Join us for “Building a Military Resistance Movement: Veterans, Service Members & Allies Organizing Together” presented by Courage to Resist, Civilian-Soldier Alliance, and Iraq Veterans Against the War at the US Social Forum (USSF), Thursday, June 24 from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm, Cobo Hall. The USSF is being held June 22-26, 2010 in Detroit, Michigan under the slogan,  “Another World is Possible. Another US is Necessary!”

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This is a workshop led by veterans and civilian allies who are organizing within the military and veteran communities against the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The workshop will include an overview of the history of military resistance around the world, a presentation from Iraq & Afghanistan veteran organizers on a new campaign to win a GI bill of rights, as well as an introductory training on supporting war resisters and being a strong and accountable ally to veterans and service-members organizing for change.

We aim to provide participants with a introduction to historical and current military resistance movements, with a focus on outlining a new organizing model based on campaign and leadership development. Iraq Veterans Against the War, Civilian Soldier Alliance, and Courage to resist will detail what our day to day organizing work actually looks like.

Part of the workshop will be popular education style discussion to create a space for veteran and ally participants to dialogue about our relationships to and experiences with the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, militarism, and anti- war and social justice organizing.

Finally, through interactive training excersizes, participants will be provided with some tools for how to be strong and accountable allies to veterans and service members. We aim to leave participants with ideas about how they can directly plug into our campaign organizing work.

The US Social Forum will provide a space to build relationships, learn from each other’s experiences, and share analysis of the problems our communities face. It will help develop leadership, vision, and strategy needed to realize another world.