USSF Under Way!
After months and months of planning, and weeks of the Ruckus team doing on-the-ground prep here in Detroit, the 2010 U.S. Social Forum is finally under way!
It all officially started off yesterday with the big Opening March down Woodward Ave, the main thoroughfare through Detroit, ending at Cobo Hall with the Opening Ceremony.
Ruckus’s team has been working hard to prep for the big actions this week, by building art, banners & props, preparing chants, street theatre and choreography, coordinating overall action plans, logistics, security, tactical comms & media, recruiting volunteers and participants, and making sure everyone in Detroit knows about the actions and comes out to support!
We’ve had art-building workshops every day for the last week in various churches and community centers throughout Detroit, where youth and adults from different neighborhoods have come through to build their own pieces for the Incinerator Action, as well as help build a mass of tall sunflowers, as well as one giant sunflower, and a giant mock-incinerator (come help us tear it down on Saturday!).
In addition to all the action prep, our folks are already running non-stop facilitating workshops, trainings, and Peoples’ Movement Assemblies, coordinating overall USSF security, and helping with the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus! It is an action-packed, fast-paced, high-energy week, to be sure.
This morning Democracy Now aired an interview with Ruckus Director Adrienne Maree Brown, the National USSF Coordinator, about the Forum, Detroit, and the Allied Media Conference. Check it out!
Here’s what’s coming up:
TODAY, JUNE 23:
10-12 Creating a Tactical Spectacle, and Rehearsal for a Restaurant Workers Defense Flashmob (Cobo W1-51)
12-1 Incinerator Action Art Build- come join the “Sunflower Greenhouse” to build more giant sunflowers for Saturday’s big action! (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
1-3:30 Bannermaking for the Friday action against Chase Bank (anti-foreclosure, in solidarity with southern tobacco farmworkers) (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
1-5:30 Tar Sands Peoples Movement Assembly (Cobo W2-70)
1-5:30 Take Back The Land Workshop (incl NVDA trng) (Cobo D2-08)
6-9:00 Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) Training for Incinerator Action Volunteers (you don’t have to sign up ahead of time!) – Cobo W1-51
6:39-9:00 Opening Plenary, featuring Adrienne Maree Brown and Carla Perez (from Ruckus and Movement Generation) discussing Ecological Justice
6-10:00 Flashmob Rehearsal! If you want to join a fun, creative, participatory action to defend local restaurant workers (tomorrow night), come to this rehearsal and plug in! (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
THURSDAY, JUNE 24
10-12:00 Direct Action Strategies for Climate Justice and Community Resilience (Cobo DO-7A)
10-12:00 Boycott Divest Sanction Israel Workshop
12-1:00 Action Art Building (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
1-5:30 No More Marches, No More Rallies! Workshop (Cobo Do-03B)
1-5:30 Take Back the Land Peoples’ Movement Assembly (Cobo D3-19)
5:30pm Meet at Joe Louis Statue in Cobo Hall to head out for the Flashmob! (attend rehearsal Wednesday night at 6pm in Michigan Room!)
6-9:00 Nonviolent Direct Action (NVDA) Training for Incinerator Action Volunteers (you don’t have to sign up ahead of time!) – (Cobo W1-51)
6-10:00 Incinerator Action Art Build (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
6-8:00 SmartMeme Re:Imagining Change Book Launch Party (Majestic: 4201 Woodward)
8:30pm-2am Indigenous Environmental Network & EMEAC Fundraiser (Magic Stick: 4201 Woodward)
FRIDAY JUNE 25:
9:45am-12pm Action Against Chase Bank (anti-foreclosure, in solidarity with southern tobacco farmworkers) – meet at Grand Circus Park & Woodward, across from the Central United Methodist Church
12-1:00 Action Art Building (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
1-5:30 EcoJustice: Clean Air, Good Jobs & Justice Peoples’ Movement Assembly (Cobo D3-28)
3:30-5:30 Transforming Power Workshop (TWW-5)
5:30-10pm Final Incinerator Action Art Build! Come learn the chants, choreography, and put the final touches on props, action plans, and volunteer roles! (Cobo Basement: Michigan Room)
9pm-2am Leftist Lounge Party – Eastern District
SATURDAY, JUNE 26
7:30am Volunteers gather
9:00-12:00 Clean Air, Good Jobs & Justice! Action against the largest Waste Incinerator in the world! Meet at 5201 Woodward Ave by 9:00am to march and plant sunflowers in the community along the way to stop the incinerator!
12:00-5:00 Final National USSF Peoples’ Movement Assembly and USSF Closing Ceremony (Cobo Hall)
