Reflections on SxSW's Summit on Accountable Governance

This past weekend, Southwest Workers' Union participated in a three-day Summit on Accountable Governance organized by the SxSW (South by Southwest) Experiment, a coalition of social justice organizations in Texas, New Mexico and Mississippi. Participating with us were elected officials from our 3 states, alongside organizers, community members and activists affiliated with SWU, Southern Echo and the Mississippi Delta Catalyst Roundtable in Jackson, MS and the Southwest Organizing Project in Albuquerque, NM. Held in Jackson, the Summit was pronounced a rousing success by many participants by the end of our stay. Southern Echo were awesome hosts, and their hard work, planning, and delicious food made everyone feel welcome and at home.

The purpose of the Summit was to start talking amongst and across organizations about what accountable governance looks like in our communities. For the past couple of years SWU has been meeting with SWOP and Southern Echo, sharing our histories, cultures, and political struggles in a larger process of building alliances between African American, Chicana/o, and Native American social justice organizations. Having done some of this very important groundwork, the convening this past weekend attempted to take the first steps toward strategizing what we need to do both within and across our respective communities, focusing specifically on the question of how to build new models of governance that are accountable to communities of color and working/poor folks broadly.


Over the course of two intensive days of small and large group discussion, we raised and examined from multiple angles such questions as: What sorts of principles should be at the moral center of policy formation and implementation? What constitutes fairness or justice in the relationship between government and community? What responsibilities do community and public officials have in ensuring fairness or justice in the governmental process? And how can we transform the existing governmental process--rooted as it is in historical relations of systemic racism, classism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia--so that it is accountable to historically oppressed communities?

In other words, we had some very deep conversations about what it would mean and look like for historically oppressed communities to be, in the words of Southern Echo Director Leroy Johnson, not simply the objects of policy, but its architects and administrators--for governance to truly be by the people and for the people. In the next 12-18 months, SxSW will be having further discussions on the concrete steps necessary within our organizations and as a coalition for reaching these goals. Most immediately, SWU along with SWOP and Southern Echo will be focusing on census and redistricting issues, as well as attempting to craft energy policy for San Antonio that is rooted in principles of sustainability and social justice. So, more to come down the line on SWU's activities as part of the SxSW Experiment!