The Boston Social Forum

As the U.S. faces the erosion of the public sector, and of civil rights and civil liberites, and the left remains fragmented, the Boston Social Forum offers an opportunity to envision another world and strategize about how to build it. <!--break--> <p><br />THE BOSTON SOCIAL FORUM<br />by Sean Donahue</p><p><br />The “structural adjustment” programs that big<br />corporations, wealthy governments, and international<br />lenders imposed on Latin America, Africa, and much of<br />Asia in the 1980’s and 1990’s are now being applied<br />back home in the U.S. In order to reduce the deficit<br />while still funding the largest military machine the<br />world has seen, the federal government has slashed<br />funding for housing, education, health care, and<br />environmental protection. State governments have<br />followed suit, putting increasing pressure on<br />counties, cities, and towns to privatize everything<br />from prisons to public hospitals to municipal water<br />systems. The wave of privatization has resulted in<br />the loss of union jobs, higher fees for vital<br />services, and a lack of accountability for how public<br />money is spent and basic needs are met. Non-profits<br />are left scrambling to try to meet the needs of people<br />who used to depend on government programs that have<br />now been scaled back or eliminated, and find<br />themselves competing for the same grants and appealing<br />to the same donors to help them through each new<br />crisis. </p><p>Meanwhile, progressive social movements in this<br />country find themselves fragmented and lacking a<br />vision for the future. Daily struggles against new<br />wars, new funding cuts, new court rulings, and new<br />arrests leave activists unable to develop a coherent<br />response to the broad assault on the public sector,<br />civil liberties, civil rights, and international law<br />(not to mention people, movements, and countries that<br />oppose the corporate agenda.) </p><p>In response to this crisis, over fifty labor,<br />environmental, peace, human rights, civil rights,<br />neighborhood, and women’s groups came to organize the<br />Boston Social Forum, which will bring thousands of<br />activists from throughout New England and around the<br />world together at the University of Massachusetts in<br />Boston from July 23-25 to share their ideas and<br />experiences, build new networks and alliances, and<br />articulate an alternative vision for our collective<br />future. Modeled on the World Social Forum, which has<br />brought tens of thousands of activists from social<br />movements around the world together in Porto Allegre,<br />Brazil, and Mumbai, India, together to share their<br />strategies, analysis, and proposals, the Boston<br />Social Forum will be the first major social forum in<br />North America. </p><p>Prominent writers, activists, musicians, and social<br />critics like Angela Davis, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Billy<br />Bragg, Winona LaDuke, Jim Hightower, Hassan<br />Barghouthi, Harry Belafonte, and Medea Benjamin will<br />help to set the tone for the weekend by sharing their<br />own stories and songs and visions. But the most<br />important conversations will take place between people<br />from radically different walks of life finding common<br />ground. Where else will a union organizer from Rome, a<br />single mother holding down three jobs in Detroit, the<br />only out lesbian from a high school in rural Utah, an<br />organic farmer from Maine, a college student who spent<br />the winter working for Howard Dean in Iowa and New<br />Hampshire, a South African poet, a seventeen year old<br />rapper, a homeless Vietnam veteran, a campesino woman<br />tortured by the Colombian Army, and an Ivy League<br />economics professor sit down together to explore the<br />links between the struggles they all face and then<br />spend the night dancing to hip-hop and Afro-Cuban<br />jazz? </p><p>Ours will be an open-ended process – we will not be<br />hammering out a manifesto, adopting a platform, or<br />issuing a five-year plan. We are uniting around common<br />questions rather than ideology: What kind of future do<br />we want for Boston? For our region? For our nation?<br />For the world? What is our vision of a better society?<br />As Suren Moodliar of the North American Alliance for<br />Fair Employment says, “We don’t have the answers but<br />we know who does.” Those answers will emerge from<br />conversations between people from different<br />communities, different social movements, and<br />dramatically different walks of life. </p><p>The Boston Social Forum won’t be just a conference<br />about reclaiming democracy, it will be an experiment<br />in democracy, a place where everyone has a voice,<br />living proof that “Another World is Possible.” </p><p><br />Sean Donahue directs the Corporations and Militarism<br />Project of the Massachusetts Anti-Corporate<br />Clearinghouse (<a href="http://www.stopcorporatecontrol.org">http://www.stopcorporatecontrol.org</a>.)<br />For more information on the Boston Social Forum go to <br /><a href="http://www.bostonsocialforum.org">http://www.bostonsocialforum.org</a>.</p>

<p>As the U.S. faces the erosion of the public sector, and of civil rights and civil liberites, and the left remains fragmented, the Boston Social Forum offers an opportunity to envision another world and strategize about how to build it.</p> <!--break--><p>THE BOSTON SOCIAL FORUM<br />by Sean Donahue</p> <p>The “structural adjustment” programs that big<br />corporations, wealthy governments, and international<br />lenders imposed on Latin America, Africa, and much of<br />Asia in the 1980’s and 1990’s are now being applied<br />back home in the U.S. In order to reduce the deficit<br />while still funding the largest military machine the<br />world has seen, the federal government has slashed<br />funding for housing, education, health care, and<br />environmental protection. State governments have<br />followed suit, putting increasing pressure on<br />counties, cities, and towns to privatize everything<br />from prisons to public hospitals to municipal water<br />systems. The wave of privatization has resulted in<br />the loss of union jobs, higher fees for vital<br />services, and a lack of accountability for how public<br />money is spent and basic needs are met. Non-profits<br />are left scrambling to try to meet the needs of people<br />who used to depend on government programs that have<br />now been scaled back or eliminated, and find<br />themselves competing for the same grants and appealing<br />to the same donors to help them through each new<br />crisis. </p> <p>Meanwhile, progressive social movements in this<br />country find themselves fragmented and lacking a<br />vision for the future. Daily struggles against new<br />wars, new funding cuts, new court rulings, and new<br />arrests leave activists unable to develop a coherent<br />response to the broad assault on the public sector,<br />civil liberties, civil rights, and international law<br />(not to mention people, movements, and countries that<br />oppose the corporate agenda.) </p> <p>In response to this crisis, over fifty labor,<br />environmental, peace, human rights, civil rights,<br />neighborhood, and women’s groups came to organize the<br />Boston Social Forum, which will bring thousands of<br />activists from throughout New England and around the<br />world together at the University of Massachusetts in<br />Boston from July 23-25 to share their ideas and<br />experiences, build new networks and alliances, and<br />articulate an alternative vision for our collective<br />future. Modeled on the World Social Forum, which has<br />brought tens of thousands of activists from social<br />movements around the world together in Porto Allegre,<br />Brazil, and Mumbai, India, together to share their<br />strategies, analysis, and proposals, the Boston<br />Social Forum will be the first major social forum in<br />North America. </p> <p>Prominent writers, activists, musicians, and social<br />critics like Angela Davis, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Billy<br />Bragg, Winona LaDuke, Jim Hightower, Hassan<br />Barghouthi, Harry Belafonte, and Medea Benjamin will<br />help to set the tone for the weekend by sharing their<br />own stories and songs and visions. But the most<br />important conversations will take place between people<br />from radically different walks of life finding common<br />ground. Where else will a union organizer from Rome, a<br />single mother holding down three jobs in Detroit, the<br />only out lesbian from a high school in rural Utah, an<br />organic farmer from Maine, a college student who spent<br />the winter working for Howard Dean in Iowa and New<br />Hampshire, a South African poet, a seventeen year old<br />rapper, a homeless Vietnam veteran, a campesino woman<br />tortured by the Colombian Army, and an Ivy League<br />economics professor sit down together to explore the<br />links between the struggles they all face and then<br />spend the night dancing to hip-hop and Afro-Cuban<br />jazz? </p> <p>Ours will be an open-ended process – we will not be<br />hammering out a manifesto, adopting a platform, or<br />issuing a five-year plan. We are uniting around common<br />questions rather than ideology: What kind of future do<br />we want for Boston? For our region? For our nation?<br />For the world? What is our vision of a better society?<br />As Suren Moodliar of the North American Alliance for<br />Fair Employment says, “We don’t have the answers but<br />we know who does.” Those answers will emerge from<br />conversations between people from different<br />communities, different social movements, and<br />dramatically different walks of life. </p> <p>The Boston Social Forum won’t be just a conference<br />about reclaiming democracy, it will be an experiment<br />in democracy, a place where everyone has a voice,<br />living proof that “Another World is Possible.” </p> <p>Sean Donahue directs the Corporations and Militarism<br />Project of the Massachusetts Anti-Corporate<br />Clearinghouse (<a href="http://www.stopcorporatecontrol.org">http://www.stopcorporatecontrol.org</a>.)<br />For more information on the Boston Social Forum go to <br /><a href="http://www.bostonsocialforum.org">http://www.bostonsocialforum.org</a>.</p>