A new world is possible, A new US is necessary; The US Social Forum 2007

The US Social Forum was an incredible experience that I will not soon forget. I have memories that will last a lifetime; I intend to share some of them here in this digital space. I arrived late Tuesday (June 26, 2007) night and took a cab to the hotel that my family from Axis Of Justice graciously allowed me to stay in. I got very lucky in that the hotel was very close to the Atlanta civic center (the location of the USSF.)

Wednesday June 27, 2007

Today was the day for people to arrive and get to know one another.



"It's time for the youth to speak; so shut up and listen!" -Eshe Shukura, Project South



"RAN is teaching us how to make and live in a better world." -Michael Merriweather, Rainforest Action Network



"Tear it down."-Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, Olympia, WA. IWW

There was an opening rally and following opening march...

We gathered at the Georgia state capitol for the opening rally:



"Materialism and greed are a form of incest in this capitalist culture...we must have respect for the sacredness of human life."-Joseph Echols Lowery, a minister and leader in the American civil rights movement.




"Free Eric Montanez."-Matthew Houston, Orlando Food Not Bombs



"Happy Birthday Emma Goldman."-Dee, Poor Magazine



The march starts now; JOIN US!



















The march finds its way back to the civic center...

Opening Ceremony:

Well from what I heard; the opening ceremony was great for those that ended up being in the right place at the right time. There was quite a bit of confusion as to where it was going to be held and at what time exactly. Long story short, I didn't quite make it to the opening ceremony until the very end where I was able to snap off this sweet picture to give you an idea of what it looked like.

I spent the rest of the day meeting fine people like these folk:



"We cross pollinate the grass roots with anti-copyright artwork."Vicki, Beehive Design Collective



"We make it as easy as possible for people to get involved in foreign policy advocacy."-Catherine Ruetschlin, Just Foreign Policy



"If recruiters aren't lying to you, they are only telling you half the truth. Find out all you can & don't enlist in the military.-Liz Rivera Goldstein, Teen Peace Project



"Jail Bush, FREE Palestine."-Desmond Gardfrey, Atlanta Palestine Solidarity



"Corporations are not people...people have rights because people have human responsibilities like building community. Corporations are all about greed & profit & theft of the commons. No corporate rule!-Barbara Clancy, Alliance For Democracy



"It's good to be a red man in Atlanta because of the opportunities for Native Americans being the minority of minorities." -Gary Spottedwolf, United Native Americans

At this point the only thing that I knew of going on was a free concert at the park across the the civic center. I had to yield to the call of my stomach that was screaming at me for only eating a cliff bar all day. Gary and I went and caught a hearty meal at a local restaurant known for its Asian cuisine. I walked Gary to the train station and then walked back to the civic center to check out the remaining music and it had been cleared out like a ghost town. There were reports later of one arrest. I still don't have the full story of what exactly happened that night. At this point I choose to retire to the hotel room for the night to get some much needed rest.
Thursday June 28, 2007

I rose today with the fury of 1000 suns; today would be the start of the hundreds of workshops. I had a little bit of time before the first workshop was to start so I went with a comrade to go and grab a bite to eat at the Corner Bakery (a fine fine eatery that actually was one of the only affordable non-junkfood places to eat in downtown ATL.)

After breakfast it was time to head out to my first workshop of the USSF:

Legacy Of Torture: the War Against the Black Liberation Movement (10:30am-12:30pm)

This was a workshop put on by the Freedom Archives from Oakland, Ca. The film entitled Legacy Of Torture: the War Against the Black Liberation Movement was shown to a room packed near capacity. The film was an eye opening look into what the Black Panther Party was and what the United States government did to covertly destroy the organization. The film served as a stern cautionary tale for anyone who acts in a way that the government may not agree with. Cointelpro stopped at nothing to destroy the Black Panther Party. Nothing is off of the table as means for members of Cointelpro. Cointelpro murdered, raped, beat, and destroyed hundreds of lives. Not a single agent affiliated with COINTELPRO has been charged with a crime. Congress decided that Cointelpro was illegal and unconstitutional. Today we have found that homeland security is simply an extension of cointelpro. Eight former Black Panthers sit in jail today because of murder charges extracted by use of torture. The murder in question is the murder of a cop in 1971. The DA attempted to take this case to court before but could not due to lack of evidence. Now under the patriot act this case goes to court. Many are under the opinion that this case is an attempt by the legal system to justify torture. This is simply apart of the larger picture being that the government will attempt to destroy any movement that it deems a threat to its power. A little known fact is that it was liberals who were in fact working to destroy the Black Panther Party. Bail for the SF8 is currently set at 3 million each.


Democracy is a great idea; we have the paperwork; we ought to try it.

Hank Jones, former member of the BPP (above left)

After the film a panel discussion ensued featuring former panthers, a representative from the SF8 defense team, and former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Ward Churchill was in attendance as apart of the captivated audience. After the discussion I had a chance to catch up with former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and she wanted the world to hear her message: "All power to all of the people!"

2nd workshop of the day...

"You Can't Kill The Spirit": Solidarity Organizing in the movement to Rebuild New Orleans



"This is not the gumbo of oppression...now is not the time to deal with your oppression...listen." -Amber (displaced from New Orleans), Color Of Change

This was a great workshop that really drove home some key points:

• When you come to New Orleans to help leave your oppression / baggage at the door, if you can't do that you are doing more harm than good.


• People were PURPOSELY displaced; families were split into different states.


• Before you come to New Orleans make sure to check your own community. I.E: The fault lines will go in California and when they do..?


• If your not even doing work in your own community, why leave?


• When coming to New Orleans make sure that you have spoken with someone there beforehand; you don't just show up; people have enough to deal with without having to worry about putting you up and taking care of you as well.


• Remember Balance: Be able to take direction, be humble, sometimes take the initiative, check your ego (even though you are highly skilled if someone asks you to answer phones or put data in a computer, do it as that is the most important thing for you to be doing at this moment.)


• The hardest work for an activist to do is self reflection.


• Remember to listen with your heart: Important things that you will likely be doing while in New Orleans: Building Houses, Offer someone a kind word (this can be the greatest medicine), Use the Golden Rule, Keep in mind that since Katrina the death rate has risen by 50% be there for those in need, the people of New Orleans are a very spiritual people , be true and genuine and the world will open unto you.

3rd Workshop Of The Day:

The Coalition Of Immokalee Workers: Fighting for Fair Food



"When you go out into the world and go to buy vegetables what do you first think of? ...Always ask yourself if the workers are being paid fairly "-CIW

This workshop was basically a history of the struggle that the Coalition Of Immokalee Workers. The following text is being pulled directly from: http://www.ciw-online.org/about.html as it perfectly describes what was covered in the workshop.

Consciousness + Commitment = Change: How and why we are organizing...

The CIW is a community-based worker organization. Our members are largely Latino, Haitian, and Mayan Indian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida.

We strive to build our strength as a community on a basis of reflection and analysis, constant attention to coalition building across ethnic divisions, and an ongoing investment in leadership development to help our members continually develop their skills in community education and organization.

From this basis we fight for, among other things: a fair wage for the work we do, more respect on the part of our bosses and the industries where we work, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement against those who would violate workers' rights, the right to organize on our jobs without fear of retaliation, and an end to indentured servitude in the fields.

From the people, for the people: Who we are...

Southwest Florida is the state's most important center for agricultural production, and Immokalee is the state's largest farmworker community. As such, the majority of our more than 2,500 members work for large agricultural corporations in the tomato and citrus harvests, traveling along the entire East Coast following the harvest in season. Many local residents, and thus many of our members, move out of agriculture and into other low wage industries that are important in our area, including the construction, nursery, and tourist industries. The community is split, roughly, along the following ethnic/national origin lines: Mexican 50%, Guatemalan 30%, Haitian 10% and other nationalities (mostly African-American) 10%.

We are all leaders: Our history...



We began organizing in 1993 as a small group of workers who met weekly in a room borrowed from a local church to discuss how to better our community and our lives. In a relatively short time we have managed to bring about significant, concrete change.

Combining community-wide work stoppages with intense public pressure -- including three general strikes, an unprecedented month-long hunger strike by six of our members in 1998, and an historic 230-mile march from Ft. Myers to Orlando in 2000 -- our early organizing ended over twenty years of declining wages in the tomato industry.

By 1998, we had won industry-wide raises of 13-25% (translating into several million dollars annually for the community in increased wages) and a new-found political and social respect from the outside world.

Those raises brought the tomato picking piece-rate back to pre-1980 levels (the piece-rate had fallen below those levels over the course of the intervening two decades), but wages remained below poverty level and continuing improvement was slow in coming. At the same time, the phenomenon of modern-day slavery was establishing a foothold in Florida's fields. While continuing to organize for fairer wages, we also turned our attention to attacking involuntary servitude in our state. From 1997-2001, we helped bring three modern-day slavery operations to justice, resulting in freedom for over 500 workers from debt bondage.

Since then, our Anti-Slavery Campaign has earned national and international recognition, based on its innovative program of worker-led investigation and human rights education, and a track record of real success. Our latest victory against indentured servitude came in January of 2007, when a crewleader by the name of Ron Evans was sentenced to 30 years in prison. You can read more about the Evans case and the CIW's work against the most extreme forms of farm labor exploitation by clicking on the following link: "Labor camps keep workers in servitude with crack cocaine," Naples Daily News 9/06. The Evans case was the sixth major servitude case in the past ten years in which the CIW has played a key role in the discovery, investigation, and prosecution of the operation, helping to liberate well over 1,000 workers.

The CIW is a co-founder of the national Freedom Network USA to Empower Enslaved and Trafficked Persons. We are also co-founders and Southeastern US Regional Coordinator for the Freedom Network Training Institute, conducting trainings for law enforcement and social service personnel in how to identify and assist slavery victims, as well as advocating for the full prosecution of all traffickers, including corporations and their sub-contractors. At the state level, we are members of the US Attorneys Anti-Trafficking Task Forces for Tampa and Miami, as well as Florida State University’s statewide Working Group against Human Trafficking through its Center for the Advancement of Human Rights.

In 2001, we turned a new page in our organizing, launching the first-ever farmworker boycott of a major fast-food company -- the national boycott of Taco Bell -- calling on the fast-food giant to take responsibility for human rights abuses in the fields where its produce is grown and picked. The fast-food industry as a whole -- including industry giants such as McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, and Wendy's -- purchases a tremendous volume of fruits and vegetables, leveraging its buying power to demand the lowest possible prices from its suppliers. Through this unprecedented market power, the fast-food industry exerts a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in its suppliers' operations.

The Taco Bell boycott gained broad student, religious, labor, and community support in the nearly four years since its inception, including the establishment of boycott committees in nearly all 50 states and a fast-growing movement to "Boot the Bell" from college and high school campuses across the country. Large scale national actions helped move the boycott forward. For example, in 2003 we organized a 10-day hunger strike outside of Taco Bell headquarters in Irvine, CA -- one of the largest hunger strikes in US labor history, with over 75 farmworkers and students fasting during the 10-day period -- galvanizing the support of national religious, labor, and student organizations and thousands of individuals. During that strike we posed Taco Bell’s executives one question: “Can Taco Bell guarantee its customers that the tomatoes in its tacos were not picked by forced labor?” The company had no answer. In 2004 and 2005, we organized cross-country tours featuring marches and actions in Louisville, KY, and Irvine, CA, lifting the campaign to new heights.

In March 2005, amidst growing pressure from students, churches, and communities throughout the country, Taco Bell agreed to meet all of our demands to improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers in its supply chain. The boycott victory was celebrated by observers including former President Jimmy Carter, former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello, and the 21 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The Hispanic Caucus said of the accord, "This is a truly historic agreement, marking perhaps the single greatest advance for farm workers since the early struggles of the United Farm Workers. To the the workers and organizers of CIW, we express our deepest gratitude for their determined work for their own dignity and their historic contribution to advancing the cause of labor rights." Click here to read a detailed analysis of this historic agreement.

Following the successful conclusion of the Taco Bell boycott, the national network of allies that had helped carry that campaign to victory consolidated to form the Alliance for Fair Food, signalling the fast-food industry that the Campaign for Fair Food would not stop at Taco Bell. Since its birth in March of 2006, the AFF has become a powerful new voice for the respect of human rights in this country's food industry and for an end to the relentless exploitation of Florida's farmworkers.

And in April of 2007 -- following a two-year battle with the largest restaurant chain in the world, McDonald's -- the Campaign for Fair Food took an important new step forward. With an announcement at the Carter Center in Atlanta (President Jimmy Carter's center for conflict resolution), McDonald’s and the CIW reached a landmark accord that not only met the standards set in the Taco Bell agreement, but also committed the fast-food leader to collaborate with the CIW in developing an industry-wide third party mechanism for monitoring conditions in the fields and investigating abuses. You can read more about the details of the McDonald's agreement by clicking here.

Over the past several years, through the Campaign for Fair Food and our anti-slavery work, Immokalee has evolved from being one of the poorest, most politically powerless communities in the country to become today a new and important public presence with forceful, committed leadership directly from the base of our community -- young, immigrant workers forging a future of livable wages and modern labor relations in Florida's fields. In recognition of their work, three CIW members were recently presented the prestigious 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, the first time the award has gone to a US-based organization in its 20 years of existence. In recent years, the CIW and the Campaign for Fair Food have been recognized by several other institutions, including the World Hunger Year's 2006 Harry Chapin Self-Reliance Award, the Freedom Network's 2006 Wellstone Award, and the 2005 Business Ethics Network's BENNY Award.

Things not covered above:

• An exercise was done is which volunteers were asked to come up and attempt to pick up the tomato bucket that the farm workers have to fill 150 times per day to make ends meet. The bucket must be lifted from the ground to above the head to be loaded on to a truck, this bucket typically weighs about 33lbs and many are forced to run with it to make the daily quota. The work is back breaking and the bottom line is that the people in the fields are simply not getting paid enough.


• A short film was shown in regards to the plight of the Immakolee worker.


• Burger King; we must convince Burger King to raise the amount that it pays the Immokalee workers. On a nice day, why not have a protest outside of your local Burger King?

Tomato pickers in Florida’s fields face sweatshop conditions every day, including:
• Sub-poverty wages - Tomato pickers make, on average, $10,000/year;
• No raise in nearly 30 years - Pickers are paid virtually the same per bucket piece rate (roughly 45 cents per 32 lb. bucket) today as they were in 1980. As a result, workers have to pick over twice the number of buckets per hour today to earn minimum wage as they did in 1980. At today’s rate, workers have to pick nearly 2 ½ TONS of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hr day;
• Denial of fundamental labor rights - Farmworkers in Florida have no right to overtime pay, even when working 60-70 hour weeks, and no right to organize or bargain collectively.
In the most extreme cases, workers face conditions that meet the legal standards for prosecution under modern-day slavery statutes. Federal Civil Rights officials have prosecuted five slavery operations, involving over 1,000 workers, in Florida's fields since 1997. One federal prosecutor called Florida “ground zero for modern-day slavery,” while President Bush traveled to Tampa in 2004 to declare human trafficking “an affront to the defining promise of our country,” citing the case of a young Guatemalan woman “forced to work without pay in the tomato fields of central Florida.”
“It’s simple,” said Lucas Benitez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). “The farmworkers who pick tomatoes for Burger King are among this country’s worst paid, least protected workers. They earn poverty wages, have no right to overtime pay even when they work 60-70 hour weeks, and have no right to organize. And Burger King has an active hand in creating these unconscionable conditions, as its enormous volume purchasing power allows it to demand lower and lower prices for its tomatoes, resulting in lower and lower wages for already exploited workers.”Benitez continued, “Yet, when presented with the opportunity to take a stand against the exploitation of farmworkers in their home state, Burger King executives refused. Instead, incredibly, they actually offered to address farmworker poverty by retraining tomato pickers to work in Burger King’s restaurants – eliminating farmworker poverty by eliminating farmworkers – adding insult to injury with such an obviously unworkable, and frankly pretty ridiculous, idea.”

Today, both Yum Brands, the largest restaurant company in the world, and McDonald’s, the largest restaurant chain in the world, are standing behind the principles of the Campaign for Fair Food. When Taco Bell was the only major chain to raise its standards, Burger King’s defense was to claim that it is simply not possible to institute those same principles in their supply chain. Now that McDonald’s has joined with Taco Bell, Burger King’s defense can no longer be considered serious. The question must be asked: How much longer will Burger King continue to ignore the squalid conditions in which its tomatoes are picked? How much longer will Burger King stand in the inevitable path of progress?

• First Burger King, Then onto Subway...The fight for fair food continues!


• for more information please see: http://www.ciw-online.org/

Onto: US IMPERIALISM, WAR, MILITARISM AND PRISIONS

Movements Towards a United States Based in Peace, Economic and Environmental Justice



Speakers on the panel:

Julian Aguon, Nasion Chamoru

Kal Barrows, Critical Resistance

Eli Painted Crow, a new network of Iraqi Veterans

Judith LeBlanc, United For Peace and Justice

Julian Moya, Southwest Organizing Project

Yifat Susskind, MADRE

Faleh Abood Umara, Iraqi Federation of Oil Workers' Unions

Moderated by:

Linda Burnham, Women Of Color Resource Center

Important questions and points were made in this plenary:

• Kal Barrows asked if we can truly imagine a world without prisons and the prison industrial complex. Kal went on to make the following facts known: 1 out every 133 people in the United States of America are in prison, 4.8% of all black men in America are in prison, Black women are 4x as likely to be in prison when compared to white women.


• Judith LeBlanc asked: "What's a little sweat for JUSTICE?


• Faleh Abood Umara gave us an update on the situation of the first union in Iraq since the invasion and occupation of Iraq. He made a call for international solidarity and informed everyone that the Iraqi government is attempting to find and arrest him for his union activities.


• Eli Painted Crow explained the realities of being a female veteran and some of the hardships faced by females in the military. Eli also went onto explain how she went from fighting in the military to fighting against the military.

Friday June 29, 2007

Workshop Of The Day:



Movement for Justice in El Barrio put this workshop on.



Four short films were shown that effectively linked struggles in America with the struggles of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico and Mexico in general. La Otra Campaña (The Other Campaign)was discussed through the short films shown:

• The Other Documentary (made by Narco News http://www.narconews.com/)


• La Otra Cruza La Frontera


• Message To The Zapatistas


• Message From The Zapatistas

July 18, 2007 is a day of international struggle against repression.

"We are the color of the earth, we were forced to come to the United States due to the trade treaties such as NAFTA destroying our economies and ways of life. We will fight for the rights of all people!"

"We are all different and yet we all share the same problems."

"PRI, PAN, PRD are all the same in Mexico...completely corrupt, dialogue is simply not possible with these political parties of the Mexican government."

"The true criminal in all of this is US Capitalism."

"An intergalactic space is a space for all people. There is mutual respect for all people while maintaining the necessity of autonomy. Instead of absorbing everyone; we would rather have people have their own space. This is a movement that is independent / similar of the campaign."

"All humble and simple people are invited."

The workshop was well received and well attended a highlight for many at the Social Forum. Everything for everyone, nothing for ourselves.

The fight for fair food march to Burger King & Coca Cola HQ..

The Pictures:













The MurderKing marched on Coke!



Oh my! We had our very own Police escort to killer Coke HQ!



Fly that flag for the CIW!



We made it to Killer Coke HQ w/o incident!



It seems we have a fan inside the gates of Coke!



and look! We seem to have even more fans in the sky...



We even had a welcoming comity complete with a truck full of riot gear..

And so we had a rally right at the gates of Coke HQ:













Victorious...we head to the park for a picnic.











Onto:

Indigenious Voices: A Plenary From The Heart Of Mother Earth



Speakers:

Enei Begaye, Black Mesa Water Coalition

Faith Gemmill, REDOIL Network

Tonya Gonnella-Frischner, United North American Representative to the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and Native American Law Alliance

Patty Grant-Long, MSW, CSAC, Eastern Board of Cherokee Indians

Terri Henri, Principal Director of Clan Star, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians

Ikaiki Hussey, Aloha Anina Society

Moderators:

Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network

Shash Yazhi, Spirit In Motion

This was an excellent plenary that really sent a clear message:

WE MUST TAKE CARE OF MOTHER EARTH! WE MUST PUT TAKING CARE OF THE EARTH BEFORE MAKING PROFIT!

The bottom line is that when the earth ceases to be so shall we and the rest of all living creatures on this planet.

Each speaker discussed the struggles that they are facing on their native lands to protect the earth while facing foes that want to take the land for their own profit driven means. We have entered into a period of time where change is not an option, rather it is absolutely necessary. We the people of earth must learn to take care of the planet once again, we must find alternatives to fossil fuels. Our future hangs in the balance, time runs low, WE MUST ACT NOW!

Saturday June 30, 2007

I attended a Water Ceremony at the indigenous tent to start out my day.



For those who were informed before coming out to the US Social Forum they brought water from their homes or a community close to their heart. Many people packed this tent full. I must have seen 40-50 different containers containing water from various lands. At request of the elders there was no audio or video recording of the water ceremony. I am thankful that I had a chance to be apart of the ceremony. It was a ceremony that I'm sure all who were present for will not soon forget.

I spent a majority of my day connecting with and meeting with many people in and around the indigenous tent.



Cherokee ritual dance after the morning water ceremony at the indigenous tent.

I was informed of the struggle going on in

Bear Butte, South Dakota

Wealthy land developers are currently trying to build on land that is sacred to Native Americans. Please read on...



While we all as a people hold the entire Black Hills to be sacred, Bear Butte is under direct attack at this time and we are preparing to do our best to defend the sacred mountain again. We have learned of plans to build enormous biker bars and campsites all around our sacred mountain. In addition existing beer bars and concert venues are expanding and edging closer and closer into sacred grounds. Today one has dug outdoor toilets on the very slopes of the north side of our Sacred Mountain for their annual drunken binge! Over 600,000 motorcyclists are expected to attend the "Sturgis Bike Rally" in 2006 and they pay millions of dollars into the local economy of the people who claim to license and permit them on behalf of the public. Never since Custer discovered gold has our Mato Paha been threatened by such a combination of greed, government and legal adversity.

Our struggle to preserve Bear Butte has lasted for centuries. In 1876 Chief Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota gathered over 6,000 Indian people at the Butte to urge them to defend our sacred lands. Chief Crazy Horse spoke from the mountain to remind his people that the Paha Sapa is not for sale. In each year and decade since those days our people have engaged in efforts to save and protect the sacred mountain. In the early 1980's Chief Fools Crow of the Oglala Lakota fought to save the mountain in the U.S. court system (Fools Crow vs. Gullet, 706 F.2d 856 [1983] ). He lost after taking it all the way to the Supreme Court (464 U.S. 977 [1983]). Traditional Indian people have fought to save the mountain from treaty times until now.

The " INTERTRIBAL COALITION TO DEFEND BEAR BUTTE" is a group made up of the Tribes and their "Traditional Societies" who are joining together to unite our people and our Nations to protect and defend our right to pray and have our ceremonies in peace. We are calling on all who value the heritage of our people and still practice the ancient ways of your tribes to join with us in defense of our ways. If you, your society and/or your Tribe want to join us, our invitation is open. In the traditional way of our people we know that our circle will begin small and grow as the people hear our words and respond to the threat. In the summer, at a time we will all decide, we will ask the people to gather in a "Great Inter-Tribal Gathering of the Nations" to sit in Council and decide what our people and their Nations can do to defend the Sacred Mountain.

Our various Nations have acquired land for the ceremonial use of their people near Bear Butte. This land is an important part of our sovereign Nations because with it we preserve a link to the sacred mountain even though it has been taken from within our borders. We bought the land with the intention and right to utilize it in peace and quiet and this right predates the city of Sturgis, Meade County, the State of South Dakota, and in particular the "Sturgis Bike Rally". We have a right to use our land for sacred purposes during the entire year without interference from the above named entities.

Therefore, we intend to ask our Nations and their Traditional Societies and People to preserve these rights by gathering together during the summer months of July and August upon our own sovereign lands at Bear Butte to convene a Council of Nations. As a people we will gather together to form a spiritual encampment as a place for our Societies to once again sing their ancient songs and renew their vows. Within our encampment we will ask our holy men and women to bless us with their ceremonies and prayers and give us guidance in our quest to defend our sacred mountain.

In asking for the support of Tribal governments we do so with the knowledge that we the people will be the ones engaging in the effort. We ask our tribal governments to support us by passing official resolutions of support and providing material and financial support as you see fit. We also ask you to participate by naming a tribal liaison to interact with the coalition and provide input on behalf of the tribe. Each Tribe and Society will have a seat at the Council.

Both as individuals and as an organization we continue our support for environmental organizations that are working to protect Bear Butte. The efforts of the "Defenders of the Black Hills" (an Indian-led coalition of environmental groups) and the "International Alliance to Save Bear Butte" (an Indian-led alliance of local people and concerned people worldwide) have taken the lead in organizing state and national opposition to the proposed developments around Bear Butte. It is our hope that we can work in harmony and support their efforts by adding our voice to theirs. In the future it may be our privilege to join them and the Tribes in further legal actions or in providing testimony in American political subdivisions and courts.

As an inter-tribal organization we intend to concentrate on informing our own people and our Tribes about the danger infringing upon the sacred mountain and asking them and our traditional societies to use all their resources to defend Her. We believe our traditional spiritual ways can have a tremendous beneficial effect for the Sacred Mountain and we seek to help gather traditional people together to use those spiritual ways on our sovereign lands at Bear Butte. We are asking our traditional tribal societies to come add their prayers, songs and ceremonies to those of the other Nations so the powerful unity of our sacred ways can guide our steps. We ask you all to come sit in Council with us and join our growing Circle of traditional Indian people who are determined to save the "The Mountain that Teaches."

In beginning this effort we were advised by respected Elders to construct a traditional "Staff" which is to be blessed and dedicated to defending Nowah'wus. This sacred staff will be taken to the Tribes, respected Elders, Chiefs, Society Headsmen, Headswomen and Clan leaders to explain our message and to seek their help. In July the "Sacred Staff" will be taken to the Sacred Mountain to be placed in a "Ceremonial Tipi" and the Societies and youth will begin to gather to prepare meeting grounds, ceremonial areas and campgrounds. Each Tribe and Society can move into camp on their own timetable during July to prepare themselves for the coming Council and Ceremonial Gathering. By the time the "Rally" begins in August we must be unified in a plan of action to peacefully and spiritually defend Nowah'wus, Mato Paha, our Sacred Mountain, BEAR BUTTE.

For all our Relations.

Carter Camp, Ponca Nation
cartercamp @ yahoo.com

I have been asked to act as a coordinator along with Debra White Plume, Oglala Nation

"Owe Aku" a traditional group working on the Oglala reservation at Pine Ridge has been given the task of preparing the "Sacred Staff" and taking it to the Tribes. "Owe Aku" means "bring back the way" in Lakota and in this beginning they will act as our contact point and fiscal agent for fund raising. As a 501 c-3 organization, Owe Aku is able to receive tax exempt donations from individuals and Tribes and to be accountable for using it for the encampment and Council. A larger meeting of all concerned is planned for early spring, at that time a more formal organization can be formed to be more inclusive and to make the decisions necessary for the Gathering. If you or your society wishes to join with us in defending Bear Butte this summer feel free to contact us.

Contact information for Owe Aku is as follows:

Debra White Plume, Director
101 Lonesome Valley Rd.
Manderson S.D. 57756
Ph # 605-455-2155

Vic Camp
P.O. Box 95
Manderson S. D. 57756
Ph# 605-455-1122









Please see: http://www.defendbearbutte.org/ for more information.

The Ruckus Society Presents:

A workshop on Blockades...



FYI: this workshop was given multiple times and was quite possibly the most popular workshop of the entire US Social Forum. Multiple documentary film-makers questioned Forum goers as to which workshop they found to be their favorite or most informative; the over whelming majority of people questioned stated that this was the workshop to be at.

Notes from the workshop:

Nonviolent direct action is often misunderstood and just as often criticized. You hear it called ineffective, un-American, or illegal. That the effectiveness of direct action can still be debated strains credulity. The success of Gandhi's campaigns in India or the U.S. Civil Rights Movement should have settled the question. Since the beginning of the modern environmental movement, the campaigns against nuclear power, to save ancient forests, to achieve a global ban on high-seas drift net fishing and end ocean dumping all have incorporated significant direct action components. The American experience is teeming with nonviolent direct action. One of the most famous direct actions ever, the Boston Tea Party, is patriotically taught in school. These colonial campaigns were so effective that some argue the "shot heard 'round the world" actually delayed American independence. Most of the world's democracies have been created by acts of conscience against the state. The final argument - that direct action is illegal - is weakest. It is also illegal to break into a home. But if that home is on fire and you fear someone will be hurt, it is OK - it is in fact your responsibility - to break in. This is the argument of competing harms: A smaller harm is accepted if it prevents a greater harm from occurring.

• It is most effective when all people in a given collective or group have a say in making decisions (rather than top down authoritarian leadership.)


• When people get violent with you, while you are being peaceful they now have taken a morally indefensible position. A perfect example of this would be LAPD's actions on May 1, 2007 in MacArthur Park. One who takes a violent position is forced to ask themselves if they are willing to kill to prove their position.


• A banner drop is known as direct communication.

IMPORTANT BASICS:

• Be strategic. Make sure your tactics are informed by the vision, goals and strategy. Don't think in terms of "soft" vs. "hard" or "more radical." Instead, think in terms of what is appropriate for the goals, strategy, tone, message, risk, level of escalation, etc.


• Start simple. Build up. Don't deploy all your technology at once. Leave room to escalate, if that is appropriate.


• Build a crew. It all begins with a good action team (affinity group) and good non-violence/direct action training.


• All roles are important. A good support team is essential.


• Know your limits. Make a realistic assessment of your capacity and resources.


• Scout. Scout. Scout. Spend a lot of time getting to know your location.


• Know your choke points- the spots that make you the most secure and pesky blockader. Choose a spot that they cannot just work/walk/drive around you.


• Practice. Over and over. Then practice some more.


• Get help. Take advantage of the experience of others, through training, or on-site support. Everyone does it for the first time once. The more experience you have, the more responsibility you have to support others in an appropriate way.


• Don't plan "for" your action; plan "through" your action. Think of the action as "the middle"- there is a ton of prep work and a ton of follow-through, legal, emotional, political...


• Make a Plan B....and C, D &E, if you think you might need it.


• Plan a media strategy and execute. Make sure your message gets out and that your action logic is as transparent as possible. Don't let communications be an afterthought.


• Eliminate unnecessary risk. Make your action as safe as it can be to achieve your goals.


• Do not ignore power dynamics within your group or between you and the police/oppressor/state. Race, class, gender identity (real or perceived), sexual identity (real or perceived), age, physical ability, appearance, immigration status, nationality, and much more; all impact your relationship to the action.


• Dress for success. Make sure that your appearance helps carry the tone you want to set for your action. Dress comfortably. If you are going to be "locked-down" for an extended period of time, unable to move, consider wearing adult diapers. Have your support people around with layers, if it gets cold.


• Stay hydrated. Make sure your support people can get water to you, if you cannot use your hands.


• Be Creative. Have Fun.

Please note that there are more notes to come but for all intensive purposes complete notes for this workshop will come in an upcoming post.

Saturday night was the night that many said goodbye and had their proverbial last dance of the forum.

July 1, 2007 Sunday

Unfortunately I got a bit sick Saturday night and was ordered to rest all day Sunday, so I do not have any reports on closing ceremony s.

In closing I want to say that the US Social forum is an important networking and learning tool that I hope to be apart of well into the future.



The above contents may be used for non-profit projects; with permission. 2007