, both representatives on the International Council of the WSF, disagreed on the future of the Forum. Bello, the Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, argued that the Forum was now at a crossroads (1). While acknowledging that the WSF had given a great deal to the struggle for global justice, Bello suggested that the Forum’s Open Space methodology, which on principle, refuses to take a collective stand on issues such as the war on Iraq and the WTO, was now inhibiting substantial political agency. He argued that there was merit to the charge that the Forum was becoming “an institution unanchored in actual global political struggles, and this is turning it into an annual festival with limited social impact”. The article concluded with the query: “is it time for the WSF to fold up its tent and give way to new modes of global organization of resistance and transformation?” (2)

Chico Whitaker, one of the founders of the WSF, and also a member of the International Council of the World Social Forum, replied to Bello, arguing that crossroads do not have to close roads (3). Whitaker noted that while the Forum’s Charter of Principles precluded the International Council from making statements representing the overall World Social Forum, the Open Space methodology left possible the opportunity for movements to independently build global coalitions that articulated common manifestos. Therefore for Whitaker the WSF’s crossroads were in fact two paths that could co-exist, not as impediments to each other, but as mutual sources of inspiration. The Open Space could continue to allow movements to articulate themselves and to propose new political projects without needing to speak on behalf of all participants at the World Social Forum.

In order to thoughtfully assess the two different positions mentioned we need to reflect on what are the Social Forum process’ actual achievements. No Forum in recent memory has better expressed the potential of the process than the recent U.S. Social Forum. The USSF demonstrated the accuracy of both Bello and Whitaker’s arguments, affirming the importance of continuing the Social Forum process but on much more innovative, decisive, political ground.

The U.S. forum, held from June 27 to July 2, in Atlanta, Georgia, the birthplace of Martin Luther King J.R., attracted over 10 000 participants, in over 900 workshops. The slogan of the Forum was “Another World is Possible. Another U.S. is Necessary.” Mirroring yet amplifying the global process, this national forum made three great contributions to the U.S. struggle.

Difference
The U.S. Social Forum created an open space that allowed different people’s movements to come together from around the United States. For the first time diverse activists from around the country were able to collectively interact in a non-hierachical, horizontal manner that emphasized mutual understanding. The Open Space infrastructure facilitated the possibility for a variety of movements to meet. If the space had been dominated by one ideology, for example socialism, or if it had been dominated by one strategy, for example, statism, then it would not have attracted so many movements. The Open Space, as Whitaker has always contended, allowed for a multitude of ideologies and strategies to be represented at the Social Forum. This space not only facilitated dissimilar groups from across the U.S. to connect but it also enabled movements in Atlanta to connect on novel new terms.

The Open Space permitted activists to move away from focusing on the differences between social movements and instead focusing on commonalities. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s there were numerous divisions between different sides of the North American Left: such as socialists, anarchists, ecologists, feminists, anti-racists, queer activists, and indigenous activists to name a few. Movements did not want to work with each other or were endlessly frustrated with each other. The Social Forum created an arena where all of these organizations felt that they could express their agenda without having it drowned out by someone else's program. Speakers at plenaries came from communities that were directly affected by the problem at hand. Grassroots movements spoke for themselves. Thus the Forum was a common, self-representative public venue thereby allowing for trust to be built between movements.

The expression of difference was so pronounced that the USSF appeared to be more diverse than any of the World Social Forums held in the last three years. Not since the 2004 World Social Forum in India, has a Forum embodied so much diversity, not only as members of the audience, but importantly as speakers and facilitators on panels, seminars and workshops. One could argue that the Forums in India and the United States simply reflected the demographic heterogeneity of two of the most multicultural societies on the planet. Few nations in the Global South have as many religions, cultures, and languages as India. Similarily no country in the Global North has in numerical terms as much cultural multeity as the United States However this interpretation of the U.S. Social Forum and the WSF in India is partial. What was remarkable about both events was not simply that they embodied their countries’ cultural range but that they also demonstrated their economic diversity. Both Forums were genuinely grassroots events with participants from every economic class - especially the poor. While other editions of the World Social Forum have been moving, inspirational events, they have not substantially represented the impoverished, marginalized, and exploited members of their countries. The first great contribution of the U.S. Social Forum process then was its capacity to enable the social, cultural and economic variety of U.S. movements to come together.

The Identity of Difference
The second contribution of the USSF dealt with identity. Following
the Open Space concept, the U.S. Social Forum has helped articulate common self-identifications among progressives. What began in Seattle in 1999 as the U.S. wing of the anti-globalization movement has now become a set of alternative national globalization movements. North American activists who took part in the USSF process, were able to even more clearly recognize that diverse forms of dissent such as rallies against racism, demonstrations against debt, and protests against privatization, are not separate events but instances of one overarching dynamic: the demand for global justice. The Social Forum process consolidated numerous common identities of difference: black/brown, student/labor, and environmental/social justice alliances. These coalitions are being built on the desire for another world that is free of the discrimination evidenced by Katrina, of the militarism exhibited by perpetual war, of the neoliberalism that prevents health care access to over forty million U.S. citizens, and of the biodevastation embodied by global warming. In sum, the Forum facilitated the creation of common, unified identities that encompass the plethora of movements that aspire to a world where all life is respected.

Autonomy
Third, the World Social Forum, and now the U.S. Social Forum, has promoted a revolution in how progressives imagine their opponent and thus themselves. From its inception the organizers of the World Social Forum dynamic and thus the USSF process understood that people’s movements have needed a space of articulation that was autonomous of corporations and political parties. This has been a significant departure from the past.

Historically most progressives have imagined their primary adversary to be the market. The left has always understood the danger that free markets, corporations, and capitalism, posed to society. Progressives have always known that commodification inevitably led to alienation. The market, in Marcuse’s memorable phrase, makes the human one-dimensional. To restrain commodification, past leftwing movements have called for the state to regulate the economy. In the first world, social democrats, such as the New Deal
politicians in the United States in the 1930s, tried to regulate the
industry for the benefit of the public. In the second world, Soviet
Communism tried to regulate production, and in the third world, the
national liberation state, for example Cuba, tried to regulate its
economic activity (4). So the dominant strand of the left has always thought that the state could regulate the market and thus liberate the population from exploitation.

The faith in leftist statism was tested numerous times throughout the twentieth century. It finally broke in the early 1990s with the rollback of the welfare state in the first world, the dissolution of the Soviet state in the second world, and the loss of legitimacy of the national liberation state in the third world. Progressives ever since have been contending with the loss of belief in the state as the primary instrument of social liberation.

Learning from history, the proponents of the Social Forum process have understood that whether the state increased its power over the market or whether the market increases its power over the state, in both cases disaffection has inevitably deepened. Both the modes of production and admininistration, both capital and the contemporary state, have become proponents of heteronomy, of estrangement, of immiseration, rather than public self-governance.

Against this two-headed adversary, the peoples’ movements at the USSF demonstrated the power of self-organized human solidarity. These movements over and over throughout the Forum called for a participatory society to develop independently of the market and the state. At this Forum, U.S. social movements increased their capacity for sovereign, collective self-reflection.
The activists at the USSF collectively liberated themselves from the mental hegemony of the state and market by proposing a new imagination: liberation can only be discovered, explored and expressed by grounding social change in radical new forms of democracy. Movements can pressure states, sometimes even work with states, yet retain autonomous from the state. The collective consolidation of the importance of autonomy was the third great achievement of the U.S. Social Forum.

The Future of the Forum process
The achievements of the USSF lend credence to Chico Whitaker’s consistent principled defense of the Forum. The challenge that remains, and that Walden Bello has recognized clearly, is that while the Forum process at the global and local level is facilitating collective self-reflection – it has not yet produced effective, collective self-organization. There have been numerous discussions of global social movement projects, such as the Bamako Appeal and proposals for global political parties (6), but there has been no actual implementation. The war on Iraq continues, climate change has not been halted, worldwide inequality persists and corporations continue to rule the world. While the Open Space of the Forum has allowed for the creation of new networks it has not yet facilitated visonary projects. There have been great reactive events, such as demonstrations against the WTO negotiations– but there have been few alternatives that have actually been implemented by the global justice movements. That is the great overarching trial that the Forum faces. While the Forum has facilitated the capacity for local, national and global social movement reflection, it has not yet given birth to comparable forms of achievement. The essence of Walden Bello’s argument is correct: the facilitators of the World Social Forum process must devise more innovative processes that will actually enable decisive political change.


*Thomas Ponniah is a member of the Network Institute for Global Democratization - one of the founding organizations of the International Council of the World Social Forum; a member of Sociologists Without Borders, and of the WSF Boston Organizing Committee. He is also the co-editor of the book Another World is Possible: popular alternatives to globalization at the World Social Forum, and the author of a forthcoming book on global justice.

(1) Bello, Walden. “The Forum at the Crossroads”. http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4196.
(2) ibid
(3) Whitaker, Chico. "Crossroads do not always close roads (Reflection in continuity to
Walden Bello)"
(http://www.wsflibrary.org/index.php/Crossroads_do_not_always_close_roads).
(4) For a substantial explanation of this point see Immanuel Wallerstein’s The Decline of American Power.
(5) See http://www.openspaceforum.net/twiki/tiki-index.php?page=BamakoAppeal

(6) See http://www.nigd.org/globalparties

Scholarships for Highlander Center's Institutes

Dear Twin Cities Folks on the POPEDNEWS distribution list,

The Popular Education Fund will provide a number of scholarships for
people to attend the Highlander Center's Institutes that will be held
on Friday, August 31 as part of Highlanders 75th Anniversary
Celebration. For information about the institutes see
http://www.highlandercenter.org/anniversary/institutes.asp.

To apply for the scholarships send a message with a short description
of yourself, your interests, and why you want to attend the celebration.

Also, if anyone is interested in car pooling to the celebration or
has extra space for riders, please get in touch with me. I will
connect people.

I currently have space for a couple people to ride. I am planning to
leave on Wednesday, Aug 29 and spend the night in or near Chicago
with friends. I will continue to the Knoxville area on Thursday. I
expect to begin the return journey on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning.

Peace, solidarity, and love,
Larry

The Popular Education News

Larry Olds
3322 15th Ave So
Minneapolis MN 55407 USA
612 722-3442
www.popednews.org

training & community discussion on white privilege

COMMUNITY DISCUSSION AND TRAINING ON

WHITE PRIVILEGE & RACISM

Please join Avenues for Homeless Youth and Dr. Heather Hackman in examining

white privilege, white supremacy, and whiteness –

and the implications they have on effective anti-racist work.

During this opportunity for discussion, awareness raising and breaking down barriers,

we will also be screening Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible,

a documentary which features the experiences of white women and men who have worked to gain

insight into what it means to challenge notions of racism and white supremacy in the United States.

WHEN: Wednesday, August 8, 2007

1 pm – 4 pm

WHERE: Pi Bar

2532 South 25^th Avenue

Minneapolis, MN 55406

Questions: Call Amy Snyder at (612) 522-1690, ext. 104 or

Raquel (Rocki) Simões at (612) 522-1690, ext. 110

ALL ARE WELCOME.

THIS IS A FREE EVENT. NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

Avenues for Homeless Youth ▪ 1708 Oak Park Avenue, Minneapolis, 55411 ▪ www.avenuesforyouth.org

Please weigh in on next mtg. date & time

Intermedia is willing to give free space for the next meeting and they have availability on Sunday, August 25 or Sunday, September 9. We need to let them know which date and time would work for us, but they are holding both for now.

Everyone weigh in on a date and time?

Eleanor

Missed the Integrating Gender & Sexual Justice Across Movements plenary?

Now you can see it, at cost, at http://www.snakegirl.net

The UnConvention

The UnConvention:
Prominent Minnesota Cultural Organizations Convene to Focus on Non-Partisan Creative Civic Engagement Around 2008 Republican National Convention

Minneapolis, MN—The UnConvention is a unique project that seeks to evolve the definition of civic engagement to include experimentation in art, education, and journalism, and to create a better-informed and more politically active citizenry. Over the next year and a half, organizations affiliated with the UnConvention will host lectures,workshops, classes and exhibitions based on the theme of participatory democracy.

The mission of the UnConvention is twofold:
1. To create and promote artistic and educational activities (exhibitions, lectures, performances, etc.) that will take place in the Twin Cities during the lead-up and staging of the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul/ Minnesota;
2. To be a resource for artists and the alternative media that will converge on the Twin Cities during the Republican National Convention.

The UnConvention is about participation and democracy, the public sphere, media, and creativity—not a critique of the Republican Party and its policies. A non-partisan collective of leaders from prominent cultural organizations and citizens have come together to create a forum in which to promote the free, democratic, and creative exchange of ideas on important issues. It exists as a counterpoint to the highly scripted and predetermined nature of the contemporary presidential nomination process and convention.

Current participating organizations include:
The Dept. of Media Studies, Carleton College (www.carleton.edu);
the Institute for New Media Studies, University of Minnesota (www.inms.umn.edu);
Intermedia Arts, including the Northern Lights program of Intermedia Arts (www.intermediaarts.org);
Minneapolis College of Art and Design (www.mcad.edu);
Popular Front (www.popularfront.com);
Sandbox Studios (www.sandboxstudios.net); and
Walker Art Center (www.walkerart.org).

“As we have seen throughout American history, political party conventions are places where creative action and participatory democracy are enacted. These caucuses generate large responses from across the political spectrum.” say John Schott, Daniel Gumnit, and Nora Paul, three the founders of the UnConvention.

The UnConvention website, www.theunconvention.com will serve as a central organizing space for these two goals. The site currently features information on the project, related activities, and a Blog and will include forums, a calendar of related activities, resources for journalists and visiting artists, and an archive of press and activities. To get more information or get involved email:
steeringcommittee@TheUnconvention.org.


Intermedia Arts is a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art.
www.intermediaarts.org

PHOTO / INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Minnesota Cultural Organizations
UnConvention spokespeople

CONTACT:
Daniel Gumnit
Executive Director
Intermedia Arts
612.874.2810
daniel@intermediaarts.org
# # #

Reflections on the 2007 U.S. Social Forum

By Laura Carlsen
Americas Program Commentary
July 23, 2007

Attending the U.S. Social Forum held in Atlanta, Georgia June 27-July 1 was an adventure. The first social forum for the United States, it was also one of the first in a series of regional events
aimed at decentralizing the mega-World Social Forum that started in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Short on preparation and organization but long on enthusiasm, the event stirred the interest of activists all over the world. Many wondered what kind of grassroots energy could be mustered to seriously confront the many threats posed by Bush administration policies—including unilateral force, preventive strikes, climate change denial, homophobia, and rollback of women’s rights.

It was a strange sort of homecoming for me. After many years of living and working in Mexico, I was curious to see how movements for social change in the United States had evolved over the years. I had heard the sweeping generalizations: the egotism and materialism of the
eighties “me generation,” the identity politics and cultural expressions of the nineties, the horror and frustration of the war in the new Bush-dominated millennium.

During the years of living abroad, I had followed citizen efforts for social change but been far from the frontlines of organizing.

The 20-year hiatus proved an interesting lens with which to view the movements represented at the forum. Many of our movements in the past were based on solving problems in faraway places. The abuses wrought by our government overseas made them morally our issues. The
Central American solidarity movement during the dirty wars and the anti-apartheid movement helped us better understand the world and make connections albeit in a somewhat removed way.

Not so today. In many ways, globalization has domesticated the abuses long felt overseas. Although the war in Iraq continues to be the defining feature of the current administration, U.S. communities are now also under attack. Through climate change, the planet itself has shrunk to a single, ominously threatened ecosystem.

The slogan—”Another World is Possible. Another U.S. is Necessary”—captures this reality. The issues discussed at the first U.S. Social Forum did not revolve around utopian visions of a better society. Rather, they expressed the urgency of people fighting for survival—to survive as who
they are in the face of intolerance, to preserve communities threatened by hate, to maintain basic freedoms, and assure basic needs.

The forum proved a crash course in the state of U.S. organizing. I saw apparent advances and reverses. There was little explicitly feminist organizing. The critiques of power, patriarchy, and sexism that once seemed central to understanding social change have not been forgotten, but they have yet to gain a central place in our organizing and analysis. The response to major government offensives against reproductive rights, repeal of affirmative action programs, and attacks on Lesbian-Gay- Bisexual-Transgender-Transsexual people have been slow
and piecemeal. As women have devoted their energies to other causes, the profoundly transforming perspective of gender justice has sometimes taken on a secondary or
supplementary role in organizing work (and as a foreign policy analyst, I count myself as guilty).

Strong and vocal women were prominent at the forum. They brought with them an integrating vision—of heart and mind, of daily life and public policy, of family and community—to their struggles and imprint them with a feminism that may not say its name but makes its presence
felt.

Strength in Diversity

Far and above the greatest change and the greatest strength of U.S. movements today is their diversity. The forum demonstrated diversity in ages, sexuality, colors, nationalities, and politics.

The many cultural expressions also showed a welcome diversity in our way of “doing politics.” Gone are the days when political events were synonymous with men making speeches. In the esplanade of Atlanta’s Civic Center, the drums of Mexican danzantes competed with the drums of traditional Korean music—and both decry free trade. Hip-hop connected the desperation of life in Indian reservations and city ghettos with the joy of youth and a deep new current of resistance.

Workshops on storytelling drew hundreds of young people who know that it’s not enough to analyze oppression, that what’s happening today is found in a million real-life stories, that tears are an essential part of the dynamic, and that a fundamental task for organizers is to learn to
tell these stories artfully.

Stories abounded in the forum. A path of abandoned shoes with names pinned to the tongues led to a kiosk hung with the biographies of young and old Iraqis killed in the war. A young woman cried as the hope of living without the fear of deportation receded once again into the murky depths of Washington politics.

A plethora of issues compete for our attention but there is no question of the validity and need for work on all of them. Forum participants reflected a great respect for the efforts of everyone. As someone who works on Latin American issues, I was told by one participant almost
apologetically: “It’s so important what you do. When we get this damn war out of the way ...”
“This damn war” was a dark presence in every corner of the Forum—not as a sign of our failure but a call to renewed action.

The U.S. Social Forum revealed the heroic acts of community defense and organizing that regularly occur throughout the country. Although still lacking the coherence to construct another world, the determination and values found in these movements offered much hope.

Laura Carlsen is the director of the Americas Program at www.americaspolicy.org in Mexico City, where she has been a writer and political analyst for more than two decades.

Katie Kohlstedt

Usually on long flights, I am the person snoring in the seat next to you. But on the trip from Mexico City to Atlanta for the U.S. Social Forum, my head was spinning not nodding off. Anticipation of going to my first social forum kept me wide awake as I reflected on what I would be seeing and hearing.

Psyched by inspiring tales from Brazilian friends about the world social forums, I was also concerned about the critiques I had heard about the loose structure and direction of the forums and their lack of concrete accomplishments.

Although I wasn’t able to attend all the sessions I had highlighted in my inch-thick program, I was impressed and inspired by encountering so many other like-minded individuals and organizations. I left Atlanta with more questions than I came with—the most pressing one
being: Although we certainly have more in common than we have differences, how will all these people work together?

Unity of Purpose or a Pageant of Issues?

On the forum’s last day, I was standing outside the hotel elevator, and out flooded a troop of young girls who were competing in a beauty pageant and were made up like future Miss Americas. After recovering from the haze of hairspray and shock of children aspiring to become a warped stereotype of modern women, I realized that I myself had been attending a type of pageant. I was about to head home after having attended an array of workshops, visited scores of tables and tents, collected a bundle of flyers and pins, and signed innumerable petitions.
Now, I’m sure how I’ll never have time to keep all the commitments and promises I made.

All the participants in the forum—with the exception of the “independents” who came to learn or to decide which issue is most pressing for them to take on—paraded “our issues.” We led workshops and participated with others in our “tracks”—the trade, labor, immigration, or
other track—or worked the corridors of the conference and set out displays on tables and handed out our flyers, articles, brochures, business cards, in hope of winning more people over.

We found a sympathetic but overburdened audience. And what do we really want them to do? To subscribe? To sign? To march? To vote?

Making alliances was one way sought to strengthen movements and reduce the frantic fragmentation we often feel. The plenary panels encouraged the various tracks to view themselves in a common framework, and thanks to organizers’ combining of workshop proposals participants found themselves on panels with people they had never sat next to before. One workshop brought together African-American groups and immigrants’ rights
organizations to discuss their common interest in fair immigration policies in their communities.

Was this proof that we could consolidate our pageant into a collective movement? At least they were steps in the right direction.

Targeting Transnationals --"Diet, Cherry and Vanilla, Coca Cola is a Killer”

This chant rang in the ears of hundreds of kids and their parents as they waited in line to be among the first to visit Atlanta’s new “World of Coke” museum. During the June 30 march, I joined protesters at the gates of Coca Cola’s world headquarters holding signs reading “Coke Kills” and “Unthinkable, Undrinkable.”

“We came here to offer this art to Coke’s new ‘fantasy museum’ because the reality of Coca Cola is women in India protesting the destruction of lives and livelihoods that Coke has produced in their communities,” announced Amit Srivastava, Director of Global Resistance.

Coca Cola didn’t acknowledge our protests, but in India popular anger at Coca Cola’s depletion and contamination of local water supplies has led to the closure of a plant in Kerala and movements to close the other 52 bottling plants throughout the country. Participating in a
direct action was refreshing after hours in sessions of talk, albeit very inspiring talk.

Bush, Cheney, and assorted conservative forces were regarded by all as roadblocks to our own social justice goals, and impeachment was mentioned more than once. However, a bigger elephant in our midst was present— Corporate America. Session after session, countless issues related corporate pressure and violations of everything from human and workers’ rights to the environment, the prison system, war-profiteering, and oil paid for by the blood of Americans in Iraq.

Corporations were named as profiteers of the skyrocketing budgets for prison construction, the dysfunctional health care system, mining damage and destruction, the insufficient minimum wage—the list goes on. The funding for militarization in Colombia and for border security
goes to Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Responsibility for manipulation of global food supplies and agricultural systems lies with Cargill, Monsanto, Nestle, and Tyson (the
targets of Via Campesina’s newest effort).

Sustaining our Resistance

As groups distributed glossy materials, free books and DVDs, buttons, t-shirts, and stickers, I wondered about the sustainability of this large-scale event. Efforts were clearly made—water was distributed in large barrels and bottled water discouraged—but food came in styrofoam
packaging and disposable everything. A challenge for any gathering of nearly 12,000 people, keeping the impact to a minimum was a weak point of a forum largely held in overly air-conditioned hotel conference rooms. Although the “presence” given to the meetings by formal settings can have advantages, we could have managed with more modest facilities, as I understand they have done at the World Social Forum.

“Stop Runaway Consumerism,” “No More Drug War,” and all the other buttons and stickers I plastered myself with were incomplete descriptions of the problems we face. There were socialists, the environmentalists, the anti-free-traders, along with a slew of new listservs I subscribed to, but not one would help me decide how to prioritize my own efforts to help make another world possible.

Inspired, but also overwhelmed by options, many young attendees like myself seemed a little less certain of exactly what to do than when we landed in Atlanta. But we left knowing better the urgency of our various struggles, the multitude of incredible individuals dedicating
themselves to making the United States a place that represents us, and I hope, the need to work together.

Time will tell, but USSF 2007 certainly helped me see more clearly the identity of the elephant—corporations that are trampling us all.

Katie Kohlstedt is Program Associate at the Americas Program in Mexico City. Comments about this or any Americas Program article can be directed to americas@ciponline.org.

All photos by Katie Kohlstedt.

Published by the Americas Program, Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.
The Americas Program

“A New World of Citizen Action, Analysis, and Policy Options”

Recommended citation:
Laura Carlsen and Katie Kohlstedt, "Reflections on the 2007 U.S. Social Forum," Americas Program Commentary (Washington, DC: Center for International Policy, July 23,
2007).

Web location:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4411

Production Information:
Writers: Laura Carlsen and Katie Kohlstedt
Editor: Laura Carlsen
Layout: Chellee Chase-Saiz