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WHERE ARE WE NOW?

OUR COMMUNITIES ARE UNDER ATTACK

FAILED ECONOMIES

The economic reality in the South has been defined by slavery, privatization, extractive industries, and Right to Work laws that exploit people, workers, and migrants. Gentrification displaces people and land to fit a profit mold while public infrastructure is destroyed. Global systems of finance and technology have eliminated jobs, forced austerity, and increased climate disasters rather than develop sustainable models for life.

FALSE DEMOCRACY

Civic and public infrastructure is systematically dismantled and people are prevented from participating in official political process. Voter disenfranchisement and restrictions due to age, immigrant status, and incarceration status are tools used to limit the participation of our most vulnerable populations. Authoritarian nationalism is replacing a deteriorating two party system, leading to loss of basic civic freedoms.

BRUTAL STATE VIOLENCE

Racist violence is foundational to U.S. history and is rising in our communities every day. The failure of democracy and the rise of imperialism strengthen the forces of social control that serve the powerful and wealthy. The political landscape continues to reinforce physical violence, economies of scarcity, and environmental racism that we recognize as state violence. Communities in the South anticipate increased surveillance, profiling, and militarized police.

Read Community Briefings Prepared by the Participants of SMA VI

WHAT IS OUR VISION?

A FULLY LIBERATED WORLD IS POSSIBLE

MAY 1st INITIATIVE FOR A NEW SOCIAL ECONOMY

Named for the global workers’ international day of action, May 1st, this initiative addresses the fundamental questions of intersecting ecologies and economies.
In 2017, the Southern Movement Assembly plans to coordinate just transition strategies that interrupt and confront extractive and exploitative economies and build new institutions like cooperatives, practice and replicate community-based agriculture, and develop education to generate knowledge and strategies for a functional people’s economy. The initiative confronts global trade dynamics as well as local ordinances that prevent economic self-determination.

PEOPLES DEMOCRACY INITIATIVE FOR POWER

Creating genuine democratic practices is at the heart of the Southern Movement Assembly.
In 2017, As civic & public infrastructure is systematically dismantled, communities are coordinating grassroots democratic spaces and governance practices to exercise power. While we continue to challenge legal barriers to political participation, expand civic engagement beyond the vote, organize voter education and mobilization campaigns to include communities that are most marginalized, we will also practice local and neighborhood assemblies that deepen our public and civic engagement year-round.

PROTECT & DEFEND INITIATIVE TO END STATE VIOLENCE

Anticipating rises in organized and state violence, our communities are building spaces to respond, heal, and transform harm.

In 2017, the Southern Movement Assembly is building a coordinated effort to reduce the impact and eventually eliminate state violence in all its forms, including incarceration and social control, medical violence on our bodies, and military violence that displaces people in our communities and globally. This initiative focuses on coordinating community resistance to violence, disaster preparedness, rapid response to crisis, and education to address systemic impunity through creating alternative systems of accountability.