Organizing for progressive change

Campus hosts statewide conference sponsored by Planned Parenthood, ALCU

By Umaymah Rashid
The Collegian

Progressive organizations came together this weekend at Fresno State for the largest progressive-movement event ever held in Fresno.

More than 175 progressive student activists from high school and college campuses throughout California joined together at Fresno State to learn more about building coalitions, strengthening movements, and mobilizing strategies.

Campus Progressives Unite, a statewide conference created to assemble progressive student activists, was held Sept. 8-10 and focused on social, reproductive, and environmental justice issues.

The event was sponsored by numerous organizations, including Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the American Civil Liberties Union and Californians for Justice.

“I pushed for it to come to Fresno,” Director of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, Patsy Montgomery said. “We’ve done events for a number of years in San Francisco and Los Angeles.”

Montgomery said while it is easy to be progressive and organize in those communities, it is hard to do so in the Valley.

“This is the first time that progressive organizers from three different movements have come together, to work together and be more unified in the work that they do to improve the overall quality of life for people in California,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery said the main goal of the conference was to help student activists learn more about organizing effectively and building coalitions.

The conference consisted of several workshops covering topics such as privacy and civil liberties, building coalitions on campus, technology for change, creating action plans and developing powerful messages.

The conference also featured Shelby Knox, a student activist and star of the award-winning documentary film, “The Education of Shelby Knox.” The film won an award for best cinematography at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

The film follows Knox’s journey as a Southern Baptist Christian in conservative Lubbock, Texas as she becomes an activist for comprehensive sex education and fights against the abstinence-only curricula in her hometown.

“I think the organizers thought this film would be a great example of how one girl who is not perfect and can’t do a lot of things, can get a message out there,” Knox said. “I think they’ll see that even if you’re from a conservative community trying to make progressive change, that it is possible, because that’s what I did.”

Another featured speaker at the conference was feminist activist and Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta foundation, Camilla Chavez. Chavez is also the daughter of activist Dolores Huerta and niece of Cesar Chavez, co-founder of United Farm Workers.

Chavez explained the philosophies of the farm workers movement, which include a vow of poverty and an adherence to non-violence.

She explained how the UFW has employed many successful methods of organizing which have been instrumental in elevating the UFW to its current position of power.

“Forty years ago, conditions were very different for farm workers,” Chavez said.

“Through the organizing methods that the farm workers used, they have grown to become one of the powerful unions.”

One of Chavez’s main messages dealt with the importance of sharing skills, strategies and advice related to organizing.

“Organizing is a skill,” Chavez said. “People that have been organizing for a long time can come give advice and by working together, folks can figure out what are the best strategies when there are campaigns and projects that folks are working on,” she said.

Comment on this story in the News forum >>