Southern Workers Council

The Southern Workers Council is an action-oriented formation that emerges out of the collaborative experience of building the Southern Worker Action Summit by worker organizations building power across states and sectors in the U.S. South. This formation will:

1. Facilitate ongoing communication, collaboration, coordination, organizing and joint strategy development among these and other worker organizations in the region
2. Anchor regional planning and organizing to build broad participation by organized and unorganized Southern workers and the broader community in mass actions planned for May Day 2028
3. Develop rapid response interventions and initiatives to mobilize against attacks from the billionaires and capitalist class; aim to develop joint organizing priorities, targets, and campaigns across the region; and build other solidarity as needed
4. Support organizing among unorganized workers through the development of workplace committees, workers assemblies, regional industrial councils, state-level workers councils, and other infrastructure and organizational forms to support the emergence of a broad, united workers movement in the region
5. Build towards convening a Southern Labor Congress in 2027

Points of Unity

1. We are Southern workers.
2. We oppose capitalism, under which the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the working class is getting squeezed.
3. We oppose authoritarian political rule that violates democratic and human rights.
4. We are calling for building a militant workers movement.
5. We defend the rights and dignity of all immigrant workers
6. We defend Black workers and fight white supremacy. We support the right to self determination.
7. We believe that direct collective action by and for workers is paramount to building power.
8. We will organize local workers assemblies based on workplace organizing committees and progressive community activists, alongside regional industrial councils.
9. We will unite with workers struggling for power and against imperialism across the globe

Participating Organizations

Asheville Food and Beverage Workers United
Black Workers for Justice
Carolina Amazonians United for Solidarity & Empowerment
Charleston Alliance for Fair Employment/Charleston Workers Center
Chester Worker Empowerment Center
El Futuro Es Nuestro/It’s Our Future
International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422
Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights
National Domestic Workers Alliance/We Dream in Black
Southern Human Rights Organizing Network
Southern Workers Assembly
Truckers Movement for Justice/TAMEXUN
UE Local 150, NC Public Service Workers Union
Union of Southern Service Workers
Venceremos
Virginia Caucus of Rank and File Educators