by Claire Tran
“This week we felt ready to keep up our efforts when we heard that people in the community we had been outreaching to had gotten the attention of their State Senator . . . and that he was beginning to feel the heat.” – Claire
The setting of our Southern Solidarity Summer program happens to be the birthplace of the construction of race and racism. In the late 1600’s Virginia’s planter elite faced the threat of overthrow as they were greatly outnumbered by the alliances that were being built by indentured white
Claire Tran, right, with Lawrence Guyot and other Southern Solidarity Summer organizers
servants and Black slaves in the name of freedom. The strategy of that elite was to divide and control, giving privilege on the basis of skin color and country origin and the start of the white supremacist state. Not surprisingly, this strategy is still being used today. This is why solidarity is so important to our movement.
In Right to the City, we are in alliance because our freedom is tied up in the freedom of others. The development of just, democratic, and sustainable cities is tied to the movements and struggles of our brothers and sister in cities across the US and internationally. Connection between the law that was passed in Prince William County, VA in 2009 to stop anyone that looked like an “immigrant” that would set the model for Arizona’s SB 1070 law. On the flip side, there is a precedent that is set when we are able to win participatory budgeting initiatives or local-hire ordinances in one city that makes it more possible in another city. Over the past week of our first Southern Solidarity Summer session, I have felt the power and the spirit of solidarity as we follow in the footsteps of the Mississippi Freedom Summer, share skills, stories, struggles, and building unity between African American and immigrant based communities.
We Have So Much To Learn From Each Other
In the SSS program, the brigade is learning about issues impacting healthy communities such as the threat of uranium mining and the impact on clean water and immigrant scape-goating. Motivated by these issues, brigade members are learning to quickly organize thousands of voters (we hope to reach 20,000 voters this summer), developing advanced skills such as using new technologies to reach voters, development of outreach raps, communications and new media work and helping to organize direct actions. Walter Lipscombe of Community Voices Heard (CVH) remarked that now that he knows how to use the Voter Activation Network (VAN), they may not need to hire someone at CVH to develop outreach lists and map voters. From the Southern Solidarity Summer program the brigade participants themselves have learned how to use the VAN.
The brigade participants themselves also have something to share with Virginia organizers. Most of the participants this session are from New York City and come from a different culture of organizing. New Yorkers do not take no for an answer. When someone at the doors in VA tells Wanda Imasuen, of Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) that a person who is undocumented should be treated differently, she tells them, “Well let me ask you this, do you think any human being should be harassed or discriminated against? No. . . So why would you think that about immigrants just because they don’t have papers?. . .” New Yorkers aren’t too polite to push people out of their comfort zones. It doesn’t matter whether we are at the grocery store, or at the bank, brigade members are not just sticking to the list of folks they were given to outreach to. They are striking up conversations everywhere and organizing everybody. For the organizers in Virginia the approach helping to expand what is possible in the state.
Building on the Legacy of the Mississippi Freedom Summer
Much has changed since the time of the Mississippi Freedom Summer and we have the legacy of organizing and struggle to thank for that. The threat of violence that the Mississippi Freedom Summer participants experienced is not as front and center as it once was. The fact that people were willing to risk their lives to participate in the Mississippi Freedom Summer, their humble sharing of food, and their participation in actions of civil disobedience has inspired the Right to the City members that are here this session. A lively conversation was sparked for the need for more civil disobedience and direct action in our movement. Brigade members moved by this history are pushing themselves, braving the heat, going into communities that they may not be familiar with, people with canes and bad knees are going up stairs to knock on someone’s door all in the name of change. They are staying positive when a door is slammed in their face or someone curses them out over the phone. This week we felt ready to keep up our efforts when we heard that people in the community we had been outreaching to had gotten the attention of their State Senator . . . and that he was beginning to feel the heat.
Unity of African American and Immigrant Based Communities is Building Here
Brigade members often say that they are so glad that they came to Virginia and Virginia New Majority members are often reminding them that they are so excited that they have come here to support the work. To see people support each others struggles is not only heartwarming, it is a key link to change in this country. The unity building of both African Americans and immigrant based communities is a threat to the agenda of profit over people and planet and critical to winning progressive change. The leadership development and the unity that is growing here will only make us stronger.
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