This month, the first US Social Forum is happening in Atlanta – drawing thousands from around the country to “learn from each other's experiences…and to send a message to other people’s movements around the world that there is an active movement in the US opposing US policies at home and abroad”.  The Global Women Strike, Women of Color in the GWS, and Payday men’s network – grassroots unfunded networks – are sending a multiracial delegation there.  We have been organizing actions & initiatives in the US and in many other countries to demand together that society “Invest in Caring Not Killing”, prioritizing the caring of people & the environment not war & intervention.  We want to share what we have learned and to learn from others. 

As an international network, 72 of us from 9 countries attended the World Social Forum in Venezuela in 2006. In 2004, 12 of us participated in the Boston Social Forum, where Margaret Prescod of WOC in the GWS was a plenary speaker.  WOC in the GWS participated in the 2005 World Social Forum in Brazil as part of a delegation working in opposition to the coup/occupation of Haiti; we have also participated in the European Social Forum.  Our experience at the Social Forums has been that those who are most impacted by social and economic policies are mostly unable to afford to attend.  We want to be part of changing this dynamic, so that the grassroots are more visible in the first US Forum. We hope you can help make this happen. We need to raise $5000 to cover the costs of sending a 9-member delegation.  Please donate whatever you can!

Highlights of our planned participation

   Pre- and post- Forum events in Philly and SF to get input and report back

   As part of the Forum film series, showing our film Talking of Power – Sex, Race & Class in Revolutionary Venezuela (2005) Thursday June 28, 10:40am

   Workshop Invest in Caring Not Killing: Sex, Race & Class in Campaigning Against War & For Justice. http://www.ussf2007.org/en/node/4118  (Friday unconfirmed). Global & national grassroots movements against war, sexism & racism, and for resources for the caring of people & the environment.  Including family members & supporters of military refuseniks; activists against racism & corruption in Benton Harbor, Michigan; mothers fighting to regain children taken by social services; valuing the work of mothers grandmothers & other caregivers; work with Mumia Abu-Jamal; workers & shoppers for a boycott of Israeli goods in a health food coop; women & the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela; for the economic/civil rights of lesbian women, against homophobia; prioritizing the protection of sex workers over prosecution.  Including in fundraising is to bring a special guest: Mrs. Pinkney of Benton Harbor.

   Speaking on a Forum panel, entitled Building Solidarity with Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution

   Info table to distribute materials and gather support for current campaigns

   Meeting other grassroots organizers and find out about their work

About our groups:

Global Women’s Strike (GWS) is part of an international network of grassroots women in many countries who come together under the banner “Invest in Caring, Not Killing”, to work for societies to prioritize the caring of people and the environment, starting with women who do most of the caring work everywhere.  Website: www.globalwomenstrike.net.

Women of Color in the Global Women’s Strike (WOC in the GWS) is an independent grassroots network of women of color – African, Asian, Caribbean, Indigenous, Native American, Kurdish, and others – within the GWS.  WOC in the GWS focuses on the impact of sexism and racism in social and economic policies including the distribution of resources, in military recruiting war and occupation, police and law enforcement actions and policies, and to make visible how women of color are organizing against those policies.  www.globalwomenstrike.net

Payday: a multi-racial network of men which organizes with women and men around the world refusing the military’s lethal and repressive work.  We have initiated international campaigns in support of refuseniks in Israel, Turkey and the US; and highlighted the key role that women play in supporting conscientious objectors, “deserters”, draft evaders and whistleblowers; and published news from this growing movement on our website www.refusingtokill.net.

Other groups attending as part of the delegation:

Every Mother is a Working Mother Network (EMWM) campaigns to establish that caring work is work, and that the economic value of raising children be reflected economic and social policy, including welfare.  In Philly, supporting mothers struggling to regain children taken by social services – their “crime” is that they are poor or people of color.  Also in SF defending benefits for women who care for elderly or disabled relatives.

US PROStitutes Collective – USPROS campaigns for the abolition of prostitution laws which criminalize sex workers and their families and for economic alternatives to prostitution. No woman, child or man should be forced by poverty or violence into sex with anyone. www.prostitutescollective.net    

Wages Due Lesbians - organizes against discrimination, loss of child custody, police arrests, anti-lesbian violence, & criminalization, as well as being forced to live an underground existence and for recognition of our hidden contributions to movements and communities.  http://allwomencount.net/EWC%20LesbianBi/IWDL.htm

WinVisible - a grassroots multi racial self help organization of women with visible and invisible disabilities http://allwomencount.net/EWC%20WwDiss/WwDndex.htm

members of Rainbow Boycott Israeli Goods -  RBIG is a group of Jewish and other workers and shoppers, that is asking Rainbow Grocery Cooperative, a worker-led health food coop in SF to take up the boycott of Israeli goods. 

Delegation:  Phoebe Jones & Ruth Todasco GWS/Phila & LA; Sharon Lungo & Nell Myhand, WOC in the GWS/LA & SF; Eric Gjertsen, Payday/Phila; Pat Albright EMWM/Phila; Rachel West, USPROS & RBIG/SF; Mary Kalyna, Wages Due Lesbians & WinVisible/Phila.  Special guest: Mrs. Pinkney.

We are trying to raise $5000 to cover airfares (3000), housing & local transportation (1000) table fee (300), copying & postage (500), phone (200).  Thank you!

Margaret Prescod/ Women of Color in the GWS  323-276-9833  la@crossroadswomen.net