Ruckus is excited to be participating again in the 2nd United States Social Forum happening in Detroit, June 22-26, 2010!
We came out strong at the first USSF in Atlanta in 2007, helping build the art for the big Opening March, hosting direct action trainings all day every day of the Forum, providing an ongoing open art space, and pulling off an action at the World of Coke Museum with the India Resource Center.
And now, for the 2nd USSF, we’re stepping it up even more!
Ruckus has been helping facilitate and participate in the USSF National Planning Committee for the event overall, and we’re gearing up to make an even bigger impact in 2010 than in 2007.
We’ve got teams of folks helping coordinate the Forum’s logistics, youth turnout, tech, and more in the lead-up to the Forum.
Read below for Ruckus’s Program Plans during the U.S. Social Forum, and plug in!
ACTIONS!
People are taking action during the USSF and Ruckus is opening our toolbox and bringing our friends along for some of the most vibrant actions Detroit has seen!
There are lots of corrupt corporate and government players in Detroit, and local organizers are ready to mobilize all of us to challenge these targets, connecting local, national and international struggles and solutions. We are taking direction from the people of Detroit to build actions that leave their community more resilient and just.
Here are the four official actions endorsed by the local Detroit community:
1. Mass action to shut down the Detroit Waste Incinerator, which is the largest trash-burning incinerator in the country, and possibly the world! We’re telling the mayor loud and clear: No more burning waste! City-wide recycling solutions now! Clean Air, Good Jobs, and Justice for All!
Date: Saturday, June 26, 9am-Noon
Meet at 4201 Woodward Ave at 9am
(Bus shuttles available from Cobo Hall – meet at 8am)
2. Action against a local restaurant chain to demand fair working conditions. This action campaign is sponsored by the Restaurant Opportunity Center, who are supporting workers who have been facing underpayment, harassment and retaliation for speaking out. Join us to tell the owners this kind of treatment will not stand!
Date: Thursday, 6/24*
Meet at Cobo Hall 5:30pm
*To participate in this action, please attend ACTION REHEARSAL Wednesday 6/3, 6-10pm in the Creativity Lab Action Convergence Center in the Cobo Hall Michigan Room!
3. Action to protest JP Morgan Chase’s inhumane foreclosure practices, by the spiritual community of Detroit. This action, spearheaded by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) will make connections between communities working on tobacco plantations in the south, and communities being removed forcibly from their homes in Detroit – the same banks are abusing us from coast to coast, and it’s time to stand up and fight back!
Date: Friday, June 25, 9:45am-Noon
Meet at Grand Circus Park & Woodward Ave, across from Central United Methodist Church at 9:45am
4. Funeral march and action to shame the Detroit Thomas Edison (DTE) Power Company, who shut off electricity and heat to thousands of Detroit-ers’ homes this year, leading to 14 unnecessary deaths so far this season – mostly children. Michigan Welfare Rights Organization has been protesting DTE every week, and this June thousands of us will escalate their call to place people’s lives before profit.
Date: Tuesday, June 22, 3-5pm
Check out this video from the March 13th Detroit Peoples’ Movement Assembly where local organizers decided which actions they wanted to prioritize for the forum!
ACTION CONVERGENCE CENTER!
Join us for training, prep, and art building for the week’s actions! We’ll be headquartered in the Michigan Room in the basement of Cobo Hall all week with the Creativity Lab, gearing up for action! Come plug in!
Cobo Hall Michigan Room (in the basement): 1 Washington Blvd, Detroit, MI
WORKSHOPS!
1. NO MORE MARCHES, NO MORE RALLIES!
Tired of seeing the same old mass demonstrations? So are we! This workshop will explore creative innovative action design, to help push past marches and rallies into direct actions that are strategic, effective, and fun!
Co-hosted with our partners: Training For Change
Date: Thursday, June 24, 1:00-5:30pm
Cobo DO-03B
2. Direct Action Strategies for Climate Justice & Community Resilience
This workshop will examine corporate control of climate policy arenas and how grassroots, community-based, actions-led movements create resistance against corporate polluters and resiliency through self-determined solutions.
Co-hosted with our partners: Rising Tide, Movement Generation, Zero-Waste Detroit, Mobilization for Climate Justice-West
Date: Thursday, June 24, 10:00am-12:00pm
Cobo DO-7A
3. Freedom Song & Sounds Institute
Join us to share new movement songs, chants, rhymes and more. Participants should come with original pieces to share with others, and/or a willingness to learn. We will spend at least 2 hours in small groups learning and singing together. Our goal is to increase our collective capacity to bring our communities together as we advance the road towards justice.
Co-hosted with our partners: Imani Uzuri, Highlander Institute
Date: Friday, June 25, 10:00am-12:00pm
Cobo O2-43
4. Transforming Power: New Paths to Social & Political Change
This workshop will explore how grassroots organizing and convergence can engage political power through new models of confrontation, engagement and trans
formation.
Co-hosted with our partners: Toronto Social Forum, Canadian Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign, Grassroots Global Justice
Date: Friday, June 25, 3:30-5:30pm
TWW-5
5. Take Back The Land Workshop
Join us to hear from communities around the U.S. who have been taking back land and housing, and participate in a Ruckus training about nonviolent direct action and an introduction to how to take actions in your community with the growing Take Back The Land Movement.
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1:00-5:30pm
Cobo D2-08
PEOPLES’ MOVEMENT ASSEMBLIES!
1. Ecological Justice: Clean Air, Good Jobs & Justice PMA
We will advance proposals from the grassroots for shared work on climate and ecological justice rooted in an understanding of the need to transform global systems.
Co-hosted with our partners: Movement Generation, Southwest Workers Union, Just Transitions Alliance, EJCC, GAIA, Mothers on the Move, Women of Color United
Date: Friday, June 25, 1:00-5:30pm
Cobo D3-28
Join community leaders from the local Detroit fight against the Marathon tar sands refinery, First Nations from Alberta- Canada; American Indian and non- native communities in Montana, California, Indiana, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Minnesota; impacted by tar sands extraction, pipe line and refinery infrastructure. We are calling for a stop to the tar sands and a transition to the clean energy economy of the 21st century.
Co-hosted with our partners: Indigenous Environmental Network, Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace Canada, Forest Ethics, Council of Canadians, and Sierra Club Environmental Justice Program
Date: Wednesday, June 23, 1:00-5:30pm
Cobo W2-70
3. Take Back The Land PMA
This Assembly will focus on building and expanding the Take Back the Land Movement by engaging in a comprehensive unity building and demand development session that seeks to combine forces with the historic land struggles of the oppressed peoples within the United States and its colonial holdings – Indigenous Nations, Black, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Hawaiian, Guam, etc., the emerging Ecological Justice and Solidarity Economy movements, with the anti-war, labor, queer, and left/anti-capitalist movements.
Date: Thursday, June 24, 1:00-5:30pm
Cobo D3-19
TECH & COMMS SUPPORT!
Ruckus’s best and brightest tech geeks are gearing up for tech support and tactical trainings for USSF participants on both a drop-in and scheduled-session basis, as well as supporting a variety of tech needs: from registration to security trainings to action support. We’re working with our partners at Aspiration, Rainforest Action Network, Radical Designs, TOR, and others on this project. If you’re interested in getting involved or want more information, please contact us at ussftech@ruckus.org.
LEFTIST LOUNGE!
If you were in Atlanta during the 2007 U.S. Social Forum, then you know that our Atlanta United party was the party of the year!
This time, the Leftist Lounge will be the place to be!
Date: Friday, June 25, 9pm
Eastern Market District
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So make your plans now to get to Detroit in June, and stay tuned for updates on Ruckus’s work at The Forum!
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Click below to download the .pdf Schedule of the Full Eco-Justice Track, compiled by our partners at Movement Generation.