welcome once again to the radical imagination i mean on the sociologist has talked to john jay college and university here in new york human beings are social animals we need each other literally those of five to flourish to grow to find meaning to life the psychologist on bowl be identified pathological responses when children have traumatic loss of attachments and relationships in the early childhood development it often took the form of severe emotional detachment to others and themselves and then capacity and capacity to be social to love and be intimate and without that capacity we're like the walking dead soulless a mostly empty devoid of any real feeling the human soul needs love the love of others and of the self it's the oxygen of our social and individual life in the existence for dusky esky freud and other great thinkers the greatest hell on earth was the suffering of being unable to love we humans also need places to meet to congregate to share to discuss to argue to have fun to protest to organize to know and feel that we matter a place where we can learn to love ourselves and others the ancient greeks and romans understood this very well athens had its a gora and acropolis three thousand years ago open air markets of assembly and designated gathering places for athenians to express themselves and their burgeoning democracy in the ancient world of two thousand years ago none was as grand as the form of rome it was located in the main center of the city its heart and soul were commercial religious economic political legal and social life largely took place it lasted over four hundred years until the fall of the empire new york city is now blessed with its own new form the people's form on three hundred and twenty west th street and that in it's been designed as a movement incubator for working class and marginalized communities to build the unity across historic lines of the vision at home and abroad it's the excess of all educational and cultural point space that nurtures the next generation of visionaries and organizers who believe that through collective action a new world is possible a world rooted in equity justice and human dignity collective study and action for our collective liberation our guest today on the radical magination is the coordinator of international projects at the peoples form she was raised in center domingo migrated to new york with her mother at the age of eighteen with the sing and living through the hardships of the working class and immigrant experience communities in both cities drover to the fight for social economic justice she plans and produces international events at the form as well as facilitating the educational exchange between international delegations and activists in the united states she is committed to internationalism and her passions evolving the global south snoo role in this growing  internationalist movement before joining the people's form she participated in grassroots movements such as occupy wall street espanol and the fifteen m movement in spain most recently she held a leadership role at new york communities for change where she led campaigns on housing criminal justice and working justice campaigns welcome or not a plumber all to the radical imagination la it's great to have you here thanks for year we've accomplished so much we've had over eight hundred dollars cultural and educational events the majority of them which are free for our working class communities here in new york and we have over a one thousand people come through our space so it's been a huge success it really has and i've been around the block a few times here in new york and academic and activism so i must say i've never really felt here as well was when tiffany kabban was was there i voted her on the show as well as the tal he was speaking with her so it is a fabulous place i can't believe eight hundred different groups and people that eight hundred well over a one thousand people that have have come through through our space and it's truly a special place and you feel it the moment you walk in we have a cafe that we call the people's cafe where you can sit down have a coffee we have the people's library which has you know books from various topics definitely you know some books that you that you mine are fine in your local library because you know they're they've been deemed too radical and it's a place where you can just sit down read a book i have a cup of coffee have a meeting bon but it's also a space that it's available for our current working class communities and marginalized communities to take classes for free to debate and that's that's why we call it a movement in curator and to also have cultural events to express our cultures and that that's why we have events such as  you know open mikes you know where we lead young people from near a city working class communities express themselves so it's truly the moment you walk in and you can see that there's a lot of see how special it would be it could be and i like to have a space for working class marginalized community to find unity in that space and to be allowed to  learn to to take classes you know that you know maybe you didn't get a chance to to you know to explore themes that you maybe didn't get a chance to study in college or maybe you never got to college you're able to to learn to have discussions but also to have cultural expressions and you know also as you know being a member it's also a member space where grass resources can come to this to this space and have a meeting space have a place where they can host their events and which you know it turns out for like small organizations it's a huge c and so it allows grassroots organizations to that have very little money or no money at all to really thrive you should awful lot there going back to this idea of unity  think in our current society you know many organizations are and are divided by issues and like sometimes we cannot even you know it's not that we're not even a line but we are not even coming together to see how we can work together in certain aspects so you know that you have perhaps organizations that are solely focused on education and you have other as asians that are solely focused on you know housing this is the movement to end slavery you know i'm i'm an immigrant so i don't know much of u s history and i was allowed to that allow me to say that class to learn more about u s history and so on there as a class was a forum and to connect with with other activists who i knew but we rarely get the time to sit down in a class and have a chat that's another very important point because everyone's so busy at work and to our own struggles and movements and organizing and so on and so oftentimes we as activists feel listen so you know we try to offer this show was a way of bringing people together as well transformation s so that it's so important so absolutely crucial and i'm so happy to hear that you're doing that and again the the classes are usually won several weeks or it classes we have a one day class there will and this is an ongoing high ok so there are classes that are ongoing there are classes the last two weeks or perhaps a week and there are some classes that i might be just a one day teachin so it really depends and i really invite your audience to just check our website other people's form that org and that are most updated list of events of everything that that we have to offer  now one of the most powerful nations that have ever existed the influence in the u s in you know in the international realm specially i would say in the global  south the effect that the u s has had in latin america in metal with election in supporting coups and supporting dictators or you know we talk now about the immigrants that are coming in by what you don't hear many people say as i say in the belly of the beast right and i think they're our responsibility as you know for me as an immigrant you know for my community but also u citizens that care about living in just world and in a fair society is that we need to fight you know we need to unite in with working class struggles around the world right so that the working class for example in the united states have more in common with the working class in on the good us with the working class in india and it's important that we see those connections and i hard to to get international news so one of the things that i have been doing and even to find real you know real neo's right yeah one of my roles in the people's forum has been to to to bring that internationalist lens to the people's forum and hosting events that are educational and that are about creating connections with international struggles for a little about that what are some of the issues that you tried to get across here that you normally don't get me yeah that you do not get in the mainstream media for example we've hosted various events when you know the mainstream media was focusing on the so called humanitarian aid and the attempted coup and focusing on you know portraying this picture of venezuela that it's you know the where people are hungry etc without talking about the root causes so for example eleven dollars of the things that we've we've done is to host an event about sanctions and that said that over forty thousand venezuelans have died because of sanctions sanctions and mean that for example someone who suffers from h i v cannot get medication so those are the things that we need to talk about and you're pushing back at this exact moment two trumps rhetoric about it again saying to the squad there go back to where you came from course you were here  but but the point with the arabs is to the crime infested messes that you came for which is not of course in any way taking responsibility right you didn't us role in creating the very suffering that is bringing people to despair and forced migration so this is an incredibly important message that you can get across yeah of course i think i coup unfolded and what has been the result we talked about the problems that hundreds are facing right now where you know other there are systematic killings you know it's one of the now the highest most crime crime reign in homicides in i believe the world so i think you know it's so these kind of spaces it's so important to have  time where you know we are only hearing from the news migrants migrants migrants without discussing the root causes of of torme or in this in these countries or people from those areas living in america is are the communities that you're trying to reach from the global south who are now here did they know the story as well of what you're trying to get across are they aware or yeah i mean do they need also sort of a consciousness raising i think i think you know we can our own will i kid i think we can always improve and that's the great thing about this space that we have you know working class people that you know perhaps perhaps never got the opportunity to go through college and then maybe we also have working class people that they go through college but you know they're not come out with the with the the consciousness of internationalism of solidarity of understanding capitalism and how it works of understanding imperialism and i think that's the beauty about the space that you can connect all of these people from from different backgrounds i mean i am go and i am attending classes even though you know i work there right i know i just joined a class yesterday about so so we have a little bit we have a little bit of everything and you know we we hope this is a this is an open space and we won working class people to come here and and learn and raise our consciousness and and  come with an open eye were how are you reaching out to those working class communities how are you making your space known to them so i think it's about working with with memberships that have a base i think that and that they bring here we also we also do outreach and the very you know through our social media the class itself i think it's also a form of outreach and person may come for for a class and you know get to know the space and sign up for for other classes as and tell other people about you know now that we have classes on marxism i think david harvey is teaching a course and so what he taught  we've been on for four years he was on the st show here radical measures with cornel west so we got a long long way back and he will be here next week and so he's offering courses as well on less formations and so on but this is i want to make this clear this is sounds like it's a very open as you say open form it's not rigidly rooted in any particular leftists ideology is that fair to say because as you developments it's a space where where there's also debates happening actually you know not everyone comes in and agrees and there's also there's very constructive debate is that have happened in in the space where people start not agreeing with each other and then they end up convinced and you know we had a beautiful moment actually with an event with assad are we group where we talked about it was  what was it was the teaching on the western sahara over this is the territory occupied by moroc which are not a lot of people know about it so this is one of the things that you can go and learn at the space and you know we had a debate between  one of our panelists and a participant and you know there were not agreeing with each other by the end of the event they were hugging taking pictures with each other and i think those are like some  the beauty of the space and how we can debate so maybe not agree and move on and maybe at the end shake hands and agree and change our mind right right i  a believer that israel can be true to its history and heritage and so on so what i'm getting at here is i've attended a couple of the events on the middle east you know i'm going out is ok and so i find organization militant they've been doing this for decades and they course and you had some excellent palestinian speakers as well now ok so here as the coordinator of these sorts of it i would love would you be able to bring in for example members of the israeli peace movement or women wage peace which is the group of palestinian and israeli women who are involved in various actions in all the land there i mean in other words it's difficult to you want to have discussions  the bateson dialogues and get people in there that are willing to talk to each other and you're right there are people that you can't so far polarized right so how do you how do you manage this in these different events that you're helping organize which i have can and are having a profound effect on the dialogue and the narrative so you've got to be very careful you when you're the group that is right how can you move the dialogue the narrative forward and and not just have people in there who are in their echo chamber and agreeing and you know get the point right i mean i think that there is you know working with different organizations requires a lot of the policy and that we work with with various groups some of them which which are politically aligned and some of them which are not politically aligned and we make we we make those decisions right and we are learning as we go but you know we also have a very clear stand for example you know on the minute you walk into the space you see that it is a space that it's propellants tanian right so does that mean  you won't entertain someone who is zionist of any form has been different forms would that be possible to have a debate with them i am not sure that i can answer that question now i think this is something that we are collective space and we would have to made that decision together but i think that this is this is a space also that gives a voice to the voiceless right there  a we also are very clear of where we stand like i said we are an anti imperialist anti capitalist space and you know with these terms you know you know and for example in this topic we are we are pro to the voiceless is that also like there are certain groups that have a voice in the mainstream media and we are prioritizing marginalized communities marginalized voices and you know like i said i'm not giving a voice to the voiceless and so you'd be reluctant to have opposing voices because to do that perspective you're attempting to open a space for because they've had they have their own space in a sense but this is also about trying to get people to understand that their interests are similar that that you know war is not doing anybody any good i mean is that part of the effort to bring diverse people together work and i think as organizers this is where we have to be smart right like you know i  also i come from a community organization and you know we organize in different working class communities right as organizers as activists we need to also be smart in know who we can have a discussion with who you know who is open to be moved and who is not right there or there are people that on all sorts of issues we are never going to change our minds  all that and but there are people that we can certainly work with and i think the main objective of the space it's also to create unity within within activists working on different issues also right that to find that for example you know a western activists from fighting for the sense and very necessary i was utterly absolutely so again in just this one week now you're having such an incredible diversity of events and i wonder if you'd like to just comment on some of these i'm just reading from your flyer here middle eastern love tonight the seventy's were taping this is a middle eastern love song chorus and drumming classes tomorrow book talk how to i also want to acknowledge our members who are some of these events are planned by our members put together by our members some of them are produced by in house by the people's forum so it's really our website and maybe contact our our main lines too to find out how to go through our process it's the beauty of it is the fact that like our members can you know can be able to go to you know hold space for a meeting or plan a screening of a movie or have like a downslide dance painting you've also been involved in criminal justice you try to bring that into the form you know of course of course it's yeah of course you know every day headlines and now of course i mean right now you know where we are mourning the fact that the officer who killed do in response to that so i'm not sure that i can give an extensive response on that but one of the things that i know our cultural team is hosting is black august and they're going to have a discussion around criminal justice issues that affect our working class communities you know especially our most marginalized communities so you know this is this is definitely a space where we can have events to to discuss  want to get people to see about that right you know to be honest with you where we're not discussing that yet in our space and we have we are mainly focused on on putting together educational and cultural events where we're people could learn about a variety of issues and struggles so you know where we're not focusing on like what's the  right but you know the you asked about housing we know we just had an event on housing yesterday was the history of the ten and movement which was put together by by one of our members fall of occupy to just like planned for me made a actions or you know organize with immigrant communities and assist immigrant communities so that's a little bit of what we did we got involved with with different organizations as well so you have a vents and classes planned but it also seems like this is such an ongoing created a forum here a place a place but it has to go both ways not about you as a collective saying this is what we should be doing you're attempting to be responsive as you say to the voices of the voiceless of course and so often these people feel so alienated that they never even get into members group so how do you of i mean i think it's you know i think it's a difficult task i mean the homeless for example right right i think is you know it's a difficult task but interestingly enough for example we are in the middle of through to our reach to those who are a little bit more disenfranchised i think our society with people with rent being so expensive with people having to hold three jobs it also becomes extremely difficult to be so involved in an organization so i think our job is to as a forum is also to think of creative ways how to bring them here how to bring them to the space and there has to be through  an educational and cultural program that is appealing to them you know and that's why for example we have cultural events that that are for example open mikes or raise up or a punk show able to organize events by themselves so this is one of the ways that we also outreach to people who are not who are you as you would say a little bit more this and french eyes and tied to an mean i think you know for example alone bringing people from different struggles of the global south together i think for me that's already a success you know like i said advocating for his freedom to environmental groups who are fighting for the amazon it just is so exactly in fact i'm working so i think already making those connections to me it's a huge success  building that unity well there's just so much that can happen that the space we can all the expand and grow given the needs and the you know the dysfunctionality of the when i was traveling around hitchhiking i ended up staying at a salon in salon it's a place where travelers could go it was a bookstore in paris and the owner was shakespearean company bookstore and the owner was the bastard great great grandson of what women took people in and just open the doors for discussion for people who are writers and so on i worked there for a few weeks and saw so this is the sort of place when trying to get out here that's the feeling you get this is a welcoming place this is a place to go for a certain amount of motional intellectual and physical shelter struggle and again one last time we in the minute left we have thirty seconds how do we get hold of you in the people's form sure i think the best way is to go to people's forum dot org on line and you can find out there all of our information goodbye will see you next week on the radical magination and that the people for thank you again are not