[* Read Our Holiday Letter in PDF Format *]

To Our friends, family, and community,

Wow, what a year! 2008 showed us that the story of what is possible for our country can change.

Outdated stories were shattered: the story of racial inferiority, the story of market fundamentalism, the story that young people don’t participate. Obama’s campaign proved the power of a hopeful new story to drive progressive political change.

Now is a moment when grassroots leaders can seize the day to change the story and change the world. The cultural currents are ripe. America is ready to shatter old assumptions and embrace new ideas. Are you?

This is one of the most important political moments of our lifetime, and with your support smartMeme is ready to lead. Our mission of holistic social change and our model of story-based strategy have never been more urgent, but we need your generous donation now more than ever.

We’ve got gifted people, a diverse network, the right programs, and the right ideas. We are celebrating the long-awaited release of Re:Imagining Change, our new activist guide to storytelling strategies. We are toasting a year chock full of successful smartMeme interventions that:

• Called for Economic Justice and a Green New Deal for Main Street. SmartMeme convened a rapid response story-based strategy session on the Wall Street meltdown and the bank bailout.

• Protected Water from Privatization. SmartMeme helped a community at the base of Mt. Shasta safeguard one of the country’s most important watersheds from Nestlé’s water profiteering, and halt construction of (what was to be) the largest water bottling plant in the US.

• Built the Peace Movement Inside the Military. SmartMeme partnered with Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) to support Winter Solider: Iraq & Afghanistan – Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations, and earn international media coverage of the stories of young veterans. IVAW doubled their membership in 2008, and is poised to meet with the new Administration’s Veterans Affairs staff.
SmartMeme does not get funding from corporations, the government, or even large foundations. Because of the financial crisis, our already limited family-foundation funding has been cut by 60%. SmartMeme –along with the nation—is facing tough economic times. We are optimistic, totally committed, and ready to seize the promise of progressive change. But we must do it together, as a community.

We cannot let this political moment pass us by. Our goal is to raise $50,000 this holiday season. Please, make a bold gift today: $5000, $500, $100, $50…or a smaller amount each month as a smartMeme sustainer.

Ask your self, what is it worth to have smartMeme in the world? How much do you value our unique community of passionate innovators and savvy strategists? What would you give for a better future?

Together, we will not go back to the way things were– we will keep moving forward to meet the challenges of our time: war, global warming, economic crisis, social injustice. People power makes it possible. You make it possible.

The world needs new stories, needs smartMeme, and needs you.

Please join us now in making a generous gift to support smartMeme’s important mission, and change the story for a better future. Thank you for your support, and for all you do.

With Gratitude and Good Tidings of the Season,

Doyle Canning & Patrick Reinsborough

PS: Have you seen our new strategy manual and online video Re:Imagining Change?! Your donation will help us print this critical resource and get story-based strategy into the hands of activists across the country — You can download the doc and give secure online today: smartmeme.org/change

THANK YOU – AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The NY Times is reporting an interesting shift in the Democrat’s messaging around the economic crisis. Apparently “stimulus” is out and “recovery” is the new meme of choice. Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is quoted as saying “Stimulus is Washington talk and ‘economic recovery’ is how the American people think of it.” Nancy Pelosi apparently even clarified at a press conference that “We’re not using the word ’stimulus’.”

It’s always worth paying attention to coordinated efforts to shift the framing of a critical issue but particularly in this case what does it mean? Will the Democrats start getting to the real roots of the problem or is it just new language for the same polices of denial and distraction?

The financial crisis provides us a unique opportunity to fundamentally change the way we conceptualize our economy and what makes an “economic recovery”. We are long overdue to recognize that the economy is merely a sub-system of an even more important and threatened system — the planet’s ecological operating system. Just as our economic system is sagging under the weight of toxic debt, our global environment is suffering from the debt industrialized nations have run up on the planet’s life sustaining natural systems. This uncalculated natural debt stems from the destruction of ecosystems, over-consumption by the wealthy, over extraction of limited resources and the dumping of massive amounts of pollution into the air, water and bodies of all living things. By continuing to ignore the true ecological foundation of our economy we are jeopardizing not only our economic well being but our entire global civilization.

Collectively, we must be very clear that whatever the Democrats mean by “economic recovery” it can not be the same-old, unfettered and indiscriminate “economic growth” that has created so many of our problems. It’s time to let our values and our common sense guide our economic policy. What do we want to grow? More billionaires or more organic vegetables? More strip malls selling disposable plastic crap or more just, resilient communities? More coal fired power plants or more local, renewable energy solutions? It’s time to change our thinking and change the story about what defines a healthy economy. Our movements need to demand that this economic recovery is part of a broader transformation of our economic system away from unlimited economic growth based on extraction, destruction and exploitation and towards a steady state economy based on ecological restoration, justice and equality.

There are lots of great resources out there for folks looking for the roots of this crisis and for real solutions. One of the best compilations has been put together by YES! magazine. You can also check out the new report from the Institute for Policy Studies Skewed Priorities: How the Bailouts Dwarf Other Crises which documents how that the U.S. and European governments are spending over 40 times on bailing out the financial system than they are on fighting global warming or poverty. Another resource is Break the Bailout an emerging “transpartisan coalition” that is challenging the massive taxpayer hand out to Wall Street and proposing alternatives.

Movements are the world are rising to the challenge of not only reframing the policy debates around the bail out of the financial industry but also questioning the underlying assumptions that are driving our current pathological economic system. At the recent G-20 meetings, hundreds of civil society organizations from around the planet produced a statement outlining an agenda to create an economic system that works for both people and planet. But this is just the beginning — there’s lots more work to do to make sure that the power of money works in the service of life. What are you doing to change the story around unlimited growth and create a more just, ecologically sane economy? Leave us a comment or drop us a line and let us know.

Join smartMeme December 3rd at Third Sector New England in Boston for the Be the Media! Mini-Conference, and our workshop, “Narrative & Power: Story-based Strategies for Social Change.”

From bethemediaevent.org :

The annual Be the Media! Mini-Conference helps participants understand the link between strategic communications and organizing strategies as well as learn essential communications tools and techniques.

The theme of the third annual Be the Media! Mini-Conference is:  Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of New Media for Grassroots Organizations.

Communications and media work are powerful tools for organizers and non-profits working on community and social issues, but they can also present challenges, particularly for under-resourced groups.  In recent years, the development of new media tools such as social networking sites, blogs with multi-media content, YouTube, and cell phones as mass communication devices have both given groups more options and raised questions about where to focus already limited staff and volunteer time.  At this year’s conference, we will explore not only how to implement these tools, but identify what are their best and most impactful uses for grassroots organizations.

The conference is designed to serve change makers at levels of communication experience including those who are doing communications work as part of their current positions, such as organizers, executive directors, or policy advocates.

Sponsored by:  Progressive Communicators Network, Third Sector New England and Project Think Different
Co-sponsored by: Boston Women’s Fund, Resist, and Press Pass TV.

Exciting news from the campaign to restore the Klamath river basin! Last week the campaign came one step closer to removing four of the destructive dams that have so negatively impacted the environment, economy and traditional cultures of the basin.

The owner of the dams — the PacifiCorp power company (a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway corporation) — announced an Agreement in Principle (AIP) with the Federal government and the governments of California and Oregon to begin a process that would remove the dams by 2020.

The non-binding agreement is only a first step but it is being welcomed by diverse groups in the basin as a first step in the right direction towards what could be the largest dam removal in history. Read more about the Campaign: New York Times, National Geographic and the San Francisco Chronicle.

A joint statement from the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath tribes, the Klamath Water User’s Assosciation , the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Federations and several environmental groups said, “The signing of the AIP is welcome news to the Tribes, conservationists, commercial fishermen, farmers and ranchers who see dam removal as the missing element of the more comprehensive Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement released earlier this year.”

The federal government’s statement and the text of the Agreement in Principle can be found on the Department of the Interior’s website.

The campaign’s coalition building has allowed tribes, commercial fisherman and irrigators to move beyond fighting each other as the impacts of the crisis roll from community to community to uniting all stake holders to restore the basin. SmartMeme has been supporting this campaign since 2004 with strategy facilitation, messaging, advertising and design. We are honored to have helped these groups change the story in the basin from one of crisis and division towards a unified vision of a restored basin with intact cultures, economies and ecosystems.

SmartMeme offers our heart felt congratulations to all our friends and colleagues, both native and non-native, many of whom have worked for a lifetime to protect the river, maintain their cultural traditions and win environmental justice for their communities.

There is still lots of work to be done and no doubt the road ahead will be long. But this agreement will hopefully mark a turning point when PacifiCorp and the state and federal governments act responsibly and in good faith to restore the Klamath basin.

BRAVO to the Alliance - and VIVA SALMON NATION!

Last week I was Philadelphia for a retreat with Iraq Veterans Against the War to develop communications strategy and assess the shifting spin. While McCain is insisting that the “surge was a success,” and the Obama camp is talking about Iraq in the past tense, the fact is that the US is still waging an illegal war. Just this week, the war has escalated with the bombing of Syria. Although the story of the Iraq War is changing, the ugly everyday reality of the occupation continues - and IVAW continues their critical mission: To end the Iraq occupation; To ensure full benefits for all returning service members; To pay reparations to the Iraqi people.

SmartMeme is working in partnership with IVAW to help achieve these goals. We gathered last week to envision what might 2009 bring.

The stakes are high. As the economic recession kicks in, military recruitment is going up. US military deaths in Iraq war reached 4,189 this week. 150,000 troops are still on the ground, and 1.2 million Iraqi people are dead. Thousands of Veterans are struggling for healthcare, education, and to put their lives back together.

IVAW members are working around the clock to tell these stories, heal from the wars, and build a movement of Veterans and GIs to bring peace and justice to Iraq. Kris Goldsmith is one such leader who is featured on CNN’s “Back From Battle” special, airing this Saturday and Sunday 8 p.m. ET on a special edition of Anderson Cooper 360.

“I don’t think that my 18-year old self would recognize who I am today. At the age of 18, I thought that I was going to be a career soldier…. I never imagined speaking out.”

SmartMeme has been supporting IVAW’s efforts since 2006. To be working with these amazing leaders in this latest chapter in our collaboration is an honor. Each time I am with them, I am humbled and emboldened in my commitment to the antiwar movement. I am so grateful to them for their courage to speak out and share their stories with the world.

I am also hella proud to celebrate with IVAW the release of the new book Winter Solider - Iraq & Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations. These are the powerful words, images, and documents of this historic gathering, which show the reality of life in Afghanistan and Iraq. You gotta get it online here!

POWER TO THE PEACEFUL!

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling like this economic meltdown moment is a game-changer. The recent firestorm over the “bailout” is the beginning of a whole new conversation about our economic system, the role of the state, and extreme wealth and inequality. It is also clearly not the end of our economic woes, and things are likely going to get worse before they get better.

The recent revelations of economic trouble have produced a barrage of memes in the media and popular culture: meltdown, bailout, rescue package, and Wall Street vs. Main Street. Now, leaders tell us that we are in the midst a new economic reality – a credit crunch, foreclosure crisis, a recession, or another Great Depression.

Even as lawmakers struggle to reframe the $700 billion package as a “Rescue,” the “Bailout” meme remains more potent. The story of free market fundamentalism is unraveling, and the story has changed – but to what?

What does all of this mean for progressive strategy, and what are the stories we can tell about the real impacts and alternatives?

We’ve been glued to the news and talking to friends at partner groups like the Working Group on Extreme Inequality, the Design Studio 4 Social Intervention, and the Rainforest Action Network about what’s happening and what can be done. We’ve been inspired by efforts by groups like City Life/Vida Urbana and the Greenlining Institute. Last week I gathered with members of the Progressive Communicators Network at United For a Fair Economy in Boston to analyze the battle of the bailout story. At the PCN gathering, we also discussed what may come of the bailout and efforts to sway government, and listed the following Possible Outcomes:

• Lives are repaired: Meet needs of impacted people (people in foreclosure get refinancing etc)
• Political change: Obama is elected as a result of Bush’s economic bungles
• Changes in economic systems: Regulations are put in place, rules are changed, new definitions of economic progress are adopted
• Movement Emerges: Grassroots social movement gains ground

We had widespread agreement on these as potential goals for work in this period, and specifically discussed how these goals are not incompatible. We agreed that if we get into debates about which of these should be the most important goal, we lose sight of the gravity of this moment. All of the above is on the table. Everything could change.

The following is a rough narrative analysis of the landscape around the economic crisis using the battle of the story tool. We’re obviously just scratching the surface. I have also created a PDF VERSION battle of the bailout story for easier printing. PLEASE use this work in ways that are useful, and let us know what you think!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

PART I:

Power Holder Story: Collapse vs. Rescue
* This story uses fear to motivate action, and uses the “blame the few bad apples” frame to gloss over systemic problems.

The US way of life is threatened, and so we must act immediately. Democratic capitalism is the greatest system, and America is the greatest nation, and so even though we believe in the free market, we must intervene to save our economy. We must put partisanship and electioneering aside and make this rescue deal now – or face economic collapse.

Yes, there were some greedy individuals on Wall Street and some rouge lenders who went too far. Liberals like Barney Frank and big government caused this problem. With laws like the Community Reinvestment Act and the quasi-public Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, government forced banks to make risky loans to minorities and low-income people who had no business buying houses. People irresponsibly borrowed to buy big houses that they just could not afford, and were living far outside of their means. Now these mortgages are troubled assets for the nation’s major financial institutions, and this means that everyone is in danger in this financial crisis.

This is not just a bailout for Wall Street. There is a crunch in the credit market, and so we are all in the same boat now. Small businesses that borrow money for payroll or holiday inventory are having trouble getting loans they rely on each year. The Dow is dropping by the day and the trading floors are reeling. Banks are hoarding cash and we’re facing the highest inter-bank overnight loan rate ever. Markets in Asia and Europe are affected. We cannot listen to these constituents who don’t understand the complexities of the economy and are mis-interpreting this plan. We all need access to credit and if we don’t pass this rescue package, the experts say that the gears of the economy will stop turning and you could lose your job. The US could lose our standing in the world as the major economic power, and our nation could be thrust into an economic recession akin to the Great Depression. Besides, since the package is to buy these securities at a low rate, the taxpayers can even make the money back when the housing market rebounds.

Conflict –
Collapse vs. Rescue
The US way of life is threatened
Things just got out of hand, and we must act now

Characters –
A few greedy, corrupt Wall Street bankers
Irresponsible borrowers living outside their means
Ignorant, reactionary taxpayers
Expert Economists
Bush-Paulson-Bernanke
Barney Frank & Nancy Pelosi: Bipartisans = Heroic selfless politicians
Warren Buffet
Liberal Congressmen: forced lenders to lend to people who shouldn’t be borrowing

Images –
Lehman Bros offices closing – bankers with cardboard boxes of their stuff packed up
Bad Paper = Toxic Waste
Banks in Crisis – hoarding cash
“Black Box” of investments
Meltdown
Desperate chaos on the Trading floors
Graph of market going down by the hour
DC gridlock around the clock– lawmakers up all night with pizza and Thai takeout

Foreshadowing –
Great Depression
Economic Collapse
We’re all to blame, we’re all in this together, and we’re all going to benefit

Core memes –
Meltdown
Rescue (or Bailout)
Economic Collapse
Crisis
Buy in (not Bailout)

Underlying Assumptions –
We need Wall Street
It’s Now or Never!
The market will fix itself (after the $700 billion)
This is a crisis of confidence, and the rescue will reestablish confidence
It’s everyone’s problem now
It’s like a natural disaster, coming out of nowhere; no one could have predicted it
US is entitled to be a superpower and take drastic action to protect our privileges
You’re either with us or against us
A bunch of poor people/people of color/stupid people had no business buying houses and ruined everything

________________________________________________________________________________________________

PART II: Change Agents Story
Casino Capitalism (risk) vs. American Dream (security)
Greed Economy vs. Green Economy
* This story attempts to explain why the crisis came to be, and tie solutions into a larger progressive agenda. It’s a little long, and repetitive, but attempts to offer some ways to explain the situation in a larger context.

While a handful of billionaires have been getting very rich playing in the Wall Street casino, real wages for the rest of us in the real economy have stagnated, and personal debt has ballooned. The economic growth of the last several decades has been bubble/debt driven, rather than based on real increases in wages – and this has been Washington’s policy. While honest people have been borrowing to get by, Wall Street has been seeking high returns on speculative high risks, and has been biding their time in a dangerous game of game of chicken. Bear Sterns cried out first, and by the time AIG said “uncle”, Bernenke was there with a $700 billion bailout for the entire financial sector.

But our livelihood is not a game, and this crisis didn’t happen overnight: the $700 billion dollar bailout of the bankrupt banks was a predictable outcome of decades of policy driven by greed and an ideology that says “government, get out of the way.” Drastic action is needed – but we can’t throw a trillion dollars at the people who made the problem and expect them to fix it. We need to modernize our economic system and launch the next (green) new deal – a massive reinvestment in job creation, clean energy, and opportunity that can save the American dream from foreclosure.

The cascading implosion of major banks is the result of decades of flawed policy based on the myth that greed on Wall Street is good for everyone. This myth has shaped the economic policies of Regan and Bush, and drove Clinton to deregulate investment banks to link mortgages to the stock market and repeal Depression Era reforms designed to protect us from the risks of financial speculation. It is tempting to blame the financial crisis on a few greedy hedge funders, or even on the millions of debtors in over their heads with sub-prime mortgages. But the culprit is an ideology that has had a death grip on our country for the last 20 years, and allowed this pyramid scheme of predatory lending to spiral out of control under the Bush Administration.

The problem is more than “no one was minding the store.” The fat cats bought off their friends and Washington and turned the store into a casino. There was so little government oversight that they could shred the rules, and make up new ones as they went along. In a capital-induced frenzy, they invented new games, new ways to bet, and gambled other people’s money to profit hand over fist. The government not only let this happen – it made it all possible and celebrated it as progress.

Now the Wall Street casino has been exposed as a house of cards atop mountains of debt. As their pyramid scheme comes crashing down it threatens to devastate the real economy that provides jobs, food and opportunity for the rest of us. Bailing out America means more than buying banks – it means keeping Americans in our homes, offering a health care system that doesn’t bankrupt our families, building thriving local economies that provide honest work, and retro-fitting our nation to deal with the energy crisis.

We face an economic crisis in the midst of two wars, global warming, and a health care system in desperate need of repair. As the proverb goes – in crisis there is opportunity. Now is the time to change course: re-regulate, re-invest, and re-finance to build a green economy that houses, insures and employs every American.

Conflict –
Casino Capitalism (risk) vs. American Dream (fairness & security)
Reckless Speculators vs. Honest everyday Americans
Greed Economy vs. Green Economy
Out-of-control/recklessness vs. stability/responsibility
Crisis vs. Opportunity
Wall Street vs. Main Street (this frame is about who gets the money, not about why the crisis is happening)
Real Economy (Life Values and Community Needs) vs. Speculative Economy (Money Values and Corporate Greed)

Characters –
Wall Street - Greedy Hedge Funders
Predatory mortgage brokers
2 million people in foreclosure
Impacted people: unemployed, uninsured, over stretched, in debt
Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II

Images –
Game of Chicken
Saying Uncle
Casino / games / gambling
Liquor cabinet of capital
Top-heavy system falling over
Implosion
Debt bubble: House as ATM machine
Families forced out of homes
Imaginary money
Foreclosure Pickets
House of cards
Mountains of debt

Foreshadowing –
Next New Deal – people working in jobs that matter: energy overhaul (windmills, weather stripping, solar, rail)
Real Economic Recovery
Turn the Countrywide office into a job training facility
Micro credit lending; tell stories about people investing in people; micro-enterprises that create good jobs in local communities

Core Memes –
Next New Deal
Green New Deal
Pyramid scheme
Casino capitalism
Predatory lending
Honest work
House of cards
Crisis = Opportunity

Underlying Assumptions–
This is a crisis of capitalism
This crisis embodies institutional racism, and the predatory sub-prime market targeted communities of color. Efforts to lay the blame on borrowers is a play on racist assumptions.
People in power always manage the economy – this was deliberate mismanagement
We share collective responsibility for the well being of all – solutions must address the needs of everyone
This is a pivotal moment that could mean opportunity to overhaul the financial system and change stories on related issues: global warming, health care, ending the occupation, economic inequality, etc.
This crisis is also an ecological wakeup call. If we don’t change the real bubble that will pop is our planet…

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brainstorm: Possible Points of Intervention for nonviolent action

Production: Organizing workers in the financial institutions

Decision: Action in Washington, Protest at the Capitol, Birdogging on the Campaign Trail, Appearences by financial industry execs

Destruction: Picketing foreclosure proceedings

Consumption: Action at the storefronts of major banks

Point of assumption: Telling a new story on Wall Street (dramatic actions at the Bull). Transforming sub-prime lender storefronts into something more helpful for communities. Launching major people-to-people micro-credit exchanges in public spaces. Exposing the assumption that hard times are the result of individual circumstances—bringing people together to share stories and find common experiences, forming alliances of mutual aid.

?

Join me and the Progressive Communicators Network in Boston for:

Winning the Battle of the Story PART II ~ Working with the battle of the story tool

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
at United for a Fair Economy
29 Winter St., Boston, 2nd Floor
(Light Refreshment will be served)

RSVP to Tom Louie! Please let us know what kind of social change work you do, as we will be applying the tool to your campaigns!

This workshop is a follow-up to the July PCN-Boston workshop on the Battle of the Story, but you do not need to have attended that one to attend this one!

The Progressive Communicators Network-Boston/New England is the regional chapter of the national Progressive Communicators Network (PCN). PCN exists to strengthen and amplify the power, voices, and vision of grassroots movements that are working for social, economic, and environmental justice. Our members use communication strategy, framing and messaging, and media tools to: 1) enhance the influence of social change movements on public policy and opinion, and 2) realize a world without poverty, racism, and other forms of oppression. The Network is a project of Spirit in Action, a movement-building support organization located in western Massachusetts.

Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI) held their inaugural gathering in Wisconsin last weekend and welcomed over 100 people into a conversation about dismantling racism and growing food justice. Food Justice is the meme of the movement to build a fair and ecological food system that nourishes soils, feeds all people, and builds communities of self-determination.

SmartMeme was there to participate and offer a story-based
strategy workshop titled Re-Framing Food: Changing the Story for
Justice. Thanks to all of you who attended! You can check out the
presentation here….

Nearly 10 years ago in late November 1999, over 50,000 activists from different movements around the world converged on Seattle to confront the World Trade Organization. We had come together to challenge the slickly packaged agenda of “free trade,” and the WTO’s effort to enshrine the power and profits of multinational corporations as the organizing principle of a new global order. The mass non-violent actions which shut down the opening day of the meeting (and the subsequent collapse of the Ministerial talks) marked a major milestone in the ongoing struggles for global justice, democracy, peace and ecological sanity.

Unfortunately the story of these historic actions has largely slipped out of public consciousness. But now there is a huge opportunity to revive the story of Seattle: the new feature length independent docu-drama called Battle in Seattle.

The movie is not perfect but its is clearly anti-WTO, pro-mass action, and with 9 minutes of archival footage interwoven it effectively recreates the street level action of Seattle. It is fast paced, exciting and has a sprinkling of stars (Woody Harrelson as a violent cop, Charlize Theron as his wife, Ray Liotta as Seattle’s mayor, and Andre 3000 as one of the core activists). The movie could not only help reclaim the legacy of Seattle but also spark broader conversation about corporate power, mass protest and the dynamics of how change is made. It needs to be widely seen!

However this movie can’t succeed on it own. The film is a small budget independent film, and it does NOT have big Hollywood money promoting it. The film is opening in 6 cities on September 19th and then opening in 10 more cities the following week. If — and ONLY if — it is commercially successful in those cities will it be released for mass distribution across the country. Essentially, in order for this movie to get widely seen it needs the support of progressive activists like you, and it needs it on those critical opening two weeks. So lets mobilize to get our friends and family out to see this movie and make it a hit! Buy your tickets now and spread the word!

ALSO Share Your Seattle Stories!

The upcoming release of the film has also sparked another very important initiative to create a broader, multi-facted people’s history of the Battle in Seattle. This web based project has put an invitation out to all Seattle WTO veterans to post your stories and analysis of what happened at www.realbattleinseattle.org. The site has lots of great resources and links so check it out and post your story!

We may have lost the Battle of the Story around Seattle’s legacy, but it’s never too late to reclaim our stories! Between helping get the movie widely seen, and participating in projects like the people’s history website, we can hopefully reclaim some of that story and introduce new generations of activists to the joys of taking mass direct action for a better world.

More links for those unfamiliar or curious about the history and significance of the Seattle WTO protests:

• The Big Noise Films documentary This is What Democracy Looks Like
• The anthology The Battle of Seattle: the New Challenges to Capitalist Globalization edited by Eddie Yuen, George Katsiaficas and Daniel Burton Rose
• SmartMeme’s Doyle Canning’s reflections on the Seattle actions can be found in the book Letters from Young Activists

Two great books that capture the legacy of Seattle and dispatches from the global movements against corporate power and exploitation are:

• We are Everywhere: the Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism edited by the Notes from Nowhere Collective
• Globalize Liberation: How to Uproots the System and Build a Better World edited by David Solnit (and including several contributions from smartMeme’s Patrick Reinsborough)

Are you hungry for justice? Do you love local, organic, delicious food?

Bring your passions together at the table, and join me and smartMeme board member Shana Mc-Davis Conway at the First Annual Gathering of the newly launched Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI): September 18-21 at the Wisconsin State Fair Grounds in West Allis, Wisconsin.

Food connects culture, health, the land, and the people - but in this fast food nation (where food is getting more globalized, genetically-modified, high carbon, and expensive), we’ve got to step up and strengthen the movement to bring food back to an ecological, human scale. The inspiring trend is that farmers markets are re-emerging in many communities, and organic food is the fastest growing segment in the food industry - but the critical question is, who can (and can’t) afford it?

In the age of global warming, and in a time where 12.6 million children are going hungry in the United States, the future demands that we nourish the Earth and our bellies with a re-imagined food system built on the principles of ecology, and racial & economic justice.

This upcoming gathering is 3 days of doing just that. We are looking forward to delicious, local food — critical conversations about how racism shapes the food system — stories from community-based organizations who are doing something about it — and seeing YOU there!

The Growing Food and Justice for All Initiative (GFJI) is

a new network aimed at dismantling racism and empowering low-income and communities of color through sustainable and local agriculture. The network views dismantling racism as a core principle which brings together social change agents from diverse sectors working to bring about new, healthy and sustainable food systems and supporting and building multicultural leadership in impoverished communities throughout the world. The vision for this initiative is to establish a powerful network of individuals, organizations and community based entities all working toward a food secure and just world

A main course of workshops includes:

What It Means to Be White: Working towards full-awareness of white- privilege in community food security work: Judging by a quick scan of the demographics of people leading urban agriculture projects in low-income communities of color around the country, white women seem to be particularly drawn to this type of work. Within the good intentions of many white women (and men) often lie unexamined negative assumptions. This interactive workshop will explore cross-class and/or inter-racial partnerships…

Grassroots Leaders Fight for Justice in the Food System: The experience of racism in the food system can best be lifted by those who have lived it. We also are the ones on the ground finding solutions in an unjust system. Our multicultural panel will briefly describe our experience, work, barriers, achievements, and plans, with emphasis on successful work led by people of color in the food system….

and our smartMeme workshop -

Re-Framing Food, Changing the Story for Justice: People just buy junk with Food Stamps. Genetically modified crops will feed the poor. Community Gardens are for white hippies/Organics are for yuppies. America means justice for all. The intersecting narratives of poverty, race, and food create a complex mine-field of messages in the dominant culture that all of our work must struggle to re-frame and transform. We will use story as a method to approach framing our issues, and have an honest conversation about our successes, and what is holding back our efforts to create change…

Hungry for more?

A keynote from Winnona LaDuke (Founder White Earth Land Recovery Project and Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band. She has won numerous awards for her indigenous rights work, and written five books including Last Standing Woman and All Our Relations.)

and a potluck of great ideas from smartMeme community friends like:

Marc Rodrigues, organizer with Student/Farm worker Alliance; John Kinsman John E. Peck, from the Family Farm Defenders and Rafter T. Sass of the Liberation Ecology Project

The conference is filling up so register now! See you in Wisconsin!