Solidarity Work

Program

Solidarity Work Organizing Retreat
May 4-7, 2006

I come like a woman
who I am
spreading out through nights
laughter and promise
and dark heat
warming whatever I touch
--Audre Lorde

This Preliminary Program offers the basic outline and rhythms of the retreat. Our hope is that every person will be able to share their work through the formal and informal conversations which will emerge, organically, through the retreat.

In this program, we are hopeful that mind/body/soul connections will happen.

In order to help with making those connections, we have purposefully stayed away from more conventional “conference presentation” modes.

In the facilitation of these conversations, we will be assisted by our friends from WILD for Human Rights, a women’s leadership organization based in San Francisco. www.wildforhumanrights.org.

At the end of both Days 2 and 3, films and other performances will be screened. Tina will be getting in touch with participants who want to screen films/performances during this time.

Please bring materials (posters, pamphlets, leaflets, etc.) that you would like to share with participants. Do bring enough copies with you, we have 43 participants.

DAY 1: MAY 4

4:00 Check in after 4 at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center. There will be packets/file folders that you can pick up at the registration desk.

6:30 Dinner (Main Dining Room)

8:00 Mojito/Martini Revelries or Jacuzzi Jammin’ (Meet in the Tavern)
We know that folks will be tired from travel so introductions will be low-key and mellow. Please remember to bring your swimsuits because there are indoor hot tubs!

DAY 2: MAY 5

Goals for DAY 2: Try to create a “common” language or basic understanding around international, multiracial, transnational women’s organizing:

Human Rights
Intersectionality
Solidarity
Transformation/Change: Thinking about “Paradigm Shifts”.

8:00 BREAKFAST (Main Dining Room)

9:00-9:30 (Iris Conference Room)
Accountability: Open-ness and Beyond

9:30-12:00
Thinking/Acting/Being Plural: Intersectionality and Women’s Human Rights

Through these conversations, and in the break-out discussions, each participant will be able to share their work. However, our goal will be to both share the specificity of your rich experiences in organizing, but also to move to thinking about broader questions of identity and rights as they emerge FOR alliance building and coalition work.

12:00 LUNCH ADDA (Main Dining Room)

Adda is a Bengali word which means a long, meandering, conversation/get-together which can go on for hours and hours.

During the Lunch Adda, tables will be set up with various topics which offer the interests and experiences of many participants. During this time, folks can meet each other and get to know each other informally.

Table 1: Media: Radio, Videography, Film
Table 2: Popular Education
Table 3: Law/Policy and Advocacy
Table 4: Research/Documentation/Oral Histories/Translation
Table 5: Organizing Campaigns/Unions/International women’s solidarity networks etc.

1:30-2:45 Women’s Human Rights (Iris Conference Room)

2:45-3:00 BREAK

3:00-4:00 Transformation and Change

4:00-5:30 Solidarity: Conceptual, Imaginative and Practical

5:30-6:30: Mojito and Martini Mullings

6:30 DINNER (Main Dining Room)

8:00–10:00 Performance/Filmscreenings (Iris Conference Room)
JACUZZI JIVES.

DAY 3: MAY 6

Goals for DAY 3

Moving Forward/Strategies
Institution and Network Building: Tangible Outcomes

8:00 BREAKFAST (Main Dining Room)

9:00-12:00. Thinking Through Rights (Meet in Iris Conference Room)

9.30-11.00: Break Out Groups

11:00-12:00 Report Back to Main Group (Iris Conference Room)

12:00 LUNCH (Main Dining Room)

1:30-2:45: Strategies (Iris Conference Room)

2:45-3:00: Break

3:00-4:45: Common Campaigns: Concrete Programs

4.45-5.00: Break

5:00-6:00: Building an Organizing Institute?

6:00–6:30 Meet in the Tavern for cocktails before dinner

6:30 Dinner (Main Dining Room)

8:00-10:00 Performance/Filmscreenings (Iris Conference Room)
Jacuzzi Jives and general revelries

DAY 4: May 7

8:00 Breakfast (Main Dining Room)

8:00-12:00 Free time before check out.

12:00-1:00 Check out

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
--Maya Angelou