
{"id":615,"date":"2007-07-19T06:45:11","date_gmt":"2007-07-19T14:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2007\/07\/19\/local-progressives-find-space-at-social-forum\/"},"modified":"2007-07-19T06:45:11","modified_gmt":"2007-07-19T14:45:11","slug":"local-progressives-find-space-at-social-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2007\/07\/19\/local-progressives-find-space-at-social-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Local progressives find space at Social Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/07\/front_eng.jpg\" height=\"351\" width=\"251\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>By Taylor Sisk<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ask each of the dozen or so individuals from throughout the Carrboro community why they attended the U.S. Social Forum and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll likely get a dozen or so variations on a common objective \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to help create a space for change, gather inspiration, rejuvenate, rejoice, join forces, connect. And many, if not all, among those are also likely to reveal having come away with a sense of something gained, some sense of, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This thing that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s big.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That is, precisely, how one local attendee, Ruby Sinreich, defined it \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153this thing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that she describes being a movement, or, rather, a movement of movements, for a more just, peaceful and equitable world in which to live.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This first-ever U.S. Social Forum \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which was held in Atlanta from June 27 to July 1 but is, in practice, an ongoing pursuit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is an outgrowth of the World Social Forum, which was held initially in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and each year since in locations throughout the world. The spark that ignited that first World Social Forum was a rebuttal to the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of the leaders of major corporation, presidents, prime ministers and intellectuals. Some 10,000 progressive-minded folks representing themselves and organizations and movements concerned with workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights, the environment, the treatment of the less privileged by the powerful and a whole lot more came together for a few days to talk to one another, listen, and plan.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Social Forum is designed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153provide space to build relationships, learn from each other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experiences, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, and bring renewed insight and inspiration.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>It is further designed, as defined on its website, to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153help develop leadership.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Our next generation of community and global leaders were in attendance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>No waiting <\/strong><br \/>\nTake Michal Osterweil. Osterweil is working on her doctorate in UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s department of anthropology, studying this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153movement of movements.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also very active here in this community, helping build support and energy around Carrboro Greenspace, a movement to preserve one of the last greenspaces in the downtown Carrboro area and to promote community activities on the property, toward facilitating a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sustainable and livable future in Carrboro and beyond.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Creating space is, for Osterweil, a vital pursuit.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Considering the major ecological and political problems we face today,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that one of the most effective ways to build the infrastructure and cultural capacities and awareness necessary [to realize change] is to have positive spaces in which other ways of \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 living and consuming are possible.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just something we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re waiting for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c waiting to defeat some sort of system \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to achieve.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Rather, the building of that infrastructure, the construction of those cultural capacities, is well in motion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Connecting<br \/>\n<\/strong>Witness Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>Ruby Sinreich is a longtime local citizen activist, a member of the Rogers Road Small Area Plan Task Force, she runs OrangePolitics.org and is a communications coordinator for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an international, interfaith organization dedicated to the pursuit of peace and justice.<\/p>\n<p>Sinreich traveled to Atlanta with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a whole posse\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of co-workers from throughout the country. She was struck by the diversity of the event, an impressive array of languages, cultures, occupations and impulses \u00e2\u20ac\u201c representatives for farm laborers, urban day-laborers, Latinos, African Americans. Sinreich mentions, as an example, the Miami Workers Center, an organization that advocates for low-income communities and low-wage workers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153These guys had been working months to get buses of folks up there.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the coolest things,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153was that I heard so much about the importance of joining causes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a lot of people making connections.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in keeping with the spirit of the World Social Forum. But Sinreich and others noted some unique aspects of this U.S. gathering.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A lot of people talked about how many of these [gatherings] are disorganized.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This one, she says, was well managed and very accessible. She noted an impressive number of translators throughout the event \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all by way of inclusiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Sammy Slade, a Carrboro carpenter and self-described \u00e2\u20ac\u0153active citizen, agrees: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There was a very conscious effort to be as inclusive as possible. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The workshops, especially, provided spaces that were very conducive to interaction.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He attended workshops on global warming and livable economies, among others. The Fellowship of Reconciliation hosted a workshop called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Grassroots Civilian Diplomacy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which explored the belief that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153ordinary people have the capacity to break down walls that political leaders are unable to overcome (and sometimes create).\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Osterweil circulated a publication she had produced in which various groups had been asked to describe, in her words, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what it would mean to win\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to allow them space in which to discuss the nature of the work they do.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have to reflect upon the activism that we do. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been really tough, especially since 9\/11. What activism means today and how it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s effective today is a really big question. And I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much fragmentation and even sectarianism among [groups on the Left] that we need some space to think a little better and talk to each other and engage the different approaches.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Thus the Social Forums.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The alternative<\/strong><br \/>\nCriticisms of both the World and U.S. Social Forums arrive from both the Right and the Left. Anti-capitalism isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, after all, everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cup of tea.<\/p>\n<p>Judith Blau is a professor of sociology at UNC and chair of that department\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Social &amp; Economic Justice program. She also serves as president of the U.S. chapter of Sociologists without Borders, which has held sessions at the forums on scholar activism. She points out that while many of her colleagues in academia consider the Social Forums to be anti-U.S., anti-West, they represent, to her mind, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153an alternative to liberal rights.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You and I,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153can vote, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about all we can do. Elsewhere there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a feeling that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re entitled to health care, economic rights \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not part of the American tradition.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always shared a planet,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Blau continues. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But since neo-liberalism, the acceleration of free trade \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Internet traffic \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re increasingly aware of our<br \/>\ninterdependence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She tells of a group of Ethiopian farmers who spoke at the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi, which she attended, declaring their opposition to the World Bank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agriculture policies and support for indigenous farming practices.<\/p>\n<p>Those in attendance clearly recognized a kindred spirit, Blau says, with these farmers. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d known this abstractly, but now we knew it concretely.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Another criticism of the forums is that they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t promote a plan of action.<\/p>\n<p>Some say, Osterweil acknowledges, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcYou\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just coming and talking and feeling good and having fun. Where is the outcome?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She says that one of the real strengths of these gatherings is that it helps engender \u00e2\u20ac\u0153productive disagreement \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 in order to work through things.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For me, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why the Social Forums are so important. Because they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily already have an answer about how it is we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to change the world, but rather they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re about having different folks coming from so many different cultures and traditions of activism [building] strategies for changing the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Some people believe we have to come up with a formula, and say we need to unite and say this is what needs to come first, this is what needs to come second \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really quite believe that yet. I think we need spaces in which we can learn about why people organize in so many different ways.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Larger spaces apparently will be increasingly in demand. Osterweil, too, was impressed by both the size of the turnout and the magnitude of the energy in Atlanta:<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You just felt like, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcOh my god; we have such a strong movement. I had no idea that so many people were doing this kind of work in the U.S.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The question then follows, says Osterweil, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How do we build a different world; how do we build different worlds \u00e2\u20ac\u201d plural.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer Ask each of the dozen or so individuals from throughout the Carrboro community why they attended the U.S. Social Forum and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll likely get a dozen or so variations on a common objective \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to help create a space for change, gather inspiration, rejuvenate, rejoice, join forces, connect. And many,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}