ussf2010

I'm back home in Minnesota after the conclusion of the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan, last Saturday. Host to this historic gathering of 15-20,000 social justice strugglers from progressive business owners to anarchists, Detroit was and remains on the front lines of capitalism's crisis. It's a city of contradictions. Thriving community gardens dot otherwise overgrown lots and abandoned buildings; friendly smiles mask neighborhoods plagued by violence and one of the nation's highest rates of police killings.

Fireworks may have been a more appropriate grand opening for a Tea Party convention than the 2010 United States Social Forum.