Peoples’ Senate

The Peoples’ Senate is a strategic initiative stemming from the 2021 International Tribunal held in New York City on the weekend of October 22-25, wherein the United States government and its States were charged with and found guilty of genocide against Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples.

And yet we must do more than simply celebrate the International Panel of Jurists’ guilty verdict. Our job now is to organize a meaningful resistance to this genocide, rooted in the Black, Brown and Indigenous communities themselves. There are many ongoing and vital organizing efforts across the country, many local, some focused on single issues, others broader. All could be assisted by a network linking the various efforts, informing the many forces of the work of others and amplifying the voices of all.

Thus the Spirit of Mandela Coalition―which organized the International Tribunal―is calling for the formation of a Peoples’ Senate that can help to construct a network to link these efforts and, in the best case, become a platform through which the struggles of each might become the struggle of all―speaking out against genocide and other abuses with a collective voice and developing a program of action to address various issues/struggles that can unite and strengthen our collective voice. The Peoples’ Senate, over time, will be working to provide a model for an alternative to existing governance, show how a body might work that truly represents the people and strives to put decision-making in their hands.

The goal is, therefore, four-fold:

a) to help publicize and promote all of the work that everyone is already doing,

b) to make links between individuals and groups and potentially organize common projects to assist in developing collaborative efforts,

c) to develop new initiatives that can unite us on a national and international scale,

d) to elect a Peoples’ Senate, bringing forward the leadership of Black, Brown and Indigenous communities and providing an arena for discussion, exchange and developing solutions to the problems faced by all.

Our vision is a Senate which will be a representative body of the peoples and their organizations, elected by local meetings or gatherings based on geography, or on constituency, or on groups of people engaged in common work. It will then meet on a national level to discuss how this goal of developing a united struggle might be pursued. Election meetings can be regular meetings of already established groups or collectives, or they may be ad-hoc caucuses created specifically for the purpose of electing senators.