WORLD WITHOUT EMPIRE

A People’s Congress on Spirit, Movements and the End of US Domination

2009 November | New York, USA

ANNOUNCEMENT

Groundwork begins for “World without Empire” congress in ‘09

2008 AUGUST 20

Preparations are underway for the upcoming major PfL initiative in the United States, the “World without Empire: a People’s Congress on Spirit, Movements and the End of US Domination”, scheduled to be held in November 2009 in New York.

Active members of the PfL network have invariably raised the need for undertaking a major program right “in the belly of the beast”. Initial exploratory work was undertaken with the Summer Interfaith Institute of the Simon Fraser University in Canada, the San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Union Theological Seminary in New York.

A caucus of Continuation Committee members, which met in Amman, Jordan following the PfL-led solidarity mission in Palestine, further discussed the idea and adopted the plan as PfL’s major undertaking for 2009. The Committee saw the initiative as an opportunity to build coalitions not only with faith communities but also with labor groups and social movements in the US. Noting that church groups in the US have had difficulty making these links, the group felt the international connection generated by the event could catalyze this process, an important strategy in weakening the hold of Empire.

A preparatory plan was laid down and immediately set in motion at the Working Group caucus held in New York on March 14-16, 2008, involving mainly PfL’s US-based partners and active participants.

The Union Theological School near Columbia University and the General Board of Global Ministries-UMC have offered to serve as hosts for the gathering. The organisers are also mobilising the participation of Muslim and Jewish groups as well as secular activist groups in the preparatory process, since one of the objectives of the New York event is to help catalyze coalition building around the issue of US hegemony.

The concept paper and related information on the planned congress may be found in the World without Empire project page.