[Lowdown] LowDown - Our Event at the upcoming Social Forum of the Americas

[Alfredo Lopez]

Hi everyone,

After the last couple of unbelievably dramatic weeks, I don't think I 
have to make much of an argument about how important it is to work 
within out Hemisphere towards collaborative relations among our peoples.

Well...so this is a great time to have a Hemispheric Social Forum and, 
guess what?, there's one coming up. The Social Forum of the Americas is 
taking place in Guatemala starting October 7 and I can't think of a 
moment when an event of this type was more appropriate.

Several of our member organizations are attending and MF/PL itself is 
being represented by Co-Director Jamie McClelland and member Maritza 
Arrastia. We are doing our Collaborative Democracy workshop, the one we 
did at the U.S. Social Forum last year and have done at many conferences 
and events since then.

But this time, we're significantly expanding the workshop's scope and 
that's why I'm writing. We want you to consider 
participating...especially if you're not going. :-) Let me explain.

The workshop usually attempts to put together a statement of Internet 
rights through collaborative discussions using Internet technology. This 
time, we're going to do a statement of rights for Internet users 
throughout the Hemisphere and think about ways to work to push for and 
realize those rights.

And the workshop itself will reflect that hemipheric approach.

It will be held in three locations: San Carlos University (the site of 
the Social Forum of the Americas), the Brecht Forum in New York and a 
location still being organized in Caracas, Venezuela. This isn't three 
workshops in three places. This is one simultaneously conducted 
workshop, over the Internet, with participants in those three places.

It's an attempt to start working on a model for collaboration among the 
people, movements and organizations of the Americas: to grapple with the 
differences in perceived Internet needs and rights (and how those are 
prioritized) as well as culture and language and the basics democratic 
collaboration. Many of the planners are hoping that this "model" can 
help contribute to collaborations of this type in many areas.

We have a planning committee working on the event and some ideas about 
how to make it successful at the Social Forum and in Venezuela but we 
really need your involvement to make it happen in New York.

The event at the Brecht Forum is open to all our members and we're 
especially asking member organizations to send a couple of representatives.

The problem is that we're not sure when our workshop is going to take 
place although we think it will probably happen around October 9 or 10, 
hopefully during the afternoon. But that's up to the organizers of the 
Social Forum and they haven't ironed those details out quite yet. (BTW, 
Guatemala is two hours earlier than New York).

We're writing this now to let you know it's happening so that folks are 
prepared. In its own way, this could be a historic event and, at the 
very least, we want to demonstrate to our brothers and sisters in those 
other locations that we here in this country are serious about this kind 
of collaboration: one that is essential to guaranteeing all our futures.

Mark the date, think about who from your organization can attend, plan 
to bring along a laptop if you have one and we'll be back to you as soon 
as we know the details.

Mallory Knodel is coordinating outreach for the U.S. part of the 
workshop and so if you have questions or want to let us know you're 
coming, etc. email her

mallory at mayfirst.org

And, btw, for those attending this week's Critical Resistance Conference 
in Oakland, we will be there doing our workshop -- Josue Guillen, Daniel 
Kahn Gillmor and I will be on hand -- come on in and participate and, in 
any case, come by our table and say hello.

Abrazos,

Alfredo

-- 
Alfredo Lopez, Co-Director
May First/People Link
Growing Networks to Build a Just World!
http://www.mayfirst.org
718-303-3204 -- (ext. 106)
Members Local 1180, Communications Workers of America, AFL-CIO
Public Key: http://www.alfredolopez.net/alfredopublickey