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The questions to answer:
A) What impact did the USSF process have on your organization or sector, or on organization's you affiliate with that develop and/or support social movement building? What relationships did you develop that support your work, sector or the building of our social movement?
The impact was inestimable. We greatly enhanced our network, recruited at least a score of new members, and broadened the discussion of the political issues we consider important and our response to them. Our work at USSF drove our entry into World Social Forum work which links to our other International work.
Among the most important outcomes was the many relationships we developed on the NPC and its related work groups. This draws the map for a lot of the work we've been doing currently in MF/PL.
B) What is your organization's political assessment of this current historical moment, and do you see a role for the Social Forum process as a vehicle for supporting stronger social movement building, including grassroots organizing? Please include your assessment of the primary issues our social movement faces externally and internally as well as the most vibrant social movements of this moment (i.e., fronts of struggle).
We see the entire world in obvious forward motion and have always believed that the Internet is proof of this forward motion as a community or movement created by humanity. The economic crisis has bankrupted the social and political structures that run the world and gives humanity an ultimatum to either move forward or face greater crisis. The human race is responding through several strategic reactions.
C) The 2007 and 2010 USSF brought many attendees, some for the first time and others to a more in-depth understanding of what a Social Forum is. As the global economic and ecological crisis deepens, do you see a specific role that the Social Forum process can play (1) within US social movement building; and (2) in relationship to the World Social Forums or other national or international social movement building processes? How do we then connect in meaningful ways to grassroots struggles inside and outside of the US?
D) As the nation approaches critical elections in 2012, how can the USSF separate itself from traditional bourgeois understandings of social change (i.e. demands for reform rather than transformation of the exploitative economic system)? How can the USSF process centralize working class struggles, including grassroots democracy, issues of survival, the needs of the many versus the needs of the few? Given all this, what should the Social Forum’s relationship be to the 2012 electoral process?
E) How has your understanding of the role of the National Planning Committee (NPC) changed over time? What alterations should it undergo as a national planning body for the USSF? What is your understanding of the NPC's relationship to the PMA (Peoples Movement Assembly) process? How can the NPC be a better vehicle to support social movement work? F) Lastly, the big one...is it time to start a discussion about a 3rd USSF, which would include talks about what should be changed and why? What form might a 3rd USSF take (regional, national), and why? What criteria might we discuss and list to help guide any discussions about if, when, and where?
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