Foro Social Estadouniden

Photo: Forum at the US Social Forum, Thursday, June 28, 2007

I only had the change to go to this event for one day – Thursday. I drove into town, got stuck in a traffic jam on I-85, and then lucked out on the parking spot – only $3 for the entire day, right across from the Atlanta Civic Center. I crossed the street and entered the US Social Forum, and right off the bat, it was nearly overwhelming! There was a LOT of people there, and even the outside tents seemed to cover all possible social ills and evils in our modern times. So, on the one hand, it was very heartening to see SO MANY people there – all ages, both genders, all races, from all over, all classes – working on these issues. And, on the other hand, it was rather disheartening to see so many very serious problems that need to be resolved and resolved quickly.

An example of this was a young woman who asked me if I know about the Cuban Five – which I do know about. Then she wanted me to come to a session on this particular problem, which was impossible in my limited time there. It would also be nearly impossible for me to do any substantive work on this issue, since I am very busy with other issues. I ended up telling her “so many outrages, so little time”. We should get this on a tee shirt sometime.

I visited the outside booths and the exhibit “Dreams and Nightmares: Life and Death in Occupied Iraq”. I remember seeing Code Pink there, UFPJ, Vets for Peace, Immigrant rights groups, Palestine issues groups, health care issues groups, and environmental issues groups. Oh, and about a thousand more. Just about every human rights, social justice, health, or environmental issue you could think of had a voice and a spot in the US Social Forum.

Their motto was: “Otor Mundo Es Posible – Otro Estados Unidos Es Necesario”. In English, that is “Another World is Possible – Another US is Necessary”.

My choice for a morning session was on Palestinian issues – but the Atlanta traffic pretty much took care of my morning. So, I visited the exhibits inside the Civic Center and the tents outside, and then went to an afternoon session. The US Social Forum literally had tens of thousands of workshops offered in various sites around downtown Atlanta. I got lost walking around Atlanta, and arrived late for “New Strategies for Confronting Corporate Power” which was presented by ACORN. One young women (from Global Exchange) there talked about the “World’s Finest Chocolate” and how they were trying to get schools (who use them for a fund raisers) to stop using them because this company uses child slaves in West Africa to harvest the coca for the chocolate. Another lady in the room said that she was head of her local PTA, and she would never allow this to be sold in her school again. She was also in contact with the national PTA, and would clue them in on this situation. That was a wonderful example of serendipitous networking. And I expect this was only one example of thousands at the US Social Forum.

They talked a bit about new strategies for confronting corporate power, and about organizing unions and corporate campaigns. In this situation, the purpose of actions is not to speak truth to power; rather it is to build organization and to hurt the target. This makes sense when you think about the fact that corporations only exist to make money, so trying to pressure them into acting ethically is a waste of time – so speaking truth to power will never work.

The next workshop I went to was “The Wars Abroad and at Home: connecting militarism, growth of prisons, immigration, and the global economy.” Yes, that is a long title for a workshop that packed a lot of information into a couple of hours. This panel was a group of folks who work for American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization. They started by saying that the current model does not work. They talked about how the US is going fascist – with no rights of habeas corpus and military tribunals. Bal, a man from AFSC Philadelphia, was very energetic in his presentation. He talked about how economic globalization and militarization are tied together. A woman who works for AFSC in Baltimore said that we have 2.5 million people in prison, and about half are African Americans, even though they are only 12% of the overall population. She said that under Homeland Security, conditions are worsening, and the African American women are sandwiched between military complexes and prison complexes.

Immigration is connected to these other issues, and the next speaker said that we have a policy of cultural violence inherent in our immigration policy. He also spoke about the idea of “Manifest Destiny” that continues to reign in our society today – that we are ‘chosen by God’, and therefore a superior society, and therefore we have the right to control resources around the world and enforce this on others. He also talked about the root cause of migration, and how the economic policies are fueling this, and how we seldom take a look at that. He commented on how people are “comodifications” meaning that they are turned into commodities, and are seen in this light by capital. So, capital vs. labor comes down to money vs. human position.

The next speaker talked about “Plan Columbia” and how this kills people and puts more drugs on the street. The real purpose of Plan Columbia is to prop up the government and make it possible for Chiquita and Coke to prosper. And another reason the US powers want to prop up the Columbian government is that they are right next to Venezuela. There is a connection between trade and war, and it is not about drugs but about natural resources. The US has a policy of putting a government in chains via economy or military means. This is covered in the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”.

The next speaker said that the US prisons evolved out of the slave system, and that immigration breaks up families as do prisons (as did slavery) and all this is done to control communities. There was a boom in African American prison population during two periods in our history: after reconstruction failed and after the civil rights movement succeeded. Under the Clinton presidency, the number of African Americans in prison also went up. Prisons are used to control communications and communities.

The next speaker on the panel talked about privatization and deregulation and the IMF and World Bank. The last two are used to push countries to grow “cash crops” and this results in massive labor dislocation. People get laid off and then migrate. Immigration and war are two sides of the same coin, and are used to propel economic development. Wars are historically used to destroy and then rebuild. This speaker said that under globalization, our main industry will be exporting “security” and this will be funded by ending entitlement programs. She said 70% of the weapons used in Iraq were directed by space technology, so this will become more and more important. The US is already number one in industrial weapons export.

Finally – the question is asked “what can we do?” They said “with anger and enthusiasm, but without violence, we will change the system”. This will happen with the fall of the stock market. We have to recognize that the energy does not come from us, but from the global teacher (not sure what that meant). There was some discussion on immigration and how that has displaced some lower level workers here in the USA, but nearly everyone in the group felt that the militarization of our borders would be harmful. They also seemed in agreement that the guest worker programs will exploit people, and it is another form of slavery – wage slavery. It will also contribute to corruption on both sides of the border.

Plenary Session On Thursday Evening: US Imperialism, War, Militarism and Prisons

Panel was Faleh Abood Umara, Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers Unions; Julian Aguon, Nasion Chamoru; Kai Barrows, Critical Resistance; Eli Painted Crow, Iraqi War Veteran; Judith LeBlanc, UFPJ; Julian Moya, SouthWest Organizing Project; Yifat Susskind, MADRE; Linda Burnham, Women of Color Resource Center.

Faleh Abood Umara first introduced a women in the audience, who was the head of the Electrical Workers Union in Iraq, and the first women labor leader in Iraq. I did not catch her name. Mr. Umara claimed in 2003, they kicked out KBR from Iraqi oil industries, and that the port workers kicked out a Denmark company also. He said that the duty of the people of the world is to unite to demand and sacrifice with our blood until we are free and peace prevails. Last month, a demonstration by oil workers in Iraq, and the Iraqi government wanted to arrest ten organizers, he was number two. He said he will continue to resist until the occupying powers leave. His brother was killed in Iraq, and the lady who was head of the Electrical Workers was threatened by the possible kidnapping of her son.

I have to say, when I see determination like this, I am certain that they will succeed. I personally would crumble in the face of such violence and just run for my life. But these Iraqis are willing to stay and fight (non-violently) and give up their very lives and families in order to succeed.

The next speaker was Eli Painted Crow. She is an Iraq War veteran. She said she went to Iraq and saw the racism first hand and sees the US as trying to erase Iraqi history. She said it broke her heart to see that as an American she was doing to Iraq what had been done to her own people – the native peoples of this land. She said that our biggest prison is our own minds and our own fears. She started SWAN – Service Women Action Network. She said the hardest thing to do is to come home and be alone – many military folks want to go back to Iraq because it feels normal to them.

Julian Moya spoke next, and he is working against the militarization in our public schools. His movement is a youth rights movement. He works on education students to alternatives to military recruitment, especially for low income students and students of color. He felt the anti war movement and anti militarism movement needed to be lead by youth. He said that we need to stop US imperialism from taking our best and brightest youths of color and that we need to provide more options for them then prison or war.

Kai Barrows spoke about the prison industrial complex and the need to get rid of it. One in 133 US citizens is in prison right now, and six out of ten prisoners are black or Latino. A total of 5% of all black men are in prison.

The next speaker was a woman, but I did not catch her name. She spoke on the Hamas/Fatah situation. She said that three US policies contributed to this situation: 1) democracy promotion; 2) economic sanctions; and 3) support for corrupt regimes. She said the democracy promotion totally backfired in Palestine, since Fatah failed to win anything for Palestinians from Israel, therefore Hamas won. The economic sanctions cause widespread suffering for civilians, and this is called terrorism when other people do it. The US media says Palestine is in a civil war – but the people in the general population are not fighting, it was actually US backed Fatah attempt to overthrow Hamas. The question she raised is how do we support Palestinians without supporting Hamas – a movement that she claimed is driven by the same tactics as the Bush administration, that is very pro-militaristic and very authoritarian and uses religion to push a reactionary political agenda. At these comments, she got a reaction from the audience, but I could not tell if they were upset at her characterization of Hamas or what. Considering the audience, it is unlike that they were upset about the negative characterization of the Bush administration.

Judith LeBlanc, from United for Peace and Justice, spoke of how we will see no progress on justice without ending the war in Iraq and shifting US foreign policy. She said we need a policy based on international law, and that we need to unravel the lies. UFPJ is calling for action in the streets on October 27, 2007 to end the occupation of Iraq. She says we have some successes – enlistment down for black youths, and we have turned up the heat on the politicians, unions are behind the movement, and there has been some change in congress with the women of color leading the way. She finished by saying that justice and peace are indispensable and that the world is counting on us.

It was, overall, amazing to be at the social forum. There were just so many issues, so many groups, so many individuals, that it was nearly overwhelming. It was great to see so many people come together, and just from the one day I was there, it was running along pretty well. All the sessions I went to were well attended.

And, as I left, it poured down rain. I got soaked, but it didn’t matter – it was summertime in hot ‘lanta, so a little water could not hurt anything. It did clog up traffic, but that is pretty typical for Atlanta.

I definitely will go to further Social Forums if I can.