Communicating Justice at USSF 2007

Published on: July 13, 2007
Published by: Malkia Cyril

It is one week after the historic first United States Social Forum.  Both a living monument to a living justice movement inside the most violent nation in the world, and testimony to the complexities of sharing power across the lines of race, class, and gender- the USSF brought tears of joy and frustration to my eyes.  This first attempt on the part of organizers, activists, artists, academics, the grassroots, the lobbyists, the policy wonks and the students, the native people, the immigrants, the queer folk, the Africans in America, the poor, the struggling working class, the lawyers, the dreamers, the haters, the survivors of private and public wars, the women, the children- was a resounding success.  Together we spit a new frame- that another world is possible, but only through the redefining of the role of the United States in that brave and beautiful new planet.

Fact is, the USSF did what many conferences and other types of movement and sector gatherings have tried- provide not one big tent, but a visionary meta frame within which a variety of allied formations could set up camp.  This is the truest power of framing and reframing.  It isn’t the simple act of hooking an audience with a catchy phrase, or putting music to the message and making you bobb your head to the movement beat.  It isn’t about getting people in line under the banner of a singular ideology, nor making sure everybody agrees with the specifics of your plan.  Its about capturing the hearts and minds of a constituency guided by their shared hopes and dreams (otherwise known as values and vision), and motivating them to take specific action for concrete change.

Framing ain’t new, though Lakoff and others getting paid like it is.  Civil Rights was a frame that forty years ago bound together hundreds of disparate fights for one overarching goal- full civil and human rights for all people.  It was through this frame that Martin Luther King Jr. was able to take a stand in opposition to the Vietnam War.  It was through this frame that garbage strikes in Mississippi and desegregation fights in Atlanta and workers rights in Louisiana could be part of a single movement.  This frame encompassed policy fights for voting rights for those denied that basic freedom at that time- the grandsons and granddaughters of slaves.  It transformed the public education system not only in terms of desegregation but also in challenging the role of government to protect all members of the public and uphold the law.

This was one moment in time. A moment that gave so many communities hope that it naturally spawned similar movements for the rights of women, native people, Latinos, and Asians.  Malcom X and then the Black Panthers brought a decidedly international flavor to this domestic struggle- advancing beyond civil rights to human rights and connecting a movement that was fundamentally about citizenship to the broader and more central question of U.S.-led structural racism and capitalism all over the world.  That bridge moment was cut short.

We need a moment like this again.  And we can have it.

This time it may not be led by one community, but a coalition effort between native communities at the forefront of protecting the land, immigrant communities with a clear vision for a transformed concept of citizenship and nation-state, and african-american communities providing the proof from Hurricane Katrina to the New York 4 that citizenship as its currently defined is not in and of itself a guarantee of civil or human rights and white power is alive and kicking.  Facing collective displacement from the land, political and economic disenfranchisement, and the clear and present danger of institutionalization in prisons and INS detention centers- these communities along with poor and working class whites must work together to build new meta-frames around public space and land rights, the role of government versus the rule of corporations, the use of policing and the violence of the U.S. state, and the basic human rights of health care, living wage work, basic education, and communication rights that all people deserve.  Our fights, no matter the issue or the region, must root  in a common understanding of structural oppression and reach for a shared vision of justice.  

That doesn’t mean we agree on every policy fight, nor that we are tactical partners in every campaign.  But instead it means that we take up the work of coordinating communications, both internal and external to our movement as central to the organizing we each and all do.  It means that we understand that communications is not simple the act of getting press coverage, or taking specific media outlets to task when they fail to cover our issues accurately or well.  It means we do those things AND expose the structural mechanisms of oppression in every campaign.  It means we focus on the solution 80% more than the problem.  It means we use every medium at our disposal to communicate what justice looks like- songs, poetry, news stories, books, movies, t-shirts, chants, theatre, everything.  It means we link our justice fights to the fight for a just media, that we may have the space to have any public conversation about power, racism, class oppression, and change.  It means that we communicate justice from every hilltop and every valley.  That we build a movement around and genuinely rooted in the affirmative meta-frames that are emerging- Right to the City, Green Jobs, Books Not Bars, Media Justice, and others.

USSF 2007 provided a space for just that kind of reframing.  It wasn’t perfect.  That the National Planning Committee didn’t centralize communications earlier and better resulted in real challenges.  That the progressive left outlets didn’t pick up the story earlier and better was problematic.  That the media justice center was not able to meet the needs of both training and community engagement and necessary press and public relations posed great difficulty for many.  But these challenges pale in comparison to what was accomplished.  Hundreds of stories placed.  The strategic engagement of community and mainstream journalists.  The undprecedented alliance of dozens of communications workers in every region who gave their time, resources, and brilliance to the process of communicating that another world is possible, and another U.S. is necessary.  

I am so proud of what I witnessed.  And this blog is a thank you to each and every human being who made it possible.  And it is a challenge.

I challenge every organizer, every artist, every policy head and journalist to consider the message, engage the frame, expand your notions about communications and movement culture.  Communications is not the playground of the privileged.  The South African Anti-Apartheid Movement had a complex communications strategy without which there could have been no internal nor external movement.  The Sandanistas used radio like you wouldn’t believe.  In Venezuela media policy is as important as education policy.  The U.S. left can and must communicate justice, because for all of us- a just media system just can’t wait.