Southern Workers Assembly

Greetings,

The Southern Workers Assembly is excited to share that we will be convening a Southern Worker School in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 21 through April 23.

The theme of the spring gathering is “Organizing a Workers Assembly from A to Z.” The school will focus primarily on putting forward a methodology for developing workers assemblies, drawn from our experience on the ground, and the role they play in building a social movement oriented infrastructure to organize and express worker power in the South. This will constitute the majority of Saturday’s program, combining both political discussion and more concrete skills-based training.

The worker school will open on Friday evening with a special, public program featuring workers engaged in struggles across the South, and an assessment of the conditions of the period that will lay the basis for discussions throughout the weekend. There will also be plenty of time throughout the weekend for informal discussion between workers from different cities and sectors, as well as intentional spaces to facilitate those conversations as well. We’ll conclude midday on Sunday.

We encourage worker cadre and other activists engaged in building local workers assemblies to make plans to attend the school in Charlotte. If you are part of a workers assembly or otherwise part of the Southern Workers Assembly network, you will receive the registration link separately.

This year, we are organizing participation in the worker school a bit differently than we’ve done in the past. We would also like to extend an invitation to other workers and activists in the South who are not yet engaged in building a workers assembly, but who are interested in learning more and developing one in your area, to join us as well. If this applies to you, please reach out to us at info@southernworker.org for additional information about participating.

The Southern Worker Schools are the SWA’s primary regional gathering, and have been held once per year most years since our founding in 2012. The schools bring together worker cadre engaged in assembly building and organizing in their workplaces from across the South for a weekend of political education, organizing skills training, strategy discussions and campaign development, and relationship/network building.

There are always many costs associated with organizing these types of regional convenings. With the expanded scope of participation for this year’s Southern Worker School, those costs will be even greater. If you are able to make a donation to support the gathering and delegations of workers who will be traveling to participate, please do so here.

This will be an exciting and important gathering. We look forward to sharing additional updates as we build towards the school in April, and seeing many of you there. Organize the South!

In solidarity,
Southern Workers Assembly