OrgUp’s USSF Workshop Recommendations
To help our readers navigate the overwhelming number of incredible workshops that will be taking place at this year’s Social Forum. Organizing Upgrade pulled together the following list of workshops that we felt reflected our mission: to upgrade strategic conversation among left organizers. We’re looking forward to seeing you all in Detroit!
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23
Wed, 06/23/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: D2-15
National Domestic Worker Alliance, National Day Laborers Organizing Network (NDLON) and Jobs with Justice
This PMA focuses on how we can expand workers’ rights to organize. It will bring together workers who are excluded from the right to organize and other labor protections in the United States, for discussion on organizing strategies and the potential for reforms to strengthen workers’ rights and democracy through the expansion of the right to organize to include all workers. We seek to bring leaders from the various sectors, including domestic workers, day laborers, restaurant workers, taxi drivers, farm workers, workers in the right-to-work-for-less states of the South, welfare/workfare workers, formerly incarcerated workers, and guest workers, together, to share conditions in our industries and learn from one anothers experiences organizing. In addition, we seek to identify potential for collaboration, campaigns, and a common agenda for reforms at the federal level (including as they relate to the National Labor Relations Act) that could ultimately address the exclusion of our sectors from the human right to organize and collectively bargain.
Queer People’s Movement Assembly
Wed, 06/23/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: W2-67
Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice, FIERCE, Queers for Economic Justice, Affinity Community Services, Southerners on New Ground
The 12 members of the Astraea Foundation’s Movement Building Program will host a four-hour session to discuss resolutions that have been submitted from LGBTIQ People’s Movement Assemblies that have been held throughout the country leading up to the USSF. The goals of this meeting will be to 1. Identify and discuss the major issues that have arisen from queer-focused PMAs; 2. Work toward a strong resolution (or resolutions) of direction for a national strategy. The meeting will be limited to representatives of those groups who have held queer-focused PMAs and have placed their resolutions on the USSF website. PMA resolutions must be placed on the USSF website by May 15, 2010. Affinity Community Services Allgo: a statewide queer people of color organization Audre Lorde Project Center for Artistic Revolution Esperanza Peace and Justice Center FIERCE National Queer Asian Pacific Alliance Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project Queers for Economic Justice SONG: Southerners on New Ground Sylvia Rivera Law Project The Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex (TGI) Justice Project The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Wed, 06/23/2010 – 1:00pm – 3:00pm UAW Building: Ford
Transformative Organizing is an entirely new form of social justice organizing that equally values personal transformation and societal transformation, and sees them both as essential and integrated into a unified theory of change. Transformative Organizing 101 and 201 workshops will emphasize understanding new frameworks that distinguish change from fundamental transformation, and focus on concrete practices that change the organizer as well as the organized. The workshops will be based on the work of the Transformative Organizing Initiative (TOI), a multi-year training program that is currently training 85 staff and 70 grassroots leaders from 17 organizations in New York City. TOI is developing a model for transformative organizing – a model that is based on the belief that transforming ourselves (by aligning our behaviors/actions with our values and beliefs) and the way we do social change work can lay the foundation for the long-term transformation of society. TOI focuses on generating transformative practices that inform organizing strategies, organizational development, political education, and personal transformation.
Wed, 06/23/2010 – 3:30pm – 5:30pm TWW: 5
Transformative Organizing is an entirely new form of social justice organizing that equally values personal transformation and societal transformation, and sees them both as essential and integrated into a unified theory of change. Transformative Organizing 101 and 201 workshops will emphasize understanding new frameworks that distinguish change from fundamental transformation, and focus on concrete practices that change the organizer as well as the organized. The workshops will be based on the work of the Transformative Organizing Initiative (TOI), a multi-year training program that is currently training 85 staff and 70 grassroots leaders from 17 organizations in New York City. TOI is developing a model for transformative organizing – a model that is based on the belief that transforming ourselves (by aligning our behaviors/actions with our values and beliefs) and the way we do social change work can lay the foundation for the long-term transformation of society. TOI focuses on generating transformative practices that inform organizing strategies, organizational development, political education, and personal transformation.
THURSDAY, JUNE 24
The Fight for Jobs and Economic Recovery
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, Cobo Hall: DO-01A
AFL-CIO, Jobs with Justice, National People’s Action
The jobs and economic crisis is so deep and broad that no one could remember any parallel since the Great Depression. No one has all the answers to solve the problems nor the capacity to do it alone. This session will discuss the different approaches and activities that are being put into motion by national networks and organizations to fight for an economy that works for all working people, including those who have always been marginalized.
Eco-Justice 101: Ecological Crises, Impacts on Communities of Color, and Strategies for the Future
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, WSU Cohn: 224
Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project
Communities of color stand to be first and worst impacted by the multiple ecological crises that are developing today. These crises: of water scarcity and pollution, climate change, waste and toxic pollution, food and agriculture, and the loss of biological and cultural diversity, are a result of the same systems that have driven exploitation and oppression in our communities. They demand the urgent attention of our leaders and organizers as we build our resistance and fight for a better tomorrow. This workshop, which will feature audiovisual presentation, small group discussion, and interactive exercises, will explore: 1. What are these developing crises? 2. How will they impact low-income communities of color in the US and globally? 3. What are examples of community resistance that we can learn from? and 4. How can understanding these struggles create opportunities to advance our work on other issues like housing, jobs, immigration, community development, education, etc? This workshop is also offered in Spanish.
The Young & The Restless: Celebrating Contributions of Youth in the Fight for Liberation
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, Cobo Hall: DO-5A
SOUL School of Unity and Liberation
Often disenfranchised from political processes in societies throughout history, young people have been among the quickest to grasp the need for social change. This workshop seeks to highlight the revolutionary contributions that young people have made and to celebrate their sometimes overlooked role at the forefront of struggles for liberation in the US and internationally. Participants will compete in an interactive game, share their own experiences with youth organizing, and explore the connection between youth activism and broader social movements.
Communication for Liberation: Communications in the Social Justice Movement
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, Cobo Hall: W1-53
This panel and discussion will focus on the role of communications workers, graphic designers, print makers, web developers, and other media producers in social justice movements. This workshop will feature a panel of progressive communications workers and designers who will share case studies of how strategic communications work can support effective community organizing. We will discuss the responsibilities and challenges in supporting grassroots movements using graphic design and other media. Panelists include Melanie Cervantes, Dignidade Rebelde; Steven Renderos, Mainstreet Project/MAG-net; Sabiha Basrai, Design Action; Joseph Phelan, Miami Workers Center; Jen Soriano, Grassroots Global Justice.
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: W2-66
The recent economic crisis has unmasked the vast racial and economic inequality in the U.S., once hidden under the veil of the “middle class”. While many are just beginning to feel the impact of this crisis, urban America – poor and low-income families, women, immigrants, communities of color and other city dwellers -have felt it for decades. Urban Congress 2010 will serve as an opportunity for those living and working in grassroots communities to reflect on the state of urban America since the start of the recession; to reevaluate the notion of the ‘right to the city’ in light of the current political climate; to get inspired by local efforts to combat gentrification and displacement; and to learn about Right To The City’s national campaign for housing, jobs, and sustainable communities.
Immigrant Rights from Below Movement Assembly
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: M3-31
Puente Movement, Immigrant Youth Justice League, Southwest Workers Union, Centro Obrero.
How do we make an immigrant rights movement from the bottom up? How do we act effectively & win the max for our communities? How do we relate to the beltway and capital hill? How do we consolidate our presence within the broader immigrant rights movement? We are in a special moment of opportunity & crisis & the stakes are high. We know conditions are worsening. If CIR passes, what will we do? If it doesn’t what is our plan? What is our strategy in this new reality? This is the time and the place. Come to Detroit to envision an immigrant rights movement from below.
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: Riverview Ballroom (W1-52)
US Palestinian Community Network, IJAN, American Muslims for Palestine
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict touches on all Americans as it has figured centrally in U.S. foreign policy at least since 1968 when the Johnson Administration provided Israel with its first supersonic aircraft in order to achieve a military edge over its Arab neighbors. While this history makes it incumbent upon all Americans to participate in finding a solution to the conflict today–the major stakeholders in the struggle for Palestinian self-determination are Palestinians themselves. Since the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the consequent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, the Palestinian national body has been fragmented several times over. Today Palestinian identity is bantustanized into those who are citizens of Israel vs. those who are residents of East Jerusalem vs. those who are under occupation in the West Bank vs. those who are under occupation and siege in Gaza vs. those who live in refugee camps throughout the Arab world vs. those who exist in a global diaspora. Such fragmentation limits the potential for organizing among Palestinians to decide on a collective future and its concomitant strategy. Moreover, external involvement both imperial (i.e., the US) as well as regional (i.e., Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon) has divided Palestinians into broad categories of “good” and “bad” in relation to the U.S. and European political establishment. In order to transcend these divisions and engage in a process of self-represented self-determination, Palestinians in the U.S. seek to coalesce themselves into a cohesive body that can join other parts the world over from South America, Canada, Europe, the Arab world, the Occupied Territories, and Israel. The PMA seeks to begin this conversation, agree in theory on its value, encourage its attendees to join the USPCN and participate in its Second Popular Conference, and to introduce a resolution to the general Forum body.
Please note that Organizing Upgrade & SOUL”s “Left Strategies from the Grassroots” panel has been cancelled because of conflicts with other relevant sessions in this time block.
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 1:00pm – 3:00pm, Cobo Hall: W2-63
Labor/Community Strategy Center
As the “Tea Party” Right rises in U.S. politics and the U.S. Empire continues to reach around the globe, there is an urgent need to build a new left that roots a creative, explicit, anti-racist, anti-imperialist politics inside working-class communities of color. In this session, Ai-jen Poo (National Domestic Workers Alliance), Steve Williams (POWER), Cindy Weisner (Grassroots Global Justice), Patrisse Cullors (Labor/Community Strategy Center) and other prominent organizers will discuss with Eric Mann how his Transformative Organizing Theory, as outlined in a new pamphlet, can help guide and strengthen our work toward this goal. Drawing from Mann’s experience as a veteran of CORE, SDS, the UAW, organizer of the Bus Riders Union and director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles, Transformative Organizing Theory identifies 7 core elements of social movement building that have powered grassroots organizations on their way to winning historic struggles against slavery, war, apartheid and empire. The 7 Components of Transformative Organizing Theory is a companion to Mann’s forthcoming book, The 21 Qualities of the Successful Organizing: A Journey in Transformative Organizing (2011).
Glenn Beck’s Nightmare: What it Will take to Build a Movement for 21st Century Socialism
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 3:30pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: W2-63
People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER)
Glenn Beck and other right-wing pundits have drummed up the fear of a socialist takeover of U.S. society. At a time when capitalism is throwing millions of people deeper into poverty and continuing to poison Mother Earth while engorging a few financial speculators, this is sadly more rhetoric than reality. Not only don’t we yet have a strong movement that can challenge capitalism, white supremacy and patriarchy, we also don’t have a vision that can unite our different struggles and we don’t have a movement that can play different roles at different times. But we have built organizations and institutions that could bring such a movement into being if we act in a coordinated way. And the times are on our side. It is the time for bold action for those of us who see the need to move beyond the capitalist system and who are building the capacity of oppressed and marginalized communities to fight for this change to take seriously the challenges of building a multi-issue, grassroots movement that can win liberation for all people and the planet. This workshop will bring together activists, organizers and leaders to explore a vision of a 21st century socialism that can unite our movements and to sketch out a plan to make this vision a reality— and to make the right’s worst nightmares come true.
Presente! Left Movement Veterans Discuss the Path to Power and the Role of the Left in the US.
Thu, 06/24/2010 – 3:30pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: W1-51
Freedom Road Socialist Organization/OSCL
Long-time activists Bill Fletcher, Lian Hurst Mann, and Chokwe Lumumba join other Leftists that have plied their trade for over 30 years in an urgent discussion on the role of the left in today’s social movements. These Movement Veterans have seen the Left transform significantly from a period of widespread, frantic left activity to the period of decline the left has found itself in recently. Today, both the Left and social movements in this country are faced with immense opportunity to play a role in changing the oppressive conditions in this country and striking a blow against US-led Imperialism. What role will or should it play? What must the organized Left do to help create real and profound change in the US and the World? How will it transform itself to be ready to take on these challenges? Our panelists will tackle these and other critical questions. Join these veterans as they put their decades of experience to use in discussing these critical questions with you! Other invited panelists include: Grace Lee Boggs, General Baker, and Jane Slaughter.
FRIDAY, JUNE 25
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, Cobo Hall: M3-31
Grassroots Global Justice Alliance members along with International Allies will speak to the need for a global response from below to the converging crises of the financial collapse, ecological destruction, and ongoing promotion of empire. Speakers will discuss what movement convergence means for grassroots organizing and how we build a conscious, internationalist powerbase to challenge capitalism and begin to build the alternative economic, political, cultural models.
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, Cobo Hall: W2-61
Right To The City members San Francisco New Majority, Virginia New Majority, Florida New Majority will present an emerging approach to voter mobilization, building the united front through civic engagement, and leadership development within the context of elections. They will also discuss the cycle of broad electoral work and more narrow consciousness development, campaign building, and impediments to democracy. Lastly the will discuss voter mobilizations strategies targeting new and traditionally marginalized demographics including African Americans, and immigrants.
Developing Radical & Revolutionary Approaches to Reform Struggles
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 10:00am – 12:00pm, WSU Cohn: 220
In the past year New York Study Group has been trying to tackle the tough questions about the relationship between contemporary reform struggles and the long-term revolutionary process here in the United States. Through our observation of and participation in local struggles in New York City and through our collective study and reflection, we learned hard lessons from defeats but also gained inspirations through victories. Our reform struggles open up exciting new possibilities, but we also know that old tactics are not enough to effectively win struggles in this day and age and that we need to change the way we do our work if we want to lay the groundwork for a more radical movement in the long run. In this workshop, the New York Study Group will be convening radical organizers from around the country to reflect on their reform struggles and to dialogue about how we need to do our work differently if we are serious about building a more relevant left and stronger mass movements.
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: O3-45
Inter-Alliance Dialogue, Grassroots Global Justice, Jobs with Justice, National Day Laborers Organizing Network, National Domestic Workers Alliance, Pushback Network, Right to the City Alliance
Enough is Enough / Basta Ya! – A Peoples’ Movement Assembly Forging Alternatives to the Economic and Ecological Crises of Our Times. We are living in uncertain and momentous times. The current economic crisis, a global ecological crisis brought on by global capitalism, and a shifting landscape of political power on global scale, have created a historical moment marked by volatility and change. The impacts of these interpenetrating crises are widespread and inclusive. All of us, including Mother Earth are affected. Amidst this uncertainty, this is also a moment of opportunity. Around the world and at home, we are witnessing the convergence of social movements that are not only battling against the devastating impacts of global capitalism and climate change, but also posing sweeping agendas for change that include how we organize the economy, how we interact with one another as human beings and how we create a sustainable future for the planet. The Inter-Alliance Dialogue invites you to participate in movement assembly to hear the testimonies of those impacted by the current crises, gain inspiration from the joint struggles that we and movement allies are doing to address current realities, and build a common platform for action this year to strengthen a movement for long-term change for a democratic and sustainable economy in the US and around the world.
Seizing Opportunity: Plotting for a New Majority Future
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 1:00pm – 3:00pm, UAW Building: 1032
People of color are estimated to be the new majority in the US by 2042. This can either entrench the role of race as a wedge that divides or transform it into a force for progress. The difference depends on our ability to think and act now on key questions of policy, power and identity. Through a presentation and group dialogue, we will explore how shifting demographics calls us to proactively redefine concepts of race and ethnicity to forge a united front for equity. We will also address the following: how do we seize opportunities for alliance building across race and ethnicity, especially in regions experiencing new and dramatic shifts? What issues and policies can unite communities of color and bridge an increasingly non-white younger generation and a white senior population? How do we guard against attempts to wedge communities of color and anticipate backlash from those with something to lose? The Center for Social Inclusion will provide an analysis on what the changing demographics could mean and grassroots leaders from the field, including Adrienne Maree Brown Executive Director of The Ruckus Society, Angelica Salas Executive Director of Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and Gihan Perera co-founder and Executive Director of The Miami Workers Center will share their experiences and expertise on challenges and strategic opportunities.
Movement Lawyering: How Legal Advocacy Can and Should Connect with Grassroots Organizing
By showcasing domestic and international models, this workshop will explore how legal advocacy can support movements for change. The objective is to highlight how lawyers and organizers can work together within grassroots movements to build and support power and leadership development in communities. Panelists will be both lawyers and organizers with experience in a campaign that had a component of movement lawyering. They will share perspectives ranging from a neighborhood-based campaign (such as fighting the gentrification of an African-American neighborhood in one city) to what it means to conduct legal advocacy for more sweeping change (such as in the post-Katrina context or the fight for self-determination in Palestine). Panelists will provide both the visionary elements and practical tools that make movement lawyering successful and powerful from both the organizer and lawyer’s perspectives. Participants will have the opportunity to share the benefits and pitfalls of organizers and lawyers working together. They will break out into small groups to discuss how we can promote legal advocacy that join rather than lead movements.
Revolutionary on the Daily: Visions for New Societies, Revolutionaries Organizing Ourselves
Fri, 06/25/2010 – 1:00pm – 5:30pm, Cobo Hall: M2-30
RWIOT Revolutionary Work In Our Times
In the past year New York Study Group has been trying to tackle the tough questions about the relationship between contemporary reform struggles and the long-term revolutionary process here in the United States. Through our observation of and participation in local struggles in New York City and through our collective study and reflection, we learned hard lessons from defeats but also gained inspirations through victories. Our reform struggles open up exciting new possibilities, but we also know that old tactics are not enough to effectively win struggles in this day and age and that we need to change the way we do our work if we want to lay the groundwork for a more radical movement in the long run. In this workshop, the New York Study Group will be convening radical organizers from around the country to reflect on their reform struggles and to dialogue about how we need to do our work differently if we are serious about building a more relevant left and stronger mass movements. For this year’s Social Forum, our collaborators are: Left Turn http://www.leftturn.org, League of Revolutionaries for a New America http://www.lrna.org/, Solidarity http://www.solidarity-us.org/, Freedom Road Socialist Organization/ Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad, http://freedomroad.org/, LA COiL (Communities Organizing Liberation), New York Study Group, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement http://mxgm.org/, Labor Community Strategy Center http://www.thestrategycenter.org/, and Bring the Ruckus http://www.bringtheruckus.org/
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