We believe in a liberated South that honors the culture, dignity, and safety for all people. This includes the liberation of land, bodies, economies, and political power of all oppressed people. We are connected by shared Principles of Unity and organize in the legacy of Southern freedom fighters like Fannie Lou Hamer who lived by the commitment: Nobody is Free until Everybody is Free.
Create spaces to gather resources, share skills, educate, prepare for crisis & healing
Interrupt state violence & policies that harm, divide, and fracture our communities
Space to organize local & regional initiatives projects, and campaigns
Gatherings of communities & organizations to develop shared agendas, platforms, & action plans. Assemblies can be local and/or issue-based, and are coordinated regionally.
Initiatives that build infrastructure for education, communications, and sanctuary to increase collective power, health, safety, and sustainability.
Initiatives that interrupt unjust practices, defend against state violence in all its forms, including poverty, climate disaster, attacks on indigenous sovereignty, freedom of movement, and body autonomy.
A CALL TO ACTION in a time of crisis
This blueprint offers a Southern plan of action influenced by the past five years of Southern Movement Assemblies, building slowly toward a Southern infrastructure that connects us in our work and our principles and values. We are ready to resist fiercely and build together. We are right on time.
Now is the time for us to dig deeper, build wider. There is room for everyone in this plan because it is built upon the work that is already happening in our communities and includes our vision of what more can be done. Many of you are already connected through attending Southern Movement Assemblies, holding Peoples Movement Assemblies in your towns, joining our regional Organizing Team, or being a member of the Governance Council. Get more deeply connected, share more ideas, answer the call.
For those of you who are looking for a way to join this work, connect your local organizing group to the Southern Movement Assembly by signing up on our website, southtosouth.org, take part in our regional calls and webinars, and plan an assembly in your community. If you are not part of a local organizing group, for liberation’s sake, join one or create your own! Now is not the time to sit back and wait to see what happens; now is the time to act. The Southern Movement Blueprint offers you a way to work in concert with others across the South.
We will never stop saying “We All Count”. We are ready to fight. We are ready to build. Join us.
“Our community should be the source of our power. We are an assembly of social movements, grassroots movements, an assembly of assemblies that can become a source of taking and holding power. We can create a culture of liberation by incorporating more voices and paying attention to our imagination about what liberation looks like. – Ruben Solis, University Sin Fronteras
WHAT WE DO
WE ARE COMMITTED TO TAKING ACTION TOGETHER
collectivizing our STRATEGIES for liberation
We recognize the danger and strength of claiming our political power in a moment when institutions are telling us that murder, disenfranchisement, disaster, and displacement are allowable, legitimate, and justifiable. We also recognize the courage of our ancestors, our families, and our community members to remember, build, and create what we need to survive and flourish.
We believe in a plurality of tactics and using all strategies that are required to win liberation. We work using a process of synthesis of all voices in order to move decisions forward. We evolve our work as conditions change and shift. We initiate strategies when the will to do the work is present.
Strategies to Practice Liberation
Community efforts that build infrastructure, community governance, & increase autonomy, health, safety, and sustainability
Strategies to Interrupt & Dismantle Oppression
Initiatives to stop policies that harm our communities & defend against attacks
Community Infrastructure Practices
Practices that manifest the vision of the Southern Movement Assembly