Boston Global Action Network

Activist Summer consisted of a progressive workshop series engaging primarily young people and students. It emerged as an offshoot of the recently formed Boston Global Action Network (BGAN) -- a network of community, human rights, labor, environmental, women, people of color, high school and college students, and immigrant rights groups that emerged out of the energy generated in Seattle almost a year ago.

The program first came to life in the summer of 2000 as a way to continue the momentum of the World Bank and IMF protests in April. Moreover, Activist Summer hoped to engage participants in various actions and provide a networking forum for young activists and summer interns of various member groups. It involved weekly skills trainings, issue/education sessions, and social gatherings that were organized by a working group of BGAN members, based, for the most part, upon the requested topics of the participants themselves.

Sessions included:

Grassroots Organizing 101
Getting "our message" into the Mainstream Corporate Media
A Globalization Workshop
A Gender Analysis Workshop
A Talk by Bob Zellner, former organizer from SNCC (the 1960s' Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee)
A Workshop on Young People in the Labor Movement.

Throw in a couple potlucks and an "angry youth lunch" and there you had it: Activist Summer 2000!