SOUTHERN MOVEMENT

ASSEMBLY VCONGO SQUARE ATARMSTRONG PARK NEW ORLEANS, LA

AUGUST 27-29

We would like to thank the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy and the Crescent City Media Group, the two

Louisiana anchors for the SMA Governance Council.

We also would like to thank the Congo Square Preservation Society

for their tireless defense of the space.

Contents: What is the Southern Movement Assembly.................................4-5SMA Anchors...............................................................................6Principles of Unity .......................................................................7SMA V Program...........................................................................8-9Frontline Assemblies....................................................................10-11Congo Square & Timeline............................................................12-13Jemez Principles of Democratic Organizing................................14-15General Information.....................................................................16Next Steps...................................................................................17Map..............................................................................................18

SMA V- K10 Week of Action

#gulfsouthrising#southernpeoplespower

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What is it?

How does it work?

The Southern Movement Assembly (SMA) is an organizing process that converges grassroots leadership on multiple frontlines of struggle. Rooted in the legacy of the Southern Freedom Movement, anchor and participating organizations work locally and regionally to dismantle poverty, racism, and violence while also building political power in our communities. The Assembly is a form of movement governance that combines political education, discussion, planning, action, and synthesis.

The SMA is a regional People’s Movement Assembly (PMA). Inspired and informed by liberation movements in the global South, a PMA is a gathering of people who make decisions for collective action and power. Participants analyze the present political situation, outline a vision of the world we want to live in, and commit to shared actions that make that vision a reality.

The Southern Movement Assembly

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Types of Peoples Movement AssembliesThree types of assemblies have evolved over the last five years of practice.

Assemblies for Community GovernanceAssemblies that are organized to bring together people in a particular neighborhood, city, town constituency or population in order to share analysis, collaborate, and develop and implement action plans that grow community power.

Assemblies for Frontline ConvergenceAssemblies that are organized to bring together people who work on a similar frontline of struggle in order to share analysis, collaborate, and develop and implement action plans that grow frontline struggle power.

Assemblies for Movement GovernanceAssemblies that are organized to converge frontline struggles and represent community organizations in order to share analysis, collaborate, and develop and implement action plans that provide direction and grow social movement power.

SMA I - Lowndes County, AL, September 2012 SMA II - Jacksonville, FL, April 2013 Anchored by the New Jim Crow Movement

SMA III - Dothan, AL, August 2013 Anchored by The Ordinary Peoples Society (TOPS)

SMA IV - Atlanta, GA, August 2014 Anchored by Project South & the Georgia Citizens Coaltion Against Hunger

SMA’s Organize Movement Governance

The Southern Movement Assembly

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Anchor Organizations

Alternate Roots- Regional Black Workers for Justice- Raleigh, NC Concerned Citizens for Justice- Chattanooga, TNCrescent City Media Group- New Orleans, LAGeorgia Citizens Coalition on Hunger- Atlanta, GAGulf Coast Center for Law & Policy- Slidell, LA & the Gulf SouthNational Council of Elders- South New Jim Crow Movement- Jacksonville, FLProject South- Atlanta, GA SpiritHouse- Durham, NCSouthwest Workers Union- San Antonio, TXThe Ordinary People’s Society- Dothan, ALUniversity Sin Fronteras- GA, TX, FL, MN, MI, PRWomen Watch Afrika- Clarkston, GA

The principles that connect the members of the Southern Movement Assembly reflect many years of organizational partnerships and a synthesis of ideas based in collective practice and historical example. The principles serve to name who we are, what we believe, and our purpose for working together to regenerate and advance

the Southern Freedom Movement in the 21st Century. Affirming these principles affirms the foundational belief that we are stronger together, and we do not want to do this alone. To work and be together is a political decision; we are not doing it for either comfort or practicality.

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Principles of Unity

#1 We believe remembering and regenerating our movement history is critical. We recognize the long-term legacies and the most recent work that led to this moment.#2 We value and practice transparency. We strive to distinguish between perception and reality. #3 We respect and support locally-based leadership. Place & space matter, and we recognize the unique histories of the South and local sites. #4 We create spaces to assemble so that people can voice our truths and bring our whole selves. We stand against criminalizing our people in any way. #5 We recognize and respect the self-determination of each organization and strive to engage in principled dialogue when disagreement or conflict is a barrier to collective action.#6 We believe political direction is determined by big picture analysis grounded in struggle to dismantle white supremacy, economic exploitation, and colonialism while simultaneously building decolonization processes for liberation of all people.#7 We believe no one should be excluded from any form of governance that makes decisions about their lives. #8 We believe in and respect the diversity of tactics and strategies as we are working for liberation. We believe there are many ways to do this work. We respect the different organizing choices and traditions of our member organizations. #9 We recognize and value the skills, contributions, and resources that each community, individual and organization brings and will prioritize Collective Accessibility in how and where we assemble and share information. We commit to maximizing those contributions for our collective goals. #10 We will defend the ground we have gained through struggle, and we will create and practice new forms of participation and governance that include and serve all of us.

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SMA Program

Thursday, 8/27

Friday 8/289 a.m. - 10 a.m. Gomela: Performance by Junebug Productions

10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. Procession through Louis Armstrong Park

10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Gulf South Rising Roundtable

Discussion facilitated by Collette Pichon Battle, Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy. Indigenous leaders and community leaders discuss the realities of displacement, resistance, and growing movement infrastructure through collaboration.

2 p.m. - 6 p.m. Opening & Welcome: United Houma Nation

Roll Call: Crescent City Media Group

Film Screening: Crescent City Exodus The short film includes footage from the immediate aftermath of Katrina and the local resistance efforts.

New Orleans Local leaders discuss the political land Roundtable: scape 10 years later and share visions for the next 10 years.

Small Group Reaction, Reflection, ResponseDiscussions: Communal Governance & Peoples Power What is the Southern Movement Assembly and how to participate

Closing & Review the five frontline assemblies

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SMA Program

Rhythmic Alchemy Congo Square, Armstrong Park12 p.m. - 12 a.m.

The vision of local drummer and artist Tyrone “Brother T” Henry, Rhythmic Alchemy is an intentional healing space to commemorate the 10 years of recovery since Hurricane Katrina. This collective, restorative experience for the mind, body and spirit is rooted in authentic African, Native American and South Louisiana cultural and healing traditions. Rhythmic Alchemy uses drumming, spoken word, live muralist, cultural dance, DJ, traditional exhibits, Second Line, masquerade and collective movement to create a unique experience for all who attend.

Friday 8/28 (cont’d)

11:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. Invitation to Frontline Assemblies SMA Anchors and partners invite participants to afternoon sessions on five guiding themes

12 p.m. – 1 p.m. Lunch

1 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Frontline Assemblies

Participants select an assembly based on their work and interests. Part 1: Share analysis & political education Part 2: Name bold visions & collaborative action opportunities

5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Synthesis & Movement Council

Representatives from each assembly present themes and lessons from the assemblies. Participants generate shared commitments to moving forward together.

6 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Southern Movement Assembly Closing

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Frontline Assemblies

Just Transition > economy, ecology, climate, land, environmen-tal racism, and work

It is important to redefine Just Transition for the 21st century and for Southern Movements, drawing on the legacies of decolonization and environmental justice movements. Just Transition was developed as a process in the 1990’s to move away from fossil fuels and pollution, but not at the expense of coal workers or oil workers. Just Transition is a concept that can be applied to our organizing to transform exploitative practices to just practices and from heavy reliance on extractive energy to energy forms that are renewable and sustainable. It also reflects generational transitions and what transition means for different communities in the Deep South, the Gulf South, Appalachia, and across the South.

Community Sovereignty & Racial Justice > violence, social control, body sovereignty, gender liberation, racism

In this current political moment, movements led by Black folks, immigrants, and indigenous folks are rising. Demands are growing to end state violence and to implement solutions from the grassroots to reduce and eliminate harm in our communities. Our bodies are frontlines of struggle and the source of our power, and our organizing strategies include and lift up gender, sexual, and body sovereignty. In this assembly, we will discuss the heightened racist violence we are contending with and the work we are doing to end state-sanctioned social control of all people. We will be rooted in the practices of self-determination in our communities and develop strategies for broadening

and strengthening our collective efforts.

Part of SMA V will consist of breaking up into frontline assemblies, or focus areas, that will center discussion around five specific themes.

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Democracy, Movement Governance, & Power > civic participation, movement governance, local power-building Liberation movements, from the first days of colonialism and slavery, have been fighting for a form of democratic governance that respects and protects the rights, freedom and justice of all oppressed people. Today, the counter attack on the practice of any democratic vision is in high gear. This session will look at how Southern Freedom Movements can grow our collective power to engage the civic structures that impact our communities while building alternative governance structures that we control.

Displacement & Reclaiming Home > displacement, militarism, poverty, migration, land, racism

One of the many things that the Katrina disaster reminded us of is the displacement our people face on an unprecedented scale worldwide. Driven from their homes by destruction brought on by climate change; by war (refugees from Syria and Libya and hundreds of girls kidnapped in Nigeria), by unjust economic practices that produce poverty worldwide that renders people homeless; by migration across militarized borders, and by gentrification, development, and corporate agriculture in the U.S. that reduces the space that poor people can occupy. In each example, people of color are disproportionately affected. In this Assembly we will discuss the importance of creating home and community in the broadest ways and develop strategies for strengthening our collective efforts.

Youth Movement Assembly > education justice, criminalization, violence, & youth movement rising

Local and regional youth will unite in Congo Square, a sacred space of resistance, to demand, design, and commit to a sustainable, healthy, and equitable future with justice for all. The Youth Movement Assembly will be a safe, non-oppressive space for young people to unite to vocalize grievances about injustices plaguing our communities 10 years after Katrina, analyze our current political moment, envision the future we want, and commit to action.

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History of Congo Square

Congo Square is a sacred space. Its proximity to where the Houmas Indians once celebrated their annual corn harvest made it sacred ground.

From as early as 1740, Congo Square has provided a public place for gatherings, cultural practices and trade. French regulations known as the “Code Noir” imposed on enslaved African people in their colonies around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico inhibiting the movement of free Blacks and gave certain so-called rights to enslaved Blacks, including not working on Sunday. They would gather at various places throughout the city until the Mayor of New Orleans issued a city ordinance in 1817 that restricted gatherings of Black people to Congo Square. By 1819, weekly turnouts numbered as many as 500-600 people. Much of African American music, including jazz and the use of particular African instruments, has roots in Congo Square. Among the most famous dances were the Bamboula, the Callinda, and the Congo.

Since New Orleans was under Union occupation as early as April 29, 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to Louisiana, but a Constitutional Convention in the city abolished the system of enslavement on May 11, 1864. A month later (ten months before the end of the Civil War), thousands of freed Africans celebrated emancipation in Congo Square with speeches, songs, and a march to the wealthy white Garden District and back.

In 1893, after maps started using the name “Congo Square,” white supremacist political leadership changed the official name to “Beauregard Park” in honor of a Confederate general from New Orleans and to intimidate Blacks and Creoles from gathering. Resisting the erasure of history, people continued to call it Congo Square. In 1940, Congo Square held New Orleans’ first jazz festival and in the 1960s it was incorporated into a larger public space called Louis Armstrong Park after a controversial urban renewal project that leveled a considerable portion of the Black Tremé neighborhood surrounding the square.

The Congo Square Preservation Society, founded in 1989, continues to organize drumming, healing, and educational events in the square, including a drum circle every Sunday. In 1993, they succeeded in gaining recognition for the historic site by the National Register of Historic Places. In 2011, the New Orleans City Council officially named that segment of Louis Armstrong Park Congo Square.

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Katrina Diplacement & Violence Timeline

Full timeline of Environmental Violence in the Gulf South can be found at www.southtosouth.org

· Over a million people evacuated the Gulf Coast. About 100,000 of them from New Orleans had not returned home by 2010, 68,000 of them lived beneath the poverty line.· The evacuation plan had not accounted for the 112,000 poor, mostly black people in New Orleans who had no car. Various officials also either stopped buses (including school buses) from taking people or just did nothing to facilitate use of them.· 30,000 people were forced to evacuate to the Superdome and another 20,000 to the Reliant Convention Center for up to a week in unhealthy conditions and without enough food.· Governor Blanco announced that National Guard troops, armed with M-16s, had permission to kill “looters.” Associated Press captioned a photo of a black man coming out of a store as “looting” and a white couple doing the same thing as “finding bread and soda from a local grocery store.” · About 7,000 people in New Orleans Prison remained locked in their cells as the water rose over their heads. Although most were in for misdemeanors with short sentences, Gov. Blanco, in effect, suspended habeas corpus, so some of those who lived were not released for six months or even a year.· When people left the Convention Center and tried to march across the bridge to the mostly white town of Gretna, police officers shot over their heads and, using racial slurs, announced that they didn’t want “another Superdome.” The government of Gretna later settled at least two lawsuits for civil rights violations.· Armed white vigilantes from Algiers Point, a white enclave in mostly black Algiers, had not experienced any flooding, but armed white vigilantes patrolled the area to prevent Black people coming into their community, and they shot at least eleven Black men.· Over half of the rental housing in New Orleans was destroyed, making it harder for poor displaced people to return home, especially after the closing and then destruction of four public housing projects that had not been seriously damaged.· Mayor Nagin almost immediately closed the New Orleans public schools for two years and fired 7,500 mostly black and experienced teachers and paraprofessionals who lived in New Orleans. Once the schools opened, all but a few were quickly handed over to the controversial Recovery School District run by the Louisiana Department of Education and then turned into charter schools.

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On December 6-8, 1996, forty people of color and European-American representatives met in Jemez , New Mexico, for the “Working Group Meeting on Globalization and Trade.” The Jemez meeting was hosted by the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice with the intention of hammering out common understandings between participants from different cultures, politics and organizations. The following “Jemez Principles” for democratic organizing were adopted by the participants.

Gulf South Rising adopted the Jemez Principles in 2015 as an operating guidelines for one year of coordinated events, actions, assemblies, and gatherings.

#1 Be InclusiveIf we hope to achieve just societies that include all people in decision-making and assure that all people have an equitable share of the wealth and the work of this world, then we must work to build that kind of inclusiveness into our own movement in order to develop alternative policies and institutions to the treaties policies under neo-liberalism. This requires more than tokenism, it cannot be achieved without diversity at the planning table, in staffing, and in coordination. It may delay achievement of other important goals, it will require discussion, hard work, patience, and advance planning. It may involve conflict, but through this conflict, we can learn better ways of working together. It’s about building alternative institutions, movement building, and not compromising out in order to be accepted into the anti-globalization club.

#2 Emphasis on Bottom-Up OrganizingTo succeed, it is important to reach out into new constituencies, and to reach within all levels of leadership and membership base of the organizations that are already involved in our networks. We must be continually building and strengthening a base which provides our credibility, our strategies, mobilizations, leadership development, and the energy for the work we must do daily.

Source: Solis, Ruben. “Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing.” South West Organizing Project. April 1997.

Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing

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#3 Let People Speak for ThemselvesWe must be sure that relevant voices of people directly affected are heard. Ways must be provided for spokespersons to represent and be responsible to the affected constituencies. It is important for organizations to clarify their roles, and who they represent, and to assure accountability within our structures.

#4 Work Together In Solidarity and MutualityGroups working on similar issues with compatible visions should consciously act in solidarity, mutuality and support each other’s work. In the long run, a more significant step is to incorporate the goals and values of other groups with your own work, in order to build strong relationships. For instance, in the long run, it is more important that labor unions and community economic development projects include .the issue of environmental sustainability in their own strategies, rather than just lending support to the environmental organizations. So communications, strategies and resource sharing is critical, to help us see our connections and build on these.

#5 Build Just Relationships Among OurselvesWe need to treat each other with justice and respect, both on an individual and an organizational level, in this country and across borders. Defining and developing “just relationships” will be a process that won’t happen overnight. It must include clarity about decision-making, sharing strategies, and resource distribution. There are clearly many skills necessary to succeed, and we need to determine the ways for those with different skills to coordinate and be accountable to one another.

#6 Commitment to Self TransformationAs we change societies, we must change from operating on the mode of individualism to community-centeredness. We must “walk our talk.” We must be the values that we say we’re struggling for and we must be justice, be peace, be community.

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General Information Louis Armstrong Park is located at 701 N Rampart St, New Orleans, LA 70116

Information and registration will be located in the lobby of Mahalia Jackson PAC where you can:-register -get general information -give to the 2016 Community Controlled fund -locate lost and found objects-sign up for work exchange August 27-30

Food trucks will be parked within the park; Meals will be provided on Thursday, August 27 for dinner, and Friday August 28 for lunch

Join the work exchange by texting SMA5Volunteers to 23559 to get shift reminders and last minute requests

Share your notes and pictures from throughout SMA 5 at bit.ly/1E8rryL

Social Media

on twitter & facebook@projectsouth

@gulfsouthrising use the hashtags#southernpeoplespower#sma5 #gulfsouthrising

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Next Steps Louis Armstrong Park is located at 701 N Rampart St, New Orleans, LA 70116

Information and registration will be located in the lobby of Mahalia Jackson PAC where you can:-register -get general information -give to the 2016 Community Controlled fund -locate lost and found objects-sign up for work exchange August 27-30

Food trucks will be parked within the park; Meals will be provided on Thursday, August 27 for dinner, and Friday August 28 for lunch

Join the work exchange by texting SMA5Volunteers to 23559 to get shift reminders and last minute requests

Share your notes and pictures from throughout SMA 5 at bit.ly/1E8rryL

The Southern People’s Initiative (SPI) is the action plan that was generated and synthesized at Southern Movement Assembly IV in Atlanta. Launched on MLK Day 2015, the SPI coordinates across action campaigns, community assemblies, education infrastructure, and communication strategies to build power and win concrete gains.

The Southern Peoples Initiative aims to advance:Movement Power: We plan to build parallel power that advances frontlines and practices radical, authentic democracy in our communities.Movement Education: We plan to expand movement and political education infrastructure to decolonize, strenghten collective understanding, and increase our skills.Movement Communications: We plan to engage and communicate with the public through shared media platforms, communications strategies, cultural work and artisitc production.

Sign on to the Southern Peoples Initiative as an action site to connect your existing work to this collaborative effort. Participate in the fall strategy session to synthesize the SMA 5 towards a powerful action plan for 2016. Contact spi@projectsouth.org to sign on.