As people working to improve dire conditions in our varied communities here in the United States, it is vital that we build alternatives that meet the needs of our communities and reflect the other world that we think is possible. To that end, we believe that struggles outside of the United States are as relevant to our lives as our own everyday issues, even though the former may seem a world away. We believe that the oppression of communities here in the U.S. is causedby the same corporations, the same geopolitical interests and the same political forces that are driving apartheid in Palestine, war throughoutparts of Asia and Africa, and the suppression of social movements throughout the world.

While our immediate needs and interests may differ, we are part of the same struggle. From the shared history and continuing colonization of indigenous lands and ethnic cleansing of indigenous people in North America and in Palestine to the shared interests of Israel and the US inpromoting US imperialism and wars in the region (in this moment focusedon Iran), our realities are inextricably tied together. It is with this in mind, that we feel it is imperative to send a strong, diverse U.S. delegation to World Social Forum-Free Palestine.

While we understand how their struggles mirror our own, we often have a hard time seeing how struggles elsewhere have an impact on our daily lives, work and movements. Even when we do see the connections, we oftendo not have the time, capacity or resources to identify concrete ways to address the relationship between our struggles at home and those elsewhere in the world. In reality, we often don't have enough time to connect with other social movements in the United States, much less thousands of miles away.

This is the goal of the diverse array of organizations that are part of the USSF-initiated cross-movement delegation to the World Social Forum (WSF)-Free Palestine in Porto Alegre, Brazil. We are committed to developing a program that the diverse social movements involved in the delegation can: 1) Participate in the delegation as part of joint struggle with Palestinians and others most directly impacted by Zionism, in an effort to build long-lasting relationships with movements throughout the world and develop joint activities that link our movements after we leave Porto Alegre; and2) Advance the goals and strength of our own movements and communities.

This work is essential not only because the issue of Palestine is a critical struggle for global justice in its own right, but also because the collaboration between the US, Israel, and other Zionist institutions in relation to the global arms trade, perpetual war, ecological destruction and exploitation of resources, population control, mass incarceration and suppression of popular grassroots movements has profound implications for all of us. These implications are not mere analogies; rather, it is often the very same corporations, governments, and strategies that we here in the United States are struggling against.

"Education: A violated right in Palestine" was a conferene held by the Comisión Catalana Universitaria por Palestina (CUNCAP) / Catalonian University Comission for Palestine (http://cuncap.wordpress.com). An IJAN activist gave a presentation in the roundtable "Campaña Boicot, Desinversiones y Sanciones (BDS): argumentos para un compromiso activo desde la Universidad" / BDS campaign: Arguments for an active commitment from the university.