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Agenda:

10 Responsibility Pairs 10:30 Outreach Report (Tammy) 11 Finance Report (Salima) 11:30 Kilimanjaro Reports (w/Jackie + George on participant results from Riverside) 12 Smith Doerr, Jai Sen workshop, workshop observations 12:10 Break 12:15 NPC Participation 1 LUNCH

Frame: How much political alignment do we need to have about the purpose of the forum in order to restructure and plan next steps? - that body needs to be a reflection of the material needs

2 Small Groups. 2 rounds, 45 minutes each. 4pm Break - facilitators synthesize 4:30-6pm


Opened with taking ownership of things we want to own that DIDN'T work!

Then reports:

Outreach -- US Map can be found at http://onpointconsortium.org/ussf2010/ussf2010.html

(Sha drop in numbers of registration timeline)

Kilimanjaro Report --

(have ife drop in or link to the full report)

Finance Report --

(have steph drop in reports)

- recommendations:

invest in staff housed in organizations keep victor on to finalize the finances

Q/A

- when will we discuss the hotels - want to name the in-kind


bike rack:

- translation of numbers and reports

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Political Conversation:

Infrastructure: http://ussfdetroit.org/infrastructure Political Programming: http://ussfdetroit.org/politicalprogramming Political Leadership: http://ussfdetroit.org/politicalleadership Communications/Media: http://ussfdetroit.org/communicationsmedia Resource Development: http://ussfdetroit.org/resourcedevelopment

Doing 2 rounds of 45 minutes to gather lessons learned, questions/assumptions, and positions - where do you stand on this?

Framing: - this about making distinction between blame and accountability - approaching this with humility: not all of us had the full picture, we need to enter into this with questions, naming assumptions and expectations - we are all political leadership, leadership makes mistakes - political leadership means praxis (theory and practice) - structure and agency: bigger than the individual, what did we have choices around and what were the conditions?

==

Based on the conversations we have had - what do we need to shift/change/work on before we can decide on the next forum(s)?

- talk with delegations about their experience of whether the forum is worth it - fax/mail the survey to people offline - we were tasked with creating a space to converge - now we need to grapple with the question: to what end. [we didn't answer this ourselves, just said we need to land it] - need a plan for backlash. Use Stand With Us workshop as a case study, not to take a stance on zionism but as a way to deal with backlash. We should also discuss connection between zionism & neoliberalism -- stand with us workshop was a part of a larger attack on the USSF. Four cases of it's current projection (backlash) - now that ussf has ended, was it a conference or a convergence? what does it mean, and how do we continue on, make political statements, etc. For example all these young people committing suicide, will we respond to that as individual organizations or as the USSF? How can we get to the point where we can speak as a team or a group? - take time to discuss what our diverse politics are, the context we're in, what are the bodies within the social forum process in the US that are designed to take collective action? PMA? We need more clarity. - need to update the We Believe statement, charter principles - we may be ready to answer the question of another USSF or not before we get through all of this. We are part of a World Social forum process, and they want to know. They trusted us to move this process, and our political commitment to that group of people to let them know what we think happened, and what's coming up. We need to be accountable to a process that we joined. - Re-evaluate role and function of the NPC, based on state of the country, what region we're in. Also evaluate who is in advisory role, who is in functioning role. - Knowledge transfer from last forum to the next forum - Name and resolve the purpose - ID the various positions and process for decision making - Resolve political leadership - (Will) as one of the coordinators it was very clear to me that we're going to take collective responsibility for how we're going from here to the next. This responsibility should be collective, not just individuals. - Evaluate membership and orientation of the NPC - Move from what are our ideas into WHO is going to do it. ID what that work is that we are trying to move forward - One location or several locations - If we do another in a few years, we're going to need a couple million dollars. This thing is doubling, so we'd expect 24,000 people. - Got to deal with question of the United States, not a viable political arena of struggle, border of the US does not define the terrain of political struggle. - Social Forum needs to be grounded in the political context of wherever it is held. This needs to then be linked to national and international level. As organizers, sharing connections between us and other places, we need space for dialogue building. Need to radicalize movement in the US. What is the "salt" that we need to make in this country. Political groundness could inform the quality versus quantity. Informed by the political transformation we want to make. - Built this as a broad tent: what can be done with this broad of a tent? how far can be push it toward practice toward what we may want to build together and the bounds of what that means? how do we want to move people overtime? what is needed in this period of history and what can we do overtime? - Decide how much we want to live our values - commitment to open source, transparency of our info and others, no set data policy, we need planning for communications that reflects political unity, rather than an expectation that communications can represent a unity/alignment that doesn't exist - the demographics that's represented needs to be reviewed - youth, black male, etc. Keeping in mind the difference between staff and NPC member orgs - Easier way to integrate new people onto the NPC -Maybe we need to scale down for us to grow and that should be okay -As an NPC as a body we need to get to know each other and work on our relationships so that we can take that out to the larger movement -Need youth-led programs and organizations at the table as well as intergenerational groups -If indeed our outcome is to transform the US from the ground-up and take power then it may make sense for us to think about our pace; what is the leadership body that can take this forward in terms of political alignment, skill set, and composition can give us the power, agency and capacity to build from teh ground up; if the NPC reflects our demographics or not -Whether or not one or mutliple social forums, if you are going to have effective resource mobilization it needs to start way in advance, like now. We need to support as many groups as possible to make plans now for three-four years down the line -Need to figure out if this is the right use of resources in terms of time, money and people's; raises deeper question of whether or not this is the right activity for this moment; don't want to get into a process of whether we need to keep growing -Need to have this discussion with the international Council to discuss whether or not this is the right activity at this moment; be part of that deliberation -We need to make a list of the political discussions that we want and need to have and start working through those -Some groups are in evaluation about their participation; we need to figure out who is going to carry the work forward and who is available for what and this may be a determining factor in what it is and where we go -Part of whatever process we decide to move on that the next step be a mechanism for a discussion between USSF and WSF because this is also going on at an international and regional level: so we can learn from and provide lessons to that global process -Need to spend some time looking at unhealthy patterns in how we carry out the social forum--both in Atlanta and Detroit. Questions of impact on other work, impact on local, what is it leaving behind in any specific location -How can we reach a higher level of unity? How can we get through specific political discussions and have the time to really get through them and deep into the content. We have to understand how this government is moving. (i..e why is Obama moving as he is, how is fascism being moved in this country). A United Front has to be built on an objective assessment of what the political conditions and moment is at the time. Whether or not to have a social forum depends on what the political conditions are and the need is. Let's put this down on paper, assess it and figure it out. -What support are we lending and how are we connecting to WSF in Dakkar? Is our only responsibility to the US? -I am going on the assumption that there will be a social forum and I don't see another process that can build what we need here. I don't see another vehicle except this. In Porto Alegre the "Another World is Necessary" was manifest in all aspects of the WSF--how it was done, how people were fed. I am arguing how we are going to model the world that we want to create. Then we can attract those forces that aren't politicized so that we can politicize them--food and energy are two good ways to do this. Just when you think you're not getting anywhere when you keep pushing it comes together. We need to show unity, joy and excitement about what we are doing. We need to get to know each other and we need to reinject excitement in ourselves and in this group so that we can manifest it outside of this group. -What if you have a vote on whether or not we are going to have a social forum and half say no and other half say yes, then how does it go? If the 49% say yes, then do they move forward? Too many people are not here. -Each organization put forward the purpose of the Social Forum: I see the purpose of the social forum being a transformative space for young organizers -I'd like to push us around our agency. I think we can and should talk through the purpose and make those purposes explicit. Build and cohere the left--that is not a reason to build the social forum process but we need to be explicit and not undermine each other's strategies. Let's build a leadership body that represents those different purposes and goals. Leadership cannot be self-selected and has to reflect the purpose and goals and connections/relationships to different movements, fronts and WSF. We need to stop undermining each other and see how they can co-exist and interact and build. Don't agree with big tent idea but multiple, strategic forces. Position on the purpose of the social forum: to practice movement building, to build scale and have an organizing strategy that reflect the different purposes that we have. -That is the connundrum, we do have an NPC, we do have a body of people, but we are tentative about stating positions as organizations or a whole. Maybe part of it is just staking a claim and going forward but there is still a lot of hesistations, maybe because we are not here. Who is going to do all of this that we're talking about and how and then how it is going to be resourced? -Want to remind folks of the time and history that we are at. If there is another vehicle that represents people who are struggling then let me know. If not then let we have a responsibility to make this happen. How are we going to truly move forward on taking down a system that is oppressing all of us? If the statement is "another world is possible" then what do we need to create that and where else are we having those discussions. If we want the social movements around the world to work, we have to organize ourselves here. Poverty and oppression exist here in this country and around the world people need to know this. If we don't have it anywhere else, then we need to come together and do work beyond our areas. It isn't enough. Global poverty is growing, how are we going to lock hands. I don't have to like you but if I want to survive, then we have to get to a point of coming together and unite on something and move forward. The social forum is a where I feel that it can happen.

Process Clarity: Synthesis Body will be meeting tonight to pull all of this together into what the key conversations are that we can have tomorrow morning.

- Trust that we can get to purpose of vehicle, we can get clear on how to build it so it advances our social movements and serves different purposes of different fronts and forces - Proposal: given time so that we can have organized conversation ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF THE FORUM, coming up in different ways in the room and then from there identify proposals that need to be created based on that purpose and who is going to create those proposals - Purpose is to create a liberation zone, towards a liberated society - Operate at different purposes, local organizations were able to create certain things to meet it purpose. NPC was not able to do that. We're not all fully in the room. - Great that we were able to get together. would have been great to be able to get together without social forum but we didn't and social forum helped make this happen. -We should be thinking even bigger then the social forum, what about the our goals for the broader world, how is the social forum part of what we want to build so that it's not cross purposes - positions from organizations so we know where people stand: maybe hesistant to act in this room because of needing to check in with our organization -we have a mandate to be responsive to all the people who show up and represent a need and a desire -propose that we have one of the political discussions that would take us toward a next step: this can help us figure out who is moving this forward (who the leadership is)

Next Steps: Synthesis Body will meet tonight 9-11 to work on synthesis, alignment, proposals, next steps and come with that for tomorrow's meeting.