Field Observations – USSF 2007,
Preeta
Saxena
UC-Riverside
Title: Women's Leadership in the Labor Movement WILD-Women’s Institute for
Leadership Development; South Florida Jobs with Justice www.wildlabor.org
Date: June 29, 2007
Event Description: This workshop will provide a
forum for leaders and activists from different areas of the country to discuss
the state of women's leadership in the labor movement. We will compare
challenges and share strategies that have worked to advance women's leadership
within the labor movement. We will also look at racism and xenophobia within
the labor movement and discuss ways of challenging these and building a
stronger labor movement. The labor movement is under attack. The Bush
administration and the National Labor Relations Board are extremely hostile to
labor unions and workers. The prevailing cultural, political and economic
climate in the
Estimated # of Attendees: 15
Composition
Race- 6 Black, 5 White, 2
Asian, 2 Latino
Gender-3 male, 11 female
Language: English
Panelist Descriptions
§
STITCH- Women Unions in Central America,
based in
§
South Florida Jobs for Justice-Immigrant; Creator of Women’s
Leadership Program
§
Board member of Women’s Institute for Leadership
Development(WILD)
§
Director of WILD
§
Jobs with Justice-Immigrant Rights Advocate
Attendee Description
§
Kaiser Permanente United ASME
§
United Healthcare Workers West
§
Jobs with Justice, USSA organizer/trainer
§
Student
§
Political Prisoner Support Work
§
Activist/Journalist-Jobs with Justice; NAACP
§
Medical Student
§
Recently Laid off from hospital for attempting to organize a
union
§
Northern Australia-Women in Vocation in
§
ASHME-Jobs for South
Panelist Talks
1. WILD
Director –Unions are not always democratic and representative of the workers,
and unions are not always sexist, racist, xenophobic.
The mission is to encourage women to be effective leaders of unions. The Vision
of Leadership at WILD is to be inclusive, democratic, and mobilizing; fighting
all forms of oppression, and organizing. There are leadership trainings once a
year for women over the summer where WILD teaches classes on organizing and
leadership skills
2. Board
member of WILD has worked in Public School System and once she joined WILD she
learned how to speak in public and to be able to demand and fight sexism at her
workplace. There is a 20/20 program where the organization takes 20 women and
puts them in leadership roles in the next 20 years.
3. South
Florida Jobs for Justice- While working on housing rights across borders, they
found one common denominator, and women of color are leaders of campaigns. They
are African American, Haitian,
a. So Jobs for Justice created a space for
diverse groups of Women Leaders. Called 3 organizations: WILD, STITCH and ???. The goal is to bring the African American women to
Attendee Discussions
1. [Panelists posed questions] “What works? What
are the obstacles?”
a. One common
obstacle is that “we are many things” women, colored, age, have families and
responsibilities
b. Another
Attendee discussed defining Leadership-Panelists stated that Leadership is not
the title of president “We are born Leaders, we must multitask”. Leadership
isn’t a title or a position, it is action
c. Structural
Challenges- E.g a vice-president steps down and appoints a friend, the system
becomes an obstacle.
2. [Question
raised by Attendee] What do women bring to the Unions?
a. Unions
have been the best device for union workers, especially because women run them
democratically
3. Also
discussed recruiting more Asian women for WILD because now is predominantly
Brazilian and African American.
4. West Coast
Women of Color Coalition in
5. [Posed
Question: Whether any of the organizations were Global? WSF participation?]
a. STITCH
works with Central American Unions because they work with workers who produce
goods which are consumed in the U.S. Jobs with Justice is working with unions
in
b. No to WSF
because this is a new project that is only running for 3-4 months and the
panelists were implying that the WSF is not at the grassroots level at least in
terms of how they perceive it and what their goals are.
6. Attendees
also raised the point that some unions have created informal coalitions and
sometimes women leaders don’t tell their leaders who are often male that they
are part of a women’s leadership organization
Networks
§
Someone from West Coast Women of Color Coalition in
§
Passed around sign-in sheet to network and also passed around
buss. Cards and flyers. The information being passed around wasn’t only from
the panelists, some attendees also share their
information.
Title
of Event: Solidarity Organizing: Case study Domestic Workers rights
Date : June
30, 2007
Event
description: Solidarity
Organizing: Case study Domestic Workers rights Shalom Bayit (Peace in the
Home): Justice for Domestic Workers is a Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
(JFREJ) campaign to bring Jews into the struggle for dignity, respect and
better working conditions for domestic workers (nannies, house cleaners, and
eldercare providers). The campaign started when JFREJ joined hands with
Domestic Workers United (DWU). DWU is a city-wide, industry-wide alliance of
domestic workers and domestic worker organizations that have come together to
gain respect and recognition for domestic workers, and establish fair labor
standards in an industry where abuse and exploitation are the norm. JFREJ
partners with and supports DWU's organizing by organizing employers of domestic
workers to improve employment practices; bringing the issue to Jewish
institutions at the grassroots level; and joining the fight for a Domestic
Workers Bill of Rights in the NY State Legislature. The Shalom Bayit: Justice
for Domestic Workers Campaign brings together many issues including immigrant
justice, labor justice, and gender justice. JFREJ has created a model of
solidarity organizing around this issue that builds power in an ally base with
a complex understanding that domestic workers justice is the interest of us
all. This session will engage members of communities interested in doing
solidarity organizing or communities interested in developing partnerships with
allies, in discussion and exercises that will deepen our ability to build
movement across race and class lines.
Goal: To
identify ways to fill strategic roles and build power with people and groups
across the board.
Estimated Number of Attendees: 17
Composition:
Race-11 White,
4 Black, 1 Latino, 1Asian
Gender-
11 Female, 6 male
Language- English
1 Panelist referred to
being part of a Queer Movement as well
Organizations on Panel: Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
(JFREJ) www.jfrej.org -- Danielle Feris danielle@jfrej.org & Margie/Domestic
Workers United-Barbara/Jobs with Justice-NY-Alana
Setup: 3 rows of Auditorium section,
used markers and white paper to do exercises and illustrate points.
Session Chronology
Ø
Introductions including audience
members and panelists and everyone was asked to state what they thought when
they heard the word “solidarity”. The responses ranged from the following which
was used to create a definition.
o
Response1-Showing
up
o
Response2-supporting
peoples struggles
o
Response3-stubborn
togetherness
o
Response4-durability
§
Definition:
working together in a sustained and strategic way with plurality of struggles
Ø Exercise#1-
everyone was asked to close their eyes and pick a “home”(whether it was one
they grew up in, or one they remembered the most) and picture who did the
housework and how it was valued? A few shared their experiences of mothers
doing the work and it not being valued at all, or once a month paid someone to
do the housework, but mom’s work was unpaid.
Ø Overview
of JFREJ- founded in 1990 as a result of struggles and tension between black
and Jewish communities in
Ø Exercise
#2: As the panelists discuss their topics, audience members were asked to
categorize their talks into:
|
Political Power |
Moral Authority |
Influential Voice |
Ø Panelists
§
Case of Abuse: a domestic worker was locked in the basement of a
house by a 7year old that was playing around. When the women tried to climb out
to get someone’s attention, she hurt her hand. The Employing agency escorted
the woman to the hospital and after the hospital discharged her, the Employer
told her she needed to go back to work and when the woman argued, the Employer
said “I can leave you to die here and no one would even know”. The case was
brought to Domestic Workers United-DWU, and they campaigned for a bill of
rights for Domestic Workers and it passed with 49 votes to nothing at the state
senate. Then DWU posed to organize employers of Domestic Workers, not
employment agencies, rather those who employed domestic workers in their homes
directly. Once they had a strategy, they contacted JFREJ, knowing that as
middle class, whites, they would have access to people who hire domestic
workers especially through their affiliations with synagogues in
Bill of
Rights for Domestic Wrokers:
o
A living wage, phased in from $12-$14 per hour by 2010
o
Employer choice to provide health care coverage or a wage
supplement
o
Other basic work standards- time-and-a-half, one day off per
7-day calendar week, up to 12 wks of family leave, paid time off for vacations
and holidays, paid sick days, advance notice of termination, severance pay in
accordance with number of years worked.
o
A method for domestic workers to enforce these work standards in
court.
§
Director of JFREJ-discussed the contradictions of being wealthy,
being a Feminist, socialist and hiring domestic workers. As an employer of
domestic workers in her own home, she took the step to pay her for when the
family goes on vacation. The idea is to have employers of domestic workers
commit to certain labor rights that other employers guarantee such as pay
during vacation since the worker loses income for that period of time.
§
Jobs with Justice Representative: talked about the issues with
coalitions where organizations come together for a very specific goal and when
that goal is achieved the coalition falls apart. As a result of this issue,
Jw/J started using pledge cards that committed people to show up 5 times a year
to struggles that are different from theirs.
Ø Facts:
§
Domestic Worker Industry is completely unregulated because its comprised of immigrant women of color and Labor unions
aren’t always in solidarity and have their own Agendas.
§
Currently there is nothing in legislation about Domestic
Workers. MenàFields and
WomenàHome. Eventually the labor
of men in the fields was rectified with rights etc. however women still have no
legal backing.
Ø Exercise
#3: Wrapped up with “Next Steps”- What do people take home from this workshop?
§
Response1-“Using one communities power to raise the profile of
another community”
§
Response2 “Influence of communities aside from your own
community
§
Response3 “Draw strength from each other to build a bigger
movement”
Ø In the
end: passed around membership cards and asked for donations. Also passed around
a copy of the bill of rights, and signature postcards for the bill to be sent
to 4 different legislators.
Pre session conversations:
·
One elderly white woman spoke of
her experience with going to the WSF in
·
Another person talked of attending
WSF in Porto Allegre 2003 and has also participated in the Latin American
Regional WSF. She described the WSF as being massive with “100,000
people-changes the feeling”, the plenaries were held in soccer stadiums and had
free internet service for people’s use. At the USSF they haven’t had guest
speakers intentionally because the goal may have been to just bring communities
together.
Title: How
Low Can High-Tech Companies Go? Stop them from polluting our communities,
harming workers, and destroying the environment.
Date: June
29, 2007
Event
Description: This session will
engage participants in a hands-on, interactive activity so they can see for
themselves how the high-tech electronics industry is contributing to social
injustice and environmental problems and more importantly, how they can get
involved to stop it! Emphasis will be placed on describing the global inequity
and racism associated when Western countries, including the
Estimated
number of Attendees: 9 Attendees, 5 Panelists
Composition
Race- 5 White: 1
Latino: 2 Black: 1 Asian- Total;
Gender- 4 Male: 5 Women
Language: English
Panelists: 5
Women; 3 White: 2 Asian; Silicone Valley Toxics Coalition, UC Santa Barbara
Student Representatives from campaign for Responsible Recylcing.
Structure
of Session:
·
Introductions
(Panelists and Attendees)
·
Facts
& Statistics on Computer Usage
·
Ten
minute clip on an investigative report at a village in
·
Reactions
to Film
·
Power
point Presentation
·
Victory
Stories of
·
Discussion-Questions/Answers
Content
Notes:
- 80% of recycled
computers go overseas. U.S is the largest consumer of electronic products.
47% of U.S children have TVs in their rooms. Kaiser Permanente Medical
Facilities have Dell CPU’s in every patient’s room. In 2009 all TVs will
switch from Analog to Digital-this will create a lot of E-waste.
- Recycling=
exporting which just gets rid of the problem on a local and national
problem in the
- Clip on village in
- Exporting computer
monitors equals E-waste. Rice growing village turned into a junkyard, the
E-waste piles up and the people of this village rummage through it to
extract the “good stuff” such as copper etc. As a result of large amounts
of E-waste, the pollution in this village increased. “For money, people
have made the place dirty”. Computer waste, cartridges, video tapes are
all usually dumped near the water which means people have to start transporting
water.
- Lead, Toxic,
Hazardous
- From the E-waste
wires are burned in order to liberate them and to make steel, or plastic
is melted, and circuit boards are disposed of through soldering.
- Other Toxic
Sweatshops happen in prisons. UNICORE recycles computers with the help of
900 inmates who get paid $.25-$1.25 per/hr. Prisoners are unaware of
hazardous materials, and cannot unionize. In 2006, a prison guard reported
the damage and hazard the prisoners face while dismantling old computers.
[Presented quotes from prisoners which indicated the conditions they
worked in]
- Next Panelist
discussed the chemical components of a computer. Stating that they are
comprised of Mercury, Colt an, copper. To produce 10 tons of copper, 110
tons of waste is created. The complete computer is put together on Global
level. Disk Drivers were manufactured in
- Accomplishments
- Dell is offering
to take back their computers and recycle them responsibly. They
collaborate with Goodwill and other Recycling Companies to recycle away
from prisons.
- Workers in
- Green Peace has
rated Apple really low on the environmentally safe products and Apple has
committed to phasing out certain products and chemicals.
- In 2006, 7 UC
campuses created a campaign called Toxic Free U.C. They demanded that UCs
adopt responsible recycling techniques. They setup tables to inform
students and attended UC Regents Meetings. Networked with other
environmental groups and other students groups and built coalitions, and
sent letters to the UC President. As a result the UCs have
committed to and are obligated to establishing responsible recycling for
E-waste. On campus has setup bins for students to drop off products that
would be considered E-waste such as Ipods, old computers etc.
- One challenge is
that Electronic Industries don’t acknowledge the hazards.
At the
end…
§
Provided
concrete ways of taking actions
o
Join
Campaigns
o
Organize
on Campus
o
Take
back products to corporations
o
Find
elected officials
o
Spread
the word-[Showed 2-minute clip to pass around]
§
UC
Santa Barbara student representative and Azma Coalition networked and exchanged
information. Other conversations were happening around the room regarding their
reactions to the session. Overall all the attendees enjoyed the session and a
few felt that it was an eye-opener.
§
Panelists
passed out a magazine on System Error- a resource for student activism on
environmental, labor, and human rights problems associated with the high tech
industry. Also handed out flyers with website info.
Title
of Event:
1-2-3
…The Death Penalty: Fairness? Equity? Innocence? Merged with
In the shadow of death:
restorative justice and death row families Georgia Council for Restorative
Justice
Date
& Time: June 28, 2007; 10:30am
Event
description: The
purpose of this session is to provide an overview of the historical aspects of
the death penalty and its violation of the International Declaration of Human
rights as well as examine the connections of the death penalty struggle with
other social justice movement. To encourage dialogue between
the various voices impacted by the death penalty. This session was
merged with the following session. The objectives of the session are to develop
advocacy and grassroots organizing tools become familiar with innovative public
policy strategies, and easy to use, successful anti-death penalty actions to
take back to their communities
SCHEDULE DESCRIPTION: State
sanctioned support for the death penalty supports violence in American society,
elevates the role of revenge as an American value and practice, and derails
social justice. This presentation explores the way in which the death penalty
supports violence, argues that the death penalty's focus on revenge is not only
counterproductive but its primary object is often a missed mark leading to the
family members of the accused, and examines ways in which the experiences of
family members of both the accused and victims can be used to support a worldwide
movement for abolition. Specifically family members who have been touched by
the death penalty will join the panel with Elizabeth Beck, to explore the ways
in which the death penalty has affected their lives. These family members will
tell their stories. A mother will describe the impact of her son’s death
sentence and execution on her own life and family, a sister will speak about
her brother who is coming perilously close to execution despite recent
revelations of new evidence questioning his guilt. Finally a daughter and
stepsister will describe what it has meant to have forgiven the man (her
stepbrother) who killed her father and stepmother. Following the first hand
discussion of their experiences,
Estimated # of Attendees: 16
Composition:
Race-11 White,
6 Black, 2 Latino
Gender-
12 Female, 4 male
Language- English
Background
: 2 Intellectuals(Professors), 1 State Senator, 2 Family members
of Death Row inmate, 1 former death row inmate, 2 family members of murdered
victims, 7 other.
Structure of session:
o
Welcome & Introductions,
o
Story Circles-
·
The impact of Death Penalty on Individuals and Families
·
The legal System & Voice of Murder Victim Families
·
Building Coalitions with People of faith, Murder Victim Families
& People of Color
·
Shaking Up the Statehouse-State Senator
o
Organizing Training-workshop on developing tools for community
action with several handouts.
o
Questions and Answer
o
Art Activity-all participants and panelists were asked to
contribute to a board of white paper setup with art tools such as paint to
serve as memorabilia of session at the
USSF.
Panelist Descriptions and talks
1.
Moderator:
Benetta M Standly, Statewide Organizer, ACLU of
a.
Shared
facts: 31 executions, 118 inmates(at the time of the
session the number had become 119). 58 Blacks and 57 whites, 1 woman, 2
Juveniles.
b.
Named
the session 1-2-3 because there had been 123 exonerations, but since the
workshop was named another person was exonerated.
2.
New
Hope House, former niece was Andrea Yates; Pastor;
a.
Talked
about how stress and grief impacts family members. “I forget where I was while
driving” . Asked Presbyterian church
staff to be present with the family of Andrea in the courtroom and the church
refused. Clear light
3.
Louisiana
Death Row Exoneree; incarcerated for 11yrs.
a.
Discussed
emotional effects of being on death row. Offenders seem calm because “you’re
forced to suppress things”. Mother
suffered financial loss in getting legal representation. “Wouldn’t wish[ death row] on worst enemy”
4.
Georgia
State Senator Ford; Academic by training
a.
“Shaking
up the Statehouse”. Discussed the politics of death penalty in a reactionary place.
Death Penalty within the context of a larger political reality. GA is a split
state between Democratic and Republican.
b.
To
organize is to inform the public about the problems with how the Death Penalty
is applied. “We have got to stop talking to ourselves”. Must organize at the
grassroots level.
5.
Attorney
presented on the Legal Aspects of the Death Penalty
a.
Majority
of the expense for Death Penalties is at the trial level which is split into
two parts-bifurcated trial-Part I is the guilt phase
and Part II is determining the sentence.
b.
In
6.
Murder
victim family member; worked in the Justice System. Son was murdered 14yrs ago.
“The system is not there! Until it happens to you it’s not as impactful.”
7.
Georgia
State University Professor; Author of a book –spent time with 67 families with
someone on Death row. Passed around cover of book that was done by an inmate on
death row. She read an excerpt from her book-first from families who had
someone killed by Timothy McVae and then quotes from Timothy’s Father.
8.
Georgians
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty- handed out sheets with names of
organizations and churches that are liberal and metro but not many Black
churches have been participating. “Strategy is to educate”
9.
A
sister of a death row inmate: handed out post cards with Troy Davis A case for clemency. She described the crime scene and
stated that 7 out of 9 witnesses in the case were coerced.
10. A wife of a man who was
murdered by 2 young black youth. She has become a Social Justice Activist-her
job is to reach out.
Plans
for Action:Training
Moratorium
Now
- -Handed
out packets with materials for training on organizing
- -Passed
around coalition list of national resources against the death penalty
- -The
activity was to read a specific fact and picture how one would use this
information to organize strategically.
Training by Equal Justice USA- based in
One person mentioned “The Political
Brain” as a reference and recommendation- a psychologist at Emry wrote a book
saying that we shouldn’t disregard emotions in seeing how people make political
decisions
At the
End of Session
Business cards were passed out by Panel
Organizer.
A representative from the Socialist
Workers Party discussed the book that he recommended. Discussed the Education
and also asked people to subscribe to “Militant” Newspaper.
Notes:
Race seemed to be a recurring theme in
that African American faith based institutions were seen as unsupportive of a
moratorium on the death penalty. To this the panelists said, “We need to
educate”.
Title: Global Feminisms in Community Partnerships /Global
Feminisms Collaboration,
Date : June 29
Event Description: Academic research, if done well, takes up issues of
social consequence and student researchers are increasingly questioning the
already fuzzy line between scholarship and activism. Stepping out into this
liminal space has raised new practical and ethical quandaries that require
careful consideration and dialogue. An essential project of the Vanderbilt
Global Feminisms Collaboration is exploring partnerships with Nashville-based
organizations that are working to improve the lives of
Organizations on Panel:
Estimated
Number of Attendants: 10
Composition:
Race- 1 Black, 8 White, 1
Asian
Gender-4 male, 6 female
Language: English
Most of the Attendants were
students of
Panelists: 2 Graduate
Students from the Global Feminism group at
Session Chronology
v
Introductions: Went around the room and did introductions.
v
Panelist 1- Graduate Student-Defined Global Feminism and the
Group
o
Goal is to build scholarship/activism relations as scholars who
attempt to be more grassroots.
o
Have participated in past WSF.
o
The group is comprised of graduate students and faculty members
v
Panelist2-Graduate Student-Described collaboration with
Magdalene House which is a 2-year residential program for drug abuse,
prostitution, victims of violence, domestic abuse etc. The program was founded
in 1996 and now has 5 houses total where residents recover and better their
lives. The residents live there for 2
years rent free.
v
Panelist 3- Resident at Magdalene House: recovered from Drug
Abuse. Described her experience with drugs on the street, “In the streets there
is no such thing as time.” Her stepfather tried to have sex with her and she
ran away from home at a young age. Spoke of the Parenting classes the Magdalene
House offers since 95% of the women who end up their have children. Also stated
that they offer computer classes as well.
v
Panelist 4- Resident at Magdalene House: started using drugs
when she was 13 yrs old, has been clean for 16 months, has 9 felonies on her
record which is one of the main reasons that women relapse since they can’t get
jobs with the felonies on their records. Discussed the company, Thistle Farms
which was started in 2002 by the founder of Magdalene House. Thistle Farms
employees the residents for 15 hrs a week where they make products and sell
them. Products include scented candles, Chap Stick, lotions, etc. Recently they
have gone nationwide. Bigger companies like J-Jill order Thistle farm products
once a year.
v
Panelists asked audience members for suggestions, experiences, examples of how to improve the current
project/collaboration.
v
During discussion, audience member asked for concrete examples
of how the collaboration between the University and Magdalene House works. The
graduate students volunteer time and teach skills to the residents. The
University also donates clothes and other material goods.
v
[GLOBAL Feminism? Research?]Towards the end, the University
Students discussed their goal of getting dialogue going about whether
experiences of women at Magdalene House is similar to for instance, women who
are trafficked from Asia. They also clearly stated that organizations need
research skills for documentation and evaluation and the collaboration between
community organizations and university can help facilitate this aspect.
However, unlike other researchers who go into organizations and collect data
for their own analyses, this collaboration helps build rapport by providing
skills and time for the residents in return. Also the group stated that they
used “critical Feminist Methodologies in their research and this helped them
achieve their goal of collaborating with a program like Magdalene House. “The
Global Feminism group believes in partnerships that lie in organizations rather
than individuals”.
v
Audience member asked how power dynamics play out in graduate
students and residents relationships. One of the residents stated that in the
beginning she was one of the women that were not receptive to the University
students coming in and teaching them. There were race/class divisions between
the residents and the University students. They overcame these divisions once
they saw that people are “helping from the heart”.
v
In the end, the panelists gave the example of a
Post Session Conversations
o
2 of the audience members were from ACRE and NOW in
Title
of Event: Anti-Arab Racism and
Islamophobia: Confronting Stereotypes and Dehumanization
Date : June
29, 2007
Event
description: Anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia are so much
a part of the political and cultural discourse on Arabs and Muslims in American
society today that most do not even recognize it as racism. The fear mongering
of the Bush administration has used this fear mongering in the post 9-11 world
in order to continue wage unilateral wars in the Arab and Islamic world.
Corporate media outlets like have used sell their sensationalist news
programs and for the current administration, a way to sell its
wars and curtail civil liberties This insidious form of racism is embedded in
much of the information we get about the Middle East and Islam. In order to
have a better understanding of Arabs and Muslims we need to go further than
cultural awareness and begin to deconstruct the political foundations for this
type of racism. Racism has been used historically by the
Estimated Number of Attendees: 53
Composition:
Race-33 White
(includes Middle-Eastern/Arab), 2Black, 2Latino, 6Asian
Gender-
28 Female, 25 male
Language- English
Panelists
- Rami
El-Amine relamine@yahoo.comLeft
Turn Magazine. www.leftturn.org
- Amira J. Kaui- Professor of Women
Studies/AMWAJ-Arab Movement of Women Arising for
Justice/Palestinian Advocate starting Arab and Ethnic Studies Initiative/
Rami Coalition Palestinian Solidarity
- Real
life situation-20 year old case of rounding up Arab immigrants
- DRUM-Desis
Rising Up and Moving
- Left
Zionism
Session Chronology
- Opened
session with a short film that portrayed negative images of Arabs and
Middle Easterners which was comprised of snippets from various mainstream
- Session
Organizer: Mentioned there were situations at the Forum that have been
insensitive to Arabs esp. Palestinians. At the Plenary, an Israeli spoke
on behalf of Palestinians. The speaker equated Bush’s stance on the war
to that of HAMAS-Palestinian militant Islamic Movement.
- Panelist #1:
PowerPoint presentation on the portrayals of Arab women in the media. One
of the images was “the Afghan Girl” which was first published in 1985 and
portrays a blue-eyed girl who has her hair partially covered, in 2002 a
new picture of the same girl was published and she was completely covered
without any recognition of her face. Another image she discussed was a
Beneton Ad which showed a woman being submissive, wearing traditional
Arab attire. After the images of women, the panelist moved on to
illustrate provocative images that came out after 9-11. One example was a
picture of Osama Bin-Laden with a rocket near his bottom with a quote
that stated “you like sky scrapers right?” Overall her talk highlighted
the functions of images that justify violence against various groups.
- Panelist#2:
opened by saying that these images can be used in real life situations of
which his case was an example. In 1987, a couple of CIA men knocked on
his door while he was with his 3yr old son. He thought they were there to
deliver his citizenship documents, but when he opened the door, they
ambushed him and took him into custody, leaving his 3 yr-old son all
alone at home. He later learned that because he helped organize cultural
events where the Arab community came together to dance, and eat
traditional cuisine, he was suspected of conspiring. His case was a test
case to put in place the legislation of making it law that any immigrant
deemed undesirable would be rounded up. In the end, a coalition of
different organizations is what helped the case and helped the Arabs that
were wrongly taken into custody get free. Ended his talk with “If we link
together, the government won’t get us.”
- Panelist#3:
Presented DRUM- founded in early 2000 to build a strong low-income South
Asian community led organization in a climate of worsening conditions for
migrants in the U.S. Discussed Infiltrations of Muslim Communities, and
cases where the government has taken people off the streets, or has taken
husbands and brothers away without any notice to family members.
Infiltration happens in 2 ways. First, the police approached and
establish a relationship with Muslim individuals and then ask that the
men tell them who the “real crooks are.” Second, government offers money
(upto$100, 000) to individuals to become informants and these informants
incite by building relationships and then turn over people once they get
any type of evidence of any “terrorist” activity. Panelist also pointed
out a family of mother and daughter whose son/brother was taken into
custody from
- Panelist#4:
Discussed Zionism in the Left. Even Left secular perspectives are
critical of Muslims. Muslims are asked to prove themselves before they
are accepted. There has been no attempt to engage Muslims. Muslims are
dehumanized as a way of justification. Shared examples of journalists who
are Anti Arab and Zionistic.
- Goals/Looking Fwd: Statement Drwn up to deal with the representation of
Palestinians by Israeli speaker at Plenary at the USSF. According to the
session organizer, Panelist speakers were proposed but were rejected by
the USSF organizers.
Discussion
Ø
One audience member
asked “Why are we homogenizing Arab/Muslim and didn’t agree with the offense
that was taken by the speaker at the Plenary. Also raised the issue that just
because someone is from a certain place, it doesn’t give them more of a right
to speak on its behalf.
Ø
Who do you choose to
represent a people?
Ø
Need to educate Faith
Based Organization.
Notes
Organizations
mentioned throughout the session were AROC,
Title: Women's Introduction to the Social
Forum: Strategies for the Next Social Forum
Date : June 30, 2007
Event
Description: Women's Introduction to the
Social Forum This workshop is organized to give a brief history of women's
involvement in social forums beginning with the first WSF 2001 and including
women's experiences in planning and organizing for regional and local social
forums in different parts of the world. We will also address women's
experiences at organizing for the first US Social Forum. Analyses of women's
participation will emerge out of feminist perspectives and include the
experiences of women over the past seven years of the social forum phenomenon.
One speaker will give a broad historical presentation of the struggles
generally and another speaker will concentrate on experiences while organizing
for the USSF. The main portion of the two hour workshop will be devoted to
listening to other women's experiences organizing around issues on
"women's issues", as well as women's experiences organizing on local
and larger levels. We will also devote considerable time to women's
strategizing for organizing at the next USSF.
Estimated
Number of Attendees: 10
Composition
Race- White: 7; Black: 3
Gender- 1 Male: 9 Female
Language: English
Nationality-1 Canadian
One audience member identified herself as a
“Dianic witch”
Organizers/ Panelists:2
Feminist Caucus of the American Humanist Assoc. americanhumanist.org -- Patricia Willis femcaucus@americanhumanist.org;
pwill06@coastalnet.com/ World
March of Women is an international feminist action movement connecting
grass-roots groups and organizations working to eliminate the causes at the
root of poverty.
Session
Chronology
- Introductions
- 2 Panelists
- Discussion
- Next Steps
o
Panelist #1: Intro to World March of Women
o
Gave an etiology for the struggles of feminist movements in
prior social forums particularly the World Social Forums. In
o
Described the World March of Women as a Global Movement, but
stated that in order to avoid helping some women and not others, its crucial for Global and national levels to work together
assuming that there is diversity and plurality. “Feminism is about changing
humanity.”
o
Accomplishments of the World March of Women
o
In 2000, organized a Global Action, and invited women to put
together a national coordinating office to identify what needs to done. In 1998
the organization wrote up 17 world demands at
o
In 2005 a Women’s Global Charter for Humanity was formalized and
was transferred from one country to the next until the relay ended in
o
Now they are strategically planning and thinking about where
they want to be in 2010 for the next Global action. The next Global Action will
have 4 foci:
§
To reclaim alternatives such as domestic violence is a tool for
control of women
§
Peace and Demilitarization
§
Exploitation of Women’s work
§
Economic Autonomy for women
o
Role in WSF-: The World
March of Women has participated in all WSFs since the beginning.
§
In 2001
§
The International Council- organizing council of all WSF is
comprised of 100 organizations and is comprised of “white men, Latin America,
&
§
The USSF is also following the Charter principles of the WSF.
o
The WMW is critical of WSF
§
There has been tension in the International Council, and also,
when a massive event like the WSF is scheduled, a lot of the focus of
organizations turns to it rather than the specific movement/campaign the
organization is working on.
§
In Porto Allegre, Feminists had to fight for women’s presence
when they saw panels that consisted of solely men.
§
At the Forum in
§
In 2004 at the European Social forum (ESF), women were petitioning
for another Women’s Day like the one in
§
On an International level there isn’t a Feminist Caucus, partly
because there is a need for space for feminists to talk amongst themselves.
§
Another critique is that WSF is geared towards all Social
Movements but Feminist & Women’s Movement. For instance, in
§
Now at the WSF the “Feminists do their own thing” started a
Feminist Dialogue but it doesn’t give voice to all Feminists because it has
become mainstream and as a result shuts out grassroots organizations.
o
Panelist #2: Feminists/ Women’s Working Group at the US Social
Forum
o
The Women’s Working Group (WWG) has access to the National
Planning Committee which is the committee that organized the USSF. No Feminist
Organizations were present in the planning process for the first year of the
USSF planning.
o
The NPC questioned, “Why Feminism? The organizers didn’t bring
their Feminist consciousness”
o
The WWG kept proposing a women’s plenary and at last a gender
and sexuality plenary was granted. As a result of being on of the last
plenaries to be added to the program it faced more rules and regulations. For
instance they required 4 or 5 speakers, who were diverse by class, and race,
which were intersexed-lesbian/gay etc.
o
Also when the gender plenary was granted, it was scheduled to be
at night on the last day of the forum when a lot of people would not be around.
This was changed after many emails and telephone calls pushing for an earlier
time.
Discussion
Ø
Do we as Feminists want to be part of the US Social Forum or
should we become separatists?
Ø
One audience member discussed that women’s health was not
covered at the USSF. Particularly HERS-Hysterectomy Education Resource Service
and/or HPV immunization information was not distributed.
Ø
Another audience member raised the issue that women of color
face being colonized by white feminists and the presenter from the WWG stated
that they have been trying to recruit more “colored” feminists.
Next Steps
Ø
The Women’s Working Group has been trying to recruit concrete
commitment.
Ø
“Constructing and collaborating with another
social movement can strengthen the voice of Feminism”
Ø
Discussed planning of a radical feminist conference and went
around and asked who would be interested and took down information.