Social Forum expects thousands

By Dianne Mathiowetz
Atlanta

Jun 7, 2007--From June 27 to July 1, Atlanta will host the first-ever Social Forum held in the United States. The U.S. Social Forum will gather thousands of grassroots and community activists from across the country who will engage each other in political discussion and strategy planning. The operating slogan for the five-day event is, “For another world to be possible, another U.S. is necessary.”

The major sites for the Social Forum are in downtown Atlanta at the Civic Center and adjoining parks, plus space in nearby hotels, churches, libraries and theaters.

Delegates will be coming from other parts of the world, including many countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe as well as Mexico and Canada.

The Social Forum offers hundreds of workshops organized by a wide range of local and national groups engaged in issues such as the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, union organizing, immigrant rights, health care, anti-war and counter-recruiting, anti-imperialist solidarity, sex and gender discrimination, creating progressive media and people’s survival institutions.

In addition, participants in the U.S. Social Forum will be able to experience cultural exchanges with planned and spontaneous musical and dance events, poetry slams, a film festival, sports activities, drumming circles and jam sessions.

A Youth Camp and 13 Focus Tents offer specific programming on Palestine, Africa, Peace and Justice, Health and Wellness, and other issues.

An opening march through downtown Atlanta on Wednesday, June 27, will incorporate local struggles for quality and accessible healthcare, education, housing and public transportation for all with national and international demands for these and other human rights.

The march organizers are encouraging those coming to the Social Forum to bring their banners, signs, flags, puppets, drums and other creative expressions to illustrate the vibrancy, diversity and passion for fundamental change that motivate this gathering.

Among the many dynamic methods to mobilize for the U.S. Social Forum used by women’s organizations, youth and student groups, and the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community is a People’s Freedom Caravan. Leaving from Albuquerque, N.M. and going through Texas and the Gulf Coast, it will join together as many as 1,000 people—Indigenous people, Katrina survivors, immigrants, low-wage workers and environmentalists—in a caravan of buses and vans.

A Family Reunion scheduled for Saturday, June 30, will bring together those impacted by the “injustice” system in the U.S., which imprisons more people than any other country. Those formerly incarcerated, together with families and friends of prisoners, will assemble to take up the urgent need to struggle against police brutality and harassment, the death penalty, sentencing and drug policies.

The World Social Forum movement developed as a response to the closed summits held by the governments and corporate elite of the dominant industrial capitalist countries, where decisions impacting billions of people are made in secret.

In January 2001, in Porto Alegro, Brazil, some 12,000 people from around the world met to discuss the disastrous impact of capitalist globalization in response to a call that “another world is possible.”

Annual World Social Forums now draw many tens of thousands of people and national, regional and local social forums are common in many areas of the world. However, not until 2007 has there been an attempt to focus the many movements in the U.S. on gathering together and taking up the critical question of how to build an effective challenge to those in power.

Many will come to this event with serious expectations, wanting more than interesting and stimulating discussion and a chance to make good contacts.

For more information about the U.S. Social Forum, including registration, volunteering, workshops and other planned events, go to www.ussf2007.org