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NEWS & LETTERS,
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2003
Chicago Social Forum
When you look around your community what do you see? Job
loss, lack of affordable housing, public education in crisis, cuts in public
transportation, a growing prison industrial complex, union busting, racism,
immigrant bashing, attacks on civil liberties, cuts in social services,
militarism, pollution, alienation and other problems. Join those of us who believe that ANOTHER CHICAGO IS
POSSIBLE! Become part of the process of seeking and building alternatives--help
to develop the Chicago Social Forum. A Social Forum is an open meeting place that brings
together a variety of people from a wide variety of struggles for reflective
thinking, democratic debate of ideas, and interlinking for effective action! We
are inspired by the highly successful World Social Forum, which has been held
for three years in Porto Alegre, Brazil. This movement of movements has helped
to develop global actions such as the international march against the war on
Feb. 15, 2003 as well as spawning local and regional social forums all over the
world. A Social Forum is a convergence of labor, students, people
of color, women, immigrants' rights groups, community organizations, cultural
organizations, artists, activists and many others. Our first Social Forum is
currently scheduled to take place Jan. 31–Feb. 1, 2004. Building the event is only one part of this ongoing
dialogue. As stated in the World Social Forum Charter of Principals, "The
World Social Forum at Porto Alegre was an event localized in time and place.
From now on, in the certainty proclaimed at Porto Alegre that 'another world is
possible,' it becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives,
which cannot be reduced to the events supporting it." We build the Social Forum in Chicago with that spirit. Of
particular importance is the linking of local struggles with global concerns and
creating a space for a plurality of voices in envisioning ways to overcome
barriers on both the local and the global level. We hope you will join us not
only to build this unique event but also to be part of the process of building a
vision of another Chicago. More information about the World Social Forum and other
regional forums can be found at the following web sites: http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/home.asp |
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