Jacksonville, FL – On Friday evening, December 6, the air was electric as the inaugural Southern Regional Organizing Conference (SROC) of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) kicked off with a rally outside Café Resistance. Over 200 attendees gathered to connect, reflect and prepare for the intensive days ahead.

Florida State Representative Angie Nixon welcomed attendees to the venue, which serves as a hub for activists and community-building in Jacksonville. In light of the recent Trump victory, Nixon remarked that it is up to us to, “keep up the fight. We gotta get back to the basics: Grassroots organizing.”

“When I say people, you say power!” Monique Sampson, a conference organizer and member of the NAARPR National Desk began, “We are here to organize and resist. They say the South is too far gone. This weekend shows that it is a lie! We are here to fight. This weekend is about struggle. It is about justice and continuing to fight. Because when we dare to struggle, we dare to win!”

Organizers and participants expressed enthusiasm about the weekend’s agenda, which is set to address critical issues such as community control of the police, political repression, and liberation struggles across the Deep South. Many noted the significance of convening in Jacksonville, a historic Black city marked by both resilience and repression.

In his speech, NAARPR Co-Chair Michael Sampson highlighted the need to struggle against undemocratic and racist state laws like Florida’s HB-1 and Texas's HB-9, two measures that will criminalize protests and block police accountability. Sampson emphasized, “We are going to keep pushing for real political power. All the harsh repression we have faced in Florida; they are trying to snuff out our voice and harm our movement. Our presence and organizing here is a message and a clear shot across the bow: they cannot stop us.”

Frank Chapman, the executive director of the Alliance, told the crowd, “When we were born 51 years ago, all of our first major cases came out of the South. Wilmington 10, Atlanta 6, Joann Little. Today, the National Alliance continues to press the legacy of fighting repression in the South. The SROC is about building the people’s power. The South has always been a battleground for the Black liberation movement, and we are here to take the struggle to a new level.”

The evening’s rally set a powerful tone for the weekend. The night buzzed with conversations about the transformative potential of the strategizing sessions and discussions to come.

As the rally concluded, NAARPR Co-Chair Sydney Loving addressed the crowd, grounding the event in its historical significance. She led attendees in a unified chant: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win!”

“Our job is not to tell people they are oppressed,” Loving continued. “The people feel it – we feel it heavily in the South. Our job as organizers is to show our communities that we can step into our power together and do something about it. We can and always will fight back.”

The night ended with the crowd chanting, “The South got something to say!”

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #USSouth #NAARPR #SROC #Feature

Fight Back News Service is circulating this call from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression inviting organizers in the South to attend a regional organizing conference.

This December 6th-8th, the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (NAARPR) is convening our inaugural Southern Regional Organizing Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. This conference will bring together progressive forces in the South fighting for Black liberation, Indigenous rights and land sovereignty. We are fighting back against police crimes and political repression to free all those unjustly incarcerated as well as defending all progressive movements fighting for a just society. NAARPR, which arose out of the movement to Free Angela Davis, was refounded in 2019 with well over two dozen branches and affiliate organizations nationwide. Since the 2020 George Floyd uprisings, NAARPR has seen a growth in new organizing struggles in cities across the country; specifically, in the Black Belt Region of the Deep South, the historic homelands of Africans trafficked to North America, where the majority of their descendants still live today.

This conference will be taking place in Jacksonville, Florida. As we have seen the past few years, Florida has been home to some of the harshest forms of political repression happening today. This includes the passage of anti-protest laws such as HB1, attempted repression of the Tampa 5 and others fighting against racism, right wing government attempts seeking to ban the teaching of Black history in education, bigoted laws targeting reproductive rights, immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community. In spite of all this, NAARPR branches and affiliate organizations, notably those in Jacksonville, Tampa, Tallahassee, New Orleans, Atlanta, the District of Columbia, Dallas, and Charleston have made great gains in fighting back and building the people’s struggle. These branches join in the struggle and fight for the movement’s right to demand: community control of the police, land sovereignty, labor rights, universal housing, reproductive freedom, quality health care and education; reparations; and environmental justice.

Our work across the South today is a continuation of a longstanding liberation struggle being waged by Black and Indigenous people. Since the first Africans were trafficked here to provide free slave labor on stolen Indigenous land, we have struggled for our freedom. As a national mass defense organization, we fight for self-determination and political power, a right that has been denied to Black people in the South since Reconstruction. NAARPR branches nationwide understand the significance of international solidarity with oppressed people across the globe. We have extended our unequivocal support to the Palestinian people’s struggle and the liberation of all oppressed nations. We acknowledge that our liberation is inextricably connected.

The NAARPR Southern Regional Organizing Conference is a chance to hear about and learn from the work of organizers from across the South against the backdrop of this history. We call on all those nationwide to converge and join us. We know the South is ground zero for the repressive forces that are sure to touch the rest of the country. By uniting our movements, we become invincible. Join us this December because—THE SOUTH GOT SOMETHING TO SAY!

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #South #NAARPR #SROC #PoliceCrimes #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican