In response to the sustained and increasingly visible violence against Black communities in the U.S. and globally, a collective of more than 50 organizations representing thousands of Black people from across the country have come together with renewed energy and purpose to articulate a common vision and agenda. Their resistance and rebellion are not new, but like other times in history have come to a critical mass, and the bravery of those in Ferguson and across the country captured the attention of the world. A year ago, over 2,000 of us gathered in Cleveland to reflect on the state of their movement for liberation and celebrate their people, both those who have fallen and those who have survived. It was there that they began the process of uniting to articulate a shared vision of the world they want to live in. Cleveland reaffirmed what they already knew. Neither their grievances nor their solutions are limited to the police killing of their people. State violence takes many forms – it includes the systemic underinvestment in their communities, the caging of their people, predatory state and corporate practices targeting their neighborhoods, government policies that result in the poisoning of their water and the theft of their land, failing schools that criminalize rather than educate their children, economic practices that extract their labor, and wars on their Trans and Queer family that deny them their humanity. On the last day of the conference hundreds gathered to have strategy conversations about what liberation would look like and the policies, organizing and resources that would be needed to get us there. During those conversations they received a mandate – it was time to articulate their vision and unite behind it. In response to this mandate, the Movement for Black Lives Policy Table engaged in a year long process of convening local and national groups to create a United Front. The result of their collective efforts is this platform. In addition to the groups in the United Front, they have also engaged their people. They have received feedback from hundreds of people through surveys, national calls, organizational membership, engaged dozens of other organizations, researchers, and other individuals for their insights and expertise to begin developing a framework for shared policy priorities. It does not include every policy Black people should be working on, but elevates those for which there was shared energy and action in this political moment. Their hope is that this is both an articulation of their collective aspirations as well as a document that provides tangible resources for groups and individuals doing the work. They recognize that some of the demands in this document will not happen today. But they also recognize that they are necessary for their liberation. For each of the 30+ policies in the document, they have policy briefs that describe the steps that must be taken to get us closer to their liberation. These briefs include information about whether legislation can happen at the local, state or federal level, information about groups already working on related projects, and resources including model legislation and talking points. They want this platform to be both a visionary agenda for their people and a resource for us. They take as a departure point the reality that by every metric – from the hue of its prison population to its investment choices – the U.S. is a country that does not support, protect or preserve Black life. And so they seek not reform but transformation. As this platform launches in the context of the Democratic National Convention, they also recognize that neither mainstream political party has their interests at heart. They know all too well that the reforms that have passed at the local and state level do not address the root causes of the killing, dehumanization, and torture of their people. Instead, many increase police budgets and diagnosis the problem as one of “implicit bias” or “bad apples.” At best these are band aids on gaping bullet wounds, and at worse they are interventions that simply increase corporate and state power and make it easier for the state to devalue and destroy their communities. Their history has taught us that they must create their own agenda, they must implement it, and they must hold elected leaders accountable to following through. In a long tradition of Black covenants for Freedom, from the African National Congress Freedom Charter to the Black RadicalFreedom Agenda, they offer this document as an articulation of their aspirations in this moment. They are Black people from all walks of life – young, elder, queer, cis, trans, differently abled. They have come together in the rich tradition of their ancestors to imagine new ways forward for their liberation. They are dreamers and doers knowing that their work draws on the best of their history but must go beyond it to forge a fierce, free and beautiful future together that they can only imagine into reality. The M4BL Policy Table will focus on supporting the development and implementation of visionary and uncompromising local, national, and international policy objectives aimed at ending state-sanctioned violence against Black communities. The table will do this by: - Coordinating, supporting, and elevating local policies that divest in policing, invests in strong communities, and ensure community control - Work to change the national narrative around policing & incarceration, serving as a hub for innovate and visionary thinking inspired by the need to challenge existing federal policy, laws and regulations, struggle to find alignment with regards to national demands, and collaborate on the development of transformative national policies - Use upcoming international opportunities and human rights mechanisms to expose the systemic human rights violations inflicted on black communities, the linkages between people of African descent in the US with other Black people around the world, make connections with oppressed people globally, and chip away at American exceptionalism
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