The ANSWER Coalition will be participating in the U.S. Social Forum taking place June 24-28 in San Jose and June 25-28 in Philadelphia. Please see below for details.
June 24-28 in San Jose, Calif.
ANSWER Coalition representatives will be speaking in two workshops at the U.S. Social Forum in San Jose, Calif.
DETAILS OF WORKSHOPS
How the U.S. exports militarism to Latin America: Honduras, Colombia, Mexico
Friday, June 26 at 6:00 p.m.
Unitarian Church (160 N. 3rd St.)
Sponsored by BALASC (Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition)
Speakers
Colombia: Alice Loaiza, Marcha Patriótica
Mexico: Frank Lara, ANSWER Coalition
Honduras: Porfirio Quintano, Frente de Resistencia Hondureño
Cuba, Venezuela -- Another World is Possible
Saturday, June 27 at 8:30 a.m.
St. Paul's Methodist Church (405 S. 10th St.)
Another world is possible, exemplified by Cuba and Venezuela, where the state serves rather than represses the people, which is why the U.S. is bent on regime change. Let's change U.S. policies toward Cuba and Venezuela to promote justice and peace. Let's learn from participatory democracy and 21st Century Socialism.
Speakers
Roger Harris, Marin Task Force on the Americas (speaking on Venezuela)
Gloria La Riva, ANSWER Coalition (speaking on Cuba)
For more information about the ANSWER Coalition's participation in San Jose, contact our San Francisco chapter at (415) 821-6545 or [email protected].
June 25-28 in Philadelphia, Pa.
The following workshop is sponsored by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which is a member organization of the ANSWER Coalition
Racism is the Disease, Revolution is the Cure: the State and the Struggle Against Police Brutality
Friday, June 26 at 2:45 p.m.
Morgan Hall S, Room D301
The huge movement that has emerged over the last year against racism and police brutality has shaken the elite to their core. Demonstrations have taken place across the country on a sustained basis, starting with the Ferguson Uprising demanding justice for Mike Brown and rejuvenated by the Baltimore Uprising that won the indictment of six cops responsible for the murder of Freddie Gray. The people are fighting back, led by a new generation of Black organizers who are determined to continue and expand the movement.
The organizers of this workshop believe police brutality and racism have proven to be such persistent problems—not just in recent years or decades but for the entirety of U.S. history—because these social ills are part of the state. Revolutionary thinker Vladimir Lenin famously analyzed the state in his 1917 work “The State and Revolution.”
PSL Publications has just released a book, “Revolution Manifesto,” that goes over the core arguments made by Lenin that hold true today, as well as updates to help us understand the present. Contributors to this book, including Eugene Puryear, author of “Shackled and Chained,” will present views and facilitate a discussion among attendees aimed at establishing a common definition of the state and a revolution. How can the movement against racism and police brutality win struggles in a period when the overthrow of the state is not imminent? What kind of organization do we need to make a revolution when the time comes?
For more information about the ANSWER Coalition's participation in Philadelphia, contact our local chapter at [email protected] or 267-281-3859.
The description below is re-posted from the website of the U.S. Social Forum.
What is the US Social Forum?
The US Social Forum (USSF) is a movement building process. It is not a conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and changes history.
We must declare what we want our world to look like and we must start planning the path to get there. The USSF provides spaces to learn from each other’s experiences and struggles, share our analysis of the problems our communities face, build relationships, and align with our international brothers and sisters to strategize how to reclaim our world.
We live day to day in crisis and struggle. For the first time in history we are experiencing a rapidly deepening crisis of global capitalism affecting millions in the United States and billions world-wide – producing austerity policies and massive permanent unemployment and poverty, unimaginable climate, ecological and social destruction, and intensifying political attacks, repression, and the threat of fascism and war everywhere. At the same time, resistance, activism and organizing are on the rise across all continents, sectors, and fronts of struggle.
This moment requires a huge and unified social movement in the U.S. with millions of politically conscious people to ensure victory for the arising social motion in the interests of the oppressed, exploited, and dispossessed – to protect the earth and affirm life. The US Social Forum can play a role in pushing forward strategic US movement development through the dynamic interrelation of local and regional struggles, and the emergence of a national movement in relation to global movements. The US Social Forum process is striving to step up and take its place in history by advancing the interests of working class, low-income, and grassroots struggles. The moment is urgent and the opportunities are great.