Reflections on the U.S. Social Forum 2010 in Detroit Michigan
On Friday, June 25, 2010, I delivered a 2-hour workshop titled "The Collapse of Empire: The Future of Community" to the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan. The workshop went well, but the room initially appeared to be double booked, as the U.S. Green Party was having an annual meeting in the same building. Despite the fact that my session was at Wayne State University, and at least a bus ride from the main venue at Cobo Hall, there were about 22 people who attended my workshop.
My workshop focused on the concept that the future will be local.
I shared a vision of the future, and that people will find that most of the food they eat will be grown very close to home, many people will be growing a major portion of the food they eat, and people will be following low input techniques for growing food, most specifically organic permaculture techniques. We looked at homes and how new homes would likely to be build super energy efficient, to high quality levels such as the Passive House standard. We looked at various ways to capture and convert wind, solar, water, and wood energy into electricity and heat.
We then looked at the reasons that the future would be local. I focused first on explaining the concept of global peak oil, and how the amount of oil available in the future would be less and less. Then, I focused on how the money system functions, including how money is created and extinguished primarily as mortgages. Along the way, we examined how the plateau of global oil extraction was related to the current recession.
As a precursor to the talk, I shared some thoughts on what my personal mission is; and the work I was doing to fulfill that mission. In particular, I shared the "Parable of the Tree" and then talked about the dozen or so things that had to be in place for the story to unfold the way it did, and more generally, what myself, and others with similar missions, could look at in trying to fulfill our missions regarding earth and humans.
U.S. Social Forum
I was only able to attend the forum for the one day due to commitments to my family, including the need to take care of my 3-month old son. Due to that, I can only comment accurately on what I saw on the day I was in Detroit.
After my workshop in the morning, I packed up, and drove to Cobo Hall, to see what else was going on, and perhaps attend a session. The hall was full of people. When I checked in around 1:30 p.m., my registration bracelet was numbered 8,386; which suggested a huge turnout for the Social Forum.
Organizations
I wandered through the exhibit area.
Most of the tables focused on various rights: human rights, worker's rights, women's rights, minority rights, indigenous rights, LGBT rights; as well as: civil rights, political rights, economic rights, social rights, education rights, reproductive rights, and the peace movement, justice movement, Palestinian rights movement, anti-corporate rights movement, anti-globalization movement, communist movement, and the socialist movement; and the environmental movement including the anti-nuclear movement, anti-oil movement, anti-coal movement, protection of the climate movement, protect the oceans movement, and rights to clean water. Noticeably, there was nothing at all about peak oil, monetary reform, animal rights, permaculture, or the transition towns movement. There were at least three (out of about a thousand) workshops related to the Transition Movement. I'm sure there were other groups that were there which I did not notice, and others which were absent which I have overlooked.
The fact that peak oil and monetary reform do not seem to be on the radar of the Social Forum was telling, because these are two factors which will determine the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights
Complementary Currencies
I then walked to the local community college (WCCC) and attended a session on complementary currency titled "Reclaiming Local Economic Democracy: Creating Sustainable Alternative Exchanges through Community Currencies" which was presented by Chris Lindstrom, Mira Luna of Bay Area Community Exchange, and a gentleman from Japan. The session was attended by one woman from Asheville, NC; an older couple from Philadelphia(?), a second man from Japan(?), and myself. The content was very good, including some very in depth knowledge about past complementary currencies provided by Mira Luna, details on Berkshares and GETS Plus by Chris Lindstrom, and some short videos about a complementary currency in Brazil, the Chimegaur's (sp?) in Bavaria, and a LETS system in China (?), all videos provided by the presenter from Japan.
Main Session
I walked back to Cobo Hall and looked around the exhibit hall a second time. One notable change was a number of people gathered to see a large line-drawn mural about the impacts of coal mining and burning. The person advocating that corporations lose their rights to person-hood had also put up a very large and detailed timeline poster showing the major events leading to corporate person-hood.
I ran into a friend and chatted with him for about an hour. He had done an unscheduled session on animal rights, which was the only event on that topic at the Social Forum. He also observed that the issue of excessive consumerism was not really on the radar of the mainstream conference. We talked a bit about individual action versus collective action. He happens to be ultra frugal, and probably lives on less than $5,000 per year. In fact, he might live on less than $1,000 per year, in New York City.
The main session had started. I sat down to listen to several people who each had about 10-minutes to talk about social change and the future. There was a woman from the Navajo Nation, one from South America, another from North Carolina, and three others. The talks were optimistic and encouraging, but I wondered to myself a knowledge of peak oil and monetary collapse would have been useful tools for them. I video recorded a few clips from some of the talks.
Overall Observations
The Social Forum was probably quite educational for a number of people, especially those who were not well informed about other movements. I enjoyed the opportunity to see so many different groups, and to see people interacting and sharing stories and information.
I suspect that many of the sessions served to help connect people who were working on the same movements, and as I peeked into some workshops, it looked like there were some good interactions, and perhaps strategy sessions going on.
I did not see any congress, deliberation, or decision making events. Having 8,000+ people together seems like a prime opportunity to hold such events, even if it is to make some resolutions.
The fact that monetary reform and peak oil were absent from the discussion was of great concern to me, because this suggests that most attendees will be unprepared to understand what the future brings in those dimensions, and may make decisions for personal and collective action which end up being erased by the changes that are coming. It would have been a good idea to have a plenary session on the first or second day for everyone to learn about each of these issues.
My workshop focused on the concept that the future will be local.
I shared a vision of the future, and that people will find that most of the food they eat will be grown very close to home, many people will be growing a major portion of the food they eat, and people will be following low input techniques for growing food, most specifically organic permaculture techniques. We looked at homes and how new homes would likely to be build super energy efficient, to high quality levels such as the Passive House standard. We looked at various ways to capture and convert wind, solar, water, and wood energy into electricity and heat.
We then looked at the reasons that the future would be local. I focused first on explaining the concept of global peak oil, and how the amount of oil available in the future would be less and less. Then, I focused on how the money system functions, including how money is created and extinguished primarily as mortgages. Along the way, we examined how the plateau of global oil extraction was related to the current recession.
As a precursor to the talk, I shared some thoughts on what my personal mission is; and the work I was doing to fulfill that mission. In particular, I shared the "Parable of the Tree" and then talked about the dozen or so things that had to be in place for the story to unfold the way it did, and more generally, what myself, and others with similar missions, could look at in trying to fulfill our missions regarding earth and humans.
U.S. Social Forum
I was only able to attend the forum for the one day due to commitments to my family, including the need to take care of my 3-month old son. Due to that, I can only comment accurately on what I saw on the day I was in Detroit.
After my workshop in the morning, I packed up, and drove to Cobo Hall, to see what else was going on, and perhaps attend a session. The hall was full of people. When I checked in around 1:30 p.m., my registration bracelet was numbered 8,386; which suggested a huge turnout for the Social Forum.
Organizations
I wandered through the exhibit area.
Most of the tables focused on various rights: human rights, worker's rights, women's rights, minority rights, indigenous rights, LGBT rights; as well as: civil rights, political rights, economic rights, social rights, education rights, reproductive rights, and the peace movement, justice movement, Palestinian rights movement, anti-corporate rights movement, anti-globalization movement, communist movement, and the socialist movement; and the environmental movement including the anti-nuclear movement, anti-oil movement, anti-coal movement, protection of the climate movement, protect the oceans movement, and rights to clean water. Noticeably, there was nothing at all about peak oil, monetary reform, animal rights, permaculture, or the transition towns movement. There were at least three (out of about a thousand) workshops related to the Transition Movement. I'm sure there were other groups that were there which I did not notice, and others which were absent which I have overlooked.
The fact that peak oil and monetary reform do not seem to be on the radar of the Social Forum was telling, because these are two factors which will determine the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights
Complementary Currencies
I then walked to the local community college (WCCC) and attended a session on complementary currency titled "Reclaiming Local Economic Democracy: Creating Sustainable Alternative Exchanges through Community Currencies" which was presented by Chris Lindstrom, Mira Luna of Bay Area Community Exchange, and a gentleman from Japan. The session was attended by one woman from Asheville, NC; an older couple from Philadelphia(?), a second man from Japan(?), and myself. The content was very good, including some very in depth knowledge about past complementary currencies provided by Mira Luna, details on Berkshares and GETS Plus by Chris Lindstrom, and some short videos about a complementary currency in Brazil, the Chimegaur's (sp?) in Bavaria, and a LETS system in China (?), all videos provided by the presenter from Japan.
Main Session
I walked back to Cobo Hall and looked around the exhibit hall a second time. One notable change was a number of people gathered to see a large line-drawn mural about the impacts of coal mining and burning. The person advocating that corporations lose their rights to person-hood had also put up a very large and detailed timeline poster showing the major events leading to corporate person-hood.
I ran into a friend and chatted with him for about an hour. He had done an unscheduled session on animal rights, which was the only event on that topic at the Social Forum. He also observed that the issue of excessive consumerism was not really on the radar of the mainstream conference. We talked a bit about individual action versus collective action. He happens to be ultra frugal, and probably lives on less than $5,000 per year. In fact, he might live on less than $1,000 per year, in New York City.
The main session had started. I sat down to listen to several people who each had about 10-minutes to talk about social change and the future. There was a woman from the Navajo Nation, one from South America, another from North Carolina, and three others. The talks were optimistic and encouraging, but I wondered to myself a knowledge of peak oil and monetary collapse would have been useful tools for them. I video recorded a few clips from some of the talks.
Overall Observations
The Social Forum was probably quite educational for a number of people, especially those who were not well informed about other movements. I enjoyed the opportunity to see so many different groups, and to see people interacting and sharing stories and information.
I suspect that many of the sessions served to help connect people who were working on the same movements, and as I peeked into some workshops, it looked like there were some good interactions, and perhaps strategy sessions going on.
I did not see any congress, deliberation, or decision making events. Having 8,000+ people together seems like a prime opportunity to hold such events, even if it is to make some resolutions.
The fact that monetary reform and peak oil were absent from the discussion was of great concern to me, because this suggests that most attendees will be unprepared to understand what the future brings in those dimensions, and may make decisions for personal and collective action which end up being erased by the changes that are coming. It would have been a good idea to have a plenary session on the first or second day for everyone to learn about each of these issues.