September 13 and September 14, 2014 Movement School

If you haven't already, please ​register to participate.

Logistics

Date: Saturday, September 13, 10:00 - 5:00 pm and Sunday, September 14, 10:00 - 3:00 pm

Place:

Readings: See attachments to this page

Outcomes

Stay tuned for a report on the movement school outcomes

About the school

Join US Social Forum leaders Jerome Scott and Katz-Fishman at the May First/People Link sponsored Social Forum Movement school to explore the political moment we are facing as a movement and possible responses we might have.

Movement schools like this one are happening around the country as part of the build-up work for the 2015 Social Forum, of which MF/PL is an important part. At the same time, we're all conscious that there are major developments going on that will decide the existence and future of the human race and the Earth, and these developments all involve technology in some way ... as such they are part of the work and future of May First/People Link.

This movement school will be a two day gathering to explore the current political moment we are facing as a movement and our possible responses to it. The Social Forum movement school has no "outcome" and no "decision." The school has no official status in MF/PL or the Social Forum. It's not even a school, really; it's more a large conversation. The idea is that all of us learn from each other: we are all teachers and we are all learners. The school's structure allows for exchanges that support and take advantage of that reality.

What will happen at the School?

We are going to be asked to address four or five questions. They aren't written yet and we're anxious to hear people's suggestions but these are usually "strategic questions" like:

• How do we characterize this period? What's different about it? Where is it going?
• What does this "period situation" mean for our movements in this country and the hemisphere? What kind of movement do we want to create?
• What is our relationship to that movement and its creation? What do we have to do? What kind of structure does our organization need?

Those are not the questions we'll answer but we will be evaluating suggestions for the questions and will send them out to everyone prior to the event.

Jerome and Walda will develop the questions based on your feedback and distribute materials to read prior to the school to provoke some thinking and hopefully frame some issues. Jerome and Walda will lead the school, although much of the time will be spent in small group discussions.

Jerome Scott is a member of the Leadership Committee of May First/People Link and a veteran revolutionary activist. He spent years organizing in the auto plants of Detroit, is a founder of Project South and one of the leaders of the United States Social Forum. He is a member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America.

Walda Katz-Fishman is an MF/PL member and one of the U.S. Social Forum's most important leaders. She is a co-founder of Project South and a LRNA member. She is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Howard University.