The United States Social Forum

posted at the request of some friends-AJS

Dear Fellow Progressives,

As some of you may already know, the second United States Social Forum is scheduled to take place this coming June in Detroit, MI. The USSF is designed to be a national movement building process that brings together grassroots organizations from around the country to collectively share vision, strategy, and victories. The USSF prioritizes the involvement, leadership, and struggles of those who are most impacted by the systems of oppression we are up against, namely people of color, women, queer people, low-income people, and youth. By bringing together various progressive and radical forces in the country the USSF hopes to facilitate the emergence of a stronger left based movement on a national level while also supporting and strengthening the work organizers and activists are doing in their local communities.

The Justice Institute is an organization here in St. Louis dedicated to bringing together progressive activists and organizers in order to deepen analysis through collective study, increase consciousness through popular education, and create movement building spaces where progressives can engage in dialogue and support joint action. The Justice Institute is currently working to organize a contingent of 30 people to go to the United States Social Forum. We are actively seeking to prioritize the involvement of people of color, women, queer people, low-income people, and youth. We believe the USSF offers St. Louis organizers and activists a unique opportunity to connect with other progressives around the country and build stronger organizational alliances locally. Our goal is to organize individuals and organizations from St. Louis involved in going to the USSF to continue to meet after Detroit to further collaborate on collective action and support each other’s work.

We are estimating the cost of this trip to be $350 a person for a total cost of $10,500. We are asking you to donate $25, $50, $75, $100, or any amount with which you feel comfortable in order to support our efforts. You can donate by clicking on this link. We are currently soliciting funding from the national Jobs with Justice Scholarship Fund for the USSF as well as the RESIST Foundation. The most we will be able to receive from this funding is estimated to be $3,000, so in order to reach our goal of sending 30 people to the USSF we have a significant amount of grassroots fundraising to do. We appreciate all of your support and contributions to this cause.

Thank you,

The Justice Institute USSF Subcommittee

Rebecca Rogers, Montague Simmons, JuJu Jacobs, Steve Hollis, Justin Stein