Midwest Social Forum: Join Us on the Road to Atlanta and Beyond

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.