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Action Alerts

Canvassing For Survival & Liberation

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As the compounding crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate collapse, economic inequality, and increased attacks on our access to the ballot continue to ravage our communities – our people are fighting for survival. 

We know that election season is all of the time, not just every four years when the president is at the top of the ticket.

We know that our communities are on the line and that our votes count even in the states and counties where we may feel isolated and dispersed, but we are many.

At SONG Power have a vision of transformative electoral organizing — that is not transactional and intermittent — but instead: 

  • Leads to real material shifts in the Land, Body, Spirit, Work conditions for our constituency (the people who may not even know our name, but are affected by the issues we organize around)
  • Driven by the issues that are priorities to our communities, rather than by the fame or fortune of individuals
  • Incorporates mutual aid — gives back to the community.
  • Builds the power of the community to organize — new leaders and relationships.
  • Rooted in our values in how we treat each other and demonstrates the world we want to live in
  • Connected to year-round organizing, not just elections.
  • Reveals systemic oppressions of capitalism, racism, neoliberalism, imperialism and patriarchy that are embedded in the U.S. electoral process. Elections are a tactic and a means to an end, but are not inherently liberatory.

Canvassing For Survival + Liberation is transformative electoral organizing in action.

“We recognized that in order to bring the people to the level of consciousness where they would seize the time, it would be necessary to serve their interests in survival by developing programs which would help them to meet their daily needs…these programs satisfy the deep needs of the community but they are not solutions to our problem. That is why we call them survival programs, meaning survival pending revolution.”

– Huey P. Newton, To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton

But we don’t just want to survive – we want to thrive. 

We want liberation in our lifetime. 

We believe that the answers we are looking for lie in our communities, with our people, and that behind each door knocked in our neighborhoods are the real political strategists, organizers, and changemakers. 

We are canvassing for our collective dreams, our vision for the future and to find and connect with our beloved community all over the South. 

We are not just putting feet on the ground but our ears to the street – searching for the stories of our people, listening for the rhythm, the words and the phrases that will shape our dreams.

What is Canvassing For Survival + Liberation

Canvassing For Survival and Liberation is a 6 week base building campaign focused on canvassing across the region through three selected sites. 

We are inspired in this plan by Canvassing for Dreams, a SONG Member Initiated Project, produced by Gallery of the Streets as part of [b]REACH: Adventures in Heterotopia.  Beginning in the fall of 2019 through the fall of 2020, Canvassing for Dreams performed theoretical and stylistic interventions in Black counterpublic spaces. The project aimed to queer traditional canvassing and engage communities in public discussions about justice and safety. 

Sites will be chosen through an application process and run by a Local Power Team. Each team will be made up of 5-6 members and consist of the following role: a coordinator, a communications point and a canvass team. SONG Power will offer a paid stipend of $20/hr for up to 20hr/week to each team member. 

Sites will begin the process with onboarding, training and a deep dive into analyzing the needs of their communities, power mapping + assessing the political climate in their area to create a plan tailored to their site. 

Canvassing For Survival + Liberation Site Criteria

  • Align with SONG and SONG Power’s vision, mission + working agreements (will link to this on SONG’s website) 
  • A crew of 5-6 folks who are ready to rock + roll and commit to the 6-week program 
  • Come with a willingness to learn, struggle + grow 

Timeline

  • October 4: Applications Open 
  • October 15: Applications Close 
  • October 15-20: Site Selection, Onboarding + Training  
  • October 20 – December 1: 6 week campaign + canvass blitz
  • December 1 – December 5: Debrief + Assessment
APPLY TO BE A CANVASSING FOR SURVIVAL SITE NOW!

Take Action, Get Power in Georgia!

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Sheriffs are elected and therefore need to be held accountable for the communities they claim to “serve and protect.” Sheriff Butch Conway is finally retiring after caging and handing over our people to ICE for much too long. The election in November is our best opportunity to improve the lives of our communities by replacing him with a Sheriff who will value our Black and immigrant communities of Gwinnett county. 

During the past couple of months SONG Power has been part of Take Action, Get Power, a campaign to build the power of Black and Brown voters in GA, specifically in Gwinnett county. Take Action, Get Power is made up of members of SONG Power, GLAHR Action and members of Mijente.  These three groups  have historically done grassroots organizing work in Georgia and the South. We want to continue to talk to our folks about the issues that are important to them and bring them into this work.  We particularly took on Gwinnett county targeting the Sheriffs elections in Georgia and Trump through the Mijente PAC, #FueraTrump.

Gwinnett has been a county where for the past 24 years the sheriff, Butch Conway has voluntarily signed a contract between the county sheriff’s department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 287(g) agreements are voluntary contracts that is re-signed every 2 years by the county sheriff. 287(g) agreements include federal funding for training 6-8 local officers to “ICE Accreditation” and create processes to honor every hold, administrative warrant or demands that come from ICE. Having a 287(g) county means that every person brought into the jail without citizen privilege will have some contact with ICE. 287(g) is only one of the voluntary ways that the sheriff collaborates with ICE. We must make sure that we demand that they #EndAllCollaborations. Being Black or Brown and driving though a 287g county Gwinnett is unsafe. We know that any encounter with law enforcement can lead to folks being stuck in jail and or ending up in the deportation pipeline which is another part of the prison industrial complex. 

We have been going out in Gwinnett and talking to our folks about the sheriff’s race and what they can do to keep their communities safe. SONG Power is canvassing door-to-door building with Black and Brown voters letting them know about the candidates running who are Democrat, (Kebo Taylor) and Republican (Luis Solis). 

It’s a scary time, however, we felt the best way to connect with our people was to go to them. In order to do so, we took proper safety precautions to ensure everyone’s health and wellness. We have been able to talk to thousands of voters who were all eager to learn more about how to get involved and vote.

Take Action, Get Power will continue going out and talking to Black and Brown voters all the way up to the election in November. If you’d like to get involved please reach out to Tayleece (tayleece@songsouth.org) or Monse (monse@songsouth.org). If you wanna plug in but aren’t in GA please be on the lookout for future phone canvassing events that you can participate in from anywhere.

Sign up to Canvass in Georgia

Create your Election Day voting plan!

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With all of the uncertainty and misinformation surrounding the 2020 election, it’s important to start creating your plan to vote as early as possible. 

Voting absentee or planning to go to your polling place? Have you recently moved? Do you have all of the necessary documents? Are you away at college?

These are some of the questions that are important to answer to create your voting plan for Election Day on November 3rd! 

Nervous to Vote because of COVID-19?

On September 16, 2020, a new law (H.5305/R.149) passed allowing all voters to be able to vote using absentee-by-mail ballots for the upcoming election under the “State of Emergency” reason.

As of October 6, 2020, South Carolinians voting absentee by mail must now have their signatures on ballot return envelopes witnessed after the United States Supreme Court reinstated the requirement.  

Under the court’s order, ballots already received by county officials and those received through October 7th will be counted regardless of whether the return envelope bears a witness signature.

To ensure your absentee by mail ballot counts, voters must:

  • Sign the voter’s oath on the ballot return envelope
  • Have a witness sign and provide address.  Any other person can be a witness.
  • Return your ballot before 7:00 pm on November 3rd. 
  • Ballots can be returned in person or by mail.  You should mail your ballot as soon as possible and at least a week before election day to allow time for delivery before the deadline. 

Important South Carolina Voter Information 

Important South Carolina Voting Dates

  • October 2, 2020 – Deadline to register to vote in person 
  • October 4, 2020 – Deadline to register to vote online at scvotes.org
  • October 5, 2020 – Deadline to register to vote by absentee-by-mail ballot
  • October 5-November 2, 2020 – Vote early at your voter local registration office
  • October 24, 2020 – Absentee-by-mail ballot must be received by this date
  • October 30, 2020 – Absentee-by-mail ballot from Authorized Representatives must be received by this date
  • November 3, 2020 – General Election

Outside of South Carolina? Check your information here: vote411.org

Voting Plan
If not, register here.
Do you have all of the necessary documents to vote? *
Are you voting absentee or in person? *
If you’re voting absentee, have you already requested your ballot? *
If not, request your ballot here.
What time will you be voting? *
How will you be getting to the polls? *
Do you need to take off work or secure child care? *

Pledge to Vote Against Lindsey Graham in November!

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As we topple the stone monuments, we must attack and replace the flesh and bone monuments of the old South – starting with Lindsey Graham.

We envision a New South—Pro-Black, Pro-Queer, Pro-Trans, Pro-Immigrant—and Lindsey Graham is our direct block to the South we envision and deserve.

  • Lindsey Graham spends more time on Fox News than he does engaging with the people of South Carolina. 
  • Lindsey Graham has supported giving billions to corporations but “over his dead body” can the people of South Carolina be given an extension of crucial unemployment benefits. 
  • Lindsey Graham vehemently opposes healthcare expansion while hospitals across the state close and cut rural South Carolinians off from much needed access to health care in the midst of a global pandemic. 

Lindsey Graham must be stopped.

Important Dates

  • October 2: Deadline to register to vote in person 
  • October 4: Deadline to register to vote by email 
  • October 5: Deadline to register to vote by mail 
  • October 30: Deadline to apply for an Absentee Vote by mail 
  • November 2: Deadline to vote Absentee 
  • November 3: General Election 

Join in our fight to #CrackGraham and pledge to vote against Lindsey Graham on November 3. 

Pledge
I'm Voting for

Be a Leader in our Friend-to-Friend Organizing!

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Sign up to be a leader in our friend-to-friend organizing program in South Carolina! We’re asking you to recruit 10 friends and family who might be interested in joining our organizing work to build a South Carolina for all of us.

Do you know folks who want a South Carolina that is safe and welcoming to:

  • Black people
  • Women
  • Immigrants
  • Workers
  • LGBTQ people

Then Let’s Roll!

We are SONG Power: a group of justice-loving Southerners who want to do our part to fight for and win a South Free From Fear. We need more folks on our team and we need YOUR help to find them and invite them in.

Download Empower and start adding your friends and family in South Carolina to participate in our organizing drive.

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