Activism

At the US Social Forum 2007, in the city that hosts CNN and Coke, in hotel venues where debutantes ironically were on parade, the progressive community stood tall and steadfast, proud and capable. The forum's over 900 sessions were truly diverse in those presenting and those attending. Indeed, I cannot remember - going all the way back to an also highly diverse Black Panther Party Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in September 1970 - any other large leftist event in the U.S. as consistently multi-cultural as USSF 2007.

There are two important radical political activists that have shaped my way of thinking in a far-reaching and profound manner. Although their political points of departure differ in fundamental ways, their political views are characterised by a non-compromising attitude towards social change. I find this trait both inspiring and admirable. I am talking about Malcolm X and Michael Albert. In this essay, however, I discuss only the latter.  

The day after I marched in the January 27th mass demonstration against the war in DC, I attended the Holocaust museum for the first time. Though I had but a fraction of the time one needs to take-in the gut-wrenching history of the museum's multiple levels, the experience haunted me.

Watch this online video interview with David Dellinger prior to anti drug war march in Chicago August 1996.

As we approached the bus stop over on the north side of Union Square, we knew all of our hard work over the past few months had been well worth it. Looking out over the 100 person, two-bus delegation, you couldn't help but be struck by the amazing cross section of people and organizations we were rolling with on our way down to the first ever US Social Forum (USSF) in Atlanta.