The United States Social Forum is an ongoing series of gatherings of social justice activists in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

which grew out of the

World Social Forum The World Social Forum (WSF, pt, Fórum Social Mundial ) is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemoni ...

process, bringing together activists, organizers, people of color, working people, poor people, and indigenous people from across the

. Its purpose is to build unity around common goals of

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

, build ties between organizations at the event, and help build a broader social justice movement. Planning for the first event was spearheaded by the organization Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, and involved dozens of other organizations around the United States. The Forum defines itself as "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 An ecological or environmental crises occurs when changes to the environment of a species or population destabilizes its continued survival. Some of the important causes include: * Degradation of an abiotic ecological factor (for example, increa ...

. 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."

National Planning Committee

After the 2005

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...

, the US Social Forum National Planning Committee was created by the WSF's International Council designating the alliance "Grassroots Global Justice" as the core group. It includes over 45 groups who oversee the US Social Forum's fiscal and political responsibilities. The committee includes a number of big

labor rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...

and

organizations, such as the AFL-CIO,

Amnesty International USA Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) is one of many country sections that make up Amnesty International worldwide. Amnesty International is an organization of more than 7 million supporters, activists and volunteers in over 150 countries, with compl ...

AFSCME The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. It represents 1.3 million public sector employees and retirees, including health care workers, correcti ...

, Center for Third World Organizing,

Indigenous Environmental Network The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) is a coalition of indigenous, grassroots environmental justice activists, primarily based in the United States. Group members have represented Native American concerns at international events such as ...

, Jubilee USA, Sociologists Without Borders.

Activities

*Self-organized workshops *People's Movement Assemblies *Plenaries *Work projects and brigades *Detroit Expanded (DEX) *USSF village and canopies *Arts & culture - performances, exhibitions, film festival *Children's social forum & youth camp *International participation *Direct action *Open Spaces *Tours *Grassroots fundraising

2007 Forum

The first Forum was in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, USA from June 27 – July 1, 2007. Planning began in 2005. . Free access a
Reclaim the Media
/ref> In June 2006, the Southeast Social Forum was in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county *Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in No ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

; one of its priorities was to plan for and build momentum for the US Social Forum. On June 27, the opening march began at the

Georgia State Capitol The Georgia State Capitol is an architecturally and historically significant building in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The building has been named a National Historic Landmark which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As t ...

and ended at the

Atlanta Civic Center The Atlanta Civic Center was a theater located in Atlanta, Georgia. It closed in 2014. The theater, which seats 4,600, regularly hosted touring productions of Broadway musicals, concerts, seminars, comedy acts, and high school graduations and ...

. Organizers hoped for at least 10,000 people; about 15,000 attended. The Forum's goal was to help build a movement that would end harmful US practices against all people
Direct link to audio file
/ref> by helping coordinate local activists into a nationwide movement.
Direct link to audio file
/ref> This took shape as the National Domestic Workers Alliance, a group working for a

Domestic Worker's Bill of Rights A Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights is legislation designed to grant basic labor protections to domestic workers. These laws are supported by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, a labor advocacy group founded in 2007. The first such law took eff ...

in various states. Activist librarians from the

Progressive Librarians Guild The Progressive Librarians Guild (PLG) was founded in New York City in January 1990 by librarians concerned with the library profession's "rapid drift into dubious alliances with business and the information industry, and into complacent acceptance ...

and

Radical Reference Radical Reference is a distributed collective of library workers, students and information activists who work on social justice issues. They provide professional research support, education and access to information to activist communities, prog ...

collected materials that were sent to th
Labadie Collection
at the University of Michigan.

2010 Forum

The 2010 Forum was in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

from June 22–26, in the Northwest Goldberg area. More than 20,000 attended. Detroit was chosen partly because of its activism in

community building Community building is a field of practices directed toward the creation or enhancement of community among individuals within a regional area (such as a neighborhood) or with a common need or interest. It is often encompassed under the fields of c ...

resulting from a lack of support from the

U.S. federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 ...

. Organizers hoped that half of the 15,000 participants they expected would be from the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

. Organizers planned on supporting and beautifying the neighborhood. Thousands of bicycles used during the forum were donated to the residents afterward. Some attendees bought vacant homes that were donated to a local organization after the Forum. The Detroit Liberation Library was created from hundreds of books collected from USSF participants from around the US that were later offered throughout the city. The Forum's supporters were encouraged to create People's Movement Assemblies in their own communities. Activists participated in more than 1,000 self-organized workshops. One of the most popular events was a conversation between

Grace Lee Boggs Grace Lee Boggs (June 27, 1915 – October 5, 2015) was an American author, social activist, philosopher, and feminist. She is known for her years of political collaboration with C. L. R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya in the 1940s and 1950s. In th ...

and

Immanuel Wallerstein Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (; September 28, 1930 – August 31, 2019) was an American sociologist and economic historian. He is perhaps best known for his development of the general approach in sociology which led to the emergence of his worl ...

. Thousands of Forum participants marched to occupy

Chase Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...

Detroit headquarters, resulting in a national Chase Bank official speaking with church leaders in Detroit about foreclosures. Progressive religious groups played a larger role in the 2010 Forum than at the 2007 event.

People's Movement Assemblies

People's Movement Assemblies (PMA's) are informally organized groups of activists to create and coordinate solutions to various social problems. At the 2010 US Social Forum, over 200 organizations participated in 52 PMA's of four people each. 45 resolutions for action were confirmed, adding to another 24 created before the Forum. They included an endorsement of

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's obligations ...

against Israel in support of the Palestinian struggle.

Sources

{{reflist "PLG – ¡Presenté! Report from the United States Social Forum." ''Progressive Librarian'' 30. Winter 2007/2008, pp. 79–102.

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

'' Social forums