“As the South goes, so goes the nation.” –W.E.B. DuBois
“As the South goes, so goes the nation.” –W.E.B. DuBois
Throughout U.S. history, the South has been the anchor for some of the country’s most racist and anti-worker politics. It is no coincidence that Southern states have the highest poverty rates and lowest worker unionization rates. At the same time, the Black liberation and labor movements in the South have been at the center of struggles that have jolted the entire country forward; from Reconstruction after the Civil War, to militant strikes by coal miners, textile workers, tobacco farmers and others, to the fight against Jim Crow segregation.
The Southern Labor Youth Movement is a student organization that takes inspiration from the history of struggles for Black power and worker power in the South, in order to prepare young people to build political power in the South today. We engage in organizing campaigns and political education to challenge the power of the wealthy interests that have dominated the South for so long, including the biggest employers and universities.
The moneyed class in the South has always worked relentlessly to assert their economic and political interests. They have twisted the laws to stack the deck in their favor, and have used racism to hold Black people down and keep the working class divided. They went so far as to wage a Civil War to defend their right to brutally exploit and oppress millions of enslaved Black people. They have brutally attacked efforts by workers to build unity across racial lines because these efforts threaten the entire political structure of the region. This is why the Southern elites fight against unions so hard in particular — because unions organize all of the workers at any given workplace, of all identity backgrounds, to fight for their collective interests.
When civil rights organizations, labor unions, and other groups have been strong, progress has followed. When we are not organized, the rich and powerful take advantage. People in the South today are hungry for a change to the status quo.
With organization and strategy, we can transform the South and the entire country. Young people will need to play a major role in that transformation. Join us in building SLYM to help make that change a reality!