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The last couple of months have been incredibly difficult, amid the horrific news of the school shooting in Uvalde, TX the weight of the two-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd and the reminders of ongoing harm, the aftermath of the deadly shooting in Buffalo, and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which removed a fundamental protection of - and right to - abortion access (and, ultimately, health care). We hope that each of you are taking the space and care that you need to grieve, reflect, lean into resilience practices, and be in deep connection with the people that you love.
We write this message with the simultaneity of this moment - the need to care for ourselves and our families, the pressure to see our demands materialize into quick legislative action, the need to build and sustain mass mobilization, and the development of long arc strategies that can help us build a world that none have yet experienced. Below are some of the ways that we have continued to push toward a vision of shared power, cross-collaboration, and progressive public policy:
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On May 24-28, 2022, SiX organized a delegation of six state legislators to visit Mexico, to learn about Mexico’s successful efforts to expand abortion access and to better prepare for the reality of American’s seeking abortion care transnationally, especially for residents living in border states. Our thoughtful and packed agenda included a range of activities designed to encourage cross-country learning and understanding of our commonalities and differences in abortion rights, access, and advocacy. Notably, legislators heard from Mexican lawmakers and advocates about how they recently rolled back the federal law criminalizing abortion access, and how they are working to make community care central in their policy and organizing strategies to protect reproductive rights. These lessons were timely and directly applicable to our work in anticipation of the Dobbs decision. You can learn more about the delegation in this video here – please feel free to share widely!
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On June 14-16, 2022, SiX held our first Southern Convening in Atlanta, GA, where we gathered almost 20 state legislators from throughout the South to align around pressing policy issues facing their communities. With the South as the crucible of so many decisive issues - from democracy to reproductive rights - legislators had space to build connections and share lessons learned from their legislative service. Our event strengthened our network of southern state legislators, shared learning across states facing draconian attacks on our rights and health, and amplified a race-forward and justice-centered philosophy for social change.
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On June 22-25, 2022, SiX held our first Outside Voices Convening – part one of four – where we brought together a powerful group of nearly 40 state legislators, national movement leaders, and SiX staff in Warrenton, VA to plan for a proactive, long-term vision of a new era of progressive state governance. This initial convening focused on building trusted relationships as the prerequisite to bold plans, and attendees spent equal amounts of time ideating about a future with shared power across our movement ecosystems and creating radical opportunities for connection and community. The next three convenings, planned over the next 12 months, will provide space for us to build concrete plans for state power that can help guide our movements towards durable policy victories for decades to come. We will share more information as this process continues.
While we’ve been in “convening mode” this summer with most state legislators out of session, we also were preparing for the tragic outcome in the Dobbs decision. Since its founding five years ago, SiX’s Reproductive Rights team has been preparing for this scenario with a clear understanding that the most viable path to protecting abortion access is at the state level. As a result, we built the Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council (RFLC) - the nation’s largest and only cohort of state legislators organizing around reproductive health, rights, and justice across all 50 states. Through this cohort of 419 state legislators, we’ve provided direct policy, messaging, and strategy support to legislators leading the most bold national policy fights to expand abortion care in CO, NM, IL, and MA, and have provided technical assistance to legislators navigating defensive battles, especially in southern states. We submitted a historic amicus brief featuring 896 state legislators organized by SiX - a number that we believe represents the largest-ever collection of state legislators to have signed a brief in a Supreme Court case related to abortion access. Despite the Court’s decision, these legislators are even more prepared to take on this fight in their states because SiX is convening abortion policy “war rooms” in preparation for the 2023 legislative sessions.
As national attention shifts to the midterm elections, SiX remains deeply focused on our work to prepare for the 2023 legislative sessions, which begin shortly after Election Day. Particularly, we want to highlight our work preparing for trailblazing policy battles that we anticipate in the months and years to come, and we want to uplift these upcoming convenings:
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The Innovations Accelerator Conference, planned for July 30-31, 2022 in Denver, CO, will help catalyze peer learning, idea-generation, and innovation among in-state champions looking to win on the next generation of bold, progressive policies on enhancing worker power, building sustainable progressive revenue reforms, and expanding voting access. In close partnership with local and national advocates, SiX is organizing legislators to pursue cutting edge policy initiatives, facilitate strategy conversations with peers and partners, and ultimately, reshape the national narrative around the next frontier of economic justice and democratic reforms.
The conference’s purpose is to inspire legislators and advocates to take on transformational, multi-year campaigns on democracy and economic justice issues and to equip them with the skills and support needed to build power over the long-term. SiX will bring over 130 legislators, advocates, and experts together to reflect on a simple organizing frame: what would be possible if we worked toward what we can achieve in a decade rather than focusing only on what we can accomplish in a year? Coming out of the conference, these legislators and movement partners will see themselves as a part of a broader movement, and they will be able to connect their in-state legislative fights to a national fight for a more just economy and thriving democracy.
The Innovations Accelerator Conference is an opportunity to bring our collective power together, across states. Together, we can lift our voices above our state silos to create a new national narrative. State by state, a new world is possible.
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REMINDER: SiX’s National Conference, planned for December 7-9, 2022 in Washington, DC, will focus on bringing together state legislators, movement leaders, and other thought leaders in the progressive movement to focus on intentional, cross-state collaboration, understanding the importance of centering people-power in their fights, and advancing progressive policies that build power in their states. Please hold the dates, stay tuned for registration and other announcements, and reach out to us if you are interested in participating.
We know that state legislators are gearing up for the most important policy battles in a generation. The attack on, and overturning of, generational progressive rights is ever-increasing, but we hold great confidence that there is strong power and possibility in the states to build a model of true, people-centered democracy. As always, we are honored to share our work with you.
With gratitude,
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