What’s it all about?
Debates on neo-liberalism and discussions on borders and exclusion are juxtaposed with the US Social Marketplace, exploitative food prices and space rentals. Chanting drummers, Palestinian voices excluded (Fortunately on this one there was a public apology – but none the less it shows the tentacles of Zionism reach far and wide. Guards at the entrance to the Civic centre demanding your “USSF Badge” or else – No homeless allowed here just like at the WSF! No pay $15 no entry.
The sheer amount of paper wasted in the form of leaflets, newsletters, announcements – most of which are completely unnecessary and unwanted since everyone has a programme of workshop and events. What happened to the supposedly environmentally and socially conscious people?
GoLeft - Someone gave me this leaflet
and told me to go to the site, and get this, “win an interracial kiss”! Now that is really progressive, radical and transformational. The site describes itself as
The goal of GoLeft is to build an online community where we, as isolated progressive activists, can gather.
We want to do something different here. GoLeft is not just a site for individuals to aimlessly list their activities. We’re a community. A community of activists. A community of progressive-minded media junkies. A community of people who understand the web as a portal to in-person actions. We think about this virtual site as a gateway to building our real-world activities
But you have to pay $35 ($100 for organisations) to join – a social networking site for activists that’s exclusive to those who can afford to pay $35 for the privilege and dares to call itself ” GoLeft”
I came here with much optimism and yes there have been some uplifting moments of sharing and learning but for the most part workshops have been more like lectures followed by question and answer sessions – not my understanding of a workshop which is supposed to be participatory and solution orientated. On the whole the African Tent has also been a disappointment though this afternoon there was an excellent heated debate on Zimbabwe followed by a film on Haiti “We Must Kill the Bandits” which I will write up tomorrow.
I missed the forum’s evening plenary session because it coincided with the Haitian film – hard decision but I believe I made the right choice for me ( See BFP for a report on the plenary)
The best thing to come out of the forum has been the informal discussions with people outside of workshops, just chatting on the grass – I met some incredible dedicated activists from Haiti and from the Gulf and had the honour of spending this evening with 3 badass bloggers – Fabulosa Mujer, Brown FemPower (Women of Colour) who is totally energised and brilliant and Vegan Kid who told us about some experimental production of meat growing on trees that has put me off eating meat – yuk – add that to eugenics and we are moving into one scary world!
Tags: US Social Forum
What's it all about?
Debates on neo-liberalism and discussions on borders and exclusion are juxtaposed with the US Social Marketplace, exploitative food prices and space rentals. Chanting drummers, Palestinian voices excluded (Fortunately on this one there was a public apology - but none the less it shows the tentacles of Zionism reach far and wide. Guards at the entrance to the Civic centre demanding your "USSF Badge" or else - No homeless allowed here just like at the WSF! No pay $15 no entry.
The sheer amount of paper wasted in the form of leaflets, newsletters, announcements - most of which are completely unnecessary and unwanted since everyone has a programme of workshop and events. What happened to the supposedly environmentally and socially conscious people?
GoLeft - Someone gave me this leaflet
and told me to go to the site, and get this, "win an interracial kiss"! Now that is really progressive, radical and transformational. The site describes itself as
The goal of GoLeft is to build an online community where we, as isolated progressive activists, can gather.
We want to do something different here. GoLeft is not just a site for individuals to aimlessly list their activities. We’re a community. A community of activists. A community of progressive-minded media junkies. A community of people who understand the web as a portal to in-person actions. We think about this virtual site as a gateway to building our real-world activities
But you have to pay $35 ($100 for organisations) to join - a social networking site for activists that's exclusive to those who can afford to pay $35 for the privilege and dares to call itself " GoLeft"
I came here with much optimism and yes there have been some uplifting moments of sharing and learning but for the most part workshops have been more like lectures followed by question and answer sessions - not my understanding of a workshop which is supposed to be participatory and solution orientated. On the whole the African Tent has also been a disappointment though this afternoon there was an excellent heated debate on Zimbabwe followed by a film on Haiti "We Must Kill the Bandits" which I will write up tomorrow.
I missed the forum's evening plenary session because it coincided with the Haitian film - hard decision but I believe I made the right choice for me ( See BFP for a report on the plenary)
The best thing to come out of the forum has been the informal discussions with people outside of workshops, just chatting on the grass - I met some incredible dedicated activists from Haiti and from the Gulf and had the honour of spending this evening with 3 badass bloggers - Fabulosa Mujer, Brown FemPower (Women of Colour) who is totally energised and brilliant and Vegan Kid who told us about some experimental production of meat growing on trees that has put me off eating meat - yuk - add that to eugenics and we are moving into one scary world!
Tags: US Social Forum
Tagged as:
Social Movements,
WSF
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I greatly appreciate your on-going commentary on this forum as I’ve been feeling left out this summer due to financial constraints. It’s always the case, of course, that the best of anything like that is the networking outside of the event proper. But one wonders how the GoLeft folks missed the obvious: there’s already “a community of people who understand the web as a portal to in-person actions.” It’s called the blogosphere, it’s pretty effective, and it doesn’t cost anything (he-llo!).
Changeskeeker@it just raises the cynical in one but yes the networking has been good and I’ve met some very interesting people.
Sokari…I wish I was there! But only to meet you.
You’re disappointed? Remeber, it is the US and the US sucks.
Kym@ yea me too – overall it was disappointing but there were a couple of high points!
Wow. I am now ctaching p on AMc
and the like but am so glad you fourn it worthwhile
Wow. but am so glad you found it worthwhile in some way at least
As for the other stuff
Well I’m glad you made it through
I am so I don’t even knwo about this right now
Blackamazon@ the more I reflect the more I feel that the most important aspect of the forum were the informal conversations in the open spaces – just random meetings with people, finding out about their work and realising so many commonalities. The meta part of the forum especially the closing ceremony was a bunch of self-congratulatory speeches – especially when you know that some of those people had done eff all and do eff all except work for fancy NGOs.
The only exception was the woman from the Philippines who made called on the people of the US to support the people of the global south and to recognise the impact of the US war on terror and neo-liberalism was having on our countries.
I also didnt feel comfortable with the shout by one person that “we want power” – the word “power” is so with oppression and imperialism over the centuries. We need to find another language to express what it is we stand for and what kind of transformation we are struggling for
I have some video I am trying to download and put on youtube and will link if and when I manage to edit it
Hey sokari!
The non-workshop conversations, to me, were the most valuable too.
I’m loving your no nonesense observations. We need that, too much congrulatory talk going on, and trying to never critique our own selves and work. Humility is a trait we can’t never have enough of.