Vol. 74/No. 26      July 12, 2010

Conference organizers reported 14,000 registered for the forum, which ran through June 26. Many came from college campuses and were affiliated to community and other political groups that advocate social reforms. Hundreds of workshops and panels were organized on the effects of the economic crisis; ways to resist attacks on immigrant workers, racism and discrimination; protection of the environment; opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and Israeli aggression against Palestine, among many others.

Three documentary film showings about Cuba and about a dozen workshops were organized by supporters of the Cuban Revolution and fighters for the freedom of Antonio Guerrero, René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, and Ramón Labañino—known internationally as the Cuban Five. The men have been held in U.S. prisons for almost 12 years, framed up on charges ranging from conspiracy to commit espionage to conspiracy to commit murder. They were in Florida monitoring the activities of right-wing Cuban American groups that have a long record of violent attacks on Cuba, with the complicity of Washington.

Conference participants were invited to attend the Detroit opening of “From My Altitude,” a touring exhibit of artwork by Guerrero who was taught how to draw and paint by fellow inmates.

A number of workshops promoted sanctions against Israel including boycotts and divestment. Jewish Voices for Peace, for example, held a program entitled, “Think Globally, Act Locally Against Israeli Occupation,” which drew 30 participants. The facilitator of the program, Stephanie Fox, promoted pressuring financial services company TIAA-CREF to divest from five of the 30 companies she alleges profit off the occupation of Palestine.

Socialist workers at the forum explained how capitalism in crisis breeds anti-Semitism and the need for the working class in Israel and Palestine to fight for a democratic secular Palestine. As part of this perspective communists would fight for Palestine to be a refuge for Jews facing persecution around the world.

There were a number of workshops that featured union fights. Two Black workers from Mississippi speaking at one workshop described the struggle that members of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1529 are waging for a union contract at Delta Pride and Country Select catfish factories in Indianola and Isola, Mississippi.

Lamont Denton, 27, a union steward, described how he was recently fired for insubordination for trying to represent a worker in the plant who was called to the office. “Here we are 20 years later,” said Sarah White, who was part of a three-month strike in 1990 at Delta Pride. “The company will not sit down and negotiate. They put it on the economy. Twenty years ago we fought a slave-type mentality. We might have to hit the streets again.”

Another workshop featured a discussion of the U.S. Civil War and the Radical Reconstruction governments that came out of it. It was attended by 40 people, many of whom were Black. During the lively discussion many people commented on what was accomplished during this period. “After the Civil War it was a revolution. Public schools came from this period,” said one participant.

Alyson Kennedy, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate in Illinois, said, “Working people can learn important lessons for what we need today from the fight of freed Black slaves and white farmers across the South to establish governments in their interests following the Civil War. In the coming years we will again see the kind of battles by working people that will pose the need for the working class to take political power.”

Participants at the Social Forum came from coast to coast to link up with other fighters and share experiences from their struggles. The majority were from the Midwest.

A number of workshops discussed organizing and defending a woman’s right to choose abortion. Micaela Pietryga, a student at the University of Nebraska, told the Militant, “I’m here because in Nebraska they’re passing all these laws to restrict abortion and I want to discuss how to fight back.”

Alyson Kennedy contributed to this article.
 
 
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Forum participants buy Pathfinder books  
 
 
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