S.O.N.G.

(SONG Elders involved in the founding of SONG: Suzanne Pharr, Mandy Carter, and Minnie Bruce Pratt)

What USSF Did You Witness in Atlanta?

MY USSF – Suzanne Pharr

When over 10,000 social justice activists attend a political gathering that has over 1000 sessions and events spread out over a major Southern city, it is clear that each person gets only a small individual view of a massive gathering. For example, I attended the Queer Left daylong session and three workshops, co-led two big workshops, moderated a plenary on gender and sexuality, and attended three plenaries. These—plus the great moments at the cultural stage, the pleasures of the food stands, and the happy encounters with hundreds of friends, political acquaintances, and comrades—mark the parameters of my USSF experience. Here are a few observations I brought away as a member of the leadership team of Southerners on New Ground, attending from Monday until late Saturday night.

I don’t think that most of the outcomes of the USSF will be quantifiable, but I believe we will look back on a few things that will seem like watershed moments:

1) A generational and racial shift in leadership. It appeared that many—maybe the majority—of the attendees were under 35 and a significantly large number of the overall gathering was people of color. It was not the face of the old sectarian left or of progressive reformists. In particular, it seemed a moment when the children and grandchildren of the Civil Rights generation moved forward in unheralded and powerful leadership that was not accepting the “passing of the torch” from their elders but moving with an understanding of new conditions and demographics into a different way of viewing the world and organizing to change it. Many of my over-sixty generation have hoped that younger people would carry our work on, and many of us have feared that in the process that we and our histories would be cast aside. It seems to me that the good news is that they are not carrying our work on but are blending it into their own very different work and are doing it with respect, honor and appreciation of their elders. As Paulina Hernandez said in her welcome to the Queer Left in the opening ceremony, “It is the courage and work of our elders that has made it possible for us to have the freedom to be here in this moment.”

2) The leadership of queers and women and the understanding of intersectionality. Because there was such extraordinary visibility and leadership of the thousands of queer activists and women at the Forum, social justice workers across the country will recognize how our bodies, our lives, our work permeate all of the struggles for social change. We are at the center, insisting upon the intersectionality of issues, saying that there should be not many separate, competitive and isolated movements but one movement where the complexity of our lives and concerns intersect and be interconnected. A concept initiated by women of color in the 1970s, intersectionality now will become a central tenet of our overall movement thinking.

3) The great split. Several different strains of division ran through the Forum. Two examples: A) Those who believe good, professionalized institutions can compete in the tax-exempt marketplace and fight the forces of conservatism and destruction—and those who believe the non-profits are defective and dying and new ways of working together must be envisioned for transformational change. B) Those who fight each other internally and externally for the One proper political position—my way or no way—and those who are developing organizing methods that speak to people’s longing and desire, to the interconnection of our minds, bodies and spirits.

My expectations of the Forum were not great. I was afraid there had been too much internal wrangling; it was too under-organized and under-funded; that we couldn’t bring the left together when we don’t even have a contemporary definition of the left. And instead of giving me reasons to mutter and complain, it gave me hope—the presence of so many people bringing their best stuff—workshops, t-shirts, pamphlets; the open-hearted, generous, stay-on-task attitudes of participants in the large SONG workshops; the joyous and inspiring cultural activities; and the critical mass of so many people coming together to make the Forum happen under difficult conditions as one step along the way in making another world possible.

(SONG invites our members who attended the Forum to send us your observations—no more than 1000 words, please. On this website, we will begin to piece together a vision of the whole. EMAIL REFLECTIONS TO:

caitlin@southernersonnewground.org