Peoples Movement Assembly

Peoples Movement Assemblies have been used across the United States as a way for people to develop to collective plans for action about issues by which they are impacted.
Goals
Peoples Movement Assembly, according to Charity Hicks of the People's Water Board (who has been a part of organizing an assembly), is a “tool used to convene community and to build consensus toward actions and programs”. William Copeland, Stand Up Speak Out Program Coordinator with the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, further explains, “The goals of the are to bring people together to discuss social problems, come up with creative solutions and make commitments for working together”. and, as stated by Ruben Solís of the Southwest Workers Union and PMA working group, “are tackling the hard issues that we, as a nation, are facing,”. According to the Peoples Movement Assembly website:Peoples Movement Assemblies are community gatherings designed for groups to develop political agreements and positions and design action plans to work together across issues on local, regional, and national fronts.
History
The Peoples Movement Assembly process grew from the Social Movement Assembly process, which “ is a significant parallel process to the open space of the World Social Forum that allows social movements from across the globe to converge to discuss common positions and call for collective action.” The Social Movement Assembly was introduced to the United States at the Border Social Forum in October 2006. According to Project Souhth, an anchor organization of the Peoples Movement Assembly process, this process was “developed to complement and strengthen the potential of the Forum’s open space”,
At the 2010 United States Social Forum
"Nearly 100 local, regional and issue based People’s Movement Assemblies engag tens of thousands of people nationwide before and during the 2010 United States Social Forum".
The People's Movement Assemblies (PMA's) before and during the US Social Forum were shaped into a very structured and strategic process of regional assemblies before the forum and national issue-specific assemblies during the forum.
These PMA's generated concrete resolutions and calls to action that bring a helpful focus to the thousands of discussions that happened at the USSF - further developing these resolutions and carrying out these coordinated actions will bring us closer to our visions for a better world for all of our communities.
A National Peoples Movement Assembly was held on the last day of the Social Forum, from which a National Agenda was created.
Issues
Since 2006, many Peoples Movement Assemblies have been organized that have focused on a wide range of issues. Here is a list of some of them:
*International Solidarity and Responsibility Peoples Movement assembly
*Formerly Incarcerated People PMA Montgomery, March 2011
*Pick up Your Peace II Youth PMA New Orleans, March 2011
*Healthy Lifestyles Youth PMA Atlanta, April 2011
*Alternative to Detroit Works Project PMA April 2011
:The Detroit PMA is a space to discuss rightsizing and other challenges Detroiters face on democratic and community governance and to come up with grassroots visions and solutions and the Southwest Workers Union, both of which have organized and been involved in multiple Peoples Movement Assemblies and which “established a working group to build the process as an organizing strategy to mobilize and prepare our forces Before the Forum, establish political direction and commitments to action During the Forum, and implement movement-wide action plans After the Forum”
*A Better Way Foundation
*All of Us or None
*American Federation of Government Employees
*Bill of Rights Defense Committee
*Black Rose Communication/Indian Voices
*Boggs Educational Center
*Casa de Maryland
*Centro Obrero
*Coalition of the Uninsured and Underinsured for Single-Payer
*creating democracy
*Critical Resistance
*DC Childcare Collective
*DC Food For All
*DC Jobs with Justice
*DC Trans Coalition
*Detroit Great Lakes Bioneers
*Drug Policy Alliance
*East Michigan Environmental Action Council
*Echo Justice participatory research project, which “will gather information from organizers in the field about how they frame their struggles and will begin a narrative map of the control myths that obstruct systemic change in the U.S. The initial pilot project, which is being shepherded by movement support groups like the Center for Media Justice, Praxis Project , Movement Strategy Center and smartMeme, used the Social Forums Peoples Movement Assembly process "to instigate deeper conversations about the role of transformative framing and shared storytelling across our different struggles and movements.”
*Education for Liberation Network
*Empower DC
*Energy Action Coalition
*Every Mother is a Working Mother Network
*Families for Freedom
*Foro Social de Puerto Rico
*fuerza Unida
*Gandhi Brigade
*Global Women's Strike and Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike
*Grand Rapids Red Project
*Gray Panthers of Metropolitan Washington
*Haiti Action Committee
*Haiti Emergency Relief Fund
*Healthcare now, which organized a Peoples Movement Assembly at the US Social Forum 2010
*The Highlander Research and Education Center, which organized a Peoples Movement Assembly at the US Social Forum 2010
*Human Rights Coalition
*Institute for Democratic Education in America
*International Jewish Anti-Zionest Network, which organized "The US Assembly of Jews: Confronting Israeli Apartheid and Racism," at the US Social Forum in Detroit. According to their website, “The Assembly was a great success with over 200 participants exploring and developing anti-Zionist Jewish politics, organizing and activism. Our gathering secured over fifty endorsements from organizations in the US and internationally, was intergenerational, and included partners from the Palestinian liberation movement and other anti-racist, anti-imperialist struggles”
*Iraq Veterans Against the War - DC Chapter
*The Jericho Movement
*Kentucky Jobs with Justice
*The Latin American Solidarity Coalition, which organized a Peoples Movement Assembly at the US Social Forum 2010
*Labor Heritage Foundation
*Latino Economic Development Corporation
*Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
*Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
*Michigan Peace Network
*Michigan Welfare Rights Organization
*Movement Generation
*Movement Strategy Center
*Movi Mesoamerica de Migrantes
*Muslim American Society - Freedom Foundation
*the National African American Drug Policy Coalition-Detroit
*National Student Bill of Rights for All Youth
*Network of Spiritual Progressives
*Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace
*The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
*Teachers for Social Justice
*The Ordinary Peoples Society
*Payday men's network
*Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ
*PODER
*Puente
*Restaurant Opportunities Center-DC
*ROC Michigan
*Rockwood Leadership Institute
*RNC 8 Defense Committee
*The Ruckus Society
*Social Justice Leadership
*Southeast Jobs with Justice
*Southerners On New Ground
*Southwest Organizing Project
*Stone Circles
*Tikkun Magazine
*Tonatierra
*Transformative Change
*US Human Rights Network
*Via Campesina and Food First, both of which posted the Statement from the People’s Movement Assembly on Food Sovereignty
*Voices of Community Advocates and Leaders (Vocal)
*Washington Peace Center
*Youth Community Action Program
and more

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