What happens when hundreds or
even thousands of small and not-so-small organizations
come together to meet, dialogue, and present their
ideas over the course of a long weekend? The World
Social Forum (WSF), an annual gathering of tens of
thousands of people from over 100 countries, has
provided this space for those able to travel to Brazil,
Kenya, Venezuela, and India in recent years. This
summer, from June 27 to July 1, those of us who have
never traveled to a WSF will have the opportunity to
experience first hand what such a gathering looks like,
when the US Social Forum (USSF) takes place in Atlanta,
Georgia.

While the WSF has come under heavy criticism over
recent years, due in part to the increasingly dominant
role that the political parties and large multinational
NGOs play in the shaping and framing of the event, the
USSF got off to an encouraging start when it was
announced last year that it would take place in the
southern state of Georgia, and that Project South would
be one of the groups initially bottom-lining the
organizing. According to their mission statement:

Project South is a leadership development organization
based in the US south creating spaces for movement
building. We build relationships with organizations
and networks across the US and Global South to inform
our local work and to engage in bottom-up movement
building for social and economic justice. As the South
Goes. . .

As W.E.B. Du Bois once remarked: "As the south goes, so
goes the nation." Grassroots organizations across the
southern US, having to deal with so much in the
aftermath of Katrina, are still struggling almost two
years later. In "A Letter from the People of New
Orleans to Our Friends and Allies," printed in the last
issue of Left Turn, we read:

While we remain in crisis, under-staffed, underfunded,
and in many cases, in desperate need of help, we have
seen many promises unfulfilled. From the perspective
of the poorest and least powerful, it appears that the
work of national allies on our behalf has either not
happened or, if it has happened, it has been a failure.

New Orleans today illustrates the intense crisis that
many are dealing with, not just in the South but in
cities across the country. It is a test case — an
example of what is happening in urban centers all
across the US, only sped up in hyperdrive. Here we see
the reasons why, even in the richest of the
overdeveloped countries, we have to keep finding ways
of coming together to press for justice and equality.

New Orleans highlights the intersections of
de-industrialization and corporate globalization —
symbolized by the moves towards privatization and
intense gentrification. It predicts what future
effects the global climate crisis will have on our most
vulnerable communities. It shows the government’s
increasing reliance on militarism as a means to solve
humanitarian disasters, with many noting the
similarities with Iraq, such as the combination of
private mercenary forces with reconstruction contracts
awarded to companies like Halliburton. And finally, it
has shown the inadequacy of the response to all of this
put forward by the so-called "non-profit industrial
complex" in the wake of the vacuum left by the state.

Still, two years later, grassroots resistance in New
Orleans continues, as it has always has. New community
formations, organizations, and networks have emerged
and are organizing effectively against such great odds.
Many of them are planning on traveling to Atlanta this
summer. Robert Goodman, a formerly incarcerated
activist who works with the New Orleans-based
organization Safe Streets, Strong Communities, says
that although "New Orleans is still in crisis, we are
clear that the only folks who will help are others
working for justice. We see the Social Forum as a
place to share our stories and connect our struggles so
together we can demand some fundamental changes in the
treatment of New Orleans and all its displaced people."
USSF organizers in turn have worked hard to highlight
many of these organizations and their struggles during
the nearly week-long program.

 Gettin’ on the bus

Atlanta is expecting huge numbers not only from New
Orleans but all across the southern states. In a recent
outreach email, the USSF national organizing committee
highlighted some of the folks traveling to Atlanta:

* The South by Southwest Freedom Caravan — spanning
more than 5 states — will bring nearly 1,000 people
from New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama, and Georgia.

* Several community organizations in Mississippi,
including the Mississippi Workers Center and
Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA), are
organizing more than four buses from across the state.

* Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative is bringing
more than 200 members in their Delegation from
Mississippi and Alabama!

Although the left and progressive movement here in the
US is still very fractured and factionalized, many are
realizing that these kinds of gatherings are few and
far between, and are finding ways to use their trip to
Atlanta to strengthen their local work, as well as to
build relationships and connect with friends and allies
who will be coming from across the country.

 Larger Questions

Eric Tang, in an editorial featured in Left Turn #23
(Mexico on the Brink), wrote: "The USSF offers no
guarantees. It will be what we make of it. So arrive
in Atlanta not only with the intention of being
convinced and inspired, but with the desire to convince
and inspire others." This leads to an important
question. Are we coming to the table with some sort of
vision that aims to “convince and inspire” or do we see
this as more of an extended networking session, an
opportunity to build with individuals and organizations
whom we rarely get to see or communicate with outside
of email lists and conference calls?

Some of the past critiques of the WSF process have
centered around similar questions. They argue that
perhaps what gets lost in the sea of workshops and
opening plenaries, the dinners and car rides, the
meetings and caucuses, is the question — to what end?
Those of us who are not interested in starting a
political party, and have even shied away from cadre
organizing of any kind, have found it hard to
articulate what exactly it is we would want to see on
the local, regional, or even national level, much less
how we might organize towards such a goal. Perhaps we
are not interested or do not have the energy right now
to grapple with the concept of building a larger, more
coordinated movement here in the US that could operate
on a national scale?

We know we are critical of the non-profit world —
increasingly integrated into the corporate model — as
a major vehicle for structural social change. We are
critical of the centralized political party structure,
whether it be the neoliberal Democrats or the small
leftist “revolutionary sects” that continue to operate
in near anonymity around the country. On the other
side of the spectrum, the frustrating
anti-organizational and sectarian tendencies within
many of the contemporary anarchist movements, coupled
with the predominantly white subcultures surrounding
them, have left much to be desired. The alternative
for many of us has been to continue to identify with a
broad-based, but still rather vague, political tendency
— sometimes described as the "anti-authoritarian,
anti-capitalist, non-sectarian left." This tendency
has been much more clearly articulated among social
movements in Latin America, where, during the 2005 WSF,
Joao Pedro Stedile, coordinator of Brazil’s Landless
Workers’ Movement (MST), stated, "The question of power
is not resolved by taking the government palace, which
is easy and has been done many times, but rather by the
building of new social relations."

 Another Politics Is Possible

Building on this theme, and following a series of
public events and report-backs analyzing social
movements in Latin America (see Left Turn #20 editorial
“Rethinking Solidarity”), a group of 20 organizers and
community activists, coming from a wide range of
backgrounds, organized a 5-part monthly political
study group in a modest effort to continue a more
focused dialogue. Part of the group’s initial goals
was to figure out a way to present some of these
questions and ideas in Atlanta.

One component of this is organizing a large plenary
session called "Another Politics Is Possible: Living
the Vision from Below and to the Left." This session
is being co-sponsored by a wide range of organizations
on both the local and the national level including; LA
Garment Workers’ Center, Sista II Sista, Coalition of
Immokalee Workers, Student Farmworker Alliance, INCITE!
Women of Color Against Violence, Regeneracion and
Pachamama Childcare collectives, Left Turn, Catalyst
Project, and the Center for Immigrant Families. This
plenary hopes to serve as a meeting point for many
groups and individuals who are thinking about this
concept of building “new social relations” alongside
their everyday base-building and political education
work.

Besides the panel discussion, there is a large
delegation being organized from New York, made up of
several buses, under the same theme of "Another
Politics Is Possible." Tying the transportation
organizing to the larger vision, the delegation’s
fundraising appeal states:

Many times, individual paid professionals and “token”
community members represent community organizations in
larger strategic conversations, gatherings, and
conferences. The USSF provides an important
opportunity to change this dynamic. Instead of
choosing a few individuals to travel by plane and rent
out hotel rooms, we will use a comparable budget to
enable a large group of mothers, children, youth, and
childcare volunteers to attend the USSF. Ground
transportation will enable more participants to attend,
particularly immigrants and families with children.
The journey itself will embody our politics, fostering
an intergenerational space of connection, sharing, and
caring for people from different communities in NYC.
At the USSF, we hope to both learn from others and to
share our own work.

Emerging out of our study group, and preparing for the
long bus rides ahead, we still have many questions.
While we do not pretend to know the answers, we know
that the USSF will provide a rare and important space
to keep pushing forward the question of political
vision. We will be missing out if we treat this moment
merely as a glorified networking opportunity, ceding
the platform to the NGOs and political parties who have
become accustomed — over the course of the WSF process
— to sitting at the head of the table.

It might be time to grab the mic. Max Uhlenbeck is a
member of the Left Turn editorial collective, and a
national organizer with Students for a Democratic
Society (www.newsds.org), who works and lives in New
York City.