[lbo-talk] Notes on the UFPJ Conference (June 6-8, Chicago)

Liza Featherstone lfeather32 at erols.com
Mon Jun 16 08:54:43 PDT 2003


Hi Yoshie,

I'm not on that listserv, so I don't know the answers to that question. I'm guessing someone on LBO-talk does.

Liza


> From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 11:36:35 -0400
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Notes on the UFPJ Conference (June 6-8, Chicago)
>
>> Yes, I've just been told this by someone in the know. That does make
>> it more complicated. Since someone helpfully forwarded my flippant
>> comments to the UFPJ listserv, I now seem to be learning a lot about
>> this.
>>
>> Liza
>
> I'm now on the UFPJ-Palestine caucus listserv, but I'm not on the
> UFPJ listserv that you mention above. Is there an archive accessible
> to the public? If not, how does one sub to it?
>
> BTW, in the course of discussion about the UFPJ conference on some
> Solidarity listservs, I offered a couple of more thoughts about it --
> see below:
>
> I (as an individual delegate) proposed an amendment to the UFPJ
> strategic framework: UFPJ make concentrated and coordinate efforts to
> increase political participation of people of color and develop
> campaigns with a view to doing so. I thought that fighting against
> budget cuts, as well as rolling back the world's biggest prison state
> (the expansion of which predates 9.11 and the USA Patriot Act), is
> exactly the kind of campaign that can draw upon and in turn build up
> the strength of activists who are currently left out of UFPJ.
> Somehow, my proposal was left out of the discussion of amendments to
> the strategic framework (I don't know why -- I thought I made the
> deadline). I made the same proposal in the post-conference
> evaluations collected by the conference organizers; I have no idea if
> it will reach the ears of the national UFPJ organizers through this
> route.
>
> The Solidarity contingent at the conference was probably too small to
> make an effective intervention on the spot to make a major change in
> the political direction of UFPJ like this. What would it have taken
> to make such an intervention?
>
> (1) Develop a proposal a couple of months before the conference.
> (2) Seek allies within the conference organizers so that the proposal
> will be sure to come to the attention of all delegates, discussed in
> all relevant sections (the plenary for the strategic framework,
> mini-plenaries for campaign proposals, and the plenary for campaign
> proposals), preferably with plenary and mini-plenary facilitators
> favorably disposed to it (this is a necessary move, as conferences
> like this are more or less stage-managed).
> (3) Contact allies who are not the conference organizers but who are
> going to attend the conference and get their agreement to back it
> before the conference.
> (4) Work the conference to increase allies on the spot.
>
> Well, hindsight is 20/20.
>
> We may still mount organized pressures from below to win the hearts
> and minds of the steering committee and move them in this direction.
> It's not like "action priorities" (@
> <http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=1755>) are set in
> stone, I think. UFPJ will have to adapt itself to what's happening
> nationwide.
>
> One obstacle, however, is that the participation of activists from
> (or with strong links to) "the labor movement" appeared to be
> minuscule at the conference, whereas rallies against budget cuts at
> state capitals have been mostly led by organized labor (I'm
> extrapolating from my experience in Ohio).
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Calendars of Events in Columbus:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>,
> <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



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