Happy new year, writers! And welcome to new members of the US Social Forum writers network. I hope you’re ready and inspired for an exciting several months of work to build movement and momentum on the road to the Detroit U.S. Social Forum!
Please keep up your efforts to put out at least one story per month about the USSF in various types of media outlets. Remember, the USSF Writers Network wiki page also has suggestions for how to publish your work ( http://wiki.ussf2010.org/wiki/USSF_Writers_Network ).
Another world is possible; Another United States is Necessary!
In solidarity,
Jackie Smith, Sociologists without Borders & the Communications Working Group of the USSF
IMPORTANT UPDATES AND STORY IDEAS:
*Registration for USSF opens January 20. Individuals and groups can register to take part in the momentous event that will be the 2010 USSF. Organizations registering can propose workshops for the program along a range of themes (and cross-cutting threads). An expansive consultation process involving more than 900 activists generated the following list of themes, and the workshop committee will review applications and encourage collaborations to expand movement coalition-building at the USSF.
- Themes: *Capitalism in crisis/economic alternatives; *Climate justice; *Indigenous sovereignty; *Displacement/(im)migration; *Democracy; *Understanding right-wing opposition; *Building left/progressive movements; *Community-based strategies; *Labor; *Media justice/communications; *Transformative justice/healing; *Anti-war/militarization/criminalization; *International solidarity and responsibility; *Detroit and the rust belt
*The USSF is GROWING! The largest USSF National Planning Committee meeting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. About 90 individuals representing 40+ organizations gathered for an intense 2 ½ days to help plan and pave the road to Detroit. Working groups outlined their plans for People’s Freedom Caravans and a variety of regional events leading up to the USSF, and strategized about how to publicize the event, especially to groups that are most under-represented in our country’s political system. New organizations joined the National Planning Committee, and 10 new staff members (full and part-time) will help support the work many volunteers are doing to make another United States possible. This is a huge improvement over the first USSF, when a single local anchor organization, Project South, and a very over-worked coordinator, Alice Lovelace, brought the first USSF to Atlanta. Given the strength of the team behind USSF-2, the aim of bringing 20,000-30,000 activists to Detroit seems well within reach.
*Martin Luther King Day is a reminder that the important work for racial justice and economic rights is far from over. Indeed, what we see in Detroit and elsewhere suggests that preserving the victories King’s leadership helped our movements achieve will require many more of us to step up and demand major changes in how our society and world are organized. In his letter from a Birmingham jail, King noted that the “appalling silence of the good people” was more condemnable than the brutality of the hateful people he encountered. In memory of Dr. King, help those silent people step up and speak out against racial injustice, against abuses of worker and labor rights (for which King was fighting when he was killed), and against the economic violence that plagues our communities. Tell them to get on the road to Detroit and be part of the United States Social Forum, which carries on King’s work for social justice. As one youth leader at the recent NPC meeting observed: ‘The people we look up to were our age when they did the work we look up to them for. The USSF is where we need to be if we want to live up to their examples."
*Adele Nieves recently joined the USSF staff as the new communications coordinator. Adele will help coordinate and expand our ability to get the USSF message out there. She has fielded a number of requests from local Detroit and other publication outlets for stories about the USSF (listed below). If you are interested in writing for one or more of these audiences, please send your stories or ideas to Adele at: adele@ussf2010.org
- Michigan Citizen (500 - 750 words) will provide space for one story a week
- We need a focus on union and immigrant stories for union and immigrant publications/blogs
- Metro Labor News (would like to have a story about the recent decision of AFSME-Michigan to be part of the Detroit Local Organizing Committee of the USSF)
- Arab American News Weekly
- Muslim Times
- Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
- Progressive/left blogs: Znet, politicio, Leftist Lounge, Alternet
- The Independent Media Center is an organization that aims to expand popular media, and you may even have a local indymedia center that you can join and that can be a good outlet for your writing on the USSF. http://www.indymedia.org
You are also invited to send your ideas for story hooks for the USSF Writers network to: writers@ussf2010.org .