Immigration Program Coordinator (20-25 hours)

The beauty of the Forum is that each and every person had their own personal encounter with “it”, but we were also all in a collective space that emitted a productive sense of solidarity, unity, progressive voice and vision that I’ve never experienced in my life. The feeling that we can do this. Another world IS possible. My main reason for going to the 2010 US Social Forum was to teach new communities and cultures about the severity and the affect of wars in the Middle East and occupation of all of Palestine . This was to be a forum for people to explore the issues that we were talking about and going through .To be able to master a solution for the better in the worst.

Opening parade Tuesday afternoon represented a dizzying array of causes, and every imaginable grievance demanding a government solution, or at least someone else’s money to pay for rights/services/etc. I was impressed to see Arabs come together from all over the United States to help bring hands together clapping for Change. We kept strong.

The first workshop I attended was put on by an organization called The Confluence Network. Youth-led, mainly teenagers and young folks in their early twenties, the members are mostly people of color. The Network is 5 years old with groups scattered across the Northeast. A lot of the members are students. They engage in a multiplicity of issues arising in their communities including testing toxic soil, building community gardens, fighting to free political prisoners, standing in solidarity with the Palestinian cause against the occupation. They run a summer camp which appears to be the key to their popularity among young people. Some are performance artists or create digital media. The workshop was mainly interactive with clever techniques to spark participation among the 40 odd people attracted to it.

A second workshop I attended was entitled the Capitalist Roots of the Ecological Crisis with Joel Kovel, CD collective member Teresa Turner and Chris Williams. Each delivered 20 minute talks after which many of the 70 individuals in attendance asked questions or made short comments of their own. It was a very lively exchange.

I learned that together we can help things change and that a lot of people care and supporting the peace and change in Palestine. I also learned about the state officials of Texas wanting to take slavery out of the textbooks and the word Capitalism, If they haven’t already done it . I would like to do more research on that. I also want to find out why they want to do that. I also like how we worked together to cancel a Zionist workshop that was planned to take place.