“Kathi Johnson, a Democrat, spends her time knocking on doors in her part of far-northeastern, deep-red Kentucky, talking about divisive issues like abortion and inflation.”
“We need to build our collective power and synthesize our stories, dreams, and skills. To do this, the Kentucky Movement Assembly (KMA) was born.”
“I was set paying a particular amount of rent, and then management changed and the rent went up because we had to sign a new lease,” said Sophia Tillett, a Shelbyville renter. “I have lived in small towns most of my life, and it’s so baffling to me that in small towns like this, we’re paying the rent of cities. It just, it baffles me.”
“Beth Howard is the Appalachian People’s Union Director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), which focuses on engaging White and working-class voters around racial and economic justice issues. Howard said SURJ ran the largest field program opposing Amendment 2 in 2022 and successfully persuaded voters to cross party lines.
“We will keep fighting until our schools are safe from SB150, and safe from weapons detection systems and police in schools. These issues are connected and we refuse to let them come for any of us without coming through all of us.”
“Rural places get labeled as red and conservative, but they are disenfranchised places that are being left behind. People are complicated. So when you knock a door, most people are not going to fit into political parties the way that we’ve defined it.
The initiative — dubbed the White Stripe Project — aims to woo white voters in greater numbers to liberal causes and supply empirical data to challenge the conventional ways Democrats traditionally engage with this crucial voting bloc.
While demographics are shifting, white people still comprise a racial majority in many parts of this country. Nearly any strategy outlined to build a united front to defeat fascism at the federal level in 2024, and then to build our movement’s power beyond that, will necessitate a large group of white people coming with us. And we believe it’s important to name the elephant in the room: when we’re talking about our opponent’s base, we’re almost entirely talking about white people.
“A JCPS policy committee crafted two options in response to new state restrictions on trans student rights: one proposal upholds, the other defies. “As the
That’s why I love what Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) is up to. They build, what they call, “people power” in multi-racial communities across the country. Today, they have 200 chapters taking on a range of deeply local projects, as well as a big, ambitious national strategy to fight authoritarianism. I am so grateful they have their eye on the prize.
