Virginia Rising

by Jon Liss

This Saturday, the first wave of organizers from Virginia and around the country are gathering in Centreville. They will participate in trainings and discussions to build a movement that contends for and wins power. Over the next few weeks they will talk with almost 10,000 Northern Virginia residents. Building a movement is about building a new consciousness or a new ‘common sense’ and building it at a scale that matters.

For years both political parties have talked about keeping Virginia ‘business friendly’. We know what that means: keep corporate taxes low, don’t provide much in the way of social services, keep unions out, don’t put too many regulations in the way of business, keep up obstacles to voting like denying ex-offenders the right to vote or closing polls at 7 pm. It’s the sometimes brutal world we live in.

While some of my best friends are businesses, let’s imagine a different Virginia. If we were a ‘women friendly’ state for example, would we build more childcare centers? Would we better light our streets and sidewalks? Would we have clinics and Medicare and Medicaid for all women?

What if we were a ‘worker friendly’ state? What would we do different? Maybe we actually staff a state Labor Department to make sure that workers are paid what they are due. Maybe we’d make it easier for workers to form a union? Maybe we’d tax wealthy corporations and wealthy people so that everybody has a roof over their head and food in their belly.

What would an ‘environmentally-friendly’ state look like? We’d have windmills and solar panels to create clean energy instead of hollowed-out mountains. We’d have rapid- rail instead of clogged highways to connect our different regions. We’d probably even have smaller homes that use less energy.

These are the types of conversations that we want to have. We want to have ten thousand conversations in fact. We’ll be listening carefully; we’ll be looking for new leaders and activists and new ideas. Join with us! Open your doors, your hearts and your minds! For the next two weeks we’ll be in and around Centreville, Burke and Annandale. Later this summer we’ll be in Tidewater and Norfolk. Of course voting is important Especially informed and strategic voting. However, at Virginia New Majority what we really are looking for is a deeper and sustained involvement and activism. Real change takes so much more. Please join with us – in the words of Curtis Mayfield, “people get ready cause a change a coming!.”