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 …

This is our second profile of a member of our Solidarity Brigade for Southern Solidarity Summer. Solidarity Summer is a project to win Progress and Power across Virginia from July 16th-August 24th, 2011. Meet Carol De Souza, an MSW student at Virginia Union University and a founder of Unity of Consciousness, a community group founded to address the high drop …

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6P9xnYsh7U] In an oral history taken of Civil Rights legend Lawrence Guyot, Mr. Guyot exclaims that “there is a need to ‘replicate’ the Summer Project in certain places in the United States today.” On Tuesday, July 19th, Mr. Guyot will work with Virginia New Majority and the Right to the City Alliance to launch Southern Solidarity Summer, an effort to …

In less than two weeks, dozens of voter organizers will converge in Virginia for Southern Solidarity Summer. This Solidarity Brigade will work to win progress and power for Virginia’s new progressive majority. We’ll share with you an in-depth look at our Solidarity Brigadistas that are committed to fighting for real change here in Virginia! We interviewed Dwayne Wright first, a 23 …

by Rishi Awatramani Almost 50 years after students and activists from around the country transformed Mississippi through an aggressive program of voter organizing during the legendary Freedom Summer of 1964, organizers from New York, California, and Florida will join Virginians in launching a new era of civil rights voter organizing this summer. Saturday, July 16th marks the beginning of Southern …

[originally posted here] “Do I care if a politician cheats on their wife? Probably. But I care a hell of a lot more when they cheat on us.” by Subhash Kateel This whole week, I kept trying to figure out why this story about Anthony Weiner irked me. I couldn’t put my…uh…I couldn’t figure it out. For the most part …

[Original post can be read here] Redistricting: DOJ Shouldn’t Have OK’ed Northern Va. Map New America Media, Editorial EDITOR’S NOTE: Earlier this month, New America Media and ethnic media in the Washington. D.C., area convened to discuss a redistricting map in Prince William County, Virginia, that would limit the voting power of people of color, who now make up more …

[Originally published at Center for Media Justice]. Young Love: Youth, Race, and the Bond Between Children and Computers Posted June 15th, 2011 by Malkia Cyril Ahhh young love. Some are lucky to learn early that true love can be a mutual experience of passion, respect, and commitment. But, in the abusive relationship between young people of color and the telecommunications …

[Originally Posted at Facing South] VOICES: Right-wing attempts to shorten early voting period are aimed at progressive base By Cristina Francisco-McGuire, Progressive States Network The 2008 early vote proved beneficial to progressives, with self-identified Democrats making up a disproportionate share of the early vote. Barack Obama’s success in engaging the Democratic base and, in particular, targeting early voters was especially …

[originally published on the AFL-CIO Blog] We have broken the silence. We have yet to break our chains. Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance /La Alianza Nacional de Trabajadoras del Hogar, sends her observations on the International Labor Organization’s (ILO’s) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, where a new global rule on domestic workers is set for a vote …