To: US Social Forum Writers Network
From: Jackie Smith
Date: February 27, 2010
USSF Writers Memo & Muse Februrary 27, 2010
- • Encourage People to Participate in the USSF!
- • Bike-it! Pedaling the Road to Detroit
- • International Women’s Day MARCH 8
STORY IDEAS:
Contents
Help Promote USSF Registration
Now is the time when the agenda of our U.S. Social Forum gets set. We need to encourage groups to submit proposals for workshops so that work can begin to link-up groups working on similar questions and we can build excitement and energy that will draw tens of thousands of activists to Detroit this summer. See: http://www.ussf2010.org/call_for_proposals
- People can also submit proposals for artistic and cultural activities at: http://organize.ussf2010.org/culture
Why come to Detroit this Summer? Some Talking Points:
- • The media keeps talking about these “tea party” activists, but do they really have anything to say about how we as a country and as local communities can help people deal with their everyday struggles? The people coming to Detroit this June are offering some real solutions to problems like poverty, homelessness, unemployment—and they’re building a national and global movement to press for major changes in how our economy is organized. Come be part of a positive movement for change and help get our country out of the gridlock it’s in.
- • We're working to inform people here about work being done around the country to address the increasingly challenging problems people are facing with unemployment, poverty, and degradation of our communities and environment. The United States Social Forum in Detroit this summer (June 22-26) is an opportunity for us to build our networks here of people working on these issues while bringing in energy and ideas from activists around the country and world.
- • While Washington is getting bogged down in partisan rivalries, people around the country are finding ways to solve the urgent problems they’re facing –including joblessness, food and housing insecurity, and the degradation of their communities and the natural environment. Come to Detroit to meet people with positive ideas and solutions for addressing the financial crisis.
- • The problems we’re facing in our community are just like those being addressed by activists in other cities. Detroit will give us a chance to meet those community leaders, share ideas, and learn new strategies for bringing long-term solutions to problems.
- • For additional ideas, see: [[1]]
Can’t Come to Detroit? No Problem: Organize Local Actions to Raise Awareness and Join the Energy of the USSF: Assemblies, Brigades, Caravans, Detroit Expanded. People Everywhere are Preparing for the Forum.
- Peoples Movement Assemblies are happening all over the country from New Orleans Louisiana, Portland Oregon, San Antonio Texas, all the way to Knoxville Tennessee. Local communities are meeting to bring the visions, demands, declarations, and calls to action from their communities to Detroit in June. Check out: http://abc.ussf2010.org/assemblies
- A new site, [2] highlights all the different lead-up activities to the Forum.
National Call-In Information Sessions on the USSF: People who have questions about the Forum or who want to know how to register, how to get involved, what will be happening in Detroit are invited to phone in. National planners will be hosting one hour phone presentations for anyone to call and participate. In English: Tues 3/02 2pm EST ; Tues 3/09 2pm EST; Tues 3/16 2pm EST
In Spanish: Thurs 3/04 6pm EST; Tues 3/11 6pm EST; Thurs 3/18 6pm EST
Call: 712.432.0075 pass: 388105#
PEDAL POWER! Bicycling to the US Social Forum
In the lead-up to Detroit, organizers are experimenting with new ways to make the forum more inclusive, accessible, and illustrative of the principles it advances. The Bike It! [3]project is working to advance these goals by organizing group bike rides from across the country into Detroit in June. Part of the purpose is to provide a method of transportation to the forum that doesn't produce carbon emissions, but Bike It organizers are also using the rides as a way to make connections with other community efforts along their bike routes, promote bike culture within Detroit during the forum, and leave bikes in Detroit with community groups who can use them in on-going projects. Organizers are looking for riders and ride organizers as well as donations of bikes--find out about and help promote rides near you or spread the word about the project and the need for donations to bike communities in your area. If you are interested in covering one of these rides, e-mail ussfwriters@gmail.com.
International Women’s Day March 8
International women’s day commemorates the 1908 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. It celebrates the contributions of women as workers, among their many other special contributions to society. The US Social Forum highlights the central role that gender justice plays in any just social order. The USSF will provide opportunities for gender justice activists to develop and deepen their analyses of how economic globalization and other social practices contribute to the marginalization and neglect of women’s needs. They will discuss strategies for building the power of women to raise their collective voices to demand justice. The voices and concerns of women must be heard if we are to realize our vision of another, more just, equitable, and sustainable United States and world.
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! Send people to the USSF website [4] and urge them to click “Get Involved.”
For more news and updates on the USSF, see: [5]
TIPS FOR WRITERS: “How to Pitch a Story” [6]
SEND YOUR SUGGESTIONS AND PUBLICATIONS TO: writers@ussf2010.org
This “memo and muse” available at: [[7]]