More than 8,000 people from across the United States came together in Atlanta, Georgia, for the first-ever U.S. Social Forum from June 27 to July 1. Following the tradition of the World Social Forums—which began in Brazil in 2001—the U.S. event featured hundreds of workshops and several plenary sessions around themes of economic, social and environmental justice.
While there was no central program or plan of action, it provided the opportunity for hundreds of political, labor and
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With a theme of “Another World is Possible, Another U.S. is Necessary,” the participation of thousands was an encouraging affirmation of the broad diversity and strength of many communities involved in struggles for real change.
The Social Forum began with a mass march of almost 10,000 people on June 27. A caravan of more than 100 people that originated in Albuquerque, N.M., and was joined by survivors of the Katrina disaster in New Orleans and the Gulf states, was warmly welcomed.
There was a strong representation from the southern states. The housing crisis and lack of government support for the people of New Orleans; deep poverty, homelessness and unemployment were some of the issues that brought African American, Latino and other working-class individuals to Atlanta, along with young activists of the environmental and peace movements. People were able to learn of each other’s lives and experiences, and became visible to each other’s struggles.
Melissa Sturgis, an African American woman from Miami, spoke of the multiple difficulties that her community is experiencing in the face of massive removal of poor people from subsidized housing for condominium development. She, like many others, came from community organizations at the grassroots level. The group to which she belongs, the Poverty Center for Social Change in Miami, had just taken over empty public-housing units that the city is deliberately leaving vacant.
Michael, a man in a wheelchair, came from West Virginia. He handed out flyers for a workshop on the struggle against unrestricted coal-mining in his state. He said, “Most people in the United States don’t even know that when they turn on a switch light, it is more than likely fueled by coal. And yet, our mountaintops are wiped out by rampant mining.”
Among Latino farmworker immigrants from Immokalee in Florida, who are fighting for higher wages; Indigenous people from New Mexico, Arizona and South America; activists in the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender communities, there was a strong sense of a common bond and uniting of all the issues.
Even though the organizers did not provide for the issue of Cuba to be formally represented in the plenary sessions because of a general social-democratic perspective, many radical and anti-imperialist issues were strongly present.
Cuba and the struggle of the Cuban Five political prisoners in the United States were highly visible. The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five leafleted 3,000 flyers and, in collaboration with the National Network on Cuba, participated in various workshops.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation was present with a delegation of members from San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami. They distributed hundreds of copies of the PSL’s new, bilingual newspaper, “Liberation,” and made many new contacts with people wanting to know more about socialism.
