[Antiracism] [westernmasssocialforum] correct version- Social Forum needs your input-call for public meeting

[Rene and Susan Theberge]

Dear friends,

We appreciate all the work, time and commitment that people have put into
planning the social forum so far. As some of you may know, there have been
several conflicts in planning meetings during the same time as other events,
and these conflicts have prevented some people from being involved.  There
have also been concerns raised about the class divide in, and the structure
of, the organizing process, and the fact that the coordinating committee is
not representative enough of the people, the struggles, and the organizing
in Western Mass. We think these conflicts represent larger issues that we
face here in Western MA and across the country as a whole. The way we
organize the Social Forum will affect whether or not more unity and
cooperation comes out of the process for people in Western MA. There is the
potential to bring people together through organizing an event like this and
there is always the potential that the process might divide people and move
the work backwards.  A Social Forum that is not organized in an inclusive
way can do more harm than good.

What if we dared to use this opportunity to transform the ways in which we
work together?  What if we took the risk to really talk honestly and listen
deeply to each other in order to create a way of working together that
really is inclusive and representative of all of us? 

When we first starting planning, these were some of the reasons listed for
taking this on:

 Why a Western Mass. Social Forum?

.        To link local struggles and organizing with the larger global
justice movement. To learn from and contribute to struggles around the
world.

.        To build a more powerful and unified movement for social and
economic justice and sustainability in W. Mass.

.        To advance discussion, debate, understanding, common interests and
strategies for change.

.        To celebrate and create/experience a bit of our vision of the
future through a culture of solidarity.

.        To build awareness and mobilization for the first U.S. Social
Forum, June 27-July 1, 2007 in Atlanta.
http://www.ussf2007.org/home.html

We are proposing that we stop and ask ourselves how we can truly meet these
goals in the current structure of organizing the social forum. We,  are
proposing that we slow down- even backtrack- the process until we have a
larger, more representative and inclusive group involved in the planning (
many other people have also expressed this idea). We are calling for a
meeting to talk about these issues. We are NOT calling for a discussion
about this on line.  We need to be sitting together to work this out. We
propose that we hold the meeting in a central and accessible location and
let people know the purpose of the meeting so all can attend who are
interested. We think it is very important to get a wide range of people at
this meeting and so we are proposing a handful of dates and times, and
asking for individuals to email Susan at reneandsusan at comcast.net  (please
put Social Forum in the subject line)  with all of the days and times listed
that work for you. We will then reply with the day and time that works best
for most people.  Please offer suggestions for central and accessible
locations as well.  Another world is possible but it is going to be a lot of
work to create it while living in the one we have now.  Let's support each
other lovingly but honestly and we can turn this around. We are still early
in the process and the time we put in now on working through the barriers
can make all the difference in where we end up. 

 

Potential dates

 

Thursday, November 30th, 7 PM

Saturday Dec 9th 1PM 

Sunday, Dec 10th, 12 pm, 4 pm, 6:30 pm 

Thursday, Dec 14th, 7 pm

 

With appreciation for all of the work and care that people are putting in to
make this happen,

Susan Theberge, Shira Wolf, Carlos Fontes, Jon Weissman, Jo Comerford, Doug
Renick, Maurice "Soulfighter" Taylor

 

 

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