This was only the 2nd USSF. The first took place in Atlanta, Georgia in 2007. This year, the Forum followed the tracks of the Underground Railroad to a northern border city, a post-industrial environment with high unemployment and foreclosure rates and the fastest growing urban garden movement in the country.
The June 24th plenary I attended was titled "From National to International: The Effects of Neoliberal Policies at Home and Abroad." The plenary did what many of us have tried to do in our work, discuss the ways in which many of the political and economic problems we face are connected. In this instance, the panelists discussed how the economic crisis is connected to policies of war, how the militarization of our country and our world siphons off huge amounts of resources, both human and financial, to support it and how the movement of corporations and jobs affects the lives of many, creating a need for people to migrate from their homes to places where the jobs are located.
The U.S. Congress is set to vote on appropriating $33
billion more toward the escalation of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, billions of
dollars that could be used to address social problems here at home.
At the same time, a new report produced by the Sustainable Defense Task Force identifies $960 billion in Pentagon budget savings that can be generated over the next ten years from realistic reductions in military spending. The report was produced in response to a request from House Financial Services Committee Chair, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). Peace Action National's Political Director was a Task Force member.
A June 24th letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and signed by 29 Representatives, including New Jersey Representatives Donald Payne and Rush Holt, as well as 5 Republicans, urged a delay in the vote on this supplemental until a full discussion of the issues and concerns raised by a senior adviser to General McChrystal and quoted in the Rolling Stone article that led to his resignation are addressed:
"If Americans pulled back and started paying attention to this war, it would become even less popular." We support this demand and urge readers their representatives to ask for their support as well.
A quick glance at news coverage shows that most of the print media about the USSF appeared in the Detroit newspapers and in blogs and publications specific to many of the organizations represented there.
Why? Why weren't the thoughts and actions of thousands of grassroots activists attempting to create a more politically and socially just world as important as a summit held by the world's leaders? Why wasn't it equally as important for the solutions offered by grass roots activists to be openly debated as part of these discussions?
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