Listen to Kristen Petroshius, Mario Garcia Sierra, Cynthia Lin, and Jennifer Knox on the WTDY's Forward Forum with John Quinlan and Laura Gutknecht. http://podcast.loyalears.com/wtdy.php?task=browse&file_id=1474

Midwest Region of USSF, June 30, 2007 – Peoples’ Assembly

We want to take this opportunity to thank all the Atlanta folks who made this forum happen, the USSF national planning committee, all the organizations that have worked long, long hours, and all the volunteers who have labored on behalf of building this movement.

Ten thousand activists gathered in Atlanta the last week of June for the first ever United States Social Forum. The USSF adopted the World Social Forum’s slogan “Another World is Possible,” and added to it the line “Another US is Necessary.” The week’s events demonstrated the dedication of social movements in the United States to building a new and better world.

The USSF built on the two main issues that drives the WSF: opposition to corporate globalization and repressive neo-liberal policies that leave deep marks on marginalized communities. As with all forums, the USSF took on characteristics of its local host community. In the case of Atlanta, this was particularly notable for being rooted in a history of struggles against racism and other forums of oppression.

Here's a compilation of really important info about the US Social Forum, particularly relevant for those traveling to Atlanta from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and the Twin Cities on the buses organized by the Midwest Social Forum. If you feel this list is missing anything in particular, please suggest it by contacting us.

About the buses from Chicago, Madison, Milwaukee, and the Twin Cities.

• Who's on the bus
• Other caravans converging on Atlanta
• Schedule for the trip down and important info (phone numbers of bus organizers etc.)
• What to bring
• An Incredibly Incomplete List of Historical Happenings Along Our Route to the US Social Forum
• map of USSF event locations, with Days Inn hotel where many on the bus are staying (google maps)

Midwest Related

• Midwest relevant workshops and sessions
• Organizations coming from the Midwest

Important stuff at www.ussf2007.org

• Lista para los Participantes del Foro Social de Estados Unidos (USSF)Information for Immigrants
• Register for the USSF
• Think about getting a MARTA pass (public transport)
• How to stay healthy in Atlanta
• Plenaries
• What we believe
• Opening march info
• Youth info

Info about translation

The Social Forum movement is on the rise.

More than simply a conference, Social Forums provide a space to build relationships, learn from others’ experiences and insights, and generate renewed commitment to social, environmental, and economic justice. The Social Forum helps to develop the consciousness, vision, strategy, and leadership needed to make another, more just world possible.

The Midwest Social Forum (MWSF) is committed to building a broad-based social movement across class, gender, race/ethnicity, generation, sexuality, ability, and geography. In pursuit of that goal, it seeks to embody a genuinely democratic process that assures the broadest representation possible.

Since the first World Social Forum (WSF) was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, the Social Forum movement has expanded rapidly, spreading to the regional, national, and even local level in many parts of the world, including a growing number of regional and local social forums in the United States.

The Midwest Social Forum exemplifies this growth.

Over the past four years, the MWSF has increased in scope, scale, and diversity, and in 2006, made its most significant leap forward. Last July, nearly 1,000 community activists, students, educators, artists, and others committed to social justice movement building gathered in Milwaukee for MWSF 2006, taking part in four days of caucuses, workshops, panels, training sessions, and cultural events.

This year, instead of holding our own regional Forum, the MWSF Organizing Committee is pursuing two key goals:

• Use the momentum we have built in the Midwest in support of the first United States Social Forum (USSF), scheduled for June 27-July 1 in Atlanta. By ensuring a strong Midwest contingent, we will help build personal relationships and organizational connections between the MWSF and the broader national and international Forum movement.
• Organize a series of more focused follow-up activities aimed at building on the energy generated by the USSF by further developing relationships and movement infrastructure in the Midwest. These activities will include an Organizing Teach-in in spring 2008.

The Allied Media Conference is an annual, weekend-long gathering of influential, alternative media-makers and committed social justice activists. The AMC is a vital contributor to the growth of a large-scale social movement around media that centers issues of race, class, gender and other systems of oppression at its focal point. 
This year's theme is developing participatory media that empowers the producer and receiver, transformative media that breaks silence and builds movements. The Allied Media Conference brings together a phenomenal cross-section of media workers: daring filmmakers, ambitious radio producers, serious publishers, skilled web designers, and artists whose work "makes revolution irresistible." 

To sign up for monthly updates, go to http://ussf2007.org/mailman/listinfo/host_ussf2007.org.

Please distribute this information to all your contacts and peers. Check
the U.S.-SF website monthly for updates www.ussocialforum.org

Every month from now until the US SOCIAL FORUM we will send out an update.
We are excited to gather our struggles in order to build stronger
partnerships, collective vision, and coordinated efforts in the USA &

The Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed 2007 Conference will be hosted by the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

With Metropolitan State University Urban Teacher Program,
St. Paul Central High School & Central Touring Theatre Company

Invited Presenters include Augusto Boal and Julian Boal— Founder and practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed Chris Mato Nunpa-- Dakota Professor (Southwest State University, Minnesota) and scholar of indigenous pedagogy Rosa Luisa Márquez-- Puerto Rican Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner and scholar Sekou Sundiata-- Poet, Performer, Educator, and Citizen Activist Members of Viewpoints-- a Palestinian-Israeli group of interactive theater artist/educators who work with Israeli and Palestinian high school students

Background During the summer of 1964, thirty Freedom Schools were established in towns throughout Mississippi to address racial inequalities in the educational system.  Mississippi’s black schools were poorly funded, and teachers had to use hand-me-down textbooks that offered a racist slant on American history.    The Freedom Schools offered a rebuttal to this reality.  Their curriculum included black history, the philosophy of the Civil Rights Movement, and leadership development in addition to remedial instruction in reading and arithmetic.  The Freedom Schools had hoped to draw at least 1000 students that first summer, and ended up with 3000. 

In 2006, Chicago is brimming with the energy of young people who are taking action on issues of zero tolerance, criminalization, racism, sexism, and homophobia.  Typically these young people are affiliated with local community-based organizations and schools.  Some are unaffiliated and taking independent action.  The time is right in Chicago for a citywide effort to provide a space for these young people to gain new skills, build alliances across neighborhoods, identities, and ideology.