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Eric Griego: Infectious hope
U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta makes me feel optimistic for first time since college By Eric Griego

Albuquerque Tribune
July 13, 2007

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2007/jul/13/eric-griego-infectious-hope/

The last week of June, I, and about 10,000 other lunatics from around the country and the world, braved the brutal Atlanta summer weather to take part in the first U.S. Social Forum.

Man, it was hot. But I have to say that a sunburned neck, projectile sweat and the constant threat of heat exhaustion were worth being part of what I believe will go down in history as the launch of a new American social movement.

The forum was more than just a collection of idealistic or disgruntled lefties. Sure, there were lots of those. But most of the 10,000 attendees spent the few days in serious discussion, dissection and, I hope, direction-changing of U.S. policy on several domestic and international issues.

The forum tackled social justice, health care, public education and the environment, as well as several foreign policy issues, the most prominent of which, not surprisingly, was the Iraq War.

Why Atlanta? As one of the battle fronts in the civil rights movement, organizers felt that many of the issues discussed in the forum - such as immigration, racism and economic justice - were part of the ongoing struggle for civil rights for all. It was appropriate that so many citizens and leaders took to the streets in the forum's opening march, in what had to be the most diverse, if not the largest, peaceful demonstration since the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The men and women, old and young, gathered in Atlanta's Civic Center were literally of every color, race, religion and social class. For anyone watching, the myth of an angry, white, middle-class-liberal-led progressive movement was dispelled once and for all. Regardless of their places in society or their pigmentation, what most people there shared was a philosophy that the United States and some of its like-minded allies are leading the world alarmingly down the wrong path.

The U.S. Social Forum was part of the larger World Social Forum series that began in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. There was much discussion about what attendees were against - the Iraq War, U.S. policy toward Cuba, the flawed immigration bill. But there was an equal if not greater amount of discussion about alternatives to the status quo and the kind of institutions and organization that would be required to carve a different path.

To generalize, attendees broke down along three lines: About a third were activists who were against the current U.S. and world order but had few realistic plans for changing it; about a third were there just to commiserate about how bad things had become since President Bush has been in power; and a solid third were there to find real, serious solutions to moving the United States in a different direction.

I tried to spend time with the third group as much as possible. It was fun, and sometimes infuriating, listening to the other two groups. But in the end, I was looking for some new ideas that might work back here in New Mexico and maybe in Washington.

After five days in the blistering Atlanta heat, I was ready to get back home to the blistering, but much drier, Albuquerque heat. On the plane back, shivering from the air conditioning, I more hopeful than I've been since my college days. Back then, I thought a small group of people or even 10,000 could change the world if they believed they could.

Maybe Atlanta will mark the week that change began. I hope so.

Griego is an Albuquerque writer and former Albuquerque City Council member.

E.W. Scripps Co.
© 2006 The Albuquerque Tribune

Labels: atlanta, US Social Forum, USSF