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Warning and disclaimer: the article below is toxic. go to site for interesting replies. _http://www.crainsdetroit.com/section/c?template=profile&uid=140106&plckPers onaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=140106&plckPostId=Blog%3a140106Post%3ac693a5 69-efe0-479c-a362-cbd642c9dd80&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=persona Script&plckElementId=personaDest_ (http://www.crainsdetroit.com/section/c?template=profile&uid=140106&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=140106&plc kPostId=Blog:140106Post:c693a569-efe0-479c-a362-cbd642c9dd80&plckController= PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest) ********* U.S. Social Forum in Detroit: $10 entry for the homeless, $20 for the unemployed, Comrade U.S. Social Forum in Detroit: $10 entry for the homeless, $20 for the unemployed, Comrade Posted 6/15/2010 4:52 PM EDT on crainsdetroit.com The Marxists are coming to town and are charging the homeless $10 and the unemployed $20 to attend next week’s U.S. Social Forum. I can’t quite determine if that’s irony or hypocrisy. Maybe both. Mother Bloor, Eugene Debs and the Wobblies must be spinning in their secular graves. Calling the five-day event Commiepalooza is an amusing exaggeration, and perhaps an unfair one. It’s not Marxist per se, but almost entirely Progressive/Leftist. However, there are Marxists and other virulently anti-capitalist sessions on the schedule and among the organizing groups. Che Guevara t-shirts won’t be hard to spot. The official event website is here. Although it bills itself as nonpartisan, the forum is a gathering of activists from the Left side of the spectrum, and is dedicated to social change based on that segment of ideology. It’s planned for June 22-26 at Cobo Hall, Hart Plaza, Wayne State’s campus and elsewhere downtown. Organizers say up to 20,000 people could attend. The event is organized by a USSF National Planning Committee made up of representatives from 45 U.S.-based “social movement organizations” that include organized labor, the Quakers, Amnesty International USA and the communist League of Revolutionaries for a New America, which has deep Detroit and Michigan roots. (link). The forum has more than 1,000 sessions planned and many appear to be interesting with real value to what’s going on in Detroit. But the schedule is filled with hardcore Leftist ideological sessions — including “Marxism for the 21st Century: Capitalist Crisis, Socialist Solutions” on June 25. Are those legitimate conversations, or atavistic non-starters that simply distract from the real work that needs to be done? I’ve heard from some friends who call themselves Progressives say they’re worried that the radical fringe will garner media attention, and give the event and Detroit a black eye. Some of the scheduled sessions: ~ The Tea Party Movements: The New Fascism? ~ Socialist Activists Rebuilding Public Space Through Fighting the State Budget Crisis ~ Abolish Human Rentals: Inalienable Rights Revived (From the session description: “The rental of humans, the standard employment relationship today, is invalid based on inalienable rights arguments tracing back to the anti-slavery movement.”) ~ Self Publishing a Radical Comic Book, how to do it, and why ~ Fearless Meditation 1: practice of the body ~ Creative Organizing: Using Puppetry and Performance to Move Your Campaign ~ U.S. Political Prisoners: Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the Cuban 5 ~ Unlearning Zionism: Unlearning Racism ~ The Politics of Anti-capitalist Convergences: Is a Non-capitalist Detroit Necessary? ~ How to help a soldier quit the Army ~ Stopping the Invasion of the Body Snatchers: an Introduction to Countering Military Recruitment ~ Capitalism is killing us. Fight for SOCIALISM! A collaborative conversation in 2 parts ~ The Capitalist Roots of the Ecological Crisis ~ Adultism: Understanding oppression of young people ~ Marx vs. Keynes ~ What place for socialism in the struggle for the ‘other possible world?’ ~ Building International Socialist Feminism On-Line and In the Streets ~ Confronting the U.S. War Against Haiti ~ Legalizing Marijuana for Social Justice ~ Organizing Against Student Debt ~ Egalitarian Sociesties-Anarcho-Primitivism and Christianity ~ How We Can Stop the Religious Right ~ Should Tom Izzo Stay or Coach the Cavaliers? I made up that last one, but it’s obvious why some non-radical Progressives might be worried that the rest of America might see these things and roll their eyes? And with sessions like those, it’s no real surprise that organizers can’t (or won’t) turn to the private sector for corporate underwriting and sponsorships. They instead have to charge the homeless and unemployed admission. The top-tier of registration fees is $120 for “higher wage working people/professionals.” The admission costs pay for staging the event, and I'm waiting to hear back from organizers on the total cost. The sessions I listed above, and others, open the event to the traditional criticisms that the Left is humorless, self-important, bloviating, paranoid, naïve and filled with coffeehouse radicals, limousine liberals and J. Crew Jacobins advocating destructive ideas about collectivism and other debunked theories that remain alive only in North Korea, Cuba and American academia. It will be difficult for many to take the event seriously based on a lot of what’s scheduled. Chants, banging gongs and ranting by actual communists about capitalism, imperialism, fascism, racism, Israel, the military-industrial complex, bourgeois commercialism and other stock bogeymen would seem to distract from debate about real issues. It sounds like the radical choir preaching to the radical choir about the perceived evils of America. And frankly, much of it sounds like the mirror opposite of John Birchers and other ideological horrors on the Far Right. The forum event list also includes many sessions that, from the titles at least, sound like they have serious and legitimate value — urban farming, environmental protections, mass transit, health care, education reform, housing, etc. There are also sessions on organizing, using social media for grassroots campaigns, etc. But will anyone notice if outside there are Marxist and/or anarchist demonstrations? Media coverage so far appears limited. Model D had an online story about the forum today. A quick Google News search shows nothing but alternative media mentions of the event. That will surely change in coming day. Live covera ge will be interesting because no press credentials will be issued; organizers say all attendees are journalists. And everyone has to pay to get in, professional media included. A tent city is planned for youth attendees at Woodward and Temple. That’s always a fun area. Spending five nights under the stars in that neighborhood — which, ironically, might end up underneath a hockey arena in a few years — could make for interesting times for forum-goers. This is the second USSF. The first was held in Atlanta three years ago. Organizers said it had about 10,000 attendees. The USSF concept stems from the first World Social Forum, held in Brazil in 2001, as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. An opening parade is scheduled for 3 p.m. on June 22, from Woodward/Warren to the Hart Plaza/Cobo area where there will be an opening ceremony. Organizers are forbidding plastic water bottles for parade participants, and instead plan to have free water stations along the route. Information provided by the event includes this line sinister-sounding line: “Medical personnel will accompany the march, along with ‘aid and comfort’ stations placed at COBO Hall, at Hart Plaza, and at the Social Forum Village.” Is that because of heat stroke and other health worries? Or are they covering their bases if protest violence erupts? There are sessions scheduled on legal advice and Michigan law for protestors, too. Should I invest in a military surplus gas mask? I've been tear gassed several times ... not fun. A party on June 25 called “Leftist Lounge” (link) is planned at various spots in Eastern Market, which is steps from my front door. The “Leftist Lounge” doesn’t sound very nonpartisan. The USSF describes itself as such: “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.” No word if they'll be passing out the words to "The Internationale" or the original "Beasts of England." 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