News, June , 2007
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Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names. |
US Social Forum in Atlanta, June 27 to July 1, 2007 Update
List of Accepted Workshops
https://www.ussf2007.org/en/submitted_proposals
Welcome to our third and probably final Email Blast before the start of the US Social Forum. Organizers and delegations are beginning to arrive in Atlanta by the car, plane and busload. The Atlanta community is welcoming us with open arms.
If you are part of an organization delegation, please send one representative of your delegation to check in your entire group and speed up the registration process. Then you will be able to distribute your name badges and packets to your delegation outside of the registration location.
Security
All of the Plenaries and some other main events and workshops will be happening at the Atlanta Civic Center. The Security Team would like to announce that this venue requires a backpack search of all visitors.
If anything dangerous or illegal is found, your bag will be confiscated. Please pack your belongings accordingly.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation, the Security Team
Wreath
Laying Ceremony
Please join the US Social Forum and Atlanta organizers to
commemorate this historic occasion with a wreath laying ceremony at the
Martin Luther King Center on Wednesday, June 27 at 12:30pm.
For International Delegates
We are pleased that so many International Delegates are joining us!
Be sure to check out the Program at the Americas tent and Africa tent near
the Civic Center.
Emergencies: We have set up a hotline phone number for delegates
coming from outside of the US: (202) 431-7475. Please call if you have any
difficulties.
Entering the United States with a visa: Despite receiving a visa to
travel to the US, people may still get detained at the Border or in Customs
by immigration. If this happens, call: 202-431-7475.
We look forward to welcoming you, The International Committee of the USSF
The Immigrant Rights Caucus for the USSF comprises over 25 organizations and over 200+ individual participants from around the country. The Immigrant Rights Tent (located at the Civic Center) will serve as the primary meeting point for the Caucus throughout the USSF. Immigrant Rights Caucus events kickoff at the tent on Wednesday, June 27. There will be an Immigrants Rights delegation joining the Opening March.
An immigrant rights press conference will be held at the tent on Thursday morning, when a vote on the Senate immigration bill is expected. The tent will also serve as the central location to draft the immigrant rights resolution - come to daily dinner debriefs at 5:30pm to help draft the resolution. The debrief for the Immigrant Rights Plenary will take place at the Tent after the plenary on Friday at 9:30pm - a good opportunity to meet the panelists in person and discuss issues with them directly!
Communications for the Immigrant Rights Caucus will be done through its wiki at: http://migrantsrights.wiki.zoho.com. The Immigrant Rights Tent will also host a number of workshops, meetings and events – a full schedule of these can be viewed at http://migrantsrights.wiki.zoho.com/Immigrant-Rights-Tent-Program.html. A full listing of all workshops being organized by Immigrant Rights Caucus members can be viewed at: http://migrantsrights.wiki.zoho.com/Immigrant-Rights-Caucus-Workshop-Listing.html. All Immigrant Rights organizations and allies are invited to participate in the Caucus and visit the Tent!
More rooms available!
The Castleberry Inn has more rooms available: June 26-July 1, 2007. This hotel is near downtown, has a bus stop in front and a MARTA station a few blocks away. The address is: 186 Northside Drive, Atlanta, Ga, 30314; 404-893-4663, ext. 7161 (mention US Forum Rate), sales@castleberryinn.com. The prices are: Jr. Suite=$79.99; Queen=$59.99.
MARTA passes are on sale at the Atlanta Civic Center and all MARTA train stations. At the Civic Center, the MARTA cashier will be accepting cash only for payment of the passes. The passes are dated June 25 - July 1 (Mon-Sun) and are $13.00 per pass, without tax.
People’s Movement Assembly
On Sunday, July 1, we will come together to take the next step forward to build Another US and Another World. Join us for the People’s Movement Assembly from 9am – 12:30pm on Sunday to dialogue about new paradigms for social movements. This will be our opportunity to take back what we have learned to our communities and organizations.
Get more information here as well as the form to submit proposals for the People’s Movement Assembly at this web address. For more information please email Ruben Solis at: PMA@ussf2007.org
***
Palestine
& Middle East Solidarity Track
US
Social Forum 2007
June
27 - July 1
Placing
Arab
Movement of Women Arising for Justice (AMWAJ), the International Jewish
Solidarity Network – USA, Left Turn Magazine, and the Palestinian
Popular Conference Network have brought together organizations and
activists from across the country to develop this crucial track that will explore
connections between Palestine Solidarity and domestic struggles for
justice; reframe the issue of Palestine as a liberation struggle; analyze
the history of US imperialism leading up to the current situation in
Palestine and the Middle East; and foster discussions on how to build our
movement.
Please
join us in using this opportunity to come together for important
discussions that will help us move beyond our isolation and build a
stronger movement for justice.
Thursday,
June 28
Facts
on the Ground in
International
C room at the Westin Hotel
How
Israeli policies of house demolitions, settlement expansion, the building
of the Separation Wall, along with displacement and control of resources
are establishing apartheid in the West Bank and
History
of US Imperialism and Resistance in the Middle East/West
Athena
room at the
Modern
The
Role of Anti-Zionist Jewish Organizing in
International
C room at the Westin Hotel.
Building
a challenge to the racist ideology and religious supremacy political
Zionism encourages and Holding the governments we live under accountable
for the economic, military and political support of the Israeli
colonization of
Women,
War and Water 1:00p-3:00p
Socrates
room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown
This
panel will expose the toxic track record of the U.S. Military Industrial
Complex, as well as highlight issues of water and conflict around the
world, which women bear the brunt of and are on the front lines in raising
opposition.
9:00p:
Friday,
June 29
BDS
101: From
Second
Floor Meeting Room room at the Central Library
An
overview of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, and
direct
experience of BDS organizers, including speakers from
and
how to strengthen the US BDS movement and how to overcome its weaknesses.
Blind
Leading the Blinded: Militarization and Sexual Violence 10:30a-12:30p
Centennial
Ballroom A room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown
This
workshop seeks to engage a critical conversation about how “social
issues” like sexuality and women’s rights are historically and
intimately linked to the Palestinian national movement as well as how
Western portrayals of those social issues have been used to debase the
national cause.
Forced
Displacement and the Right to Return:
Centennial
Ballroom A room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown
The
US and
Political
Prisoners: from
Mezzanine
Center room at the Atlanta Civic Center
Linking
prisoners of occupation and imperialism around the world, including the
prisoners of
Unlearning
Zionism: Transforming Histories of Collective Trauma towards Justice
3:30p-6:30p
Atlanta
Ballroom C room at the Westin Hotel
Offering
exercises, discussions and multi-media towards confronting our own
struggles around identity and Zionism to create a vision of transformative
justice that seeks to transform histories of European colonization of the
Slingshot
Hip Hop: Colonization and Resistance from Brooklyn to
Georgia
Ballroom West room at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel Downtown
Raising
awareness about the struggle in
Building
A Stronger Movement: Multi-racial organizing for Justice in the
NOT
ADA - Room 105 room at the Little Five Points Community Center
Organized
by Black, white and Arab activists from different regions of the
Anti-Arab
Racism and Islamophobia: Confronting Stereotypes and Dehumanization
1:00p-3:00p
This
workshop will look at how
Solidarity
and Accountability 3:30p-5:30p
Poseiden
room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown
An
analysis from various marginalized communities of the successes and
failures of current solidarity movements with respect to accountability,
providing the beginnings of a blueprint for increasing the accountability
of solidarity activists to the communities with which they claim to be in
solidarity.
Saturday,
June 30
BDS
for PSM activists: building a movement against Israeli apartheid
10:30a-12:30p
Socrates
room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown
This
seminar is aimed at presenting the reasons and motivations for BDS, its
goals and principles to the
Digital
Resistance: Palestinian Youth Media 1:00p-3:00p
Georgia
Ballroom West room at the Renaissance Atlanta Hotel Downtown
Using
film this workshop will challenge stereotyping of and racism towards
Arabs, Palestinians in particular, and will introduce the US-Palestine
Youth Solidarity Network (YSN) linking Palestinians, immigrants, and
people of color.
Internal
Coordination Workshop: Planning for Al-Nakba 60th
Anniversary 1:00p-3:00p
Magnolia
Conference Room room at the Days Inn Downtown
Preparation
workshop for a broad assembly seeking to develop and draw out ideas,
proposals, and actions for coordination around the 2008 60th anniversary
commemoration of Al-Nakba.
Reproductive
Justice in Israel/Palestine: Palestinians as the Demographic Threat
1:00p-3:00p
Socrates
room at the Atlanta Marriott Downtown
Relating
reproductive justice to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Analyzing
Israeli laws aimed at limiting the Palestinian population by denying them
entry, denying them basic services, denying them equal access to land, and
by offering incentives to procreate exclusively to Jewish-Israeli
families.
6:30-8:30
Gathering for Arab USSF attendees:
(Palestine
Solidarity Tent)
Dinner, socializing, and networking, hosted by AMWAJ, Arab Movement of
Women Arising for Justice and AROC, the Arab Resource and Organizing
Center, San Francisco.
9:00pm:
Screening of Occupation 101 at the
Nahr
Al-Bared
(tentative--check
our tent near registration for updated schedules)
The
“Nahr Al-Bared Palestine Tent”
will offer a mix of cultural, political, and cross-movement activities
going on all day, every day! Stop by for cultural events, film screenings,
and presentations; attend gatherings for progressive Arab activists and
anti-Zionist Jewish activists; join discussions about Palestine &
Middle East solidarity work; pick up t-shirts, DVDs, books, fair trade
Palestinian olive oil, and much more at the vendor tables; and check out
our amazing “Picture Balata” and “Birthright Re-plugged”
photograph exhibits.
Exhibits
6/27 - 7/1
PICTURE
BALATA - Picture Balata puts
the camera into the hands of the children born and raised inside the
Israeli occupation of
BIRTHRIGHT
RE-PLUGGED – Photo exhibit by children from Balata Refugee
Camp documenting their journey to
Wednesday
6/27
1:30
PM -
Look
for the Palestinian flags at the corner of
Thursday
6/28
9
PM –
Don't
miss the incredible line up of performers and speakers at our opening
event! Updates on the current situation in
Friday
6/29
2
- 3 PM - New Afrikan/Black and Arab Unity in the
Movements
converge sharing history, experience, histories of resistance,
investigating historic conditions and current conditions, as well as
histories of colonialism, imperialism, and diaspora
3
- 5 PM - New Afrikan/Black and Arab Unity in the
Movements
identify areas of solidarity and collaboration:
5
PM - Photographic Journey through Palestinian refugee camps in
Sharon
Wallace has just returned from
7:30
PM – “Confronting the Wall: Art & Resistance in
This
short 30-minute documentary tells the story of the Nakba and on-going
occupation of
9
PM - “Arna’s
Children” Screening
Arna
Mer Khamis was a legendary activist for the rights of the Palestinian
people who founded a theatre group at a refugee camp, teaching children to
express themselves through acting. Her son filmed Arna working with the
children over a 6-year period. Following Arna's death, he returns to the
camp to find out what became of the young refugees. COPIES OF DVD ON
Saturday
6/30
6:30
PM - 8:30 PM - Gathering
for Arab USSF attendees
Eat,
drink, socialize and connect with each other. Hosted by the Arab Resource
and Organizing Center, SF and Arab Movement of Women Arising for Justice
9
PM - “Occupation 101” Screening
A
thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and
historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “Occupation
101” presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths
surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its
long-perceived myths and misconceptions. COPIES OF DVD ON
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