Another World is Possible! Another U.S. is Necessary! June 27-July 1 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Gathering under the banner “Another World is Possible; Another U.S. is necessary,” the U.S. Social Forum will be one of the largest working convening of social change movements in U.S. history. It will also be a key opportunity for GI Resistance and antiwar organizing in the US. Dozens of panels, workshops and events will feature GI resisters and GI resistance solidarity groups. The largest gathering to date of GI resistance and solidarity groups and organizers since Vietnam will take place at the Social Forum.
The session, titled “GI Resistance & Solidarity Movement Against War & Empire” is being co-sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Catalyst Project and Courage to Resist with co-organizers from Women of Color Resource Center, War Resisters League, and many other grassroots groups. It will take place at June 29, 2007, 1:00pm at the Trinity United Methodist Church, 265 Washington St SW (Choir Room). Please invite anyone you know who is attending the Social Forum and is (or would like to be) involved in GI resistance support work. Download the flyer (pdf) and help distribute.
The session is describe as “The G.I. resistance/solidarity movement is made up of organizations and people engaged in work, ranging from counseling to legal advocacy to political campaigns supporting public resisters and their families. Currently there is no umbrella, network, or clearinghouse where we can all come together to exchange information, coordinate and collaborate, and strategize together. At the Social Forum we aim to bring together the different elements of this movement to build more cohesion and strengthen our work and our movement.”
It was the networks built at the World Social Forum that organized the February 15, 2003 global demonstrations against the impending invasion of Iraq. These involved between six and thirty million people and were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records. New York Times writer Patrick Tyler wrote:
” …the huge anti-war demonstrations around the world this weekend are reminders that there may still be two superpowers on the planet: the United States and world public opinion.”
Let’s make the networks built at the US Social Forum do the same in the US; assert our people power to end war and empire and beginning building a better United States that is both possible and necessary!”
Report by Courage to Resist organizer David Solnit
“Courage To Resist accomplishes one part of this program of resistance by speaking for and defending the brave souls in the military who do not wish to be part of the perfidy of this administration. It behooves us to do all we can to support Courage To Resist with money and with spine.”
