From friend of AREA Bill Ayers:
Woodward Avenue came alive with energy, color, and a joyful noise as thousands and thousands of activists and organizers took to the streets to kick off the US Social Forum on a sparkling afternoon on June 22. A yeasty mix of generations, people's. causes, and movements assembled to demonstrate that another world is indeed possible. I relished the scene, moving from group to group, one minute chanting, "Cops Here, Troops There, US Out of Everywhere," and then singing We Are Not Afraid with an up-tempo marching band. I knew, of course, that the march would end eventually, and still I lingered: our people, our shared vision, our dreams for a world at peace and in balance, powered by love, joy, and justice. An exquisite moment of teaching and learning with a wide range of terrific people.
From AREA advisor Beth:
walked in the opening march yesterday with Warehouse Workers for Justice/UE. it was a pretty incredible to feel the positive energy, both in the march itself and from folks we passed along the way. the rude mechanical orchestra reminds me how important a beat and brass instruments are to our movement. there was a contingent of marchers in hospital gowns with plastic bare butts sticking out the back of the gown. signs pinned to their backs read something like "private insurance is like a hospital gown: most likely, you aren't covered." they got a lot of attention from passersby, who were attracted to their playful critique--and i was reminded here how playfulness is sometimes the best way to spark people's curiosity, draw them in. "the job of [a radical] is to make the revolution irresistible..."
