Participants from Worcester, who also include members of Stone Soup Collective and students from Clark University, have participated in several musical events, plenaries, networking sessions, and dozens of workshops on a range of social justice issues from immigrant rights to radical education to youth organizing for change. The Forum was very well organized and successfully highlighted the collective protagonism of communities of color in the fight for justice in the US and in the world.

The city of Atlanta was chosen for its strong civil rights history. Racism, white supremacy, and community accountability where continually addressed in workshops, tents and plenaries; how they effect peoples struggles from within and without. All prominent MCs, plenary speakers, and performers were representatives of grassroots groups and nearly all were people of color. The workshop for white people to discuss racism, white privilege and ally work packed a room for 250.

It was not a forum of academics and intellectual celebrities, nor did make celebrities out of any individual. Instead it gave priority to grassroots organizations, and though several large NGOs were there, they did not dominate the spaces as has happened in other social forums.

The space was also not just a haven of liberal political positions (though the Atlanta corporate media portrayed it that way) or a booster event for the democratic party. The majority of the voices heard at the opening, closing, plenaries, press events and most of the workshops I attended were deeply critical of the electoral political process; were not looking for band aid solutions or reforms as end goals. The need for complete transformation of society, for revolution, for the end to capitalism were frequently and eloquently stated. And the inspiring thing was that it felt that there were the movements present to make this happen, starting with ourselves, with the process of building new worlds; and that people are already doing it in their local communities.

Major themes of the forum included: immigrant rights, gulf coast/post-Katrina, war/militarization, economic justice, environmental justice + climate justice, women's rights, LGBTQ liberation, Palestine, economies of solidarity, media justice, and others. Many of these had organized tents or tracks that one could follow throughout the forum.

From the workshops and plenaries that I participated in, I felt a general sense of readiness for people to see beyond their immediate issues and look towards ways of coming together, seeing the intersections of our struggles, working toward mutual support and real solidarity. The best example of this for me was the workshop "Another Politics is Possible" which skillfully facilitated a participatory discussion about how to implement horizontality without structurelessness, intersectionality, living the vision, all in a revolutionary context. Participants concisely spoke from their community organizing experience and began the discussion on the important and large topics.

Critiques will be articulated soon, and some were brought to the closing session. One was the marginalization of the media justice center, which -- instead of being prominent and incorporated into the common space -- was put in a hard to find unaccessible space. Other criticisms included high costs of basic needs in downtown Atlanta, lack of rural movements, workshops on similar topics being scheduled at the same time, and some of the workshops and events being held at hard-to-get-to spaces. No one claimed the road to another world would be smooth, and the closing ceremony showed some of the challenges when, during the role call of proclamations, an indigenous speaker was cut short. A few minutes later 50 indigenous people took the stage to express their anger, and drum for justice and healing.

More information and other coverage of the forum can be found on the forum's official website and at the US Indymedia site.

There will be a US Social Forum report-back/planning meeting for a Worcester's Peoples' Assemby on Friday, July 20th, at 6pm at Stone Soup, 4 King St, Worcester.

--Matt Feinstein

Photo by Rachel Kenemore

Photo by Rachel Kenemore

Photo by Rachel Kenemore