AFL-CIO planning significant role in U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, June 22-26

AFL-CIO planning significant role in U.S. Social Forum
By Howard Kling
April 14, 2010

MINNEAPOLIS - The “eyes of America are on Detroit and southeast Michigan,” say the organizers of a major gathering of activists that will take place there in late June.
Detroit is the new New Orleans, ground zero in the war on working people and the devastation wrought by failed policy and a failed economic system. Detroit continues to have the highest unemployment rate of any major city in the country. Male unemployment in 2008 was estimated at a staggering 48.5%.

The stark realities of this city reach far into communities all across the United States, sign and symbol of all that has gone wrong. That’s why the AFL-CIO is joining nearly 100 other organizations in building for a convergence of social movements and activists called the United States Social Forum, to be held June 22-26 at Cobo Hall and Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit.

The U.S. Social Forum is not a conference. It is a movement building process, a space of resistance to economic and social inequality, a time to find common ground and common strategies, a way to practice democracy and create a broad movement for justice.

Labor’s participation is vital to this movement building process. The AFL-CIO, as well as union sponsors like AFSCME and Jobs with Justice, want to put the issue of jobs squarely on the agenda of the Forum and help build an alliance and movement for real change. Unions will have a significant presence for the five days, including a labor “tent” and a variety of workshops and other activities sponsored by the AFL-CIO.

United Auto Workers Region 1A Director Rory Gamble sees the Forum as an opportunity for labor to build relationships with other movements and encourage “a strong, fight-back attitude toward the intense corporate agenda that is blocking change on health care, labor rights, fair trade policies and a host of issues that we believe in.”

“Detroit is a birthplace of the modern labor movement,” Gamble states in a letter circulating to mobilize labor participation, “and an important focus for the civil rights movement and social change.” It was chosen as the USSF site, “not just as the most visible example of the nation’s economic and social challenges, but how we confront and organize solutions to the problems facing us.”

Read the full article at:

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_4438


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JUNE 22-26 Detroit, Michigan

What is the US Social Forum?

The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is not a
 conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the 
economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our
 struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational,
 diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and
 changes history.

We must declare what we want our world to look like and we 
must start planning the path to get there. The USSF provides spaces to learn 
from each other’s experiences and struggles, share our analysis of the problems 
our communities face, build relationships, and align with our international 
brothers and sisters to strategize how to reclaim our world.

Why a 2nd US Social Forum?

The gathering in Atlanta in June 2007 had 12,000 people come together in the belief that "Another World Was Possible!" Movement forces from all over the country took advantage of the opportunity to celebrate, organize, teach, debate and otherwise contribute to a growing sense that "Another U.S. Is Necessary!" The USSF made clear our need for greater convergence among progressives and the left in this country and to begin to articular our vision for "Another World."


The purpose of the USSF is to effectively and affirmatively articulate the 
values and strategies of a growing and vibrant movement for justice in the
 United States. Those who build towards and participate in the USSF are no 
longer interested in simply stating what social justice movements
 “stand-against,” rather we see ourselves as part of new movements that reach
 beyond national borders, that practice democracy at all levels, and understand 
that neo-liberalism abroad and here in the US is not the solution. The USSF 
provides a first major step towards such articulation of what we stand for.

For more information visit:

http://ussf2010.org/