[VTJP] Vermont Social Forum Meeting

[Ashley Smith]

Build a Vermont Social Forum!

Get involved by coming to the next organizing meeting July 13th at 6pm at the Kellogg Hubbard Library board room
on 135 Main Street in Montpelier

• Dozens of activists from a wide variety of groups came together at the Another World is Possible (AWIP) Conference at Goddard on May 14th through 16th. At one of the plenary sessions, it was decided to call for the formation of a Vermont Social Forum (VSF) to build on the collaboration and solidarity accomplished at the conference. Such a forum would aim to bring together the broadest range of social movements, organizations, and progressive social institutions to host an annual conference and also provide a space for all of us to regularly collaborate on common initiatives.

• Several cities in the U.S. (Chicago, among others) have held or are planning to hold Social Forums. The Boston Social Forum on July 23rd through 25th promises to bring thousands of activists together this summer. Such forums will help us build a Social Forum for the U.S. that would bring together the forces from the labor, anti-war, environmental, anti-racist, and broad social justice movements. Given the success of the Another World is Possible Conference; it is time to launch a Vermont Social Forum.

• At the first organizing meeting for the VSF on June 9, representatives from several groups and individual activists brainstormed ideas for getting started. The most important idea we came up with is to reach out to as many organizations in the state to get them involved in building the conference and shaping the nature and activities of the VSF.

AWIP Sponsoring Organizations____________________________________________________
American Friends Service Committee, Peace & Justice Center, PeaceVermont, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Vermont Democracy Fund, Vermont
Workers’ Center, International Socialist Organization, Toward Freedom Magazine,

Global Justice Ecology Project