US Social Forum Wiki - person's contributions [en]

March 11, 2010

2010-04-11T01:02:49Z

94.51.157.160: /* GETTING TO DETROIT: */

To: USSF Social Forum Writers' Network
From: Jackie Smith
Date: March 11, 2010

'''USSF Writers Memo & Muse March 11, 2010'''

Dear USSF Writers network,

First, thanks to you all for your hard work in getting the word out about the US Social Forum. As you know, the mainstream media is not very open to telling the stories of the positive ways people in our country are coming together to address the problems our communities are facing. Violence and scandal are seen as the best ways to sell the news. But we need to tell a different story if we want a different world, so you are so important to this effort!

Here are some updates/information and ideas for some stories, and I hope you can take time in the next week or so to get some newsletter pieces, op-eds, blog entries, and magazine articles out there. We need to encourage people to register for the USSF, so please emphasize this in your writing. Send people to this link for basic info and registration details: http://abc.ussf2010.org/

Be sure to send links to your work to writers@ussf2010.org or post on the wiki space’s “press-people stories” section (link below).

Thanks!
Jackie Smith

STORY IDEAS for USSF WRITERS NETWORK:

Why we need to go to Detroit…

== Protect Access to Education ==

As higher education has become more and more important to people’s ability to find meaningful work in our globalized economy, it has become increasingly out of reach. For many years, college tuition has risen much faster than overall inflation. At the same time, elite resistance to public spending has meant drastic cuts in public higher education budgets which have forced most public universities to seek private sources of funding. This has reduced the access and services to citizens most in need of public support.

Last week, after years of resistance to tuition hikes, funding cuts, and other impacts of corporatization, students, parents, faculty, and staff finally broke through the media.

The protests by so many hundreds of thousands were too large, too widespread, and too angry to ignore. Want to learn more? Check out the latest at www.DemocratizingEducation.org for regular updates.

== Despite Downturn, More Billionaires on Forbes’s Global Rich List ==

While the rest of us were reeling from the economic crisis, the rich have been raking it in! Forbes magazine just issued its 2010 list of the world’s richest people. While the list shrunk a bit in 2009 because of the crisis, the total number of billionaires on this year's list rose 27% from 793 to 1,011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8560731.stm .

Compare this news with the AFL-CIO’s Executive Pay Watch site: http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/04/14/executive-paywatch-ceo-perks-rise-as-worker-wages-jobs-wilt/

== GETTING TO DETROIT: ==

**Find regular updates on preparations for Detroit at http://wiki.ussf2010.org/wiki/Press_and_People_Stories

We’ve created a new space where updates will be made regularly to inform writers about the many ways people are preparing to get to Detroit. The People’s Freedom Caravan, the Bike-it rides to Detroit, the Red Road to Detroit, and Delta to Detroit poor people’s march will help spread the word about the USSF and bring in more folks to the USSF in June.

· Writers—please make a point to check this page for updates and help us get the word out about these exciting actions. The updates our correspondents provide can be a good source of material for a story!

· If you’re part of any of these, please help us by becoming a correspondent.

*So you think you can't raise enough money to participate. Have you tried all of these ideas?

· Groups around the country are working to raise funds to get to Detroit for the US Social Forum. Here are ideas for ways to raise money to support your trip and to help local groups raise funds for scholarships for youth and low-income people.

1. Ask 10 of your friends to save their spare change for 3 months and donate it to your USSF costs.

2. Ask 30 people if they will support you at $10 each.

3. Plan a party at your home or a local community space, and ask for a $5-$15 donation.

4. Creative Sales: bake a batch of cookies, decorate 20 postcards or write a poetry zine and sell them for $5 each.

5. Did your organization receive grant money this year? If so, ask your program officer about applying for discretionary funds to support your group's travel to Detroit.

6. Not connected to an organization? Join a caravan to Detroit from your area. Check out abc.ussf2010.org

7. Share a hotel room with 3 friends.

8. Set aside $15 from each of your paychecks from now until June.

9. Host a yard sale or a car wash.

10. If your birthday is coming up, ask people to donate to your USSF costs instead of giving you gifts.

UPCOMING EVENTS/ Story opportunities

MAY 1- May Day: - speak to the left, the progressives, the workers, consolidate support for USSF

May 9: Mother’s day-- Mother's Day was started in 1870 after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons.

MAY 31: Memorial Day - Veterans for Peace & Iraq Vets against the war plug USSF

Please keep inviting creative people and writers you know to join us! We especially hope to recruit some youth to work with us and build their skills at movement media/communications work and [http://researchpaperworld.com/custom-writing-service research paper writing]! Send people to the USSF website (www.ussf2010.org) and urge them to click “Get Involved.”

[[Category:Writer's Network]]

USSF Working in Public

2010-04-11T01:01:23Z

94.51.157.160: /* More */

<noinclude>[[AlternativeHomePage|< back home]]
; We work in public for two reasons, transparency and to have you join us.</noinclude>

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==April==
: 09th: Tavis Smiley Radio Program,[http://www.tavissmileyradio.com/guests10/040910/CheriHonkala_KhalilahCollins.html, USSF and March to the Fulfill the Dream on Tavis Smiley Radio Program starting TODAY!]
: 08th: [http://www.portside.org/?q=showpost&i=7556, Blackcommentator.com: Social Forum and Social Struggle by Bill Fletcher, Jr.]
:: reposted on www.portside.org
: 06th: MatadorChange: [http://matadorchange.com/anti-poverty-campaign-kicks-off-with-march-to-fulfill-the-dream Anti-poverty campaign kicks off with March to Fulfill the Dream]
: 04th: Audio: [http://arborama.blogspot.com/2010/03/22-march-show-lake-folk-and-us-social.html 22 March Show - Lake Folk and US Social Forum]
: 02nd: DemocracyNow: [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/2/us_social_forum_to_be_held Show on USSF announcement]

==March==
: 30th: DemocracyNow: [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/26/a_look_at_arne_duncans_vip announces] they will be in Detroit next week and for a week in June!
: 27th: [[USSF Writers Network|Writer's Network]] update: [[March 27, 2010]]
: 26th: Just Seeds: [http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2010/03/call_for_tshirt_designs.html Call for T-Shirt Designs]
: 26th: Alternet: [http://www.alternet.org/vision/146142/we_are_in_the_middle_of_transformational_change%3A_it%27s_time_the_debate_matches_up_with_the_huge_challenges_ahead_of_us We Are in the Middle of Transformational Change]
: 26th SWOP: [http://www.swopblogger.org/2010/03/youth-organizer-tracy-on-progressive.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook Youth Organizer Tracy On Progressive Radio Network]
: 24th: YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6dstsIMfyU USSF 2010]
: 23rd: Be Magazine: [http://www.bemagazine.org/?p=1370 “March to Fulfill the Dream”]
: 23rd: Great [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKSH2pe8NaE 2007 invitation video]
: 22th YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki1_cz15_CU US Social Forum 'Road to Detroit' hip hop show]
: 21st: US Social Forum Basics: [http://soundcloud.com/ussocialforum/sets/us-social-forum-basics-the-online-info-session The Online Info Session!]
: 21st: Daily Kos: [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/3/21/842715/-The-Left-is-Coming!-The-Left-is-Coming Daily KosThe Left is Coming! The Left is Coming!! ]
: 16th: Transformative Social Change at US Social Forum: [http://transformativechange.org/transform/2010/03/transformative-social-change-ussfplans/ Plans in Progress, Get Involved]
: 15th: [[Project South]] [http://www.projectsouth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=9&Itemid=21 The SouthEast Organizer's Guide] ([http://www.projectsouth.org/images/stories/pdfs/peoplesmovementassembly/se-organizer%20guide-2010-smaller.pdf pdf])
: 16th: Wiki: [[Rob Yanagida]] working on [[Asian Pacific Islander American outreach]]
: 16th: Mark Rudd interviews [http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/doing-the-spadework/2010/3/17/doing-the-spadework-031610.html Tracy Chacon]
: 15th: YouTube: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcgzXvM1qQo Detroit People's Movement Assembly]
: On going: Flickr: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/ussocialforum/sets/72157623351049513/show/ amazing photo slide show of the @USSF Detroit People's Movement]
: 13th: [[Adrienne Maree Brown]]: [http://adriennemareebrown.net/blog/?p=1325 live blog of the detroit people’s movement assembly]
: 11th [[USSF Writers Network|Writer's Network]] update: [[March 11, 2010]]
: 10th: News: Moved the old front page here: [[OLD: USSF Planning Wiki]] to be worked into this version of the home page.
: 10th: History of Detroit: [http://www.flypmedia.com/issues/23/#1/1 video flip]
: 08th: Facebook call for action: [http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=387605297904&1&index=0 Change:: The Music--2010 U.S. Social Forum Multimedia Arts Project]
: 06th: News: [http://www.etruth.com/Know/News/Story.aspx?id=507320&fcid=Know-NEW/UPDATED ND professor wants local people to attend social justice forum]
: 06th: News: [[Adrienne Maree Brown]] interviewed for [[USSF]] at [http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/doing-the-spadework/2010/3/10/doing-the-spadework-030910.html Mark Rudd's] Progressive Radio Network
: 05th: We are excited to announce publication of the USSF 2007 book, [http://stores.lulu.com/changemaker The United States Social Forum: Perspectives of a Movement] edited by the [[USSF Book Committee]] ([http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-united-states-social-forum-perspectives-of-a-movement/8357341 book page]).
: 04th: Yes: [http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/america-the-remix/us-social-forum-forging-alliances-a-movement-of-movements?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=socmed&utm_content=GreenA_USSF&utm_campaign=100307_USSF US Social Forum: Forging Alliances, a Movement of Movements
: 01st: News: [http://www.organizingupgrade.com/2010/03/2010-social-forum/ Interview Harmony Goldberg] did with [[Cindy Wiesner]]
: 01st: Phone Call-In: [http://ussf2010.org/node/127 Information Sessions] throughout the month

==February==
** 11th: Yes: [http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/america-the-remix/on-the-road-to-detroit-how-to-get-to-the-us-social-forum-2010?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=socmed&utm_content=Staff_USSF&utm_campaign=100313_SayYesSat On the Road to Detroit: How to Get to the U.S. Social Forum 2010]
** We are starting the [http://wiki.ussf2010.org/wiki/USSF_Working_in_Public Email Sequencing Calendar]

==January==
** [[Facebook]]: [http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=315278494883&index=1 Philly Road to the US Social Forum - Open Meeting 2.0]
** Check out our [[Graphics]]
** Launched registration
** National meeting in Albuquerque

==More==
** [[Press-People Stories]]
** [[USSF Wiki Calendar - Past Activity Listings]]
** [http://essayonline.net/custom-essay-writing custom essay]