Amy Goodman: Another World Is Possible, Another Detroit Is Happening

[marmar]

from truthdig:



Another World Is Possible, Another Detroit Is Happening

Posted on Jun 22, 2010
By Amy Goodman


DETROIT—“I have a dream.” Ask anyone where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. first proclaimed those words, and the response will most likely be at the March on Washington in August 1963. In fact, he delivered them two months earlier, on June 23, in Detroit, leading a march down Woodward Avenue.

King said:

“I have a dream that one day, right down in Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to live together as brothers. ...

“I have a dream this afternoon that my four little children ... will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin.

“I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere that their money will carry them and they will be able to get a job.”

Forty-seven years later, thousands of people, of every hue, religion, class and age, might not have used those words exactly, but they marched down that same avenue here in Detroit in the same spirit, opening the U.S. Social Forum. More than 10,000 citizens, activists and organizers have come from around the world for four days of workshops, meetings and marches to strengthen social movements and advance a progressive agenda. Far larger than any tea party convention, it has gotten very little mainstream-media coverage. Not a tightly scripted, staged political convention, or a multiday music festival, the U.S. Social Forum defines itself as “an open meeting place for reflective thinking, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences.” It is appropriate that the U.S. Social Forum should be held here, in this city that has endured the collapse of the auto industry and the worst of the foreclosure crisis. In Detroit, one is surrounded, simultaneously, by stark failures of capitalism and by a populace building an alternative, just and greener future. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/another_world_is_possible_another_detroit_is_happening_20100622/

[Royal Oak Rog]

1. You make it down there today?

I heard 14,000 on Woodward for the march, it was awe inspiring. I've not seen anything like it in the city ever. Here's a photo essay I found; http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/ussf-opening-march-photo-essay/

[marmar]

2. I'm going all day tomorrow.....I couldn't get off work today.

That's awesome about the march.....You should post the photo essay in GD.