WASHINGTON — The Majority, a coalition of more than 50 organizations resisting the unrelenting attacks the Trump administration, is waging against marginalized communities across the U.S., will launch Beyond the Moment: Uniting Movements from April 4th to May Day (BTM).
A call to action and a mobilization tool, BTM was created to unite people working in social change spaces around shared values and intersecting issue areas, Majority leadership said. The campaign includes extensive and intersectional political education on issues including: Environmental justice, food justice, Indigenous land rights, reproductive rights, the criminalization of Black and Brown people, immigration, income equality, LGBTQ rights and more. In addition to political education, the coalition will hold mass mobilizations across the nation throughout the month and beyond. The campaign, the first created by the newly-formed Majority, aims to move masses nationally toward meaningful translocal action to expand and strengthen fight around ‘sanctuary,’ while strengthening local long-term organizing capacity.
“The time has never been more urgent for grassroots communities to fight for our lives and liberation together in a multi-racial and inter-generational movement,” said Cindy Wiesner of It Takes Roots, an organizational member of The Majority.
The campaign is anchored by two dates, both of which hold significant meaning to many in social change spaces.
“April 4th is the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s ‘Beyond Vietnam’ speech, during which he named racism, capitalism and militarism as the “giant triplets” responsible for the harm marginalized people experience in this nation, and he urged those committed to justice to confront ‘the fierce urgency of now,’” said Maurice Mitchell, with the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), an organizational member of The Majority. “May Day or International Worker’s Day, is a holiday that historically sees tremendous local mobilizations around worker’s rights, and the fight for a living wage. In the context of a new President using grandiose promises of job creation to mask the fundamentally anti-worker and pro-corporation nature of his policies, it is imperative that we put forth a true, collective vision of economic justice and worker justice, for all people. “
The BTM campaign kicks off on April 4th with mass political education and mobilizations around the nation, many of which will be centered around the Fight for $15’s “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” protest, and the 49th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
“Every day workers of color across this country face deep-seated racism that would seem to be out of Dr. King’s era, but is, sadly, still reality today,” said Kendall Fells, national organizing director of the Fight for $15. “But workers and activists are standing up and speaking out, the way Dr. King would, to fight racism and raise wages, and we are not giving up until companies like McDonald’s get the message that workers are worth more than minimum wage.”
The combination of actions that will take place between April 4th and May Day are all grounded in an intersectional analysis that centers anti-Black racism, capitalism and militarism to expose how intertwined issues of social inequality really are across communities, Majority leadership said.
“The shared attacks our communities are facing mean that we have a shared fate and shared work to do together,” said Marisa Franco, director of Mijente. “We cannot defend ourselves if we do it alone, and we cannot build sanctuary for some of us without it being something that protects all of us.”
To date, more than 50 organizations, including national, local and member-based alliances (alliances made up of membership-based organizations), have joined The Majority and are participating in the BTM campaign. Organizations including Fight for $15, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Food Chain Workers’ Alliance, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Mijente, NAACP, Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100), Workers Center for Racial Justice in Chicago, Dream Defenders, SolidarityIS, Right to the City, Climate Justice Alliance, New Economies Coalition, Highlander Center for Research and Education, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Got Green and many more.
In a moment where the nation is looking to social change organizations and movement leaders for guidance, support and refuge, members of the Majority said the coalition is their way of actualizing the change they want to see.“We decided and agreed that centering the ‘giant triplets’ of racism, especially anti-Blackness, capitalism and militarism was a way to honor King’s intersectional work and his call to action, while centering our work together in shared values, shared struggle and respect for our differences,” Majority leadership said. “Our aim is to build a movement of all people dedicated to freedom. That means we don’t deny our differences, we embrace them and build a diverse and inclusive movement that’s bold, broad, and big enough to hold our many realities and identities.”
For more information on the website, the campaign, upcoming events across the nation or to speak with a member of The Majority, please contact Chelsea Fuller (chelsea@teamblackbird.org).
Website: beyondthemoment.org | Facebook: www.facebook.com/BeyondtheMome
