Dear Women and Men Committed to Ending Sexism,

We hope this message finds you well.  This message is to inform you that a group of about 30 men who have been involved in anti-sexism activism from around the U.S. have begun planning a small gathering, funded by the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention, to take place near Boston on June 4-6, 2007 of this year.

Our collective work to end sexism is grounded in decades of women’s grassroots activism to end male supremacy. All of the men involved in this gathering are guided by women’s leadership, learn from and are challenged by women’s thinking, and greatly benefit from women’s efforts to end to all forms of exploitation and violence. Nonetheless, we have decided to make this event in Boston a gathering of men so we can strengthen relationships between men doing anti-sexism work. 

Overall, the men involved with this gathering are committed to accepting and processing women’s input.  If this process leads to something more than this single gathering, we will be looking for more structured input. At this time, if you wish to suggest topics, have concerns, or ideas please e-mail correspondence to info@mensworkboston.org or fax to 605-232-9486; ATTN National Roundtable. 

This gathering is primarily to build support and strengthen connections between some of us doing the work, and to give us a chance to think about our work in larger scale terms. We are striving to make the group diverse and yet we know that we will not achieve our own and many people’s hopes in this area.  Please know we are committed to making the gathering informal and inclusive to all issues including those of traditionally marginalized communities. Soon after the gathering, we will issue a report and try to make it broadly available.  You may register an e-mail address to receive a copy of the report at www.mensworkboston.org/contact.html.

We acknowledge there are many men who could and should be at the gathering that we are unable to invite. If you are one of them, we apologize in advance. In no way is this a reflection on whose work is more important or an attempt to be exclusive. You may well have been on our extensive list of men who could have been at this gathering except for space and funding limits.

This is a very preliminary step in trying to figure out if a larger national gathering or some other organizing of male anti-sexist activists would be a useful tool for furthering anti-sexist struggle in the country. In terms of men’s anti-sexist, anti-racist, social justice work in 2007, we are hoping to address such issues as how might we mobilize men as allies to:

*  work with and be accountable to women’s leadership

*  support women’s organizing efforts

*  challenge male privilege

*  put gender back into the mix in other social justice work

*  support, mentor, and nurture younger men coming into this work

*  to create a larger-scale male response to public policy issues

We welcome and will take your responses very seriously. We look forward to staying in touch with you.