southern movement blueprint Since 2012, over 1,000 community leaders in the South have gathered at six Southern

Since 2012, over 1,000 community leaders in the South have gathered at six Southern Movement Assemblies to discuss and analyze the pressing
issues of our time, develop bold visions, and commit to action. Participants organize issue-based and community assemblies in their cities and
towns to prepare for the regional Southern movement assembly. The Southern Movement Blueprint represents the synthesis of our collective
work. We believe in a liberated South that honors the culture, dignity, and safety for all people. This vision includes the liberation of land,

a plan of action in a time of crisis bodies, economies, and political power of all oppressed people. We are connected by shared Principles of Unity and organize in the legacy of
Southern freedom fighters like Fannie Lou Hamer who said: Nobody is Free until Everybody is Free. More on SOUTHTOSOUTH.ORG

BUILD Gather our people Tear

SANCTUARY 1) Bring our resouces together.
2) Gather more people into organizing spaces like assemblies.
down
SPACES Create spaces to gather
resources, share skills,
3) Learn & share skills through trainings, workshops, & education.
4) Implement local & regional strategies.
Interrupt state violence &
policies that harm, divide,
walls
educate, prepare for and fracture our
crisis & healing communities

Strategies to Practice Liberation Mutual Aid

Liberation
Centers
Community spaces
Strategies to Dismantle oppression
in the legacy of
Organize initiatives that build infrastructure for education, mutual aid societies Organize initiatives that interrupt unjust practices, defend against state
Practical function:
communications, and sanctuary to increase collective power, health, in the South, violence in all its forms, including poverty, climate disaster, attacks on
Physical & virtual spaces
safety, and sustainability. organized locally indigenous sovereignty, freedom of movement, and body autonomy.
to protect lives & provide
to gather resources,
infrastructure
provide & refer
Political function: services, share
Space to organize local political education,
Practice Local Governance & Build New Economies create health & Converge Our Collective Force
& regional initiatives
projects, and campaigns healing spaces, etc. Act in solidarity with freedom
Disrupt Injustice &
Political education on alternative
Community Control economies that address movements like Standing Rock & the
Defend Our Communities
Build & expand community elimination of jobs & work nationwide prison strikes
Dismantle social control & legal
bases that exercise power
Learn & share skills to transition PEOPLes Mobilize our communities for frameworks that criminalize,
through political participation, coordinated simultaneous actions brutalize, & isolate
from extraction to just solutions movement
oint
voting, & pathways to Gatherings of
leadership Cultivate land & create income- assemblies ep Create defense strategies to support
communities &
verag
Develop movement
generating projects within
Practical function: organizations the le populations experiencing racist
violence at sites including prisons,
communications infrastructure
communities
Spaces to bring people to develop FIND schools, faith spaces, borders, and
Support independent enterprises together and create shared agendas,
Develop harm-free zones public spaces
shared action plans platforms, & action
& rapid response networks plans. Assemblies
to contend with violence, Political function: can be local and/
displacement, & disaster build from the bottom up
Organizing process for or issue-based, and Boycott & Divest from
Create Sanctuary Spaces communities to practice
governance & exercise
are coordinated
regionally. Entities that Harm
Build legal & practical support networks within churches, power Identify, expose, and disinvest in corporate
schools, mosques, & neighborhoods monopolies & anti-people policies that hurt
Create alternative accountability systems to address harm our communities

We are building movement power & Infrastructure

through three initiatives & coordinated actions that build:
New Social Econom y Peoples Democrac y Protected & defended communities
The three initiatives represent a strategic framework to connect all frontlines where we do battle for our lives, for our dignity and well-being, and for systemic transformation.
 Organize from your place and position.
Who are you connected to? Where do you live?
What is your work, passion, & practice? What gifts do
individuals organizations you bring? Teachers, nurses, party planners, chefs, farmers,
communities Share existing work, coordinate with artists, web designers, researchers. Everyone has a role to play.
Everyone has a
role to play. & groups are others, amplify the collective How can you contribute towards movement?

coming together.
community sanctuary fundraisers research & health fairs
gardens spaces & parties writing & trainings

organizE a
bring your small assembly BUILD New Economies

}
gifts gather your folks, The Southern Movement Assembly coordinates just transition strategies that grassroots
Assess conditions, make interrupt and confront extractive and exploitative economies and builds new

plans to advance shared

institutions & practices like cooperatives, practices of community-based
agriculture, land trusts, & particpatory budgeting. The initiative develops education
& organizing to generate knowledge and strategies for a people’s economy.
organizing
strategies
PRACTICE Peoples Democrac y Political
join with Southern Movement Assembly organizations build coordinated local community
governance for movement power. We challenge legal barriers to political education
participation, expand civic engagement beyond the vote, organize voter education

existing and mobilization campaigns, and we also practice local and neighborhood
assemblies that deepen our public and civic engagement year-round.

work Build a mutual aid Direct action

liberation Center Protect & defend communities
Connect community The Southern Movement Assembly works to eliminate state violence in all its
forms, including incarceration, social control, medical violence, and military
violence that displaces people globally & locally. This initiative coordinates
Legal & Policy
resources community resistance to violence, rapid response to crisis, disaster preparedness,
and education to address systemic impunity. initiatives

Know/ Space Mental & Trainings

Community Political Information
Protect for rapid physical on self-defense
access to education sharing
your rights response healing 1st aid, tech, Anchor Organizations produced the Blueprint in partnership with SMA participants
resources workshops systems
trainings organizing spaces farming, etc.
Alternate ROOTS (regional) National Council of Elders (Southern)
Black Workers for Justice (NC) New Jim Crow Movement (FL)
Crescent City Media Group (LA) Project South (regional)
Concerned Citizens for Justice (TN) SpiritHouse (NC)
Georgia Citizens’ Coalition on Hunger (GA) The Ordinary Peoples Society (AL)
Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy University Sin Fronteras (regional)
Southern Movement Assembly resources at www.southtosouth.org (regional, TX, LA, MS, AL, & FL) Women Watch Afrika (GA)