Watching the left

I'm at the US Social Forum in Atlanta, GA right now. I arrived on Tuesday, and have spent the last couple of days as part of the tech team, helping work on the technology infrastructure. For the next few days (I'm leaving on Sunday,) I'll be doing my sessions, and going to others. It will be definitely a different pace than earlier. One of the things I'm noticing is how although this forum, which is the first of its kind, is meant to be a kind of coming together of many different people doing many different kinds of work, it has a feeling that is so familiar to me about lefty gatherings - a lot of people who are so caught up and invested in the ways they are different, that it's difficult for people to work together for common goals. It does seem, from looking at the workshop listings, that some folks are trying to bridge some interesting gaps. But there also seems to be a lot of the same-old identity politics (<insert snoring sound here>). What I'm looking for is some consciousness of people's own reactivities and attitudes, and a willingness to own stuff that's their own. It's only a process of that sort that will allow a real coming together of people with different priorities and perspectives for common good.