Future of the Forum, Part II: Rooting the US Social Forum Process in the Everyday Practices of the Subaltern - How else are other worlds possible?

This was the second part of a two-part forum that we started yesterday. I think others will present something more formal on the discussions from this panel, but here are some quick notes.

Jai Sen from CACIM introduced the session by noting that it is important to engage with the forum process, and especially the Detroit forum. We learn from this process, something that it is not just an event. How are other worlds possible, other than just in the actions of the subaltern? That is the great contribution of the forum.

Will Copeland from the Detroit Local Organizing Committee began his presentation with a poem, intentionally pointing to the importance of culture in the forum experience. For him, the USSF represents a major generational shift in activism as 1960s peace and leftist activists give way to the coming of age of new activists. Interest in the forum slowly start to build in Detroit, and it took awhile for communication to get going between African American and Indigenous communities because of cultural gaps. Poverty in Detroit also results in a significant low tech/high tech divide. Many people who are on verge of having their utilities shut off do not have easy access to the Internet.

Bineshi Albert from the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) pointed to the importance of connecting with local Indigenous community. This was hard to do in Atlanta because most tribal communities had long since been forcible removed. Detroit has a larger urban Indigenous presence, which helped to create a different space. Events like a welcoming dinner hosted by the local community created a different, much more welcoming type of engagement. As a result, these issues were easier process this time around. A key lessons from Atlanta was that they had their own Indigenous tent and it was easy to connect with each other in their own spaces, but they had not reached out to others. They needed to do a better job of connecting with others on issues like militarization, environment, and criminal justice system. Connecting with others still remained a challenge, but Indigenous peoples can learn from others.

Michael Leon Guerrero from Grassroots Global Justice (GGJ) spoke about the USSF as a people’s victory. He briefly outlined the history of how GGJ began to work on a global scale, and how important that engagement was. Their objectives were to strengthen their work in US, and to develop these global links. He stressed the importance of reaching out to marginal communities, and the need to start with them. An open space is not necessarily a level playing field. The result of the USSF has been a life changing experience. The result is the construction of a strong progressive social force on left for upcoming elections.

Jeff Juris from Northeastern University provided a reflection coming out of Atlanta. That forum was a process of opening spaces, and he questioned what spaces are closed when others are opened. There are no correct strategies, and tensions are inevitable. Did we move too far to the side of intentionality? Were anarchist groups being left out? Can we push back toward more openness, without losing community participation? Can we expand without losing people who need to be at the center? Juris argued that there are no right or wrong answers, but it is important to put that conversation out there.

Guerrero responded that intentionality does not make exclusivity, but we want the process to be consolidated enough so that it was not overrun. We are so far behind we need to be quick to make changes, but we also need to be deliberate so that these changes are successful and solid. Guerrero also briefly summarized discussions whether to hold another USSF, or possibly the idea of holding a North American forum in Mexico. He said that they are ready to host one.

Thomas Ponniah from Harvard said that we need to start with the local and subaltern, but that we also need to move beyond that. Focusing on the local gives a needed feeling of agency. We need to engage with state power, and unfortunately conservatives are better at this that we are. We need to fill these social spaces, otherwise we remained locked out.

I show up late for the panel Dialogue with Activists from the Haitian Popular Movement (organized by the Haiti Action Network) just as Rea who we met at her school SOPUDE back in January in Haiti is complaining that aid from the hurricane several years ago is still sitting on the loading docks. After she finished talking, the widow of CLR James, the famous author of The Black Jacobins also complained about how NGOs are making money off of the crisis in Haiti. A main demand remains for a return of Aristide. She said that his policies are like Chavez, but the difference is that Chavez has oil. Frances Jerome disagreed. He pointed to the building of oil refineries and asked whether this was part of a project of reconstruction or the looting of Haitian resources? Walter Riley from the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund notes that every U.S. president including Obamba have opposed the forceful symbol of an independence Haiti.

The session approved a final document "Support the Call of Haiti’s Grassroots for the Return of Aristide and the end of the UN Mission."

I decide to catch a quick bite to eat before the evening plenary, which turns out to be a huge mistake. I returned to the same stall where I ate last nite on Hart Plaza. It was slow last nite, but at least we were at the front of the line. Tonite, I was at the back of the line, and it's not so much that the line was long but that it was impossibly slow. I was supposed to meet Thomas at the plenary at 6:30, and as the time slipped away I wondered whether I should bail or stay. Do I throw good time after bad? Now it's an hour an half later, and I've missed the first hour of the plenary--as well as my scheduled meeting with Thomas.

I walk in just as Jihan Gearon from the Indigenous Environmental Network is speaking. It sounds like she's saying interesting things, but of course I'm just arriving rather than paying attention. Nevertheless, it's significant that an Indigenous person is on the closing plenary, and she mentions how natives are often excluded and forgotten. She also fits her struggles in a global context, including the Cochabamba People's Climate Change Accord from the meeting in Bolivia in April.

A representative of ALBA (the Bolivarian Alliance of Our Americas) speaks after Gearon, and all I can think is that my Indigenous compas in Ecuador are currently mobilizing people against an ALBA meeting in Otavalo. This same guy spoke last nite at a screening of Oliver Stone's new movie South of the Border, and now I'm regretting not taking advantage of that opportunity to ask him what he knew and thought about this Indigenous opposition to ALBA. Gearon spoke of celebrating October 12 as Indigenous peoples resistance day rather than Columbus day, and the ALBA rep said that this comment brought back distant memories, since it had been a decade in Venezuela since that date meant anything other than celebrating Indigenous resistance.

Time slips by, and somehow I'm always at the wrong place at the wrong time and miss my best opportunities.

One of the innovations of the US Social Forum is the People's Movement Assembly. Over the course of the organizing and convocation of the Detroit forum, over one hundred assemblies were held, 45 before and 52 during the forum. Because of their depth and brilliance, the resolutions of the assemblies could not be read at the final assembly of the forum. Instead, a committee crafted summaries of the resolutions that were read to the gathering. The resolutions in their entirety will be posted to http://pma2010.org/.

A commission of five people (including our own Rose Brewer from the MWSF and an Indigenous representative) read a reflection on a synthesis of the resolutions. Then, in very quick order, representatives of the different working groups read very brief summaries of their resolutions. Significantly, and perhaps as a result of a conflict at the closing assembly in Atlanta 3 years ago, the first one out of the gate was the Indigenous sovereignty group. Seemingly,they were allowed to take just a bit longer than the other groups.

Presentations from subsequent groups reflected the wide range of issues that activists engaged at the forum, including workers struggles, gender justice, transformative justice, poverty, immigration, environment, media, and an end to endless war militarism. One group gave a passionate call for the independence of Puerto Rico. The groups laid out politically charged summaries that required multiple strategies to realize their goals. Looking over the list of resolutions on the website, it looks like the list of presentations were a relatively small sampling of what has been accomplished at this forum.

After quickly reading through the summaries of the various resolutions, organizers put up a list of proposed actionto discuss and plan, and then voted whether people were willing to take action (blue card) or be in solidarity (orange card) with a specific proposal.

The afternoon's work began with a presentation by the children's forum, including the singing of a song they wrote and the presentation of a poster they drew and signed to present to president Evo Morales of Bolivia.

USSF lead organizer Adrienne Brown joked that after the world's longest opening for a US Social Forum, we would now close with a short and sweet closing. Instead, after reflections on what we had brought and done and learned in Detroit we dropped into a holding pattern of poems and other performance artists while we waited for the final 2 speakers to arrive since the people's movement assembly had run so short. The first was a WSF international committee representative from Mali who welcomed us to Dakur in February, and told us that when Africa arises, the world arises.

Finally, Manny Pino from the Indigenous Environmental Network introduces Pablo Solon, ambassador from Bolivia to the United Nations. Pino briefly mentions the work of the IEN at the Cochabamba Climate Summit in April. Then Solon takes the stage, and in flawless English talks about how he just arrived from the G-20 meetings in Toronto and the long struggle and need for an end to neoliberalism. He discussed the water wars that expelled Bechtel from Cochabamba when they tried to privatize the water supplies. This was the beginning of change, because if it was possible to expel Bechtal then anything is possible. From there they began to talk about the nationalization of gas, and they knew it was possible because they had already won the water wars. But they learned that they could not realize these gains without organization, and so they began to build political organizations.

In 2005, for the first time an Indigenous leader Evo Morales won the presidency with 54 percent of the vote, and six months later they nationalized the gas sector. Under Morales, they have improved the lives of the poor because now the resources of the country belongs to the people. We can do this two ways, either ask for the people to sacrifice or to cut the profits to the large corporations and then we’ll have enough resources for the needs of the people. The example of Bolivia shows that this is possible if we organize from the bottom up and take the needs of the people into consideration.

After last year’s climate change meeting in Copenhagen, we realized that the situation is getting worse and that we need to take action. We need to build a world-wide movement to defend life and the mother earth. We only have one opportunity, and it is now to create a new alternative not only for us but for our children and grandchildren.

What do we want? In the short-term, we want industrial countries to reduce emissions. This is the only way out. The Cochabamba meetings show the path forward, and we hope to achieve this in the Cancun meetings. But we can only achieve this with the mobilization of people. But to do this requires changing how to relate to Mother Earth. We’ve treated the earth like a commodity, but now we see the consequences of that. We need to change what BP is doing with the spill in the Caribbean. In order to guarantee human rights, we need to guarantee the rights of mother earth. We are part of a system; we’re not the owners, but just one part. We have to take responsibility to take care of it. We will present proposal to the UN that the mother earth also has a right to exist. Both humans and nature, all beings have a right to water.

The challenge of this century is to build a new contract, not only a social contract, but a social and environmental contract. This is key to the building of a new and better world. The G-8 talks about a green economy, and it sounds nice. But it means brining capitalism to nature, to put a price on nature, and we need to have property rights. Instead of the Washington Consensus it will be the Green Economy Consensus, but this still leads to the commodification of nature. We need to look for the rights of nature, this is why a declaration of mother earth rights is so important.

At Cochabamba, we also talked about making a court of climate justice where cases like BP can be tried. We cannot allow these abuses to continue. We need to build it from the grassroots. Democracy is being constrained at a world-wide level. What is the message? Large countries draft Copenhagen Accord, give it to small countries at 3am and have only 1 hour to read it. But all countries have the same rights, and large countries who think they are the most powerful cannot decide for the rest. We have to end the five permanent members on the UN security council; no one has elected them, but they have veto power. Democracy means democracy at a world-wide level as well. We don’t want to see more military bases in Latin America. In Latin America, we’re worried. Why do we need military bases in Colombia? What has happened in Honduras? We have to stop this process. We need democracy at a global level.

One of the proposals at Cochabamba was to create a world-wide referendum on climate change, to reach six billion people on the planet who are influenced by these policies. People around the world should be consulted on where resources are directed. Our challenge is to build this referendum for next year, because we see that Cancun won’t solve problems. Money needs to go to solve problems of poverty and climate change, not to war. We can only do this if we engage everyone, each one of you. That is why I have come from Toronto. I have heard that this social forum was a great opportunity to organize.

Ten years ago I was a water warrior in Cochabamba, but now I’m a water warrior ambassador. We want to declare in the UN the human right to water and sanitation. In the UN we’ve declared rights to food, education, shelter, but we haven’t declared yet the right to water. We need to count on your support to campaign for these rights.

After Solon's comments, a sister from the Detroit School of Arts with the assistance of two of her students pours libations to ancient African ancestors, and then engages in a song and dance of pouring, drinking, bathing, and sharing.



Another woman with a child on her arm then sang a song "hold on to your dreams child and don't let them go." All together, it was a very moving ending for the forum. A couple more performance artists did their pieces. And with that, the second US Social Forum suddenly came to an end.