Thoughts/Reflections on US Social Forum

Over 10,000 people and organizations from around the country and world, including the Coalition for Economic Justice's Buffalo Delegation, marched together down the streets of Detroit as the 2010 US Social Forum began last Tuesday. Amidst the inspiring and eclectic atmosphere of marching bands, workers' rights groups, giant polar bears, and giant puppets of social justice leaders like Mother Jones, a unifying thread began to emerge: we are here, we are strong, and we're not going away.

Perhaps no US city could be a more fitting location for a social forum than Detroit. A phrase we heard repeatedly from Detroit-based organizers was "Detroit is what the rest of the US has to look forward to." A city of firsts - the first auto plant, the first inner-city highway, the first shopping mall and subsequent major suburban population shift, Detroit now describes itself as the first city truly grappling with developing a subsistence economy in a post-Industrial landscape. To their credit, a major food-security movement is developing in the vacant and abandoned city lots, and programs like Detroit Summer, a Boggs Center project, are inspiring and engaging youth in transformational work to change lives and shape the direction of their city.

However, as most of us in the Buffalo Delegation were thinking, Detroit holds many important lessons for our city. The scale of devastation is almost mind-boggling. You have a major downtown center with hardly anyone on the streets, high-rise buildings unoccupied in various states of decay, and entire city blocks vacant in some areas as far as the eye can see. There are plans among city officials of closing off and shutting down large parts of the city due to sparse population. Indeed, the visit to Detroit reminded us at CEJ of the incredible importance of fighting for good jobs and sustainable economic development. If we don't succeed, then the folks from the Motor City might be right, Detroit would be what we have to look forward to.

Beyond Detroit, the rest of the US Social Forum was much less grim, in fact it was awe-inspiring and at times, brilliant. The scene - Appalachian mountain justice activists sitting next to labor organizers from Chicago, Pakistani working women's representatives in conversation with debt cancellation advocates from Columbia and Belgium - people from all forms of work sharing lessons, visions, and growing the kind of solidarity necessary for collective liberation. What really hit home for me through all of this was the clarity with which I was able to see that our struggles are connected. We truly struggle together to advance justice for all. While we face and challenge oppression in different ways, we are fighting the same fight. Therefore my fight is yours, and your fight is mine.

Coming back to Buffalo, I know that this lesson applies here. The question becomes this, "What are the ways in which we can effectively support one another?" Perhaps a Buffalo Social Forum is necessary to draw out those connections... ? I am reminded of the last workshop I attended at the social forum, entitled Establishing Mutual Aid Models with The Rock Dove Collective. A group of women from Brooklyn, NY have established a network of health care service providers for low income and marginalized people based on the economic model of mutually beneficial trades of labor. Members assess their own situations in determining both what they need, and what they can give. Through the existence of the network community members are able to access forms of health care they would normally be unable to afford, and everyone is satisfied with the trade. It seems that mutual aid in terms of solidarity and support is an idea for progressive communities in Buffalo to pay attention to. The Rock Dove Collective show us that our needs, and our abilities to give often overlap, and through bridging those connections we move a little closer to collective liberation.