How does the SOUTHERN MOVEMENT ASSEMBLY function?
Guiding Principles of the Southern Movement Assembly
Principles of Unity
The principles that connect the members of the Southern Movement Assembly reflect many years of organizational partnerships and a synthesis of ideas based in collective practice and historical example. The principles serve to name who we are, what we believe, and our purpose for working together to regenerate and advance the Southern Freedom Movement in the 21st Century. Affirming these principles affirms the foundational belief that we are stronger together, and we do not want to do this alone. To work and be together is a political decision; we are not doing it for either comfort or practicality. These principles will be evaluated & evolved periodically.
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We believe remembering and regenerating our movement history is critical. We recognize the long-term legacies and the most recent work that led to this moment.
We value and practice transparency.
We strive to distinguish between perception and reality.
We respect and support locally-based leadership. Place & space matter, and we recognize the unique histories of the South and local sites.
We create spaces to assemble so that people can voice our truths and bring our whole selves.
We stand against criminalizing our people in any way.
We recognize and respect the self-determination of each organization and strive to engage in principled dialogue when disagreement or conflict is a barrier to collective action.
We believe political direction is determined by big picture analysis grounded in struggle to dismantle white supremacy, economic exploitation, and colonialism while simultaneously building decolonization processes for liberation of all people.
We believe no one should be excluded from any form of governance that makes decisions about their lives.
We believe in and respect the diversity of tactics and strategies as we are working for liberation. We believe there are many ways to do this work.
We respect the different organizing choices and traditions of our member organizations.
We recognize and value the skills, contributions, and resources that each community, individual and organization brings and will prioritize Collective Accessibility in how and where we assemble and share information.
We commit to maximizing those contributions for our collective goals.
We will defend the ground we have gained through struggle, and we will create and practice new forms of participation and governance that include and serve all of us.
The Southern Movement Assembly Process
The Southern Movement Assembly is a form of movement governance infrastructure that includes:
- A Governance Council that meets weekly by phone to govern the SMA process. We meet face-to-face on an annual or semi-annual basis, and between assemblies, we form organizing and other work teams to support SMA work.
- South Movement Assembly for Southern Freedom Movement Convergence. SMAs happen at the pace determined through our movement work. Anchor organizations & organizations that have participated as action sites or at different capacities during organizing seasons attend the assembly to assess where we are as a Southern Movement Assembly and make plans for future work.
- Rapid Response for Movement Self-defense and Power. We practice rapid response to contend with crisis and opportunity. Walk for Dignity was our first practice in 2013 around this idea. The idea was rooted in our collective analysis of movement lessons we learned from Gulf Coast Disaster.
- Coordinated Action, Strategies, & Work. This has included everything from the People’s First 100 Days Campaign in 2013; the On the Road Tour in 2014, annual Organizing Intensives, a shared Communications platform (southtosouth.org), the Selma Bloody Sunday 50th Commemoration Convergence in 2015, Summer Organizing Drives, Movement Education efforts, SMA flanking of the Gulf South Rising initiative, etc.
Action Strategies:
Organizing and base-building to grow our numbers & leadership
Creating liberatory education
Creating new communication infrastructure
Facilitating community, local, and thematic assemblies
Building & cross-pollinating our relationships for greater impact
Increasing capacity for and testing collaborative rapid response to crisis and opportunity
Fundamental Strategic Values
COLLABORATION | We are stronger together than we are separate.
CONVERGENCE | We fortify our movements by gathering, sharing, learning.
SELF-DETERMINATION | We honor the autonomy of organizations.
INNOVATION | We learn from history and we take risks.
DECENTRALIZED COORDINATION | We reflect bottom-up movement building.
What is the Governance Council?
Anchor Organizations align with the Principles of Unity, meet weekly and provide strategic direction, accumulate political analysis, initiate rapid response when needed, and coordinate the annual SMA,
Organizing Intensive, and Work Teams. (17 active anchors as of June 2017) These organizations make up the Governance Council which meets weekly.
Alternate Roots | Atlanta, Georgia
Black Belt Citizens Fighting for Health and Justice | Uniontown, AL
Black Workers for Justice | Raleigh, NC
Concerned Citizens for Justice | Chattanooga, TN
Crescent City Media Group | New Orleans, LA
Georgia Citizens’ Coalition on Hunger | Atlanta, GA
Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy | Slidell, LA & Regional
Highlander Research and Education Center | Regional
Hondo Empowerment Committee | Hondo, TX
National Council of Elders - South | Regional
National Nurses United | National
New Jim Crow Movement | Jacksonville, FL
Project South | Atlanta & Regional
SpiritHouse | Durham, NC
Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (S.T.A.Y.) | Regional
The Ordinary Peoples Society - TOPS | Dothan, AL
University Sin Fronteras | Atlanta, Bemidji, Detroit, Jacksonville, San Antonio, & Puerto Rico
Women Watch Afrika | Clarkston, GA
1
ALTERNATE ROOTS | ATLANTA, GA
Regionally-based arts and cultural organizing group that supports artists in the South to work directly with community members to enhance organizing efforts. Coordinates annual retreats for over 500 artists and community workers to share and develop their work.
2
GEORGIA CITIZENS’ COALITION ON HUNGER | ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Organizes unemployed people to develop income alternatives, cultivate urban farm projects, and challenge voter suppression. The Coalition provides over 5,000 families with food and basic need assistance annually, and the Georgia Human Rights Unions has initiated a Jobs Campaign to generate employment trainings and opportunities in South Atlanta.
3
Supports families affected by the incarceration and criminal justice system through grassroots organizing and legal advocacy. Recently won a victory that reversed the guilty verdict of Marissa Alexander, a domestic violence survivor who was sentenced 20 years for firing a warning shot against her abuser, though no one was injured.
Information on the WALK for Dignity for Marissa Alexander can be found here!
4
Organizes African immigrants to navigate legal and social services. Coordinates and facilitates community assemblies and spaces with youth, elders, and Latino immigrants to bridge cultural divides and advocate for progressive immigration reforms across the South.
5
Organizes to build the strength and leadership of Black workers in the labor movement and the Southern Freedom movement. An anchor organization of the Southern Workers Assembly, BWFJ organizes against race and gender discrimination in the workplace and for self-determination of all working and oppressed people.
6
An organization Educating, Agitating, Motivating, and Organizing for Social Justice in Chattanooga! Working with a new generation of young people in Chattanooga, building on the legacy of CCJ, members of the organization join together in the struggle: for racial justice, to end police brutality, to educate ourselves and each other about social injustices in the city, to create awareness and implement meaningful solutions, to address gang violence in the city through the elimination of root causes of violence–not through the mass incarceration of our youth.
CCJ is working to promote and create a city which prioritizes social justice for all people.
7
A community advocacy & film production group dedicated to organizing and educating youth and people of color using filmmaking and art as organizing tools. Produces community advocacy media and community based campaigns to support movement work across the challenges of re-districting & the voting process, public health, and the de-population patterns that have decimated the culture and people of the Gulf Coast since 2005.
8
Organizes across Alabama with formerly incarcerated people, families, and young people to challenge disproportionate sentencing and to ensure fair voting practices. TOPS provides over 300 meals a day to families living in poverty, provides re-entry support through transitional homes for men and women getting out of prison, and intervenes on gang and police violence with transformative solutions combined with legal advocacy.
9
Organizes locally with Black youth to support and advance the National Student Bill of Rights through youth-led actions and voting. Project South develops and provides comprehensive political educational tools to organizations, schools, and programs around the country. Regionally, Project South provides strategic coordination to Southern-wide campaigns and organizing drives and anchors the Southern Movement Assembly.
10
HONDO EMPOWERMENT NETWORK | HONDO, TEXAS
La Tierra Sin Fronteras is a community organization that organizes disenfranchised communities of color for social justice.
11
Cultural arts and organizing organization working with low-wealth families and community members to uncover and uproot the systemic barriers that prevent people from gaining the resources, leverage, and capacity for long-term self-sufficiency.
12
Organizes across Alabama with formerly incarcerated people, families, and young people to challenge disproportionate sentencing and to ensure fair voting practices. TOPS provides over 300 meals a day to families living in poverty, provides re-entry support through transitional homes for men and women getting out of prison, and intervenes on gang and police violence with transformative solutions combined with legal advocacy.
13
US HUMAN RIGHTS NETWORK | NATIONAL
The US Human Rights Network is a national network of organizations and individuals working to strengthen a human rights movement and culture within the United States led by the people most directly impacted by human rights violations. We work to secure dignity and justice for all.
14
HIGHLANDER RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER | REGIONAL
Highlander serves as a catalyst for grassroots organizing and movement building in Appalachia and the U.S. South. Through popular education, participatory research, and cultural work, we help to create spaces — at Highlander and in local communities — where people gain knowledge, hope and courage, expanding their ideas of what is possible.
15
BLACK BELT CITIZENS FIGHTING FOR HEALTH AND JUSTICE | ALABAMA
We work towards a Uniontown and Black Belt region where all people will unite to act in love for shared liberty and justice for all. We, the Freedom Fighters, based in Uniontown Alabama will demonstrate faith in action by embracing and encouraging solutions against all injustices.
16
NATIONAL NURSES UNITED | NATIONAL
NNU was founded in 2009 unifying three of the most active, progressive organizations in the U.S.—and the major voices of unionized nurses—in the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, United American Nurses, and Massachusetts Nurses Association.
At its founding convention in December, 2009, NNU adopted a call for action premised on the principles intended to counter the national assault by the healthcare industry on patient care conditions and standards for nurses, and to promote a unified vision of collective action for nurses.
17
STAY TOGETHER APPALACHIAN YOUTH (S.T.A.Y.) Project | REGIONAL
The youth-led STAY Project is doing what few other organizations have done:
1. Having youth ask each other what they want and need in order to stay and work in their home communities;
2. Connecting them with the resources and skills they need to make their visions for Central Appalachia come true;
3. Recognizing that there are young leaders in the region who already creating change.
We envision an economically and environmentally sustainable Central Appalachia where young people have the power to build and participate in diverse, inclusive, and healthy communities.
Alternate ROOTS | Atlanta, GA
Georgia Citizens’ Coalition on Hunger | Atlanta, Georgia
“The Southern Freedom Movement began when the first enslaved African resisted.”
-Trap Bonner, Crescent City Media Group
New Jim Crow Movement | Jacksonville Florida
Women Watch Afrika | Clarkston, Georgia
What is the General Assembly?
General Assembly Call - February
The Southern Movement Assembly holds monthly calls to gather our folks, stay updated with organizing on the ground across the region, and support each other to grow our forces within the Southern Freedom Movement of the 21st Century.
How can I Support the work?
Southern Peoples Initiatives Work Teams
The Southern Movement Assembly anchors coordinate collective work teams in a living practice of Peoples Democracy. By creating genuine democratic practice, we hope to build infrastructure and capacity in the south! Work teams are blended mixtures of anchor organization representatives, participating organizations, and individuals excited to support the process. Folks of all capacity levels are invited.