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Left-wing politics is the support of social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition of social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished. According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, left-wing supporters "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated."
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out, resist or undo a social change. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations or both. Definitions of the term are slightly varied. Social movements have been described as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites". They represent a method of social change from the bottom within nations.
The Christian left is a range of centre-left and left-wing Christian political and social movements that largely embrace social justice principles and uphold a social doctrine or social gospel.
The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions characteristic of left-right politics, ideologies and parties with emphasis placed on issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on the right, there are centrists or moderates who are not strongly aligned with either end of the spectrum. There are those who view the left-right political spectrum as overly simplistic, and who reject this method of classifying political stands, suggesting instead some other system, such as a two-dimensional rather than a one-dimensional description.
The European Social Forum (ESF) was a recurring conference held by members of the alter-globalization movement. In the first few years after it started in 2002 the conference was held every year, but later it became biannual due to difficulties with finding host countries. The conference was last held in 2010. It aims to allow social movements, trade unions, NGOs, refugees, peace and anti-imperial groups, anti-racist movements, environmental movements, networks of the excluded and community campaigns from Europe and the world to come together and discuss themes linked to major European and global issues, in order to coordinate campaigns, share ideas and refine organizing strategies. It emerged from the World Social Forum and follows its Charter of Principles.
Political Research Associates (PRA), formerly Midwest Research, Chicago (1981–87) is a non-profit research group located in Somerville, Massachusetts.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is a Marxist–Leninist organization in the United States. It formed in 1985 amid the collapse of the Maoist-oriented New Communist movement that emerged in the 1970s.
Eric Thomas Chester is an American author, socialist political activist, and former economics professor.
The Southeast Social Forum was a gathering of about 550 people that took place in Durham, North Carolina, from June 16 to June 18, 2006, at North Carolina Central University. The attendees were people of all ages, and were mostly members of organizations from around the Southeastern United States dealing with issues of racism, economic justice, globalization, and inequality. About 30% of attendees were black, about 30% were white, and about 30% were Latino or Latina.
The United States Social Forum is an ongoing series of gatherings of social justice activists in the United States which grew out of the World Social Forum process, bringing together activists, organizers, people of color, working people, poor people, and indigenous people from across the United States. Its purpose is to build unity around common goals of social justice, build ties between organizations at the event, and help build a broader social justice movement. Planning for the first event was spearheaded by the organization Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, and involved dozens of other organizations around the United States. The Forum defines itself as "a movement-building process. It is not a conference but it is a space to come up with the peoples’ solutions to the economic and ecological crisis. The USSF is the next most important step in our struggle to build a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and changes history."
Prefigurative politics are the modes of organization and social relationships that strive to reflect the future society being sought by the group. According to Carl Boggs, who coined the term, the desire is to embody "within the ongoing political practice of a movement [...] those forms of social relations, decision-making, culture, and human experience that are the ultimate goal". Besides this definition, Leach also gave light to the definition of the concept stating that the term “refers to a political orientation based on the premise that the ends a social movement achieves are fundamentally shaped by the means it employs, and that movement should therefore do their best to choose means that embody or prefigure the kind of society they want to bring about”. Prefigurativism is the attempt to enact prefigurative politics.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is often categorized politically as progressive and liberal. It is generally considered the most left-leaning state in the US, and all of the state’s Congressional representatives and both US senators are Democrats, while Democrats also form the large majority of the state’s legislature, though the state has a history of electing Republican governors. As with most states, the two main political parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
Progressivism is a political philosophy in support of social reform. Based on the idea of progress in which advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition, progressivism became highly significant during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, out of the belief that Europe was demonstrating that societies could progress in civility from uncivilized conditions to civilization through strengthening the basis of empirical knowledge as the foundation of society. Figures of the Enlightenment believed that progress had universal application to all societies and that these ideas would spread around the world from Europe.
The American Left consists of individuals and groups that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political and cultural institutions of the United States. Various subgroups with a national scope are active. Liberals and progressives believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures, but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists, communists and socialists with international imperatives are also present within this macro-movement. Many communes and egalitarian communities have existed in the United States as a sub-category of the broader intentional community movement, some of which were based on utopian socialist ideals. The left has been involved in both Democratic and Republican parties at different times, having originated in the Democratic-Republican Party as opposed to the Federalist Party.
Betsy Leondar-Wright is an American economic justice activist, sociologist, and author, who writes on class and economic inequality.
Jason Pramas is an American photojournalist. He is executive editor and associate publisher of the alternative newsweekly DigBoston, and executive director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism that he co-founded with Chris Faraone in 2015. In 2018, his column Apparent Horizon won first place in the Political Column category of the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards. Pramas also founded Open Media Boston, an online metropolitan newsweekly serving the Boston, MA area, in 2008 and served as its editor/publisher until merging the publication with BINJ. He was formerly an assistant professor of communications at Lesley University, but has stated that he believes he lost his job in retaliation for helping lead a successful drive to organize Lesley core faculty into a labor union in 2015. A socialist, and longtime labor and community activist, Pramas was the lead organizer of the Boston Social Forum in 2004. He holds an MFA in Visual Arts from The Art Institute of Boston, and is noted for curating the 2014-2015 Boston Strong? art show that criticized the popular Boston Strong slogan.
The Subversive Festival is an annual international fortnight of political, activist, cultural, educational, literary and artistic events that takes place in Zagreb, Croatia every May. Its activities are divided into the Subversive Film Festival, the Subversive Forum, the Balkan Forum and the Subversive Book Fair. The cross-cutting activity is the Subversive Festival's Conference that includes major keynote lectures and round tables held in Cinema Europe.
Oscar Soria is an Argentinian political activist, social journalist, and environmental and human rights campaigner, currently serving as a campaign director in the international activist group Avaaz. Previously he was the global brand director of Greenpeace and afterwards the senior media and external relations director of WWF.
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range from mandate building in a community, petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.
The World Social Forum is an annual meeting of civil society organizations, first held in Brazil, which offers a self-conscious effort to develop an alternative future through the championing of counter-hegemonic globalization.
References
- ↑ Bombardieri, Marcella (July 29, 2004). "Activists appear to save anger for NYC". Boston Globe . Retrieved 1 July 2013.
- ↑ Dodero, Camille (July 23, 2004). "Dept. of Progressive Powwows: Boston Social Forum". The Phoenix . Archived from the original on 4 April 2013. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
- ↑ Moodliar, Suren; Pramas, Jason (September 11, 2004). "Boston Social Forum: Significance, Achievements and Some Lessons Learned". ZNet. Archived from the original on 5 January 2006.