USSF Team on the Radio

APEN USSF team member Keri Manyvanh spoke about her experiences at the US Social Forum on the KPFA show APEX Express on Thursday, July 5th. You can listen to the show here. Keri and other USSF delegates come on at about 17 minutes in.

Also, The Nation magazine has a recap of the US Social Forum titled "An Even Newer Left." The article also mentions APEN-friends National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR).

USSF day6 - closing

Sunday, July 1

The People’s Assembly gathered for the last day of the USSF to hear closing comments that tied this overwhelming experience together, as well dozens of resolutions to inspire next steps. Among panelists were awesome Tammy/LCSC who shared that at this closing, our win doesn’t end here, but rather we start here & implement all these great ideas back home in our communities. Tom/IEN added that we are not looking for a reform of these broken systems in the US—we are looking for a transformation. Wild applause.

At the 10th resolution, after proposals for Black-Brown unity, our Right to the City to reverse gentrification, anti-war programs, immigrants rights campaigns, Gulf Coast tribunal for internally displaced people, that another media is possible and poetry calling to “Give me a movement that moves”, 2 native folks came up to the mic with their 2 minutes to share their resolution. In her native tongue, the first woman spoke about Native sovereignty & broken treaties, then repeated in English. Then the other South American indigenous man began reading his proposal, but their combined 2 minutes was up & the USSF moderators had to pass the mic to the many others waiting their turn to give proposals. A tug of war for the mic ensued. The crowd gasped. The indigenous man was escorted off the stage. Unsettled murmur grows in the audience, then chants of “let him speak, let him speak”. 10 more proposals are given. A crowd formed around the indigenous man & crosses the audience to backstage, and a takeover begins…

The indigenous contingent of 50+ swarm the red stage. “In the spirit of Native Homeland Security, our warrior spirits will step up when we see wrong being done to our people. When you took that mic away from our brother, we were hurt and we had to do something about that…” We were all lectured and reminded of what the US has done to the first nations of Turtle Island. The stage was a surreal re-enactment in a way. But the glorious finale was that they took it back. They took back what was theirs. And in the spirit of healing, they turned to the drum for a healing song—that was the drum beat of Mother Earth. Bineshi & the other native women also spoke & reaffirmed that the USSF organizers were not the enemy, nor us in the audience. What happened with the mic was a simple mistake. And later, the woman who played the mic tug of war apologized & also acknowledged that if we think that the movement wasn’t going to make mistakes along the way, we were fooling ourselves. The stage was set for a movement drama act, with resolution. Whew.

Well, round 2 came when a group of women poverty scholars took stage refusing the 2 minute limit. Mic tug of war ensued. Cindy/MWC pulled it back with force, shouting that we needed to stop this. We are full of struggles and we were not going to solve it all on stage today, but that we will do it in our communities. We were not each others enemy. The real enemy is capitalism & US imperialism. Wild applause & steam dissipates. We take deep breaths &… the next proposal makes its way on stage & so on. Flow continues. (Mad props to the USSF organizers for working this through & pulling us together to feel unified & stronger to go back home to continue building this movement.)

Before hopping on the plane to go back West, we had to pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr, born & buried in Atlanta. We walked to his Memorial site and swam in his words, images, courage & inspiration. One of the exhibits documented his death with a recorded sermon he gave played overhead:

“…if any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school.

“I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

“Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.”

Tears flowed easily down my face & I could see Hai Binh & others touched similarly. That was extra fuel to take home for movement work. A journey well worth the effort.

USSF day5

Saturday, June 30

What a day—action packed with back from set up for the EJ (environmental justice) Tent in the morning to the GGJ (Grassroots Global Justice) reception for the international delegates lasting past midnight.

Being the main EJ tent coordinator for EJ day, keeping track of the flow of people & activities turned up my internal thermostat. Have we told you it reaches the higher 90’s with humidity in the middle of a USSF-Atlanta day? The USSF has been a true exercise of cool (head & body) under extreme circumstances of making sense of chaos, taming the overwhelming, and sharing your best thinking with the best US grassroots activists around. Everyone deserves to be commended, especially the USSF planning committee!

9am: EJ Tent Set-up was smooth thanks to Eco-Action folks.

10am: Water Ceremony at Indigenous Tent. I scooped up a bottle of Oakland Estuary water to bring to the ceremony where Native women from the Great Lakes shared their prayers. I learned that women are the bearers of water, and the men are the keepers of fire, and these roles are kept distinct.

10am: The APEN team, led by Mimi & Keri, facilitated a workshop on Organizing Asian Communities. I headed over after the Water Ceremony & caught the presentations by APEN, CPA, DRUM & CAAAV. It was powerful to see such amazing API’s share the various challenges in organizing members under different languages, immigration status, working & living conditions, as well as the analysis that our campaigns may be at one place but our visions go beyond & deeper in fighting for justice. While sitting at the back during these presentations, I also got to play with a little boy from one of CAAAV’s staffers. We made planes & trains from the many flyers we were handed by USSFers. I was missing my own kids at this point & our play reminded me to have fun during this jam-packed Forum.

12pm: EJ Tent preparation for the EJ movement panel. It was great to be teammates with Bianca/SNEEJ as she is a great model for keeping cool. We laughed a lot, even when our opening act disappeared, then reappered past the 1pm panel start time, while apologizing to the full tent of folks waiting for the program to start, & the power going out. Thank goodness APEN brought our fans (collectors item now!) to circulate the nearly 100 degree air.

2pm: To the drumbeat of Danza Azteca beside the tent, we proceeded with a packed panel: Cecil/NEJN, Jenice/JTA, Dalila/YUCA, Tom/IEN, MrsBush/localAtlanta, Nelson/FNEEJ, 2 youth reps, and me/APEN & Bianca/SNEEJ playing many roles including panelists. During my speech, I asked the audience how many of them had attended Summit2—and to my surprise, less than half raised their hands. It was a good surprise because so many new faces were young people & members of EJ organizations. It was reassuring to know our movement continues to grow because the work in our communities is so important.

4pm: After the panel, open mic, closing ceremony & a bit of clean-up, I voted to go to the workshop called: Pool, Where There Is No Thinking or Effort Allowed. And so back we went to the hotel & off I floated in the pool.

7pm: A try at Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles restaurant, but no luck. Lines of 50+ people outside! The taxi driver brought us to a restaurant with southern cooking he said was good. No lines & the menu looked great, however… most of the customers were White & we felt a bit awkward. I asked a Black brother in line whether we should be here & he said: the food is GOOD. We were starved, as APENers’ appetites are huge, so we decided to stay. Our orders included: fried green tomatoes, fried okra, black-eyed peas, greens, mac & cheese, buttery cabbage, creamed corn, sweet potato soufflé, corn bread & various meats (which as a vegetarian I’d rather not describe). Delicious! Stuffed. We later were clued in on the difference between Southern Cooking (by Whites) and Soul Food (by Blacks).

10pm: After a MARTA electric train ride, 3 APENers made our way to a residential Manor for the GGJ reception for the international guests. We liked the front porches built on to the homes, picturing the many cool drinks & neighborly conversations that are facilitated by that architecture. This is pretty different than the gentrified, skyscraper & freeway-lined streets of the USSF meeting sites. We enter the manor & live music fills the air, as well as many appreciations for USSF organizers including by WSF (World Social Forum) organizers who reiterate how absolutely important it is that grassroots Americans build another US so that another world is possible. A job well done.