“It feels like, just to be able to sustain life is a victory!”

When I look back on what kinds of changes I see, what has been a gain is that . . . we have slowly been developing more interrelationships, more sense of vision. I can’t say all of [the left] is visionary and linked, but there has been much more motion in that direction. I would say there are many more connections now, with people understanding the nature of capitalism, and being able to talk about it — which back then we could not, openly. You look back at the language, the language was very careful in those days. Where we have progressed, is that some organizers have more of a sense of systemic forces.

I would say that there was this period of time, when the movement went through a real severe fragmentation — ultra-left type stuff. Really, it was the Klan murders in Greensboro [in 1979, of progressive activists] that changed that. Those murders really were a turning point in terms of people coming back, and making connections.

[Another sign] of progress is the leadership of women. It needs a lot more work, but there has been a lot of work done that has surfaced the organizing of women, particularly women of color, and their own methodologies.

A role I think Southern Exposure has played well is articulating and uplifting what the work has been here in the South, so we understand ourselves as a region. There is more consciousness of the South’s peculiarities as a region among organizers.

I think people romanticize the past. There was not a huge movement in 1973. It was the Nixon years, a heavy time of setback. I really get irritated with people who were involved in the civil rights movement say, “that was the movement, and there’s nothing now.” Well, it was different. People had a very clear target, and things got inspired in one place and would affect another. But there’s a difference between mobilizing, and organizing — sustaining bases of power for people. We did make some progress, but there are waves of attacks to undermine it. There’s what’s going on right now in Alabama with the voter fraud cases, the Supreme Court decisions that are wiping out black political representation. The struggle is constant, and there are always shifts undermining the progress we’ve made.

But what’s stronger now is the power of the media, to make people think that everything is fine — that their own life is just an aberration, and something is wrong with them, as individuals. So the powers are much more powerful now. It feels like, if we are just able to sustain life, and maintain joy — wow, what a victory!

Folks are learning to not come at communities and people with formulaic approaches. This is something the left has been extremely guilty of. Instead, people have been learning to start where people are. That’s our biggest challenge. Instead of getting more sophisticated, our work is getting more elemental. That’s what good organizers are learning.

Also, back in the early movement days, there was a lot of spiritual force in the organizing work. People were empowered with song. And people are getting back to that, and I think that’s a real positive direction. This work is transformational work, and it gives us the opportunity to talk about culture, and not simply the economic system or the political system. We should be creating and practicing what we want to be. I feel like women’s participation has had a lot to do with us getting to this point.