By Desiree Cooper

There’s going to be another uprising in Detroit this summer, but this one will be a quiet riot. From June 22 – 26, tens of thousands of activists will converge upon Detroit. And this time, it will not to be to vent anger, but to exude positivity. It’s called the 2010 United States Social Forum, a convocation of global, progressives who will descend upon the city to imagine a better world—and ways to make it happen.

“All over the country, people are talking about an economic crisis that Detroit has been dealing with since the ‘70s,” said William Copeland, one of the local coordinators of the Forum. “Because of what we’ve been through—and because of our legacy of activism in civil rights and labor that carried the nation for so many years—Detroit will blow people’s minds.”

What is the U.S. Social Forum?

I think Copeland has a point. It’s easy to see what Detroit is not accomplishing these days. But it takes a willingness to go into communities to understand how much Detroiters have taken upon themselves to hold up in the absence of business investment and in the face of government shortfalls.

When I first moved to Detroit, I couldn’t believe how much housing was built by neighborhood community developers, how many children were safehoused after school by community volunteers, how many streets were patrolled all night by neighborhood watch crews. The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation lists more than 45 church and community-based organizations building affordable housing in the city.  Detroit is a do-it-yourself town, one that has many lessons to offer the rest of the nation as the recession lingers.

That’s why Detroiters have been included in the more than 1,000 workshops that will be offered over the course of four days during the Forum. The workshops/conversations are centered around 14 topics, including: Capitalism in Crisis; Tearing Down Poverty; Building Economic Alternatives and a Solidarity Economy; to Climate Justice; Sustainability, Resources and Land; to Displacement, Migration and Immigration.

The Forum is not a traditional, top-down conference. It is more like a “meet-up,” an opportunity for like-minded progressives to interact and build upon past successes. Four organizations are collaborating to plan the forum: the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Centro Obrero de Detroit, the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization and Southwest Michigan Jobs with Justice.

“At the Forum, we won’t necessarily be handing out meals to the homeless,” said Copeland. “We will be creating a space where the homeless can attend and connect with others nationally about the causes and solutions.”

A Global Idea Goes Local

The seeds for the U.S. Social Forum go back to November 1999, when protests against the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Washington were met with violence. Often referred to as “The Battle in Seattle,” tens of thousands of people—mostly young and white—protested against the global economic policies that were contributing to entrenched poverty, environmental degradation, global warming and human rights violations.

The unrest was seen as an opportunity for pro-active global organizing around progressive ideals. The World Social Forum (WSF) held its first meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2001, under the banner, “Another World is Possible.”

Atila Roque, of Basilia, was among the group of people who planned the first WSF, and is now the co-director of the Institute of Economic and Social Studies in Brazil.

“When we started talking about putting together a World Social Forum,” Roque said, “we were convinced about the need for a space where movements and organizations from everywhere could come together to exchange, network and learn from each other’s experiences. We also wanted to coordinate around common agendas.”

Since then, the WSF has been held annually in places like Mumbai, India and Nairobi, Kenya. As the global movement grew, talks began for a social forum in the United States by 2004, “not only due to the United States’ ‘imperial’ role in the world, but even more importantly, because of the intensity of the struggles taking place there, particularly those conducted by grassroots, people of color and immigrants,” said Roque.

Project South, a 24-year-old youth development organization, was part of those preliminary discussions. “We felt strongly that any effective social movement in this country had to confront white supremacy,” said Emery Wright, part of Project South’s executive leadership team. Wright is also on the national planning committee for the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit. “The South has played a critical role, both in terms of the vicious human rights violations and the most visionary movements to oppose them,” Wright said. “The South is very poor. Because the Social Forum is about dismantling oppressive systems, we felt strongly that the first U.S. Social Forum should be held in Atlanta.”

Not only did organizers agree that the forum should take place in Atlanta, they also felt it should be more racially inclusive. Following “The Battle in Seattle,” the movement had been perceived as a white one that largely inspired young, educated activists.

“We wanted the U.S. Social Forum to be led by the people who were suffering the most under oppressive policies,” said Wright, who is African American. “We told them to slow down and let us develop grassroots buy-in.”

Preparations were in place when Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. Due to the devastation of the region, the first U.S. Social Forum was delayed until 2007. But the severe economic and racial inequities laid bare by the Katrina disaster helped demonstrate the relevance of global social action to the black community. In the end, a diverse group of more than 12,000 people attended from all 50 of the states, Guam, Puerto Rico and 68 countries.

Now the group is looking forward to a different experience in Detroit.

“The context, both domestically and internationally is now totally different,” said Roque, who noted this is the 10th anniversary of the WSF. “For one, there is the new Obama Administration and the wave of optimism his campaign and election spread around the world. Detroit itself will be a unique opportunity for participants from overseas to experience the deepness of this change and the challenges Americans are facing.”

What is activism?

One barrier to black engagement in the social forum has been the perception that it is the purview of white activists. In fact, Cara Page, an African American who helped plan the Atlanta forum, refuses to call herself an activist.

“I identify as an organizer,” said Page, a healer who is concerned about healthy, safe environments. “Organizers work within communities to meet the needs of the grassroots.”

“This is something we learned in Atlanta,” said Detroit’s Hicks, who is working with Page to plan the Detroit forum. “Not everyone is engaged in issues, but they are engaged in their communities. We have to make people aware that no matter what their engagement is, they have to begin to reach out and improve their awareness of the bigger issues. We can’t wait for the missionaries, carpetbaggers and politicians to save us.”

Desiree Cooper is a contributing author to the anthology Other People’s Skin: Four Novellas. A former columnist with the Detroit Free Press and co-host of public radio’s Weekend America, she is now a freelance writer, BBC correspondent and novelist.