Ethel Long-Scott,
Executive Director of Women’s Economic Agenda Project in Oakland, California
I think we ought to be celebrating that we are about the business of running this country in a new direction. In California, we have one of the eighth largest economies on the planet and they swear we have no money. The corporations & the politicans who serve on their behalf kick old ladies to the curb, put the disabled and the poor, and people with no healthcare into the streets. All of this so they can take and keep our money & resources, all so they can be richer and so that we workers can keep feeding them up to the top. It can only happen because we have bought the hype. We stay asleep. We stay divided. We allow this B.S. that ‘oh the immigrants must be the problem’ when we can see that these computers are taking the jobs. We need these computers and resources running for ‘we the people’ so we can clean up this mess that these corporations like BP are making. When they can indeed kill a whole ocean, it is time for the working people who built the wealth of this country to take it over and run it in our own interests. It is time to construct a new society based on each one of us having our needs met. We are dealing with global capitalism, with the various ways they tell our people that this crisis is on our back. In my state alone, when they say there is no money, then you know they are lying. In the same year that they took $20 Billion out of the coffers of the people, they gave billions of tax cuts to themselves. They didn’t come and put it to a vote. They cut the backroom deals. What does this tell you? It says you have to get in the streets. We have to teach each other. We have to raise up that the time is now to eliminate poverty and take this world over, starting with this country. The people who built this country must run it to save humanity.
Interviews With Some U.S. Social Forum Participants
The U.S. Social Forum was held in Detroit, June, 22-26. Thousands of activists from around the country attended to meet one another and to discuss “another world is possible.”
The U.S. Social Forum was held in Detroit, June, 22-26. Thousands of activists from around the country attended to meet one another and to discuss “another world is possible.”
Maureen Taylor,
State Chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and one of the groups that anchored the US Social Forum in Detroit
There has been all kinds of demonic backward ideas written about the Social Forum -- one from a guy by the name of Noel Finley. He said the Social Forum is a bunch of Pinkos, liberal thinkers, confused people that are insisting that we have social justice, equality and a world where things are nice. I am trying to look for what the problem is with that! What’s the issue? And it’s more than Republican. Don’t think this is about red and blue. This is about in and out. That’s what this fight is about. Not about left and right. This is about top and bottom. . . We need to figure out how we are going make this world into a place where you can die of old age in your bed when you’re 110 — that needs to be the goal. We can deal with all of these separate individual fights all day long. But we better be thinking, ‘somebody made the land, the earth, the water, the trees and whoever did that probably isn’t making any more.’ So we are going to have to figure out how we are going to rule or we ain’t. I’m not even talking about sharing. It’s either we are going to rule or we are not. I think that with our hands in charge, we will treat people nice. Not like what we got now. Oil spills all over the place. … we have a lot of problems. But, the folks that can change things are in this room, in this building, and in this city. Detroit is in big trouble. While you are here, share your best ideas. But if we aren’t able to fix this mess here, a theatre like this is coming to a place close to you.
State Chairperson of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and one of the groups that anchored the US Social Forum in Detroit
There has been all kinds of demonic backward ideas written about the Social Forum -- one from a guy by the name of Noel Finley. He said the Social Forum is a bunch of Pinkos, liberal thinkers, confused people that are insisting that we have social justice, equality and a world where things are nice. I am trying to look for what the problem is with that! What’s the issue? And it’s more than Republican. Don’t think this is about red and blue. This is about in and out. That’s what this fight is about. Not about left and right. This is about top and bottom. . . We need to figure out how we are going make this world into a place where you can die of old age in your bed when you’re 110 — that needs to be the goal. We can deal with all of these separate individual fights all day long. But we better be thinking, ‘somebody made the land, the earth, the water, the trees and whoever did that probably isn’t making any more.’ So we are going to have to figure out how we are going to rule or we ain’t. I’m not even talking about sharing. It’s either we are going to rule or we are not. I think that with our hands in charge, we will treat people nice. Not like what we got now. Oil spills all over the place. … we have a lot of problems. But, the folks that can change things are in this room, in this building, and in this city. Detroit is in big trouble. While you are here, share your best ideas. But if we aren’t able to fix this mess here, a theatre like this is coming to a place close to you.
Cheri Honkala,
National Coordinator, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
We started the March for our Lives on April 4 and have literally been meeting with hundreds and hundreds of people across the country.This march has been a different kind of march for us. On this march we have a homeless electrician, James. We have a homeless trucker. We have wonderful people that we picked up from Chattanooga. We have a wonderful waitress. We have a homeless architect. We have somebody that made six figures on this march. It’s just devastating. We have been at over 25 different stops. We saw the folks that lost everything to the flood in Nashville. Some are here with us. We have met with sisters and brothers who were victims of Katrina first and, secondly as a result of the government. We saw homeless encampment after encampment, homeless brothers and sisters who never thought that they would ever be a part of the homeless population in this country. The root cause of poverty is capitalism. It’s a happy day because that system is being buried in this country. We are going to create a different kind of system that is about sharing. I was able to see on this march each and every day these heroes, people who are amazing. They shared their food stamps when we were going to get citations because we were panhandling for gas to get from one location to the next, slumped out in the rain, listening to story after story. We’re excited to get busy with folks here at the Social Forum.
National Coordinator, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
We started the March for our Lives on April 4 and have literally been meeting with hundreds and hundreds of people across the country.This march has been a different kind of march for us. On this march we have a homeless electrician, James. We have a homeless trucker. We have wonderful people that we picked up from Chattanooga. We have a wonderful waitress. We have a homeless architect. We have somebody that made six figures on this march. It’s just devastating. We have been at over 25 different stops. We saw the folks that lost everything to the flood in Nashville. Some are here with us. We have met with sisters and brothers who were victims of Katrina first and, secondly as a result of the government. We saw homeless encampment after encampment, homeless brothers and sisters who never thought that they would ever be a part of the homeless population in this country. The root cause of poverty is capitalism. It’s a happy day because that system is being buried in this country. We are going to create a different kind of system that is about sharing. I was able to see on this march each and every day these heroes, people who are amazing. They shared their food stamps when we were going to get citations because we were panhandling for gas to get from one location to the next, slumped out in the rain, listening to story after story. We’re excited to get busy with folks here at the Social Forum.
Richard Monje,
Director, Education and Mobilization of Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, Worker’s United
I did steward training down in Cincinnati for some workers who work at a Xerox factory. Three of the five stewards had their homes in foreclosure. That’s just a random example. We do leadership schools. One of the women in the last school, within two months, the plant had closed and two months after that she was homeless, living with her parents. About four months later her parents were homeless and we could no longer find her. This is what we are experiencing and what you are experiencing in our communities. We need to figure out why these things are happening. We need to save the people in poverty. We need to save the jobs. But the fundamental cause is the structure that this country was founded upon. The stealing of the land of the indigenous people, the free labor in the form of slavery, the repression of women, and the repression of workers. We battled for 60 -70 years to try to overcome those differences that were established in economic and later on in political differences. That has been taken away from us over the last 30 or 40 years and if we don’t figure out the cause, we can’t change things.
Director, Education and Mobilization of Chicago and Midwest Regional Joint Board, Worker’s United
I did steward training down in Cincinnati for some workers who work at a Xerox factory. Three of the five stewards had their homes in foreclosure. That’s just a random example. We do leadership schools. One of the women in the last school, within two months, the plant had closed and two months after that she was homeless, living with her parents. About four months later her parents were homeless and we could no longer find her. This is what we are experiencing and what you are experiencing in our communities. We need to figure out why these things are happening. We need to save the people in poverty. We need to save the jobs. But the fundamental cause is the structure that this country was founded upon. The stealing of the land of the indigenous people, the free labor in the form of slavery, the repression of women, and the repression of workers. We battled for 60 -70 years to try to overcome those differences that were established in economic and later on in political differences. That has been taken away from us over the last 30 or 40 years and if we don’t figure out the cause, we can’t change things.
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