It’s Building Time!!!

United States Social Forum http://www.ussocialforum.org/ Atlanta, GA June 27-July 1, 2007 AN OPEN CALL TO all SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL and ECONOMIC JUSTICE Organizations, Organizers, Activists, Funders, Supporters, Movement Builders, Movement Mobilizers, and Spectators! JOIN US ON THE ROAD TO ATLANTA! 1) program ideas for the USSF 2) USSF Sites and Logistics 3) Fundraising/Supporters 4) Honorary Delegate 5) USSF Planning Process and Contacts 1--program ideas for the USSF What’s Your ISSUE? global capitalism, rising imperialism, growing global economic disparity, protect the environment, water rights, peace in the world, justice at home and abroad! What’s your CAUSE? AIDS, Hunger, an end to War, Artic Drilling, stop the growing Militarization, Nuclear Proliferation, the dismantling of Pubic Education, Immigrant Rights, Voting Rights, free the Land, safe and affordable Food, a just Farm Bill, Water as a human right, Honest Elections, end the Criminalization of Youth, affordable Housing, Human Rights Violations at Home and Abroad, USA Political Prisoners, Universal HealthCare, Reform the Juvenile Justice system, Safe Work Place, Workers Rights, Art for Social Change, reform of the Criminal Justice System, a World safe for Women and Girls, Public Transportation, an end to persistent Poverty, the right to Unionize, Indigenous Sovereignty, the Gulf Coast Disaster you name the Issue or the Cause—you will find it and allies at the U. S. Social Forum! Register for the social Forum (http://www.ussf2007.org/registrationform) Organizations at $125-$300 sliding scale for each 3 registrants & Individuals at $15-$100 sliding scale. —then think about what type of program you would like to submit— do you want to educate or raise the participants consciousness about your issue? Do you want to share with participants a vision of how things could be different? do you have a strategy for getting us to “another world”? 2-- USSF Sites and Logistics USSF Sites: The social forum will be anchored in a nine-block area of downtown Atlanta from the Metro Atlanta Taskforce for the Homeless at Pine and Courtland, to the Atlanta Civic Center on Piedmont Avenue, up to the Auburn Avenue Research Library and multiple sites in-between. Other staging grounds will include the historic West End, Little Five Points, and the Gammon Avenue site - home to Project South, GA Citizens Coalition on Hunger and The Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond. Housing: Hotel information is posted, with more to come. Many hotels will allow four people to share a double for as little as $85 per night (Baymont Inn) up to $109 per night (Quality Inn) and inlcude breakfast and wireless internet. We continue to work on Solidarity Housing and possible campgrounds outside the city limits. If you would like to assit or have ideas, please contact the USSF office at info@ussocialforum.org Coming by Bus? Please let us know so we can help you with arrangements. We recommend you look at hotels near the Atlanta AIRPORT, WHICH have lots of space for parking buses and some very reasonable rates. We are also looking into camp grpunds for lodging. Let us know about your plans info@ussocialforum.org 3-- Fundraising/Supporters Fundraising Working Group: We are very grateful for our latest funders—Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation $25,000 and United Support of Artists for Africa $2,000, New World Foundation $1,500. Outstanding Request: Kellogg Foundation $35,000, CarEth $10,000, Needmor Foundation $15,000. Our growing list of member Organizations/supporters include: Labor/Community Strategy Center, The Praxis Project, Grassroots Global Justice, SouthWest Public Workers Union, Public Citizen Foundation, Inc., Project South, Jobs With Justice Education Fund, ActionAid International USA, Center for Social Justice, DC Social Forum Working Group, Azania Heritage International Center, SisterSong, Human Rights Research Fund, Stone Circle, Community Voices Heard, Sociologist without Border, Florida Atlantic University Social Forum, National Center for Human Rights Education, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Georgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger, Tenants and Workers Support Center, PODER, Newest Movement Builders: Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, CAAV Organizing Asian Communities, Community Voices Heard, The Praxis Project/PATH, PODER, The Brecht Forum, DRUM-Desis Rising Up & Moving Newest Movement Mobilizers: Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, United to End Racism, FAU Social Forum, Democratic Socialists of America Fund, Riot-Folk Collective We are grateful for the long list of organizations and individuals who have contributed to the USSF process. A complete list of all Supporters, Individual Donors, Foundations, Movement Builders, and Movement Mobilizers will be posted on the USSF website! Join the USSF process, become a: · Movement Builder - mobilize organizations and individuals to participate · Mobilizer - do you have a plan to bring people and, programs to the USSF · Supporter - make a contribution of any kind, plan a fundraiser, donate Visit our website and click on the links at the bottom of the Home page http://www.ussf2007.org/ 4-- Honorary Delegate Meet our First Honorary Delegate—Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis is the daughter of an automobile mechanic and a schoolteacher. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama. The area where the family lived became known as Dynamite Hill because of the large number of African American homes bombed by the Ku Klux Klan. Her mother was a civil rights campaigner and had been active in the NAACP before the organization was outlawed in Birmingham. Angela Davis is a radical activist and philosopher who was associated with the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and 1970s. She is currently Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California and Presidential Chair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She works for racial and gender equality and for prison abolition. Davis is a founder of Critical Resistance (http://www.criticalresistance.org/). Books published by Davis include If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (1971), Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1974), Women, Race and Class (1981) and Women, Culture, and Politics (1989). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Davis and http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAdavisAN.htm) 5-- USSF Planning Process and Contacts The United States Social Forum invites you to Become a Participant in the PLANNING PROCESS Join Us On The Road To Atlanta! This is an opportunity for you and your organization to put dedicate organizational staff time or intern time to work on this monumental event. Email the chair of the working group or contact the regional committee you are interested in joining. ORGANIZE & REPRESENT YOUR COMMUNITY! Bring a delegation = Organizations and sectors around the country have committed to mobilizing young people, women, regional caravans, and members. Host educational events to prepare and organize buses to come to Atlanta. Bring a Workshop, Strategy Session, Cultural Project, Action Plan, or Celebration = The Program Working Group will be coordinating with facilitators and presenters to provide a broad spectrum of activities in order for all participants to learn, share, and strategize. If you want to submit a proposal to the Program Working Group, read the guidelines and fill out the form online. Plan your annual meeting/gathering to coincide with the Forum = Gather your members and meet in Atlanta during this unprecedented national forum. Holding your meeting during the Forum will allow your leaders and constituents to build bridges with others, connecting issues and groups. Organize a Tent = Social Forums are open spaces. Set up a tent to host events on any issue or to gather people and discuss specific strategies to move your work forward. Coordinate with the Local Logistics Working Group to establish site – You will be responsible for bringing what you need. USSF Working Groups · Program Working Group -Develop the deeper thinking that guides the process as expressed through the daily proceedings such as themes, crosscutting struggles, flow of proceeding. -Develop materials and process for the Call for Program Proposals -Work closely with Logistics and Culture Contacts: Allison Budschalow, American Friends Service Committee, abudschalow@afsc.org Colin Rajah, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, crajah@nnirr.org Maria Poblet, St. Peter's Housing, maria@comitedevivienda.org · Culture Working Group -Develop a plan for the multiple ways culture will be infused into the proceedings -Work closely with the program working group to develop, organize, fundraise for, and ensure participation from a diverse mix of cultural workers -Program culture activities in and around the USSF sites Contacts: Carolyn Morris, Alternate ROOTS, carolyn@alternateroots.org Melanie Joseph, Foundry Theatre, mjoseph@thefoundrytheatre.org · Fundraising Working Group -Develop long term fundraising plans that includes ways to secure and organize resources including people, in-kind donations, organizational support, and registration Contact: Michael Leon Guerrero, Grassroots Global Justice, michael@ggjalliance.org · Outreach Working Group -Seek out, develop, network, and engage organizations and sectors in order to connect them to the movement building work and the USSF process Contact: Tammy Bang Luu, Labor Community Strategy Center, tammyluu@mindspring.com · Communication Working Group -Develop and implement multi media plan -Implement an internal communication plan -Develop external communication strategies Contact: Josue Guillen, The Praxis Project, josue@thepraxisproject.org · Youth Working Group -Ensure youth participate at all planning levels -Develop tools for youth recruitment -Assist youth groups develop their issues -Create youth centered spaces at the USSF Contact: Monica Córdova, SouthWest Organizing Project, monica@swop.net · Logistics Working Group -Address local and national logistical issues -Develop local infrastructure for the proceedings, this includes site from all programs, volunteers recruitment and coordination, national and local transportation, sanitation, event planning, security, housing, materials for the proceedings -Work closely with Program and Culture Working Groups Contact: Alice Lovelace, USSF Staff Organizer, alovelace@ussocialform.org · Women’s Caucus Working Group -Develop a national plan around fundraising, logistics, actions, & outreach to women in U.S. and abroad -Insure the full participation of women and girls throughout the USSF Contact: Loretta Ross, SisterSong, loretta@sistersong.net · Local Organizing Committee -Work with logistics working group to build the infrastructure needed to support the USSF -Help create local programs -Build community support and recruit volunteers -Fundraise locally to support the USSF -Create local teams to help define USSF Action Day -Outreach to local communities including but not limited to labor, faith, Latino, Asian, youth, and educators Contact: Alice Lovelace, USSF Staff Organizer: alovelace@ussocialform.org USSF Regional Organizing Committee · Alaska Region Regional Contact: Faith Gemmill, REDOIL (Resisting Environmental Destruction On Indigenous Lands), redoil1@acsalaska.net · Caribbean Region Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands Regional Coordinator: Genaro Lopez Rendón, Southwest Workers Union, genaro@igc.org Regional Contact: Alba Mota, United Students Against Sweatshops, milly0724@ahoo.com · Midwest/Great Lakes Region Illinois, Indiana, Iowa Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin Regional Representative: Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network, ien@igc.org · Northeast Region CT, Delaware, Maine, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, Rhode Island, VT, & DC Regional Coordinator: Sung E. Bai, Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV, NYC), jbai@caaav.org Regional Coordinator: Victor Rosado, Communications Workers of America 1104 SUNY-Stony Brook, vrosado@ic.sunysb.edu Regional Coordinator: Suren Moodliar, North American Alliance for Fair Employment, suren@fairjobs.org · Northwest Region Washington, Oregon, Idaho Regional Contact: Yalonda Sinde, Community Coalition for Environmental Justice, justice@ccej.org · Pacific Islands Region American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii Regional Contact: Michael Leon Guerrero, Grassroots Global Justice, michael@ggjalliance.org · Rocky Mountains/Plains Region Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming Regional Contact: Ricardo Morales, Padres Unidos, infor@padresunidos.org · Southeast/Appalachia Region AL, Arkansas, FL, GA, LA, KY, Mississippi, Missouri, NC, SC, TN, Virginia, West Virginia Regional Coordinator: Stephanie Guilloud, Project South, stephanie@projectsouth.org Regional Representative: Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, The Ordinary Peoples Society, topssociety@yahoo.com · Southwest Region Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas Regional Representative: Genaro Lopez Rendón, Southwest Workers Union, genaro@igc.org Regional Contact: Ruben Solis, Southwest Workers Union, grulla@igc.org · West Region California, Nevada, Utah Contact: Teresa Almaguer, PODER, terresa_changa@yahoo.com Contact: Tammy Bang Luu, Labor/Community Strategy Center, tammyluu@mindspring.com Every month from now until the US SOCIAL FORUM we will send out an update. We are excited to gather our struggles in order to build stronger partnerships, collective vision, and coordinated efforts in the USA & Globally. We need your voices and experiences represented at this important gathering to build a movement for racial & economic justice. When you log onto the social forum webssite the address in your browser will say http://www.ussf2007.org/ because the http://www.ussocialforum.org/ site is hosted on the ussf2007 server. You can reach the site from either address. ---- United States Social Forum wwwussocialforum.org info@ussocialforum.org Send Mail To: Project South/USSF 9 Gammon Avenue SW Atlanta, GA 30315