AREA advisors and coordinators Robin Hewlett and Frank Edwards presented on a panel organized by the Team Colors collective on Friday at the US Social Forum. We asked folks in the workshop to respond to a brief question about the impact of the forum on their communities *. Here are their responses, presented uncritically:
What is your Name (Optional)? No response
Where are you from? Puerto Rico. University of P. Rico. Puerto Rican Social Forum
What is one concrete outcome of the social forum that you anticipate for your community? To get solidarity and support in knowledge and action for the II Puerto Rican Social Forum.
What is your Name (Optional)? Marilee
Where are you from? Sedition Books Collective, Houston, Texas
What is one concrete outcome of the social forum that you anticipate for your community? I plan to share notes from workshops to further community organizing and outreach. for example, ideas from "To Care Is to Struggle" should enhance discussions in our radical womyn's group. Notes from "Climate Justice" workshops will be passed on to the Rising Tide representative.
What is your Name (Optional)? No response
Where are you from? I've been traveling and moving around for a while, but I recently moved to Portland, OR. I came to the mid-west to visit family and friends and am currently here in Detroit with some folks who came here from Columbus, Ohio.
What is one concrete outcome of the social forum that you anticipate for your community? I've rededicated myself to only working on issues pertaining to food, water, housing, and communication. I've been operating on the premise of doing internal work as a way to make the world better because I can only change myself. However, I do have the power to create space where others can question reality and possible better themselves.
What is your Name (Optional)? Tina
Where are you from? Denver
What is one concrete outcome of the social forum that you anticipate for your community? Detroit is the best place to learn how we will survive and thrive in the post-industrial age. Proven ideas on organizing among the homeless and otherwise dispossessed.
What is your Name (Optional)? No response
Where are you from? Detroit, MI
What is one concrete outcome of the social forum that you anticipate for your community? Detroit downtown-midtown feels really different with an extra 15-20000 people here - I think the modelling of a more populated city is really important.
What is your Name (Optional)? Shala
Where are you from? Seattle/Olympia, WA
What is one concrete outcome of the social forum that you anticipate for your community? Opening up vacant buildings in downtown Oly for the countless human beings that need shelter in our area. Developing more of a collaborative while movement between/amongst the dozens of activist organizations. At the same time I think my hometowns are pretty well off & I would like to find an underprivileged underserved area/people & bring my experiences to them
* The Social Forum is and was a complex and diverse space, and these reponses should not be interpreted as representing the full range of communities that participated in the gathering.
