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7 SISTERS, SEVEN STRUGGLES, 7 STORIES

7 SISTERS, SEVEN STRUGGLES, 7 STORIES

The Seven Sisters Campaign is Ella’s Daughters’ effort to hold up 7 vitally important organizations and areas of work and to highlight the ways in which they mirror, intersect and overlap with one another. We also think the women, particularly young women and women of color, who are actively giving leadership, energy and vision to these struggles are sisters we want to strengthen and nurture in any way we can.

Ella’s Daughters (ED) is a network of women activists, artists and scholars working in Ella Baker’s radical democratic, grassroots tradition. We see ourselves as political quilters. Political quilting like other forms of quilt making is a woman-centered collective practice that takes patches and fragments and carefully and creatively stitches them together; producing something that is more than a sum total of its parts, something functional and artful. We want to offer our time and labor to help facilitate this movement-building work without presuming to “lead” or define or control it.

 

Those 7 issues/ principles we are focused on in this campaign are:

1. A just peace in Palestine and Israel, and solidarity with the Palestinian people, especially the people of Gaza living under such brutal occupation. This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: www.arabjewishpartnerhsip.org and www.vivapalestina.org

2. Community-based restorative justice approaches to street violence that is killing our Black and Latino urban youth in gut-wrenching numbers. This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: www.project-nia.org

3. Support, services and self-determination for the Black LGBTQ youth, who are often marginalized by the multiple communities to which they belong. This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: www.affinity.95.org

4. Solidarity with the long-suffering and hard-struggling people of Ayiti (Haiti) and a defense to their right to self-determination, peace, land and resources. This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: http://www.risinginsolidarity.wordpress.com

5. An end to all forms of torture, whether perpetuated by agents of the State, local police forces, or in intimate relationships. This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: http://illinoiscat.wordpress.com

6. Rights and recognition for domestic workers in the United States and globally who are too-often under-paid, overworked to be treated with dignity and respect. This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: www.domesticworkers.org

7. Full human rights and recognition for undocumented workers and youth, and support for the leadership of young activists who self-describe as “undocumented and unafraid.” This work is being carried out by many groups that EDs work with including: www.iyjl.org

How can you support and get involved in the campaign?

1. Join Ella’s Daughters

2. Ask your organization, school or institution to invite a group of Ella’s Daughters to speak about the 7 sisters campaign and perform our monologue that tells the story of Ella Baker’s life and legacy.

3. Send a patch for our social justice quilt which is growing

4. Volunteer, make a donation or write a blog about the campaign or any one of the organizations listed.

5. Stitch some connections on the Ella’s Daughters blog ….

6. Help, support or sign up for the delegations we will be organizing to go to Palestine and to Haiti. More info to come.

7. Offer spoken word, art, or photos that help us stitch together these 7 struggles or some combination of them