By Movement Generation
Y’all. We don’t have to tell you that the organizing happening in the south is next level. That’s why Durham, North Carolina was a perfect place to gather for the Solidarity Economy Assembly for our Futures, hosted by the New Economy Coalition, of which MG is a proud member.
We had the honor to hear from the Black & Indigenous Solidarity Economies panel including Anna Jeffries of Handèwa Farms and the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, Judge Beverly Scarlett of Indigenous Memories, and Georie Bryant of the Symbodied marketplace. They challenged us to explore our relationships to land, to honor our ancestors, and imagine what polyrhythmic solidarity (different rhythms coming together to create one song) can look like in our movements.
Some of our Creative Wildfire team facilitated “Rehearsing the Next World,” a performance jam session weaving together speculative fiction, theater of the liberated/oppressed, improvisation, political performance, and other body-based tools for collective narrative creation.
We also participated in other member-led sessions, including “From Shock to Climate Survival,” led by Climate Mobilization Project. Grounded in learnings from CMP’s own work to resource and develop climate survival hubs (such as community farms, solar projects, mesh networks, cooperative housing on BIPOC-owned land, water resilience systems, and mutual aid networks), we explored concrete economic openings for solidarity economy development and what our initiatives need in order to become scalable engines of grassroots economic change.
We visited Historic Stagville, where Georie Bryant offered reflections on land, its histories, and how that connects to labor struggles. We also spent time with Judge Beverly Scarlett on a native plant walk. And we turned up with organizers from the Union of Southern Service Workers, who are doing exactly what their name suggests—organizing the south, primarily low-wage service workers who need an organizing home.
On assembly day, Black feminist scholar, poet, author, and activist Alexis Pauline Gumbs offered a powerful grounding that reconnected us to our collective spirit and the deeper reasons we gather. We then convened in regional groups to reflect on shared needs, possibilities, and the tools needed to strengthen our polyrythmic movements. Across the west coast and Pacific Northwest, aka Salmon Nation, we identified our needs and desires for more regular land-based gatherings across our broad bioregion, as well as coordinated resource mobilization.
We left the Solidarity Economy Assembly so nourished, inspired, and fired up! Huge thanks to our friends and partners at the New Economy Coalition, and all the member organizations and allies who made the gathering so generative, soulful, and fun!
Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture.
Source: movementgeneration.org, August 14 2026.