Knoxville City Council Movement: Strides toward the future

One of the most crucial things the people must do in the fight for a better society is organization.

Here in Knoxville, Tennessee, one positive development has been the creation of People’s Assemblies in the city’s five city council districts in an attempt to build community involvement in setting budget priorities.

The City Council Movement’s goal is to get representation on the city council for folks in Knoxville that have been under-represented in the past. The movement has been a part of Knoxville’s People’s Assemblies, which were founded to “work together to shape a revolutionary campaign to build power in our communities”.

Out of these Assemblies, the Movement has put forward four candidates for city council: Amelia Parker, Seema Singh Perez, Zimbabwe Matavou and the Rev. John Butler. Primary election day is August 29. The general election day is November 7.

Building such movements is important all over the country, but particularly in the Southern United States, which has extreme right-wing elements in every level of government. Creating a people-centered resistance to the right is vital in such an environment.

This movement has already seen a major victory in the Southern US this summer with the mayoral election of Chokwe Antar Lumumba in Jackson, Mississippi. Lumumba has vowed that under his guidance, he will make Jackson the “most radical city on the planet”.

In fact, the City Council Movement in Knoxville and Lumumba’s campaign have been in communication, according to Singh Perez. Such communication and solidarity is an important step in helping such movements across the South grow.

These developments, in tandem with the upcoming People’s Congress of Resistance in Washington DC in September, are important steps toward building true working class power on this continent.