Monday, June 25, 2007
SWOP homepageWhat Better Place Than Here? What Better Time Than Now?
The Buzz is HUGE!!! The Social forum is everywhere, things are coming along very nicely. The caravan is on its way(Justice on the Move) our local Atlanta hosts have been amazing opening their offices, homes, hearts, and city to us.
2 days and its ON! The time grows ever more near even as I type this. Walking around the city handing out fliers and posters in my travels the question I've heard the most is "why?". There are many complicated answers to give to this, it has led to many many great conversations.
Right now the only thing that comes into my mind when I'm asked "Why are you doing this?" or "Why in Atlanta?" is the Rage Against the Machine Lyric
"It has to start somewhere/It has to start sometime/What better place than here?/What better time than now? ALL HELL CAN'T STOP US NOW"
Check this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; interviews with key organizers of the forum.
Social Forum aims to help activists blend strengths
By ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
06/24/07
On Wednesday, about 10,000 grass-roots activists will meet in Atlanta
for a major forum that will feature close to 1,000 workshops and, it's
hoped, a lot of understanding.
Understanding, that is, of what they do and of who they are.
"We want to show that we are not the marginalized sector of the crazies
across the street," said Stephanie Guilloud, one of the organizers of
the U.S. Social Forum. "We are your neighbors. I think for a lot of
folks, when we are talking about activists, there seems to be a sense
that we are complainers. But we are putting forth a vision that affects
us all."
The U.S. Social Forum, the first in the United States, begins Wednesday
with a march from the state Capitol to the Atlanta Civic Center, the
site for the bulk of events at the five-day conference.
Organizers are expecting participants from all over the country to come
talk about such issues as immigration, poverty, housing and police
conduct.
Alice Lovelace, an activist and poet who is also the USSF's lead
organizer, said the participants will include, among others, "Native
Americans, domestic workers, school teachers, youth, hip-hop artists,
environmentalists, labor leaders and people who work on immigration."
Lovelace said the main purpose of the forum is to get activists to work
together. In theory, the forum would help a singularly focused housing
activist learn how to "break the isolation" by learning how racism,
education and police conduct fit into his cause.
"This will allow all of them to get together and become better educated
about each other. We want to see how do we improve the world for human
beings," Lovelace said. "We cannot devise a strategy to move forward
until we hear how these issues impact the lives of everyday people."
Tufara Waller-Muhammad will travel from New Market, Tenn., to attend the
forum and talk about civil rights. Waller-Muhammad is a cultural program
leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center, which has been
a training ground for several civil rights leaders.
During the civil rights era, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Pete Seeger
and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy trained at Highlander. Rosa Parks
credited her time there with shaping her thinking before she sparked the
Montgomery bus boycott.
"We bring together grass-roots leaders to train each other,"
Waller-Muhammad said of the mission of the Highlander. "We believe that
each person has a piece of the pie and when we bring people together, we
get the whole pie. One of the things I am looking forward to is
intergenerational dialogue around some of the civil rights work."
But while she is looking forward to meeting people from across the
country who are working on civil rights issues, Waller-Muhammad is also
eager to meet people outside of civil rights to see how their goals
match.
"We, as people and citizens of this country, are supposed to direct the
way that politicians act. We are supposed to have a direct effect on
politicians and decision-makers," Waller-Muhammad said. "People are
still violating civil rights. Like the attack on voting rights. There
will always be work to be done."
Planning for the forum has been going on for three years, Lovelace said.
"It took a year to educate people to what it was," she said. "Then we
had to figure out if we could do it."
When the forum begins Wednesday with the march, it will have a different
vibe than most people might be used to. True to its mission, the
grass-roots forum will be organic. Registration is only $20, and about
50 groups helped organize the event. Along with big downtown hotels,
some workshops will be held in area churches, libraries and museums.
Several of the Forum's 950 workshops will focus on immigrant and
Hispanic communities; women's health issues and leadership; the Iraq
war; farm workers; and police brutality.
But anybody who wants to put on a workshop can simply add one as part of
the forum's "open spaces."
"This is an open forum," Lovelace said. "We exist only to provide the
space for it to happen."
Organizers are also hoping to make a difference. Both Lovelace and
Guilloud are aware of how the grass-roots movement can be perceived as
nonexistent or nonchalant.
"I think we want to beat that perception, because that is a way to
marginalize voices of the grass roots," said Guilloud, program director
for Project South, a leadership development organization. "We are
pushing for change that is broad and connected. The goal is to shift us
from a reactive stance to a position of strength and vision."
Waller-Muhammad, who said she has been a social activist for half of her
34 years, said the conference will make an international statement that
activism is strong in the United States.
"We who believe in freedom cannot rest," Waller-Muhammad said. "If we
stop standing up for justice and freedom, who knows what will happen to
the world?"
2 days and its ON! The time grows ever more near even as I type this. Walking around the city handing out fliers and posters in my travels the question I've heard the most is "why?". There are many complicated answers to give to this, it has led to many many great conversations.
Right now the only thing that comes into my mind when I'm asked "Why are you doing this?" or "Why in Atlanta?" is the Rage Against the Machine Lyric
"It has to start somewhere/It has to start sometime/What better place than here?/What better time than now? ALL HELL CAN'T STOP US NOW"
Check this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; interviews with key organizers of the forum.
Social Forum aims to help activists blend strengths
By ERNIE SUGGS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
06/24/07
On Wednesday, about 10,000 grass-roots activists will meet in Atlanta
for a major forum that will feature close to 1,000 workshops and, it's
hoped, a lot of understanding.
Understanding, that is, of what they do and of who they are.
"We want to show that we are not the marginalized sector of the crazies
across the street," said Stephanie Guilloud, one of the organizers of
the U.S. Social Forum. "We are your neighbors. I think for a lot of
folks, when we are talking about activists, there seems to be a sense
that we are complainers. But we are putting forth a vision that affects
us all."
The U.S. Social Forum, the first in the United States, begins Wednesday
with a march from the state Capitol to the Atlanta Civic Center, the
site for the bulk of events at the five-day conference.
Organizers are expecting participants from all over the country to come
talk about such issues as immigration, poverty, housing and police
conduct.
Alice Lovelace, an activist and poet who is also the USSF's lead
organizer, said the participants will include, among others, "Native
Americans, domestic workers, school teachers, youth, hip-hop artists,
environmentalists, labor leaders and people who work on immigration."
Lovelace said the main purpose of the forum is to get activists to work
together. In theory, the forum would help a singularly focused housing
activist learn how to "break the isolation" by learning how racism,
education and police conduct fit into his cause.
"This will allow all of them to get together and become better educated
about each other. We want to see how do we improve the world for human
beings," Lovelace said. "We cannot devise a strategy to move forward
until we hear how these issues impact the lives of everyday people."
Tufara Waller-Muhammad will travel from New Market, Tenn., to attend the
forum and talk about civil rights. Waller-Muhammad is a cultural program
leader for the Highlander Research and Education Center, which has been
a training ground for several civil rights leaders.
During the civil rights era, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Pete Seeger
and the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy trained at Highlander. Rosa Parks
credited her time there with shaping her thinking before she sparked the
Montgomery bus boycott.
"We bring together grass-roots leaders to train each other,"
Waller-Muhammad said of the mission of the Highlander. "We believe that
each person has a piece of the pie and when we bring people together, we
get the whole pie. One of the things I am looking forward to is
intergenerational dialogue around some of the civil rights work."
But while she is looking forward to meeting people from across the
country who are working on civil rights issues, Waller-Muhammad is also
eager to meet people outside of civil rights to see how their goals
match.
"We, as people and citizens of this country, are supposed to direct the
way that politicians act. We are supposed to have a direct effect on
politicians and decision-makers," Waller-Muhammad said. "People are
still violating civil rights. Like the attack on voting rights. There
will always be work to be done."
Planning for the forum has been going on for three years, Lovelace said.
"It took a year to educate people to what it was," she said. "Then we
had to figure out if we could do it."
When the forum begins Wednesday with the march, it will have a different
vibe than most people might be used to. True to its mission, the
grass-roots forum will be organic. Registration is only $20, and about
50 groups helped organize the event. Along with big downtown hotels,
some workshops will be held in area churches, libraries and museums.
Several of the Forum's 950 workshops will focus on immigrant and
Hispanic communities; women's health issues and leadership; the Iraq
war; farm workers; and police brutality.
But anybody who wants to put on a workshop can simply add one as part of
the forum's "open spaces."
"This is an open forum," Lovelace said. "We exist only to provide the
space for it to happen."
Organizers are also hoping to make a difference. Both Lovelace and
Guilloud are aware of how the grass-roots movement can be perceived as
nonexistent or nonchalant.
"I think we want to beat that perception, because that is a way to
marginalize voices of the grass roots," said Guilloud, program director
for Project South, a leadership development organization. "We are
pushing for change that is broad and connected. The goal is to shift us
from a reactive stance to a position of strength and vision."
Waller-Muhammad, who said she has been a social activist for half of her
34 years, said the conference will make an international statement that
activism is strong in the United States.
"We who believe in freedom cannot rest," Waller-Muhammad said. "If we
stop standing up for justice and freedom, who knows what will happen to
the world?"
Labels: atlanta, United States Social Forum
