Sharon Lean
Sharon Lean
DSA Latin American Forum
On Saturday, April 28th, 2007 Greater Detroit Democratic Socialists of America hosted a forum entitled “Immigration, Globalization, and U.S.-Latin American Relations.” The forum was held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in the Corktown neighborhood in Detroit. Co-sponsors of the event included the Chicano-Boricua Studies Program at Wayne State University, Freedom House, Centro Obrero (Workers Center), ACLU of Michigan-Metro Detroit Branch, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Jewish Labor Committee, Jobs with Justice of Southeastern Michigan, the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights, UAW Region 1A, and UNITE-HERE.
The keynote speaker at the forum was Saul Escobar-Toledo, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Executive Committee of the Party of the Democratic Revolution in Mexico. The PRD is the party of Manuel Lopez Obrador who narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election. Mr. Escobar-Toledo is an economist and labor historian who has served the PRD in various capacities, including coordinator of political economy and fiscal reform, member of the national planning committee, and as a representative to the Federal Electoral Institute. The commentators on Mr. Escobar-Toledo’s speech at the forum were Dr. Sharon Lean from the Political Science Department at Wayne State University, Dr. Sarika Chandra from the English Department at Wayne State University, and Steven Walker representing the American Civil Liberties Union.[1]