Organizing the South—How Black Workers Are Challenging Corporate Power
In March 2024, I found myself in an extremely contradictory yet familiar position with some of our national partners. Like many others, they had long supported broad declarations for organizing the South and lamented the lack of real momentum in confronting White supremacy and other systems opposed to democracy throughout the region. But also like many others, when presented with a bold strategy that would go beyond minor charitable interventions in one or more small communities or with specific short-term political wins, they were apt to balk.
In this instance, when confronted with the need for an urgent, industrial-level approach centering southern Black workers—given the influx of sustainable energy–based manufacturing to the region, spurred by federal investments—and presented with the proposition of a ragtag group of organizations brought together by the Advancing Black Strategists Initiative to make some initial inroads, they suggested that perhaps we were biting off more than we could chew. It wasn’t the first time I had heard this pushback (or similar variations) of a proposed long-term strategy being “too ambitious” or “someone else’s job.”
Erica Smiley September 4, 2024
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