Ideas and Opinions: 08/15/09

Saturday, August 15, 2009

2010 United States Social Forum to be held in Detroit; What will it accomplish?

We need to start thinking about presenting a real progressive alternative agenda at the USSF Detroit and it should start with advocating real health care reform and countering the reactionary direction the Obama administration and the Democrats are taking this country.

There is something wrong about the way this United States Social Forum 2010 in Detroit is developing if every participant doesn't go back home into their communities and stimulate movements for real health care reform.

A major problem with this Social Forum movement has been its inability to unite participants to undertake struggles aimed at accomplishing specific tasks, goals and objectives.

To bring so many activists together and not bring forward an agenda for real health care reform we can all unite and fight for just doesn't seem right.

I would urge people to contact the working groups and insist that the struggle for health care reform becomes a primary objective of this Social Forum in 2010.

We need to send Barack Obama and the Democrats a loud, clear message that 25,000 activists will be organizing, as a complement to all their other activities, a national struggle for real health care reform.

I would encourage people to read my blog posting on this topic:

http://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-reform.html

If 20,000 activists all assembled in one place at the same time can't launch a real fight for health care reform and forge a massive "people's front" by creating some kind of massive "people's lobby" there is something wrong with how these Social Forums are being organized.

Health care reform, real health care reform and not this phony crap of Barack Obama's, should become the centerpiece in the struggle for a "people's bailout."

Capitalism is on the skids to oblivion and it is time to start talking about the socialist alternative... let the talk begin by bringing forward the advocacy of socialized health care.

Alan L. Maki

Working Groups

Mon, 06/22/2009 - 03:05

One of the many ways that you can get involved in the organizing efforts for USSF Detroit is through the national Working Groups. There are currently 10 Working Groups, and several committees, where you can participate in regular (often biweekly) conference calls. With representatives from the Detroit Local Organizing Committee, each Working Group and committee discuss ideas, strategies, and plans around the work needed to bring the USSF to Detroit.

For more information about joining a Working Group or committee, please contact the following point people (all contacts are interim):

Working Groups

Culture – Oya Amakisi, Detroit Local Organizing Committee, amakisi@gmail.com

Communications – Bill Bryce, Southeast Michigan Jobs with Justice, williamabryce@att.net

Resource Mobilization – Genaro Lopez-Rendon, Southwest Workers Union, genaro@swunion.org

International Solidarity – Cindy Wiesner, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, cindy@ggjalliance.org

Language Access – Danielle Mahones, CTWO, dmahones@ctwo.org

Logistics – Maureen Taylor, USSF Staff, chuteh7@hotmail.com

Outreach – Tammy Bang Luu, Labor Community Strategy Center, Tammy@thestrategycenter.org and Ahmina Maxey, EMEAC, ahmina@emeac.org

People's Movement Assembly – Stephanie Guilloud, Project South, stephanie2@projectsouth.org

Program – Walda Katz-Fishman, LRNA, wkatzfishman@igc.org

Religion - Bill Wylie-Kellerman bill@scupe.com and
Rev. Charles E. Williams II Cwilliams@im4justice.com 313.303.8002

Technology – Alfredo Lopez, May First/People Link, alfredo@mayfirst.org

Women's - Ariel Dougherty, Women's Media Equity Collaborative, arielcamera@gmail.com and Jacqui Patterson, Women of Color United, jpatters1@yahoo.com

Committees

Detroit Local Organizing Committee – Will Copeland, USSF Staff, williamwholenote@gmail.com

An Open Letter to President Barack Obama from Sidney J. Gluck

Attached is an open letter to President Barack Obama.

I don't know whether you agree with my point of view or not; but I am functioning out of the feeling that the negative aspects of capitalism are becoming obvious to people all around the world regardless of class positions, that understanding its avaricious nature brings them closer to Marx's analysis of the system which all of you can read his seminal word on "Capital." Chapter 26 which deals with the law of capitalist accumulation will give you the prototype of which the USA's capitalism is the arch example of its worst (together with the British who started out but are following along with the USA).

Globalization is a mess and everyone knows that the USA has created more poverty with its capital investments than existed before the global expansion. We know that formal colonial countries are seeing through this domination and are moving in directions which reject the control of foreign capital in their own developments. WE ARE LIVING IN A CENTURY OF EPOCHAL CHANGE. Our hope is that the change which is now developing in the form of a bipolar economic structure will continue to redevelop economies technologically and sustainably. We hope too that the ultimate resolution of differences between the double-structured world economic system will not be resolved by warfare. That is the most important struggle we must be involved with. A peaceful acceptance of epochal change and the survival of all in a better world.

Sincerely,

Sidney J. Gluck

Dear President Obama,

The world economic crisis sparked by the financial sector of our country has put the capitalist system on a defensive more openly than any other time in history. I am one of many who strongly supported your candidacy based on your vocalization of much of what we felt had to be changed in our country to make it more livable for those of us who produce the wealth and intellectual atmosphere.

You are facing the sharpest attack from the ranks of the Republican Party. We all admire your diplomatic ability to deal with those who disagree with you; but, the time has come when you must take an ideological position in order to clarify the issues involved in building a new type of economic structure in the country. This means that the dominance of the financial institutions in the political decisions affecting the majority must be defended openly against misrepresentations and manipulations which we all now know come from the unsupported defense of government that gives primacy to capital accumulation whether it be finance capital or industrial capital.

You do not have to embrace socialism. That is not the ideological position that put you in power. You were put in the White House with a promise to govern in the name of the working majority. True, you would like to have support from all sections of political and economic forces, but YOU WILL NOT GET IT.

If you continue to move along supporting the program of the financial circles in our country, your presidency is DOOMED. Listen to the needs of the majority and cater to it.

You can announce openly that you are not for socialism but you are for correcting the ills of the capitalist system and to relinquish domination of other countries allowing them to move independently as their people desire.

The Republican Party is pressing for the continuation of the kind of economic distortions that has dragged the world down. Openly facing this fact will help you reshape our country’s goals.

We are in an epoch of change. We must remove barriers and encourage each nation to resolve their day to day problems created by greed and distorted wealth accumulation. It does not make you a socialist to talk for Main Street but they need a spokesman in high places that will act for them.

You are in an enviable yet complicated position. Exposing the negative effect of unregulated finance capital which dominates humanity today would memorialize you for the next thousand years. The Bush Administration preempted the first move to deal with the economic crisis by bailing out the perpetrators who squandered every cent in bonuses and bashes. You are now faced with additional steps to bail out the industrial capitalists who have the responsibility of reshaping these enterprises into a new technological and green economy whose purpose is to raise the living standards of all.

The fulfillment of your promises requires that you take an ideological position. You will go down in history as having broken the racial barrier but it will end at that if you continue to be consumed by the economic crisis. OUR SYSTEM NEEDS CHANGE. Do what you can within that system. This means openly opposing the Republican Party’s program already on the road to capturing the presidency and congress in 2010 before they bring us further down. Don’t let them bully you with the “socialist” label.

The ball is in your court to change the situation. In your most diplomatic way you must take an ideological position to correct the problems of the system as you promised and restore true democracy which favors the needs of the majority.

Sincerely,

Sidney J. Gluck

Ideas and Opinions

Saturday, August 15, 2009

2010 United States Social Forum to be held in Detroit; What will it accomplish?

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An Open Letter to President Barack Obama from Sidney J. Gluck