ABSTRACT
In January 2012, activists who were part of the United States Social Forum’s (USSF) National Planning Committee (NPC) 1 met in Detroit, Michigan to discuss responses to the recent upsurge in anti-authoritarian and anti-austerity activism in the United States and around the world. They considered why previous work to build movements in the United States hadn’t allowed them to respond more effectively to this upsurge and bring more activists into the US Social Forums. The USSF — and the larger World Social Forum (WSF) process of which it is a part — was, after all, the most important focal point for anti-capitalist organizing around the world since its emergence in 2001. It is a space and a movement that organizers have consciously built to help bring together forces seeking to unite around the slogan, “another world is possible.” Why wasn’t this new upsurge connecting to the process? Organizers at that Detroit meeting asked whether and how the social forums had to be adapted in order to be more effective and responsive. Yet, the conversation revealed a general ambivalence about the latest upsurge of protest (NPC 2012). I attended this meeting as a delegate from Sociologists without Borders, 2 a role I have served since 2008.
