Building a Movement In the Face of a Terrifying Time
The recently concluded elections are terrifying. Donald Trump won more than 60 percent of the white vote with an explicit plan to attack immigrants and bring the police against “left wing” people. He is moving to dismantle some of the already fragile rights we have and already hostile government agencies that claim to protect us. It is not just Trump but his militant right-wing army that our movement needs to confront.
We also felt terrified by the campaign of Kamala Harris who plodded to have “the world’ most “lethal army” support Israeli policies of genocide against the Palestinian people, and unleash war against Russia, China, and the world. It was particularly painful when Vice President Harris brought on rightwing republicans on the stage of the Democratic National Convention but prohibited even one Palestinian speaker to show their humanity. We want to encourage our movement to also be to the left of, independent of, and in confrontation with the Democratic Party. That is what the Strategy Center has done for 35 years.
At this point in history, the election is over and our movement is on its own facing two challenges. In The Strategy Center we want to build our own theory and practice, but to give even more priority to movement. Too often, we are not as unified as we say or do. We all know much more has to be done. We also want to offer our hearts and hands to immigrant communities who are already facing unbearable conditions and can both imagine and anticipate even greater attacks. We stand with and are part of the immigrant rights movement.
We are a piece of the larger puzzle and we do think we play a unique role in the politics of LA and the U.S. Our main strategy is non-sectarian, united front movement building. We seek to unite with all who can be united and put forth our revolutionary strategy to up the level of discussion and common organizing work.
We will continue to fight against thee continual and ferocious anti-Black genocidal U.S. policies against the Black community. We work in South Central where we see the daily struggles of Black and Latinx peoples. Our work is cut out for us.
But we do hope you can support us financially.
We want to re-affirm our mandate to organize like we never have before because our lives literally depend on it!
The Strategy Center is a multi-racial, majority Black-led “change the world organization.” We address “the totality of urban life” and work on many issues—but our single strategy is to dismantle the U.S. imperialist white settler state. We’re working to create the vision for the world we want to live in.
We are an organization with a big vision—to be part of an international movement to challenge U.S. anti-Black genocide, global burning, and world hegemony through military force and world war. Building radical institutions like Strategy and Soul offers the community a political home and an opportunity to test our alternative visions for the institutions that we encounter daily.
We need your help to carry out this large vision. Please consider a generous contribution today.
Strategy & Soul
Strategy & Soul Movement Center is our vision in the flesh, and we need your help to grow this vision exponentially. We’re proud to have hosted several sidewalk activations at the King Day Parade, Taste of Soul, and other events. We took our bookstore into the field at the LA Times Festival of Books. We took our book cart to several demonstrations to end the siege on Palestine. We were excited to work with LA Commons as we made masks for the Festival of Masks in Lemert Park. This year we sold 416 books and we hope you’ll join us on December 21st at Strategy and Soul to help us raise that number to 516 or more books.
BSAP and Black Specific Programing
This year, the Police Free LAUSD coalition has been a target in the national effort to dismantle Black specific reparative policies and programs. LAUSD was the second target on the Koch Brothers’, right wing billionaires, list. But we also saw how readily the district went along with their plan to give away the rights of Black students. We have been and still are in the fight that serves as a prelude to 2025 and beyond as there are now public threats to not just roll back every civil rights victory over the last 60 years, but in fact to permanently install open fascism beginning from the federal government. While we are worried about 2025, we refuse to back down! And we will fight like hell to protect Black specific programing.
South Central Power Up and Black Folks on Bikes an alternative to the racist MTA
This year Mayor Bass unilaterally announced a police surge on Metro buses and trains similar to Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Broken Windows Policing strategy to target Black and Latinx passengers. She was quoted in an LA Times article on the 2028 Olympics advocating that the working class and poor people of LA should stay home (become invisible and not attend) during the 2028 Olympics while she promised a world class bus system for world attendees to the 2028 Olympics. The Metro and Mayor Bass with four votes passed Item 45 at the Metro board which created a proposal to militarize MTA buses and trains with AI-Backed criminalization technology. They voted to create a specialized MTA police force.
With the new Anti-Black state of the art martial law in operation on Metro, how can we not create something new like the South-Central Power Up E-bike lending library? In partnership with Ride On Bike Co-Op, People for Mobility Justice, Esperanza Community Housing, Trust South LA, SCOPE, Community Services Unlimited, Ride Wit Us Bike Shop, and LA Clean Tech Incubator, we’re hosting a free to South Central 250 e-bike lending library. Participants can check out a bike for up to 30 days, and in the process, learn more about the Bus Riders Union, improve their mental and physical health, and participate in an alternative vision for public transportation that does not include the police, and other oppressive institutions. So far participants in the program have ridden 6500 miles collectively. The Strategy Center signed up 9 participants who have now fully completed trainings in the last month. And we have 30 more participants who will be participating in in person trainings in early 2025. Collectively there are almost 300 people signed up for trainings across South Central. By June 2025 there will be enough trainings in place to train an additional 180 participants. That means more than 200 people on e-bikes in 2025.
The Strategy Center runs the Bus Riders Union while the L.A. Metro buses don’t run at all. We call for Free Public Transportation, No Police on the Buses and Trains, 500 Community Conductors, 1,000 additional bus service hours and 1,000 zero emission vehicles. We are a leading environmental and climate justice group fighting the racist and reactionary Metro. We have been calling upon L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, with 4 votes on the MTA board, to support our work. So far, we are still waiting. Your financial support can increase our organizing power.
Free Palestine!
Since our inception in 1989 the Strategy Center has been part of the international movement for the self-determination of the people of Palestine. We have joined with others to demand No Israeli Settlements in the West Bank, End the Israeli Blockade and Concentration Camps in Gaza, Worldwide sanctions against Israel and an end of all U.S. military aid to Israel. On our radio show, Voices from the Frontlines, host Eric Mann had two deep conversations with Michel Shehadeh of the Free Democratic Palestine Movement. Our Strategy and Soul Bookstore features The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalid. In 2014, Eric published “Palestine Will Win: Solidarity from a Self-Respecting Jew” in Counterpunch.org and as a majority Black organization we march to Free Free Palestine!
We are carrying out Revolutionary Organizing in the Age of Counterrevolution
We have a great Leadership Team. Black majority, half Black women, with a high level of trust. We care about each other, share a common vision and have a deep commitment to Black, Latinx, and Third World People.
We run Strategy and Soul Books, Strategy and Soul Films, and the South-Central Power-Up E-Bike Lending Library. Many groups doing this scope of work have budgets 5 times larger than ours.
We urgently need your most generous contribution to push our program forward
We know you want to stand with us. Please donate generously.
Channing, Eric, Barbara, and Akunna
